I am not okay… I am so not okay. I feel awful… surely that means that I’m not dead. I’m not dead… and if I’m not dead, then there is a chance that Tadwick survived as well. Unless I am dead… is this what death feels like?

  Voice: “Mister Vesidia!”

  A voice… I heard a voice… its faint… but it’s there.

  Voice: “Mister Vesidia!”

  There it is again… I’m not imagining it. I need to open my eyes… why is it so hard for me to open my eyes… this shouldn’t take this much energy… fuck. I managed to open my eyes very slowly… are we outside… all I can see are all these blue dots… are they stars? It’s so beautiful.

  Dwynfel: “Pretty stars…”

  Voice: “They aren’t stars, Mister Vesidia… they’re glowworms. We’re in a cave.”

  I know that voice… I do… I know that voice… why can’t I think of who it belongs to… why can’t I think straight… my head hurts so much… and I can’t feel my lower half at all. Hang on… I was bitten… fuck… I was bitten… I need to look down.

  Oh, thank the gods… my legs are still there… there is a lot of blood… fuck… I can’t move my legs… fuck… there is so much blood… I am not okay… I am not okay at all.

  Using my arms I pushed myself back until I felt a wall of some kind and used it to prop myself up.

  Voice: “He’s moving! It’s not as bad as we thought… we’re gonna be okay.”

  The voice is talking to someone… there are at least two other people in here… I need to look… I need to see.

  Tadwick: “How? I can barely move and my dad’s on the other side of the water… what about this makes you think we are going to be okay?”

  Tadwick… that was Tadwick… that was definitely Tadwick… he’s alive… he’s alive and he has enough energy to argue… thank the gods. I looked at my surroundings. Tadwick’s right… the cave is split in two by a large pool of water. No way I can get to them in my current state. And no safe way for them to get to me. Going in the water definitely isn’t a good idea.

  Voice: “Umm… Mister Vesidia… you seem to be holding a hand.”

  I looked at my hand… I was still holding the hand that I had grabbed in panic when I was in the water. I looked up at where the voice was coming from. It’s Charlie. That means that the body we found was Isaac. Shit… he’s missing a hand… how is he so calm… he’s missing a fucking hand! Not just his hand… like half of his forearm. Hang on… was his hand floating out there in the water? Did I grab his hand, thinking it was Sonya’s?

  No… no… no… it’s Sonya’s hand… oh gods… it’s Sonya’s hand… she must have tried to rescue me… fuck… we shouldn’t have come here on our own… I shouldn’t have assumed that there was only one… shit… I fucked up… I fucked up and now she’s dead… shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

  Dwynfel: “How are you okay right now!?”

  Charlie gestured at a headless corpse that was lying next to the pool of water.

  Charlie: “Mister Thistlewood. He found us in here. I was bleeding to death. He cast a healing spell, stopped the bleeding. It isn’t fully healed, but it has scabbed over. After he cast it, he heard something in the water. He bent over the edge to look and it… it just… bit his head off…”

  Oh no… this is going to destroy Grant.

  Charlie: “Mister Vesidia, do you have anything with you? Potions, weapons, explosives?”

  I felt around myself and grabbed together what I still had… which wasn’t much.

  Dwynfel: “My satchel is gone… so I have no potions or bombs. I have my bow, but the string is snapped. My quiver of arrows is gone too. I have the short sword that the duke gave me… and I have my daggers still.”

  Charlie: “How many daggers?”

  Dwynfel: “Three.”

  Charlie: “Could you pass two over here?”

  Dwynfel: “I can try…”

  I reached to my belt and removed the two daggers from there. I then tried to reach down my leg to get the concealed dagger from my ankle… but I just couldn’t bend that far. I took one of the daggers in my hand and threw it as hard as I could… it only just made it over the water and skidded across the ground towards Charlie.

  Charlie: “Nice throw!”

  He picked up the dagger and walked over to Tadwick. Tadwick is propped up against a large rock. I’m guessing that Charlie propped him up. Tadwick does not look okay enough to move himself enough to do that alone. He still has all his limbs… but he is covered in blood… it seems he was bitten on his left side… he has tooth marks on his left arm and all over his chest. Chances are that he’s suffering from blood loss… much like I am. Charlie took Tadwick’s right hand and placed the dagger in it.

  Charlie: “If either of them comes for you, make them regret it.”

  Tadwick gripped the dagger and lifted his right arm as best he could.

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  Tadwick: “Damn right I will.”

  Charlie: “May I have the other dagger?”

  I grabbed the other dagger and went to throw it… just as I did, I heard a cough from behind me. It made me jump and mess up the throw… the dagger went much higher than last time, but the distance was not as good. Luckily the dagger just missed the water. But it landed right next to the edge of the water with the blade over the edge.

  Dwynfel: “Shit… sorry.”

  I tried to twist my neck to see where the cough had come from… but I just don’t have the mobility right now.

  Dwynfel: “Who just coughed?

  Charlie: “It’s Sir Krajewski. He’s in a worse state than you. He mumbled a lot when he was first dumped in here, couldn’t understand a word of it though. Now he just coughs. He hasn’t moved in ages.”

  Dwynfel: “Why are they keeping us here? Why don’t they just eat us and be done with it?”

  Charlie: “The eggs will hatch soon. We are fresh meat for the babies.”

  He pointed behind me… to what I assume is a mound of eggs or something… but I still don’t have the ability to turn enough to look.

  Charlie: “Are the rest of the guys okay? We never found Isaac.”

  Fuck… I can’t mention that I found Isaac. Charlie is the only one of us who is even remotely okay right now. Isaac was his best friend… we can’t afford for Charlie to fall apart right now.

  Dwynfel: “Nomius has a head wound… he’s recovering at Fort Bracken. Olmo got the rest of the boys back there on the boat. Except Isaac I’m afraid. They have no idea where he is. We killed what we thought was the only crocodile and we made our way down here to look for you.”

  Charlie: “Thank the gods for that. Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

  There is more bad news? Seriously? How can this get any worse?

  Dwynfel: “Umm… good news…”

  Charlie: “The one you killed was the male. Much bigger and significantly more aggressive.”

  Dwynfel: “And the bad news?”

  Charlie: “We still have to deal with the female. She’s much more territorial. We are only allowed near the eggs because she thinks us too weak to harm anything.”

  Dwynfel: “We need to destroy those eggs… if they hatch and get into the river… this place will never be safe again.”

  Charlie: “Not until the female is dead.”

  Dwynfel: “What? Why?”

  Charlie: “We harm those eggs while she’s alive and she’ll go ape shit and kill us all. Only reason we are alive is to keep the meat fresh for when those things hatch. Destroy them and she destroys us.”

  Thank fuck this kid’s here. I can barely think straight right now.

  Tadwick: “And how exactly are we supposed to kill this one? She may not be as big as the boy one but she’s still like four meters. That’s way bigger than us.”

  Charlie: “She’s three point five meters.”

  Tadwick: “Oh, well in that case, bring it on.”

  Charlie: “Well, we aren’t going to be able to do anything without weapons… I’m going for the dagger.”

  Tadwick: “Don’t be an idiot. You saw what happened when Thistlewood went to the water.”

  Charlie: “Then I guess I’ll have to do it differently then, won’t I?”

  Charlie took a few cautious steps towards the dagger.

  Dwynfel: “Charlie… don’t… it’s too dangerous. The others know we are in this area… just hang tight… we just need to survive until they find us.”

  Charlie: “Cause that worked so well for you. We need to do something and no offense… but I’m the only one who can even move right now… so this is happening.”

  He's a cocky little shit… and I hate that he’s right. Charlie got down on his knees.

  Charlie: “Keep an eye on the water. Any bubbles, any ripples, tell me, then shut up… okay?”

  Tadwick: “Kay.”

  Dwynfel: “And if it does show up… what will you do?”

  Charlie: “Play dead. We are here to feed the babies when they hatch… she won’t harm us unless she thinks us a threat.”

  Dwynfel: “How exactly do you know all this?”

  Charlie: “My dad’s into hunting. He has loads of books on animal behaviour. And what with him being a butcher, I know how to cut things, I just need a knife.”

  He's certainly a determined little thing; I’ll give him that. I say little… he’s taller than me… but you know… he’s a kid… you know what I mean.

  Tadwick: “Big difference between cutting up a dead pig and taking on a crocodile, you’re gonna get yourself killed.”

  Charlie: “Yeah… well… I’d rather go down fighting.”

  Charlie started laying himself down flat on the ground and reaching slowly forward with his one remaining hand. His fingers just reached the handle of the dagger when some bubbles popped out of the water.

  Dwynfel: “Bubbles!”

  Charlie froze. I could see the panic in Tadwick’s eyes. Honestly, we are so lucky that these glow worms are so bright… although… being in darkness may have been better… being able to see things coming somehow makes it worse. Several minutes passed and nothing happened… no more bubbles came… no ripples… nothing.

  Charlie: “Anything?”

  Dwynfel: “Seems clear.”

  Charlie: “Right… I’m going for it.”

  As Charlie gripped the dagger and pulled his arm back, the crocodile burst out of the water and crawled up right next to him. Charlie held the dagger to his chest and froze completely still once more. I can see from here that he is trying desperately to keep his breathing steady. Tadwick is clinging to his dagger and glaring at the thing. I can see the whites of his eyes… staring intently… he hasn’t blinked since the beast emerged from the water. He’s absolutely terrified.

  I hate this… I can’t deal with this. I can’t move… I can’t do anything to protect them… I can barely move… I can’t stop it… I can’t stop it… I fucked up… I should have waited for the others… shit… calm down… calm down… do not have another panic attack… I can’t afford to have another panic attack… it will accelerate my blood flow and I’ve lost way too much already… breathe… slowly… if Charlie can do it then so can you… just… fucking… calm… down!