The crackling campfire spread a pleasant warmth.
A fragrant stew bubbled in the pot hanging over the fire.
Impenetrable darkness pressed against the window. Occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the twisted silhouettes of the trees before plunging everything back into shadow, leaving only streaks of rain on the glass and the patter of falling drops.
Only a thin wooden wall separated the cold outside from the warmth within. Inside the hut, it was easy to forget one's worries and exhaustion.
"Welco, traveler," the middle-aged man sitting across the fire greeted him with a friendly smile. His wife and son sat beside him, studying their guest with a mixture of curiosity and friendliness.
This lonely hut, deep in the Shadow Swamp, did not seem nearly as sinister as one might expect.
At least, that was what Anna thought.
But when she noticed that Lu Li had not removed his soaked cloak and had set his oil lamp down beside him, she decided to remain vigilant.
Besides, Anna sensed sothing strange about the family. It was not in their expressions or their aura, but sothing more intangible...
"We have not seen an outsider in a long ti," the man said, his smile as gracious as ever. "The weather is dreadful out there. You must have lost your way, have you not?"
Lu Li's gaze swept over the family. There were no Bloody Tentacles, so they were not his target. He simply nodded.
The hut's owner seed unfazed by Lu Li's cold deanor. "You're lucky," he remarked. "Getting lost in weather like this, in this place... it is very dangerous."
"This place?" Lu Li asked, pushing back his hood, though the heavy fabric still shadowed his face.
"This swamp," the woman replied. "It has a consciousness. We call her the Mother of the Swamp. She protects us." She folded her hands and began to murmur a quiet prayer.
Four figures sat around the fire, their shadows dancing on the walls in ti with the flickering flas.
Mother of the Swamp... It sounded like the na of an Evil Spirit, though perhaps it was just a coincidence.
But the Inquirer's words, "The swamp hears what does not belong to it," could be connected to this.
"Tell
about the Mother of the Swamp," Lu Li requested. A puddle was growing rapidly at his feet as water dripped from his cloak, soaking into the floorboards before hissing into steam from the heat of the fire.
"Of course. We are happy to tell any traveler about the Mother of the Swamp," the woman said, her smile just as welcoming as her husband's.
Watching them, Anna suddenly realized what had been bothering her.
It was their way of speaking! The man and his wife spoke slowly, like the elderly, with distinct pauses between each word, as if every syllable were a separate, disconnected thing. Their speech was monotonous, almost lifeless.
But perhaps it ant nothing. Maybe they were just slow talkers, the way so people stutter. You could not attack soone just for speaking slowly.
Anna sighed. She had picked up Lu Li's suspicious nature, but not his reason or insight.
"The Mother of the Swamp is the consciousness of the swamp itself. She protects her followers from all harm. Every thinking creature in the swamp worships her..."
The woman's slow delivery made the words sound like a prayer.
"How does one gain her protection?" Lu Li asked, surprising Anna.
If it would help them on their journey, Lu Li was willing to befriend this Mother of the Swamp.
The man and woman glanced at each other.
"One must perform a ritual..." the man began.
"Papa, I want so at!" a child's bright voice cut through the adults' monotonous drone.
It was not just the tone of his voice, but the fact that the boy spoke at a normal pace.
The tense atmosphere in the hut dissipated slightly.
"But I want at!" the boy insisted, pouting. Ever since Lu Li had arrived, he had been scribbling in an animal-hide diary titled "Little Reina's Diary".
"Alright..." the woman said slowly, clearly at a loss. "Dear, fetch so more firewood. I do not think this will be enough. And it is all your fault! You bring at ho, and now he is spoiled."
The man said nothing. Wearing the sa strange smile, he stood, walked to the door, put on the cloak hanging there, and stepped outside.
A blast of cold wind and rain swept into the hut.
The campfire fla guttered.
The man pulled the door shut forcefully, and the hut was once again bright and warm.
"I think they want to eat you..." Anna whispered in Lu Li's ear.
Lu Li said nothing. He dipped a finger into the puddle that had collected in the shadows behind him and wrote on a floorboard: "Check the diary."
Anna understood. She floated over to the boy, Reina, and peered into his diary.
The boy sat cross-legged, writing sothing with a piece of charcoal.
"The storm is starting. Papa said there's no catch today, so we'll have to eat what's left. I hate storms."
"We have a visitor! Hooray! I bet Papa and Mama will make him a nice al, and I will get to have at again!"
"But the guest will get the best cut, and I want it, too..."
The boy had not finished the last sentence, but Anna understood perfectly. She returned to Lu Li's side and whispered, "They are not going to eat you. They want to offer you food."
"Did soone speak?" The woman by the fire turned her head, her gaze resting suspiciously on Lu Li.
"Just the wind, I imagine," Lu Li replied.
The woman continued to watch him for a mont before her smile returned. "You should take off your cloak. You cannot be comfortable like that."
"Very well," Lu Li agreed, removing the cloak. Water pooled from its folds, washing over the floorboards and erasing the words he had written.
Suddenly, a strange grating sound mixed with the howl of the wind and the drumming of the rain. It sounded like grinding teeth.
Anna froze. Just then, the door burst open, and it was not just wind and rain that stord in, but the man, locked in a struggle with a Six-Ard Savage.
The grinding of teeth, screams, the roar of the rain, and the crash of thunder... The scent of blood filled the dim hut.
"Need a hand?" Lu Li asked, rising to his feet. A flash of lightning revealed several more Six-Ard Savages crawling toward the hut.
"Yes, please!" the woman cried, leaping to her feet.
"Do not ntion it," Lu Li said. He raised the Spirit Gun and pulled the trigger.
The head of the woman by the fire exploded.
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