Fairy Bunking Chapter 3: All Out

Ubermensch stopped and crouched behind the dandelion. His knee sank into the same kind of oily mud that Apraxia slipped in. He looked towards the direction in which they had been running. "Looks like a whole swamp of this. It will make it harder to fight."

"Where are we going?" Perfidious asked.

He pointed towards the West. "We're on a ridge, so we should run into a sheer drop."

"Yes, that's all quite lovely, but isn't the way down that way?" Apraxia asked, melodramatically pointing towards the way they had come.

"Yes, and so is the enemy," Perfidious retorted.

"Then we should go to the far side of this waste-swamp, and find a way down." Ubermensch stood and looked again into the swamp.

"And then what?" Apraxia asked anxiously. "How are we going to get down?"

"We're fairies," Perfidious said. "We've got wings."

"Right," Ubermensch agreed and started off into the mud. The putrid sludge was overwhelming and made him feel nauseous. He wiped his brow against his shoulder and looked behind him to check on the progress of the others. Neither had moved, so he stopped and turned around. "Well?" he asked into his field armor's microphone.

Perfidious tried to reason with Apraxia, who responded by shaking his head.

"He won't do it," Perfidious called to Ubermensch.

"Ancillary footnote to fairy combat: use your microphone," Ubermensch said into his helmet.

Perfidious shrugged. "What? You'll have to speak up." Then, he remembered to active the communication equipment in his helmet

"Get moving," Ubermensch said.

Perfidious waded into the mud and slowly made his way towards Ubermensch, but Apraxia didn't budge.

Ubermensch looked about the swamp and only saw dismal, carbonized trees and oily, black mud. Ahead of him, a thick root sprouted through the waste, and was connected to what once must have been a magnificent tree. He pointed, and started towards it.

When he arrived, he expected to turn around and see Perfidious mired in the mud, and Apraxia still standing still at the edge of the swamp, but was startled to see Apraxia racing towards him at a frightful speed. Apraxia slipped several times, and was fully covered in the noxious, greasy mud when he reached the root. He didn't stop near Ubermensch though, and continued up the root, and then up the tree. Perfidious was not far behind.

"Simply amazing; the motivational power of a floating, insect-ridden corpse head," Perfidious said. He glanced after Apraxia, then at Ubermensch. "Up a tree seems as good a route as any."

Ubermensch nodded, and motioned for Perfidious to follow. Standing on the tree root, he looked across the swamp towards the hollowed log and stump where the fairies had spent their morning. Surrounded by low grass and moss, the log and stump added to the pleasance of the forest, at least in that direction. But, the swamp of human waste had brought death to the trees, and even the sunlight was grim. It didn't cut through the canopy and become a warm, nourishing blanket as it did by the hollow log. Somewhere above, the light became infected, and oozed into murk and noxious fog. By the time it reached the ground, the light was reflected in the glassy layer floating above the muck, revealing everything in a heartless and grizzled clarity. Even his fine, muscular build seemed weaker, his white hair grayer, and his square jaw somehow too sharp and less attractive. The reflection was nothing like the one he saw in Alacrity's eyes, and he had to shake his head to rid himself of the distraction.

He climbed the tree, pulling himself up onto a branch that already held Apraxia and Perfidious.

Apraxia help up his hand to his mud-covered vest, which showed no sign of its original color, and said weakly, "Camouflaged."