Of Swamp And Sea Novels & Stories

“Hey, we all have jobs. Why not give her one? I mean, if you don’t want her cleaning up after us, I can think of another job she could do on her hands and knees.” I ignore him and storm ahead, trying to erase the image he put in my brain. Being outside always calms me. I love where we live, though maybe not the mosquitoes and chiggers that bite the shit out of us. The land on the edge of the swamp is a magical place. I love the smell of the cypress trees, the wildflowers and herbs that grow around here, even the smell of the swamp itself. Humans think the swamp stinks, but unless you’re mucking around in it, stirring up the gasses and decaying matter, it’s got a scent all its own, like wild

Underneath a fallen tree, there was a stream with water streaming down it. I followed the stream and I ended up in a place wherein a body of water is constantly saturated or filled with water. The swamp, a place of life and death, retains a swath of trees in its standing waters all the way up to its multi-layered canopy. Pools form atop seasoned ground amid low-lying plants. A meadow is entranced by the saturated land. I adore its primordial nature's wildness, and I can readily appreciate the extension of its networks, which makes me wonder how far they spread.

'The Battle That Never Ended' was the title. The signs of the Sea Goddess’s wrath were unmistakable. Wherever their powers touched, decay followed. Green forests shriveled into lifeless husks. The air became thick with the stench of rot. Animals, once thriving, would wither away, their bodies sinking into the earth as if time had sped up their deaths. They carried the freshness of the ocean with them, even in death. Any aquatic creature, fish, whales, even the smallest sea crabs, remains fresh, untouched by decay, even when long dead. Rivers and lakes swelled unnaturally, fish washing up on the shores without signs of rot.

I bet he is jerking off at the thought. “My queen, are you ok?” I look at the sentinel and nod my head as I push up and swim away from my sleeping family. The waters are dark and cold. No more than usual. I swim to the entrance to the hidden kingdom and pass the bioluminescent jelly fish and plants and out into the open water. The moon beams her silver light into the water. Making the seas look mysterious and enticing.

Ordinary runecraft never reacted with that much energy, so she was sure it wasn’t just swamp labor tool leaving the traces. “Sergeant Wriixer, bring us to the island on the north east. The thickest group with the bent down swamp tree.” Wriixer turned the boat, the vessel tugged and cracked as marsh reeds were ripped apart by the paddle. As they neared the place, a strange smell began to permeate their surroundings. Likaya thought it was only her but she noticed the others reacting in some manner of disgust.

Zane and I tucked the girls in not longer after that, and I read from what was now officially the girls’ second-favorite book. With a smile, I opened the book, admiring the illustrations Grace and Chloe had already seen and cooed over. “Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could sound it, and many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects.

A B-class sequence user calling himself an Apostle of the Sea God arrived with three drug-controlled sea beasts to provoke us. He stood at the bow, with three berserk sawtooth sharks behind him. "Lord of Shallow Bay, surrender your ranch and kneel for mercy, or be sacrificed to the Sea God!"

she mused and the caption gave her a gap-toothed grin before motioning to the small seat beside him. Mj obliged the sweaty skin covered skeleton and as he steered them around a tight corner filled with dark shapes and shadows, he began to speak into the darkness. “There is legend on a swamp, ya treat er like a good woman, wit love an respect she do da same fo you bebelle… but abuse er, and she send the thing in the Bijou after you.” Mj ignored Moxie as he growled and mumbled under his breath, she turned back to the captain and smiled, “tell me about the swamp thing, please caption?” She asked sweetly, and patted herself on the back when the old man practically tripped over himself to oblige

"At any rate, we're helping Seaside raise funds to bring in more experienced vets from Sea World." Bill looked extremely convinced as he lowered the gun and shrugged. "From Sea World you say?" "Didn't a whale recently kill a trainer there?" Fallon's mom whispered then covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, those poor trainers, to live in such conditions." "Palm trees and hot weather are definite hardships," Fallon muttered. "So it's not a real date." Her dad looked between the two of us, I was tempted to raise my hands again and offer to let him pat me down. As it was, I itched to do a little circle so he could inspect me.

“We don’t have to like it. We just need to find the algae and get the hell out of here.” “Right,” I muttered, forcing my feet forward despite the unease curling in my stomach. The deeper we went, the more the swamp seemed to breathe around us—whispers in the fog, the occasional ripple in the water when nothing should have been there. And then, it happened. At first there was a subtle shift in the murky waters. then a hulking mass heaved itself onto the shore—a monstrous thing, covered in glistening black mucus, its grotesque body pulsing as if it were breathing through its skin with disgustingly wet sounds.