Chapter 5 Through the Marsh

"Kurt, you need to get to our ruler who is in a plain several hundred miles away from here."

"Thanks Zancos, I'll get there as fast as I can." Kurt said as he took the map.

After a tearful hug from Quintel and a good handshake from Joku, Kurt was off to go tell the ruler of the Green Moon of the terrible danger that might encompass all worlds.

Kurt started 'porting immediately as he set off, he eventually went past other small villages, whose villagers gasped as they saw the purple puffs of smoke disappear as he went through them.

Kurt eventually got worn out and decided to take a rest, unfortunately he found himself in a very thick swamp, with a dense fog that made it impossible too even see his hand in front of his face.

Kurt then decided to take a nap under a nice tall tree, that lost all of it's branches, but he saw a thick juicy red apple on the branch of one of them. Kurt began to reach for it, but his hand was snagged the moment he touched it.

"That's mine yo!"

"Toad! It couldn't be!"

Out of the fog hopped a mirror image of Todd Tolansky, except he was only wearing a frayed pair of shorts as clothes.

"That's the Terrible Toad to you! Now let got of my apple!"

Kurt let go, and the tongue was removed from his hand.

"Toad, what are you doing here?"

"The question is what are you doing here? I've always been here, everyone knows that!"

"Toad, don't you recognize me?" Kurt asked as he removed his hood.

Toad took a close look and answered, "I ain't never seen you before in my life, now get out of here before I kick your butt yo!"

"How can he not know who I am?" Kurt thought to himself silently.

"Didn't I tell you to get a move on?"

"Wait tell me, how long have you been here?"

"All my damn life! No one likes me! That's why I'm here in the swamp! The only place where I'm not the constant subject of ridicule!"

"I don't hate you."

"See, if I care! Now get going!"

Kurt sighed and decided to walk the little land there was, his mind was racing with questions, but he had no answers. What was Toad doing here in the first place?

"Wait yo!"

"What is it?" Kurt asked as he turned around to see Todd coming up behind him.

"Sorry 'bout what I said. I don't get a lot of guests, but where are you going?"

"I'm trying to get to the royal palace, but I don't know my way from here."

Todd looked at the satchel Kurt carried, and eyed it suspiciously.

"What do you have in there?"

"Some food, and clothes I guess..Why?"

"If you give me that satchel I take you to the grand palace myself, I know where it is yo."

Kurt agreed and handed him the satchel. The two boys began to run through the swamp. Todd wasn't kidding about being here a long time, he knew the swamp like the back of his hand."

"Almost there yo."

Kurt panted trying to keep up with him, but suddenly a large python came out of the swamp and wrapped itself around Toad.

"Damn yo! Get out of here, you can make it!"

"Not without you!"

Kurt 'ported forward with his sword, and stabbed the snake in the side, the snake countered quickly and nailed Kurt against a tree, and Kurt began to lose consciousness, but his last sights were of Toad landing straight down on the pythons neck, and hearing a loud snap.

"Wake up yo."

Kurt opened his eyes and saw that he was out of the swamp, and that a large palace was in sight. Toad must have carried him out of the swamp all by himself.

"Thank you."

"For what, if it wasn't for you I would be snake food right now, besides you're the only one who ever did something that nice for me."

"Your welcome, is this the palace where the ruler lives?"

"No, this is the other palace on this moon where the ruler doesn't live"

"Thank you again, would you like to come in with me?"

"Sorry, after I ate some of the palaces butterflies they kinda got a warrant on my head."

Toad began to hop off towards the forest again, but turned around to say, "Hey, I never got your name?"

"It's Kurt."

"Well, if you ever need help again, and you got some food on you, just drop on by and I'll see what I can do."

Kurt watched as Toad hopped away into the mist again, and was out of sight. Kurt wondered if he was nice to Toad when they first met, they could have been friends like this, but he had something else to do first, and worry about that later.