Navigating the swamp terrain was more difficult than they thought. The swamp was divided into islands by the shallow brown water channels, which made it hard to travel in a straight line. They could not walk through them since there were several meters of sludge at the bottom of them, going by boat also was no option since the water was usually too shallow. They had to find their way on the land, sometimes jumping over narrow sections of water or balancing on small spots of dirt only held above water by grass roots. The tall grass was thick and their feet got caught in it more often than not, so they had little time to look at the beautiful scenery of lily pads drifting around in the currents and the willow leaves being gently moved by the wind, they instead looked down at their feet looking out for roots and grass knots.
TehLulz had taken the lead, he said: "That witch hut isn't really coming closer, the sun is setting and we still haven't found anything for Ambigious."
"And my arm feels like it will fall off any second." Ambigious complained.
"And Fire has all the food and the water." freeZe added.
Only Unchosen didn't say anything, his gaze went over to the witch hut, which was still pretty far away and seemed to be between the branches of a big willow tree. He wondered how their encounter with the witch would be. Would the NPC communicate with them, or more importantly, would they would die from a splash potion to the face.
"You are right TehLulz, it really is getting dark." He said a bit later, then he added: "If it gets any darker, we will be at danger of falling into a pond without even knowing."
"You're damn right, we need to get to that hut." Ambigious said and pressed his teeth together, probably because of another wave of pain from the wound.
TehLulz stepped around a root that was sticking out from the ground and asked: "Ambigious, how are you still walking with that wound in your arm?"
Ambigious replied: "I can ignore the pain, mostly. If the pain stays constant, I can ignore it, but if something touches the wound it hurts a lot."
They walked through the swampland for another hour without saying much, meanwhile the sun was setting and the stars came out. Luckily it was almost full moon this day so that they could keep walking with the amount of light it gave off. They had come significantly closer to the witch hut but it was still pretty far away.
Unchosen said: "We need to sleep, I am tired from the fighting and the walking."
"We all are." freeZe agreed "Let's build a shelter if we can."
"I have some wood." Unchosen stated and promptly started building a wooden box.
"This will do, I guess…" TehLulz commented on the five-by-five box.
They laid down on the wooden floor and left Ambigious the biggest space, Ambigious himself instantly fell asleep and even missed the opportunity to make a dirty joke about his sister having to sleep right next to TehLulz and Unchosen.
The next morning they were woken up by a scream. The one screaming was Ambigious, he was pressing his left hand against the wound in a reflex reaction.
"Aaah… Okay, I was wrong yesterday. I can't ignore… Aaah… the pain, it was Fire's potion…" He said with his teeth bared, trying to suppress the pain.
"That is bad news." TehLulz said, who was still sleepy, then he looked around in the box and asked: "Where did Unchosen go?"
He stood up and went outside while freeZe helped her brother stand up. The first thing he saw when he was outside was Unchosen leaning over a crafting bench, the second thing were three boats still lying on the land that Unchosen hat apparently crafted.
"Morning." Unchosen said shortly.
"Morning Unchosen… Why did you make boats, the water isn't deep enough." TehLulz wanted to know.
Unchosen looked away from his crafting bench and faced TehLulz, he said: "Take a look below the water! It's deeper here, it seems like somebody has dug out a decent portion of the sludge. It was too dark to see it yesterday." Unchosen walked over to the edge of the water and said: "Look."
There was in fact a narrow passage where the water was deeper, deep enough for boats to go through.
"That is great!" TehLulz said, notably relieved.
Unchosen replied: "We only have one problem."
"Which is?" TehLulz wondered.
Unchosen explained: "Paddles. We don't have a way to make paddles with a crafting table. I was waiting for you to wake up to help me make some. However, it seems like Ambigious needs some medical attention soon. I am certain that if he does not get anything he will die."
"Dying is not fun. I don't want to do that." They heard Ambigious shout from the box, he was trying to make it sound funny but failed.
Unchosen asked: "Mind coming to me Ambigious?"
Ambigious, supporting himself with his left arm on freeZe, slowly came towards Unchosen, who quickly walked over to him as he saw that even walking caused him pain. Unchosen took a look at Ambigious' wound and worry came to his face.
"It looks like it is infected. No wonder, those arrows must have been lying in a place filled with corpses and undead for quite some time."
"So, I will become a zombie now or what?" Ambigious asked, a little confused.
"That would be one possibility, the other one is that you just die."
Ambigious asked: "Okay Unchosen, how do you know that and how do you manage to say that I will die without even sounding worried."
Unchosen put his right hand to the back of his neck and replied: "I am a doctor, it's my job. I have to tell people that they will die on a weekly basis. That is why." He paused for a few seconds and then added: "But now it is important that I give you something that at least keeps the wound from getting even worse."
Unchosen took a long flexible willow branch from his inventory and started wrapping it around Ambigious' arm, covering the wound in the leaves. Ambigious tried his best not to flinch as Unchosen tightened the makeshift bandage.
Unchosen said: "That will keep dirt from getting into the wound, sadly I didn't find any plants with healing properties nearby, most plants that are not grass seem to have been trampled or eaten by something."
Unchosen pointed at the boats and explained: "As you might have heard, the water is deep enough to ride a boat through, but we still need paddles."
TehLulz called: "Hey, I have an idea!"
"Which is?" Ambigious wanted to know.
"We could craft wooden shovels and use those as paddles." TehLulz said with a grin.
Unchosen answered: "That is actually a very good idea, let me quickly make those."
After these words he went to his crafting table again and quickly made three wooden shovels. He gave one to freeZe and one to TehLulz, keeping one for himself.
Ambigious asked: "And which boat will I be in?"
Unchosen explained: "You will be in a boat with TehLulz, he is the strongest of us aside from you, freeZe and I get a boat each."
They pushed the boats into the water one after the other, TehLulz and Ambigious got into the first one, freeZe into the second one and Unchosen jumped into the third one. They started paddling along the waterway slowly, always careful not to run on ground. The splashes of their improvised paddles and the quiet sound of their boats gliding through the water were the only sounds they heard for the next half hour.
Paddling along the narrow water way was not a very exciting task, they only had one way to go and they weren't going very quickly. They were moving past willow trees and lily pads, oddly enough, they didn't see a single living creature besides plants in the swamp. The witch hut had come significantly closer and they now could clearly see that it was built on a willow tree, even though there was plenty of flat space right next to the tree.
freeZe broke the quiet: "Something is strange about this swamp…"
TehLulz asked: "What do you mean?"
"I mean, no animals, trampled plants, which should not be trampled without animals…" She answered.
"Now that you say it, it is pretty strange indeed." Unchosen muttered.
After a few minutes of silence, they came to a large deep pond. Several more waterways were extending from it into different directions.
"Okay, where to go now?" TehLulz asked, looking at Unchosen.
Unchosen replied: "That one seems to be going to the witch hut, there we can at least get something for Ambigious' arm. If we're lucky…"
They paddled over to the water way, which seemed to lead towards the witch hut. They moved towards the hut in a straight line, following the water way, hoping they would find something there. Unchosen looked over to Ambigious, who had fallen asleep, his worrying gaze on his friend's feverishly red face.
"If we don't find something in the next few days, the fever will kill him… If not today." He thought to himself.