No place on Glenwood had such diversity of flora and fauna as Plitzerback Wetlands did. It was truly Dezel's favourite place in the world, though he'd only been there twice before, both times before he'd joined the Windriders. Even as much as the Windriders had travelled, they'd never had reason to venture so far from human civilization.

That may have been why he liked it so much. Untarnished by human hands, life flourished. Dragon flies, frogs, turtles, herons, muskrat, this place had it all in its mucky goodness. Earlier in the day Dezel had come across tadpoles in the final stages of metamorphosis, and he'd been tempted to request they all stop so he could witness the transformation firsthand, but ultimately decided against it. Those nutballs probably wouldn't see the point of it.

Not everyone liked the mud. Edna and Mikleo, in agreement for once, were grumpy about any amount of filth that got on them, which was to say they were worse than a pair of Hyland Geese. It was their own damn fault for wearing such light-coloured clothing. Lailah stepped gingerly, wrinkling her nose at the mud, and somehow managed to keep it all off. Edna pestered her for her method of cleanliness, but Lailah changed the subject each time in that ridiculous way of hers. It must've been connected to her oath as Prime Lord, though Dezel couldn't see how.

Sorey, who'd smartly stuffed his cape in his pack, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself in the mud, gleefully pointing out any animals and plants that struck his fancy. He had his priorities straight. Zaveid seemed more or less indifferent, though he loved to tease Mikleo and Edna about it. Well, only Mikleo now, after getting a few red, painful-looking welts the shape of the end of Edna's parasol.

At first Rose had sighed at the muck staining her white pants, but eventually ignored it. When Edna tried to commiserate with her over the state of their clothing, she quipped that she could always get a pair of new pants. At that, Dezel couldn't suppress a small smile—That's the Rose I know. As a kid she'd always loved to play in the mud, with never a care for how dirty she got.

She'd changed so much in the past three weeks, or rather, she was much more herself. She bantered with her friends, she enthusiastically ate every meal set before her, and thanks to the satora leaves she softly snored all night long. It was almost like nothing had ever happened. Not wanting to spoil her newfound normalcy, Dezel tried to stay out of her way as much as he could. It made him sad, but he wanted to keep her happy.

"Look, a turtle!" Sorey said, taking Dezel out of his trance. Sure enough, he was right—right beside the bank was a large snapping turtle. Better not get too close to it.

The idiot Shepherd, however, had no such caution. He bent down, saying, "Hey, big guy—!"

"Watch out!" Dezel shouted, but too late. The turtle snapped at Sorey's nose, only narrowly missing, and Sorey fell backwards, landing right on his butt with an, "Oof!" Mikleo didn't even try to hide his laughter as the turtle toddled to the water then swam away.

Zaveid watched the turtle's departure with a grimace. "I thought turtles were supposed to be gentle."

If there was a wall around, Dezel surely would have beat his head against it. Would these morons ever understand the importance of knowing the creatures around them? "Some are, but snapping turtles definitely aren't."

Edna snorted. "I guess we know what they're named for."

"Aww." Sorey tried to wipe the mud off the seat of his pants, but only succeeded in spreading it more. "Too bad. I wanted to make a turtle friend."

"That's no way of making friends," Dezel said. "I'd snap too, if some weird creature stuck its nose in my face."

"Hey, I'm not weird," Sorey whined. Everyone stared at him. "What? I'm not!"

Edna, hiding her smile behind her parasol, said, "We'll have to agree to disagree."

Sorey changed his pants behind a tree, and then they were off again. Soon enough, it was Rose's turn to point something out.

"I've never seen a toad like that before," she said, pointing to a Plitzerfrog.

Before Dezel could help himself he blurted out, "Actually, it's a frog."

A pause. He was sure she'd ignore him, as she'd done in the past, but when she replied he was so surprised, he nearly tripped over a muddy mound and fell flat on his face.

"All right, Mr. Smart Guy. Then what's the difference between toads and frogs?" She looked up at him as they walked, eyes locked on his face.

"There's none, technically—toads are frogs."

"But not the other way around?"

"Nope. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Toads are stouter, and tend to have dry, warty skin—see, they generally live on land, while frogs live in water."

"Oh." She chewed her bottom lip. "So that means all the frogs here are just frogs, and not toads."

"Mostly, yeah, though sometimes the lines can get blurred. Nature isn't very categorical."

He realized that everyone else had stopped talking and were now staring at the two of them, and Rose must have realized this too, because her face grew suddenly warm. She promptly fell back in line with Edna and pointedly started talking about mabo curry buns, and Edna went right along with it, utterly straight-faced. Soon everyone went back to conversing amongst themselves, but Dezel kept to himself.

It was the longest normal conversation they'd had since ... then. Now that it was done and the shock had worn off, Dezel felt hollow, wishing it could've lasted for a little longer. Just for a minute, Rose hadn't treated him like the muck on the bottom of her boot.

He could've kicked himself. What right had he to desire such a thing from her?

That evening, they set up camp atop a relatively dry hill. Dezel sat beneath a lone tree, admiring the view so to speak. Water dappled the land, and tall grass provided cover for an innumerable amount of wildlife. Not far off a family of ducks nested peacefully. Dezel wouldn't tell the others about them—they'd only want to disturb their rest.

Lailah's fire kept mosquitos away, for the most part, but any who still ventured too close Dezel pushed away with the wind. Gently, of course, so as not to hurt them. As annoying as they were, mosquitos made good food for most of the inhabitants of the wetland.

It was a nice, relaxed evening. Edna may have complained of the racket the birds were making, but Dezel found it calming.

So when Zaveid approached Dezel, he tensed, regretting the end of his reverie. For all Zaveid's seeming lackadaisical attitude, he seemed to notice the motion, because he spread his hands out, palms up. "Hey, I'm not here for a fight. I just wanna talk."

"I don't see what you could possibly have to say to me."

"You've been sitting here alone all evening. Aren't you lonely? Need a little companionship?" Zaveid grinned, like he thought he was being funny. Dezel said nothing. Slowly, Zaveid's grin slid off his face, but he still persisted. "So, uh, what's up between you and Rose?"

Dezel fought down a flare of anger, and managed to say in a calm voice, "What makes you think something's up?" He hoped Zaveid would take the hint.

He didn't, of course. "She's been acting pretty cold to you, for starters."

Dezel wanted to answer with something harsh, but as he thought about it, his anger deflated. Rose's dismissal was justified, but he supposed that wouldn't be obvious to everyone. And it wasn't exactly Zaveid's fault for being curious, even if he had an irritating way of going about it.

"I hurt her," he said. "If you want specifics, ask someone else."

"Oookay," Zaveid said. "Hey, if you ever want any girl advice—y'know, wind seraph to wind seraph—just call me, all right?"

Of all the— Dezel's face darkened. "I'll have to decline."

Zaveid shrugged. "Suit yourself. Offer still stands, though." He returned to the others, humming to himself.

Dezel rubbed his temples, a sudden headache coming on. What had that been about? He almost would've thought it was Zaveid's own obnoxious way of showing he cared, but ...

Just before Rose settled for bed she swallowed her nightly dose of satora leaves, just as she had for the past two weeks. It looked like she was starting to run low—perhaps half of the original package was left. They hadn't passed any plants today, not that Dezel had noticed, but maybe he could go looking for some tonight. Give him something to distract himself with.


Maaan do I love it when a first draft is so good that editing it is a piece of cake.

Probably shouldn't expect the next chapter to come out so quickly, though. The first draft's already written, but it's twice as long and ten times as unwieldy ...