A/N:

Thanks for the reviews.

Chapter 3

Day two: first heal

"Fuzzy boots!" Piper said as she sat up startling everyone.

"Um Piper are you ok?" Phoebe asks while her older sister was blinking slowly.

"Yeah where are we?" Piper replied as Paige came over to her.

"You don't remember?" Paige asks as Piper looked around. Then it all undesirably came back.

"Oh the Everglades right," Piper replied and squinted her eyes looking at her baby sister's neck. "Um Paige I don't want to alarm you."

"First just saying the words I don't want to alarm you is already alarming, What?" Paige asks nervously staying perfectly still.

"I think you have a leech on your neck," Piper replied and Paige put her hand to the left side of her neck and felt something slimy and about the size of a lighter.

"Ok don't panic," she said but her voice was very betraying as it cracked.

"Oh god I do too," Phoebe said while looking under her shirt. "Apparently they are male," she said through her teeth as they seem to be resting comfortably on her bosom.

"Don't pull them off, we need to use the fire to make them let go," Prue said and grabbed a smoldering stick that had a hot tip and placed it on the leech on her arm. The sound of crackling was heard as the little slimy bloodsucker squirmed and fell off. Prue shook her body a little trying to get the heebie-jeebies out of her system. "Here we need to get undressed and get them off of each other," she said but everyone was hesitant about disrobing in the middle of nowhere. "Oh for gods sake are you worried about the wildlife getting a free show?"

"No just you guys," Piper replied as Paige was the first to get down to her bra and undies.

"Me first I hate these things," Paige said and Prue used the stick to get at least five of them off.

"If they are in any places I can't see, you're on your own," Prue said and handed the stick to Paige. After she looked at herself thoroughly, she grabbed another stick that had a hot tip while Phoebe was checking herself over.

"Piper I can help you," Prue said as her younger sister still seem to be a little out of it.

"I can undressed myself just fine, thank you," Piper said and took off her shirt. Prue used the stick to get off the numerous leeches that apparently made their home on their bodies last night.

The all put their clothes back on that were dried and muddy after checking them for any other unwanted inhabitants. They drank the clean water that they let boil the night before but their stomachs were feeling the effects of going to bed without substance.

"First we need to find something to eat," Prue said as she stretched out her body.

"Why is it that things have no trouble finding as to feed off of, but when it comes to finding them there so elusive," Paige said.

"I probably could have caught something last night considering the amount of movement there was under our tree house," Phoebe said and finished getting dressed.

"Are there fish in this water?" Piper asks while checking her arm that was stung by the bee. It was back to its normal size but was still slightly sore.

"I don't know if I want to eat anything that comes out of this water," Prue replied as she walked over to Piper. "You ok?"

"Yeah just a little weak," Piper replied.

"Maybe we could get to the beacon that has food and supplies," Phoebe suggested as she looked at the markings she made last night.

"Which is in the opposite direction of the white beacon," Prue said.

"So we could stock up and then go for the white one," Paige said.

"Piper what do you think?" Prue asks as all eyes were on the middle sister.

"Oh don't make me tiebreaker," Piper replied.

"Piper," Phoebe said as she began to look slightly impatient.

"Fine I think it would be a good idea to stock up, we have no idea where dryland is or how long it would take to get the white beacon," Piper broke the tie and Prue shook her head slightly in disappointment.

"The green beacon it is, but that also means were going to be here longer," Prue said and made her way down the platform and back into the murky slightly cold water.

"It's that way," Phoebe said as she looked at the marking she made and pointed West.

"By the way what does fuzzy boots mean?" Paige asks.

"What?" Piper asks while getting off the platform.

"It was a stuffed animal she had when she was a kid," Phoebe replied for her.

"Oh," Paige said and they began to make their way West.

Hours passed as the scenery blended into each other and it was almost impossible to tell if they were on the right track or not. They were in single line with Prue in front as they came to a abrupt stop, causing the person behind her to bump into her and the others to bump into each other. "Hay no tailgating," Piper said as Phoebe moved away from her a little. "Prue what is it?" she asks nervously.

"Land I think," Prue said and began to walk forward quickly.

"Oh thank god," Piper said while keeping pace. The moment their feet exited the murkiness they all went to their knees as exhaustion and the exchange between water and land made their legs feel much lighter.

"I could kiss it but its disgusting, oh screw it," Phoebe said and began to kiss the ground," I love you, I love you," she said until she felt a sharp pain on her nose and stood up quickly to see something hanging off the tip. "Get it off, its going to impregnate me!" she yelled as the others try to keep their laughter quiet while Piper walked over and took off the crawdad.

"Phoebe calm down its just a crawdad," Piper said while Phoebe was rubbing her nose and a little blood escaped.

"I hate you," she said to the little crustacean that was not happy in Piper's hands.

"Lunch," Paige said but the size of it was not enough to feed one person let alone four.

"You know I'm a vegetarian," Phoebe said and got sharp looks from everyone.

"Your eat what ever we find missy," Prue said and just as Piper turned to help Prue stand, she was pulled violently away from her.

"Prue!" Piper yelled as her older sister disappeared under the water. "Shit, shit," Piper yelled and pulled out her machete while the others did the same. Prue could feel something bite hard down on her leg and even felt bone crack as she held her breath, letting out precious air mixed with screams. She was being twisted around like a rag doll and was hitting the bottom repeatedly. She could hear muffled yells from her sisters but could no longer hold her breath and let the swamp into her lungs. Piper was hacking away at something quite large that was twisting quickly. She could tell it was a alligator and a big one. She was afraid of hitting Prue with the machete.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Phoebe cried out as she grabbed Prue by the arms and pulled with all her might to get her free. Paige was hacking away as well and finally the alligator gave up its price and quickly swam off to deeper water. Phoebe no longer felt friction and pulled Prue to the surface and back to land.

"Prue!" Piper yelled as her and Paige rushed out of the water. Prue was not breathing and missing her leg from the thigh down. Blood was soaking the ground beneath her and Paige took off her belt and tied it around her upper thigh to stop the bleeding as Phoebe performed CPR.

"Hay we need a heal now!" Piper yelled while looking up.

Prue began to cough out the murky water and knew something was terribly wrong as her sisters were in complete panic. She could not move her right leg and began to feel the shock as her body trembled. The elder orb in and actually looked horrified as he bent down and started healing.

"Is this good enough for you," Piper said through her teeth. "Is this what you want, for us to get ripped apart."

He did not look up as he put all his focus on healing and slowly Prue's leg began to grow back. She screamed as tissue, bone and muscle were becoming one again. Paige held her hand while Phoebe held the other until finally her body was whole again. The elder stood up slightly shocked himself and quickly got his composure back. Piper was not satisfied with him say nothing and pulled out her machete and rushed him. He quickly put his hand out and the small electrical stream of lightning came from his fingertips. It hit her in the shoulder, knocking her to the ground but did not cause any damage. Phoebe immediately ran to Piper as she was afraid that her extremely irate sister would attempt it again.

"Piper don't," she whispered as she helped her up.

"What is wrong with you, how could you let this happen?" Piper demanded while Phoebe continued to keep herself between the elder and a very adrenaline driven sister.

"I'm sorry this happened but this is the Everglades and you need to be more careful," he said and orbed away.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed," Phoebe said harshly to Piper as she walked over to Prue." Are you ok?"

Prue did not reply right away as her body still was shaking slightly," I don't know yet," she replied. Paige gave her some water as they all moved quickly away from the water's edge and set down on a fallen tree. In all their years of being witches they've never lost a ligament, even in the Amazon they managed to keep them intact.

"Prue honey are you ok?" Piper asks.

"Yeah just a little freaked out, it happened so fast I didn't have time to react, even if I had my powers I don't think I could have done anything," Prue replied and ran her shaking hand over her wet head.

"That thing must have been 12 feet long or more," Paige said remembering the size.

"Great that was my first and only heal," Prue said.

"Were you hoping to save it for something else?" Phoebe asks and they all smiled a little.

"At least we are out of the water," Piper said as she looked into the plethora of trees in front of them.

"Too bad we couldn't kill it, it would have made a nice dinner," Paige said while her stomach growled.

They all decided to move as far away from the water as possible and start a fire. Phoebe took up the job of gathering the necessary essentials as the sun was lowering and kissing the horizon. Piper found a few frogs and began gotting them as she was going to turn them into soup to get more out of the small catch. Prue was trying to help as much as she could, but her body was still aching from the encounter with the alligator. Paige helped Phoebe get the fire started and they all used the small metal cup that came with their canteen to drink down water mixed with frog parts soup. They were going to have to spend another night in the Everglades and were already filling quite discouraged as the beacon glowed high in the sky and was definitely miles away. They huddled together near the fire for warmth and protection but it was too late to build any kind of platform to get off the ground. One would stay awake and they would do the switch periodically through the night.

To be continued...