"Was it really worth it, Dilek?" Nandita asked, looking at the fully wet and shirtless Dilek as he stood knee-deep in the murky swamp water.
"Not sure. I don't see any profits," Dilek said, scratching his soaked head. "I thought it would kinda, y'know, reveal the witch's location."
"Well, all you did was destroy the ecosystem."
"What?" He scoffed. "No way, the ecosystem is dying in thirty seconds?"
"But my eyes are," Marcus muttered, rubbing his eyes.
"Okay, at least we lost the tongue?" Dilek said, looking around. Everything looked normal again, except for the animals — frogs, birds, and insects, all high on alert due to the strange blinding light that had appeared moments ago. The swamp bubbled and croaked around them, mist rolling over the surface as if holding its breath.
Ami emerged from the water, spitting out the remaining swamp water from her mouth. "I wanna go home…" she groaned, dragging herself onto the soggy patch of land.
"Not yet, not yet. We're really close to finishing the quest, you know," Dilek said.
"Don't give them false hope, Dilek," Nandita replied sharply. "We didn't even kill the tongue."
"The tongue is barely a concern, come on," he said, waving his hand dismissively.
Marcus, who stood nearby, slowly walked toward a rock half-submerged in the swamp — the same one where the strange light had been moments ago. The air was thick with moisture, the smell of moss and decay clinging to everything. He moved carefully, his boots squelching in the mud, when he stepped on something soft — like a cloth.
"Ugh…" he muttered, stepping on it again and again, trying to guess what it was. "Hm…"
Just then, two pale hands burst from the water and grabbed his legs.
"AAGHHHHHHHHHH!" His scream echoed across the swamp.
Dilek turned sharply. "WHAT HAPPENED!?"
"SOMETHING GRABBED MY FOOT!" Marcus shouted, thrashing wildly.
"KICK IT! KICK IT TO DEATH!" Ami yelled from behind, still trying to squeeze water from her hair.
Marcus nodded furiously and began stomping in the water. Nandita sighed in disbelief as Ami waded over, ready to step on whatever Marcus was kicking too.
"Diego, never be like them, okay?" Dilek said, glancing to his side.
But Diego wasn't there.
He turned around, scanning the area. The swamp stretched endlessly, shadows swaying under the thick fog. "Diego?"
Then he turned toward Marcus and Nandita, who were still kicking something. His eyes widened.
"DIEGOOOO! YOU IDIOTS! THAT'S DIEGOOO!"
Marcus froze mid-kick. "What!?" He quickly plunged his hands into the water and pulled up a fainted Diego.
"Oh…" Marcus mumbled, guilt washing over him. He dragged Diego to the rock and laid him there. Dilek and Nandita hurried over, while Ami climbed up too, shivering from the cold swamp water.
"Does anyone know CPR?" Nandita asked as Ami shook her head along with marcus, she turned to dilek, "You will have to do it yourself dilek afterall it's just a kiss right—"
—Dilek placed his hands on Diego's chest. "Skill: Painful Healer — activated."
"GRAHHHHHH!" Diego gasped, his eyes shooting open as Dilek sighed.
"Oh man, thought you died," Dilek said.
"Saint… you saved me…" Tears welled in Diego's eyes. "Something stepped on me… and then started kicking me… wahhh…"
Diego hugged Dilek tightly. Dilek glanced at Marcus and Ami, who both looked guilty.
Nandita's eyes widened as she pointed toward the swamp. "THERE!" she whispered loudly.
Everyone turned. The tongue — long, slimy, and glistening like a serpent — slithered in the dark water.
Nandita turned to Ami. "Shoot it down, ranger!"
Ami blinked. "What? Shoot? Do I look like I have a gun?"
"Gun what? No — you're a ranger, shoot it down!"
Ami looked even more confused. "Give me a gun."
"THAT'S YOUR GODDAMN CLASS! WHAT DO YOU THINK I MEAN WHEN I SAY RANGER? WHO ELSE HERE IS A RANGER? I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT POWER RANG—"
"Calm down, calm down," Dilek said, covering Nandita's mouth before she could finish. "Look, that's the area we were at before. For all we know, the tongue can't come here."
Marcus watched the creature carefully. "Dilek might be right… it's not moving forward."
Diego smiled. "Go for it, Ami! Shoot it down!"
Ami blinked, slowly processing it all. "I see… I'm a ranger… right…"
Nandita's nerve twitched. "Should I bury her here?"
"Ami, shoot the tongue! Why aren't you doing it? Aren't you a ranger?" Marcus pressed.
Ami smiled awkwardly, looking around. "Ah yes…" She spotted a rock on the ground, picked it up, and threw it weakly. The rock plopped into the water and sank.
…
"DO YOU THINK WE'RE A JOKE!? USE YOUR BOW!" Nandita shouted, strangled by frustration.
Ami flinched. "I DON'T HAVE IT!" she cried.
"What!?" Marcus and Diego both looked stunned.
"I DON'T HAVE A BOW! WHY DIDN'T YOU THINK OF THAT ALL THIS TIME? AREN'T YOU GUYS RICH? YOU SHOULD BUY ME ONE!"
Dilek smiled, patting her head. "It's alright, Ami."
Through tears, Ami smiled faintly. "Dilek… maybe I was too harsh on you, I promise I won't call you bald…"
Dilek grinned back. "Just be a bait. We'll come rescue you in a while."
…
"HELLPPPP SHE'S DROWNING MEEEE!" Dilek yelled as Ami shoved him underwater, "YOU GODDAMN BALDIE WHO DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE BAIT HUH?!!!"
"Hold on!" he sputtered, "I can just ask the goddess for a skill that gives me weapons!"
Diego clapped his hands. "OH YES! ASK THE GODDESS!"
Marcus and Nandita exchanged deadpan looks. Ami scoffed. "Bullshit, you can't do shit."
Dilek smirked. "Just believe me." He stood tall on the rock, raising his arms dramatically. "OH GODDESS! GRANT ME THE SKILL TO MAKE WEAPONS OUT OF THIN AIR!"
He froze in that pose for a full minute before turning around and flashing a thumbs up with a confident smirk. "I got it."
No one reacted — except Diego, who looked proud.
Dilek waited for a pop-up message, his sweaty thumb trembling in the humid air. "I have it, guys," he said, forcing a smile.
Ami folded her arms. "Okay, make me a bow."
Dilek stood still for a moment, then sighed. He climbed down, swam toward the vines, and grabbed a bendy stick. Returning to the rock, he bent it slightly and tied fresh vines as the string.
"Ta-da! A small bow."
He handed it to Ami, who stared at it. "This? This is your skill?"
Even Diego looked uncertain. "I see… Saint must have gotten the knowledge how to make a bow… I'm sure the goddess is testing us!"
"ON POINT, DIEGO!" Dilek grinned, giving him a thumbs up.
Marcus sighed. 'I feel bad for Diego,' he thought.
'I feel bad as well,' Nandita thought, as if they were sharing one brain cell.
Ami frowned. "That's a nice bow and all, but… I also need arrows, don't you think?"
Dilek blinked. "…At this point, I'll just throw stones." He picked up a few and hurled them toward the tongue — none reached.
"I have an idea," Nandita said. She told Diego to fetch a branch. He dove into the swamp, climbed a tree, and snapped off a thick one before falling back in. He returned, soaked again, and handed it to her.
She snapped off smaller pieces, shaping it into a "Y" and tied a vine across. "There. A catapult. This should work."
Diego, Marcus, and Nandita all clapped. She flushed slightly but smiled. "Of course, this is nothing — too easy."
Dilek stared as Ami readied the makeshift weapon. She loaded a rock, aimed carefully, and paused.
"Now what?" Dilek asked.
Ami hesitated. "What if it dashes toward us? I mean, the only reason it didn't attack yet is probably because it doesn't know where we are. If it tracks where the rock comes from, we're done for, don't you think?"
Dilek smirked. "Nuh uh, Ami. This is like a videogame. The tongue's a boss that only inhabits a certain zone. It can't cross that. So we can technically spam stones until it dies. Easy as that."
Ami's face brightened. "OH YEA, THAT MAKES SENSE!"
She pulled the catapult to full tension and fired. The rock struck the tongue with a wet thunk.
The tongue froze, then the tip slowly turned toward them.
"Hey… tongues don't have eyes, do they?" Marcus asked.
"Of course not…" Dilek began—then stopped as the tongue lunged toward them. "Okay, maybe it does! JUMP!"
They all dove into the water as the tongue slammed into the rock, cracking it in half.
Dilek surfaced, coughing, and saw the tongue writhing in pain.
"So it does feel pain, huh?" Dilek smirked. "ATTACKKK!"
"STOP—"
A voice cut through the chaos.
From a distance, a man climbed down a tree, holding his mouth. He had messy blonde hair, a small mustache, and wore a purple jacket and pants soaked in swamp mist.
"That's my tongue. Please stop…"
Dilek blinked. "What the—?"
—
"Okay, so your name is Tony," Dilek said later, sitting in a small, crooked hut made of damp wood and moss. The inside smelled of herbs and smoke. Shelves of bubbling potions lined the walls, strange tools hanging from the ceiling. Fireflies buzzed lazily near the open window, revealing the endless swamp outside. "And you're a witch inhabiting these swamps."
"Totally," Tony said, smiling faintly.
Diego and Ami were exploring the shelves, sniffing random bottles and poking at trinkets.
"You're a man — you're a wizard," Dilek said.
Tony scoffed. "Of course not. I'm a witch."
"No, man, you deal with magic. You're a wizard," Dilek argued.
Tony crossed his arms. "Okay, define witch."
Dilek paused, thinking. "A witch is someone who practices curses."
"Okay, and what do I do?" Tony asked.
"I dunno. You tell me."
Tony sighed. "I practice curses as well. So I'm a witch. A wizard does magic, right?"
"What? No… oh… maybe you're right… or maybe not?" Dilek frowned, confused.
Tony rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm a witch. My mom taught me to be one, so I am."
"I think we should stop," Marcus said, standing near the door. "We've got a quest to stop you."
Tony turned, his expression dimming. "And why so?"
"Well, you curse travelers and claimed this land as yours. That's an issue, right?" Marcus said.
Tony's expression hardened. "What? No! This is my mom's home. People invade my home."
"It's public property, you fool. You have no righ—" Dilek's mouth was quickly covered by Nandita's hand.
"But you can't curse people," Nandita said gently. "Right?"
Tony stammered. "I-I don't want to. Each of them come here and damage the place… They want to make it a city. It's my home…"
Dilek frowned. "How come?"
Tony's voice softened. "My mom told me this swamp is our home."
From the side, Ami whispered to Diego, "Tony kinda looks dumb, don't you think?"
"Yeah. Kinda innocent too," Diego replied.
"Couldn't be me though," he added with a smirk.
Ami gave him a deadpan look. "You're literally the biggest example."
Dilek sighed. "Your mom claimed a piece of land no one owned and told you it's hers, and you believed it?"
Tony's face twitched. "STOP! IT'S MY HOME! I LIKE IT HERE!"
Dilek said with a straight face, "I don't see your name written on it. Or your mother's."
"DILEK!" Nandita hissed. "That's rude."
"Sorry," Dilek muttered.
Tony trembled, eyes downcast. "You're the same as them…"
"I'm not, Tony," Dilek said softly. "But you can't curse people just because they try to enter your home."
"BUT I DON'T! THEY DAMAGE IT!" Tony shouted, desperate now.
Dilek's voice hardened. "What did we do, then? Why did you attack us?"
"You caused the big light!" Tony snapped, anger flashing in his eyes.
'Shit, he's right…' Dilek thought.
"No, Tony," Marcus said. "You attacked Dilek before he made the light. You slammed him against a tree. He was lucky he didn't get injured."
Tony's face crumpled in horror. "What… no, I didn't mean… no, no…"
Ami, still sitting on a stool, leaned toward Diego. "You think he's gonna crash out?"
"Crash? Where?" Diego blinked.
She sighed. "Nevermind."
Tony's voice rose again, shaking. "IT'S MY HOME… RIGHT!?"
Then a whisper.
"Yes, Tony… this is your home…"
A voice from his past echoed in his ears.