text: [Themes: fantasy, serious]
  
  While you're going to have to stomp through the swamps eventually, if you can avoid the areas that contain vicious invisible beasts that would probably be better for your survival.
  
  "Okay, we'll take the long way." You say.
  "Probably for the best." Tych remarks.
  
  As you and Tych travel through the forest, you find that Tych is overly talkative. He even acknowledges that he is, but he's just so happy to talk to ANYONE who isn't Ral. Most of his talk concerns Gnarlwood and Sotak swamp, so it isn't completely useless banter though you're more concerned with his chatter calling attention to you.
  
  He has much to criticize when it comes to elves and says it was they who started the war with the sotakians in the first place. And ever since that point, now everyone else who lives in Gnarlwood forest that was more or less minding their own business has to deal with the consequences.
  
  "The sotakians were perfectly content on staying in their swamps before the elves pushed them. The sotakians would just take a few elves every now and then for their primitive sacrifices, it wasn't personal and the sotakians never tried to encroach on their territory." Tych says.
  "I can't imagine WHY the elves would take that badly." You reply.
  "It isn't like the elves couldn't afford to lose a few of their number given how much they rut with each other. Not to mention as I said, elves are a bunch of territorial assholes. They just used their war as an excuse to try to lord it over the rest of us that live in Gnarlwood. Demanding tribute, conscripting us to help them. Nevermind the fact that the rest of us don't have problem with the sotakians. A bunch of degenerate hedonistic imperialist assholes is what they are."
  "Interesting. Elves generally don't have that reputation of being particularly interested in conquest, well other than the sexual kind I suppose. I dunno, I haven't really run into many save for passing by a few aggressive whores in Holgard."
  "Hm, well luckily for you humans, you've already established your dominance in this land. If you were in lesser numbers, the elves would be trying to conquer you lot as well. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the elves hadn't sent out their people to go purposely mate with humans and other races to create more half breeds in the world."
  "What would they gain by that?"
  "Spies of course! Half elves would make excellent spies to gather information about the rest of the world and human governments in particular. Mark my words plivik, there will come a day when elves will try to pull their bullshit on humanity. I know you humans already tend to be foolishly entranced by their superficial looks. Ugh, dunno how anyone could find those freaks attractive."
  
  Yep, Tych certainly has strong opinions on elves.
  
  Most of your journey is uneventful and despite Tych's ranting. Eventually you do get weary of the sprite's squeaks and tell him to keep it down. Tych apologizes and complies.
  
  As night begins to fall, you decide to camp for the night so once again you find yourself a tree you can climb up and reasonably sleep in.
  
  "What are you doing, plivik?" Tych asks as you climb up a tree.
  "Maybe you sprites can see in the dark, but I can't unfortunately. Not to mention I need to get some rest if I'm going to go steal the eyes from sacred sotakian statues tomorrow." You respond.
  "Hm, I suppose you're right. Very well my wings could use a rest too and it'll be nice to sleep outside rather than a glass jar for a change. (Sigh) Just wish I could sleep with my beloved Gink tonight. Even the sight of her would be most welcome."
  "You're married?"
  "You surprised? Though I'm not married in the way that you probably are thinking. There was no lavish ceremony like you big legs seem to like to have. Gink and I just bonded under the moon in private and made our commitment statements to each other. We're the only ones that matter, so why all the need for a crowd to watch?"
  "Makes sense to me actually."
  "What about you?"
  "What about me what?"
  "Do you have someone?"
  "No. I mean I had someone for a few months, but it didn't last...anyway I wasn't married and honestly it's not something I've ever thought about. Especially not now."
  "Yes, I suppose our predicament would put other concerns first. Remember though, it doesn't have to be that way."
  
  Tych flits away and goes off to find a soft leaf to sleep on. You remain awake for a little while wondering if Tych is lying about everything, telling half truths, or being completely honest.
  
  Eventually you fall asleep.
  
  Later you wake up to Tych's squeaky voice.
  
  "Wake up! Wake up, plivik! Elves are in the area and they're on the move!"
  "Huh? What? Here? Now? I didn't even hear anything!" you respond, suddenly waking up and catching yourself before you fall.
  "Well no, they aren't right here under us plivik, but close enough! I woke up early and did a little scouting north. There are a bunch of them marching down that well trodden path that leads into the swamp. It looks like a war party."
  "So are they going to attack a lizard village?"
  "I would imagine so."
  "I guess taking the path is completely off the table now."
  "It is until they clear the area which might be awhile."
  "Do you know what village they're going to attack? Were we heading in that direction?"
  "I actually did hear some of their conversation and they're striking the closest one on the border and fully intend on wiping it out. I think I know which one that is and it's a fairly large one. Makes sense that they would send so many soldiers. Our destination was going to be a little to the southwest when we reached the swamp. A smaller village that was further in the swamp."
  "Would both of them contain idols?"
  "Well the sotakians are pretty religious, and they usually have one somewhere in their villages, why?"
  "I'm just wondering if instead of me trying to sneak around a lizard village by myself that maybe I shouldn't just shadow the war party and snatch the gems from a village that's going to be raided instead."
  
  Tych gives you a concerned look.
  
  "I don't know plivik, that sounds pretty risky. As I said, the elves are likely to attack you as well." Tych says.
  "You're probably right, if only because they're going to wonder what the hell I'm doing there, but lizards are still going to be their primary targets. At least if I get seen, there's going to be enough distraction on both sides that I might avoid getting targeted. If I get caught in the other village, it's just going to be me by myself surrounded by lizards and I don't expect you'd be much help." You respond.
  "Way to have confidence in me, plivik. I'll have you know I can fly about the other village without causing any attention and give you a run down on how to best approach the place. Certainly seems safer than what you're proposing."
  "Hmm, okay, we'll go with your idea again."
  "It is the safer course I assure you, plivik. I am also happy that you have so much trust in me." Tych responds.
  "I'm just hoping I don't regret it."
  
  Since you're intending on going with the original plan, Tych says that he's going to go back to watch the elven war party and let you know when the path is clear. He suggests that even when they do finally all pass by, it would probably still be best to keep off the path proper and just follow the general direction of it until you get to the swamp. From there he'll once again guide the way and scout ahead.
  
  As Tych takes his leave, you sit back and wait. You sort of feel like you haven't been doing much on this task, though you suppose Tych IS your guide so it makes sense that he's doing most of the work to get you to your destination.
  
  You don't know how long you wait, but it's enough that you end up going back to sleep for a little while. The second time Tych wakes you isn't quite as jarring.
  
  Having been given the all-clear reassurance, you climb down from the tree and follow Tych as he leads you into the Sotak swamp.
  
  The swamp is about like what you imagined, it's muggy, very wet and filled with a lot of little biting and stinging insects. (Though in Tych's case, they aren't all that small and he tends to perch on your shoulder for most of the way) You don't encounter anything too bad; save for a couple of the larger reptilian predators (Tych says they're crocomoths) and in both cases they're busily feasting on something else and you slip by unnoticed.
  
  Despite you practically being up to your knees in muddy water you're making good time all things considered and then that's when you hear a faint sounds in the distance coming from the north. Sounds like a horn.
  
  You walk a few more minutes and that's when you begin to hear a lot of splashing, several voices shouting and heading in your direction from the south and getting closer by the second.
  
  "Those must be sotakians!" Tych says.
  "Shit, I just realized, that horn sound we heard was probably was some alarm from that other village getting attacked. There's probably going to be a shitload of lizards heading our way!" you say.
  "We have to hide!"
  
  Tych at this point does exactly that and flies away! Whether he's completely left you or not is irrelevant because all that matters now is you finding your own hiding spot.
  
  You don't know how many are heading in your direction and how spread out they are, but all you can do is hope you stay out of their sight.
  
  > hide underwater
  You quickly grab one of the many reeds nearby, break it and put it in your mouth as you sink underneath the muddy water you've been stomping through. You just hope that YOU don't get stomped on. Getting trampled on by multiple lizard feet would be a pretty ignoble death.
  
  Of course this isn't even counting whatever the hell might be lurking under the water ready to swim into your ear and lay eggs in your brain. (You have an overactive imagination sometimes)
  
  You lay on the muddy swamp floor, trying to make yourself as small as possible. Doesn't take long before you hear the sounds of lizards shouting their incomprehensible language and running past you, though it's very muted and garbled due to you being underwater.
  
  Despite the water being muddy and your sight getting blurred in the process, you do see a couple of large looming figures run past from your prone position. A couple of the sotakian's taloned feet stomp near you. One right near your head, but you get lucky and none of them actually step or trip over you.
  
  Still, you aren't sure if all of them have passed so you're reluctant to move, fortunately Tych returns and flies near your reed. You can't quite make out what he's saying, but you think you see him waving his arms like an "all clear" signal, so you sit up out of the water and catch a good breath.
  
  "That was quite the bit of quick thinking, plivik." Tych remarks.
  "Are they all gone?" you ask in between breaths.
  "Yes, I believe so, quite a lot of them actually. From above, I could see them spread out all over the nearby area, you got very lucky. I doubt if running to the left or right would have escaped their gaze."
  "Where did you go?"
  "As I said plivik, I just flew straight up until they passed. Are you surprised? You already claimed I wouldn't be useful in a fight."
  "Yeah I suppose not. Actually with that many, pretty sure I'd be dead as well."
  "Glad you're not holding a grudge plivik. In any case, our destination should be a whole lot manageable to deal with now. I suspect only a few sotakians remain in the village so your job should be easier. I will still scout the village to let you know the best approach of course."
  
  You're really hoping that will be the case, because as sopping wet as you are now, you're not exactly in the highest spirits and are eager to get this shitty task over with.
  
  You and Tych make your way to your destination and sure enough the sotakian village is fairly empty. There are still a few lizards around and sure enough a couple of them are guarding a big lizard statue in the center of the village with blood gems for eyes.
  
  Fortunately Tych also mentions that there are some bamboo cages with elves in them. He says they look miserable and in terrible condition (he mentions that pretty gleefully), but he thinks if they got free, they'd certainly try to make a run for it.
  
  So that's your plan, you're going to create a distraction by releasing the prisoners.
  
  You cautiously approach the village and sneak around the huts, hoping that none of the little lizard children wandering around suddenly stumble upon you. When you get to the cages, Tych wasn't kidding about the elves. They look like they might have been in here for weeks and they're skinny even for elves.
  
  However, when they see you, they take notice, but say nothing. You reinforce this by putting your fingers to your lips and then working on the lock. The lock itself isn't even metal, its' a simple latch mechanism that can easily be opened from the outside, so it's child's play to you.
  
  The prisoners looks so thankful and a couple even whisper a few things that you don't understand in their native tongue, but you assume its some sort of thankful. They all start to make their way out and then that's when you nod to Tych and get out of the immediate vicinity.
  
  Tych flies over to the sotakians and begins shouting at them and pointing over in the direction of their prisoners. The sotakians are a bit confused at first by some sprite yelling at them and would probably swat him down, but when they look to where Tych is pointing, they find their escaped prisoners a lot more important to chase down.
  
  The lizards guarding the statue, along with most of the others chase after the prisoners who are now running for their lives. With the village nearly completely empty of any warriors of any kind, you make a dash to the statue and begin prying out its eyes.
  
  While you're not exactly slow in this task, you're certainly not fast enough to escape completely unnoticed, especially since there are still lizard children and a few mothers (At least you're assuming the remaining adults might be female, you can't tell) still in the village and notice your desecration. They begin hissing and converging on your position.
  
  With the gems in your possession, you pull out your sword and begin making a hasty retreat out of this accursed swamp. Lizard children might be small, but they still have a full set of sharp teeth and piercing talons. They're fairly fast too, especially since they're used to this environment. You have no choice but to cut a couple of the little scalies down in your escape, but not before they lay in some good bites and claw slashes on your arms and legs.
  
  It's probably only because of these casualties, that they stop pursuing you as the rest of them get scared and the mothers wish to keep the rest of their broods safe. (You hear some odd wailing noises behind you)
  
  Eventually you put a lot of distance between you and the village. You sort of lost him again in all the mayhem, but you soon find out that Tych is never far from your position.
  
  "Whew! That got intense! I almost thought you weren't going to make it plivik, with all those sotakian children trying to eat you." Tych says.
  "I didn't think I was for a moment." You answer taking a breather.
  "This might be a weird question, but do you feel bad for killing sotakian children?"
  "What?!"
  "I mean I know it was a matter of life and death, but still..."
  "Damn right it was a matter of life and death! I didn't enjoy it if that's what you're asking, but then I didn't exactly have time to worry about the moralities of killing little scaly children either, who I might add were probably more dangerous than typical wild predator. Felt like I was getting attacked by a pack of animals rather than anything with higher intelligence what with all the growling, hissing, biting and tearing."
  "Apologies plivik, I just sort of wanted to know what kind of person you were. Just as you weren't completely sure about me, I also wasn't completely sure about you. I am glad to see you are a person that doesn't enjoy killing even if you are pragmatic by nature. It would have made me hesitant to take you back to my village even if I do desire freedom."
  "Hold on, who said anything about going back to your village? We got the gems, we're going back to Ral's."
  "You still don't trust me, after all we've been through, plivik? Don't you want freedom? All we have to do is go back to my village and we can be free of Ral's spell! I can even lead you safely out of this forest and have you back on your way to Holgard or whatever other human settlement you had in mind to go to. And you could even think of those blood gems as your reward for this whole shitty experience. Those have to be worth quite a bit. Not like they're common."
  "Why don't we just get out of this fucking swamp before I think anymore about this okay?"
  "Very well plivik."
  
  Tych shuts up for awhile and the pair of you make your way back. You feel like once you're out of the swamp, the worst of this will be behind you. You have some concerns about potentially bumping into more lizards or even elves, but Tych is fairly confident that won't be the case.
  
  "The sotakians barely ever retreat and especially not on their own territory. Also, the lot that came from the other village will have probably cut off the elves from any sort of escape. Those stupid pliviks are going to be completely massacred. Elves deserve what they get. I hope the sotakians also hunted down those other ones and recaptured them." Tych remarks.
  
  Strange that Tych should be so concerned with your possible enjoyment of killing when he himself obviously gets a lot of pleasure from elven suffering. You get the real impression that elves must have done more to him than he's already said. It's the only explanation for his sadistic hatred.
  
  When you make it back to the forest, night is beginning to fall. You walk a little longer and eventually you make it back to the tree where you slept the first time you passed through this way.
  
  The next morning Tych is buzzing in your ear about heading back to his village again. Considering you'll arrive at the fairy ring in a few hours, it isn't surprising that he desperately wants a final answer from you about the subject.
  
  He already made some of his points yesterday. Besides the obvious freedom, you'd be pretty well off with the blood gems you have.
  
  > go to his village
  Tych's offer is too tempting and despite a few times where he flew away and hid, he still helped you out in the long run. Ral on the other hand has done nothing but enslave you and when he isn't having you do menial labor, he's sending you on dangerous missions like this one.
  
  You might as well risk it. If it doesn't work or Tych is just planning on freeing himself somehow, you can always just head back to the fairy ring. You can make up a story to Ral, not like he's going to care as long as he has his blood gems.
  
  "Okay Tych, let's go to your village, but I'm REALLY putting a lot of trust in you and hoping you're planning on freeing us both as opposed to saving your own ass somehow." You say.
  "Oh, we'll both be free, don't worry! Come on let's go plivik, I'm really excited about this!" Tych beams and flies off at a slightly faster pace than usual.
  
  You spend the better part of the day following Tych who really is so excited that you nearly lose him several times in the forest. Several times he stops to wait and laments the fact that your big clumsy legs aren't fast enough to keep up with him.
  
  Eventually you get to a point where Tych tells you to stop.
  
  "Okay, hold on plivik. We're getting very close, but I better go ahead first. Not like we invite a lot of big people into our villages." Tych says.
  "Where is it anyway?" you ask.
  "It's up high in the trees. What? Did you think we lived on the ground like you wingless pliviks do? I'm going to go see the elder and tell him what's going on, I have no reason to believe that he won't help."
  "Hmm, I'm still half expecting you to just disappear."
  "You followed me this far and you still don't trust me? I'm coming back plivik, just wait here."
  
  Tych flies upward towards the very high nearby trees. You watch him the entire time until he completely disappears in the foliage. You continue to look up and around to see if you can make out some sort of sign of a fairy village, but you can't see anything. Eventually you stop straining your eyes and neck and just lean up against one of the trees and wait.
  
  Unsurprisingly, you're waiting quite awhile. You start thinking about leaving as it begins to get darker, but you're just hoping that Tych is taking a long time because he stopped to fuck his wife or something.
  
  Tych eventually returns and calls to you as he's flying down.
  
  "Hey plivik you're still here! Really glad you are, I told you I'd be back. I told the rest of the village and they'll all be coming down to meet you soon since we can't very well expect you to come meet us." Tych says.
  "What's going on exactly?" you ask.
  "It's like I said, in order to break the spell it's going to require the entire village's help. Involves a lot of chanting, magical power and shit."
  "And shit? That doesn't sound very specific. Do you know if this will even work?"
  "It'll work, trust me."
  "It better because...ow. what the hell..."
  
  You feel a little sharp jab in your arm. At first you think an insect has bitten or stung you, but upon closer in inspection it's a tiny arrow.
  
  You pull it out and they look at Tych who just shrugs his shoulders.
  
  "Hey I did say I'd come back and that you'd be free. I didn't say you'd come out of this alive."
  
  Before you can even make the attempt to lunge at Tych (who just flies out of the way) you are suddenly hit by several tiny arrows on all sides. It's like multiple needles going in your body and while it isn't the most pleasant feeling, it isn't the thing that kills you.
  
  The fact that they drugged everyone of their arrow is what kills you, or rather helps lead to your eventual death.
  
  You fall to the ground completely paralyzed, you can't even speak, but you're fully aware of your surroundings. You watch as several sprites descend from the trees. You can't make out much from your position, but it looks like one of them flies over to speak with Tych.
  
  "So you say this human is the one that captured you and the rest your company?" the elder asks.
  "Not by himself, but he was helping the wizard that did. I can't bring them back and I couldn't kill the wizard, but I at least hoped that bringing this plivik to the village could at least give the families some measure of justice." Tych remarks.
  "It won't ease the pain for most, but I suppose it will bring a little closure since we never did know what the hell happened. We assumed it was elves or even sotakians."
  "I'm just glad to be home and finally free. I thank you elder for managing to release me from that dreadful magic."
  
  As you listen to Tych spin more lies, it suddenly occurs to you that yesterday he referred to the elves as pliviks. And he's certainly no friend to elves. You wish you had caught that before, because it's obvious that word is something insulting and given that he's been calling you that since he met you, that pretty much says it all on what he ever thought about you.
  
  The elder tells the rest of the sprites about how Tych is to be honored by bringing home an enemy that led to the deaths of so many in the village. And in his honor he is going to allow Tych to marry one of his many daughters.
  
  Sonofabitch wasn't even married.
  
  After a few more lies and speeches, the sprites finally descend on you to celebrate Tych's homecoming along with dispensing justice; this will take the form of a feast.
  
  You never knew sprites ate flesh, but you soon learn first hand as several sharp teeth start chewing on your body.
  
  It's agonizing being slowly eaten alive; especially since they're so small this doesn't kill you quickly.
  
  But after nearly a week, your chewed and bitten body finally expires.