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Chapter 5

Jacob walks up and down the column as the group walks away from the watch tower fort on the hill. Even the bandits seem happy to leave that place. He talks with everyone as they go, providing simple warmth enchantments to keep them warm, and simple wards to keep the many insufficient shoes from falling apart as well as to toughen them to the hard ground. He even figures out how to make the inside of them softer while maintaining the other enchantments. Everyone is grateful for these small gifts. The slaves are especially thankful for the added comfort of the warmth and relief from the hard ground.

Jacob checks on Onyxia to see if the magic he is spending on these enchantments is putting too large a drain on her, to his surprise it is quite the opposite. She has started filling out again, and her belly has recovered from the shriveled state it was in last night and swollen almost back to full capacity. She is not leaking yet but he suspects that she may start before the day is over.

Jacob asks Onyxia "how are you feeling?"

Onyxia replies in a well-rested and happy voice "Oh, I feel great! Last night was quite the experience but I feel worlds better now today."

Jacob smiles apologetically and pats her belly. He senses something different with her soul when he does, it feels larger, and more connected to her body than it was before. He thinks about that as he continues his inspection of the convoy and provides more simple charms and enchantments to make everyone a little more comfortable.

The group travels slowly west and then south once they come to the entrance of the Dead Marsh. This unnatural bog has many names, and even more superstitions about it. Some say this bog is the gateway to hell, and the dead sometimes float to the surface here. Others think that a great necromancer once fell at the hands of the crusaders, but before he died he cast a powerful spell on the water that causes the dead to rise and harass anyone foolish enough to wander into his domain. Yet another is that evil witches reside here, and have placed the curses on the area to prevent unwanted guests. Nobody really knows if any of the stories are true, but the locals give this area a wide berth.

The slaves whisper the stories they hear the bandits talking about. They do not notice that some of the bandits are intentionally telling them where they can be overheard so to frighten the beautiful slave women. McGuff sighs in disgust as he sees the ploy of his men working like a charm and causing the slaves to be even more fearful and clingy. In the slaves defense, many of their parents were captured, broken, and have been bred to be the most attractive to humans, while only a few are first generation slaves, but most of them were taken too young to have learned about such games and the end goal of them.

Jacob stands at the edge of the water and peers into the haze that thickens into fog not a hundred feet from the edge of the swamp. This most unpleasant region seems to emit an ominous feeling from every twisted tree, every hazardous plant, and every infernal insect. The place is obviously home to dark magics, that much is brutally obvious to Jacob and Onyxia's enhanced vision. Jacob can see tendrils of dark magic swimming under the surface of the water like living things as they seek out a body to invade and take over. Onyxia nudges the water's edge and watches the ripples flow across the perfectly still water. Shortly after the ripples pass out of sight, they sees shadows in the fog shambling aimlessly as if warily searching for something. Almost like some exhausted person wandering in hopes of finding a way out.

One of the slaves calls out to one of the shadows and is immediately silenced by several other slaves and bandits as they hold her mouth and keep her still as all eyes franticly search the fog for the inevitable shamble to find them, as the noise draws them. Jacob projects his perception and pierces the fog with his mind's eye. What he sees makes him want to cry, thousands of Shamblers are wandering towards them. He returns to his body as quickly as he can. Once he is able to move again he looks at McGuff and mouths 'WE GOTTA GO! GO NOW! NOW! NOW!!!' McGuff's eyes widen as he understands, he lurches towards the closest person, grabs their shoulder and puts a finger to his lips in the universal sign for 'Be Quiet' and then gestures at the others, and pushes the man, then he moves to the next person.

Onyxia sees Jacob's distress, and feels cold as she understands what he saw. Jacob uses magic to make himself light enough to leap from a blade of grass to a twig to Onyxia's tail. He puts himself under it and lifts it as hard as he can, Onyxia lifts it for him exposing herself to him. Jacob gracelessly thrusts his arm inside her, and reaches all the way inside until his fingertips enter her womb. Then he projects his vision inside and creates a light to see. He sees tiny specs floating in the Mana, exactly what he was hoping for. They are called seeds and are the tiny formations of Mana crystals that are growing in a Mana rich environment. Her womb is filled with them, there must be hundreds. Jacob withdraws his arm and places his hands on either side of Onyxia nethers, she doesn't understand but she sees that he is not playing with her and has something in his mind that there is no time to explain. She focuses her attention on watching for movement as the tingle of magic causes her a world of sensations in her most tender of places.

Jacob modifies the spell on Onyxia's womb that collects a little of his power as it invisibly radiates out of him to absorb magic from a larger area and concentrate it into the seeds that are slowly growing inside of her. Initially this change causes her to rapidly bloat and to max out the flow of Mana leaking out of her. But the spell latches onto the seeds and they start to absorb the excess liquid fast enough to stop Onyxia's deflation, and then to reduce her back to a mobile state. Jacob turns his attention to the several Shamblers who have gotten too close, and lights them on fire. The undead burn well, and turn to ash quickly.

Jacob gathers Onyxia's excreted Mana that is floating in the water and forms a ring around the group with it, and lights it on fire as well as makes it follow them. It works surprisingly well. So well that Jacob rethinks his original idea for Onyxia and the Mana seeds, he turns up the flow of power to her in addition to his previous modification causing her to feed the ring of fire with a flow of liquid Mana. The fog begins to burn off a bit from the intense heat of the ring of fire, revealing hundreds of Shamblers slowly slogging through the much towards them. For the moment they are safe, but trapped.

McGuff keeps his men under control, and has them keep the slaves in a tight cluster in the center of the ring of fire, the bandits brandish their weapons bravely but fear that they would do little good against this adversary. Tales of the undead are known to every culture no matter how remote they are, and they are greatly feared by most. McGuff keeps telling everyone "Have a little faith in our mage, I'm sure a few undead are nothing new to him!" and similar hope rousing sayings. Hearing him speak with such enthusiasm and confidence does wonders for the bandits as well as the slaves, Jacob even feels encouraged by the man's words.

Onyxia makes a mental note to remind Jacob of how much McGuff helped keep things from falling apart during this trial, if they make it through this. The poor dragon struggles forward with her heavy burden and is completely resolved to think only of the danger at hand and not the distracting sensations that are nearly overwhelming. All she wants to do is lay down and enjoy the experience, but she knows that everyone is relying on her to keep moving forwards. Jacob sees her struggling and reduces the flow slightly allowing her to slim to a more mobile size. Slimming down helps Onyxia greatly, and the group starts making better time.

As formidable as the Shamblers are, they are not the only threat in this god forsaken place. One of the slaves screams in pain and panic as she discovers a massive leach sucking on her leg, a bandit cuts the monster in half with a well-placed strike of his sword, but it becomes apparent that the very water is teeming with danger as well. The bandits all turn their attention to striking the things in the water that are swimming under the ring of fire. Jacob runs over and puts layers of ice on everyone's legs to protect them from the leeches. Frostbite is inevitable, but thanks to healing magic, it is not anything to worry too much about.

The sky is darkening, and Jacob realizes they are going to need somewhere to fortify and hold for the night. He thinks that a fortress of ice may be the best option as there is nowhere in sight that will be a good place to sleep, and everyone is too exhausted to go much farther, himself included. He finds a place where the water is thinnest, and freezes the mud solid then starts growing spikes of ice upwards, he forms a foundation and thickens it until it is a good foot above the water. He shapes stairs and has everyone get up onto the growing platform. Jacob pushes the exhausted Onyxia up onto the platform and is drenched in the waterfall of liquid Mana pouring out of her rump. The poor creature falls asleep immediately once she flops onto the platform. Jacob expands the ice farther, and them builds a wall with holes in it that let the pooling Mana drain out and keep the ring of fire burning.

Everyone shivers in this ice prison so Jacob places a warmth spell on the foot of liquid Mana they are all standing in, it steams as its temperature rises to the perfect warmth for a bath. Everyone, Onyxia included enjoy the comfort of being able to finally relax. Jacob makes the center much deeper and slides Onyxia into it, she is almost fully submerged except for her head. Her tongue lolls out as she can finally just enjoy the sensations that are setting her nerves on fire. He sits down and enjoys the feeling of the mud and filth being washed away. The slaves are the first to shamelessly take off their cloths and start washing themselves.

McGuff tells his men that if any of them do anything that might upset the ladies, he will personally crack their skulls. Not seconds after he said that however, he hears giggling and sees the "ladies" inviting his men over to their side of the pool. McGuff wipes his face with a gloved hand and mutters "Young people..."

Everyone sleeps soundly as they float in the warm, thicker than water liquid. Even McGuff in his armor is able to float in his sleep thanks to one last spell from Jacob, that makes everyone lighter and stay on their backs as they sleep.

The peaceful sleepers are awoken by the light of the sun and a gentle breeze, to their amazement Jacob is standing at the helm of an ice ship! Jacob has turned their sanctuary fortress into a beautiful sailing ship! The Mana pool is contained in the hull of the ship and appears to be fueling enchanted sails that look like they are made out of frost that has been woven into fibers and enchanted to be tough enough to catch the wind! Every one wanders about looking at the beautiful crystals and marveling at the speed at which they are making their way through the swamp. They see the occasional shamble get ripped to pieces as the ship runs it over. They also see a gash in the mud behind the ship as it plows powerfully through everything in its path. Onyxia is lifted to the front of the ship so she can be a living masthead of sorts, as well as enjoy the view as she continues to fuel the ship with her Mana. The whole experience is a magical one that McGuff worries is just a good dream.

Jacob has never been on a ship, so some parts of its design are improvised with magic, such as the complete lack of a rudder or wheel to steer. Everything from the sails to the flow of the artificial wind are controlled by him. But he is doing a marvelous job of it, and even McGuff who was a sailor in his youth has no complaints.

Mcguff "Boy, this... this is something else. Never in all my days did I ever think I would find myself on a magical ship made of ice with a mage at the helm and a living dragon for a masthead! Haahaahaa! This is a priceless experience, like a living dream."

Jacob only smiles as he doesn't know what to say. This was all born from a need to escape a bad situation, and ended up becoming a beautiful thing.

Onyxia swats at Shamblers as they sail by, and actually hits a few of the closer ones causing them to explode in a spray of bones and rot all over the front of the ship. Jacob is quite fond of keeping his ship clean, and causes the ice to bleed water that washes away the filth and maintain the pristine beautiful appearance of his ship. The ice of the deck is filled with tiny air bubbles giving it a solid appearance that lets the light through but isn't clear like the rails and sides of the ship. Jacob walks from place to place slowly changing the composition of things to change their appearance and make his ship look more like the drawing he used to see in the elder's tent back in his village.

At the speed they are traveling it doesn't even take them a full day to reach the far side of the Dead Marsh. And sail the ship up onto land where it grinds to a stop. The group disembarks sadly as they must continue on foot from here.

Jacob Snow "That..." he shakes his head as words fail him, but then he raises his voice to address the entire group "I promise, we will all do this again. Hopefully in a less unpleasant place!"

Everyone cheers including Onyxia who greatly enjoyed the short trip.

The group turns towards the forested mountains in the near distance, and prepare to journey to a new area and see what new adventures await them ahead.

Jacob reduces Onyxia's flow back to the minimum to let her rest up, and move freely. The seeds that are growing inside her are making excellent progress, and will be ready to be laid as eggs likely in as little as a few days.