I could feel my nose wrinkling up and had to stretch my neck back as I sank into the mud until it tickled my . It wasn’t too deep, and my hands easily found the bottom, so there was no danger of staying stuck. There was even a lethargic current flowing past that made it... not easy, but possible to move around.

  “Lower,” Amaryllis hissed right o me. “Do you want to be found?”

  I sank just a bit deeper in the mud until it was just short of my lips. e, who was tucked into the nape of my neck, walked around so that she was standing right o my head in the shadow cast by my helmet. Standing on the air to avoid the mud was cheating!

  The sound of loose-fitting boots king past had me freezing on the spot.

  Amaryllis and I had picked the spot to hide in. There were plenty of bushes and more mud than anyone could want. A great hiding spot, but not a pce that I would want to fight iing out would be tricky, which meant that I couldn’t afford to be spotted.

  The feet thumped closer and soon the noise of footfalls was peting with the thudding of my heart to be the loudest noise around.

  I saair of boots move past, then another behind that ohey stopped.

  My heart started beating faster.

  The boots turned my way and I shut my eyes, almost expeg to feel an attaing.

  The rehumping of feet had me letting out a held breath. I slowly turned my head and looked in the dire the patrol had moved in. From farther away I could see more than just boots.

  The group was made up of frenoil skeletons, ea simplistic armour and carrying an ill-maintained spear and buckler. Glowing undead eyes sed the marshes and occasionally stopped to stare at a marsh bird or a swaying tree.

  “Let’s move,” Amaryllis said.

  Amaryllis looked kind of silly, her white feathers pstered to her head by aire yer of caked-on mud and her pale features tinted brown by brackish water. I couldn’t imagi would be fun for her to her feathers ter, some of them even stayed in the mud as we crawled out of it.

  “Did you see another patrol?” I asked.

  “No. It could just be the one,” she said. She didn’t sound so certain of that.

  The fort was close. So close that I could actually make out the lights lit from withie the full m sun. There were people manning the walls, some of them walking around, others standing stock still.

  I had the impression they weren’t living people.

  “Did you see their level?” I asked. I had fotten to use Insight while in the mud.

  “Between six a,” she said. “Not to for a normal monster, but powerful for an undead.”

  “Are undead on around here?” I asked. “I’ve seen some before, but it was in an abaown.”

  Amaryllis eyed me for a moment before looking towards the fort. “No. No it isn’t normal. Let’s get closer to the fort. We might be able to see where they’re ing from. Most of the time undead spawhere are plenty of bodies aain types of... unfavourable mana.”

  “Could it be an undead dungeon or something?” I asked.

  “Let’s hope not,” she said before skulking forwards. She kept low to the ground, her task made easier by the ck of backpack or any gear. I still hadn’t gotten a straight answer out of her about that.

  We kept as close to the few patches of dead trees as we could. Amaryllis even touched a few of them with a talon and frow them. We saw another patrol, just three grenoil skeletons this time, and they were heading away from us. We waited for them to get out of the area before moving on.

  Soon we were before Fort Frogger, hidihe lip of a hill with just the tops of our heads stig out to take irance of the fortress. The rge wooden doors were open, one of them broken and ripped free of its huge metal hihe inner courtyard was filled with the undead, mostly grenoil skeletons, but a few that looked like strange horses with human upper bodies. taurs?

  Twer skeletons, both in pte armour and holding up Broccoli-sized swords were waiting at the gate.

  A Skeleton Knight, level ?.

  “I ’t eveheir level,” I said.

  Amaryllis sighed. “Ten. They’ve hit their evolution level, the undead ’t really go beyond that, not without some very unusual circumstances.”

  “Evolution?” I asked.

  She turo me. “You really don’t know anything, do you?” she asked.

  I shrugged before l myself down. The little hill we were on was surrounded by a good number of trees, so I wasn’t too afraid of getting spotted by a passing patrol. Still, I had yet to remove the yer of mud that covered me. It was good camoufge.

  “I’m going to go say hi,” I said.

  “What?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Look, our mission is to scout the regiht? We’ve sort of dohat. Now we just o see ihe fort, but that ’t happen if we have to fight our way in. You’re very strong, I’m sure you could take the two skeleton knights at the door. But then there are a whole bunch more inside. So we try the nice way.”

  “The nice way? Is that what they call suicide where you’re from?” Amaryllis asked.

  I figured she was being rhetorical. And rude. Mostly rude. “Let me try? If it doesn’t work then we go back to Green Hold and tell Gabriel and that’s that.”

  Amaryllis gred at me, looked over the hill at the fain, then back at me. “Are your stats back up to full?”

  Health 120/120Stamina 79/125Mana 115/115

  “Most of them, yeah,” I said. “My stamina is a little low, but it’s not too bad.” I toe off my shoulder and hahe kitteo Amaryllis.

  She took the kitty in both taloned hands with surprising care. e didn’t even protest at the tact.

  Then I shucked off my backpad searched within. I found a potion and refilled the pocket that had held the trifecta potion I had given Amaryllis. “Okay. you watch over my bag? It’s not too heavy.”

  “I ,” she said. “If this goes south and you die, I’m keeping the cat.”

  I gri her, then scritched e behind the ear where she liked it best. “She likes you, so it’s okay. You have my stuff too, I guess.”

  “Idiot. Do try not to die. I might be stuck with an even bigger fool ime.”

  I grinned so hard my cheeks hurt. She did care!

  I fired a ing spell at myself a all the mud and gunk rolling off me like water off a hot pan, then I poked Amaryllis and did the same for her. She shivered as my magic washed over her, and eve out a little ‘oh’ when it ast. “See you soon!”

  The knights spotted me before I was even halfway to them, but other than shifting so that their swords were in a sort of guard position, they didn’t really react. I stopped a dozeers away from them and waved. “Um, hello! My name is Broccoli Bunch, I’m with the Exploration Guild. I was hoping to talk to your leader. Or your boss, I guess. Um... rarr?”

  The skeleton knights paused, then as ohey turned and stepped to the side, leaving the path into the fort’s courtyard open.

  “Is that an invitation to go in?” I asked.

  I didn’t eve a ‘rarr’ in response.

  “ I go get my friend?” I asked.

  The skeletons didn’t seem to mind. Or if they did, I couldn’t tell from their plete otion. I waved at the hill, and soon enough a very cautious Amaryllis stepped out from over the edge and walked over to me, eyeing the skeletons the eime. “What did they say?” she asked when she came closer.

  “I don’t know. I ’t speak skeleton.”

  “Skeleton isn’t a nguage,” she said.

  The skeletons shifted and one of them let out a low ‘rraarrg.’ I poi it, my point obviously made.

  I wao grab Amaryllis’ hand to pull her in—it wouldn’t do to leave the leader of the skeleton’s waiting—but didn’t know if it was okay to touch her feathery arms, aaloned hand looked hard to hold. So instead I just pouted at her aured inside.

  She sighed, but followed after me as I moved in.

  There were skeletons in the courtyard, both grenoil and the strange fged ohey were too slight to be actual half-horse half-humans, though maybe taurs were just small-boned. I made a o ask Amaryllis about them ter.

  No oopped us as we reached the entrance of the fort proper. It was a rge, squarish building, made of big stohat looked like they had been fused together, probably by some sort of fah-magic. The tower we had been seeing for a while stuck out of the middle; small slit-like windows all around probably gave ahin a spectacur view of the area.

  I paused before the door and checked myself out as best I could, running fihrough my hair, dusting off my gambeson a bit and making sure that my skirt was on straight.

  “What are you doing?” Amaryllis asked. She was switg between looking at me, and at the listless skeletons around us.

  “I’m making sure that I make a good first impression. People judge you a lot based on how they meet you for the first time, even though judging people like that is wrong. But if I want to make lots of friends then I o put my best foot forwards.”

  She stared at me for a moment, then raked her talons through her own hair-feathers, and plucked a few crooked feathers out of her arms.

  I was grinning as I knocked. Five quick taps of shave and a hairbsp;boomed out.

  We waited, both of us shifting unfortably while my knock echoed within the building. Footsteps sounded out, low and heavy as if something big roag. As it came closer I could just barely make out the ctter of something like nails scratg against wood in a frenzy.

  The door opened with a whoosh.

  I stared at the rather pin man within. Sure, he was a ghoulish-looking man with glowing blue eyes behind a pair of spectacles, but he was wearing a cardigan over a sweater-vest and had big fluffy loafers oo him was a dog.

  Most of a dog.

  A dog skeleton. Ohe size of a small car.

  It stared at us, tail helic through the air so fast I could feel the wind from where I stood. Wheip hit the ground it cut thin grooves into the stone floor.

  “Yes?” the man asked.

  “Ah, hi!” I said. “My name is Broccoli Bunch! Let’s be friends!”

  Amaryllis smacked me behind the head.

  “Are you the... lord of this estate?” she asked, voice far haughtier than it had been just a few minutes ago.

  “And if I am?” the man asked. He stood taller, and his big puppy stopped shaking with repressed happiness. I fired off two quisights while he stared down Amaryllis.

  An Undead Human Boer, level ??.

  A Bone Hound of the Long Slumber, level ???.

  I wasn’t sure what to do, the tension was rising and I could literally feel the danger in the air. I didn’t know if it was mana leaking out of the two near me or just bad vibes, either way it had to stop, and I knew just the thing!

  “Do you like tea?” I asked.