#booster-bold

                He took the waypoint to the shelter. Theyalways gave Thales a weird feeling in his spine and he had to empty out atleast half his coin purse to use it but it was far faster than walking.Besides, the Priory would be compensating him for the travel fees anyways. Hehoped.

               Aliongaurd strode up, hand on their sword pommel and asked for his business inthis area of Kryta. Thales handed the liongaurd handed to him by a wearymagister. Arcanist Thales here to accompany Scholar Aisteach on taking spectralenergy readings on the borders of Godlost Swamp. Honestly, he was surprised hewas assigned a job this close to the Priory. After the last job he sworeMagister Stonescribe would have him banished to the furthest known reaches ofthe Maguuma, but it seemed he’d just have to accompany one particular scholaron a series of assignments. The liongaurd studied the papers and then let himpass and Thales gladly stepped out from under the buzzing waypoint.

                The Haven was fairly small but well stockedand teeming with humans. They gave him the same look he’d expect, a bit ofshock a bit of suspicion. Some passed him over with the same looks he got inthe Black Citadel, ones expected when you walked through when you were flashilydressed and “shaman-stanced.”  A nearbywoman in blazing red armor, pauldrons carved into flames and an intricate ironstaff at her back, stopped chatting with a woman next to an ox loaded with kegsof alcohol.

“Another Priory scholar camethrough here recently,” she said coolly. “A sylvari, though I believed theywandered outside the haven to try to see if they could spot any portals.”

               Thalesgrinned, trying his best to be as least fang-y as possible in this gesture, “Whythank you, Priestess.” She raised her brow in surprise, didn’t think a charrwould spot that would she. “Didn’t think a cleric of Balthazar would be so farout in these parts.”

               Shesmirked at him “’These parts’ have seen their fair share of battle and housesoldiers. And I tend and inspire them as I serve the Revealer of Strength. Didyou require a blessing for your task?”

               “Oh, Idon’t want to interfere too much with your duties ‘mam though I hope Balthazarpermits me to return safe and warm.” And with that he bowed to her and set offto the entrance to the haven. Oh Thales, you clever charmer you.

               Thesylvari had indeed wandered outside the walls and was peering out into thegloom of the swamp where small faint green glows pulsed in the far distance behinda tangle of trees. Though when they spun to face Thales he wondered if theycould see anything at all. Pale white foliage spilled into their face, even totheir best attempt to pull it into some kind of bun. A face that looked like anoak tree attacked by a devourer, Thales thought. Their Priory uniform was almostdrape-like and unkempt a stark contrast to Thales’ own dapper direction. Theygrinned and offered an equally gnarled and almost claw-like hand to the charr.

               “Sosorry,” they said breathlessly, “but I had to see this immediately. Fascinatingisn’t it? Portals to the fabled Underworld continuing to appear even after thetemple dedicated to reach it lies sunken. Even specters of the dead themselvesare said to appear here.”

               Well.Not his personal enthusiasm but at least this scholar didn’t sound pompous orhalf-asleep. “We wouldn’t be going too close to one of those portals would we?I think we’d need more arcanists for that. Not that I’m not excellent atdefending others.”

               “Oh! Noapologies if I made you think that. We only need to take some readings a shortdistance from the haven. Nothing otherworldly should bother us from there.”

The two had walked a short distancejust out of sight of the haven found a relatively dry spot off the boardwalk toset equipment down and begin recording. Relatively dry. Thales could feel themoisture trying to worm its way into the soles of his already soaked shoes andhe took extra care not to let his tail brush the boggy ground. The air was rankwith the smell of peat and slowly rotting vegetation and rattled with thechorus of various frogs and insects. With a cautious flip of a switch, the softbuzz of the scanner joined the clamor. Aisteach flashed a relived smile beforeholding it an arm’s length away, as if it were to catch fire at any moment.

               “Ididn’t think it actually would- well I usually have problems with machinesbut-” they stammered, pulling it a bit closer to check the monitor. “Thales?You have that pen and paper.”

               “Yup!”Thales slightly waved them in the air.

               “Oh.Good, good this thing should store readings but malfunctions tend to happenwhen I’m operating things. The paper should have a water-repellant enchantmenton it as per standards but… I have equal luck with enchantments so…”

“That thing take geographiccoordinates as well concentration and all that other energy level stuff?”

               “Oh?Yes right sorry let me just find the- here they are!” The sylvari read out thecoordinates before immediately rattling off all the other readings.

               It wasonly after a few minutes when the first oddity happened. “Hey- Aisteach? Is itusual for it to spike so suddenly?”

               “Hmm?”Aisteach looked back at Thales, nervousness creeping into their gnarled face.“Oh, the readings…?”

               “Justjumped like a startled hylek, does that happen often, or is it mechanicalfailure, or…” Thales trailed off when he noticed Aisteach was staring behindhim, eyes wide with fear “Is there-”

               Asudden force slammed into his back and the pen and paper flew out of his handsas he landed muzzle-first into the swamp. Something had pounced on him, and was still on his back, clawing and thrashing.He desperately fumbled for his daggers and winced as he felt his shirt rip andblood drawn.

Aisteach had dropped the scanner inthe mud and was trying to wrench whatever had attacked Thales off. “Sorry!Sorry sorry by the tree,” they gasped as they pulled at Thales’ assailant andtried to dodge what from Thales’ vantage point looked like a tail.  “I didn’t think one would- I didn’t think wewere close enough to-”

Thales didn’t pay attention to therest of it. The scholar’s attempt to pull his attacker off had provided avaluable distraction and Thales had managed to pull out one of his daggers- andone magical focus was good enough. He thrust the dagger downwards and with someexertion managed to manifest an updraft strong enough summersault him upwardsand knock his attacker backwards. And Aisteach, caught off guard, into the mud.

Thales regained his footing in thesoft ground, feeling his boots sink into the mud a bit. With a mental groan herealized the entire front half of his clothes were probably soiled thanks towhatever aggressive swamp beast had leaped at him- probably some shelk, but hecould handle an aggressive amphibian now that he could face it.

And when he did face it he quicklyrealized it was no shelk. Same posture, but more humanoid and it looked as ifit was cut from the darkest part of the night sky, all stars removed save themost malevolent looking ones. It hissed and seemed to gesture at the charr andThales’ joints began to ache. Aisteach dove in front and began to mutter acounter spell as Thales’ mind began to race. Raven shit, did lightning evenwork against malevolent spirits?

He didn’t need to find out.Something roared out of the deeper ends of the swamp and thundered into thespirit like a charging marmox, spraying murky swamp water over the sylvari andcharr. When the mist cleared, Thales’ fear only rose.

Whatever had lept out of the water washuge, chitinous, and certainly in no encyclopedia or dichotomous key publishedin Tyria. It grappled with the spirit, spearing it with one of its too-longclaws and letting out a guttural, chattering noise that mocked the sound oflaughter. Then in an instant it was over, horned head reaching down and tearingoff shadow from a limp, dissipating figure.

Did it notice him? Shit, shit,maybe if he propelled himself away using the right cantrip- shit no it wasstaring at him now, all exposed grin-teeth and asymmetrical eyes that glitteredin the gloom of the swamp. Shit it was moving towards him, large front fangstwitching like pedipalps of a spider. Shit it was making that laughing soundagain. Shit- was it wearing one of those loincloths flame legion shaman weresaid to wear?

It looked at him before swallowingthe spirit-shadow-stuff like a drake scarfing down a pig. “Sickly scared shamanis all you have? Only flame to worship here is buried under wet, strange.” Itsvoice was low, guttural and seemed to emanate from the swamp itself. “Crumblesunder a weak languishing specter. Would shatter under a fissure-born and isthat all they send with you?”

“Sluagh,” Aisteach said slowly andpointedly “I said I would be fine here with only Priory accompaniment. And thatstartling other like that is terrible.” Wait, Dwyana’s tits did the scholaractually know this thing? This wasn’t covered in any point in the jobdescription. “Arcanist will accompany scholar and surprise towering demonic acquaintance”would be something you’d want to know beforehand. Did the Priory even know? Asif to confirm this whole bewildering situation, Aistech turned to Thales, “I’mreally sorry about this.”

“Swamp. Always in a swamp death anddanger crawls and claws at you. Always in a swamp, you insist it isn’t there.” It snorted at the sylvari.“Baffling creation.” It quickly snapped its focus back on Thales and the charrdid his best to let his whimper go unheard. “To do with this one? Your scribeswould question and probe, perilous situation.”

“Sluagh!” Aisteach hissed “Youshould have thought of that before charging out and startling him. I’m sorryabout all this Thales, I’m so sorry.” Blazing balls of Balthazar, the sylvariwas treating this thing like an unruly guest at a banquet who spilled some winein his lap. Did they have some secret fleshreaver pen pal or swap recipes withimps too?

“Nope. Nope that’s fine.” What was he doing. Whatin the Realm of Torment was he doing. Adrenaline and nerves had taken over andplans were spinning in his head- how quick could he get to the haven if talkingfailed him? “Nobody really has to know, not that they would believe really. Hah.I’m known for exaggerating things way too much.” Ok so it was more like his abilityto do cool stunts and back flips without breaking things that were exaggeratedinstead of tales but this Sluagh thing didn’t have to know that.

It made that guttural-chattering noiseagain. “Shaman fears being eaten but only interested in eating the fear.” Wasthat supposed to be reassuring? He wasn’t reassured that much but not beingeaten? That he would take. The thing was then suddenly pushed aside byAisteach, who started checking the cuts on Thales’ back. “The shaman leaks.”

“Thales, not a shaman an Arcanist”Aisteach hissed before muttering something that made the pain in his backsubside. “Apologies, they have gotten better though- no challenges to a fightor attempts to eat your equipment at least.” They gave a nervous laugh andThales wondered who the poor saps that had that tried on them were.

“So, um, the scanner.” Just changethe subject Thales, don’t think of the enormous crab beast that’s now staringat your hair like it’s some strange exotic moa sitting on your head. “Can itstill take readings?”

He heard a sigh from the sylvaribehind him. “It likely sustained water damage. I can’t see the paper anywhereeither.”

A jagged mess of claws shoved someof the shadow stuff into Thales’ face. “Aisteach and shaman lost a study. Couldstudy something else?”

“That’s thoughtful of you to offerus part of your meal, Sluagh,” Aisteach began.

Sluagh snorted, “the shaman-arcanistwas more filling.”

“But unfortunately is dissipatedquite a bit. Most Priory work needs samples from more intact specimens rightnow…”

The thing turned around and gaveanother guttural-laugh-noise. “Many of those. Plenty of diluted Underworldpests slithering, nothing so powerful or Woeful. Will return with many more.”It clicked its fangs before disappearing into the gloom.

It was going to find more of thosethings that attacked him. Wonderful. Thales stood dazed in the mud whileAisteach finished patching up his back.

“So.” Thales interrupted the relativesilence of the still chirping swamp. “You and that Sluagh hang out much?”

“They seem to enjoy accompanying meplaces. Especially if it has something they can fight, they’re getting betterat not leaping before deliberating on it. I think.” Thales’ mind went to thelist of all the other assignments he had with this scholar. “Odd they haven’tshown themselves to others much lately. Perhaps they like you?” Aisteach gave asmall smile while Thales gulped. “Certainly seemed interested in your hair, ordo you call it a mane?”

Excellent

Wonderful

He’d probably be running into thatthing again

Great