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Bdubs stands within the small wooden boat on the green waters of the swamp, paddle in hand. Without bending, it takes him much more energy to traverse the rivers compared to his waterbending friends. Still, he enjoys the process of rowing along the winding water to fish up meals for himself and his village. Just himself and the chattering of insects and animals darting about around him.
Sometimes the spirits come out to play; memories from Bdubs’ past, present, and future. There’s one man in particular Bdubs has seen during his recent years. A masked man with a metal arm and red eye. Bdubs knows he’s a spirit that he has yet to meet because the man will turn away from him and walk away into the surrounding fog. He never chases after the man, but he knows that one day the man will be real.
Bdubs hums to himself as he rows along the algae infested waters. The sloshing of water against the paddle combined with the singing of birds and the bubbling of underwater spirits fill the air around him. The sun peeks through thick leaves and branches, poking small beams of light along the raft and glimmering on the water.
Swishing under the hazy stream, Bdubs notices a frogfish darting about. He quickly reaches for the net resting behind him and leans over the boat, keeping an eye out for the cunning aquatic creature. It zooms by again; Bdubs tosses the net wide and quickly reels it in, but no frogfish lies within. Bdubs grumbles under his breath.
The frogfish leaps out of the water again and lands on the boat in front of him, letting out a loud ribbit. Bdubs narrows his eyes and tosses the net out again. The frogfish jumps back into the water with a splash. Another Bdubs grumble. Once more, the frogfish springs out of the water and lands on the bow of the boat. Bdubs narrows his eyes as the frogfish blinks. They engage in a staring contest, Bdubs with the net made of rope in both hands and the frogfish watching him with void eyes.
Bdubs squats down and amps up to wrap the net around his lunch, but just as he rushes forward, the frogfish leaps and smacks him in the face, sending him falling backwards off the boat and into the water with a loud splash. The boat capsizes and begins slowly floating downstream.
Stupid fish , Bdubs grumbles to himself.
When Bdubs rises to the surface, he looks around, muttering angrily under his breath. The frogfish is nowhere in sight until, suddenly, a loud ribbit sounds above him. Bdubs glances up to see the frogfish sitting on top of his head. With lightning speed, he clumsily scrambles to grab onto it, but it springs off of his head and back into the water, swimming merrily away.
As Bdubs glares at the escaping frogfish, he grabs onto the bottom of his boat, which is now the top of his boat, and pulls himself to his feet. With a sigh, he groans and carefully flips it over, pushing it to the shore. Despite having everything tied down now that this is the fourth time this has happened, it’s time to make sure he hasn’t lost anything of importance.
Just as Bdubs drags the bow of the boat onto the mud, sloshing sounds behind him. He whirls around and sees the man from his visions. Except… he doesn’t have a metal arm. In fact, where his left arm should be, there’s nothing. A bloody bandage is wrapped around his shoulder and he stumbles as he trudges through the swamp. Is this- Is this real?
Bdubs steps closer and calls out, “Hello? Are you okay?”
The man unsteadily glances in Bdubs’ direction, but his eyes are unfocused. It’s more like he stares through Bdubs rather than at him. Bdubs waves, but the man turns and continues to stumble further into the swamps. Is this another vision? No, he seems more solid and something tells Bdubs that this is a real person who really needs his help, so he trudges through the mud and moss towards the masked man.
As Bdubs gets closer, he calls out, “Hey! Where are ya going?”
The man mutters under his breath and wanders aimlessly. When Bdubs falls in step beside him, he gets a better look at the man. The bloody bandage wraps around his chest and peeks through the top of his torn black shirt and muddy green jacket. A black mask coated in dried blood and crusty mud covers the lower half of his face. Bdubs can see a tiny flash of freshly burned skin poking up the man’s cheek. One of the man’s eyes is black, dull, and unfocused like he’s living in a world separate to this one. But the other eye is probably the most disturbing thing Bdubs has seen so far; there’s nothing. It’s an open hole. No eyeball lies within and a brilliant red scar has slashed from above his eyebrow down under the mask.
“Goodness,” Bdubs mumbles. “What happened to you?” He knows he won’t get an answer, but maybe he can get the man back to his village for the Healers to look at him. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but can you come with me?”
He gently places a hand on the man’s shoulder and the man lets out a gasp, stumbling back a few steps, but he doesn’t run away. It’s more like he was surprised than fearful.
Bdubs smiles like he would when calming a frightened child. “It’s okay. It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. If you come with me, I can get you all healed up.”
He holds a hand out, but the man doesn’t even look at it. He does, however, stare into Bdubs’ larger-than-average eyes. Rather than the massive, face-consuming grin he tends to don, Bdubs keeps the small smile present in an effort to comfort the strange injured man. The man simply stares at Bdubs; no words are spoken, no movement is taken, he just stares.
Bdubs slowly moves to stand beside the man and wraps an arm around his back, cautiously guiding him towards the boat. The man continues muttering under his breath, but Bdubs only manages to hear a handful of words.
“Fire. Fire bad. Dandelions. Dark. Fire. Bad.”
The man doesn’t fight when Bdubs gently helps settle him onto the seat of the boat. His mind is definitely not present. What did he go through before ending up in the swamps? How did he end up in the swamps? No one comes here due to the spirits. If you don’t understand the spirits and their purposes here, they can appear dangerous or even evil. Just based on the man’s clothes, he’s definitely not from here, so where could he be from?
Bdubs pushes the boat back onto the waters and steps inside, grasping the paddle and pushing them along the river back in the direction of his village. The man stares to the sides of the boat, mumbling random words under his breath.
“What’s your name?” Bdubs asks, not really expecting to get an answer.
The man’s unfocused eye locks on Bdubs and he says one word, “Dandelions.” Then, he looks away and goes back to muttering.
The only things that can be heard for the rest of their boat ride home are the chirping of cicadas, splashing of fish, swishing of Bdubs’ paddle, and incoherent mutterings of the man. When Bdubs reaches the docks of his village, he carefully helps the man out of the boat and guides him through the muddy paths to the Healers’ hut. All of the people they walk past watch them curiously. No one from beyond the swamps ever comes here so an outsider is quite a special thing, especially one as strange as the man.
When Bdubs hands the man off to the Healers, he makes a step towards the exit of the hut but the man’s hand flies out with alarming speed and grips Bdubs’ arm. He doesn’t say any words, but the man’s eye begs for Bdubs to stay. So, he does.
It’s too late to do anything about most of the man’s injuries. The arm and eye are clearly long gone and the scar from his eyebrow to cheek is too healed to do anything about. The Healers are able to get the horrific burn which took part of the man’s lips and cheek to a state of calm. Finally, the cuts along his chest and arm are healed fully.
Because the traumatised man has formed a bond with Bdubs, it’s decided that Bdubs will help care for the man for the time being with help from the leaders of their village. This is the first time anything like this has happened before, but they will not send this man out to survive in the swamps on his own.