F&L: Chapter 50

The Malltreath Marsh on Anglesey was a section of low-lying, flat marshland in Southwestern Anglesey. It was a place of treacherous ground, sucking mud, and potential flooding. Furthermore, while the Muggle Sections of the Marsh were fairly bereft of predators, the Wizarding Section was not, and Dugbogs and Bundimuns were common in certain parts of the Marsh. That wasn't all, however, as the Deep Marsh was home to a small tribe of Marsh Trolls, which I would have to pass by in order to get to the geographic center of the marsh. It was there, in the Geographic Center of the Marsh, where a natural Lle Tenau, or Thin Place, lay.

Thin Places were areas where the barriers between the Human World and another Realm were thin to non-existent. So much so that if you weren't careful, you could wander into another reality altogether completely by accident. Such places were rare, exceedingly so in the modern era, and there were only a small few left. One of the reasons for the Atrocities committed by the Nazis, for example, was to create such Thin Places attuned to the Realms of the Dead that Grindelwald could use to create mass numbers of undead troops with. Those had all been found and closed by the ICW's Task Force at the end of Grindelwald's War, but there were other, naturally occurring Thin Places.

One such naturally-occurring thin place was in the Geographic Center of Malltreath Marsh, and instead of leading to the Realm of the Dead, as Grindelwald's Artificial Thin Places had, or the Spirit World, as you might expect from a place of wild nature, it led to Faerie. Rumor had it that if you got past the Marsh Trolls in the Deep Marsh, the Thin Place in the Geographic Center was guarded by a Greater Water Leaper. That was my destination. Of course, that wouldn't be the only danger, there. There were also the Alp Luachra, who were Mindless Fae, similar to the Water Leapers, who were constantly hungry.

Magnus Gamp had taught me about such fae. The Alp Luachra, or Joint-Halvers, were a cross between a lamprey and a worm. They would eat anything, plants, animals, it didn't matter. Of course, they never tended to get big enough to truly attempt to devour an adult wizard, and even getting to be a size to threaten a child wizard was rare. No, it was their habit of reproduction that made Joint-Halvers a threat. They laid eggs, but those eggs couldn't incubate outside of a body. What a Joint-Halver would do then was find a sleeping Witch, Wizard, Muggle, or Animal, and lay their eggs down the sleeping victim's throat. The eggs would travel to the Victim's stomach and then hatch into a slug-like Joint-Halver, typically less than an inch in length. That Joint-Halver would then act like a sort of Magical Tapeworm stealing nutrition from the meals eaten by its host, until it was large enough and mature enough to eat its way out of the Host's Body in a grisly spectacle.

Fortunately, there were ways to de-infest a Wizard suffering from Joint-Halver infestations. They typically required a week-long regimen of foul-tasting, foul-smelling potions, at the end of which, the Wizard would throw up the shriveled husk of a Joint-Halver Larvae. It was all extremely disgusting, but thankfully, I had no plans to stay in the Marsh overnight. If everything went according to plan, I would be in and out within a twenty-four-hour period with no need for De-Infestation Potions.

When the time came, a couple of days after meeting with Lord Greengrass, I threw on my Reinforced, Tebo-Hide, Duster, grabbed my Mokeskin Pouch, filled it with various things that I might need for the quest, and headed for my Floo. As I passed Lucia, who was dusting some furniture in the Parlor, I nodded at her.

"Signore is off to the Marsh, then?" Questioned Lucia.

"I am. I should be back by tomorrow." I agreed.

"And if Signore is not? What will Lucia do then?" Queried Lucia.

"Contact Daphne at Greengrass Manor. If I'm not back by tomorrow evening, she'll think of something." I advised.

"Very well, Signore. Lucia wishes Signore would not go, though." Frowned Lucia.

"I have to Lucia." I insisted.

"But why, Signore? Surely Signore's protected enough already?" Asked Lucia.

"Because things are coming, Lucia. Terrible things. I want to be ready for them when they arrive." I intoned.

"Very well, Signore. Lucia wishes Signore luck and will keep the Manor in order until Signore returns." Agreed Lucia.

And with that, I turned to the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of floor powder from the silver dish on the mantelpiece, and threw it into the flames. The flames took on a greenish tinge to them, signifying they were ready for instructions.

"The Druid's Staff, Stonecircle, Anglesey." I intoned.

The green flames flared up, and I stepped on through, depositing myself in the side room of a quaint country pub, exiting out into the Common Room. A few Wizards were eating their Lunch at various tables, while the bartender, a white-bearded Wizard with a vest, glasses, and oddly wide-brimmed hat, stood behind the bar mixing drinks. He bore a cloakpin on his vest that seemed to shimmer with the subtle hints of enchantment, though it would take some time for me to figure out what exactly it did, though judging from the Ogham Runes, it was some sort of enhancement to his fortitude and constitution. Perhaps something so that no matter how much he drank, he could not get drunk? I knew Aberforth Dumbledore over at the Hogshead Inn had an issue with drinking alongside his patrons, for example.

"Afternoon! Welcome to the Druid's Staff, I'm Llewellyn Rosier, Owner of this fine establishment. Can I get you anything to drink, Lad? Or are you just passing through?" Questioned the Bartender.

"Rosier? Any relation to the Rosier Family?" I queried.

"Aye, and a pity that is. About the only one I keep in touch with is my great-nephew, Felix. He was always a sharp lad, do you know he's a Dragonologist now? Not like my Brother and the rest of his lot, always grasping for more power." Spat the Bartender, Llewellyn Rosier.

"Touchy subject then?" I asked.

"Aye, and I'll thank you for a change of subject." Nodded Llewellyn Rosier.

"Unfortunately, I'm just passing through, though if you've got some Goblin Juice in stock, I wouldn't mind a pick me up." I opined.

"Aye. That Cola the Goblins make'll have you right as rain if you feel like you're dragging. That'll be a sickle for the can." Agreed Llewellyn Rosier, pulling a can of the fizzy, Goblin-made Cola from a chiller beneath the bar and sliding it over. I handed him a Galleon in exchange, which the cocked eyebrow indicated he hadn't been expecting.

"Keep the change." I offered.

"Not that I'll turn down the Gold, Lad, but I distinctly remember saying the can was only a sickle. What's the rest of the Galleon for?" Questioned Llewellyn Rosier.

"By way of an apology for the question about your family earlier." I answered, cracking open the can and taking a long pull of the fizzy, sweet, caffeine-filled cola.

"You're a good lad. Anything else I can get you?" Queried Llewellyn Rosier.

"Just directions to the Marsh." I responded.

"Now what's a young lad like yourself want to go gallivanting off into the Marshes for? It's dangerous out there, you know." Asked Llewellyn Rosier.

"I'm hunting." I remarked.

"Aye? Hunting what?" Questioned Llewellyn Rosier.

"Greater Water Leapers." I intoned.

"That's a bit tougher prey for a lad like yourself, isn't it?" Queried Llewellyn Rosier.

"It might be, but then, I've prepared for the hunt while it doesn't know I'm coming." I shrugged.

"Aye, but there's more than just Water Leapers in the Marshes, Lad." Warned Llewellyn Rosier.

"I know about the Marsh Trolls, Dugbogs, Joint-Halvers, and so on. I can handle it." I insisted.

"Are you sure about that, Lad? Lots of folks found the Marshes can surprise them, even folks who've experience with this sort of thing." Pressed Llewellyn Rosier.

"I'm sure. Look, are you gonna help me out or not?" I asked.

"All right, Lad. If you think you can handle it. Head out and pass through the houses heading east. You'll see the standing stones at the edge of town before you leave the village, and those will tell you you're headed into the marsh." Offered Llewellyn Rosier.

"Thank you." I nodded.

"Aye. If you survive your trip, remember to come back here. I've got a few house specials guaranteed to help out with any problems that might be lingering." Informed Llewellyn Rosier.

"I'll keep that in mind." I agreed.

Then I headed out of the Druid's Staff and into Stonecircle Proper. The Village itself was small, mainly filled with drystone and timber buildings. There was a general store which sold all sorts of goods from potions ingredients to household items, the Druid's Staff Pub, and the residential houses. All told, I was betting the place only had a couple hundred people living here. That was par for the course for Wizarding Settlements. They tended to be either densely populated hidden districts inside much larger Muggle Cities or small rural communities of a few hundred to a thousand people, respectively. The only pure-wizarding settlement that was bigger than ten thousand people was Hogsmeade, at twenty thousand people. That was largely because it could piggyback off the conflux of leylines that Hogwarts used to power its wards in order to power the Town's own Muggle-Repelling Wards.

Honestly, the Wizarding Population wasn't the largest. Roughly one out of every one hundred people in Britain and Ireland was a Wizard or Squib. It was one of the reasons that Voldemort's Plan could never work. We were so outnumbered it wasn't even funny, and the Purebloods that Voldemort envisioned as leading his new Wizarding Britain were even more outnumbered. Sure, one wizard, properly prepared, could handle a dozen muggles at a time, but not a hundred, and that was before you factored in that some of the population were squibs, untrained children, or muggleborns that would rather side with the muggles than continue to be oppressed by Death Eaters.

Regardless, I made my way through the village of Stonecircle in the direction that I had been told to head, and eventually came upon the Standing Stones. These Menhirs had once been a major druidic ritual site for Anglesey but had long since fallen into disuse. Honestly, I would be surprised if the Druids had even still been using these stones by the time of the ultimate breaking of their power in the seventh century. Some of them had tumbled into the marsh, while the others were worn by the elements and time to the point where the Ogham Runes that had once adorned them had largely worn away, leaving no trace of whatever enchantments they had borne or ritual instructions they might have given.

As I looked out over the marsh, I steeled myself for the journey ahead. I knew that I should be heading into the section of marsh where trees were growing in gnarled clumps in the distance, an oddity for such a flat marsh, made possible by the energies of Faerie leaking out of the thin place. I'd eventually find Toadstone Castle, a ruined fortress that had been built in eleven hundred to guard the Thin Place by the Welsh in the hopes that incursions from Faerie wouldn't stab them in the back while they were busy trying to defend themselves from incursions by the English under the Normans. Toadstone Castle had been abandoned less than a hundred years later, but it still marked the site where the Deep Marsh gave way to the Thin Place. If a Greater Water Leaper was lairing anywhere near the Thin Place, it would be in the ruins of Toadstone Castle.

Plan set, I headed off into the marsh. It wouldn't be very long before I was accosted by the local wildlife, a pair of Bundimuns trying to sneak up on me as I traveled along one of the relatively few stretches of dry ground. They'd oozed up onto the dry ground from out of the Marsh, quietly as they could, trying to sneak up behind me to attack. However, it was those same predatory instincts that had alerted me to their presence, as the ill intent carried through thanks to my Empathic abilities. The Mind Arts once again proved that sometimes, having a talent for their less flashy magic was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

I immediately whirled about and spotted them, still a few meters away from me. A flick of my wrist had my wand leap into my grasp from the spring-loaded holster at my wrist, and I immediately began casting. The Scourgify Spells that leaped from my wand slammed into both sentient patches of predatory mold, scouring the rocks of the stretch of dry ground clean and slaying the two Bundimuns. With a smirk, my wand went back into the spring-loaded wrist holster, and I continued on my way through the marsh.

Unfortunately, the Bundimuns would not be my only encounter with Marsh Denizens as the hours passed. I would avoid running into any Dugbogs as I made my way through the Marsh, though obviously, I wondered why that was. It wasn't until I was about to enter the deep marsh at around four in the afternoon that I spotted the cause. It had brownish, leathery, magic-resistant skin, was of a large stature, with a powerful build. A kilt of moss and woven reeds protected its modesty, while in one hand, a gnarled, log-like branch shone with the shiny, blackened signs of fire-hardening. The Neanderthal-like face was covered in a mossy beard, and its hair was similarly coated in moss.

A Marsh Troll was staring right at me from a clump of gnarled trees on the edges of the Deep Marsh, almost like it was standing sentry. And where there was one sentry, there would be others. As I thought that, a second Marsh Troll, garbed like the first, though his club was made of some kind of bone, ambled out of the Treeline to join his fellow sentry. Both of them locked eyes with me, and I knew that they were deciding, in their primitive way, whether or not to raise the alarm or attempt to drive me away themselves. I took the moment of reprieve to pull potions out of my Mokeskin Pouch and begin downing them in anticipation of a fight.

On seeing this, that seemed to make up the primitive creatures' minds for them. They raised their clubs into the air threateningly, before bellowing out a challenge. A flick of my wrist had my wand in the palm of my hand, which seemed to be the sign the Marsh Trolls needed to stop posturing and begin to rush toward me. I set myself into a stance, preparing to fight.

And the first real battle I would have in the Malltraeth Marsh commenced in earnest. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next part. We get part one of Blaise's Marsh adventure here. The Malltreath Marsh isn't exactly the sort of place that most Wizards would frequent if they didn't think they had to. I'm putting the Marsh Adventure on a similar level, danger-wise, to the Underground Rooms and Tests from Sorcerer's Stone. And these two Marsh Trolls and Bundimun Ambushes are just the beginning. After all, there's a whole tribe of Marsh Trolls in the Deep Marshes, and that's before you get into the Fae Stuff.

At any rate, the next chapter will include the battle with the Marsh Troll Sentries. I'll also have a bunch of images out before then as well, since there were a lot of new things shown or mentioned in this chapter.

Stay tuned. . .