The Rescue in the Channel

[Billie Bonce]

I am not frequent to this part of QSF and I never posted anything here. I always stated that English is not my first language (nor the second as well), and my command of English is not sufficient to produce a story enjoyable for English-speaking readers.

All this remains true, but I dare to show you my humble attempt in writing. I posted it at DeviantART and got positive responses from several people. I hope some of you can enjoy this. You who are more demanding to the style, grammar, vocabulary, and everything, please forgive me. I didn't mean to offend you.

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The Rescue in the Channel
By Billie Bonce
Based on a random fantasy setting

That day the weather was calm, though the sun was hiding behind the clouds. I was walking towards the harbor with no particular plans. I love seaports. Noise, hubbub, big ships, sailors, hookers, pirates, smugglers, all nations and races are mixed up. Humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs. It's the environment which I can handle easily, unlike small quiet towns rotting of laziness, lies, and hypocrisy. Unfortunately, my planned short stay in this seaport turned to be futile. The appointment was canceled by my customer, what actually meant that I would have no commission which I expected to have, what in turn meant that I had to think about getting another one. I still had some money from my previous successful deals, so it was the perfect time to think about strategy, choices, and prospects, along with some sightseeing. Light wind and leisurely thoughts almost brought me into a state of daydreaming, that was abruptly interrupted by desperate screams coming from the riverside. A large crowd of gazers assembled on the embankment indicated that something was happening in the channel.

I quickly approached the parapet and looked down. It was a relatively narrow channel, one of many channels in the estuary that led to the large harbor. High embankments were on the both shores of the channel. And somebody was sinking in the muddy water of the channel. It was a woman, and not an ordinary one. She belonged to a race that rarely could be seen in those lands of southern hemisphere. She was a drow, a dark-skinned elf with almost white colorless hair. Most of the drows for thousands years lived in dark caves, in their scary and mysterious underworld. They were surrounded by legends, myths, rumors. And they had bad, very bad reputation. In their matriarchal society men were “househusbands” while women were warriors, mages, governors. They were known as skilled and cruel warriors, they were known for human sacrifices to their blood-thirsty gods (mainly goddesses), they were known as treacherous backstabbers. Not to mention their scary magic and perfect night vision. Though, there were rumors that all that was true only in their dark underworld.

I have to admit I had had thoughts about drow women before. I had seen several drow slaves on slave markets, I had even considered buying one, but had failed to negotiate an appropriate price. I had seen a drow concubine in a house of one of my customers. I had seen a drow bodyguard of a shady dealer in one of the seaports. I had seen a command of drow warriors drinking beer in a tavern. And I really was interested how they were dealing with the bright sunlight, winds, rains, not to speak about thunderstorms and blizzards. I was pretty sure that they must have problems with all those phenomenons that they never had in their usual environment. Thus that day I witnessed what I expected to see. I always supposed that drows can't swim, and I got an experimental proof of it. This woman definitely could not swim. She was awkwardly floundering in the muddy water and hysterically screaming. Poor thing was pleading to save her life, to get her out of there.
But nobody was making any attempt to help her. Why? Maybe, the reputation of the drows worked against her? Maybe a human or a usual paleface elf could expect to get more care from the public? Or maybe it was just a habit of the public, the large part of which were goblins? I hate those filthy creatures, half-people, half-animals. Thieves, beggars, hobos, they could be very dangerous when they assembled in large groups. And there they were, assembled in a large group, loudly giggling and making rude comments about the perishing woman.

In general, one should not intervene into any action in any foreign town, whatever it would be – a fight, a robbery, or an accident like what I witnessed. I knew this general rule very well and I always followed it – what you can easily conclude from a mere fact that being an adventurer with some money, some knowledge, some skills, but having no reinforcement like powerful friends or security guards, I am still alive and telling you this story. I can speculate now of what determined my further actions that day. The basic instinct to protect a woman? Hardly. A desire to rescue a drow woman and to get to know her closer? Might be. Just a random action to do something against the filthy goblins? Possible. Actually, I don't know it. I rarely do anything without clear plan. Even more rarely I do things without getting the full understanding of the situation. In some situations, like in a fight, I must rely on my reflexes, and I do, but I try to avoid such situations.

That day I violated all these rules. Without any thinking, without any hesitation, and as I learned afterward without even approximate understanding of the situation, I took off my boots and my jacket, gave them together with my bag to a dwarf standing near the parapet, and jumped down. I actually seriously risked – all my travel belongings were in the bag. But my experience told me that dwarfs may be shady traders, smugglers, slavers, but hardly thieves. And if a dwarf had no time to refuse while taking my bag, he should probably keep it safe. At least I hoped so.

Just before I jumped down I heard a goblin voice announcing, “Oh look, an idiot rescuer!” – “An idiot would-be rescuer,” answered another goblin voice, and all the crowd laughed. That was the moment when I made my leap. During my flight down – and not before it – I suddenly realized that the muddy water hid the bottom from my sight and I had no idea what awaited me there. Sharp metal pieces, broken glass, anything could be there. Did I make a big mistake by taking off my boots? The instant terror, the rush of adrenaline mobilized me, and in a split second, as soon as my feet plunged into the muddy water, I got an advantage of it. Because in fact there were no sharp things there. There was something different, no less dangerous, and completely changing the situation. As I discovered with my bare feet, there was a very shallow muddy water and deep clinging mud under it.

It explained a lot. The drow was not sinking in water – she was struggling in the mud. That's why her movements were so awkward. My conclusion that she could not swim proved to be premature. If she was stuck in the mud she could not demonstrate her swimming skills anyway. I also realized why nobody was trying to rescue her – there were not many people who would dare to wade into a deep tidal mud without a proper equipment. In some advanced kingdoms they established special rescue services to save people from tidal mud, but this kingdom definitely was not one of those. I could bet this crowd of ragamuffins had seen quite a few ignorant foreigners stranded in this mud, and I was sure not all of those hapless souls had been saved. But even if this drow got in trouble because of own stupidity, laughing at her misfortune was disgusting – the poor woman certainly was in a death danger, and her hysterics was totally understandable.

Though, the crowd already got another subject to laugh at – me. I was very close to becoming another victim. Two things actually saved me. The first one was my unthoughtful taking off my boots. The boots tend to get stuck in mud so fast that there is no chance to budge them, and they can hold feet with a death grip. My bare feet should be a lesser problem. And the second one was the mocking coming from a goblin. “Idiot would-be rescuer” actually woke me up and activated my reflexes. Without such activation I would plunge deep into the mud. But as soon as I sensed the softness of the bottom I bended my knees and landed on my butt. My legs got stuck in the mud, but not too deep. Actually, there was a third thing that helped me. My experience. I had had some experience in extricating myself and other people from bogs, deep mud, and even quicksand.

The hapless drow ceased her screaming and looked at me with a hope. And what a beautiful eyes she had! Many people believe that red eyes of drows are scary, blood-filled, demonic, and some even describe them as hideous. But I can assert that those eyes were amazing. They were not simply red, they were crimson. And those beautiful eyes were filled with terror. At least, the mere fact that somebody was coming to help her significantly calmed the woman down. She stretched her hands towards me and whispered one word, “please”. Now as I could get a better look at her I could say that she was young and beautiful. Or, at least, she certainly was beautiful and looked very young.

It is always hard to tell the age of an elf. They are aging so slowly! It is easy with humans – till 13 they are kids, then they become adolescents. Teenagers. The age of doing stupid things and ignoring good advices. The laws are different in different kingdoms, but almost everywhere after human teenagers turn 18 they become legally adult. From 18 to maybe 30 they are young and developing, from 30 to maybe 45 they are mature, and then they become aging. After 60 they are old. Of course, the exact numbers depend on the lifestyle and food, and it in turn depends on the region and on the particular kingdom, and which race dominates there. But in average it is what I said. It's much more puzzling with the elves. They are kids till 25, they become adult in about 40, and then they virtually stop changing. In 60, and in 160, and in 260, and who knows how many years after that they look almost the same. If you see an adult elf woman with her mother and her grandmother you probably can distinguish who is who, yet not in all cases. But when you see just one elf woman you can easily mistake her age by one, two, three hundred years. Sometimes it is not funny. You think that she is a young girl, and she already has grand-grandchildren.

Well, to be honest, those who have a mixed ancestry, like myself, are even more puzzling than the elves. One can never know which blood would overcome. And it can change unpredictably during life. What means, it is not possible to determine age of half-breeds, and it is impossible to even predict how long they would live. I could say it about myself for sure – I was growing like a human in a human town when a kid, but I still look young and feel myself young, unlike many of my childhood friends who look pretty old already. Of course, hard working and heavy drinking might greatly contribute to this effect, but I know for sure that I have a big part of elven blood in my veins, and I am proud of it. But well, I have a share of orc blood as well.

Oh, sorry, maybe you find this consideration distracting and want me to return to telling the story? I understand, but believe me – while I was looking at the desperate drow and was struggling to get my legs out of the clinging mud I was thinking exactly about that. How old she was? Was I going to rescue a girl or a grandmother? It actually had little significance at that particular moment, it was too late to change my intentions, and I was going to rescue her anyway, but I had to determine the proper way of my behavior.

“Oh girl, what have you got herself into?” I asked a rhetorical question. She definitely had nothing against me calling her a girl, and it was a good sign.

“I don't know,” she answered with trembling voice. “I walked on what seemed a solid ground with just some mud, but then my feet got stuck in this mud and I could not pull them out. And the more I struggled to get out, the deeper it sucked me in. It holds me like… like… I don't know, maybe it is some kind of magic?”
She was wheezing after her desperate screams, and her voice could not tell me much about her age.

“No, there is no magic. It's normal tidal mud or quicksand. Sand, silt, water, all mixed together and agitated by the tide or by your steps.”

“But how can it be normal? My legs are going into it and not going back. How can some mindless mud act so purposely? Why would it want to kill me?”

“It is how it works. It is just physics, even if it seems weird. Had you ever heard about quicksand? It is a scary stuff, people beware it and avoid it.”

“No,” she whispered shaking her head. “And we had studied only the very simple basics of physics in the Academy. But you jumped in, so you know what to do? Would you get me out of here?”

“Yes, I know some tricks. Be calm and trust me. But those tricks may work or not. It would be better to have some tools, which I have not. I will get you out, of course, but it may take some time. And to begin with, I have to get out of it myself to reach you.”

“Are you stuck? Oh goddess, not that!”

“Just a moment, I can get out, it just takes some time!”

I used all my experience and all my strength to free my legs quickly. I succeeded. In a few moments I was near the drow and instantly checked how deep she was settled in the mud. The mud was covering her hips and butt. It was deep enough to ensure big problems with the extrication. Honestly, it hardly could be worse.

“Are you sitting in the mud or standing in it?” I asked quickly.

“Standing, of course. Why would I sit in it?”

I sighed. “It would prevent you from sinking deeper.”

“Really? I had no idea…”

It seemed inappropriate, but I could not refrain from the question that bothered me.

“How old are you? You look so young! Are you adult?”

“Why, of course I am! I am 50!” the girl answered with a slight irritation. Apparently, she had to answer this question often. “Humans are already old at that age,” she added proudly.

As if that had any meaning! Her 50 were similar to 19 in human equivalent, and I can assert that while the elves have much longer time to learn and to acquire life experience, in their 50s they not just look like humans in 18-20, they behave like teenagers as well. I mean, they often do stupid things. In some elven kingdoms they don't allow them to have children before they turn 100, and believe me, they have reasons! It is so strange – the elves are not dumb, they are smart, eager to study, eager to master new skills, yet they remain childish for so long.

“So how it happened that you got here? Why did you get an idea to wade into this muddy water?”

“But there was no water when I came here! I was standing on the embankment examining a map that I bought in a tavern nearby. And those hooligans – she pointed at the crowd of gazers watching us – pulled down my pants and ripped out my bag from my hands. They ran away, and I tried to follow them, but my pants were bounding my knees, so I nearly fell down. Not to mention my bare ass exposed, forgive me these details… I managed to keep the balance but I released the map and the wind threw it on the mud down here. After I pulled up my pants I realized that I would never get back my bag and anything that was in it. I just hoped to return the map, because I paid a lot of money for it. So I went down by that stairs over there – she pointed at the stone stairs in thirty meters from us – and while I was walking to the place where the map was lying I got stuck.”

“Wait, so there was no water here at that time?”

“No, it was just muddy ground. The water was in five meters from here. But the tide started to rise, so while I struggled to get out the water reached me, and I was freaked out because I looked at the embankment wall and I realized that the water would cover my head if I would stay here…”

So, she knew the danger. At least I had not be the one who had to explain it to her.

“How fast is it rising?”

“Pretty fast. I think from the moment when you jumped down to me and till now it climbed up another 5 centimeters… Or even more.”

My heart sank into my pants. All my experience told me that it was already too late. The rescue had to take more time than we had.

“Then we have no time to speak. Must act very quickly,” I said using all my willpower to keep composure. If only that action would do something…

“Okay, but you got out so quickly! I believe you'll get me out quickly, too. Right?”

I didn't said a word. I had to overcome my fear. If she was correct about the rate of the tide, we had no time. No time at all.

“Right?” she repeated anxiously. She sensed my fear, and it was not good.

“Right! No time to speak. Let's do it! Just one thing – if I accidentally touch you in a wrong place, or I accidentally offend you, or you just would not like me, I hope you are not going to take revenge? Nothing like fighting, or stabbing me with a dagger?”

“What? How? Why do you ask it? How could you even think such thing? Why did you think I can do it? Why? How can I assault somebody who is going to save my life?”

“Okay, I take it as no… Sorry, but people are different. And you drows are the best fighters.”

“Fighters, yes. But why everybody expects me to be a traitor? Even a backstabber? Why nobody ever trusts me? Why?”

“I didn't mean to insult you, I'm really sorry. People tend to beware the dark elves, nothing personal here.” I really didn't mean to insult her, and I had no time to bring my excuses as I should. “Now, lean on my shoulders and try to crawl on top of me. I would push you up as well! One-two-three-start!”

We struggled for some time. The girl was pressing on my shoulders and attempting to pull at her feet, I was pushing her upwards by her armpits. I was amazed how athletic she was. She struggled to free herself frantically, and I sensed real strength in her petite body. We got quite an audience. The crowd on the embankment could not see what is going on under the muddy water but they were describing their fantasies pretty loudly and explicitly. Fortunately, we both were able to pay no attention to it. We stopped for a short break. I examined the progress. To my horror I discovered that there was no progress at all. She was at the same depth, just below her waist, with her butt completely covered by mud.

“It works! But too slowly,” the girl said. I decided to not disappoint her – it was the matter of her survival. She was still leaning on my shoulders, and now she really was higher with respect to me than before. But it was not because she was getting out, it was because I was settling deeper in the mud.

“Let's try a more effective method,” I suggested, trying to hide my nervousness. “I guess you have some kind of footwear on your feet?”

“Yes, my boots,” she answered naively. “They are fastened tightly, so no worries, I won't lose them to this mud.”

“Do they have rigid soles?”

“Oh yes, they are quite reliable, I wore them to the mountains, and had no problems walking on the sharp stones. Good boots… Why do you ask?”

Oh that ignorance! What could I tell her? To explain her that she was going to lose her life thanks to her tightly fastened especially reliable boots? Everybody, at least everybody who dares to wade into the thick mud must know that boots with rigid soles get stuck in mud, they get stuck so fast that no reasonable force can pull them out! Of course, you can find a big troll who has enough strength to tear them out, but it is more likely that the trapped person would be torn in two in the process. It is no joke, I knew it from my experience, one should never try to use brute force against the tidal mud, or quicksand, or thick clay. But what could I tell to the poor drow? That she was doomed and nothing could save her? That I can't help her? I controlled myself and tried to be diplomatic.

“Your boots are anchoring your feet,” I said simply. “You have to loosen the mud to get your feet out. Now try to wiggle your legs, try hard, as hard as you can. The water will flow down between your skin and mud, and you will mix the mud with the water. It will make the mud softer. Without leaning on me you would sink deeper by doing this, you could even drown herself in the mud. But I will push you upwards, so you won't sink. Your objective is to make your feet to move. Are you ready?”

She nodded.

“One-two-three… Start!”

It was a frantic struggle. The crowd of onlookers cheered us from the embankment. The girl was rocking her hips, and the goblins were making saucy comments about what was happening under the muddy water according to their dirty imagination. The girl trusted me, and she put all her strength, all her powers into that struggle. The mud was wobbling around, and I was settling deeper and deeper. But she could not budge her feet. They were too deep, the water could not reach the soles of her boots, and the suction was too strong to break it.

“No, no, no! I can't! They refuse to move at all!” the girl suddenly exclaimed and became soft. “The water is covering my shoulders now. No way, I am not getting out… It is so stupid… And so unexpected… I am dying because the mud grabbed my feet and won't let go… I could never imagine that such thing is possible…”

“This is what the people call to be stuck in mud. It is not when just your feet sink in mud for an inch or two. It is when you pull with all the strength you have and can't budge your feet. It is when people pull you with all the strength they have and they can't get you out. It is when they try to dig you out and the mud just flows back, and you remain trapped…”

“So it seems, the people know this stuff and avoid it?”

“Yes. Actually, letting your feet to sink in tidal mud while you are wearing the boots is never a good idea.”

“I already got it. I had to abandon my attempts to become an adventurer before it became too late. I am too stupid, too ignorant for it. But I wanted so much to escape from my world, from my nightmares, I supposed that the wind and the sun would change me. But no, I didn't deserve my guilty freedom. I deserve that award, how they call it? The award for those who were such idiots that they killed themselves in the most stupid way and so they would not procreate? What was the name of that human scientist?”

“Darwin. Charles Darwin.”

“Aha, yes, Darwin! He must have been a terribly cynical man if he established such an award!”

“No, he had nothing to do with it. The award was invented by other people, many years after his death, and it never was an actual award, it was just a joke. They just used his name.”

“Well, then he became a victim. Now his name is connected with such a cruel thing. I feel it because now I know how to win this award. It is no fun, really…”

We were hugging each other and panting. We both knew that we were running out of time. The water was crawling higher and higher. The girl's hand slid down, she touched the mud and suddenly discovered the truth. Her reaction was quick and unexpected.

“Wait, I am still at the same depth in mud. Or even deeper now. That means, I am pushing you down. I am dragging you with me. No way! You should not sink with me! Get your hands off of me now! Get out, get away from this death trap! I got in it because I did not know that it was so dangerous. It was my ignorance, my stupidity, my fault. My and only my. Get off of me now!” She tried to push me away, but I kept holding tightly.

“I would not,” I said with determination. I had no idea why I made that decision. Normally, I was cynical and, well, let's call the things with their proper names, I had a consumer attitude towards women. But this joint struggle, our hugs, our close contact activated something hidden deep inside of me. I don't think it happened because she was a drow, I had seen and touched drow girls before, and I have seen and touched them after that. I even could say that I liked paleface elves more, especially sand elves with their tanned skin and cute freckles. But only this dark elf managed to penetrate through my defenses and to awaken feelings that I had forgotten since my youth. Maybe, the reason was in her loneliness – she was alone in a foreign land infested with hostile people of all races with no one of her kind to support her. I rushed to rescue her without thinking, I failed, and I was determined to stay with her till her last breath.

“I will stay with you. Hug me and relax,” I said.

“Why?” she asked, trustfully clinging to me without any hesitation. She needed me for her last minutes, and I was happy to help her at least with that.

“I don't know,” I answered sincerely. “I hope it will comfort you. It is some magic that nobody can't understand.”

“Magic… It can be!” she agreed readily. “I can feel your mana.”

“Are you sure?” I asked in surprise. “I was never supposed to possess any magic.”

“You have it. Too bad, I have no time to show you how to use it.”

“How do you know it? Are you a mage?”

“I was trained to be a priestess, specialized in healing. We had priestesses of war, who had to kill, and others, who had to heal the wounds. It was working well in the underworld. But on the surface everything was more complicated. Many of us failed after a real battle, and I was one of them. Several our girls died of wounds, literally on my hands, and I was not able to heal them. One of them was my good friend. After that they decided to decommission me to a mere infantrywoman, so they ordered to seal my aura… But the priestess who had to do it failed as well, so I kept my ability to use some magic. I was too hysterical after the death of our girls in which I blamed myself, so they left me in a post hospital with those who were sick. The rest of my command boarded a ship to attack a rebel colony on an island. And then… They said, the ship was overloaded. And the squall was unexpected and too strong. The ship capsized and they all… all my friends, all whom I studied with… All went to the bottom like stones in their heavy armor. Some could survive inside the hull, it stayed afloat for two days, but nobody was able to get out of there, and nobody put enough efforts to rescue them. I want to believe that they all died instantly, but I'm afraid it was not so… I see the nightmares how they were trapped in the hull alive, they were suffocating there, and sinking slowly as the water climbed higher and higher… Just like I am sinking now. So, well, it is justice. Just justice. I have to pay debt to my friends. I tried so hard to escape, to get lost somewhere far from our lands, from our colonies. But it seems I have to pay anyway…”

Now the crowd of onlookers expressed their disappointment. They wished to see more struggle rather than our cuddling. The girl closed her eyes, tears running down her cheeks. The water reached her chin.

“I was aware that I could die any day. I used to be a warrior, I was at the war, I have seen deaths of my friends. Too many of them. Then I was a deserter, I was on the run, escaping, hiding. I became a thief, I went to the lands so distant and so unknown to me. And people usually were hostile to me. But I don't want to die, I am unprepared yet… And not by such kind of death as well… If just an hour ago somebody would tell me that I am gonna die in a death trap on a muddy bank of a river, I would laugh at them. I never thought it can be dangerous...”

“You mentioned that you deserted. How it happened?”

“The hospital was not guarded. After we got the first news about the shipwreck we rushed to the port. There were only three of us, me with my hysteria, one girl whom I knew since the Academy with broken hand, and the third girl whom I barely knew with a food poisoning. We witnessed all the turmoil, the inability to organize the simplest rescue mission, then attempts to find scapegoats, harassing the locals. I was scared that when we return to the garrison they would accuse us. The girl with the broken hand agreed, but the third one rushed to the hospital. The next day she was executed on the market square as one of the conspirators that sank the ship. We knew what awaited us. For some reason that shock restored my abilities, I healed the broken hand of my friend, and we decided to separate and to meet each other in a city far from our colonies. We negotiated the time and the place. I was there in time, but my friend wasn't. I don't know what happened to her, and I want… wanted… to find her alive and kicking more than anything else in this world. I just hope that she wasn't caught by our troops… And I…”

She sighed and went on.

“I was lucky to escape. I traveled, I starved, I had to find food. I became a thief. I tried to become an adventurer, but for some reason nobody trusted me and nobody took me into their party. I was traveling along the seashore trying to join somebody. I finally decided to go for an adventure alone, and that's when I bought that strange map. And this is how it all ended…” She sobbed.

I could not find any appropriate words to say. I just looked around in despair. An unexpected thing came into my view. It was a plank slowly floating by. Ten minutes ago I would praise it as a rescue tool sent to us by gods. Now it was too late… or was it? There still was a hope. The plank seemed long enough. And I knew how to use it. It could work… or not… Anyway, it was a chance, and certainly the last one.

“Let me go,” I said anxiously, “I see a useful thing. I'll return in a moment.”

The girl sobbed and released me from her embrace. “Go! You don't need to return. I know what you are feeling now. Just go!”

I had no time for discussions. The plank was as close as it was going to be, soon it would float away. I rather roughly grabbed the girl by her chin and pulled her face up. I kissed her in her lips, greeted by a moan of delight coming from the gazers. “I will be back in a moment. You must wait for me! Take a deep breathe and wait!”

I had to work my legs out of the mud, and it took me longer than I expected. The girl started helping me, and I have to admit that her help was useful. I finally broke free and swam after the plank, grabbed it and returned back fearing that the girl did not believed me and might attempt to put an end to her suffering. I was just in time to grab her and pull her face back to the surface. I took the same position as before, spreading my weight over the surface, though it was pretty ineffective because the mud was already very soupy around the girl's hips.

“Listen to me,” I told her quickly, “I got a tool that may help. Now your task is simple – you have to lift up your heel and to point your toes down. Use all your strength to do it. And I will try to let the water to flow there, to your heels. After that you would be able to move your feet. We are starting from your right foot. Is it clear?”

She nodded and put her hands on my shoulders again. One end of the plank was sharpen, I pointed it downwards and pushed the plank as deep as I could aiming to bring the sharp end as close to the girl's heel as I could.

“Take as much air as you can! Are you ready? One-two-three… Start!”

The girl struggled hard. The mud was loose from its surface and almost to the girl's ankles, but her feet were literally encased in very thick stuff. I was trying to soften it by wiggling and pushing the plank up and down. The mud resisted. I knew that I had to make a channel for the water to flow down, to get under the soles of the boots. If not the water than at least the loose, soupy mud. I realized that the wiggling of the plank could not help much. And I decided to twist the plank, praying that it would not break. I started from a very slight twists, gradually increasing the amplitude. It worked, it obviously worked, and now the question was how close to the girl's boot I managed to stick the plank. I got the answer when all of a sudden the girl broke her heel free from the death grip of the mud. It was actually quite in time, because after that she was able to poke her face out of the water again, gasping for the fresh air.

“Submergence, submergence! She did a submergence!” happily cackled the crowd.

I quickly pulled out the plank and inserted it aiming at another boot. This time I started right from the twists, and after some frantic struggle, and after the girl's face again was covered by rising water, it worked. After the success with her right foot the girl was more impatient, fiercely snatching at her left foot instead of strongly but carefully pulling on it. It was dangerous, she could dislodge her ankle, but I could not tell it her because during the struggle we both went underwater. Fortunately, the mud gave way and the girl did not damaged her ankle. Very likely, her boots played their part in it, securing her feet. In the moment when her left foot was released I let out the plank and tried to push the girl upwards to ensure that she would reach for the air. In response she suddenly hugged me tightly and arched, and I realized that she was having her moment… or simply saying she had an orgasm.

Now she could move her feet, but the fight was not won yet. The girl still was up to her hips in mud, and now she was totally exhausted. But the water was still rising, it already reached my chin, and we had to escape. Without excessive words I started pushing the girl upwards, and she quickly responded with more struggle, trying to pull her legs out of the deep mire. It was not hopeless as it was before, but it was not easy as well. All that wiggling and floundering in the mud resulted in rubbing her thighs and crotch, and after she had an orgasm she became more sensitive. No surprise, she quickly was brought to another orgasm, much stronger that the first one. She cursed and ceased her struggle.

“I'm sorry!” she whispered. “Something weird is going on with me. I was aroused instantly after I got stuck in this mud, and the more I struggled, the more horny I became. Then it faded when I was panicked and was going to die, but when you hug me it returns again and again. I just… get off to the fact that I can't pull my legs out… Plus the mud is hugging and caressing me. Some weird perversion, I am really sorry that I can't control it…”

“The people call it a fetish, it is not unknown. There are much worse fetishes around, believe me…”

“Do you also feel it? Do you get horny when struggling in the mud?”

“Kinda… I do get horny when you are struggling in the mud… But only when you are not in the danger of imminent death…” I actually told her everything. “Listen, I understand that you are too exhausted now. Just make some last efforts. If you allow me, I'd grab you down there, by your thighs, it will help you much more than pushing up by your armpits.”

“Ah, surely, touch, grab, pull, rub,” she giggled. She giggled! She was able to giggle after she nearly died, after she was twice covered by the water and cut from the air, and while she still was trapped! She trusted me, she was sure that I would rescue her anyway.

My hands slid down along her body, and we both gasped when I touched her bare buttocks.

“It seems the mud stole your pants,” I said, struggling to refrain from massaging her yummy mud-covered buttocks.

“Damn low-sitting pants, why I even bought them? Stupid fashion! They betrayed me so many times! Is it possible to salvage them? Please, try to get them back! I won't stake my life for them but if it possible I would like to avoid demonstrating my ass to these bastards. They were enjoying how I was going to die!”

I had to dive to reach for the girl's pants. I took a deep breathe and immersed my hands in the mud. I found the pants quickly, they were near her knees and full of mud. I grabbed them, pulled them up, and then I realized that since I already was underwater I could extricate the girl quickly and effectively. I reached for her knee and pulled it towards me. Then I reached for her shin and pulled her lower leg up. It worked fine, because the mud was already pretty loose, and because I could remove the clinging thick and heavy mud from her boot with my hands. I quickly freed both her legs and pushed them up. I actually threw the girl over my head.

Then I realized that I can't reach for the air. By pulling and pushing the girl upwards I was immersing myself deeper and deeper. I never was a trained diver and I could not hold my breath for too long. And I already felt the need for fresh air. Fortunately, I was not badly trapped and I could just use my experience again. And I had a handy tool within reach, the plank that already saved one life a few minutes ago.

When I resurfaced, the first thing that I saw were those beautiful crimson eyes of the drow girl, opened wide and full of terror. In a moment when she saw me, the terror gave way to the joy. She rushed to me, hugged me, sobbing again – but now it was of happiness.

“You did it! You saved me, you got me out of this terrible trap! And you are fine, I was afraid that you… you could also… get stuck there… under the water… I am so happy that you are fine!” She then sealed my mouth with a deep, passionate kiss. It was a signal for the disappointed crowd that the show was over and nobody drowned, and it was a signal for me that I could return my hands to those yummy buttocks of her to work them a bit. Very soon the girl climaxed once more, but since we already were cuddling and making out it passed unnoticed to the crowd. Or, at least, nobody commented it aloud.

Then I had to help the girl with her pants. She admitted that she can not swim, and she was too afraid to lean on the muddy bottom, so she needed assistance in washing the mud off of her pants and then in pulling them onto a due place. I also helped her to get to the embankment stairs without swimming and without stepping on the mud, and then being totally exhausted we both barely managed to climb up those stairs.

The crowd was dispersing. One of the last groups of goblins approached us, speaking loudly. They were complaining that nobody died this time, it was a big disappointment. They also were reminding each other recent accidents in tidal mudflats around. While they were passing by us they mentioned at least four deaths during the last four weeks. The victims were two cute sand elf slaves sent in the mud by their idiot owner to retrieve her scarf, a city guardsman who rescued a female warrior at the expense of his life, and a master cleverly lured in the mud by his slaves. They also mentioned one case from the last year when there were many victims.

The voiced faded, the goblins disappeared behind the corner. The girl turned to me in shock.

“Were they kidding?” she asked.

“I don't think so.”

“They have so many victims on the mudflats? Is it possible?”

“Totally. You have seen it – sometimes it is impossible to rescue a victim, even if some helpers are around. The helpers also become trapped often. In some kingdoms they have special rescue brigades, like firefighters, especially to rescue people from the mudflats.”

“What a blessing that you were near! From their talks it seems they just watch and enjoy, and never help…”

“Mister, mister!” A dwarf girl of the school age appeared in front of me. “You are a real hero!” the girl blurted out. “I was so happy to witness it! I have a school project, would you let me write an essay about your deed?”

“Why not?” I sighed. “It should not hurt me.”

“So please, could you tell me your name, and from where you came, and what is your profession, and what were you thinking about when you were rescuing the woman?”

“Huh,” I sighed more loudly, because it was a lot. “Okay, but please, I have no time for a long interview. So...” I was surprised to see that the girl instantly produced a tablet and a stylus and prepared to make notes. “So, well, my name is Thesarzion Bladellin, I came from the Biscoristan, it is beyond the Snowy Mountains in the far South, I was a sailor, but I retired and now I just a wholesale trader. Came here in business, but I can't tell anything about it, it is a commercial secret. And, well, I wasn't thinking when I was rescuing the woman because if I was thinking then she, or even we both would die. I was acting as I was taught, I used to be a member of the Royal Quicksand and Mud Rescue Service in Sontarbalean Kingdom after I finished my career as a sailor. Sorry, I really can't tell much more.”

“Thank you very much mister Bladellin, I am very proud to interview the real hero!” The girl made a curtsy and spurted away.

Right after that I felt someone's heavy hand on my shoulder. It was the dwarf with my bag and boots. He silently returned me my belongings and respectfully shook my hand. I answered him with the equal respect. Fortunately, after he left nobody else wished to bother us. We really wanted to be alone.

“So, your name is Thesarzion?” asked the dark elf girl. “Nice to meet you! I am Mashirillion Quirrinatha. I know, the name is too long. You can call me Mashira, as all my friends did.”

I looked around, making sure that nobody was too close.

“Sorry, Mashira, I actually gave a wrong name to that girl. I don't want such a publicity. My real name is Benzion Alessar, it is Ben for friends. In this country I use several other names, neither of them was Thesarzion until now.”

“Ben is better than Thesarzion! Nice to meet you! So, you were a member of the Royal Quicksand and Mud Rescue Service in Sontarbalean Kingdom? I bet, it is your skill saved me, a simple unprepared would-be rescuer could not help me!”

“Oh, Mashira! I lied about that as well. I never was on any Royal service. They did have such service in Sontarbalea, and the same service was and still remains in Biscoristan, and there are similar services in a number of other kingdoms along the ocean coasts. I watched their practice, and I witnessed several cases of their real work. But I learned all those things myself, and I had some experience. You are quite right, an unprepared guy would not help you, he probably would drown himself instead. But to say the truth… If the Sontarbalean Royal Service would appear on the site when I did, they would not help you as well. They would act according to their protocol, first checking the depth, then checking the safety of the rescuers, then providing the safe platform for their work. Possibly, they would give you a breathing tube though, so that you would stay underwater for hours breathing through the tube and waiting for some helpful actions from their side. The Biscortistanian service would not even bother to rescue you – they rescue only children and men, they believe that women don't deserve to be rescued. I know at least two other such services that would refuse to help you because you are a drow. They consider that all the drows are their enemies.”

“Well, you come from a nice country…”

“Biscortistan? I have been to Biscortistan just once, about a year ago. In fact I come from Dellanoir, it is far from the seas. A rare human country where elves, dwarfs and orcs are allowed to live in peace. And where a human can legally marry an elf.”

“Really? And what about goblins?”

“Nah, they are deported as soon as they are caught…”

“Cool! Well, I believe it is time to do a drow thing,” grinned the girl.

I sighed. “Mashira, you better don't tell about the drow thing to any people here. I am sure you had something else in mind, but don't you know what the people would think about it?”

“No. What?”

“I am really sorry to tell it, but you have to know it. Believe me, almost everybody here and in many other kingdoms of the South is sure that if somebody would rescue a drow, the grateful drow would stab him in his back. As a sign of her gratitude. That's the reputation that your race got.”

I tried to tell it like a joke, despite it was the sad truth about the public opinion, and unfortunately such an opinion had some grounds. But my words made much stronger impression on Mashira than I wished. She obviously was shocked.

“Is it true? Is it what people think about us? About me personally? But why? How these people can judge us, they have never been to our land! Most of them had never seen us! And you, do you believe it as well? You asked me about such possibility – so you believed that I can be such… such… such filth! A traitor, a backstabber! Why, why do you think that the drow are such?” Her voice was trembling, and her eyes were filling with tears.

“If I believed it I would not come to rescue you. Don't take my words so straightforwardly. I just tried to warn you, maybe it was a wrong moment but...”

“It explains, it explains everything!” Mashira burst in tears. “Now I got it! Now I know why nobody ever trusted me, why nobody agreed to take me in their party, why they all avoided me. Why nobody agreed to teach me anything I had to know in this world. And why nobody tried to rescue me.”

“I did.” I carefully stepped towards her and hugged her gently. The dark elf suddenly answered me passionately, clung to me, all her body shaking of sobs.

“Yes, you did. But you were the only one who was kind to me since we parted ways with my friend after we deserted. I am too ignorant to survive in this world. I don't want to be a slave or a housewife, I want to see the world, I want to use the skills that I have, and I want to learn new things. But I can't, because I would simply kill myself or end up in a brothel or on a slave market. And I can't change it because nobody would trust me anyway, and so I doomed to remain ignorant, incompetent, useless… And to perish one day as I nearly did today… My life has no meaning… I better should drown with my friends, that would be fair…”

“I think I can trust you.”

“Would you… take care of me?” she whispered. “Would you teach me how to live in this world? What to avoid, when to take risk? Maybe you could introduce me to some people who also would trust me like you? And… Could you teach me to swim?”

“Why not? Surely I can.” I said that I could do it. I did not promise her anything. I just wanted to calm her down. I was not planning any long or serious relationship yet… Or maybe I already expected it?

“I… When I mentioned the drow thing, I just meant… do you know a place in this city where we can hide to be together? We drow believe that we are… super sexy… and we believe that the drow thing is making love… That was what I meant…”

I led her to a decent hotel that I knew. It was too decent for our wet and dirty clothes, so they hesitated to let us in, but my golden coins changed their mind. We checked into a room with a bath tub and hot water prepared. Then…

Well, I know that most of you are going to savor the detailed description of what happened then. Sorry guys. Really sorry. I don't look like that, but I am one of those old fashioned guys who believe that what happens in the bedroom must remain in the bedroom. I can only say that Mashira was really sexy. I don't know what was making such impression on me. She was petite, but not too slim. I would say, she had the cutest body I have ever seen, but not the most voluptuous. She was not super experienced, as people expect from the drow. Instead, she was a normal elf girl, less shy than rural ones, but any wench of similar age in a decent brothel would know and willingly show much more things and tricks. Though, after I got to know Mashira, I lost any interest in those brothel girls.

The rest of that day and the following night were too short for us. We decided to stay in that hotel for several days more. I made several visits to the market. I not just bought new pants and some other clothes for Mashira that fit her the best way on my taste, I decided to compensate her loss, and after some search I bought a copy of the map that she tried to recover from the mudflat that nearly killed her.

The result was unexpected. From the very beginning I believed that the map was fake. It was showing some island with a path leading to a stash with hidden treasures and some symbols in an unknown language that were supposed to describe the way to overcome obstacles and to avoid traps. But Mashira discovered that her lost copy of the map had other symbols on it. She was able to recall them and to add them to the second map. And not only that – she knew that strange alphabet, it was used in some ancient magic manuscripts. But she could not understand a word of what had been written there. However, when she started to read the words, I recognized the language – I knew it. Combining our knowledge we could read the instructions written on the map, and I was pretty sure that there were no other people in these lands who could do it.

It became clear that there must be more copies of the map with other instructions, and that was the start of the quest that we already could not refuse from. We were able to find next maps in various cities along the seashore, some of them were costly, but the last one was openly exposed as a decoration on a wall in a tavern. After combining the information from all those maps we could find the safe way. And the treasure… Well, maybe I could say that it was the greatest treasure I could imagine. Something that made us wealthy. But no guys, I already knew the truth then. Those diamonds and rubies and heaps of golden coins were great, but not the greatest treasure, and definitely not the source of happiness. Mashira was.

My little black-skinned girl, my beauty, my muse, my lover, my best friend, my trusty companion and bodyguard in our risky adventures, she was and remains the greatest treasure that I found in this life. Pretty inexperienced and naive when dealing with shady traders in foreign lands, she was superior scout. In the night, in dark caves and dungeons with her perfect night vision and keen hearing she was absolutely stealthy and she followed me closely as a shadow, and I can't imagine a better shadow to protect my back. She was rather good in martial arts, fast and agile, and she was really good in magic, especially in healing. She quickly learned my lessons in swimming, and surprisingly she was able to develop my abilities in magic, so that now I can create fireballs to scare unprepared foes and to illuminate dark rooms.

Mashira had a bad luck to get herself in sticky situations very often, sometimes her predicaments were pretty dangerous. I always was happy to help her out, and rescuing her became an inherent part of all our quests. But we noticed that each such accident when her survival depended on my actions led us to a solution of a next puzzle. Plus, she really had a sort of fetish and was getting off each time I was rescuing her from the traps from which she could not get out on her own. We became successful adventurers, we actually became rich, and now we have our own castle in Delanoir, my homeland.

After long searching Mashira found her friend, Latizza, that escaped with her from the garrison after all their command perished in a ship wreck. The poor thing asked the wrong people to help her, she was kidnapped and sold as a slave to a horrible master. It was impossible to stay calm while listening to her stories. We were able to bail her out of slavery at the last day before she had to be sent into a terrible diamond mine from which no slave had ever returned. Latizza lives in our castle now and I hope she is happy. At least, after healing treatment by Mashira and a long rehab she recalled “the drow thing” and now she regularly does it with our two elven maids and a human gardener.

I still don't know what force directed me that day when I ignored all my experience and violated all the safety rules that I knew, but I know that if I would think and wait just a bit, Mashira would not survive, and I would not even got to know what a great opportunity I had. Let me tell you guys, normally we have to think before doing anything… But sometimes we just have to act without thinking. If only we could know in advance when comes the right time for it…

[Fred588]

You write better than MANY for whom English is THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE.

[PM2K]

Thanks, Billie for posting your written work here. It is magnificent.

[Billie Bonce]

Thank you guys!

[cnelson566]

Excellent story Billie!

[quagmire_uk]

Yeah this is a fantastic story, well done!

[Billie Bonce]

Thank you guys, I am really honored!