Prompt 25 - Swamp Monster

Usually when travelling between towns and cities, one would choose a path that had the least chance of encountering strange folk and oddities stalking around the environment. A path with least resistance as one would say, but Jackson and his loyal stallion, Caspian, had encountered a problem early on during their journey from the latest stable he temporarily worked at as a hired stablehand. The problem in question was travel time; Jackson realised that if he were to take the safer routes then it would take much longer for him to reach the next stable he was supposed to visit. Perhaps even too long, as the owner of that stable was known to be less understanding when it came to lateness, and Jackson certainly did not want to make the man wait too long for him and his blue pony to pop up by the stable entrance.

Unfortunately, that also meant Jackson had to take a fair few shortcuts, some paths he had never taken previously and were known to be… strange. At least that was what he heard from other friendly travellers passing by and giving each other pointers. One of the unfamiliar routes was a path which led through the swamps, an area of which he and Caspian rarely, if ever, used it. Not because of the roaming alligators, of course. Lastly, it was getting dark and Jackson would rather have this over with if only to sleep somewhere safer and not risk anyone or anything getting to them at night.

Now Caspian was a rather tolerant horse towards almost anything they have encountered in the wild thus far, but alligators? The blue stallion was visibly uncomfortable with the idea; eyes and ears alert to the smallest sound and movement, nostrils flared and snorting. His head was held high up as he trotted through the soggy, muddy and painfully thin dirt path with swampy water surrounding them on both sides. Jackson was doing his best to remain calm, but he found it extremely difficult when everything around them was growing darker by the minute and the low, bellowing sounds coming from the water made him even more cautious. More worried.

“Let’s hurry out of here,” Jackson spoke softly to his horse, whose ears flickered back and forth. ”You’ll be okay, buddy.”

A snort left the horse’s nostrils with a quick shake of the head. Having a great range of vision compared to his rider, Caspian could see things the man could not. Or perhaps even imagine seeing things, the horse could not exactly distinguish what was real and what was simply his paranoid prey animal brain taking over. Yet, hearing his rider’s voice soothed him to some extent. Knowing Jackson was there with him was enough to make the trip less nerve-wracking.

The duo moved along the path for a time, four pairs of eyes scanning their surroundings. Jackson’s hand rested on top of his gun holster, brown eyes glancing over his shoulder and looking up above the trees. Caspian’s eyes were pointed perfectly towards the waters on each side of them, never spotting anything odd except for the occasional alligator eyes sticking out of the murky water’s surface.

Birds sang their calls for other birds to hear, some were mating calls, some were warning calls as most likely the result of the duo’s presence in the area. That, or due to the many alligators currently present. Caspian registered the familiar foul swamp water scent which wafted in the air, snorting and bobbing his head. Similarly, Jackson reacted to the scent by covering his nose with the free hand. The smell was another reason why Jackson never took them through the territory. He simply could not handle it and it appeared that Caspian found it uncomfortable as well.

It seemed to be another regular day with only a simple change in schedule and locations. Jackson, as much as he had scanned the area multiple times, could not find anything worth investigating or worrying about – other than the natural alertness he carried with him anywhere he went alone. As far as they could tell, however, nothing unusual was going on around them. That was until Jackson caught something in his peripheral view, causing him to turn his head in the direction of the swamp water to the right of him.

There, a fraction of a second before fully disappearing beneath the water, he saw something stare at them. Eyes larger than a saucer, pupils almost as large as the eyes themselves and very, very glossy. It appeared as if it was fully covered in algae and moss, but he could not distinguish what it was exactly or what it looked like under all of the vegetation on its body.

His heart was caught in his throat from the sudden sight, his legs squeezing Caspian’s sides to make him trot faster and away from the spot. Caspian had no problem with it, seeing as he most likely saw the creature himself before Jackson could react. The blue Loshenka snorted and grunted as he increased his pace further.

What was that!? Jackson thought as he stared ahead of the path, silently praying that they would reach the end of the path soon. He did not know what the creature was, but he was not sticking around to find out! And neither was Caspian who was now in canter rather than trot, very eager to leave the creepy swamps behind.

A low rumbling emanated – almost vibrated – from the water next to them causing Jackson to turn only to see the head of the creature again, this time actively following them. Only the top of its head was visible, similarly to how the alligators kept themselves hidden under water. It dove underwater once more and Jackson, now fully afraid of the mystery creature, urged his horse to run which he did not hesitate doing. Caspian grunted as he galloped through the swamps, the sound of rushing water only convincing to run faster.

Splashing could be heard but Jackson did not dare to look behind him, his brown eyes only looking ahead of them. Caspian was the only one who saw what happened. In his blue eyes he saw the monster; worm-like with way too much moss and algae on its body and mouth lined with needle-shaped teeth, and it had just missed them by mere inches. It stared at them from land; multiple thin arms with humanoid hands protruding from each side of its body, holding its body up from the ground before slinking back into the water and leaving behind ripples. It never showed up again to scare them, but it did not matter to the duo as they did not stop with their escape until they reached the end of the path.

Once they were back out into the familiar open landscape, they could sigh in relief. Caspian slowed down to a trot and then a walk before halting a distance away from where they had come out of the swamp, letting out a heavy sigh and a snort from the short-lasting action. That was it! They were going to sleep far, far away from the swamps! Meeting odd people on the road was preferable compared to whatever that thing was!