Emery heard nothing but the wind blowing through the reeds at first. Peeking from behind the tarp draped over her entryway, she saw a thick fog had rolled over her camp while she slept.

A heavy, deep gurgle, like boiling tar, came from behind as something slogged through the mud.

She sat still as stone. The wheezing hiss of this creature beyond her sight made her skin crawl. The scout prayed to Athari, Barer of the Dawn light and Keeper of Souls, that they would not come and take her soul today. Not while she was on her way out of her own country, that’d be too embarrassing.

Her heart jumped as a low-tolling sounded in her inner ear as something touched the barrier.

Emery wanted to peek around the side of the hovel, to spot what had touched it, not sure if it was just bumped by accident, but she remained crouched on her toes, ready to dash if she needed to. She reached out to tap the locator charm on her pack if she had to ditch it in a hurry-

It sounded again. Around the front.

Again, to her right.

Emery choked. Her heart raced at possibly being circled by multiple harassers; it or they knew something was here. The continued tolling in her head all but confirmed that it did not hide her as well as she hoped this time.

Emery drew her blade from its sheath attached to her pack. The wooden hilt hummed from the ethergic tether by the staff. The fog lay too thick to see beyond her hovel to fight, but its weight in her hand calmed her. The short blade was more wood than steel; the blade and dulled edge of the short sword was wooden with a steel body between. The forgers carved the blade into a thin, polished, slightly uneven edge. Along the dulled edge glowed symbols carved into the dark, spiraling wood. Its blade will never dull because of the magic it channeled from the staff.

The scout crept out from her hovel, sword in hand, into the reed cover surrounding her small camp. Fog blanketed everything and shadows moved with in the mist like oil in water.

Emery watched as a large, dark shape loomed over her hiding spot. Two long stalks with a pair of orbed lights on the ends, she guessed eyes, circled over and around one another, looking at everywhere but her. Means either it was blind, or it couldnt see her like she thought.

It spoke with such a loud rough hiss so suddenly that Emery thought someone had lit a torch behind her ear. ‘You are Leyota, yes? I smell scout magic.’ Smell, ah, that's how it found her. Was it?

“I admit nothing,” she stated, flipping through a mental list of what this could be, “There is nothing for you here, please leave.”

‘I thirst,’ it begged, tapping a long, blunted claw against the ward, making her ears ring again.

The Leyota spoke calmly thought the blaring in her skull, “It rained last night, the Shallows is full of water.” Looking around to see if she was surrounded, she could see the creature moving around in her peripheral.

It was just this one. A shadow crawler, now that she's had time to look at it and think. Slow creatures, their outer form was mostly muck and debris that got caught in the mucus they secrete. It reminded her of a giant rock snail from how slowly it moved and how dense its body was. A slimy, walking, talking boulder. Normally, they’d just suck up smaller animals and spirits to fuel its own power, like most malevolent entities do when they enter the mortal plane through the fog. If only not to be eaten themselves when they return, the more souls they absorb and add to themselves, the more they grow as a being. They rarely hunt people too fast. It could engulf a body while it slept and absorbed the soul to feed if one was unlucky, and downwind. They’re a lazy yet ambitious creature and if they could absorb an enormous meal quickly instead of foraging, they’ll go for it.

'The Staff, it holds the power from sky. Sweet, yes? Give us,' it compromised.  

“In Exchange for what?” Emery could see the shining bark of the top of her staff hidden among the reeds from where she crouched. It was the spire that was holding up her barrier.

Its answering hiss reverberated through her barrier. 'For Quarter.'

Figures, “No bargain, perhaps a counteroffer?” When no answer came, the Leyota continued to haggle, inching closer to the staff. “A token of piece to send you on to your next meal.” Emery walked out of the reeds holding a large flint stone between her hands, fractured and pulsing with light. They filled it with raw ethergy, freshly siphoned from her staff. “Take this as a sign of my mercy, and search for another meal. On the other side of the Shallows.” She held the stone aloft for the creature to see. “Refuse my offer and I will banish you."

Her heart thundered in her chest, but her face remain neutral other than her hard gaze. Unable to gaze into the ether with her enhanced sight at the moment, Emery was left with just sound. And there was nothing. The creature had not replied for a long, long time.

Then, like air being released in a ragged exhale, the creature let out a low, ongoing hiss. Growing louder, it whined angrily. 'No, not enough, must have staff! So thirsty, thirsty is. Give power, give quarter. Give it, give it!' it commanded.

Emery placed the stone at her feet, sending the ethergy it held back deep into the earth. Unable to hold its shape, it crumbled into dusk. “No accord.” Turning her back to the spirit, Emery ran to her staff when the creature let out a loud, furious snarl that swelled into an ominous bellow ripping from its throat. In its rage, it flung itself upon the barrier, dark rolling sludge sliding over the invisible dome.

'Swallow you, yes,' it mocked! 'Break soon, will be mine then!' the barrier shone brighter to her eyes as it tried to repel the spirit, but the beast only clung tighter. Looking upon it clearly, Emery saw it was indeed a smog creature, fully content on swallowing the barrier with her inside. Its web-like skin stretched out from its form, its sludgy body covering a quarter of the shield already. The long tendrils atop its head extended toward the center above her and the staff, blunted claws digging against hardened magic.

What Emery assumed where extra eyes on its body, was its mouth dripping with sludge, the glow mistaken for many, many eyes were in fact all the souls it had eaten in the night. Its maw opened wide, stretching out like its body as if to swallow the barrier and her in it. She marveled not only at the desperation this creature showed, but also at what she was in for if she let it continue.

Ripping the staff from the ground, Emery braced herself as a wave of raw power pulsed through her bones as the staff continued to absorb ethergy at a frantic rate to fuel the barrier. She could feel the thrum of magic pushing against the heavy plethora of mixed energies of the creature, hints of its past meals. Some ethereal, some mortal.

'Yesses,' cried the creature! Greedily, it consumed the barriers of power, its body stretching further around it in dark sludge. The sludge slowly expanded completely around and rose behind her.

Then it stopped. It could stretch no further, and to the creature's dismay, its once soggy skin cracked and shrivel. It wailed, trying desperately to pull itself free, but could not. It screamed again, 'What have you done!' It struggled against the barrier, thrashed its long tendrils against only from them to get stuck like the rest of its drying limbs.

It's blurring gaze settling upon a now smiling scout. A dark ribbon of ethergy was flowing directly from the creature into her. Voice echoing through the dome, she called out to it; “Greed becomes you Shadow! I offered you mercy and a trade. You instead ignore it to take not only my life, but my hard earned magic by force.” Holding the staff overhead, she placed the top to the belly of the creature. “So, I will take yours!”

It raged and thrashed against the barrier turned trap. Unable to escape, it hissed loudly as it shriveled down to the size of a bean, its residual slime steaming off the barrier with a soft hiss. Emery quickly dispelled the ward to pluck an oddly shaped slug off the ground. The smog demon's base form on a mortal plane. 

The creature attempted to bite her thumb through her gloves, but its teeth were too small to pierce bare skin.

“Good luck on your way back up the food chain.” She remarked before using her temporarily boosted strength to fling the diminutive bug far off across the Shallows, its shrill hiss fading away as it flew.

She listened for any signs of other crawlers and creatures as she tried to slow her heart rate. She had but a moment before the telltale prickle on her skin told her to brace herself. A bolt of lightning shot down from above, striking her head on. The bolt seared its way through her, burning into veins. With her body dangerously overcharged, her bones buzzed painfully through this new onslaught. A second finally passes for Emery an eternity later. Emery dropped to her knees, eyes squinted shut she barely caught herself from her face hitting the mud. Her finger dug into the soil. Despite the wet surrounding, it dried and split and caved in as Emery dumped all the extra power she took into the earth. When she came to a moment after, it was with a throbbing headache.

The ground beneath her was filling in with water as she caused a small pond to form. She felt hollowed out save for the lightning sparks still cling to her bones. Half stumbling-half crawling, the scout shuffled back to her small enclosure, attempting to place a smaller-denser warding barrier around it before falling in. With the flint pile reactivated, Emery succumbed to self-imposed unconsciousness. She wouldn’t be traveling tonight.