“They might if they were trained to,” Tantrum mumbles.

Silently they all head towards the whistling. Breaking through the foliage they emerge from the cave and onto the shoreline of a swamp where the whistling is the loudest. “Guys, look!” Lou points at a small boat wading close to the shore, “There’s a boat!”

“Hmm, I don’t see the ‘captain’,” Tantrum laughs while looking upon an old fishing boat not much bigger than a dinghy.

Walking towards the boat, they get close enough to see all the fishing equipment. “Looks like there’s not any li—AHHH!” Tantrum lets out a high-pitched scream, followed by Buggy, Lou, and even the bear creature roaring along with them.  When they finally calm down, they take in the man who had just popped up from where he was hunched over, wearing a bucket hat and fishing bib overalls, holding a net in one hand, and a knife in the other.

The man doesn’t seem surprised to see them. He raises his hand to show he means no harm and gives them a throaty chuckle, “Calm down ladies. I’m just an honest fisherman, fishing.”

Holding up his net, Tantrum sees a cute turtle trapped within it, she realizes he is just cutting the turtle out. Buggy however doesn’t get the memo, she gives the turtle a death stare, and shouts, “Good work! Now slit its throat and rip it out of that pathetic shell!”

“I'm not going to kill it! I'm setting it free.” The fisherman does just that and gives Buggy, who seems disappointed, a curious look. “You ladies look lost. I can give you a ride to my village,” pointing towards the fog, “If that’s what you need.” He pats a spot on the boat’s bench, “Hop on in!” He starts to clean off the rest of the seats so they will all fit into the ‘boat’. “This is the best fishing boat in the whole village, and the only one,” He laughs.

That confuses Tantrum. “That’s odd. Why are you the only boater? Is the water contaminated?” She gives the murky water a disgusted look, “Actually that makes sense.”

The fisherman chuckles sadly, “No it's not the water, it’s the village, we've all been cursed by the Demon Lover. Only need for one fisherman now.”

Lou and Buggy gasp while Tantrum scoffs.

“I’ve never met someone cursed before or been boating! I’ve always wanted a man with a boat. Have you ever thought of competing to become the leader of a group of women?” Buggy says with her sexy phone voice while jumping into the boat.

Tantrum yells trying to stop Buggy from getting abducted by a man who is obviously unstable. “Why would you jump into a boat with a stranger?! Get out right now!”

Buggy waves her off, “It’s fine. You will protect me, right mister? Wait a second, we don’t even know each other's name. How rude of me,” She blinks her false lashes at him.

The fisherman smiles, “Just call me Fisherman. My name doesn’t matter anymore now that I’m cursed.”

Tantrum looks to Lou for support but instead sees her trying to encourage the bear onto the boat. The bear doesn’t budge, not interested in getting near the water, confirming Tantrum’s theory that Buggy is dumber than a rock.

Fisherman stops Lou from her efforts. “Hey, no buttz allowed on board,” he points to a sign with the bear creature crossed out on it.

Lou pouts, “We can’t leave him!”

Tantrum consoles her, “Lou don’t worry. We aren’t getting on his boat anyways.”

Fisherman shakes his head, “The village is just across the pond; I'll drop you off there. You don’t want to be out here when it gets dark.”

As if staged, the freed turtle eats a snake from the water, only to be immediately grabbed up by a giant flying beast. “What type of bird is that?” Tantrum asks with shock while getting on the boat swiftly but carefully, so as not to get her patchwork skirt wet. “Lousy come on. We can come back later to get that thing,” she points at the monstrous bear. “After we find a phone to call for help,” she says while her fingers are crossed behind her back. She doesn’t care about a stupid rock bear cat creature anyway. Not when her life is on the line. Not her responsibility, not her problem.

Lou frowns but agrees, “Ok.” She gets onto the boat gracefully. However, her weight causes the boat to lean. The boat rocks and shakes to straighten itself.

Fisherman acts quickly to shuffle them around to balance the boat out and laughs, “Woah. For such a little thing you sure do weigh a lot.”

“I keep my pockets full in case of emergency.” Lou swings her hips, causing the contents inside her pockets to jingle.

Tantrum looks her over, “What do you mean?”

Before Lou can explain what she means, Fisherman starts the boat. The engine roars as it takes off and the brown water splashes into the boat. Tantrum tries her best to avoid the splash zone.

Buggy stands up looking at the surroundings. Not sure what she’s looking for when all that surrounds them is just nasty swamp. Buggy shouts, “Look Lou, your fuzzy butt is swimming behind us!”

Jolting up onto her feet, Lou rocks the boat with her erratic movements. “Yay! Swim Fuzz swim!”

Tantrum looks too and sees the creature swimming next to the boat. “What kind of animals live in these waters? Any alligators?” she asks the man, not really caring about the fuzzy guy but just curious.

“I don’t know what alligators are but there are cuntz in these parts, dangerous things they are.” He whispers, “Anyone seen swimming in these waters has never been seen again.” With that horrifying fact, he makes a hard turn that knocks Tantrum out of the boat.

Surrounded by dirty water infested with unknown germs and possibly mutant reptiles, Tantrum screams her head off.

Thankfully the fuzzy bear lets Tantrum hold on to him while she cries. For a second, she tries to cast a spell to save herself. But only gibberish comes out. She soon remembers that magical powers are something she's never actually possessed and in her panicked state, she was trying to scam herself! She has truly lost it. Waving her hands, she screams, “Help! Brown water! In my mouth!”

Fisherman circles back and pulls her out laughing, “I was just messing with you! You should have seen your face. It’s been a while since I’ve had that much fun. Ever since this curse has plagued us, we villagers don’t have much to laugh about.”

“What’s all this about a curse?” Buggy asks, giving him her undivided attention as if she believes every word of this pathological liar.

Tantrum rolls her eyes. Ya, curses are real just like all the BS they sell at their shop. Ya, Tantrums not buying it. While the man makes some crap up, she shifts her body on the bench hoping no one noticed that she peed a little after falling off the boat.

“The Demon Lover is the one who cursed our village. She has magic items she uses to keep us under her thumb. Given jobs we are unable to deviate from. We work continuously to provide her with a life of luxury and make enough stuff to keep her entertained for generations. The curse does seem to make us immortal though, which might seem like a blessing, however, it means we will work until the day the earth is sucked into a black hole if she’s not stopped. We are just living dolls with only one purpose… whatever the Demon Lover wants.” Fisherman says while staring into the swamp navigating them past floaters.

The three women look at each other, mentally agreeing not to mention anything about their shop full of ‘magic items’.

“But surely a lover would want to love, not to harm,” Buggy suggests.

“She loves demons. She's not normal and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

Parking his boat into a dock connected to a bungalow village, he sighs, “Well, this is your stop, I would love to give you a tour, we used to have some of the best shops and entertainers before everyone was forced into slave labor and the entertainers were kept for the queen's pleasure.” Shuffling through his ice chest he pulls out cold fish-like things on a stick. “Here, have a cuntz pops before you go.”

“Oh, thanks.” Lou graciously takes one, though not as enthusiastic as the girl usually is.

Buggy grabs one like she has never seen food before, “Ah! Just what I needed!” She eats it in two bites. “Thank you, and here’s my business card if you ever want to chat, though I should mention I do charge by the minute.”

Fisherman takes the card and notices Buggy’s swollen hand. “You get stung by a fuxer? You should see the town's herbalist; you can find him up that way. Probably should be your next stop, those flowers are pretty but deadly.” He turns leaving an open-mouthed Buggy behind as he hands off the last cuntz pop.

Tantrum gags as she accepts it, “Ya thanks.” She waits for Fisherman to ride off before she throws it off the dock and into the swamp.