We received a warm goodbye from everyone at the mine. Ro hugged her parents goodbye, and we were off. It took so long to make it to the jungle I lost track of the days. We passed through many different regions of the Amin Empire. We went through the great planes of the central parts of the country until we reached a region with geography similar to the southeast United States. In this area the architecture changed from a colonial French design in the planes to old Dutch looking buildings. We passed through this area for a couple weeks before coming across a humid, muddy, and foggy swamp. It smelled like rotting corpses mixed with cow shit. We stepped over the bones of dead animals and the mud stuck to our shoes and slowed us down.

“This place sucks, how much longer ‘til we’re in the jungle?” I asked.

“This is the jungle.” Voyd said.

“What? I expected a rainforest, not this bulls**t!” I replied.

“This is just the northern part, I’m not sure what’s ahead but I don’t think it’s all like this.” Voyd said. 

As we kept walking I was startled by a tree branch that appeared in the fog from out of nowhere.

“Ahahaha! You’re such a b***h!” Ro yelled.

“Shut the hell up… Hey Voyd, you still got that spell active right?” I asked.

“Yeah yeah, we won’t run into anything.” She said.

“Alright good.” The moment I said that, we were all swept upwards by a net that was hidden beneath our feet and all of us were stuck hanging from a mangrove tree. 

“You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut huh?” Ro said.

“What’re you mad at me for? I didn’t put this net here!” I yelled back.

“You jinxed us!” Ro screamed.

“Hey! No yell at friends!” Killer said.

“Shut up Killer!” Ro responded.

While we were arguing back and forth a group of lizard people approached us. We were so distracted by each other we didn’t even notice them at first.

“Excuse me.” One of them said.

We kept on screaming.

“Excuse me.” He said again louder.

We ignored him again.

“Hey!” He screamed.

We stopped arguing and looked at him.

“Oh hey, where'd you guys come from?” I asked.

“You speak lizard?” Ro asked.

“Uhhh, I guess so.” I replied. 

“We’re sorry about the situation, these traps were made for animals. But if you don’t mind me asking, why have humans entered our country? And how do you speak our language so fluently?” One of the lizards asked.

“We’re friendly! We go around helping people and we ran into this lizard guy who taught me your language and he told us that this place needed some heroes.” I said.

“Really? Where is your lizard friend now?” He replied.

“Um, he’s dead. But we didn’t kill him, he died of old age.” I said.

“Oh I see… that’s unfortunate.” The lizard said.

“Yeah, I know.” I replied.

“Well, we don’t really need any heroes at the moment. But, we can take you to our messiah. She always knows exactly what our people need.” The lizard said.

“Sweet! Let’s go.” I replied.

“But before we cut you down, do you mind telling us your lizard friend's name? Just to prove you aren’t lying of course.” The lizard asked. 

God damn it. I was so close to bulls**ting my way through that. But Killer and Voyd’s names were both translated from their native language, there’s a chance if I say something random it’ll translate into something that sounds like a name.

“His name was uhh… Slithery” I said.

I couldn’t think of anything else while staring at the lizards below.

“Oh, with a name like that he must be from one of the southern tribes. It’s surprising he made it all that way north considering we rarely leave the jungle.” The lizard replied.

He cut us down and told us he’d help escort us to their messiah, who was in a temple near the center of the jungle. We followed them back to their village. The fog was a bit more clear than the other areas of the swamp. They had small huts made out of mud and there were dozens of lizard people walking around town.

Killer pointed at one of the female lizards and screamed, “Me like lizard!” 

“Shut up Killer!” Ro yelled.

“Please excuse my friend's behavior, he has no brain cells.” I told the lizard lady.

"It's ok" she said and walked away.

She was kind of curvy and her hips swayed in a way that made it hard to take my eyes off her ass. I see why Killer likes them, the scales are gross but after like 8 or 9 beers they’d probably look bangable. 

The lizard we met led us to some stables. On the way there, we passed by a statue of a human. I couldn't read the plaque beneath it so we continued to the stables. In them were horse sized reptiles that looked like a Komodo dragon with longer legs and muscles like a horse. There were groups of lizard people packing up saddlebags and organizing the reptile horses.

“This caravan will be leaving for the south shortly, and they’ll stop at the temple on the way.” He told us.

“Sweet, thank you so much.” I said.

“It’s no problem at all. Sit tight and they’ll let you know when they’re about to head out.” He replied. 

As we waited, Ro called me over to talk to me in private.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“It’s about Voyd, I’m a little worried about her.” She said.

“Huh, why?” I asked.

“I think she might be homesick.” Ro replied.

“How is she homesick? She never had a home.” I said.

“Before we left the forest, I asked her if she wanted to stay with the elves when we were done. She wasn’t sure about it but before she could think it over, you went and made them drive us out. She was fine for a while, but ever since we’ve entered the jungle she’s been all tired and moody.” Ro said. 

I never gave Voyd’s preference a single thought. When I first met her, I wanted to find somewhere to drop her off as soon as possible. But ever since we got the party together, she’s been a core part of it. We do need a good mage and healer in our party, but I haven’t considered Voyd’s perspective.

“Alright, I’ll go talk to her.” I said. 

We went back to the stable. Killer was in the middle of explaining to Voyd the most efficient way to cut someone’s head off. I interpreted them and asked Voyd to come talk real quick.

“What’d you want to ask?” Voyd said.

“Ro’s a little worried about you.” I told her.

“Why?” She asked.

“She’s worried you might be feeling down because we didn’t drop you off with the rest of the elves.” I replied.

“I’m not feeling down.” Voyd replied.

“Really? Why’ve you been acting different then?” I asked.

“I’m just tired from keeping the spell active.” She said.

“Oh, I see. Well, if you want we could always take you back. If you wanna go just ask.” I said.

“It’s fine, I like traveling with you guys.” She replied.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yea.” She said.

“Even Killer?” I asked.

“Mhm, he's funny.” She said while nodding her head yes. 

"Ok then..." I replied.

When the caravan was ready, they called us up and had us each ride on the back of one of the mounts with a lizard partner to steer. They put us near the back and after they made sure we were comfortable, the caravan took off. Traveling this way definitely beats walking, we’re moving faster and I won’t be exhausted at the end of the day. 

As we moved further south the fog began to clear. The plants became more dense and before we knew it, we were deep in the middle of lush rainforest. After a while of riding and casually chatting, the lizards up at the front of the caravan warned us to be quiet. They said we’d be passing by a group of sleeping pooala’s and if we startle them, they’ll throw feces at us. I translated this to the party.

“What a pooala?” Killer asked in his normal, loud tone of voice.

“I don’t know dude, just be quiet.” I whispered.

“Sorry master…” He said loudly.

“Hey dumba*s! Have you ever heard of a goddamn inside voice!?” Ro screamed at Killer.

As soon as she said that, poop came flying out from the trees from places you couldn’t see, it was like a scene from the Vietnam war and all of it was targeted at Ro. 

When the smoke cleared, Ro was covered in s**t. She flipped out and screamed while Killer and I were dying of laughter. While Ro was crying, one of the lizards waved their hand and a nearby puddle of water levitated, then it was splashed onto Ro, washing her clean. She stopped crying,

“Umm, thank you.” She said to the lizard.

“Was that magic?” I asked Voyd.

“Mhm, it was water magic.” She replied.

“How come she didn’t have to use a catalyst?” I asked.

“Each non-human race can cast a certain magic type without a catalyst. For elves, it’s wind magic.” She said.

“Then how come the elves in the forest were using bows and swords?” I asked.

“Just because they can cast magic without it doesn’t mean they have to.” She said.

“I guess that makes sense.” I replied.

There’s still a lot about magic I don’t understand. I asked Voyd about the other races and what magic they can use. For the dwarves it’s earth magic and for the cat people it’s fire. She also told me why humans need to catalysts in the first place, it’s because unlike the other races, they weren’t born with magical affinity so they don’t know how to properly release their mana. If a human tried casting a fire spell with no catalyst, they’d set themselves on fire. Healing magic works without a catalyst because any mana overflow will simply result in an overheal causing no harm. Even wards must use a person’s armor or clothing as the catalyst to prevent skin damage. 

The sun began to set and we set up camp. Luckily the lizards handled guard watch so we all got a good night's sleep. It took us a few days to reach the center of the jungle, the caravan definitely saved us weeks worth of travel time. We passed through a small village and made our way to the temple. This village had another statue of a different human that looked familiar. It looks almost exactly like one of the statues from the elf o**y. This one was of a woman who was the next to the destroyed statue at the o**y. We continued onto the temple, It was a massive stone pyramid with steps leading up to it. It had plants overgrown all around it in a way that looked so beautiful it almost seemed intentional. 

My party and I approached the steps alongside our lizard guide. We reached the top and saw an incredible garden with plants along the floors, walls and ceiling, water features moving throughout and stone paths to walk on.

“Lady Alaya! Some visitors are here and they wish to speak to you!” The Lizard shouted. 

From around the corner came a lady wearing practically nothing. She had on a mountain of jewelry with small loincloths that hung from her shoulders and waist that covered her tits and pelvic area leaving the rest exposed. Her body was basically human but with sharp yellow snake-like eyes and a tail just like the lizard people. There aren’t any words in the English language that could describe how gorgeous she is. All I have to say is… Zero beers.