It was easy to stay inconspicuous when you were so small. She had kept herself low in the swamps when the fireflies came. Glowing fungi hadn’t been a shock at first, the kin lived in the damp places, but the glowing rocks were something else. She needed to get to the mangroves to check on Bog and Mud. There weren’t so many of them that they could afford to lose touch, but something was holding her back from her journey.

Her mud caked nose twitched, duckweed hanging from her back and moss smearing her cheeks and forehead. Something was strange but she couldn’t quite place her paw on it.

Lifting her short legs high, she scouted forward. Once this curiosity was sated, then she would really be on her way to see Bog. Really.

She certainly hadn’t expected to run into two half grown pups without an adult in sight. This was no place for kids to be running around alone! “H-hey you two! What are you doing here?” Her low anxiety was masked by the shaking of her whole rear end to compensate for her nubby, vibrating stub where her tail should have been. Her head dipped low and her head tipped ever so slightly to the side to expose what was once a white spot on her chest, but was now a dingy lighter brown spot caked in mud.

“Y’need to step back just a bit for me hey? Ol’ snaps loves toes fo’ breakfast and it’s a long hobble to get to my friend that can patch you up!”

“Speech”

We bring you good news by word of mouth

Dried mud caked Ducky's coat while swamp water clung to her stomach and limbs. She'd expended more than a little bit of energy trying to navigate the murky waters, and with her still sunken in sides, well, she was just about capped. If it weren't for the very real possibility that if she stopped the bog might finish the job of sucking her in and swallowing her whole she would have asked Bones to stop hours ago, but the cub was doing her best to continue trudging along. After what felt like hours of twisting and turning around gnarled roots and old waterlogged palmettos, and seeing a particularly ugly tree at least three times Duckweed pulled herself to a halt. "Bones, I think we're goin' in circles." Of all the places the pair could have gotten themselves lost.. "Seen that tree at least three times, and I know it's the same one 'cause it's ugly. Look's like an old spider with three eyes." She said, her nose pointing straight at it. The voice that answered did not hold the familiar lilt of her sister's, causing panic to rise up in Ducky's chest. Wildly the girl swung her dark crown to find the source, but when her eye's met the stranger's, a wolf who seemed as much a swamp monster as any that Duckweed could imagine, she froze, looking to her sister for guidance.

Boneset didn't particularly hate the swamp, however her introduction to the place could have gone a lot better.  Somehow this place was polar opposite to the beautiful flower filled gully that they'd just come from, yet still wildly different from the barren hills in which their journey started.  She didn't want to admit that the pair might be lost, but Bones was pretty sure her sister was right about that darn ugly looking tree.  She opened her maw to speak, but was cut off by a voice that sounded much older than anything she or Ducky could produce. "Turkey Tail, go play on the tree."  She whispered to her furry companion, leaning against the tree so that he may grip on and go.  The creature before them now might not eat them if they were lucky, but who didn't love the taste of a plump ole squirrel?  "Listen to 'er, Ducky.  Back up." She demanded, locking eyes with the green monstrosity as she backed away a few feet. " We don' wan' no trouble lady.  You jus' leave our toes alone now." She didn't know who this O' Snaps woman was, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let her eat any of her or her sister's toes.

Moss’s eyes opened a little wider when the girl seemed to think she meant she was going to eat their toes. “Ooo! Sorry no not me! There’s a big snappy turtle that lives around this part of the swamp an’ he just can’t help himself!” She eyed the pool with trepidation. The big ol’ bastard sat so still sometimes it was hard to tell wether it was him or just a bloody big rock until it was too late. “I’m Moss, but you can call me Mossy. Are you two lost? Do you need help finding someone? This place can be tricky if you don’t know where to step.”

“Speech”

We bring you good news by word of mouth

She stepped back at Bones' command, and made sure to bury her toes a little deeper in the silt. What kind of weirdo went around eating kids' toes for breakfast? Maybe a lunch.. or even a dinner, but surely that wasn't a healthy way to start the day. Ducky almost breathed a sigh of relief as the woman assured them she had no intention of eating their toes, almost, because the thought of a snapping turtle somewhere in the murk was somehow scarier than a swamp monster. Taking another step back, just in case, the youth began to contemplate the stranger's other questions. Unsure of just how much she should share, she offered her name, "'M Duckweed, or just Ducky." But she left the other questions unanswered, deferring the rest to Bones, who always knew the right answer..

Boneset only had a few brief moments to decide if the swamp lady in front of them was trustworthy or not. Her childlike innocence wanted to trust the stranger just because she was older and spoke in kind tones, but momma was also older and look where trusting her got them. If it weren't for the fact that they were really, truly lost, the pup probably would have formed a halfway decent lie to get them out of this mess, but.. " M' Bones. We ain't lookin' for no one, just a place ta sleep really." For now at least. One again the pair had made it to the end of Boneset's plans. She intended on coming up with the next leg of their journey after they made it out of this place, but that had just started to seem impossible before the creature of the mud showed up. "I like yer name. Can ya get us out of here, Mossy?" here's hoping the snapping turtle wasn't just a ploy to get Ol' Snaps the swamp woman some juicy puppy foot sausages.

Ducky… and Bones. Her eyes pinched together as she smiled, committing the names to memory, “I like your names too!” she answered with enthusiasm. It had been a while since the girl had company and while her primary concern was to keep these kids safe, she also didn’t want to pry and potentially open wounds. The last few months had been harsh, and if they did have parents, well, they hadn’t been around them in a while…

Now the imminent danger was gone, she snuck another glance at the pair. She was no healer, not like Bog was, but she knew hungry when she saw it. “I got a den back this way, I can catch us some catfish to eat, and then if you want, I can get you to a better swamp than this one. We can go visit my friend that lives near the beach! If you want to that is.” She wasn’t about to force them to do anything, but the offer was there for the taking.

“Speech”

We bring you good news by word of mouth

Perhaps if their mom had paid more attention to them, had been more concerned with their welfare than her own, Duckweed would have been a little quicker to turn down the woman. Sure, she knew all about stranger danger, but it hadn't been stressed in quite the right way, and most of it she and Bones had had to figure out on their own. As if on cue her stomach grumbled, the thought of a freshly caught catfish nearly making her mouth water. Her appetite had only just started to return, and denying it seemed too great a sin to bear. Duckweed looked to Bones with pleading in her eyes. A nice, warm place to sleep? One that was potentially safe, and if it wasn't, well.. they'd figure it out when the time came, but in the meantime the woman posed an offer that was too good to pass up. "That doesn't sound too bad, does it?"

With childlike innocence also came childlike confidence.  Bones sized the dirty woman up for a moment and came to the conclusion that if she ended up being a threat to the pair, then they could probably take her down if they worked together.  Probably.  It could be possible.  The offer was too good to refuse considering their current predicament.  Especially if there really was a snapping turtle just waiting for them to make a wrong move on the loose. "....No, it doesn't." she whispered to Ducky, though she wasn't 100 percent sure what a catfish was or how it differed from other fish. "Okay, but ya' can't eat Turkey Tail, he's our friend."  She said sternly, motioning to the squirrel that was now chittering angrily at nothing in particular from up in the tree she'd placed him on just moments ago.