Victoria POV
The swamp was worse than Victoria had imagined.
The portal deposited her on what might have been solid ground once but was now mostly mud and stagnant water. The moment her boots touched down, she sank three inches into muck that smelled like rot and death and things that should have stayed buried.
Victoria pulled her feet free with a wet sucking sound and looked around.
The swamp stretched in every direction, twisted trees growing out of dark water, vines hanging like curtains, fog so thick she could barely see twenty feet ahead. The air was heavy and humid, pressing against her skin like a wet blanket.
And it was loud.
Not silent like the quarry. The swamp was alive with sound. Insects buzzing. Frogs croaking. Birds calling. And underneath it all, something else. Something that might have been breathing or might have been the swamp itself expanding and contracting.
Victoria activated her tracking compass.
