The Swamp

The swamp clung to Cherelle as a barnacle would to the rusting hull of a ship — with surprising tightness. With a grunt she freed her leg from the muddy pit she’d half fallen into, the soupy liquid parting from her limb with a slick sucking sound. Water swished around in the bottom of her boot, despite its tall neck. With an agitated sigh she started on again, prodding ahead with a large stick to test for solid ground beneath the soupy skin of the swamp. That had been her second close call of the day. Had she fallen in properly, the chances that she’d have been able to pull herself out again were slim. She had to be more careful, though the idea of travelling even slower chafed at her sanity.

With almost exaggerated caution she made careful steps forward, travelling at a snail’s pace. Though the sun was barely visible through the dense canopy of branches and leaves, the heat was intense. The humidity was even worse. Sweat saturated practically everything — her pants, her shirt, her hair. Her feet probably would have been sweating too, if they weren’t already drowning in puddles of swamp water. The effect it all had on her was visible. She bowed her head, moisture dropping from the tip of her nose, and sighed often.

It wasn’t just the humidity. The bugs were ever-present, an eternal torture. When they weren’t guzzling blood they were hovering nearby, the ringing produced by their flight growing to be unbearable. Gritting her teeth, she pushed forward.

She didn’t want to be here. When the orders had come through she’d been tempted to burn them, to pretend they’d been intercepted and destroyed. In reality she would never do such a thing. So here she was, trudging through one of the Earth’s many armpits, searching for an artefact she was pretty sure didn’t actually exist. The only positive was that at sunset, if she hadn’t found the it, she had to call it quits. As she slapped a mozzie that made the mistake of landing on her forearm, she tried to get an idea of where the sun was in the sky. Yes, she was very much looking forward to sunset.

This one is a descriptive writing exercise that I thought turned out quite well. Hope you enjoyed it!