I’m drowning.
The muddy water mixed with crimson soaks into me.
I’m pierced.
There’s no escape, will I ever get free of this place? Will they find me?
I’m scared.
Someone is coming. I can here them sloshing through the cursed sucking lake mud.
It will be over soon.
Ragged breathing from the new one, the mud must be even thicker then I thought, someone is struggling to breathe nearby too, this breathe is shallow and wet, too weak to be called a gasp, but just as desperate. The dank and dark are closing; soon I’ll be completely submerged, trapped in the dark clinging embrace of the depths. He’s on us now, what is this, he isn’t one of them.
Maybe he will help. Maybe he can get us out of here.
Wait, what are you doing? Stop, he needs help too.
No don’t leave him…
The ragged breathing has stopped, the lifeblood no longer seeps. It is over. My master is dead.

Jacob struggled through the sucking mud, pulling roughly against its grasping embrace.
I can’t believe I found something like this here in the middle of the woods.
The farm boy smiled to himself and imagined what he and his new acquisition would do together. He grabbed a branch near the bank with his free hand and hauled himself out of the water. The two arrows had caused a lot of damage, maybe more than he could hope to remedy.
If you’re useless we aren’t going to be very good friends you know.
He tossed his load on the bank and walked around his prize. The jerkin was beautifully made, obviously crafted for a wealthy owner. Only the side that had been pierced by the arrows showed any sign of wear. Jacob stroked its surface lovingly, tracing the delicate filigrees on its surface. He grabbed it by the shoulders and shook it hard to displace the sludge of the lake, to his surprise the mud sprayed off as if the surface was covered in some oily substance, only the deep red of the blood remained on the pristine pale blue surface. He fumbled with the belt and ties to loosen them, and then whipped the whole thing over his head. To his amazement it fit him perfectly. Without a glance back at the pale naked elf floating in the nearby shallows, Jacob turned and strutted down the nearby road toward his father’s farm to show him his find.

I’m free.
The wind caresses me like an old friend, whispering its welcome as it slides past.
This new master will do nicely, already his warmth is spreading through my entire being; I wonder where we will go together. I wonder who we’ll meet. I wonder who those men in the shadows are. I wonder what that hissing noise is.
No wait, I know what that noise is, it comes before the pain.

As the daylight began to fade the lake returned to its former calm as the dark-clad men slid away silently into the trees. The dimming light danced merrily across the clear water and lightly touched its clear surface. In the shallows, barely visible in the wan light were two figures locked in a seeming embrace beneath the stillness of the surface. One looked up at the sky flowing elven hair cascading around him. The other stared sightless into the encroaching mud tossed roughly atop the other sleeper.

I’m drowning.
I fear that I will never be free of this place.
It’s cold.