“Tried to keep the bugs off us,” replies James, eyes beginning to water from the stench.

Miko quickly realizes that whatever the foul smelling mist may be doing to his senses, it is in fact keeping the bugs away.. No more of those pesky mosquitoes are landing on him, or even coming close for that matter.

“It worked,” James exclaims in satisfaction. “I’d rather have stink than bites, wouldn’t you?” he asks.

“If it just wasn’t so bad,” Miko begins, but then nods his head in agreement. “Next time, try to put some perfume in it, okay?” The rain had by this time all but slacked off and doesn’t seem to be washing the pungent stuff off of them.

“Okay,” agrees James as they once again start following the trail deeper into the swamp. Further along, they come across the skeletal remains of one of the rhino-lizards they’d run into earlier. It’s half sunk in the water, lying next to the trail. The top half of the animal, the part not in the water still has rotting, decaying flesh attached to the bones. The section within the water looks to have been picked clean.

Miko eyes the carcass as they pass and observes small fish swimming in and around the bones. Not paying attention to where he’s putting his feet, he accidentally steps off the trail and into the water.

Suddenly a flurry of activity surrounds his boot as the water begins to churn. Pulling his boot out of the water quickly, he finds three of the small fish are attached to his boot. Appalled, he rubs his boot along the ground, and quickly scrapes them off before running to catch up with James. This time he’s paying much closer attention to where he places his feet.

From up ahead, they hear the sound someone coming down the trail toward them. James begins to leave the path and enter the water in order to hide in a copse of trees when Miko grabs him by the arm and shakes his head vehemently. Pointing to the small fish swimming there in the water, he warns him quietly “They’ll eat you alive!”