The entire party was speechless in the wake of their leader’s murder. Wide eyed faces stared out to the north, quivering trigger fingers restrained from firing, and frozen, statuesque legs grounded and unwavering. The entire party was in shock.

“He’s gone,” Gobb muttered.

“Lord, help us,” Leafshot prayed.

The usual sound of distant birds chirping and a gentle breeze returned to the clearing, replacing the ringing in their ears.

Gobb stumbled over to the spot where Grout was swallowed by the gigantic snake and wiped his hand on the ground. “What the hell was that thing?”

Lash was incredibly quiet. No witty quips to add this time.

“Grosserp,” came a high, cracked voice from behind a cluster of bushes near the river. “He was taken by a Grosserp.”

“You sure?,” Gobb checked.

Brooks nodded his head. “It was certainly a Grosserp.”

“But those are made up animals from a child’s story book,” Brightsun added.

“Indeed they are. Which means we’re not in Amphius anymore.”

“If Grosserps are made up then why is one alive here?”

“Now that I intend to find out,” Brooks said.

The rest of the party seemed to form a half circle around him. Brooks looked a bit surprised when he noticed them inch closer. They stopped within a few yards of him and looked at him with confident stares.

Rotmyre recovered and spotted the officers surrounding Brooks, talking and raising their hands in unison. He knew this only meant one thing. They selected their new leader. Dammit. He ran over and fit himself in between Longfire and Scales and raised his hand. “May I make a suggestion?”

“No,” Brightsun scowled.

Rotmyre stared him down and held his head high. “I would like to make a suggestion.” He raised his voice to gain all their attention, which, he did quite easily. “Since I have many years experience surveying forests and swamps. I suggest myself as leader of the search party.”

Longfire chuckled next to him.
“What?” Rotmyre snapped.

Brooks was slightly confused as it was apparent in his voice. “Thank you, Mr. Rotmyre, but we already made our decision.” He reached out his hand to the heavy toad that stood next to him. “Officer Gobb will be leading the party due to his many years of experience and knowledge.”

“Thank you, Detective Brooks, “ Gobb locked eyes with Rotmyre. An unpleasant feeling shifted down the spine of the real estate owner. “We can grieve for Captain Grout later. Right now we need to keep our eyes on the mission. He knew that, and we know that. He would want us to complete the mission. We find these families and return them home safely. Mr. Rotmyre, I’m going to ask that you stay close with Officers Longfire and Scales for the rest of time we are here.”

Rotmyre tightly closed his mouth, causing al light pain in his teeth. He sighed then added, “If that’s where you need me, Officer Gobb.”

Gobb nodded and then returned his attention on the rest of the crew. “We are going to need to pack up our belongings and meet here in one hour. Anyone may peruse through Grout’s supplies, but I will carry any personal effects of his to be brought back safely.”

Rotmyre kept to himself mostly, but Longfire would walk by him occasionally to make some jab at him. “Nothing like a cushy office in your mansion, huh?”, or “You should really leave the real work to us.”, then “Maybe when you get a bit bigger we’ll let you join the force.” Rotmyre tried to show that none of the comments bothered him. They wanted him to feel unwelcomed, to run back home to his cushy bed and servants, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Rotmyre was too stubborn to let little remarks steer him away from helping his employee, but the only guy he had leverage on is gone. He needed a different angle. He smirked. Once I get to know you. You’ll start thinking differently of me.

Gobb called Rotmyre over to the river about a few minutes before the hour was up. “Mr. Rotmyre, I need to let you know about a few conditions. Captain would not have let you come on this joyride, unless you had some sort of use. Since I’m the new captain of this crew, I need to know what it was.”

Rotmyre held back a smile. Butterflies entered his stomach as he devised an alibi. “I told Grout that I knew this forest and could have him survey it. Map it out, but he had a condition and that was not to interfere with his orders.”

Gobb nodded and pondered for a moment. Rotmyre could tell from how he talked about Grout before that he really didn’t know him personally. That the old war veteran was unknown to everybody in the party like a fictional character in a book. Gobb’s bulbous belly jiggled as he teetered back and forth in thought. “Okay, but if there is more you are not telling me then we leave you here alone. I’m sure you can find your way back through the Flaretom invested forest.”

Rotmyre felt the sting of distrust yet again and it continued to spread. He needed a way back in. He needed to be leading the search party. “Well let me know whenever I can help. I can assure you that within this forest, you can easily get lost.”

“I’ll call on you when I need you, but for now why don’t you go find Scales. You can’t miss his blonde hair.”

Rotmyre smiled and found Scales trying to shove his tent into its carrying bag about fifteen yards away. Longfire, over his shoulder, trying to give him tips on how to do it. Scales was bickering to Longfire that he could do it himself.
“You need a hand?” Rotmyre beamed.

Longfire shook her head and grunted. “You don’t do it that way, Scales. Let me help.”

“No, I got this,” Scales rebuked, forcing the poles and folded cloth into the bag that looked two sizes too small for it.

“Officer Longfire!” called Gobb.

She stopped scolding Scales and noticed Rotmyre behind her. “Oh hello Mr. Real Estate. Care to sell me a new tent. I think Scales needs one.” She smiled.

“No, I don’t!” Scales snapped.

“Longfire!” Gobb called again.

She silenced herself and nodded to Rotmyre as she left. Rotmyre certainly felt that Longfire was definitely the only physical threat out of the search party. She was taller than some of the other officers and definitely much more muscular. Rotmyre pictured her lifting a car over her head and got a version of goosebumps just thinking about it. He focused his attention on Scales though, who was still trying to shove his tent inside the bag.

“Hey, you know its okay to ask for help sometimes.”

Scales grunted and shook his head.

“Heck even I ask for help.”

The bag and tent fell to the ground as Scales spun around and stared Rotmyre dead in the eyes. “When? … When have you ever asked for help?”

“Plenty of times,” Rotmyre lied. He never needed to ask for help since he typically got what he wanted, but not without good hard work.

Scales shook his head. “I don’t want to look like a failure.”

“Why would you think that?”

Scales scoffed at him. “Why do you think? …. I have one of the biggest and best partners in the force and I can’t even put a stupid tent into my bag without her patronizing me. She’s only four years older than me.”

Rotmyre shook his head. “Look, how about I show you how to do it and when Gobb calls on me with my surveying experience, I’ll have you help me out. How about that?”

Scales was quiet, possibly pondering Rotmyre’s offer.

“This way the rest of the crew will see that you are a well rounded officer that knows things that even Longfire doesn’t know.”

Scales nodded and took a step back. His movements were enough for Rotmyre to know that he agreed.
The tent was easy to fold into a tightly packed square and the poles slipped into the bag without a snag. Rotmyre handed Scales the bag, but something else was wrong about him. He looked terrified and kept looking over his shoulder.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “Are you scared?”

Rotmyre looked into Scales’ eyes and noticed a green tint in the blue of his irises. It became uncomfortable quickly and Rotmyre looked away. He cleared his throat – never the best at the emotional part of communication. “Of course, I’m scared. Everyone’s scared. It’s just everyone has their own way of showing it.” He extended his arm toward Gobb and Longfire. They seemed deep in conversation. “Even your partner there is scared.”

“A gigantic snake came and ate the captain. Plus we got chased by those Flaretom things. I can’t even think about explaining this to my parents.”

Rotmyre put his hands on his hips. “You know what I do to help with my fear?”

Scales shook his head.

“I keep myself busy. When I’m need to survey, can I count on you to help?”

Scales nodded, wrapping his arms around the bag.

Rotmyre put his hand on Scales’ quivering and bony shoulder. “And remember we’re all scared here.” He grinned and left Scales for his next target.

Officer Lash wiped his brow after shoving the last part of tent into its bag. He was a bit more competent at tent packing than Scales, but still not at Rotmyre level. Rotmyre could tell from his previous conversation with Lash that he was young and new to the force. A perfect and fresh target. Rotmyre casually walked up behind him and offered a hand.

“I’m good,” Lash looked at him with suspicion.

“How are you holding up?”

Lash sighed. “Good, and you?”

Rotmyre raised a brow. “I hate to say that I’m used to this sort of thing. Where I grew up in Mortong, there were many accidents in the mines. Many fatherless children.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it was much heartache for you in your castle.” Lash picked up a few bags and started to head toward Gobb.

Rotmyre eagerly followed. “Castle? I grew up on Davis Drive. One of the toughest neighborhoods of Mortong. We used to own an entire two-family house, but then we had to rent out the bottom floor, which mostly went to vagabonds or drug dealers. Trust me I didn’t live in a castle. Unless you call a dirty pit a castle.”

Lash ignored him.
“My grandfather though was the worst of it. Now he lived in a castle with maids and butlers and a personal chef, but he didn’t think my mom was worthy of it.” His face drooped to a frown.

“What happened?”

“Huh?” Rotmyre awoke from his ill memories.

“Why was your mom not worthy of it?” Lash slowed his pace to listen.

“Well, he didn’t think it was civil to have a daughter that had a son and wasn’t married.”

Lash nodded. “Yeah, my dad got into a similar fight with my grandfather and he ended up leaving Osten and moving to Rockliffe. My grandfather was a brilliant man, but very stubborn.”

“I hear you there,” Rotmyre jeered and pulled out a tiny flask from his pocket and took a swig of some alcoholic beverage.

Lash looked on with curiosity and nudged Rotmyre to let him take a swig as well. Rotmyre handed him the flask and he knocked one back. It felt good to relax some of his nerves after surviving two beast attacks in two days. “So, now that you have money did you stick it to the old man?”

Rotmyre shook his head. “He died a little bit before my mother died. She was heartbroken after he was gone. Lost in a way.”

Lash nodded. “Hey, I’m sorry for giving you a hard time earlier. It’s just everyone else here thinks that you are some pompous jerk just doing this for the publicity.”

Rotmyre chuckled. “Heck, if I wanted publicity I would have brought in a camera crew.”

“True, but you can’t blame us for not being suspicious. Like why would you go out of your way to find someone you barely know.”

Rotmyre lowered his head. His smiled struggling against an emotional urge. “Because I am not losing another employee to some crazy lunatic.”

Lash dropped his bag near the pile of others. The rest of the officers were conversing as Gobb held one of his last meetings with Leafshot and Brightsun. “What happened?”
“About ten years ago, one of my agents was selling a home not too far from the Crocian Fields. The person selling their house wasn’t too happy with the value that the property assessor gave them. They urged to raise the price and Aida well …. She was a stubborn old frog and held her ground, but the insults started to come. The seller was getting ticked off and mentally unstable so they shot her … Aida had tried calling me about changing the prices, but I was out golfing … and she died that night. I never forgave myself for that. I could have saved her.” His reddened eyes shimmered.

“I’m sorry Rotmyre.”
He turned and glared at Lash with an intensity that would make a kettle boil. “Thanks, but what they did impacted me. Changed me. I will never let it happen again. Rest assured.”

Lash looked away from Rotmyre’s intense gaze and looked upon his older, fatter partner who was deep in conversation with Brightsun and Leafshot. Brightsun was flailing his arms about in his usual manner. “You know Officer Gobb told me that this could be a one-way ticket. I didn’t actually think he was telling me the truth. I thought he was just trying to scare me.”

Rotmyre shook his head. “Optimism and skepticism are good things, but from I have seen so far we can’t underestimate whatever else is in this forest.” The connection went stale between them for a moment. Lash seemed to not want to talk about the forest any longer, Rotmyre assumed it was fear. “And I did wish to rub my success in the old man’s face. He certainly deserved it.” Rotmyre smiled.
Lash appreciated the last bit and returned a smile. “You know I pegged you all wrong, Mr. Rotmyre.” He put his hands on his hips and looked out toward the river and the spot where Grout was eaten. “But like you said I can’t underestimate everything I see in the forest.”

Rotmyre decided to leave Lash in his thoughts and saw Longfire was sitting alone on the ground next to her supplies. He walked over, curious if his words held any weight. “Hello Longfire. Where’s your partner?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Out on his own right now. He needs to do things by himself.” She shook her head. “We used to be a team, a duo, and he used to need my help, but now he just wants to be left alone.”

Rotmyre restrained a large smile as he sat next to her. “You know this place seems to change people. Maybe Scales found some independence out here in the woods.”

“Yeah, well, I need him to bring that independence back here. We are leaving soon.” She nervously scanned the trees in front of her.

“I understand.”
Longfire furrowed her brow. “How could you? You never have been a police officer, Mr. Cushy in my castle.”

“You know I didn’t begin my life in a castle like a prince, but more like on the streets, fending for my life. I built my business to what it is today, but I had help.”
“Let me guess, your partner,” Longfire sneered.

“Yes, Jonto Willowtrout.”

“Willowtrout?”

Rotmyre laughed. “I didn’t say he had a great name.”

Longfire smiled.

“Well Jon and I had a hard time at first. We first worked at firms until we saved up enough money to start our own. I was just out of high school and he was a few years older and we started our business, Precious Homes Real Estate.” Rotmyre reached out his hands like a magician after finishing a card trick. “It was a great time. We built it up, spent countless hours talking to other businesses, gaining sponsors and investors, all that fun stuff. Jon was good at the talking part. My role was my knowledge of the real estate game. I would feed the information to Jon and he would … well talk and he was good at it. We made almost a million in our first year. After then it was history.”

“What happened to Jon?”
Rotmyre cleared his throat. “Well, after he learned about the real estate game, he really didn’t see a need for me anymore. So he left. Started his own company out west and took half of our investors with him. He even gave me a nickname to discredit me. The Dim Swindler.” He looked down in shame.
“Sorry to hear that. I think I remember my dad talking about someone called the Swindler. He said he bought up almost all of Mortong and North Croctop.”

Rotmyre shrugged his shoulders and glanced at her in a ‘I’m caught red handed’ sort of way. “Well you can see that I’m used to a partner becoming independent and leaving me.” He sighed. “It wasn’t easy but I rose back up and became more successful than Jon ever dreamed of.”

Longfire appeared worried and Rotmyre felt it was something he said.

“But don’t worry about Scales. He’s certainly more loyal than Jon. Besides it’s like you said what would I know what it is to have a partner.”

Longfire looked away awkwardly, leaving the space between them very uncomfortable. It lasted for almost a grueling forty seconds until … “It’s ok. I see that you didn’t have a cushy life after all. You worked hard to get where you are at.” She nodded and looked back at Rotmyre with soft eyes. “You know you aren’t what people say you are, especially what Brightsun thinks about you.”

Rotmyre stood up and looked down at Longfire. “Well first impressions aren’t always what they seem.” He walked away toward his tent and packed things up with an incredible and experienced speed. This wasn’t his first camp out. He looked over to the west at where they had entered and the three-foot-high piles of ash. What am I doing out here? … I should be back home. The thought dissipated as a conflicting one prevailed. You know why you are here and don’t forget it! Rotmyre took a deep breath and strapped on his pack.

Gobb called everyone over to the river. Rotmyre made sure to put himself in between Longfire and Leafshot. It was certainly safer than standing next to Brightsun or Brooks who continued to give him distrusting glares.

“Ok, everyone, what I think is our best option is to follow the current of the river. We may find a clue downstream on the whereabouts of the Longreeds and Snags. I think it’s our best option.” Gobb was silent for a moment. “If you have anything you want to say to Captain Grout before we leave. I’ll give you a moment.”

Rotmyre lowered his head in lament. I’m sorry you were taken, Captain Grout, but it had to be done. His mouth curled upward. It had to be done.

Next Chapter: 11 - Old Glare Falls