The marsh

The plain was not as flat as it first looked from the hillside, but undulated gently in a series of low hills. The road was poor, quickly deteriorating into a rubbly, uneven track of broken, black stone that swept away from Zephyr as she picked her way down it. The going was hard and she was soon tired, but she pushed on relentlessly until she reached the top of a low rise and could go no further, then she sat on a coarse grassy hummock, pulled her knees up to rest her chin on them and gazed down in the direction she was travelling. Towards the bottom of the hill a thick mist swirled, obscuring the road from view. Zephyr shivered, chills running down her spine as though icy fingers had touched her. She hated the look of the mist, it curled strangely and eerie shapes appeared and disappeared in its miasmic depths. She eyed the mist warily as she rested, then when she could put it off no longer she stood and stepped down into it. Immediately the chill of it's touch froze her to the bone, but she continued on, slowly and cautiously until it covered her head. It was blinding. She could barely see the road surface beneath her feet as she stepped forward. Each careful step was frightening, she could be walking towards a chasm and not know anything about it until she wandered off the edge. The thought made her stop short.
'Don't stop, they're behind you.' The growling voice made her spin round in terror, searching for the source. A huge shadow loomed next to her and she screamed, stumbling backwards.
'Not that way!' She heard the voice cry out as her foot slipped from the road into thick oozing mud. She tried to pull free, but it held her fast, sucking at her leg as she struggled. She looked down to try and see, and lost her balance, slipping to her knees in the cloying black mud. Instantly she was stuck, hands and legs held firmly in the tar-like substance. She could feel it pulling at her, sucking her deeper and she struggled harder to free herself. Her strength fading she barely had energy enough to scream when two huge clawed hands reached down and wrapped themselves around her waist. She went limp in the creatures grip as the hands roughly jerked her from the sucking mud, threw her over it's back and loped quickly away along the road. Barely conscious Zephyr was only partly aware of the journey out of the mist, her eyes half closed and delirious with exhaustion and terror she did not notice the spiderlike, yellow-eyed creatures that skittered after them. Her rescuer did and increased his pace until he was grunting and snarling with exertion. Still the creatures came, their spindly limbs gripping the rocky road and launching them forwards with frightening speed. They chattered maddeningly as they chased and bared razor sharp teeth that were a poisonous grey colour. The beast roared his frustration and pushed himself harder to escape the pursuers. There were hundreds of them and they now flowed from the black mud on either side too. Ahead the mist thinned and he howled in despair...the road was blocked with more of the tiny, vicious animals, venom dripping from their fangs as they grinned in triumph at him. As he neared the edge of their ranks he gave a huge bellow and launched himself high, over the creatures' heads, over every one of them and through the last dregs of the mist to the safety of the road beyond. The insectile beasts hissed and chittered in dismay, their yellow eyes glaring hungrily from the edge of the mist. Then they melted away and were gone. The beast lifted Zephyr from his back and dumped her unceremoniously on the hard ground, collapsing into a slump next to her, his massive chest heaving. He prodded her with a claw and grunted when she didn't respond.
'Stupid girl.' He growled to himself, dragging himself to his feet and moving away up the path. After a second he stopped and looked back towards the unconscious, helpless woman lying in the middle of the road. He thought about the dangers and creatures that dwelled in the underworld; that preyed on the innocent and unwary.
'Once you would have been one of them.' He grumbled to himself as he turned back and scooped her up into his heavily muscled arms.
'Now you're just a fool just like her. A fool for innocence and a pretty face.'