The Blackwater Pond Logs

You should have stopped walking an hour ago.

That thought had been circling uselessly through your head for the past twenty minutes while you stumbled through unfamiliar wetland terrain with a map unfolded in one hand and a headlamp barely illuminating the ground ahead of you.

The smart decision would have been making camp before dark.

The responsible decision would have been waiting until morning to continue navigating.

Unfortunately, your brain had locked onto solving the route discrepancy currently unfolding between your topographic map, compass, and GPS like a terrier with a death wish.

Which meant your body had quietly become secondary information.

Again.

“That makes literally no sense,” you muttered under your breath, stopping briefly to angle the map closer to the headlamp glow. “If the creek bends east here then I should’ve hit the ridgeline at least half a mile ago unless this entire survey is—”

Your compass needle twitched violently.

Then pointed west.

You frowned.

“…Cute.”

The GPS screen had already frozen twenty minutes earlier before restarting itself twice and displaying coordinates that placed you somewhere several miles south of where you knew you should be.

Battery issue maybe.

Moisture interference.

Magnetic anomaly.

You were tired enough that your thoughts kept slipping sideways before fully forming.

The wetlands around you breathed with constant nighttime noise.

Frogs clicking and shrieking from hidden pools.

Insects buzzing in dense overlapping layers.

Distant splashes somewhere out beyond the reeds.

Every so often something large moved through shallow water with slow deliberate displacement.

Probably deer.

Hopefully deer.

The air smelled thick with mud, moss, and freshwater vegetation. Humid enough that moisture clung to your jacket sleeves despite the mild temperature.

You adjusted the straps on your backpack automatically and kept walking.

Your ankle already hurt from the day’s hike.

Not injured hurt.

Just exhausted.

Six days into the expedition and your body had started filing formal complaints with management.

Your uncle would have called this karma.

Actually no—your uncle would have called this:

> “Exactly why young people with too much education shouldn’t wander into the wilderness chasing fairy tales.”

You could practically hear the lecture in real time.

You ignored it with the practiced efficiency of someone who had survived him for years.

The rumors had been worth investigating.

Multiple undocumented reports describing:

strange waterfowl vocalizations

unusually large nocturnal birds

reflective eyes over isolated ponds

aggressive territorial displays

“owl ducks”

Most witnesses sounded unreliable.

A few did not.

And the location overlap with your father’s final expedition notes had been enough to destroy any chance of you staying home.

Your boot caught briefly on exposed roots.

You stumbled, corrected automatically, and kept moving without looking up from the map.

Classic.

Your best friend would have physically hit you with a pool noodle for this by now.

> “You cannot keep walking while your brain is somewhere else.”

Counterargument: multitasking had worked perfectly for you right up until it catastrophically didn’t.

Usually.

The compass needle spun again.

Stopped south.

Then drifted east.

You stopped walking entirely this time.

“…No.”

The wetlands around you suddenly felt larger.

Too large.

You slowly raised your headlamp.

Dark trees stretched in every direction, their trunks distorted by curtains of moss and tangled roots disappearing into black water. Thick reeds shifted softly in the distance despite the absence of wind.

The trail behind you looked unfamiliar.

That unpleasant realization settled quietly into your stomach.

Not panic.

Not yet.

You had field training.

You had survival experience.

You had enough supplies to comfortably outlast your own bad decisions for several months if necessary.

Still…

You unfolded the second map from your jacket pocket and crouched near a fallen log, comparing terrain markers beneath the headlamp glow.

“Okay,” you murmured. “Either I crossed farther north than expected or this section was surveyed by raccoons.”

The GPS flickered once.

Died completely.

Your jaw tightened.

That was annoying.

Not catastrophic.

Just annoying.

You dug through your bag for spare batteries while balancing the maps awkwardly across one knee.

Somewhere out across the wetlands came a sound that made you pause.

WAAAH-lulululululuhhhhhh.

Your head lifted slowly.

The call echoed over distant water.

Long.

Warbling.

Wrong.

Not quite loon.

Not quite duck.

Too deep in places. Almost resonant beneath the surface.

You listened hard.

Silence answered.

Then another call rose farther away.

WAAAH-lulululululuhhhhhh.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.”

You grabbed the audio recorder so quickly you nearly dropped the batteries into the mud.

The sound came again.

Closer this time.

Modified loon call?

Acoustic distortion over water?

Undocumented anatidae species?

Territorial vocalization?

Your heart hammered harder.

Because underneath the professional curiosity—

underneath the field training and scientific caution and rational explanations—

something older had already woken up inside you.

Wonder.

The exact same dangerous wonder that had swallowed your father whole.

Fatigue vanished so fast it almost made you dizzy.

You stood too quickly while trying to triangulate the direction of the sound.

Your foot landed on loose ground.

For one strange suspended second your stomach floated weightless in your chest.

The earth vanished beneath you.

And suddenly—

you were falling.