"Okay Annie, calm down, stop moving" said Maddie as she tried to calm Annie down.
"The More you move and struggle the more the mud moves" said Maddie, even though she was not sure that moving was the right word to call what this mud was doing, it was more like consuming Annie.
"That's easy for you to say, you are not the one in here" said Annie as she was still struggling to get out.
She wasn't usually scared of drowning, well that was because she never thought that she would ever end up in a situation where she would drown, but then again here she was in the middle of nowhere, drowning... in MUD!
"Look Annie, I know that you are scared, I am too, but we need more time to get you out of there, and you are decreasing the time we have, when you keep on struggling like that" said Maddie as she talked to Annie calmly even though she was panicking too on the inside.
"Okay so take deep slow breaths and stop moving" said Maddie and Annie nodded her head.
"Like this" said Maddie as she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, and Annie copied her.
"Good, you see the mud has stopped moving" said Maddie as Annie kept on breathing.
Right now it looked like Annie was bathing in a pool of brown, runny, wet, sticky definitely not normal mud.
"We are lucky that only you got stuck, imagine if the both of us got stuck, what would we do then??" asked Maddie
"So what do we now?? I mean what are you going to do?? I can't keep swimming in here" said Annie
"You took the words right out of my mouth, it does look like you are swimming" said Maddie as she laughed, and Annie gave her a "I don't think that this is they type of situation where you laugh" type of look.
"Okay okay sheesh, look at the bright side, it stopped moving, so I can think of a plan" said Maddie
"And please tell me what this plan of yours is??" asked Annie
"I am still thinking, I still don't know yet" said Maddie as she was trying to thing of the best possible way that she could get Annie out of there without getting herself stuck in the process.
Maddie bent down and her moves moved to a very smooth pebble that was brownish in colour, she picked it up and threw it straight into the mud pool, and as if waiting to be fed the mud gobbled up the pebble immediately.
"Umm that's dangerous" said Annie as she was shocked, that could be her soon, if they didn't find a way to get her out of here.
"I know right" said Maddie as she looked puzzled, she was trying to check if she could maybe get the mud to spit Annie out if she fed it enough rocks, but judging from what just happened, she was sure that no amount of rocks would satisfy this mud.
"Maybe I can try forcing it open" said Maddie
"How??" asked Annie
"By using a parting spell" said Maddie
"Okay then" said Annie
"Well then brace yourself" said Maddie as she closed her eyes, and she rubbed her hands together.
"Pars duo" she said as she moved her her hands apart slowly.
"Woahh Woah" said Annie as she felt the mud starting to jiggle and move, she felt like potatoes that were being boiled in water.
"It's working" said Annie as she could see almost see the opening in the mud that she could squeeze through.
But all her hopes were smashed in a mere second as Maddie stopped moving her hands and she panted.
"The spell didn't work, the Mud is enchanted, I can't part it" said Maddie
"Aww what, what is this?? am I going to be stuck here forever??" asked Annie as she lamented, but she made sure not to move and part of her body except for her mouth, because the mud had already reached her neck, she was almost fully submerged in it.
"Aww Annie, don't give up, that was just my first try" said Maddie as she tried to cheer Annie up.
"We can try another way" she said
"Okay then" replied Annie, as she was thinking of how soaked she was, if not for the scorching sun, she would have felt cold in the wet cold mud.
"If only it rained right now, maybe that would stop the mud from forming into a solid shape" said Maddie
"That might work, but I doubt that would happen, the weather is unpredictable here" said Annie.
Maddie was trying to think, she was sure that if she did not get Annie out of here in time, the consequences would be disastrous.
"I feel so helpless, and sticky, and wet" said Annie
"You also look very funny right now, if not that this is a very serious situation, I would laugh" said Maddie
"Maddie??" said Annie
Maddie went quiet for a moment, she had to think, this all did not make sense, nothing here added up, first Matt went missing all morning, and he stayed in his spot until they got here.
When they found him is when he began to move like a mindless zombie, and then just coincidentally out of the blue while they were trying to snap him out of it, Annie suddenly steps on obviously magic mud, that acted like quick sand, and that was also hungry.
This all seemed planned, all of it, from Matt to Annie and now to the mud, Maddie was sure that this was not what they thought it out to be, and of course she had an idea of who was probably behind this.
Maddie looked at Matt who was still mindlessly trying to move past the barrier that she put up, and then she suddenly had an Idea.
"I have an idea" said Maddie
"Well then okay, just hurry, because the mud is moving again" said Annie as he chin was not covered by the mud.
"Eeek" said Maddie as she started moving fast.
"I need a rope" said Maddie as she looked around for something like a rope, that she could use, but she found nothing.
"Okay I can't find a rope, so I have to make one, and that will take a lot of energy from me, so I hope that this works" said Maddie and Annie nodded, because she did not want to get mud in her mouth.
Maddie sat down crossing her legs straight on the ground, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said "funem creare"
In that instant and green light shined, and Maddie kept her eyes closed, she seemed to be weaving something, but the light blocked Annie from seeing what was happening.
"There" said Maddie as she opened her eyes, and the light stopped shining, and a rope was in Maddie's hand.
Annie thought that, that was the coolest thing ever, she had to remember to ask Maddie to teach her how to do that.
"Can you try to reach the rope?" asked Maddie as she stood up and Annie nodded.
Maddie threw the rope to where she thought Annie's hand should be and luckily, Annie was able to catch the rope as it sunk into the mud.
"Do you have it??" asked Maddie and Annie nodded.
"Good" said Maddie
Maddie quickly ran to where Matt was still trying to move, she tied the rope to around Matt's waist.
"Are you ready?" asked Maddie and Annie nodded.
"Hold on tight to the rope" said Maddie
She figured out that they needed something or someone very strong to pull out Annie, and who better to do that than Matt?? as he was still in his zombie state, he would keep on trying to move, and that's exactly what Maddie wanted.
"Confractus" said Maddie and the barrier broke.
And just as she predicted Matt began to move aimlessly once again, and in the process, with the rope tied around his waist, he walked and Annie could feel her hand being pulled.
"Come on Matt, go on a little more" said Maddie as Matt was now struggling to keep on moving forward, but he gave an extra push, and in that instant, Annie felt her body being pulled forward, and in a moment, she was free.
"Ahhh yayyyyy, I'm finally free" said Annie as she jubilated and stretched, she was covered in mud, but at least she was free, she was grateful that she decided to pack her hair up into a bun today, or else she would have had to wash it to get all the mud out.
"Good Thinking Maddie" said Annie
"Why thank you" said Maddie as she smiled smugly.
"Look at that" said Maddie as she pointed and Annie looked behind her.
To both their surprise the mud had started to move on it's own farther and farther away, like it had completed it's mission and it kept on going to who knows where??
"That mud is evil" said Annie, she didn't want to see any type of mud again in her life.
"Tell me about it, today is.. today is really something" said Maddie as she sighed.