The vile smutebat now clung angrily to the smoke vine. Staplemonger and the Ultimate Mammal stared up in wonderment. It was so.. fertile. Even for a smutebat! As they stood and watched, the smutebat gave birth to several dozen more smutebats, some up to twice its size.
Staplemonger took the Ultimate Mammal around behind some dense smoke foliage and whispered: "You know, if we could get ourselves one of those female smutebats, we'd be set for food for life!"
"Obviously I agree," said the Ultimate Mammal, "but that idea is not only stupid, it's dangerous. Possibly deadly."
"I just don't care anymore. We won't get to the shore if we don't get food."
"Fine," said the Ultimate Mammal resentfully. "Bastard", he mumbled under his breath.
Cautiously, they stepped out from behind the smoke foliage. The Ultimate Mammal began to thump his lengthy spine against the smoke vine, and sure enough down plummetted the smutebats. Teeth were everywhere, including the throats of the Ultimate Mammal.
Staplemonger stood and hurled some relaxing fruit. The smutebats were confused, and they stopped eating the Ultimate Mammal and started towards Staplemonger. But they were relaxed. Very relaxed. They felt their blood tingling throughout their bodies. They just wanted to sleep. To sleep. Sleep. Sleep...
The smutebats lay resting on the ground. Fortunately the relaxing fruit hadn't had much effect on the Ultimate Mammal, although he was now dead from the smutebat attack. After a few attempts at propping the Ultimate Mammal up, Staplemonger realized he was of now use, and shoved his Ultimate Mamular corpse into the smoky warm swamp. "Splash", said the water, as if to thank Staplemonger for providing it with such an exquisite meal. The Ultimate Mammal was no more. Now, there were only secondary mammals.
Staplemonger began to shiver as he grabbed the relaxed smutebats tossed the females into his satchel. Although they were dead, they were still having babies every few minutes. Staplemonger sighed angrily and continued along the narrow land bridge between the hot and cold swamps. Within a few short minutes, the satchel was full. Staplemonger reached in and threw some smutebats into the cold swamp. This woke them up, and they immediately flew back to their native smoke vine, the young following the old.
Staplemonger refastened the satchel, removed his vinyl trousers and lept into the warm swamp. It was refreshing, for a swarm. The smoke was everywhere. In these forests, the smoke was always everywhere. No fires, just smoke. Staplemonger dove under the water and went down until he touched the bottom, which was indeed some sort of heating coil. Staplemonger performed a lovely underwater scream as his flesh began to melt and burn from the heating coil. He then drew his hand away from it and swam back to the surface.
'Well, I've discovered something here!' Staplemonger thought to himself as he treaded in the smoky warm swamp. What exactly had he discovered, anyways? Nothing that made a lot of sense. Perhaps that some odd person had at one time installed a heating system in the swamp. No big deal. Staplemonger now began to tread back towards the shore. Where was that wacky shore? The smoke filled the air and made the various directions look the same.
Staplemonger now decided that the best method of saving himself would be to pick a direction and then swim in that direction until he hit land. Turning a bit to his left, he began to swim straight. After a almost half an hour, he made contact with a rocky shore. Hoisting himself up on the smooth blue rocks, he realized how perilous his situation was. The path between the two swamps was nowhere in sight. Staplemonger had never had a talent for navigation. Following the path had seemed easy enough. Now, he didn't have a clue which direction it was to the shore. He missed his satchel, which byy now would be exploding with cramped smutebats. He missed his vinyl pants.
He curled up on the rocks and fell asleep.