Commission for  dj-lol-5

Here's a short story that the commissioner wrote inspired by the piece!:

The swampy lands were a scary place for most of the beast men, and they would tell stories about how a colossal swamp monster covered in moss roamed the area and did terrible things to travelers who became lost in the swamps.
To Kumatetsu, however, he saw the swamp lands as a dark, dinghy, and smelly place where the alligators liked to hang out.
He’d typically never go out to the area due to how muddy and stinky it was.
Still, because his brat of an apprentice got sick with the winter flu, he had no choice but to head out into the murky swamp while Tatara and Hyakushubo stayed behind to look after him.
He was searching for a flower that could cure the winter sickness on young beast children who hadn’t yet developed their immune systems to endure the weather.
However, since Kyuta wasn’t a beast man and was still only a small child, he was much more prone to getting sick than any of the other beast men his age.
The flower was a glowing purple and blue color and had a glowing effect on its petals so you could see it in distant places, and Kumatetsu had searched for the dam flowers for 2 hours and was starting to get pissed over not seeing the flowers.
He was careful not to stand on the soft patches of earth since he didn’t want his slippers to get sucked down underneath the mud and always ensured he was on dry land.
Just as he was about to give up, a glowing purple light caught his eye; he looked ahead and saw that the flowers were only a short distance away.
Kumatetsu sighed in relief as he would have to put up with the stench of the swamp any longer; he walked towards where the light was and forgot about the wet earth in front of him until it was too late.
PLOMP!!!!
Kumatetsu’s foot sank into the clay-ridden slop down to his ankle, which led him to fall over and get the lower half of his body caked in mud.
The old bear cursed himself for how much of an idiot he was, for getting himself humiliated and muddy.
Luckily he managed to save his head and shoulders from getting covered in the muck by planting his massive paws in front of himself so that his face wouldn’t get dirty.
He could feel his sandals slipping away from his feet and immediately stood up and lifted his legs to retrieve his mucky sandals from underneath.
He placed the mucky footwear onto dry land and proceeded to tromp his way toward the flowers, and he could feel the rocks and tree branches beneath his feet underneath the mud and how it irritated him, feeling the sharp edges on his soles.
Occasionally he would go into a deep spot, and he would have to lie on his stomach and kick his legs out as if he were swimming; after 30 minutes of exhaustion, the old bear finally managed to get to the flowers and began to pull himself out of the muck.
He sat down on the rock where the flowers were and pulled his foot towards his stomach, and began to massage his foot to ease the pain from all the stones and branches he had stepped on; he looked around and saw that there was a dry patch of land that leads him back to where his sandals were.
Kumatetsu roared in anger as he had just waded through smelly waist-deep swamp mud to get to the flower, only to see that he could have easily walked across the dry patch and not gotten himself covered in mud.
The old bear picked up the flowers and walked back through the dry patch to retrieve his footwear.
He vowed to make Kyuta do the chores when he got better as punishment for catching the winter flu but soon forgotten after the realization that he was going to be laughed at when the other beast-men saw him caked in mud and made sure to hide himself the best he could on the way home.