text: [Themes: sci-fi, action]
  
  You are on the run, or... float, rather. You've been floating down the mighty Pilchangk for some time towards what you hope is safe passage off this warring planet.
  
  You don't normally travel alone and can't remember the last time you had to fend for yourself. However, since parting ways with your trigger-happy masked protector, life certainly took some interesting turns - or bends (river life, right?).
  
  Thinking back on your former protector, you think it strange that for all the days you spent together you never learned his name and he never asked for yours. Stranger still, you never saw his face. Even more especially strange is you don't know much about yourself... or your kind. Green skin, tiny frame, and the ability to move objects without physically touching them? No, there aren't many of your kind around these parts.
  
  You resolve to think deeply about this latter subject as time permits. For now, you conclude it is better to focus on the river. The last thing you want is to hit a rock or low hanging branch and have to swim the unknown lengths to the river's end.
  
  The end of the river is where you are heading since the Pilchangk deposits itself at the foot of a well-known hub town for interstellar travelers seeking odd jobs. With any luck you'd hitch a ride with someone who took your appearance as a welcome novelty. Admittedly, there was much luck involved with your plan and no long-term solution for finding peace and security.
  
  You place your hands into the cold waters of the Pilchangk and paddle your tiny craft one tiny stroke at a time to clear yourself from the river edge. As you do so, you begin wishing you had the energy to carry yourself in the air with your unseen abilities. You imagine making quick work of the travel ahead, flying at hurtling speeds through the river system - but to do that you'd need rest and recovery. Those special abilities would only come forward after several long naps and a full belly.
  
  As the river bends, so do your thoughts. Perhaps you'll cross paths with your protector again -but then maybe not. There are many paths to take in this galaxy and many of them seem not to make much sense or take account of any one person's desires. Whether or not there is some master plan behind it all, there certainly seemed to be an urgency for everyone to get to a final destination of sorts. Perhaps you'll think about this, too, as time permits. Just as you conclude to think more about the many paths your own life could take...
  
  **Splintering - CRASH**
  
  ...you instantly regret the path just taken. As you scramble from your broken raft onto the river's edge, you see the rock that went unnoticed. It's jagged and clearly sticking out of the river. You must have been half-asleep to miss it.
  
  You wonder at the state of your being as you scan the riverbank. From where you crashed, trees and fern-like vegetation cover a short cliff edge overhanging the river. You cannot imagine what lies beyond. Then there is the river in front of you, cold and winding.
  
  You consider your options.
  
  > take rest and think back on why the river route was chosen in the first place. After all, you might as well rest the body if you can't fill your stomach.
  You move carefully so you don't stumble on the uneven ground back into the waters. The rocks are pointy underfoot but you hardly notice them in your tired state. When you arrive to level and somewhat dry patch, you take one long stretch before collapsing in exhaustion. Rest was a good idea - how good it feels!
  
  As soon as you hit the ground, your mind returns to the river, the obstacle that cannot be ignored. You begin to think, why did I choose this lousy route? And then you remember...
  
  The Pilchangk seemed the best way for escaping the unruly planet. With any luck, you'd float right into the hub town to catch the next interstellar flight off this planet. You didn't have the script but you could pack nicely in someone's stowaway.
  
  Caught in a flash of self-doubt, you review the mental checklist you imagined you referenced before merging your fate with the rapids many days ago:
  
  Water? Certainly.
  
  Food? Not confirmed.
  
  Safety? Rumored.
  
  Well, at any rate, the Pilchangk presented itself as an overlooked, remote waterway, unseen by those who would have an interest to hunt you down. Sure, those who were employed with hefty bounties on your head came equipped with trackers that could assist with locating your exact whereabouts throughout the known galaxy - but this region was in civil war for the last generation and a half and the Pilchangk river cut through an especially active hot zone. Who would be crazy enough to follow you here?
  
  *Twisting and snapping noises pop from the tree above you*
  
  Just when you thought you found time to ponder life's choices, you are startled by snapping branches and something hurryingly coming to meet you! Certainly, shelter would have been a better thing to look for before laying down, exposing yourself to the world with eyes closed and your tiny folded hands beneath your teeny, vulnerable head. At any rate, you open your eyes just in time to meet a formidable tree branch, eager to reduce your knowledge of world and self to more primitive states.
  
  When you awake, you make several slow and effortful blinks before assuming a much simpler life on the river. You don't remember who you are or where you were going. You don't much care, either. Over time your sense of self melds with the ecosystem that surrounds you. Changes in weather, lengths of shadow cast by the growing vegetation, the noises and behaviors of wildlife -all of it... is drunk by your senses and fills the void that was your sense of self. In a constant state of fear and longing but not quite knowing why, you live out the remainder of your days here, subsisting on whatever the river provided.
  
  The End