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.
  
  > climb the Embankment.
  You scramble up the river's cliff edge, using the vegetation to help pull you up since solid footholds are in short supply. Some of the trees look as if they could fall into the river at any moment. Just as you round the top of the cliff edge, you hear a cracking and popping sound behind you.
  
  You whip around to see what it could be, prepared to fight to the end if needed. A tree branch, much larger than you, crashes thru the canopy and lands directly where you disembarked from the river. Good thing you left as quick as you did, you muse.
  
  Looking back over the Pilchangk, you feel a bit relieved that you had to leave it. It might not end well out of the waters but at least you've been granted a chance to break up the monotonous river rat life. And besides, it was cold in there and you hadn't found anything edible in its waters for days, save river slime. You decisively turn away from the river, uninterested in the scene the climb in elevation provides you.
  
  As you walk away from the river thru the understory you find yourself in front of a large domicile set in the middle of a clearing. You freeze – and this time it isn't the cold waters of the Pilchangk that have you frozen. What if there be monsters? Would they enslave or eat you?
  
  You permit your mind to create all sorts of horrible endings before you remember to breathe. Your body is grateful for the resumed intake of oxygen and eases up a bit. The wave of terror passes thru you. Fear. What a mind killer, right?
  
  With your executive functions back online, your sight slowly returns to perceiving the world rather than projecting your nightmares. You peak thru shrubs and take in the scene before you.
  
  Whatever lives here incorporated the local ecosystem into their landscaping, which meant they've probably been here a while. Around the domicile a large barrier has been erected. The barrier is enormous and efforts to reinforce it with vegetation are obvious. Likely it served as both camouflage and protection. "Protection from what?", you ponder.
  
  Between the barrier and the domicile are footpaths. Between you and the house is a stone fire pit. No signs of bones near the pit so you think this may be the dwelling of a more civilized bush people. Or, perhaps they ate bones, too – you couldn't rule that out.
  
  You then notice the passage into the domicile. There is a large door slightly cracked open and unguarded. Too dark to see past the door, you wonder what lies beyond its threshold. There are no signs of life but whatever you decide to do next, you feel you should stick to the shadows and remain silent.
  
  > explore the parimeter.
  You take the footpath to the right of the house since it had the most vegetative coverage. A net trap catches you off-guard and before you know it you're dangling upside down, swaying in the breeze. You are suspended well above the domicile, as if to show the world your unfortunate misstep. You hear only the raging Pilchangk and the wind whistling thru the trees.
  
  It's not so bad, you begin to think. At least you can hang onto hope that whoever finds you would be reasonable and let you lose. But then, as if abruptly in response to your cheery disposition, your net rotates and you become immediately aware of the netted creature suspended beside you. Whatever it was, it is now nothing more than bones. You let out a screech and struggle until your reserved adrenaline has left your system.
  
  After much whimpering and protest you surrender your fate to the forces beyond your control. You resolve to look at the brighter side of things and figure at least your netted neighbor wasn't stinky and that this may be as good as time as any to take a much-needed nap.
  
  The End