The water was very light and transparent; you could see almost everything in that part of the river, except that on its waves, you could see some light blue shades. Riuluk was standing in his Creaky, happy as if the whole world was in peace and no darkness resided anywhere. He was so full of this happiness that he didn't notice that the Creaky was having some problems here and there, knocking some rocks coming out of the surface. He looked at the sides of the river; he was already inside a forest.

  “Oh Lord! What is this forest? I don't remember it even on my maps!” said Riuluk, losing a bit of his peacefulness.

  He took the maps from a drawer of the already unstable table, tried to put the table back in place, even though it was broken on one side, and put the maps on it.

  “So..I was flying from over the forest of Waldius, on my right the big river of Outhkaer, in front of me the vast green lands of Druen...but, not to mention I was drunk..eheh, asleep and attacked..good Lord Kloud, never to happen again!” he said loud, looking at the sky with his right hand finger pointed at it. He went back to see the maps, then, suddenly, he looked up at the sky, as a parent checking if his child had understood.

  “Fuuuu..so, considering I stopped during the night, without stopping, I should have arrived by morning at the end of the lands of Druen, close to the mountains. But I can't really tell when the anchor fell, and I don't remember a waterfall, nor cliffs around the river. Everybody knows that the Ourthkaer River is flat and as big as an oil bread. So where am I??!!”

  He stopped talking to himself and continued to look at the big map covering all his view. He mumbled something and started to say even blasphemies towards his own god; the only one probably audible was “you pervert”.

  He was so into the map that he didn't notice, while looking at it, the Creaky knocked another rock and turned his head to the spring, back to the mouth.

  “Aha!” he said.

  “Maybe no..” and continued to look at the map like a child searching for a solution to answer a very persuasive question from the teacher.

  The Creaky was speeding up...behind Riuluk, a very dangerous sequence of waterfall ramps. Riuluk continued to talk to himself when suddenly another knock, this time was strong enough to make him put the map down slowly. He saw the river in front of him bringing him up rather than down. For a second, he thought, “Oh..you never stop being fascinated by this world,” and he was close to going back to look at the map. Then he got it; he put the map down fast, turned, and put his hands on the Creaky's board.

  “Oooh nooo! You...” while getting to fall from the first ramp.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” he shouted, closing his eyes. “aaaaaaaaaaah..” he took a breath. “aaaaaaaaaah..aaah.....ah......ah..” he opened his eyes slowly, first his right one, then the left one.

  He was in the middle of the air. The ropes supporting the balloon structure got caught on some rocks at the top of the ramp. Riuluk looked around, as if anybody could have looked at him in such an embarrassing moment. He then made an embarrassed smile, as if truly there were people around.

  “Eheh..” he laughed silently.

  He went out of the Creaky landing on one of the big rocks of the next ramp to finally run, still embarrassed, to a side of the river on the land. He lay down on the light green grass, closed his eyes, and took a strong breath.

  “I know what this is, my friend..it is you, you couldn't let me have another adventure before passing away, I know you would tell me, come on! We have gone through so much worse than this!... But I have to admit, you certainly are a little bugger. Ah ah!”

  Riuluk fell asleep on that shore. Kind of strange since he slept all night and almost all morning as well, but the truth was that he missed his friend. In such moments, it was he who always cheered him up to continue. It wasn't so easy to realize he was alone that time. He still was a young dwarf, what to expect? Yes, he had a beard and long hair... but that doesn't mean he is old?! Riuluk was only 232 years old. I know that it can sound strange enough for you, but for a dwarf, that is a very young age. Dwarves usually live between 400 and 600 years, given the times we live in. Some of them can even reach 700-800 years, but only if their hearts are strong enough to carry them till that time. The age of Riuluk for a dwarf is like a young man of 30, maybe even 35 years old.

  Riuluk woke up a couple of hours later, the sun was still high in the sky, and he thought he might still have three or four hours before dawn. He stood up and stretched himself while making the hugest yawn that ended with a little burp that stopped his gymnastics. He started to walk down the river, and he thought maybe he would catch some fish!

  The water looked a bit strange to him, he never seen such limpid water, you could almost see every piece of sand, earth, and stone. He finally found a safe enough ramp in the river to try to catch fish that were climbing up it.

  He went there and tried to catch them by hoping they would jump on him. He first saw one jumping on that part, so he went there...but then another one jumped on the other side, so he moved to that side of the ramp. Again, in the first place, he ran there, and this time he said to himself:

  “Ohoh, you will jump here soon or later!” opening his eyes up like a pirate on a treasure.

  Three fish jumped on the other side. He looked at them, but he didn't care; he smiled, knowing he would catch one there. A fish jumped to his right, a fish to his left. He started to feel uncertain about what to do. He moved a bit to the right, and a fish jumped into his first position, so he moved quickly again to it, a fish jumped there... “Aha!” he smashed his hands to take him; the fish squirmed away, rising higher, then stomped on his head and got into the water.

  “Aaaaaah!” he shouted, “Where are you, my friend, when I need you?” He gave a kick into open air... he kicked too high, so his standing foot moved forward a bit.

  “Squashed!” he fell into the river.

  The dwarf merged all wet, his hair partially covering his eyes, his beard heavier than ever. His long moustache made him look like a fat dog emerging from a storm. He moved without any grace till the shore, mocking his god Kloud. Kloud here, Kloud there, Kloud you, your mother, and your sister..bla bla. You got it.

  He then started to walk up the river, talking to his god. He arrived at his creaky, went even higher, arrived to the stuck balloon, took his knife from his belt, cut off the balloon while still talking to Kloud... ”crash!!”...the Creaky fell down on a rock and got broken, went back to the ramp with fishes, got himself again into the river, extended the balloon on that part, closed the balloon and went back to the shore.

  He caught 10 fish. He was so proud of himself, he could only say after all of that, looking at the sky with a smile:

  “Thank you, Kloud. You are amazing, you are the best, you are the kindest god ever created by any religion... Ah, I love you.”

  He put up a fire and ate all of them.