The boat.
You jump into the boat and push off from the bank. You stretch your arms out to grab the oars but oh, whats this, there aren't any.
Your crew and you panic as you realise that you have no way of controlling the boat.
You and your vessel are carried down the river faster and faster by the current. You look along the river and see a cloud of water vapour 25 metres ahead of you and from what you learnt in geography lessons at school you figure it must be the vapour of a waterfall.
Closing your eyes you wait to fall to your watery death but when, after a few minutes, nothing has happened you reopen them. Your boat is lodged on a log about two metres from the bank. You jump into the water and resisting the strong pull of the current you wade to the bank.
You reach the bank just as the current finally manages to dislodge your boat and it floats away into the large clouds of vapour.
You set off once more into the dark jungle, the planets two suns getting lower in the sky. You walk for about 5 minutes before coming to a clearing where you find an old building partly in ruins.
© copyright Rachel James 1998