The river didn't look like something meant to be crossed.
Tala stood at the edge of the bank, boots sinking slightly into the damp soil. The ground here was softer than the jungle floor behind them, worn down by years of water pushing past it. He could feel it shift under his weight, unstable in a way that made his body tense without thinking.
Kofi stepped up beside him, breathing heavier than he wanted to admit. The marsh had already taken more out of them than expected, and the river ahead made that feel small.
"This is it," Kofi said.
Tala didn't answer.
His eyes were fixed on the water.
It wasn't clean.
Not like the training pond back at camp. That water had been clear, still enough to reflect your face if you leaned close.
This was different.
The river carried dirt, broken branches, leaves, things that had been dragged from somewhere upstream and thrown into its path. The surface rolled constantly, folding over itself in uneven patterns. Every few seconds, something beneath would push up, disturb the flow, then disappear again.
There was no clear line to step on.
No visible path.
Kofi exhaled through his nose. "We just need to create stepping points. That's all it is."
Tala turned his head slightly. "That's what he said."
"Yeah."
"That was before this."
Kofi didn't respond immediately.
He didn't like that answer.
Sefu paced along the bank, low and alert. His ears twitched with every shift in the current. Raka stayed closer to Tala, watching the water like it might jump out at them.
Mala shifted slightly on Tala's shoulder, her warmth steady against his neck.
None of them moved forward.
Kofi cracked his neck.
"Standing here won't help."
Before Tala could say anything, Kofi stepped forward and planted his foot into the water.
Cold hit first.
Then resistance.
Kofi adjusted his stance, testing the ground beneath.
It held.
He glanced back with a small grin.
"See? You're overthinking it."
Tala didn't smile.
Kofi shifted his weight forward.
One more step.
The river changed.
It didn't warn him.
There was no visible sign.
One moment the ground held—
The next it didn't.
His foot slipped sideways.
His balance broke.
The current caught his leg and twisted his body with it.
"—tch!"
Kofi tried to recover, planting his other foot down hard.
It sank deeper.
The water surged around his knees, then his thighs, pulling him off center. His arms came up instinctively, grabbing at nothing as his body dropped forward into the current.
"Tala!"
Tala moved.
He stepped into the river without stopping to think, boots hitting the water with a sharp splash.
The cold climbed up his legs immediately, biting deeper than expected.
Kofi tried to stand again.
He forced his weight downward, trying to anchor himself.
It made things worse.
The current tightened around him.
Not enough to crush him, but enough to drag.
His body shifted again, pulled sideways, then forward.
"Stop—" Tala said, pushing deeper into the water.
Kofi ignored him.
He reached out with his core, pulling at the water the way Asa had taught them. Focus. Control. Structure.
He forced it.
The river pushed back.
Not evenly.
Not predictably.
The water around his legs twisted, tightening in one direction while loosening in another. His footing collapsed again, and this time his whole body dropped.
The current swallowed him up to his chest.
Kofi coughed as water hit his mouth. "I've got it—!"
He didn't.
Tala felt it now.
Not just the current.
Something underneath it.
The movement didn't follow a single direction. It shifted in layers, each part moving at a different speed, pulling in ways that didn't line up.
"This isn't right," Tala muttered.
Kofi tried again.
He forced a patch of water to harden, pushing his mana into it, trying to lock it in place.
For a second, it worked.
The surface stiffened just enough—
Then it tore away.
The section he'd shaped broke off from under him and carried downstream like it had never been connected to anything.
Kofi's eyes widened. "What—"
The current hit him again.
Harder this time.
His body slammed sideways into something beneath the surface. Pain shot through his ribs as he lost whatever breath he had left.
Tala reached him.
He grabbed Kofi's arm, digging his fingers into wet fabric.
"Stop trying to hold it!"
"What else am I supposed to do?!" Kofi snapped, struggling to stay upright.
"Not that!"
Another pull.
Kofi's legs went out again.
Both of them dropped deeper into the water.
The current wrapped around them, pulling, twisting, dragging.
Tala tried to push back.
Tried to stabilize his footing.
It didn't work.
The moment he forced it, the water shifted harder, like it was reacting to him.
He froze.
That was it.
He stopped.
Didn't push.
Didn't pull.
Just stood there, letting the current move around him.
For a moment, nothing changed.
Then—
The pressure eased.
Not gone.
But less.
Tala adjusted his stance slowly, turning his body slightly with the flow instead of against it.
His footing still wasn't solid, but it wasn't collapsing either.
"Kofi," he said, breathing hard. "Stop forcing it."
Kofi didn't answer.
He was too busy trying not to get dragged under again.
"Just—stop!"
Kofi hesitated.
That hesitation almost cost him.
The current pulled again, dragging him forward.
But this time—
He didn't fight it.
His body shifted with the pull instead of against it.
It felt wrong.
Everything in him told him to resist.
To push back.
To take control.
But he didn't.
The river didn't tighten.
Tala saw it.
"Yeah," he said under his breath. "That's it."
Kofi coughed, trying to get his breathing under control.
"This feels stupid," he muttered.
"Maybe."
Another pull.
They moved with it.
Not clean.
Not controlled.
But not drowning either.
Tala tightened his grip on Kofi's arm.
"Move with it. Not through it."
Kofi didn't argue this time.
They adjusted together.
Small movements.
Careful shifts.
The current still dragged at them, still tried to pull them off balance, but it didn't spike the way it had before.
They drifted sideways instead of forward.
Closer to the bank.
Not the one they started from.
Not the one they needed.
Just somewhere.
Tala's foot hit rock.
He shifted his weight onto it slowly.
It held.
"Here," he said, pulling Kofi with him.
Kofi grabbed onto the edge of the bank, dragging himself out of the water with a strained breath.
Tala followed, climbing up after him.
They collapsed onto the damp ground.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
Kofi lay on his back, staring up through the canopy.
"…we didn't even make it halfway."
Tala sat up slowly, water dripping from his sleeves.
He looked back at the river.
It hadn't changed.
Same movement.
Same flow.
Same pressure.
Like nothing had happened.
"It's not about crossing," Tala said.
Kofi turned his head slightly. "Then what?"
Tala didn't look at him.
"…it doesn't accept us."
Kofi frowned.
"What does that even mean?"
Tala didn't answer right away.
He was still watching the water.
"It reacts to us," he said finally. "The more we try to control it, the worse it gets."
Kofi pushed himself up onto his elbows.
"So we just… let it do whatever it wants?"
"No."
Tala shook his head.
"We move with it."
Kofi let out a dry laugh.
"That sounds like the same thing."
"It's not."
Silence again.
Sefu walked up and nudged Tala's shoulder lightly. Raka shook water from his fur nearby, droplets scattering across the ground.
Mala shifted, her warmth steady against Tala's neck.
The river kept moving.
Unchanged.
Tala exhaled slowly.
"We're doing it wrong," he said.
Kofi didn't argue.
For the first time since they stepped into the jungle—
He agreed.