Take Me to the River 1

The river carried him along to the sea. That was the limit of his world. He wondered what the ocean was like. He could only gaze at it from the mouth of the river, but didn't think he could survive away from the fresh water that nurtured him.

He was a creature of the river. He knew that salmon could leave their spawning pools and flee to the ocean. He didn't think he could be as successful.

He rose to the surface of the water and basked in the sun for a moment. He turned and started the trek back upstream. He was like the people who ran on tracks on land. The river was his track and he went from one end to the other in a ceaseless patrol.

He wondered what it would be like to walk on land. He had saw things in the distance, but admitted he knew nothing of humans.

What would they think of him? He would probably be considered a monster. He didn't think that would be good considering how humans treated each other. A monster would be something to rally against and hunt down.

He didn't want to hurt someone just to satisfy his curiosity.

He paused to watch humans crossing a bridge over his home. They seemed to be running from something. He paused where he could watch without being seen.

What was going on up there? He couldn't quite tell from where he was.

Maybe he should climb up there and see if there was something he could do to get things moving.

Something exploded while he watched. He winced at the column of fire heading straight up from the bridge. He decided that maybe he should do something before the whole thing fell in his home.

He grasped a support column sticking out of the water. He poured himself up its surface with a little effort. He pressed through the rails to get on the road bed.

Things looked much more exciting than in the river.

One of the vehicles was on fire. People ran from the smoky pillar. That needed to be dealt with before more of the vehicles caught fire.

He paused at the sight of someone in a fish head running toward the rails and jumping into the river. The strange sight vanished into the water as he watched.

You don't see something like that every day.

Crackling drew his attention back to the problem on the bridge. How could he solve it?

He decided that he should put the fire out. He had witnessed one explosion already. He didn't think another was such a good thing with all the humans running around.

He ran toward the flame and jumped. His body stretched into a column that hooked into an arc. Sizzling reached him as his skin boiled.

Maybe jumping on it wasn't such a good idea.

He decided he needed to change his approach.

He needed a lot more water.

Luckily he had some within jumping distance.

He jumped down into the river from the bridge. He landed and became one with the water. He felt invigorated by his home substance.

Now he had to take care of that fire before it caused something worse to happen.

He pulled more of the river into him. He let it expand his outer skin until he stretched out of the water. People pointed at him in surprise. He supposed that should be expected. After all, a giant water behemoth wasn't something you see every day.

He brought his hand down on the fire. The flame fought him until he channeled more water through his body. A cloud of smoke gasped up in the air as the flame went out.

He smiled. That worked better than he had thought it would. The people cheered some when they realized he wouldn't eat them.

"You might want to pull off the bridge until help arrives." He gave them a bigger smile. "It has been a pleasure helping you."

He dropped into the river with a wave. Some of them waved back as he spread out through the water.

Where did the man in the fish mask go?

He wondered if he should pursue the man for causing the explosion. His world wasn't the human world. He had no need to pursue human criminals unless they threatened his river in some way. The humans had grown where they could do that with their science and skills.

His mother had been a human. She had died. He remembered that. He couldn't remember when. Maybe he had been too young. Maybe he didn't know anything about time like humans did.

His father had faded away too. Maybe he had been more human than river by then.

Being human didn't seem that great if you just faded away.

He realized he didn't know anything but the river. Did humans fade away? Maybe they did their things forever. His mother could be alive.

He told himself to stop babbling. His mother had turned to dust a long time ago. He would know if she was still alive. He could feel that in his fish.

He paused in his swimming as he considered what he should be doing.

Maybe he should track down the fish man.

He didn't think he could do it, but he decided that causing problems on the bridge could have caused problems for the river. Since the river was his home, he couldn't allow that.

He realized he had given himself the flimsiest excuse he had ever thought in his entire life.

He wondered how the humans did it.

They must think of hundreds of excuses better than the one he had decided to use.

He must remember to ask one of the humans how they did it.

He ranged the river, looking for the uninvited swimmer. He searched from the surface to the bed. He frowned when he couldn't find the human.

Where would he go if he could move on land?

He realized he didn't know anything about humans except what he had seen on the edges of the river. He had no clue what they would do away from his home. He needed help.

He decided the first thing he should do was find out how humans acted.

He wondered how hard that could be.

He decided he needed a disguise for his research. He didn't want them to know the river was taking an interest in them. They might be frightened.

He climbed out of the water. He looked around, a tower of liquid with very little human features at all. He decided he needed a disguise.

He flowed into a space between two of the human blocks. He found a coat and a hat. He pulled them over to cover his bubbled flesh.

He checked his reflection in a nearby store glass. It wasn't great, but hopefully it would avoid any unpleasantness.

He walked down the street, watching the humans walk around him. He carefully noted the behaviors so he could mimic them if he had to do that in a pinch.

He paused at place with magic eyes. His dousing of the fire was being played with a cutting of other things. People gave praises to him.

No one knew where the fish man had gone from the talk.

He moved on.

3

He worked on his disguise as he walked among the humans. He wanted to blend in with them while he explored the land. He couldn't do that if he kept on as a column of bubbles in a coat and hat.

Some people had run from him when they got a good look at what his coat collar concealed.

He needed to concentrate on his form so it would look human enough to pass for one of them.

He needed a mirror to give him an idea of what his face looked like at the moment.

He found a store window that no one seemed to be watching from either side. He looked at the image in it. How could he make that reflection more human?

He decided there was nothing he could about his color. It was the color of the river. He couldn't change that no matter how much he wanted to do so. He was going to have to be green and brown.

He forced the bubbles out one by one so his complexion was smoother to the eye. It helped his appearance considerably not to have those shifting bumps and pockets of air shifting around when he moved.

He gave his body an inspection with the help of the window. He looked more human already.

He examined his face. He had a lot of work to do if he wanted to make that look human. He decided to start with something rough. He could work in improvements as he went.

He needed that rough idea first. What should his face look like?

He decided to keep it as simple as possible. He could work on improving his control as he went. Until he had a complete mastery, he would settle for a mouth, two false eyes, ears and a nose. They moved around as he worked on shaping his head to match the people moving along around him.

He nodded in a copy of a man talking to his wife as they went by behind him. He had to work on human gestures, but he should be all right as long as he didn't try to talk to any of them.

He didn't have an idea of how to make the noises they made when they talked to each other.

He decided to keep working on his features. He could learn how to make the sounds later. He knew what everything meant, just not how to convey what he meant.

He supposed that was because of his parents. He didn't know for certain. He hadn't seen either one of them for a long time by his standards.

He often wondered when his existence would cease. Would it cease?

He didn't know. He had never run into anything quite like him before. He supposed there must be others out there. Would they want to talk to him?

He didn't know any of the ways of the river spirits. Who could he talk to about that? He supposed he should talk to someone if he could find such a person.

Were there humans that knew about such things?

He wondered if revealing himself had been worth it. His river was safe. It had things he was familiar with and knew inside and out. What did he know about solids?

At least his face looked almost natural. He couldn't quite get a smile to form that didn't twist his features into something monstrous.

It would have to do.

He doubted he could pass for human no matter how he looked. He tried the smile again. If things didn't go well, he could return to his river with no problem.

He flowed down the sidewalk, avoiding the solids as much as he could. He didn't want to bump into one and fall apart like a burst bubble.

That would be embarrassing to him in a way he didn't dare fathom.

He listened to the sounds around him as he went. He had heard dockworkers and sailors, machinery, and the other marks of civilization so this wasn't quite anything new.

He had just always been to one side before this trip. He had never thought it would be like to move among the humans that shared the river with him. It was almost like flowing over fish with neither side paying attention to the other.

Now he was the fish.

He heard loud bangs to his right. He looked that way, manufactured eyes moving without the benefit of a turning head.

Humans fled from what looked like a cloud of smoke. A human in a jacket and mask came out of a building. He aimed a weapon at the crowd running from him. He ran for a car on the street.

The river flowed after the human in the mask. He moved fast but the driver pulled away even faster. He threw himself after the car in a wave.

He fell short and splattered against the solid road. He tried to pull himself together. Why were solids so solid?

He looked after the car. He was bested. Did he give up, or think of something? He decided to think of something.

He grabbed his disguise and flowed in the direction the car had turned at the end of the block. He didn't have the same obstacles of travel as a solid. No human was getting away from him.

He wondered with amusement what feeling was fueling his actions now. He hoped it was altruism and not embarrassment.

He cut through a multitude of alleys and closed places that nothing else could get through. He smiled when he saw the car coming toward him. He just needed to stop it somehow.

He jumped forward to meet it.

4

What do you do when a giant wall of water appears in the street in front of your speeding car?

This particular driver tried to turn out of the way. Running into something like that would have smashed his car as far as he was concerned.

You couldn't afford to lose your car when you were trying to outrun the law.

The car almost rolled in the turn, but it came down on the driver's side with a squeal as the vehicle slid in the turn. The passenger side faced the water as the driver stepped on the gas to head into a side street to make his escape.

The wall hit as the car tried to roll out of its way. It smashed in the windows and flooded the inside of the compartment. The humans inside heard something like laughter as they tried to get out before they drowned.

Doors finally opened. Crooks and water fell on the street. The tide receded as police cars rolled up to make the capture.

The river laughed at the ease at which he had trapped the humans. It should have gone on shore before this.

The blue humans took their prisoners and put them in other conveyances. One stayed with the wrecked car. Others directed traffic around the wreck. The pursued humans tried to explain what had happened. None of the blue ones seemed to believe them despite the evidence of the river's presence.

He supposed a dryad coming on land was something from history.

He doubted any of the humans around his river had ever seen the likes of him.

He walked away as he considered his disguise and how to regain it. Shifting into a wave had destroyed his artificial look for the moment. He needed to perfect the change. A column of water attracted too much of the wrong attention in his opinion.

He stopped in front of a reflection. He stared at what he saw. His body became more human looking as he concentrated. He smiled his lopsided face and winced. He still needed to work on that.

All he needed was his disguise and he should be invisible.

This was more enjoyable than swimming the same route every day and every night.

He walked along, imitating the people around him as he looked for something that would conceal his nature from the humans. His body changed around him to mimic a coat and hat. He saw it in a glass as he passed by and smiled.

That was more like what he wanted.

The river looked around. What could it do about imitating sound and learn more about the humans? He couldn't talk to the things if he couldn't speak their language to them.

He couldn't show his intelligence if he couldn't make himself understood. They would think he was some kind of fish.

That was the last thing he wanted.

He wanted to show he was more than they could be. He didn't know why wanted to indulge himself like that. The humans had proven they knew a lot about manipulating the environment with their flesh and blood.

They were probably better at that than he could ever be despite his innate abilities.

He realized that he had made an important discovery about himself. He could only overcome the humans when they were at a disadvantage. If he gave them time, they would think of some way to exterminate him like they had everything else they hated.

He didn't want to give them a reason to come looking for him.

They would probably destroy his river home in their efforts. He had already seen the effects of dams and levees on his shores.

A glowing light passed overhead. He knew it wasn't anything constructed by the humans. It was something spiritual like he was. He wondered what it could be.

Maybe it could help him blend in while he looked for the fire thrower.

The thing on the bridge was something the humans would love him for if he could show who the human in the mask was, and gave him to the blue humans for their rituals.

He worked on his walking as he watched the humans around him. He listened to the language and realized there was more than one being spoken. He hadn't thought about that.

Humans were humans as far as he was concerned.

Watching humans was better than following the water from one end of the river to the other.

Why hadn't he done this before?

This was more fun than watching the humans float down the river on their boats.

He paused at a place with a lot of humans. He saw one of their fancy boxes with a talking human head in it. He decided to go in and listen to the box. Maybe he could pick up some speaking skills if he listened long enough.

Maybe the talking head would show him where the human in the mask had gone.

Then he could capture the human for the blue humans and have his name mentioned by the talking head.

Pictures of his two dousings appeared as the talking head talked. He looked around. No one knew he had done what was being indicated on the magic box.

People appeared on the magic box. They seemed happy and described what had happened from what they had seen. None of them seemed to know the river had exerted itself. He got that from the way their hands moved.

Humans moved their appendages when they were talking to each other.

That was something he should remember when he was dealing with them directly instead of watching them.

He doubted he would be able to imitate that no matter how much he practiced.

He just didn't have that much control to act like that without thought. If he tried, his body would collapse.

A picture of the mask appeared on the screen. The talking head directed the humans to a set of runes that apparently meant something to everyone but him.

Other pictures came on the box. He listened but the way things moved made it hard for him to connect pictures to what was being said by the talking heads.

At least he knew the humans were looking for the false fish like he was. It was a race to see who could find the masked human. He smiled at the challenge.

He would catch the false fish before any of the humans could.

He felt a tugging on his being. It yanked on him. He knew it had to be his river. It was pulling him home.

He walked away from the crowd to conceal his otherness. When he was out of sight, he headed directly for the river. His liquid body flowed around, or through, most obstacles that got in his way. He dropped into the flowing water with relief as the nagging died away.

This was something important to know. He couldn't just wander away from the river for long. It needed him in it, and he needed to be there if he wanted to keep his identity alive and functioning.

That put him at a disadvantage to all the humans on the land that would be looking for the false fish. His only hope was to catch that human in the water.

It would be a different story if he could catch that one in the water.

He floated in his course as he considered what he had to look out for if he wanted to stop the human fish from using his current for himself.

The humans might be able to do things with their numbers. One of them couldn't match him in his own element.

If the fish was using the river, he would have to try and capture him while he was in the act.

No one used his waterway but him, and the things he allowed.

5

The river luxuriated in its course for an unknown amount of time. The humans measured everything. It didn't. Soon or late was as far as it thought in its watery brain.

Its thoughts had strayed from going back on land to look for the human fish. It had missed the human, so it had forgotten about its objective to hunt the fish man down.

The loss of its mobility had reduced what it wanted as it raced along the banks. Some part of it mimicked the human voices it heard as it went.

It had reached a sort of burbling but actual words still escaped it. It worked on the sound as it sleepwalked through its routine coursing.

It paused a few times when it hit something almost spot on. The mimicked voice drifted over the river with only a few notes out of place.

A loud noise rolled from one of the bridges upstream. The river roiled as the shock pushed through its body.

The river's mind awoke as it pulled itself into a semblance of action.

It raced up through its channel as concrete fell into the water. Luckily, humans didn't fall into the water with the pieces of bridgework.

It wouldn't have to save any drowning swimmers.

It shot up a column of water to get a better look at the scene. It couldn't see what was happening from below the surviving piece of bridge.

One of the human vehicles had been turned over on its side. It looked like a shell trying to get back on its legs. The back of the thing had been opened by the loud noise, or something capable of punching a hole in metal.

Where was the human fish? Something like this said he was behind it.

The fish dropped out of the vehicle. He paused when he saw the column of water hovering on the other side of the bridge.

"Stop in the name of me." The river felt satisfaction. That had sounded almost human.

"I don't have time for this." The masked human threw a container over the railing. It hit the column and exploded. "Say goodnight."

The river found itself raining through the air above its bed. How had that happened? Why couldn't it think as clearly as it normally did?

The fish dove into the water in a smooth dive. The river tried to pull its brain together enough to stop him swimming for the bank. Nothing worked like it wanted.

The river directed all of its thoughts into regrouping near the bank the human swam toward. If it could cut the fish man off, that would stop the wreckage he was causing to fall into the water.

The water reached out of the flow with a malformed hand. The effort hit the shore too late. The prey had already pulled himself out of the river and had started inland.

The river retracted its hand. What could it do now? What would a human do?

A column of water jumped from the current. It ran after the human fish, changing as it went. It looked more like a green human blank than flowing water.

A smile appeared on half of its face.

Humans would think it was one of them when they saw it running around their surface places.

The human fish reached another vehicle parked in the street. The masked man jumped inside. He glanced behind him as he started the car.

The river reached out with expanding arms.

A round ball dropped into its green hands. It looked at it for a moment. Thunder spread it out over the docks in a spray.

The human fish rode off in his carriage.

The river pulled itself back together with a long effort.

It crawled back to its channel and dropped inside the rest of its mass. It needed to rethink what it was doing.

Being reduced to drops scattered its brain in a painful way.

Screams drew its attention to the shattered bridge. Humans were still up there. What would happen if they fell into the water?

Did it need corpses for its fish? It didn't think so. Maybe it could carry them to the shore.

At least its disguise had worked enough to fool the human fish that it was just another human. Maybe it could use the shape to fool the rest of the humans long enough to find the masked man.

First, it had to do something about the rest of the bridge. Stone falling into its flow would block its channel. That would turn it from a river to a lake.

It formed a spout to reach up on the bridge. It moved the humans from the precarious platform to the shore with some screeching and kicking. It retreated to the river channel to think what it was going to do about the rest of the bridge itself.

It decided to push the remnant over. That should still give it room to move back and forth without being held captive by a dam.

The humans would have to walk around until they came up with something else they could use to cross.

It poured itself into a giant version of a hand reaching from the water. It exerted all the power it could through the redirected flow. The concrete and steel block fell over. Part of the columns went with it. Vehicles crashed down on top of each other.

It checked its flow around the obstacles in the water. It could still move with little hindrance. The humans could pick up what was left of the rest at their convenience.

The humans on the shore pointed at it. It decided to rest for a moment as it got used to the new patterns in its current.

The fish weren't very happy with its actions.

It could wait for the creatures to forget once they were used to the new things in the water. They had very short memories after all.

What could it do about the human fish? Humans were smart with their use of tools. How could it beat that?

Being blown apart made it angry for some reason. It wanted to express this feeling on the source of it. How did it do that?

Maybe it should ask a human what the surface dweller would do. That seemed better than wandering aimlessly on land until it had to return to its body between the banks. Which human should it consult?

It decided to run down its length a few times while it thought. It kept its mind out for some human that might be able to assist it.

Humans knew things that it didn't.

It pulled itself on shore when it saw several of the smaller humans playing some game. Most of the monkeys ran from him. It checked its body. Didn't it look human?

"What are you?" The remaining human looked up at him. "You're green."

"I'm the river." It tried to smile. The replying expression said it was doing something wrong.

"Are you smiling?" The little human raised its limbs. "Come closer."

The river bent down. What was it supposed to do?

Two fingers drew on its fake face for a moment. The little human stepped back. It made a follow me gesture with a hand.

The two of them paused in front of a window. The river looked at its reflection, then the little human. They had the same expression.

"That's a smile." The human smiled. "What do you think?"

"Don't know." It practiced the smile until it had it down. "Still new."

"So you're like a baby." The little human smiled. "Do you have a name?"

"The river." What use was a name to it?

"I'll call you Riverton." He smiled. "Let's show you to everyone."

"I need to find a human." It didn't think it wanted to meet everyone. "He wears a fish face."

"I don't know anyone with a fish face." The small human frowned. "My dad might."

"Your dad?" The river's face twisted. "Bigger human?"

"Yeah." He waved his hand. "He's smart."

"Smart?" It followed on its new legs.

"He knows stuff." The little human held up his arms. "He knows a lot."

"Know human fish?" The river liked smiling.

"Maybe." The little human smiled back. "My name is Cal. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you." The river found that it had to concentrate to form the words.

"That's good." Cal led the way. "You talk funny."

"Not meant to talk." The water man walked slowly, still working on keeping its shape.

"Neither was I." Cal pointed to a square rising out of the ground. "That's my building right there."

"Looks solid."

6

Cal led the way up stone stairs to a small place overlooking the street. The river looked over the city, smiling at his home cutting through the solids around it. The humans depended on it like he did.

No human was going to misuse it while he was walking around.

He smiled at that.

He liked smiling. It suited him for some reason. Maybe he was a happy river.

The thought appealed to him. Emotions had not been a thing for it to consider. Now his mind seemed to enjoy the process of them as much as he enjoyed how they moved him.

He wondered what was next.

"This is my place." Cal took out a key and opened the door. "Come in and meet my folks."

"Okay." The river followed the small human inside the box. It worked on its legs so that it walked like Cal walked.

"Hey, Dad!" Cal called out from the small living room. "I brought someone home."

"I talked to you about that, Cal." Cal's father boomed from the other room in the apartment. "What did you bring home now?"

"Come see." Cal jumped up and down with glee.

The river went to the window looking out of the box. How did humans stand it? How fragile were they?

Cal's father appeared in the short hall leading to the rest of the rooms. He looked around for what Cal had brought home. He saw a man standing by the window. The man was dark green.

"Who are you?" He moved to stand between this stranger and his son.

"This is Riverton." Cal smiled. "I found him. Can I keep him?"

"No." Cal's dad glanced at his son. "This is a man, not an animal."

"Not human, or animal." The river tried his smile. "I'm river."

"What brings you here?" The father didn't look reassured at the origin of his visitor. What did he mean that he was a river?

"Cal said you can help me find a human with a fish face." The water noted that the words sounded better the more he practiced.

"Cal says a lot of things." He glared at his deflating son. "Some of them are untrue."

"You can't help me?" The river looked out the window.

"Not much call for humans with a fish face around here." Cal's dad relaxed a bit. The green man seemed confused, but not dangerous.

"I think he means the bridge bandit." Cal broke in. "I told him you could help him. Riverton has a hard time getting around."

"Is this true?" Cal's dad didn't look in favor of helping walking water track down dangerous felons.

"Cal said you were smartest man alive." The river smiled again. He wondered if he should work on other expressions.

The humans didn't seem to smile all the time.

"Cal says a lot of things." Cal's dad glared at his son again. "Some of those things aren't true."

"There's a reward for the bridge bandit, Dad." Cal held his hands wide apart. "It would be enough to move out."

"The police are looking for this guy." The older human went to the chair next to the river's window. He sat down heavily. "Do you know what a reward is, Riverton?"

"No." The river felt its face slipping.

"Someone offers money for something. Whoever can get that thing will get the money." He tapped a blunt finger against the padded arm of his chair. "The city, or federal, governments offer rewards for criminals like this human fish."

The river understood that. Humans wanted things without movement. So they applied current to other humans to get what they wanted.

A river only needed to move in its channel.

"Plenty of people will want this reward." Cal's dad looked out the window. "I doubt you would have a chance to get it against people with more experience."

"I don't want a reward." The river felt its face slipping. It concentrated on being more human. "I just want him to stop."

"We can totally do that, Dad." Cal jumped up and down. "Want a tomato sandwich, Riverton?"

"Could I have some water?" Riverton wondered why he liked the boy. Humans were just like the fish that used him to get where they wanted to go.

"I'll get you some." Cal ran into the kitchen.

"What kind of monster are you?" Cal's dad tapped his armchair's arm again.

"The good kind?" Riverton looked at his melted reflection. It firmed up into something that almost looked human.

"I'll take your word for that." Cal's dad smiled. "My name is Calvin Hobbes too. Most people around here call me Big Cal for the obvious reasons."

"Because you are big?" The water felt the smile slip.

"Because he's my dad." Little Cal came in with a big plastic cup. He handed it over with a grin.

"That's why they call me Little Cal."

"I see." Riverton sucked the water out of the cup with his finger. "Could I have some more?"

"Sure." Cal waved his hand. "You can get it out of the faucet. I'll show you."

"Thank you." The water flowed into the small room. It saw a bunch of tiny rooms inside the bigger one.

"That's the sink." Little Cal pointed at a depression in one of the bars. "You see the thing with the neck. Turn it and the water comes out."

A globby hand pushed on the handle. Water streamed out under pressure from the pipes. It reached in to catch the stream.

"You're getting huge, Riverton." Little Cal jumped up and down. "You're getting bigger than Dad."

"He better not be!" Big Cal pushed himself out of his chair. He trundled to the kitchenette door. He gasped at the cube taking up the space.

"I think that's enough water." Hobbes reached in and cut off the faucet. "We need to save some for everyone else in the building."

"He's huge." Little Cal laughed. "You would win a water balloon fight instantly."

"Water balloon fight?" The water gurgled as it shifted on the tile floor.

"I'll show you." The young human laughed. "We'll clean out the neighborhood."

"Not today." Big Cal frowned at his two troublemakers. "Homework and a bath for you, young man. School day tomorrow. Come back tomorrow, Riverton. Drink before you get here. We'll talk about your problem then."

"Yes, sir." Little Cal patted Riverton's cube. "See you tomorrow."

"See you." One side of the cube's face matched Little Cal's expression with its own.

"No sad sacks, young men." Big Cal shook his head. "March."

Little Cal took his plate with the tomato sandwich back to his room. Riverton sloshed out of the kitchenette. He found it hard to pull back into his human body.

"Drank too much?" Hobbes scratched his head.

"No." The water extended out of the apartment's window. "See you."

The water fell to the ground below. It splattered on impact. A little effort pulled the water together into something that almost looked like a man. One tendril of an arm waved.

Riverton worked on his human disguise as he headed for the river. He found that he liked the Hobbeses. He wondered why. They were humans. He was water.

He certainly didn't feel the same way about the other humans he had come across so far.

He put the feeling away. He could think about it, or feel it. He thought feeling it was better than trying to think about what it meant.

Little Cal was his friend. That was all that mattered.

And he had a name for the first time he could remember. He was Riverton. He liked that too.

How many other rivers could claim that?

He doubted many rivers had left their banks like he had.

He smiled when he saw the rest of his body flowing toward the sea. He dropped his disguise to become a wave jumping into it. He let his mind spread out through it as he let his intelligence take a break.

He would need it when he visited the Cals again. They were teaching him things about his world.

How much could he find out about everything he took for granted?

He flowed in his banks in a billion places. Boats moved on his surface. Fish swam inside of him. He ignored it all to not think until he was ready to don his disguise once more.

7

Riverton paced his channel. The human fish didn't return while he flowed up and down. He pulled himself together to visit the Cals.

Maybe they could show him how to track down their fellow human.

He worked on his disguise as he walked down to the block where Little Cal lived. The young human had taught him something about smiling. It made him feel a little happier for some reason.

Big Cal didn't seem to smile at all.

He should work on that expression too. He doubted it was as good as a smile.

He smiled when he saw the block. He headed up the stairs. Being able to turn into a column of water and jumping as high as you wanted was great.

How did humans manage on their stick limbs?

He found the door and seeped under it. He pulled himself together on the other side, assuming his human face.

A human screeched when she saw him. He smiled at her. She screeched louder. What should he do? He backed up against the door.

"Hello, Riverton." Big Cal appeared. "You're early. This is my wife, Marissa."

"She's loud." He felt that his face was a jumble. He had lost his concentration under the sonic assault.

"Wives are like that." Big Cal smiled. "We're going out for a little bit, honey."

"That's Riverton?" Marissa grabbed Big Cal's arm. "I thought you were joking."

"He's harmless." Hobbes held up a hand. "I'm going to help him out. There might be some money in it for us."

"Really?" She gave him a look. "Do you have any money, Riverton?"

"No." He gave his fluid body a look to make sure. "Reward?"

"Exactly." Big Cal gave his wife a hug. "We'll be back for dinner."

"Better be." She gave him a glare.

Big Cal waved as he led the water outside. He locked the door with a key before heading for the stairs.

"Quick thinking about the reward." He moved like a heavy freighter down the staircase. "Next time, knock."

"Knock?" The water wasn't sure what that meant.

"Humans have something called privacy. We like it when people let us know when they are there before they slide under the door." Big Cal paused to rap on the rail. "Gentle like that let's people know you're there for friendly reasons. Entering without knocking means you want to cause trouble."

"Humans are complicated." The water realized he had rules too but they were more to do with what he was than how he thought. Becoming a human was breaking a couple of those rules from what he could understand.

"We evolved to have customs and traditions." He led the way out of the building. "Most of them are there so we don't hurt ourselves, or others."

"Easily hurt?" Riverton remembered the fire he had put out. He could see that eating humans up like fish and bugs.

"Sometimes." Big Cal frowned at some of the people looking at them walking along the street.

Had they never seen a walking column of water before?

"Where are we going?" Riverton paid attention to his path, not to the people on either side of them. They were fish as far as he was concerned.

"The library first." Big Cal checked the clock on his wrist. "Then we're going to go by the school for Little Cal. Then we're going to have dinner, and Cal will have homework and some playtime."

"Library?" The water had never been to a library. Every day was something new. He liked that.

"It holds a lot of things we can use to track down your human fish." Big Cal held a door for a lady and her kids as he went by a drugstore. "Information is the first thing you need when you're looking into something."

"Really?" Riverton wasn't quite sure he understood that.

"Information is facts, things that tell you things." Hobbes pointed to a low building surrounded by trees with a set of old concrete benches in front of it. "Things are named and put in real time."

"Real time?" Time meant nothing to the water.

"Everything that exists moves in three dimensions. Time is kind of a fourth dimension that puts one thing behind the next behind the next." Big Cal paused. "Is this getting too complicated?"

"Maybe." Riverton felt like he had heard a similar explanation sometime. He must have forgotten it over the years of flowing back and forth in his channel.

"Time is a river that pushes everything to the sea." He smiled at the analogy. "It pushes everything forward. Everything that we do are like little rocks in the river. They float to the bottom and stay there. Sometimes more rocks touch those rocks. Sometimes two rocks float apart."

"Understand that." Riverton did understand. It was close to how he viewed the world.

"So when you're looking for something, you have to find the right rocks to show you where to go."

Riverton nodded. That was actually something he knew deep down. He wondered why it had left him. He supposed it was because he was made of water.

Would he forget the Hobbes one day?

He hoped not. Walking around among the solids was letting him expand and look at things in a new way. He doubted he could go back to the old way unless he lost most of his intelligence. He didn't want to be brainless again.

He paused at the door to the library. Was that what he was before he decided to hunt the human fish? Was he brainless?

Big Cal went inside. He pointed Riverton to a chair. The water worked on his control of his skin to keep from wetting the chair.

Big Cal brought a book back. He handed it to his companion.

"I want you to look at the pictures while I get some of the stuff we need." He showed Riverton how to work the pages. "Don't get it wet."

Riverton looked over the pages. It was full of pictures with names. His face slipped as he devoted his attention to reading about apples and black cats. He wondered what the print meant that went with the pictures. He decided the big words were about what the picture was devoted.

"We have to get Little Cal." Big Cal had a stack of papers and books. "Learn anything?"

"I think so." Riverton handed him the book as he got up.

Hobbes put the book on a shelving cart. He led the way out of the library. The street was noisy after the long quiet.

"Did you learn something?" Riverton pointed at the material under his friend's beefy arm.

"I don't know." Big Cal directed his feet further away from his block. "Learning stuff means looking at it until you know it like you know yourself. The small amount of time we had meant I had to grab some stuff and hope that I got something important that we can use."

"Reading?" Riverton put on his happy face.

"That's part of it." He sped up when he saw Little Cal's school. "Some of it is hooking things together."

"Looking at rocks." The water was happy with the comparison.

"Exactly." Big Cal saw a group of kids standing to one side. Little Cal waited with them. There seemed to be words being exchanged, except he couldn't hear what was being said.

He hoped the bigger kids wasn't picking on his boy. That would be a bad idea with a tame monster walking up on the group.

How tame was Riverton?

A hungry lion at the circus seemed the best comparison. Sure he did a couple of tricks, but every once and a while the lion decided to show his trainer just who he was messing with in the worst way possible.

Hobbes didn't want to see what a living river could do.

8

Little Cal laughed at the sight of his father and his best friend. The other kids started walking the other way. They cast glances at the green man. He gave them the smile.

"Hello." Riverton kept his arm solid so the boy wouldn't go through it when he grabbed it.

"What kind of work do you have?" Big Cal took his son's backpack. It was almost as heavy as the boy.

"Some math and a history thing." Little Cal knew that playtime was going to be short.

"I'll look at it after I do my own homework." Hobbes smiled as he directed the two on the way back to the apartment.

"Homework sucks." The boy hopped along some invisible diagram on the sidewalk.

"It's preparation for when you're an adult." Big Cal smiled. "You're going to have to carry on by yourself when you're old enough. You'll have to do homework just to live."

"Riverton doesn't have to do homework." Little Cal nodded at the walking column of water.

"Studying rocks." The river smiled down. He was getting smarter. He had just deflected an effort to get out of work with ease.

He wouldn't have thought of that days ago.

"He's doing homework too." Hobbes smiled. "If you guys hurry, you can play when you're done."

"Need water soon." Riverton knew what the feeling he had encountered earlier meant now. He also knew he didn't have to return to the river if he could get water from some other source.

"No problem." Cal pointed to a restaurant next to a clothing store. "Try not to drink it all this time."

"No problem." He walked into the place, looking around for the water. Where was the sink like at the block?

He saw a drink machine with a customer filling his cup with brown liquid. The guy looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Water?" Riverton doubted the brown liquid was water of any type he was familiar with in his short existence as an independent being.

"Push this." The human pushed a lever to show him and stepped back out of the way.

"Thank you." Riverton pushed the lever. He soaked up a few gallons of fresh water. It diffused across his outer membrane and dissipated across his inner self in clear streaks that vanished within seconds.

He walked to the exit with a wave of his arm as he left.

"Ready to work now?" Big Cal started off for the apartment building.

"Ready, Big Cal." Riverton looked at Little Cal doing something with his hand. He imitated it with the best of his ability.

"Thumbs up, huh?" Hobbes snorted. "We'll see."

The trio walked up to the apartment. When they reached the door, the big human let them in. He handed Little Cal's bag to him so he could get to work. He went to his easy chair to read his papers from the library.

"What do I do?" Riverton realized he didn't have something to focus on.

"I want you to listen while I read." Big Cal began to sort the papers into a timeline of reports. "If you hear something you think is important, tell me why."

His deep voice cited all the facts that had been gathered by the papers. The water chimed in with what he did about the bridge and chasing the human fish on land. His explanation of being frozen caused the human to shake his head.

"These stories and what you saw tells us two things." Hobbes pulled out a notepad to write on. "He plans the scene where he robs people. He plans an escape by using the river. He either planned for you to show up, or he improvised a defense specifically for you from something he already had. That means he's smart and quick on his feet."

"What's the other thing?" Riverton knew all of that meant the human was smart for a human.

"He's been trained, or trained himself." Big Cal looked out the window. "Humans don't naturally know how to wreck a piece of masonry like this. They have to go to school and do homework. They have to be shown how to do it by someone else."

"Smart and trained?" The water felt his face slipping. "How do we catch him?"

"We need to think like he thinks." The lines on his face deepened for a moment as he scowled at the world below. "We need to gather information like he has and see if we can pick a target that he would take."

"We want to be the fish." The water had problems with that idea. He was barely acting like a strange human. How could he be a normal human?

"What is our guy stealing?" Cal didn't think his talk was going over well. He found it hard to tell with the water face shifting in various ways that didn't look close to human. "That will tell us what to look for while we're waiting on him to give us another clue."

"He steals the green stuff." The human fish had grabbed a big bag similar to Little Cal's and went with it into the water.

"Does that exclude any other target?" Big Cal watched the water send bubbles across its body as it thought. It might be his imagination, but the thing seemed to be getting smarter.

"No, because we don't know what he eats." Riverton smiled. Then he frowned. "Homework is hard."

"Homework is to make real work easy." Big Cal glanced at his son, who went back to his math book. "This shows us the limit of what we know. Now we have to find more rocks."

"Exclude more?" Riverton nodded at the thought.

"The more we know, the easier it will be to predict what he's going to do." Hobbes put the papers aside. "The river gives him an escape route any time he commits a robbery on it."

"Swims good for a human."

"He also probably has a tank so he can breathe underwater while swimming." Big Cal levered himself out of the chair. "That goes with the training."

He leaned over Little Cal and looked down at the homework. He pointed out which ones needed to be done over.

"Better hurry if you want to play." Big Cal went into the kitchen and grabbed some tomato juice in a can.

"I hate math." Little Cal threw the pencil down on the table. "Stupid numbers."

"Stupid numbers makes the world go around." Big Cal sat down next to his son. "Everything is numbers."

"Everything?" Little Cal looked at Riverton.

"Yes." Big Cal sipped his juice. "The numbers just don't show themselves unless you're looking for them."

"Like fish." Riverton stopped. That didn't seem right.

"More like shadows on the water." Big Cal held up his hand. "You can see it, you can use it, but you can't really touch it because math is something you know and know how to apply to the things around you."

"Don't know math." The water leaned over the paper. "Show me?"

"Sure." Little Cal broke into a lecture on the various problems and what he was supposed to use to solve them. He didn't like the math itself, but he didn't mind talking about it.

Riverton found he was thirsty again after helping his friend with his homework. He went to the kitchen and sucked up some water to keep going. He still wanted to play.

"Everything looks good." Big Cal waved them off. "Go play while I cook dinner."

"Let's go." Little Cal headed for the door.

"Stay out of trouble." Hobbes called after them.

"We'll be good." Little Cal jogged through the door and toward the steps. The water bounced down beside him.

"How do you do that?" The boy pointed at his bouncing friend.

"Water is soft when I want it to be." Riverton smiled. "I hold it together with my brain."

"So I can throw you and you wouldn't come apart?" He jumped up and down.

"Maybe." Riverton didn't like the thought that popped in his head like an air bubble.

"Great." The boy thought about it. "Can you fly?"

"No." Riverton flapped his arms for a moment. "No flying. Jump good."

"How good?" Little Cal thought anything above what he could do was great.

"Good." The water pushed off against the ground. He flew straight up. Then he came straight down. He splattered against the concrete of the sidewalk.

Little Cal wrung his soaked shirt out. He hoped his friend could pull himself together after that.

He had been right about being able to jump good. He had soared higher than any basketball player going for the hoop. He needed to work on his landings unless he meant to be spread all over the landscape.

"Jump good."

9

Little Cal spent the time he had left to dinner trying to teach his friend common games. He found that Riverton was great at hide and seek, pretty good at tag, and not great at anything that needed him to take a hit.

Even playing something like Two Square became a challenge when the ball passed through you.

They moved to board and card games when it became apparent that Riverton didn't have control over his body's reflexive defenses.

Riverton did great with Chinese Checkers, and regular Checkers, but Chess eluded him. Go Fish also presented a challenge since his face slid around while he concentrated on the cards.

"Dinner time, Cal." Big Cal appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He waved his son over to go upstairs. "I made a list of places that I think your fish will rob. They are all on the river so it should be all right for you to keep an eye on them until tomorrow."

"I guess." Riverton looked at the paper. He shook his head. "I don't know what this says."

Big Cal paused. He should have known that. He hadn't paid attention to Riverton's limitations.

"These are places near the river that I think your human fish will try to rob next." Hobbes thought about how he could convey the locations to his son's friend. "I think you should keep on the lookout near the river while I try to think of some way to find this guy."

"I can do that." The water smiled.

"He will probably be waiting for you with more of those freeze balls." Big Cal frowned at his partner. "Can you handle that?"

"Played some dodgeball." Riverton had shown Little Cal he couldn't be hit while he was looking at the ball.

"That's good, I think." The big man made a go ahead gesture. "I'll come down to the river and look for you tomorrow when I have something."

"I will listen for you." The water flowed down the street, forgetting to work his human body as he headed for his channel.

He dove into the bigger stream that was his home. He merged with the water, feeling its strength as if it was his. Then he sent his mind coursing along the river from the mouth to the source. He switched points of view as he split his mind to consider what happened with him.

Experience was expanding his mind beyond what he would have ever considered. He was becoming more human, but retaining some of his river personality. He had nothing to show for comparison.

He wondered if there were other rivers he could ask if what he was going through was normal.

The other thing that was driving him was his want to catch the human fish. He wanted to show the human no one could use his water to do things he didn't approve of in any way.

He supposed that want was driving him to gain experience on land and turn the tables. If he hadn't wanted to get revenge, would he have wandered out among the solids? He didn't think so.

He had been lucky to have stumbled over Little Cal and his father. The Hobbes stated how they stood. They were like spirits in themselves.

He liked that.

That made them close to him.

One of his sensory points called for his attention. He saw someone walking around one of the blocks near the river. He watched silently from the water.

The human departed in a car. He glanced at the water as he passed, but he couldn't have seen the water watching him.

Riverton was invisible in his own element.

He decided not to follow. He couldn't stop every human that walked near the river. That would cause too much attention to focus on him.

He wanted to be able to move without the humans looking for him.

He had no doubt they would try to do something to draw him out of the river so they could capture him. He knew their science made them a threat to him. The freezing capsule was enough of an eye opener in his opinion.

He let his mind drift in the water as he considered what he should do. He realized that he had never thought about the future. He felt he had always been in the water, and he would always be in the water.

What if he was wrong?

What if he lost his home? What if he became lost in the solid world? Would the Hobbes help him then? What would happen to his body, the river?

Should he adopt the humans as his enemy? What would happen if he did that? He should talk to Big Cal when the sun came up so he could make a decision. That particular human wouldn't lie.

He knew that from the time he had spent with the Hobbes. It would have been easy to lie about Little Cal's friend to his wife. Instead, they had told Mrs. Hobbes's that he was a river.

He smiled in his flowing home. That had been great to him.

He rested in the drops of water that flowed through the channel. Creating a body seemed to be taxing him in some way. He needed to let his mind wander until the sun came up.

He wondered about things as he started to slip away. How had they become so complicated?

The sun beamed down on him and he brought his mind up from the dark. He watched the local birds and people go about their business. Would they be afraid of him if they knew he could think for himself?

He thought they would.

How long would it be before Big Cal arrived? He had no idea, and a loose grip on time. He wondered if that was because he was eternal in his outlook on things.

He wondered what it would be like to cease to exist. Did he want to know? Is that what drove humans to look for something they could become that was better than what they were now?

He thought so. He didn't see how that insight would help him deal with them.

"Hey, Riverton!" Big Cal came down the waterfront. He looked uncomfortable walking among the dock workers. "Where are you?"

"I'm here." The water extended his face to show that he had been listening.

"See anything in the night?" Big Cal looked down at the water.

"Just some human walking around one of the blocks." Riverton realized that he hadn't been paying as much attention as he should have due to thinking.

He supposed he wasn't made to be a thinker.

He was a doer.

He supposed he was a doer. He idly hoped he did what a doer did.

"Can you show me?" Big Cal crossed his arms.

"Yes." A hand reached out of the water. It picked up Hobbes and carried him on top of it until the block appeared. It put him down next to the water. He climbed over a chain strung between posts to keep cars out of the river and looked across the street at a strip mall.

He had put this place on the list the water couldn't read because of its proximity to the water. It was a good target for anyone who could breathe underwater and swim down out of reach of the cops before they could respond to the crime.

He saw a walkway over the water to the other side. Another escape route was a tourist boat thing down the street. He didn't see anything that screamed at a land based escape plan just looking around.

This was exactly the perfect place for a river based attack and getaway.

Big Cal looked around some more before returning to the water. He had spotted a couple of places in the strip mall he would rob if he was a crook. He needed to narrow it down some.

"Where did you see this human, Riverton?" He looked down at his eyewitness. He hoped his eyewitness was there.

"I'll show you." Arms extended out of the water, across the street, across the lot of the mall, and then indicated a place beside a jewelry store. The arms traced the path of the lone human in the night for Hobbes.

Hobbes frowned as he looked at the arms. He walked back to the water. He looked down at the water.

"What's wrong?" Big Cal gave the water his best glare.

"I don't understand." The water made a face to talk to him. It tried to smile but the smile slipped in the current.

"Bull." Hobbes stared at the water. "Something's up. I can see that. What is it?"

"I don't feel good." Riverton thought that was an accurate assessment of his mental condition.

"Is there something I can do?" Big Cal leaned over the water. He hadn't thought a river could get sick.

"I think it's making a body." The water face faded around the edges. "Don't feel like moving around."

"Will you be okay?" He looked around. No one else stood close enough to hear him. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Don't know." The water smoothed over. "Never had a body before."

"Do you have to eat anything?" Cal remembered that some spirits needed blood sacrifices to move around.

He didn't plan to do that here. Anything that wanted that from him couldn't be a friend to him, or his family.

"No?" The voice didn't sound that sure. "Maybe sleep some."

"Do I need to wake you up?" Big Cal stopped. "Riverton?"

"It looks like you're on your own, Cal." Hobbes looked at the jewelry store. He wondered if that was the real target, if there was a target.

All this might be a coincidence.

On the other hand, the river had twigged on a guy walking around on his own in a crowded part of the city and no one else.

That can't be a coincidence.

10

Calvin Hobbes Senior looked at the jewelry store. It had everything that would make it a perfect target for the Landshark. It had a quantity in cash and easily disposable jewelry on site. It was close to the water. If he couldn't get to the water, he could take a car and drive away.

Big Cal sat on the bench. He had a sack of lunch and a six pack of canned tea beside him on the wooden seat. When would the Landshark attack?

He had hit in the late afternoon, early night, so far. Would he stick with that? Would he change up because the police would be looking for him to hit then? How did he plan to escape when he came out of the water?

Did he have a car waiting for him downriver?

More worrying was Riverton. What was going on with the water monster?

What was natural for something like that? Was walking around something that it should be doing? How did it do that in the first place?

How could he explain things to Little Cal if Riverton didn't come back from the water?

Breaking bad news was not something he wanted to do. He had a hard time telling someone that someone, or something, had been destroyed.

He had doubts he could stop the Landshark on his own without the big water sucker. The man was armed and well trained. Cal was retired, and left his revolver locked up in the back of his closet in a gun safe.

He couldn't confront the man directly. He might as well shoot himself if he did that.

Maybe he should wait for Riverton to pull himself together. That might be never.

He didn't know what he should do about this.

He couldn't expect a monster to put the same value on human life as he did. He did think the monster would pull himself together. He could see it in the water's shifting features. He was trying to be human, and he was trying to be helpful in his own way.

He supposed it was hard keeping yourself in what amounted to a body that acted like a tough bubble.

They needed an expert to find out what was going on and help them figure how to make things work.

Was there somebody like that? How did they get to be an expert in river monsters? Was there a college course?

He dug into his lunch and drank his tea while he watched. He should call the guys and have someone official watch the store. He didn't think he had that much pull now that he was retired.

Everyone was looking for this guy for the reward. A request from an old guy would be put in the pile with the rest.

He could only wait and watch to see if he was right. If the guy had a car parked down the shore, there was no way he could get to it before the guy swam down from the store.

He was going to have to get a car if he started doing this kind of stuff as a freelancer.

Running around was for young guys with less bulk than he carried.

He smiled at that. It was also for guys who weren't as lazy as he was too.

He spotted several guys watching the store like he was. He doubted they were official. They seemed to waiting for the customers to leave.

Riverton might have twigged on a robber casing the place, but it looked like it was the wrong guy. That couldn't be helped.

He picked up his phone. He had to do something to disrupt the assault that didn't look too obvious. They couldn't be allowed in the store to take hostages.

Once that happened, a standoff and people getting hurt became a major risk.

Too bad, Riverton was sleeping. He could deal with this quieter than a police response.

"Police Department." The operator sounded familiar. He must have dealt with her before retiring.

He worried that he couldn't remember her name, which meant she wouldn't remember him either.

"I think I have a robbery about to happen at the Kiev Diamond Shop." He gave her the address. "I see three men watching the place." He gave her descriptions of each man. "It looks like they are going in."

"A car is on the way." The operator didn't sound like she was taking him serious.

"Better tell him not to use his siren." Hobbes hung up the phone. He might have to do something. He wondered what that would be.

"Riverton?" He might as well see if the river monster was awake. "Are you there?"

The river didn't answer back. That was bad news.

He was on his own. Maybe he could take a look and hope things didn't get out of hand. He picked up his lunch and the last four cans of tea on their rings and crossed the street.

He wished the water monster was walking over with him.

Riverton was unstoppable from the looks of him.

He walked across the lot, eyes out for a car. Three guys robbing a place might have a fourth guy ready to drive them home.

He spotted a guy in an idling car to one side. The guy was looking into the store. Cal walked up behind him. He could see the three men arguing with the people inside the store. He knew it was a robbery.

Where was the patrol car?

Cal took out his phone and took a picture of the driver. The man noticed that. Cal smiled as he walked behind the car. He took a picture of the plate.

"What are you doing?" The driver leaned out of the window to look at Cal. Anger turned his face red under his dark complexion.

"Taking your picture." Hobbes smiled. He took another one.

"Are you crazy?" The driver looked at the jewelry store. He was torn about getting out of the car, or staying in it until his partners came out of the store.

"It's okay." Hobbes took pictures of the store. "You want some tea?"

"I want you to give me that phone." The driver started opening his door. He needed to get that picture back.

"I wish I could." Hobbes pulled off one of the cans and popped the top. "I need the reward money for your capture."

"You have to be alive to get a reward." The driver pulled a gun from under his coat. "Give me that phone, or I'll shoot you and take it."

"You won't hurt my friend." The driver turned around at the cold voice that came from above him. His mouth opened to scream. A giant wave crashed down on top of him, flattening him against the blacktop.

The water retreated from the parking lot back to the river. Some of it moved slower than it had crossing the road coming to the shopping center.

Big Cal appreciated the effort. He didn't know what was going on with Riverton, but he knew the monster was still his friend.

He stood by the window of the jewelry store and took pictures of the robbery. He couldn't go in and risk further trouble. He could only watch and hope no one got hurt before they left.

He looked at the getaway driver. He wasn't going anywhere for the moment.

Hobbes looked at the number on the window. He called the store from outside. Maybe he could get them to leave faster.

He let the phone ring. Everyone inside the store looked at the instrument like it was a poisonous snake. He needed someone to pick up.

One of the bandits gestured for the manager to grab the phone. He picked it up. He paused as if unsure what to say with a gun pointing at him.

"This is Kiev Diamond Shop." He looked at the robber who nodded. "I'm sorry but we're closed at the moment."

"Let me speak to the head thief." Hobbes made sure he couldn't be seen from inside the store.

"The head thief?" The manager seemed surprised. "It's for you."

He gently handed the phone over.

"Who is this?" The man in the suit came to the door, looking out in the parking lot. Hobbes moved back from the window to avoid being seen.

"I just wanted to let you know that your getaway driver fell down and busted his face." Hobbes heard the "What?" through the window glass. "If I were you, I would take off before the police get here."

The thieves ran out of the store. One of them had a bag in his hand. They gathered around the car. One of them picked up the driver and stowed him in the back seat, while the rest got in the car. Hobbes took their picture as they went by him.

He still might be able to get a reward out of it if he was helpful. A police car rolled to a stop in front of the jewelry store. The manager ran out with his tale of woe. The policeman asked him for details.

The call went out to stop the fleeing car.

11

The river slept for it didn't know how long. It dreamed of places and things that mortals remembered as legends from when the world was new. It remembered some of the old magic that used to wash along the waters of the world.

It remembered, but knew that it had lost some of that touch. Rivers weren't magical anymore.

He wondered when he had lost his ability to be more than just water. He couldn't remember. He pondered the thought in his dream as he paused in his running.

Things flittered around him as he thought in his dream. He knew they were spirits of the air and earth. They went about their own business as he looked at them. Other ghosts moved at the edge of his perception. The second group were akin to him in some way, but more flexible in what they could be when they wanted to change.

Did he want to change? What would happen to him if he did? Was there more to the world than what lay between the banks of his channel? Why should he? Roving up and down inside his home was what he was designed to do no matter how much of what could be edged in on him.

What would happen to the river if he left it to be a human?

What would happen to him?

Would he become more human, and lose what he was at the moment?

What was he?

He wondered if there was someone in the real world who could help him with that.

He doubted the Hobbes knew. Big Cal was smart, but he seemed to have problems with rivers walking around on solid ground. Little Cal didn't have a problem with his liquid nature, but didn't have the knowledge to advise him.

A column of light took shape on the shore. Ruby orbs seemed to watch the water as it stood still. Finally a limb of fire dropped into the water and stirred ripples in the surface.

"Why aren't you moving?" The column pulled its appendage out of the water. "Water moves downhill to the ocean."

"I'm thinking." The river looked at his visitor. "Do you mind?"

"You are not made to think, but to follow the path." The light pointed down the stream. "That is the order of creation."

"I'm thinking." The water shivered, but refused to move. "I would like to do that alone."

"Water does not think." The orbs regarded the river. "Water moves. Thinking is for things that don't know what their purposes are. Water knows what it should do."

"Quit bothering me." The river rose, forming a body of liquid. "I will get moving again when I have finished thinking."

"How long will that take?" The light glared at the recalcitrant river. "You are required to do what you were made to do."

"I will go when I am ready." Other spirits drifted in to listen to the dispute. They regarded each other with amazed looks. The water dropped in its channel before more could lecture it about the nature of things.

He noted the other spirits didn't go back to what they were supposed to do after he settled. They floated with calculating looks on their faces. What were they thinking?

The world stopped working. The land split apart and the sections pushed away from each other. Wind rushed without reason across the sky. Clouds threw lightning at each other. The column of light looked at the chaos.

"Look what you have started." It rushed off to deal with the closest spirits.

The river frowned at the way the land threatened to come apart as each spirit wanted its way. This was open warfare the way it was in the beginning.

Guilt pushed on its conscience. This isn't what it wanted. It wanted to do things other than simply pushing things with the help of gravity.

It flowed away from the battle. It wanted time to think. Watching a battle between spirits showed the water what happened if things went their separate ways.

Deserting its post would throw things into chaos. The humans that depended on it would die. So would the fish. So would anything else that depended on the water and what it brought downstream.

It just wasn't happy with the realization that it could no longer be anything but brainless water.

Was this why humans tried to change their existence to something they liked?

He paused to watch the column of light trying to yoke the other spirits back to their tasks. The elementals buffeted their taskmaster as they fled from his commands, and grasp. He supposed he should be guilty. He decided he would have to think about that.

Perhaps they felt a yearning to be more than what they were designed to do.

He wished them the best of luck as he drifted away from the battle as much as possible. Unfortunately his body stretched through the chaos as his source poured him into the channel at one end while the rest reached toward the end of the channel.

Some of the attacks from the other spirits interfered with the flow as the land and sky rebelled against the overseer.

The battle diminished as the column of light chained each spirit to where it belonged with chains of light. It breathed a sigh of relief as things calmed once more. The only spirit that had stayed out of the fight seemed to be doing what it was supposed to be doing.

The overseer walked along the side of the water. This one spirit had caused the insurrection. It should face some punishment for defying the order of things. What could he do to a river that wouldn't impact the rest of existence?

The column of light paused as the water ran into the ocean. He saw the spirit of the river looking at the vaster water that filled the horizon. What could be more of a punishment than making the spirit wander up and down its banks as it was supposed to do?

The river spirit looked back at the column of light. It looked at the ocean. It jumped into the water. It vanished in the greater body without a ripple.

The column rushed to the shore. It looked around but the lesser spirit was gone.

Riverton woke up from its sleep. He felt different. Maybe he needed time to himself to recover from becoming human for so long.

The water wondered what had happened since he had saved Big Cal's life. He should talk to the human. It had been his fault the human had been put in harm's way.

Maybe it shouldn't go as itself. Maybe it should send only a part. Maybe that would not tire it as much as just shaping itself as a human.

Riverton put a small thing on shore. It looked around like he had when he had first started moving around. He put part of his mind in it to animate it. Then he was resting in the water, and walking on land.

He stopped to look at his reflection in a window as he headed for the cube where the Hobbes lived. He drew a smile on the almost featureless face before moving on. He still needed to work on that if he wanted to disguise his smaller self as a human.

It looked okay to his eyes, but he was a river. What did he know about how it should look like to humans?

He paused when he saw the cube. It looked just like he remembered it. He walked up the stairs to the apartment. He should get this over with so he knew where he stood.

He knocked on the door with a watery fist. He hoped he was doing the right thing coming back to the Hobbes. They might think he had deserted them. He wanted them to know he hadn't slept because that was something he wanted.

Mrs. Hobbes opened the door. She looked down at the puppet. The frown came on.

"Riverton?" She didn't open the door to let him in.

"Yes." He smiled.

"You shrunk." She opened the door at the smile.

"This is only some of me." He pointed back to the river cutting through the city. "The rest is home."

"That's reassuring." She gestured for him to come inside. "Little Cal is in bed."

"Is Big Cal here?" He tried to get the right expression, but didn't think it was right. "I fell asleep."

"He has been busy." She closed the door, waving him to a kitchen chair. "He said he wanted you to wait until he got home."

"I can do that." Riverton sat down. "I don't know how long. I might be able to stay awake longer using this than putting everything in one thing."

"What happens when you fall asleep?" Mrs. Hobbes got two glasses. She put tea from the refrigerator in hers, and water for him. "Do you dream?"

"Yes." He sipped the water with his finger.

12

Riverton worked on his face while he waited for Big Cal. Mrs. Hobbes helped him. He could tell she was amused by his efforts. He found that he liked being amusing.

Did other rivers do what he was doing? Did they walk among the humans? Did they like it? Was he alone?

His interaction with the Hobbes had told him that they didn't know of another body of water that decided to walk around as a human.

He suspected that if they had never heard of such a thing, then no other human had either.

Riverton decided he needed to stick to one thing at a time. He had awakened to deal with the human fish. That was where he had to concentrate his new mental ability. After he did that, he could try to figure out his place in the world.

If he was the only river that thought for himself, then he would have to live with that.

"How do you feel, Riverton?" Big Cal nodded at the shorter version of what he was used to dealing with as he came in the door. He went to his wife and hugged her with a smile.

"Much better." Riverton tried on his new smile. "Needed a nap."

Big Cal paused at the better control. He smiled back at his inhuman partner.

"I have been helping him, honey." Mrs. Hobbes had her own smile for both of them. "Show him the angry face, Riverton."

The water's face changed into something that only a mother could love. Hobbes stepped back from the expression.

"That's the angry face?" Hobbes could believe that. His wife smiled again at his expression.

"He's still having problems with telling which one he should use." Mrs. Hobbes went into the kitchen. She returned with a glass of water and two glasses of tea. She handed the water to Riverton, the other glass of tea to Cal. "That comes from feeling the emotion that goes with the expression."

"Have to practice." Riverton smiled. It was a default expression now, and one he liked better than the others.

Smiling made something in him spark. He liked that spark. He thought of it as an eddy, but he liked the spark so he kept at it.

"The Landshark didn't hit anything while you were out." Big Cal sipped his tea. "He seems to be lying low until the heat comes off."

"Lying low?" The piece of river put his finger in his glass and enjoyed the water it had been given.

"Some crooks are stupid. They commit crimes of opportunity. They can get away with it because the crimes are so small, and they are random." Hobbes went to his chair and sat down. "Some crooks are smart. They pick targets and go after them with few mistakes to lead back to them."

Hobbes held his glass on the arm of the chair as he thought before he spoke.

"Every crook has a particular method of doing something. The smart ones change those methods to keep from getting caught. They try to make it harder for the police to find them the more crimes they commit."

Riverton understood that. It was the same as fish that moved on to better hunting grounds when the weather changed.

"The police know our guy uses the water to get away after a robbery. He knows they know. Either he continues on, hoping that someone doesn't get smart enough to have divers in the water to chase him, or he switches up. I think he's getting ready to switch up. He's using this down time to work on new ways to do what he wants." Hobbes looked at the blank eyes of the living water. He wasn't sure that he was being clear enough for the fragment.

"If we want to catch him, we have to think what we would do if we stopped using the water, and started using other means." Big Cal saw the expression change. He had been clear enough.

"He will stick to the water." Riverton looked up at the ceiling. He saw the whole waterway from source to end. There were plenty more spots to be used if one knew where they were.

His enemy would know, or find out about, those spots.

"How sure are you?" Big Cal kept the amusement out of his voice. Riverton had displayed something already. He didn't know what it was, but the river knew what humans would do even if he didn't know how to classify it.

It might be the same as watching fish every day while having nothing else to do.

"The human fish has shown that he is ready for anything." Riverton smiled. "He believes that as long as he is prepared, he can't be stopped. He will stay on the water until something pushes him off. Then he will try something else."

"How do we prove you're right?" Big Cal couldn't patrol the river in the hopes of catching the guy in the act. He expected the water could if he stayed awake.

He wondered why a river would need to sleep in the first place. That begged the question of how it woke up and started moving around on its own.

Why had he decided to chase this one particular crook over all the others in the city?

"We need to pick targets big enough for him to try to take and watch them." Riverton didn't know what humans thought were valuable, but Hobbes would. "Maybe we can push him off the river if we get close enough."

"The jewelry store was too small." Hobbes realized what the water was talking about. "A robbery there wouldn't be close to what he took from the two armored cars."

"He also likes to isolate his targets so help doesn't arrive." Riverton liked this game. "He won't attack any place he can't pin up."

Hobbes sat in thought in his chair. He reviewed everything he knew. He placed it on the mental map of the city from his days patrolling it. He knew the police force was doing the same thing. He also knew they couldn't watch every spot for long. The city had other criminals besides the Landshark.

One man couldn't divert their resources for long, when so many others needed to be locked away.

"I think he will stop using the bridges." Big Cal thought about the area around the bridges. "But he will stick close to the water. That's what he knows. You might have scared him some, but he thinks he can handle you if he has a big enough distraction."

"He might be spending his time preparing the distraction." Riverton wondered how much time that would require. How big a distraction would the Landshark plan to keep him away from the action?

How many humans did he plan to hurt as a means to keep the river out of the fight?

"He also has to be scoping his target." Big Cal thought about all the businesses that used the bridges as a means of transport. How many of them were valuable enough for his man to go after?

It was time for the biggest information tool of all: Google.

"We need to gather more information." Big Cal looked at his wife. She nodded. "I need to go over to the library and look some things up. Do you think you can look around either side of the bridges for anything that doesn't belong?"

"What would I need to find?" The water's face dropped out of shape. The smile might be the default expression when he was paying attention, but the face melt was the default puzzled expression.

"The first thing is a guy that is looking the roads over. He will be examining everything around it. The second is anything that looks like a package in a place where it doesn't belong." Hobbes saw the nod and knew the piece of river had it down. "If he has one already set up, he will be planning a robbery on the street soon."

"Is there anything else I should look out for?" Riverton got up to leave.

"Anything you remember from your fight with him earlier." Big Cal stood up. He handed his wife a piece of paper. "Just try not let him see you coming if you do see him."

"I will do what I can."

13

Riverton walked back to the river. He sank into the water. His experience became more real to the rest of his body as the puppet dissolved into the rest of the rushing liquid.

The larger mind thought about what the puppet had brought back from the Hobbes's apartment. He agreed with what the solid thought. The thief was probably looking for a spot to use as an ambush while they searched for him.

The river started his search.

The river could create more than one puppet to use for its search, but thought that would be too much. He had just realized that he could create the one, and the control of it wasn't what it could be.

He needed some way to lock in on what he needed to find.

The river spread his eyes to the shores. He found it dizzying after putting so much effort in concentrating on one point. He made adjustments to carry out the task.

Sailors remarked on the strange flow. They wondered what had turned the river into something not to be trusted. Water shouldn't roll back up the channel. The captains put on as much power as they could to push through the turbulence to calm waters.

Some of the sailors saw a face on the water, but said nothing. It vanished before they could point it out. It might have been a trick of the light, or their eyes.

The river found a package like Hobbes had described. It was under a small walkway over a side channel. The channel led to some place underground. The river was aware of it as an itching but didn't bother exploring the area. It was just another bank to him.

He wondered what could be in the package. The human fish liked things that scattered solids and liquids.

What should he do about it?

He decided the best thing he could do was pull the thing off the walkway. If it was designed to blow up the walkway, that would hamper the human fish. If it wasn't, then there was no harm done.

An explosion would not harm its body as much as it would a solid.

He concentrated on forming an arm. It reached up and pulled the package off the metal bridge. It dropped the bundle in the water. Currents began pushing the square toward the sea.

A smile formed on the water.

Riverton continued its search. He realized that his quarry might have more than one of the things pasted on the bridges across the walkway.

He would have to search them all to make sure that he had foiled as many plans as possible with that simple action.

Then he could concentrate on things in the water.

Riverton admitted he should have thought of that on his own. The human fish had to swim to most of the targets. His passing should have alerted the river to his presence.

The only other ways he could have gotten to the bridges of his attacks were by boat, or car. Then he would still have to scale the sides of the structures from the river. The car looked like a better option to the living water.

He detailed part of him to keep watch on the walkway. Maybe the thief would come back to inspect his work. If he did, that would be the end of it right there.

Riverton didn't find any more of the packages on any of the remaining bridges. He hoped that meant the walkway was the target area. He would detail sentries to alert him to any problems while he focused the rest of himself on two areas.

He put some of his brain into the area around the walkway. If he could catch the human fish off guard, that would be better than giving him a chance to get away again.

He put some of his brain into helping the clearing of the bridge remains from his body. He would flow straighter when the removal was done.

He calmed the current so the men could pull the blocks out without struggling. Making their job easier meant making the clean up faster. He wanted the pieces removed as fast as possible.

He should have acted faster to stop the destruction. He was sharper than he was then, but he couldn't tell himself he had been too stupid to act.

He knew better.

The solids stopped working when the sun went down. He inspected their job while they talked about things they had to do now that they weren't working. He could help them more now that they had left.

Solids were so fragile. They were like minnows. He wondered how they had become the dominant species on the planet.

Then he wondered why he had wondered about the last.

He put it out of his mind. He had a job to do. He should have done it sooner but admitted he had been too immature to take care of it.

He concentrated part of his mass around the remaining blocks lying in the river mud. He lifted them up one by one. He placed them on the shore away from the water as gently as possible.

The workmen would be amazed in the morning, but they would still have to load the blocks on trucks and haul it away.

He inspected the bottom of the river. All of the solids had been removed as far as he could see. He had done a rush job pushing everything to one side like he had. It was the best he could do under the circumstances.

At least none of the solids on the bridge had been really hurt by the confrontation.

He wondered if part of the reason he was chasing this human fish was pride at being beaten by a mere human.

He had been beaten in his own element. That made it worse somehow, but he wasn't quite sure why.

He wondered if other rivers had those feelings.

He decided the workmen could finish the rest on their own. He checked the broken columns in the middle of the river. He didn't see anything but a passing obstruction. If the humans wanted to put another bridge over the span, then he would allow them to pull the columns at their leisure.

He checked for anything else on the river that needed his attention. Everything looked normal to him.

His detail at the walkway reported that nothing looked out of the ordinary to it. He turned more of his attention to the land around the small bridge. He wanted to make sure he had found the right place.

Riverton analyzed the way he felt. He wanted revenge for his injured pride. He needed to control that. Little Cal wouldn't understand.

Revenge was for something more important than slights that did little more than annoy you. Revenge was for injuries that never healed.

Riverton smiled when he saw the car. It was parked a few blocks from his body. It was a different color, but the same shape. He might have the right place after all.

Why had he left it on this side of the walkway?

The robbery must be set to happen on the other side of the channel.

Riverton wondered how he could take advantage of the situation.