219 - The River That Ran Dry

By the time Subin's team reached Redwater, the settlement's river had fallen to half its usual depth.

The problem was immediately visible from the southern bridge. Boats rested against exposed mud, irrigation channels ended in shallow pools, and farmers carried buckets from the remaining water to keep their crops alive. Several guards stood near the bridge, directing carts away from the riverbank, while a crowd had gathered around a dispute over access to the last functioning well.

A broad-shouldered man in a faded blue coat approached the newcomers. A sword hung at his waist, but his attention remained on the river.

"You're the expedition that came from Ironwood?"

Subin nodded.

"Then perhaps you can help us. I'm Commander Oren, responsible for Redwater's outer defenses. Our river started falling four days ago. At first, we blamed the dry weather, but the upstream settlements are reporting the same problem. Yesterday, the eastern irrigation channel stopped flowing entirely."

"Have you sent anyone upstream?" Ara asked.

"Two patrols. The first returned after finding the river blocked by a rockslide. The second reached the old crossing and found signs of a fight. They haven't returned."

Subin glanced at the water. The exposed riverbed revealed long grooves in the mud, as though something heavy had dragged itself through the channel. Those marks were too broad to have been made by ordinary wildlife.

"How far is the old crossing?" he asked.

"Half a day's travel if you follow the bank. Less if you use the upper trail, but that route passes through unstable ground."

"We'll take a look. In the meantime, stop drawing water from the eastern channel. If something has blocked the river upstream, we need to know whether the remaining flow is safe."

Oren agreed, then led them to a small storehouse where Redwater kept its maps and patrol records. Ara reviewed the latest reports while the others examined the river charts.

The waterway originated in the northern uplands and divided into several branches before reaching Redwater. The old crossing lay near a narrow gorge where the main channel passed beneath a natural stone shelf. If a collapse had obstructed that point, the settlement would lose much of its supply.

Yet the declining flow had begun farther upstream, according to the patrol notes.

"Something may have altered the channel before the rockslide," Ara said. "The collapse could be a consequence rather than the original cause."

"Can we tell without going there?" Jae-hyun asked.

"No."

"Good. I was worried we'd spend the morning reading reports."

They left with Oren's directions and enough supplies for a full day. The road soon narrowed along the river, but the team did not waste time inspecting every stretch of exposed bank. They followed the strongest drag marks and the few places where fresh water still moved beneath the surface.

Near midday, they found the first patrol's abandoned marker beside a split boulder. A short distance beyond it, a wounded guard lay beneath a makeshift shelter of branches.

Rafael knelt beside him. The guard was dehydrated and exhausted, but his wounds were not immediately life-threatening. After drinking a little water, he managed to explain what had happened.

The patrol had reached the old crossing and discovered a mass of pale, armored creatures lodged between the rocks. The creatures had been feeding on something in the riverbed. When the guards approached, the largest had attacked, driving them back toward the gorge. Their captain and two others had tried to reach the upper trail to circle around the creatures.

"How many were there?" Subin asked.

"At least a dozen small ones. The large one was bigger than a carriage. It had a shell along its back and claws that broke stone."

"Did you see where your captain went?"

The guard pointed toward the gorge. "Up there. We heard fighting after we separated."

Yerin gave the injured man another drink and helped him settle under the shelter. Rafael stayed behind long enough to make sure he could be moved safely, while Subin and the others continued toward the crossing.

They found the captain's trail above the river, marked by broken branches and drops of blood. It led to a ledge overlooking the gorge, where two guards were sheltering behind a fallen slab of stone. One had a broken arm. The other had been injured badly enough that he could barely stand.

Their captain was missing.

"The creatures went back to the river," one guard reported. "We saw the biggest one dragging a body toward the water, but we couldn't get close."

Subin's expression hardened. "Was the body moving?"

"We couldn't tell."

They descended carefully to the crossing.

The gorge had once been an important route for merchants travelling between the northern settlements and Redwater. Stone pillars supported a narrow bridge above the river, while an old floodgate controlled the water entering a side channel. Now, one section of the bridge had collapsed, and the main river was trapped behind a jumble of boulders. Water seeped through narrow gaps, forming shallow pools on the downstream side.

Several creatures occupied the blockage.

The smaller ones resembled pale crustaceans, each protected by a segmented shell and equipped with thick digging claws. They moved among the stones, widening gaps and carrying fragments toward a cavity beneath the riverbank.

The largest creature stood partly submerged in the remaining pool.

Ara's scanner identified it as a Level 266 A-rank: Rivergrave Burrower.

The creature's broad shell was covered in pale mineral deposits, and its forelimbs were powerful enough to split the boulders around it. Unlike the smaller creatures, it did not appear interested in the loose minerals scattered across the riverbed. It repeatedly dug beneath the stone shelf, pulling material into the cavity.

"The smaller ones are enlarging the blockage," Ara said. "They're not simply trapped here. They're building beneath the crossing."

"Why?" Liu Wei asked.

"Possibly to establish a nesting chamber. The river may have flooded their original burrow."

Subin watched the largest creature force another slab of stone from the riverbed. The slab shifted, settling against the existing blockage. A thin stream of water passed through the remaining gap, but the flow was weaker than before.

"If they keep digging, the bridge will collapse completely," Jae-hyun said.

"And if we attack carelessly, the same thing could happen," Yerin replied.

A movement near the cavity caught Subin's attention. Something lay between two stones beneath the water, partially hidden by sediment. A strip of dark fabric was caught against the rock.

It matched the uniform of Redwater's missing patrol.

Subin drew Simple Edge.

"We need the large one away from the blockage. Don't destroy the bridge supports."

The Rivergrave Burrower sensed the movement and surged from the pool. Its first charge sent water and loose stones across the crossing. Subin met it at an angle, directing his blade toward the joint beneath its left forelimb. The cut penetrated the softer material between its shell plates, forcing the creature to turn away from the water.

Yerin's spear struck the damaged joint before it could recover. The Burrower recoiled, and its claw smashed into the riverbank instead of the bridge.

Subin used the opening to drive it toward the wider section of the gorge. The creature resisted with surprising speed for its size, swinging its armored body around and forcing him to abandon a direct approach. Its shell deflected another cut, but the damaged forelimb no longer supported its full weight.

The smaller creatures began moving toward the fight.

Liu Wei intercepted the first group before they could surround Subin, while Jae-hyun drove the others away from the exposed bridge supports. Neither pursued the creatures into their burrows; they only prevented them from worsening the collapse.

The Rivergrave Burrower lunged again, aiming its claws at Subin's chest. Subin stepped inside the reach of the nearer claw and cut across the joint he had already weakened. This time, the limb gave way.

The creature crashed onto its side.

Before it could roll upright, Subin moved to its exposed underside and delivered a decisive cut through the soft tissue connecting its head to its armored body.

The Rivergrave Burrower convulsed once, then became still.

The smaller creatures scattered into the gaps beneath the riverbank. Subin let them retreat. Their presence remained a concern, but pursuing them through the unstable cavity could bring the entire crossing down.

He turned immediately toward the submerged fabric.

Rafael had arrived with the injured patrolman and joined Yerin at the water's edge. Together, they shifted a loose stone and freed the trapped body. It was the missing captain. He had suffered a severe injury during the first attack and had drowned after being dragged beneath the water.

No one spoke for several moments.

The surviving guards lowered their heads. Subin stood beside the river, his sword still wet, and looked at the collapsed crossing. Killing the Burrower had ended the immediate threat, but it had not restored the water supply or repaired the bridge.

"Can we clear the blockage?" he asked Ara.

"Not by force. Some of the stones are supporting the remaining bridge section. If we remove the wrong ones, the supports could fail."

"Then identify what can be moved safely."

Ara examined the crossing with Yerin while Subin and Liu Wei checked the cavity's entrance. They found that the smaller creatures had excavated a shallow chamber beneath the river shelf. The chamber connected to a narrow natural tunnel, and the water had been forced into it as the creatures enlarged the opening.

The blockage was therefore more complicated than a pile of fallen rocks. Part of the river's flow had been diverted underground.

Ara marked three stones that could be removed without disturbing the bridge supports. Jae-hyun and Rafael helped move them using a combination of leverage and controlled strength. The work was slow, but the opening gradually widened.

A stronger stream began passing through the crossing.

It was not enough to restore the river to its former depth, yet the downstream channel began receiving water again. The remaining problem lay in the underground tunnel, where the smaller creatures had established their chamber. Ara advised against a deeper excavation until Redwater could bring engineers and additional guards.

Subin agreed. They had eliminated the largest creature, recovered the missing captain, and reopened part of the waterway. That was enough for the day.

Before returning, they placed markers around the unstable section and recorded the locations of the remaining burrows. The surviving patrol members would guide an engineering crew to the site once they had received medical treatment.

The journey back to Redwater was quiet.

Commander Oren waited at the bridge when they arrived. He saw the returning guards first, then noticed that the captain was being carried beneath a covered cloak. His shoulders stiffened, but he did not ask a question whose answer he already understood.

Subin explained what they had found, including the remaining creatures and the unstable underground chamber. He made it clear that the waterway was only partially restored and that the settlement should ration its water until the engineers finished their work.

Oren accepted the report without argument. He ordered the wells inspected, restricted unnecessary water use, and sent a message to the settlements downstream. The news that water was moving again brought some relief, though the captain's death weighed heavily on the returning patrol.

That evening, the settlement held a brief memorial for the fallen guards. Subin's team attended, remaining at the back while the families and patrol members gathered around a simple stone marker beside the river.

Afterward, Oren approached Subin with a small leather pouch.

"This belonged to our captain. He carried it on every patrol. His family asked me to give it to the people who brought him home."

Subin accepted the pouch with both hands. He did not open it. Instead, he gave it to the surviving patrolman, who would return it to the captain's family.

"We found him too late," Subin said.

"You brought him back," Oren replied. "That matters."

The next morning, Redwater's workers had begun repairing the irrigation channels. Water still flowed slowly through the reopened crossing, and the northern patrol route remained closed, but the settlement was no longer facing an immediate cutoff.

Subin's team prepared to continue toward the northern uplands. They left Oren with Ara's survey notes and a clear warning not to excavate the burrows until the bridge had been assessed.

At the edge of Redwater, Yerin fell into step beside Subin.

"You handled that differently from the Ironwood Colossus," she observed.

"The Colossus was defending its territory. This one was actively destroying the crossing, and it had trapped a patrol beneath the water."

"So you decide based on what the creature is doing, not simply how strong it is."

"Strength tells me what it can do. Its actions tell me what I need to do about it."

Yerin nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer.

Ahead, the road climbed into the northern uplands. The settlements there traded in ore and stone, and Redwater's records suggested that the main route continued toward a fortified town called Stonehaven.

Subin adjusted the strap of his sword and followed the road north.

Behind them, the river continued to flow through the damaged crossing—not fully restored, but no longer silent.