The village woke before the sun. A hush of paddles, footsteps on damp wood, and soft voices carrying through reeds woke Caio up. He sat up groggily in the narrow hut they had prepared for him last night. The wooden floor still swayed beneath him as if pushing its own slow breath.
He blinked, momentarily unsure which world he belonged to. If it was Earth with its concrete certainty, or this place where the river hummed faintly under every surface.
Someone cleared her throat.
Suma stood by the door, carrying something on her arms. Her expression said she had been watching him struggle awake for quite a while.
"Up.".
He managed to untangle himself from the hammock and nearly stumbled over the frame. Suma's mouth twitched, but she controlled it. She tossed him what she was carrying.
Those were simple clothes, loose, nothing like his clothes from home. The cut left his chest half exposed. He tugged it into place with a helpless sort of dignity.
"You balance like baby heron."
Her tone wasn't insulting, just accurate.
"I'm trying. This floor… moves."
"The world is river. Learn or fall."
She stepped outside the hut, and Caio followed her. The plank between his hut's platform and the next one rocked sharply under his weight. He froze, arms instinctively thrown wide, earning chuckles from a half-dozen early-rising children.
Suma didn't rescue him. She simply tipped her head toward the main walkway.
"Walk."
He inhaled with the same determination he'd used to face college exams. One step. The plank dipped. Another. The village had begun to watch him without while going through their own daily activities. Women weaving fishing lines, children chewing fruit, warriors cleaning their spears.
He slid a foot the wrong way. The platform jolted. His arms flailed. He fell, causing a big splash and a shrill laugh.
Suma exhaled as if dealing with a mildly disappointing puppy.
"Maybe Jara teach you. Moonfish have patience."
She raised her voice.
"Moonfish! Take this land-stiff thing before he drown on air."
A sharper voice floated down from above.
"Land-stiff? You're being generous."
Jara descended a ladder with the grace of an acrobat. Bare feet. Bronze skin still damp from a sunrise swim. She landed on the platform beside him so lightly the wood barely shivered.
"You made him walk the wide planks first? Cruel."
"He survive… Maybe."
Jara shook her head, then hooked her fingers in Caio's clothes and helped him out of the water.
"Come. If you learn on easy path, you learn nothing."
He stumbled after her. Jara's hand remained at his lower back, steadying him through each lurch. The contact burned in a very specific, very distracting way.
The training began with humiliation.
Jara hopped onto a slender canoe and made a gesture for Caio to follow. He stepped on and the entire world seemed to spin. Jara caught his wrist with a quick, amused twist of fingers.
"Do not think so hard. River feel you thinking. River laugh."
"I'd laugh too."
His tone was a bit more self-deprecating that he wanted it to be.
She grinned, all teeth and mischief.
"Good. Laughing loosens you."
Then she slid behind him, arms bracketing his torso, palms closing over his hips to adjust his stance.
Heat licked along his neck.
"Bend knees."
He obeyed.
"Loosen ankle."
He tried.
"Stop fighting waves like angry aunt hitting weeds."
He snorted. That actually helped him relax his body. He let the boat sway, its motion sloshing up his legs. The air smelled like wet rope and river-flowers. Jara's breath stirred the hair behind his ear.
Every time he started to overthink and calculate, she flicked his forehead.
"Less head. More river."
Within minutes he was dripping with sweat.
"Sit. Try paddle."
He obeyed, sitting on the canoe and taking the paddle. She sat right behind and reached around him, guiding his hands along the smooth, worn handle. The gesture pulled her chest against his back. Caio froze, utterly aware of how solid she was, how her thigh pressed his from hip to knee.
"You are stiff again."
"I wonder why…"
She laughed. Her laughter sent a ripple that vibrated through him.
After some time rowing around and managing to properly steer the canoe, they arrived into an open area far from other platforms. Jara stood up and stepped back.
"Now, stand."
He tried, but before he managed to stay on his feet, the canoe rolled left. Jara lunged to catch him and they toppled into each other, crashing shoulder-first into the water.
The impact rattled their teeth. Her arm ended up around his waist; his hand clutched her bare upper arm. For a second they were pressed together.
Jara's grin softened into something warmer.
"You fall nicely."
A voice rang from the main platforms.
"Stop flirting and teach, Jara!"
He floated back in the water, creating some distance. Yet, the girl just winked and resumed the lesson.
By the time the sun was high in the sky, Caio's knees gave up, his ribs complained from a bruise caused by one of the falls. But he was then able to balance for a whole dozen seconds. Jara announced this proudly to anyone who would listen, which was humiliating and strangely affectionate.
She walked with him to the shaded communal area where another woman waited with baskets of dried strips of fish and fruit. Mairi looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Your lesson was… gentle?"
The woman asked Jara in Waterspeech.
Jara plopped down with her head in Mairi's lap.
"He lives."
Mairi rolled her eyes, then looked at Caio like she was measuring the shape of his intentions.
"You learn fast. Good. The river has moods. I am Mairi, I am Jara's wife."
He nodded, trying not to stare as Mairi ran her fingers through Jara's hair. The touch was intimate, romantic and familiar.
So they are wives… of course, people form bonds, love always find a way. Without men, of course the norm would be lesbian marriages.
Children passed by, tugging at his hands, inspecting him. They bombarded him with questions, which he answered happily, sometimes teasing them, sometimes playing with their heads.
When he stood, the ache in his side got stronger. Suma, who was eating nearby, noticed his scowl.
"Go to Dawn-Eels. Aruá fix."
He had learned enough to know the overall places of stuff in the village, so he followed a path deeper into the village's heart.
Soon, he was in front of Aruá's house. She looked up when he ducked inside, concern darkening her gaze.
"Where hurt?"
He gestured to his ribs. She guided him to sit.
"Remove cloth."
He hesitated just long enough for her to tilt her head. The Yarikari had no concept of modesty as he understood it. His embarrassment felt childish even to himself, so he tugged the wrap aside.
Aruá's fingers moved, pressing along the bruise, testing. Pain flared, but her touch steadied it into something bearable. Her brow furrowed in concentration; a strand of hair slid forward, brushing his chest.
Her hands smelled faintly of river-mint.
"Breathe."
Her palm followed the motion of his ribs as he breathed, tracing the shape of the bruise.
"You hold fear here. Too tight."
He protested.
"It's not fear. It's-"
"Fear. River ask softness. Body answer stiff. Learn slow."
Her thumb smoothed a circle across his skin.
He swallowed, controlling the pain. Her voice wasn't teasing, it was instead intimate by accident.
"Thank you."
She chuckled, looking him in the eye.
"You just said you'll eat the river's mother."
"Huh?"
She corrected his pronunciation, guiding his lips with one finger under his chin. Their faces hovered so close he could feel her breathe on his skin. His pulse knocked hard under her touch.
She felt it.
For a heartbeat, she didn't move. Then she dropped her gaze and wrapped a reed-fiber band around his ribs, tying it. She was flustered, but instead of reacting strongly, she just pulled off calmly.
"Rest. No more Jara today."
"I'll try to avoid her."
"Do not avoid. Just tell her how it is."
She then took some grilled fish and cassava flour in a bowl and handed it to him.
"You need to eat."
She wasn't supposed to help me with that. But I guess I have no way of procuring my own food as I am right now, which was the condition set by the Circle of Reeds.
"I should get my own food."
"Weak body can't find food. This is part of treatment."
***
Outside, the light had shifted toward orange as another sunset was approaching. The river glimmered through the gaps in the reeds. Aruá escorted him to the upstream bathing platforms, scolding him for smelling 'like tired frog.'
The platforms were a gentle chaos of women. There were wives washing each other's backs, elders braiding hair, children splashing, lovers leaning together in half-submerged affection.
Aruá directed him to a corner screened by reeds.
"There. Wash. Do not drown."
She left him with a gourd of scented oil. Caio entered the water tried to maintain dignity as he cleaned the sweat and mud from his skin.
But he caught glimpses through the reeds. Jara lifting Mairi in the water and spinning her, Mairi's laugh ringing out like bells; two older wives sharing the same space, touching with the familiarity of seasons spent together; a girl braiding her girlfriend's wet hair with deft fingers.
No one flirted with him here. No one expected him to join.
The village lived its own intimacy for centuries without me. And now I'm supposed to bring fertility to them. But it isn't like my place is guaranteed just for having a dick. I'll have to carve and earn my own space here.
He found that thought oddly grounding. It was a challenge, and the gods above knew he liked a challenge.
Now I understand better what the Overseer told me about the criteria for choosing me.
By the time he climbed onto the raised platforms again, dusk had soaked the world in wine-colored light. Aruá was seated at the edge of a platform with her knees drawn up, watching the water with a stillness that made his chest tighten.
She shifted a fraction when he sat beside her.
"Better?"
"Cleaner, at least."
They watched the river ripple beneath the last streaks of sunlight. He tried to mimic a Yarikari phrase he'd overheard earlier - something about the sky's reflection being a second river. His vowels were cleaner this time. Aruá's mouth curled up, surprised.
"Good. Your tongue learn fast."
He stared at the horizon.
"I keep thinking about home. It had a lot of lights and the noise. Everything moved fast, but I knew how to walk there. There was no time stillness or listening."
Aruá smiled, hearing him reminisce of his old land.
"You learn to walk here too."
"Will I?"
"I do not know. But river want you to try."
He was about to reply when her posture changed in an instant. She turned her head slightly, listening. The hairs on Caio's arms rose, though he heard nothing.
"What is it?"
"Wrong note."
Her voice dropped as if not to disturb whatever she sensed. The river beneath them looked calm, but Aruá's breathing changed. She rose in one fluid motion, scanning the water.
The familiar System notification appeared in Caio's vision.
[Environmental Anomaly Detected]
[Entropy Signature: Fauna]
It vanished before he could focus on it.
Farther along the outer platforms, Kena's voice rang out. It wasn't yet an alarm, just a confused question.
"Suma? Aruá? Look…"
Suma appeared from the shadows like a blade being drawn, spear already in her hand. Women nearby took children out of the water quickly.
A shadow moved slowly under the water, breaking the surface in silver flashes.
Aruá's hand shot out, gripping Caio's wrist.
"Back."
The water erupted before he could obey.