iana

Are we ready to go?

Not yet...

Your master says he wants to fix the drilling vehicle.

Hmph, what a pain! He's so unreliable!

I already told him that scrap heap won't win him any awards.

And he actually thinks he can do the Triple Aquapit Handstand Twists with it! Ridiculous! Just thinking about it makes me cringe.

What are these, Ms. Meijer?

Surveying instruments, survival gear, a few solar panels.

I use them to help me while exploring.

Oh, it's the stuff you use to go playing outside.

It's important to have fun stuff.

There's lots of fun stuff at the City's Best Invention competition. I've been looking forward to it for ages!

But... if I knew it would turn out like this, I wouldn't have gone with him.

Either way, we're here now, so all we can do is wait.

Let's go take a look around that forest.

The river flows gently. Iana lies on the rocks by the shore, staring intently at the water.

Suddenly, ripples appear on the surface. She immediately presses a button on her control panel—

A spring-loaded net on the riverbed shoots up, pouncing the finbeast into the bucket at Iana's feet, all in one smooth motion.

Wow! You caught it!

Inconceivable! How did you do that?!

It's just a remote control, a set of signal transceivers, and a mesh net. It's all spare parts from the drilling vehicle...

I linked them together to do this.

I see, so this is your new invention!

It's much more interesting than the drilling vehicle!

An invention? I wouldn't call it that...

She holds her breath and turns back to the river.

The swaying of the trees, the dissipation of the clouds, and the refracted sunlight create a mosaic on the water's surface.

Suddenly, Iana's pupils show with golden spots.

From another perspective, the shimmering waves no longer disturb her.

Just as a tiny disturbance affects the water's surface, the net springs up again.

A larger, more vivacious finbeast emerges from the river.

Woah! You got another one!

Alright, we're good.

We've got enough drinking water, some finbeasts, fruit, and with the leftover food from before, we should be alright for the next few days... Even if it's a few more after that, we should have plenty.

Can I try?

Of course.

Take the control panel, hold onto this, and press this button...

No, that's not what I mean.

You keep it.

We're going to play a game.

Play? What do you mean?

I'll swim from there. When you see me, hit the button.

The net will bounce me out of the water with a splash, just like the finbeasts.

I... don't think the fincatching... err, fincatching device can be used like that.

But it's the most fun water toy I've ever seen!

Let's stay here and play some more!

Here?

Wait, you mean skip visiting the Durin city?

Yeah!

But... don't you want to attend the ceremony?

Huh?

Yes, because I want to visit their water park and try out all kinds of new water toys and games from the competition!

But why bother with that when I'm having so much fun right here! I've got the funnest 'Spring-loaded Aquanet'!

Can we try your new invention again? I've come up with a few more games!

How about 'Forest River Net Hide-And-Seek'? Come on, close your eyes and count to a hundred!

Here, fruity fin skewers!

Thanks.

Oh... is that 'Durin Engineering' you're reading?

It's a fascinating journal.

It has a dozen pages of Durin research papers and hundreds of pages of Durin invention stories besides.

Say, kid, what does this say here?

Hm, it says 'Knock eight times at the bottom, then turn the input knob to...'

That's good. I can make sense of most of the rest, it's just this one part. Are you sure it means 'knock eight times'?

Yeah! Totally sure!

Why do you need to know?

I'm just trying to learn the composition and function of these modules... might come in handy.

I see, you want to improve the Spring-loaded Aquanet or make some new water toy.

No, I just want to fix the drilling vehicle as soon as possible, so we can move on to that underground city.

But why do you want to go to the city?

Why?

...I haven't yet determined the outcome.

I can only be certain once I have seen all the possibilities.

Will you play in the water with us then?

Me...? Probably not.

But... if you're not going to enjoy the water, what's the point of going to the city?

The point?

Over the course of a journey, speculation is disproven time and again.

She gradually comes to realize a feeling like searching for an important item in an old room.

Scouring the bookshelf, going through drawers, until only a round steel box under the bed remains unopened...

She might have guessed the answer, but she still needs to find the box and open it.

No, there is a meaning to all this.

The next day...

What?

You're telling me the drilling vehicle still isn't fixed?

No... that's not the way I'd put it.

It's more like... the drilling vehicle is unfixable... hic!

You reek of booze!

...All the fruit I picked yesterday is in the instant brewing machine!

Sure is. Made some nice fruity wine... this forest is great, I'd like to stay here.

I worked on the vehicle late into the night, but I couldn't fix the power modules. Lucky I've got this wine... hic.

I oughta name it, something like 'Drilling Vehicle No. 2' Vintage, how's that sound?

Personally, I love it. A loving tribute to our fallen 'Drilling Vehicle No. 1'

Master! Master!

Wine...

Iana sighs as black smoke rises from the drilling vehicle.

What do we do? We'll never make it to the Durin city at this rate.

Sounds good to me!

We can keep playing 'Forest River Net Hide-And-Seek'!

No... we're done playing.

We're going to that city.