Jatan was trying to block everything out, but the rain made it difficult.  It soaked his clothes and his shoes, and the mud squished under him as he knelt down.  He had walked a short ways away from camp to meditate after speaking with Brisa.  He couldn't focus.  His thoughts felt scattered.  Everything was different.  Loudwater was gone.  He was stuck here with these kids he didn't even know, who didn't even know him.  Everything was different.

Grabbing his knees, he sucked in a deep breath, the cool rainwater slithering down his tongue.  He squeezed his eyes shut, squeezed out the splatter of the rainwater pelting the ever-growing puddle a few feet away, squeezed out the memories of the past day, squeezed out the anger, the fear, the regret.  And for a minute it was dark.  There was nothing.  Nothing but calm.

When Jatan opened his eyes, he wasn't alone.  A pair of yellow eyes devoured him.  The body almost blended into the surrounding greens and browns of the mucky ground.  Almost.  But Jatan had lived in the river long enough to spot the snake.  And he knew enough to recognize the tell-tale brown dots that littered its body; this one was poisonous.  Its eyes simmered with hunger, ravenous.  Jatan was far bigger than the snake's typical prey, but this one seemed just desperate enough to try something.

He stood, backing away slowly, eyes on the snake the entire time.  It stayed in place, for now.  Looks like he wouldn't be getting his daily meditation in.

He couldn't hold in a sigh of relief when he safely reached the camp, just in time to hear Aiden wonder aloud, "So do any of you know about things that inhabit rivers?  Like the local wild life and such?"

"I'll tell you what lives around here," Jatan announced, barely suppressing a shiver at the memory of the slimy scales, the darting tongue, the eyes yellow, and bubbling with anger.  "Snakes.  And they come out in the rain!"