It was a good day for travelers, it reminded him a lot of the day he was created. A clear sky, a comfortable temperature even for the early hour and a breeze to animate the leaves around. On his right, the river splashed about like usual and from time to time, he could see the shadow of a fish through the water.

Emp regretted not being able to do the trip in the company of Chinui but at the same time, he felt that not constantly hearing his voice would probably be quite relaxing. He had become so used to it that he often made dreams in which Chinui criticized everything he did.

He appreciated the calm he had just gained but was also very eager to meet some new people. He impatiently awaited to meet a multitude of weird strangers and wondered if they would be like Chinui. In the mean time, he could only calmly follow the river flow.

Chinui had told him that the forest, and the rest of the world for that matter, was covered in all kinds of monsters but, of all the time he spent in the woods already, he had not seen a single one. He felt that his luck was so great that the chances of him meeting a monster in his travel was minimal. The trip would no doubt be very relaxing, thought Emperor while stretching his arms.

Around midday, he stopped to raise the hammer and take a light dinner before resuming his tireless walk. Of the entire day, nothing special happened. When evening came and the sun started to go down, Emp searched for a good place to rest. He wanted a place where the trees distanced themselves from the river a little to give him enough space to make a small fire but finding such a place proved to be extremely difficult. Most of the riverside was filled with tall trees leaning towards the water to steal the sun from it. If not, big rocks covered in moss blocked all the usable space, they were comfortable to walk on sure but not suitable to make a fire on. He ended up finding a place where a tall tree had fallen over its fellow trees opening up a good space.

He collected small wood from the fallen trees, used it to prepare a spot for a fire and sat on the riverside with his fishing rod. He still had provisions but since he was right next to the river, it was probably a good idea to catch some more fish.

While waiting for a catch, he searched his surroundings with his eyes, looking for trees with limbs large enough to support him. The reason for that was because Emp slept much too deeply. It was almost impossible to wake him which wasn't a good thing at all when sleeping alone in the woods. One time, to make him understand, Chinui had played a trick on him. While Emp slept, Chinui had rolled him inside his blanket, lifted him up before placing him back down outside in the garden and buried him halfway before Emp noticed that something was wrong. This had taught him that if ever a predator or a wicked individual found him sleeping, he would have the time to die three times before he even woke up.

So, to live through a night outside in the woods, Emp needed two things. An extraordinary hiding spot and an even more extraordinary luck. For him, the only way to live was to fall asleep high in a tree and hope nothing would find him. Looking around, he finally found what he was looking for, a tree with some great limbs and an even thicker trunk. He didn't take the time to go examine it from nearer since he was still fishing.

After having caught his first fish, he lit a fire like Chinui had taught him and cooked it. Of all the meat he had the chance to taste up until now, the fish's wasn't quite his favorite but he didn't hate it either. In fact, he had not tasted something he didn't like yet. After his fish had been prepared, cooked and eaten, he went back to his fishing spot to catch another. He did this until the darkness had invaded all his surroundings.

In the end, he managed to catch five more that he threw in his bottomless bag. He had tested it with Chinui, the food he placed inside stayed exactly as how it was when he placed it there. If he got the fishes out in a month, they would still be good to eat. This bag was really an incredible object.

After his catches were put into safety, he doused the fire and went back to the tree he had identified earlier. A good chunk of the branches on one side had been ripped off by the falling tree. One of the biggest limbs on the other side was separating itself in two at the base making for a large surface. He climbed there with difficulty because of the lack of branches to use in the lower end of the tree. Once comfortably positioned up there on his perch, he prepared himself to sleep. He wasn't that high but he knew that if he fell, the shock would be painful. Enough to wake him up, he hoped. Aside from that, missing half of the tree branches left him a little in the open but it was probably still the best place to lie down in the area.

He quickly fell asleep, tired from the long walk and woke up the next day, sore all over but still alive. Since both the tree and its limbs had been massive, they had been enough to keep him suspended the whole night. He made sure there weren't anything suspicious around him or lurking on the ground before he clumsily climbed back down. A quick stretch, a hammer lift and a breakfast quickly devoured later, he was already on his way.

While he was following the riverside, he had all the time in the world to think about anything that crossed his mind. For example, his belt buckle. The belt itself was quite good but the buckle was way too large in comparison. He felt that maybe if he had been twice as tall and muscled like a bull, the buckle would fit him but for now, he was only looking ridiculous by wearing it. It was true, it was as big as his whole hand! It gave the impression he was a kid trying to look beefier than he really was. Sadly, it was the only belt buckle he had so there was nothing he could do about it.

He also wondered if he would end up hurting his feet or his legs with all that walking. He already felt exhausted but it was mostly due to the hammer, his vigor came back before noon. After another small dinner and many more hours of walking, he reached the point where the two rivers joined. He now only needed to get on the other side and follow the other one back upwards.

Since the river seemed calm and shallow, he felt like it would be possible to just walk to the other side from where he was. To keep his clothes dry, he removed everything he wore and put it all in the bag before tying it up around his neck. He entered the water and walked towards the middle of it. the water was so clear that he could easily see his feet at the bottom and since he was taking his time to get across, he wasn't afraid to slip and fall.

The water wasn't that cold but the waves combined with the breeze were sufficient to make him shiver. Bellow his feet, the rocks were small, smooth and surprisingly comfortable to walk on. Of course it wasn't as comfortable as his boots but the sensation wasn't unpleasant at all. Once he got to the center of the river, he turned towards the direction it flowed and contemplated the stream.

He stayed there for a long time. Behind him, the two branches of the river joined and in front, they flowed together towards the horizon. His body disturbed the flow and changed the angles of the waves that fought each other afterwards to take back their place.

If the two rivers could join like that, he asked himself, could they part again later? If that was the case, how did the water droplets know which of the two branches they belonged to?

He caught a fistful of water in his palm and raised it in front of his eyes. The water imprisoned in the cusp of his hands shined in the sun but the beauty of that spark, he told himself, could not be compared to the magnificence of the river itself. He let the water flow back down between his fingers while thinking that it was their whole that made the beauty of the river. Destiny had brought all those water droplets on the same path and had united them for a while. If destiny wished for it, the droplets would part again and there was nothing they could do against it.

In a way, it was not unlike how he had crossed the path of Chinui for a time before being separated again. He wondered how many more droplets would accompany him in the river before he reached his destination. How many more encounter and separation would he see? He couldn't wait to join up with the river and meet all those other droplets.

From the middle of that river, it seemed even more impressive than when he watched it from the side. He understood very well why the trees were bent like so over the river. They all wanted a part of the light belonging to the river of course but mostly, he believed, they wanted to look at the river from a better angle. If the sun were to find itself just above the river, he imagined very well the sight of three streams. One made of light, shinning in between two steams of darkness made by the trees walling it from each sides.

The show reminded him of the scene he had witnessed on the day of his creation. What he saw now was as beautiful as what he saw then, even if entirely different. He wondered if all the rivers were as magnificent. If he made his way to another river, would he find the same presence there? Or maybe each river had its own unique charm, its own individuality.

Was it possible to recognize a river from a mere sight? What about other kinds of landscapes? Was there any other place in this world hiding such a beauty or was it instead omnipresent and he had just not taken the time to see it earlier? Did other people know or were they living in such a beauty without seeing? If he stayed there until nightfall, would he see but the same spectacle drowned in darkness or would it be its own surprising sight?

Later, once he felt like he had absorbed as much as he could from this vision, he restarted his steps towards the opposite shore and reached it quickly. Feeling refreshed, he quickly clothed himself and hit the road again, this time, going against the flow instead of with it.

That day, nothing else happened. He caught more fishes and wasn't disturbed in his sleep.