The anxiety Nialeeka felt about the runaway boy couldn't overshadow the excitement of observing the preparation of people on the marinas. People made a noise, shouted at each other, issued orders, and carried various supplies. Raden noticed that behind the swampland of marshes, there is a small merchant ship from Outpost on the river. Probably it was waiting for its cargo.

"What are they doing here?" Attyon said quietly. "The news of the father's operations will immediately reach the Outpost, and then everyone will learn about his plans."

"Is it true that no one has undertaken such expeditions yet?" Zira delightedly interrupted her brother. “What does dad want to find?”

"It is not our dad who wants to find something," Attyon answered patiently, "but the man who arranged this expedition. He found ancient books in some stores in his city that described the past of the River Valley."

The River Valley in ancient times wasn't a place entangled by rivers and engulfed by the water of swamps. Before the rise of water, it was a blessed land where grew everything that a person could wish for.

But that person was interested in something completely different. He didn't divulge his goals. And not a single person knew what's the deal between him and Phelan and Silben.

Attyon led Raden, Nialeeka and Zira to a hill on the south side from which are visible the entire southern point of Stais, as well as part of its marshes and even a wide distant river.

Standing on a hill in Odiern, Nialeeka saw the land and trees around, and the coast with a ramp. While here, in Stais, to hide from the ubiquitous water, it was necessary not to leave the settlement. Even the tree for the marinas was brought from other places. Low-growing trees and shrubs surrounded Stais.

Around the settlement, one could walk through a swamp, but Nialeeka didn't want to know how deep it was.

The girl again felt homesick.

At least there is no unpleasant dampness.

As they climbed the hill, her thoughts returned to Camil again.

This boy shines when he talks about travel. He always wanders around with the local boys at home in Odiern. Wherever they went, Camil always followed them. When she and Zira talked about the upcoming expedition of Phelan, he was nearby, listening fascinated. Although this happens infrequently, probably when people from Outpost arrive in Odiern, Camil always listens to their stories.

And now, when he was so close to fulfilling his dream, he... He ran after it.

Nialeeka wanted him to succeed, but on the other hand, she knew that Phelan and his partner wouldn't take such a little boy on a dangerous trip. She didn't want to think about what dangers Phelan and his people would meet.

Instead of a gentle upward path, as elsewhere in Stais, there was a staircase on this stretch of hill.

Nialeeka was surprised to find stone steps under her feet. No one near her paid any attention to it; people continued to rise and descend. The girl froze. She seemed to be enchanted as she runs her foot over the stone. She brushed off the sand that had accumulated on the steps and realized that under her foot was not a step made of several roughly worked stones, but a long rock, incredibly smooth and even.

In a world where people process stones with chisels, there cannot be such a smooth, even and massive stone.

Raden and Attyon went ahead, and Zira fell behind to wait for Nialeeka. She couldn't understand what captured the attention of her friend.

She watched blankly as her kneeling friend sweeps the dirt off the steps piled up by countless people. At first, Zira thought that she had dropped something, or maybe was digging something up...

Whatever.

She looked around. The brothers noticed that the girls were behind, and waved their hands, urging them to hurry.

“Nialeeka, hurry," Zira urged her.

She was impatient to go ahead.

Nialeeka looked at her friend with still bewildered eyes. But, faced with indifference in the eyes of Zira, she decided not to say anything.

They caught up with the brothers and went on to the voices.

It turned out that they belittled the height of the hill. It was even higher than they expected.

The sun blinded Nialeeka, don't let her look forward. Behind her back was an incredible view of the surroundings. Nialeeka thought that she had never climbed so high. Everything is in full view. The people below are tiny, small ships could fit in your hand, and a vessel like a boat on which they sailed here is not worth mentioning at all.

At the top stood a strikingly decorated tent. Along the edges of the summit, several scattered stones of a strange shape were visible, but there were no buildings. The top was bare, like the head of a bald man. In some places, scarce vegetation made its way.

There were few people here, but they all seemed formidable in appearance. Leather armour covered them; they were armed with swords, which undoubtedly could be pulled out of the sheath in a matter of moments.

Nialeeka even thought that they had gone the somewhere wrong way, but the brothers boldly moved forward. The girls walked timidly behind them. Seeing their state, Attyon took their hands and led them forward.

The voices grew louder, but one of them was familiar to them.

Zira raised her head and began to look around, not believing her ears.

Before their eyes appeared a long table with various papers, pressed with stones or something heavy, at the edge of the table were jugs, dishes with food.

A man was walking around the table. He was engaged in discussion with someone so much that he did not notice anything around. He wore plain trousers and a white shirt, and a short sword remained on his hip. He gestured enthusiastically, now and then pointing to different sections of the maps on the table.

Nialeeka recognized him as the father of her best friend, Phelan.

He enthusiastically argued with another man sitting on a chair nearby.

That man leaned back on the chair and crossed his legs, giving the impression of leisure. But it was clear that this wasn't like this. He wasn't armed, but his aura was piercing and sharp, like a sharpened dagger. He knows what he wants and is used to getting his way.

He was young, but his well-defined face was slightly weathered, betraying his craving for travel and the front wind. His clothes were bright for the eyes of the inhabitants of the River Valley, but, apparently, they were casual to the places where he came from.

Nialeeka was almost fascinated by his unusual speech. She listened to how they talked about the ducts, about the lowlands in those places where there should be elevations, how to navigate ships with a low draft to the very heart of uncharted lands.

The man with whom Phelan had discussed all this wasn't interested in gold. He repeated that he was looking for something that Phelan waved his hand at. Phelan was tired of constant reminders of the purpose of their expedition, focusing on how to arrange everything and how to build supply chains. It was not clear how long their journey would last, what they would encounter there, or what they would eat after all!

Having been a little tired arguing with Phelan, this man finally signalled to his people to bring guests. Carried away by the conversation, Phelan eventually turned around and saw his family next to him.

"Zira! Raden, Nialeeka, Attyon!"

He rushed to them.

Phelan hadn't seen his family for many months, concentrating entirely on his work. In addition to preparing for this expedition, he was also responsible for their merchant ships. Instead of long voyages this year, the vessel sailed to nearby cities along with Silben's cousins as master's mates.

As soon as Silben saw his sons, daughter, as well as the girl, whom he could also call her goddaughter, he was overjoyed.

Raden and Attyon looked at each other and smiled. They understood Scord's intentions when he told the girls to go with them this time. Scord wanted them to meet with their father and take a walk, look at a place where they hadn't been before. Raden even began to think about how he would tell Scord about the incredible luck of his sisters. Surely even he wouldn't have thought that they would find treasures under their feet.

After a series of hugs, Phelan turned to the man at the table.

"Mr Lourens, I would like to introduce my family to you."

***

Author's corner:

The River Valley is a land of untold wealth, but (so far) inaccessible to its inhabitants. Everything lies literally under your feet. I stress this relentlessly. Only here, people are so busy surviving that they don't pay attention to such things. But one clever little girl begins to suspect something.

Once again, Nialeeka is not a little traveller Hannah!

By the way, what about to start all the troubles? Fans of the quick transmigration genre will understand what happens in the following chapters.

The beginning seems so long... What I described as a couple of lines of text became... how many pages?!

Nevertheless, this is the story of Hanna's second world (yes, the one the little traveller spoke of in the introduction; it has his own story). The World of the River Valley offers her its riches and treasures, but the series of chance coincidences that their involuntary culprit, Nialeeka, began to notice, changed everything.

My story is not (only) about how the main character has fun and becomes stronger, richer, smarter, but also about many other characters.

I understand that this is only the beginning of my story. Much is still not clear to readers and too little is written. But I want to give every world that Hannah visits its own story, to populate it with interesting characters who may not be inferior to any of the main characters. And since I'm not ready to let them go, we'll definitely meet some of them later.

What I was thinking of as a series of small stories are getting bigger, longer and more vibrant. Putting it all together, I realized that the original 10 pages of text became 40 pages. I hope I'll manage to write a good story.