a thinly veiled metaphor, in which our protagonist destroys a species of mosquito, figures out a way to cross the amazon only to get caught in a rainstorm and have to crawl back to the other side, and in doing so avoids a forest fire on the other side of it that destroys three more species of mosquito.

Caroline paused at the side of the river. Draco had been attacking her tribe for several months now, and while they had beaten him back into his den, she knew that he would emerge once more. She knew that Draco could not cross the river, and as the most recent Scout to be thus dubbed, it was her duty to investigate the situation and see if there was a way to move the encampment to the other side. Caroline had long ago ceased to believe in luck; she was here not because Minah had failed her Scout test, but because she had made her own luck.

Caroline surveyed the river. It was wide and raging, and had an ominous purplish hue to it. It looked less like a river and more like a waterfall or one of those climbing vines; every now and then it would send out a tendril seemingly at random in order to investigate the few feet above it and make sure no one was trying to cross it. She couldn't tell if it was more out of pride or habit.

It occurred to her that there was a climbing vine nearby. She walked over to it and gingerly tugged on it. It gave way rather easily, which was a good sign. Stepping towards the river, she cast the vine into its middle. It sunk into the river immediately, and Caroline could feel that she had lost control of it, not in any sort of physical sense, but in the sense that it was now useless as far as interacting with the non-river world.

On the other side, she saw webs among the trees, and the spiral pattern appealed to her. Surely constructing a web across the river was impossible, but maybe if you angled your arms just right and held it in your hand ... and she knew what to do. She put her plan into action.

It was hard work, but she had made significant progress when the rain started. Rain. She had not counted on it, but you make your own luck, and it was a test of her Scout abilities. She had little time to think. There was only one way to get back to shore -- getting to the other shore was impossible -- and she had it figured out within a second or two.

In retrospect, it shouldn't have worked, and everyone else was amazed that it had. Caroline felt a great sense of frustration in trying to explain to them why it was a good plan, why it did work, but she couldn't get the scene across perfectly. Every detail of the scene was necessary, and the information block at the front of her brain prevented her from communicating exactly how.

As she set her feet on wet-but-solid land, Caroline saw the webs waving in the buffeting winds on the other side of the river. She saw one reach upwards and grab lightning from the sky. The entire web pulsated for a second, glowing, and then one by one all the other webs lit up. Three objects lumbered towards the river; under the sunset light and pouring rain she could not make them out clearly, but she knew they were Draco, or some analogue of Draco. The trees caught on fire, and the objects thought for a second and then jumped into the river. Caroline felt a moment of sadness at how close they were to succeeding, how if only they had not put themselves in an inextricable situation...

Questions.

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