It was going to take a long time for the three teens to put together a crude boat for making their way down the river, though it would be shorter than it could have been, given the available learning materials and their own special skills.

Derek was the one to learn how to tightly weave reeds to be effectively waterproof. This was because his ability to tune to the wood element allowed him to control the reeds better than weaving by hand alone, though it was still a lot of work. This skill was learned in trade for the labor of making baskets to be sold by the bunkin who taught him.

Shizoku's alchemical talents were perfect for learning how to make waterproof coatings to reinforce the tight weave, there was no reason to rely on the weave alone when they could make something better. While the little alchemist was working off the debt of learning these formulas, she also was able to find the time to tweak one of them and created a variant that could harden the reeds once it soaked in. Of course, she was going to need to make a lot of it in order to soak the entire boat.

Fuyuko's keen senses were perfect for hunting out the various ingredients that Shizoku needed, as they were not able to simply purchase this sort of supply. The first several days were limited to hunting the shoreline; reaching the island in the center required that Fuyuko learn how to swim first. Derek and Shizoku were both able to help with that in the evenings, and Fuyuko proved to be reasonably adept if not exactly agile or graceful. They also sacrificed her older, more ragged clothes to alter into appropriate swim gear as, in her opinion, even her unusual leather armor wasn't ideal for swimming in.

Not that she was entirely happy with the results of their tailoring job either. But at least the knee-length shorts and the shirt weren't as form-fitting as the armor, despite having been made more snug than she'd prefer. Derek had shorts that he was satisfied with, and Shizoku didn't seem bothered by wearing clothing that clung tightly when she swam, though it was edged with frills to break up the outline.

Several sets of her old street clothes were sacrificed to get exactly the bits Shizoku wanted to use. Fuyuko used to wear three or four layers of those, sometimes more when it got really cold, and some of her old 'shirts' used to be dresses. All of it was torn and patched with several stains, she had kept them more out of a habit of always keeping any clothes you had rather than intending to wear them again.

There was also a lot of leftover material, which could be turned into strips and ropes and twine for various parts of the boat and oars, as well as a small sail. There was no wind down here, but Derek could attune to air and water to help direct the boat.

Once Fuyuko had gathered enough raw materials for Shizoku to make a sufficient amount of the coating, she turned to her construction task. While getting the alchemical ingredients, she'd also cut some long bamboo shoots and brought them back to their construction area, and had also managed to find a few shiny rocks that she hoped would prove valuable when they had a chance to get them checked out.

Now she needed to sort and double-check the bamboo shoots to make sure they weren't splitting, and then she needed to trim them into equal lengths and create two large bundles that were tied together tightly. She wasn't sure how these 'pontoons' were supposed to work, but they were one of the things that had been in their instructions.

Of course, the instructions had also been a list of options. These pontoons were probably not needed, but this was their very first boat and they all felt more comfortable making the boat as stable as they could. This was why Shizoku was treating the presumably water-tight weave that Derek was making, and they were using a total of five poles crossing between the pontoons and the boat when only two or three should be needed.

It was during this construction work that Fuyuko started to understand how strong she really was. Sure, she was lanky, but she was also very tall compared to most people. That relative skinniness hid a lot of muscle, and her strength was further fueled by her heritage; her body inherently channeling potential and will into strength beyond the simply physical. It helped solidify some of the training and teachings she'd gotten from Mordecai.

During all of this, they had a room, food, and security in the knowledge that no one was going to mess with their work in progress. If it was a larger group of seasoned explorers, Kazue wouldn't have made that promise, and in fact, would have encouraged mischief against the careless and the lazy. But there were enough stresses on the three as things stood, and coming back to find some of your work had been undone just wasn't the sort of experience she could bring herself to inflict on them right now.

On the day they finished the vessel, they stepped back and let it sit, at Shizoku's insistence that all three of them take a long break and rest. It was late the next day that they came back and began their testing. They were careful to not go far from shore at first, and most of their gear was either onshore or back in their room.

Once they were satisfied with their testing, they pulled back up on shore and rested that whole evening and well into the next morning. Kazue was amused at how well-regulated Shizoku had the team. She was bossy, yes, but she was also often correct about how to pace their work. Kazue wondered which lessons were from being on the receiving end of overwork, and which ones had been drilled into her head by her grandma.

They took their time triple-checking their gear and their setup before they finally took off for real. It was about noon, but the river itself was potentially traversable in a single afternoon, and at worst they should get through that evening. They had slept late, running a little into the night would be doable.

Navigating the sandbars and shallows proved easy enough; Derek sat at the bow and leaned forward to keep his hand in the water, tuning to water and earth to help sense things that would not be quite visible. He couldn't help with the wind while doing this as two elements at a time seemed to be his limit, but navigation was more needed than steering from him, and he could use water to help push their boat.

Shizoku sat close behind him, to help balance against Fuyuko. Fuyuko's job was to control the boat with a long guide pole. They also had oars, but given their lack of experience, using poles to push and guide seemed more intuitive and they kept the oars as backup.

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They passed the shallows and got to enjoy a short section of peaceful travel down smooth river before the cavern widened out and the river thinned too much to keep boating. Instead, they had to slog through wet, sucking mud while dragging the boat behind them. When they came to this realization, Shizoku made a sound of annoyance. "Derek, keep your eyes forward. Fuyuko, help me out." She normally preferred traditional robes, but the little kitsune did have some other clothing in her pack. Once she had on trousers and a shirt instead of robes, she was ready to help. Robes would not only have gotten dirty, but the weight of the mud on the hem as they dragged would have made them more awkward to move in. Normally such garments wouldn't touch the ground, but given how much their feet sunk into the soft ground, she'd been right to change before getting out of the boat.

By the time they had gotten across the mud flats, all three of them were thoroughly covered in muck, with Shizoku grumbling the entire way. Just because she knew how to cope with stuff like this did not mean she was used to it, her forest was generally drier and 'cleaner', with a lot less mud even during rain.

Once they reached clean water again and could relaunch the boat, they did their best to clean themselves up, but between their clothes and the boat, it was pretty clear that they were going to be stuck with things being muddy for a while.

Wet and dirty, the not-entirely happy trio continued on their way down the river until they reached the small lake with a barrier that had been hung low across the water to prevent passage. The bunkin 'gang' manning the barrier challenged the teens to athletic competitions. The trio could try as many times as they liked, but they wouldn't be allowed to pass until they won three of the competitions.

After some negotiation, Derek took the first challenge, which was swimming. Fuyuko wanted that to be first so that she could warm up with her archery; she hadn't had a chance to practice during this delve and it could be a finicky skill to maintain. She did have to use a provided bow, however, as magic items were forbidden.

On the other hand, innate abilities were not banned, and with his ability to manipulate water, Derek proved to be a match for any of the land-based bunkin. He might not have won against a bunyip, but that would have been unwinnable for most adult groups as well, so they were not part of this challenge.

The archery challenge didn't go as well as she'd hoped as their champion proved to be quite the marksman, but she was able to make up for it by winning at both arm wrestling and a race. She didn't need to pull any tricks to win at arm wrestling despite the surprising strength of the much smaller bunkin, but for the race Fuyuko pushed herself, drawing upon extra power and speed from a partial use of her shifter powers. Rabbits were known for their speed after all, and she wasn't taking any chances.

Shizoku did not try any of the competitions. She did offer to play hide and seek in a very sweet tone, so long as she was allowed to be 'it', but the annoyed fox girl was showing sharper teeth than usual when she made that offer and the bunkin has been hasty to decline that offer. Instead, she used the time to set about cleaning herself and the boat with magic. The sort of spells that could be repeatedly cast this way generally didn't clean much per casting, so it was only truly viable when they weren't traveling.

After they had won their three challenges, there was only one more hurdle to overcome: whitewater rapids. While not quite as dangerous as true rapids, it was still a rough ride with a lot of bumps and swirls that could overturn a boat. The pontoons proved a mixed blessing here; they provided more stability but even with Derek guiding them and using his water attunement in conjunction with Fuyuko's poling, it was proving impossible to avoid slamming one pontoon or the other into a rock occasionally.

When they hit the short waterfall at the end, Derek called upon all of his elemental power to make their drop smoother, and they landed in the final lake with their boat still mostly intact. There were, however, plenty of cracks in the bamboo of both the pontoons and their connecting rods.

Derek collapsed with exhaustion, and Shizoku had Fuyuko grab an oar and get them to the nearest shore while Shizoku tended to Derek and made sure that he hadn't done more than tire himself out. Once she was satisfied that he would be okay, the kitsune took the time to get a better look at this side of the ending lake. It was simple and peaceful, with no clear challenge other than making it across to finish the zone.

It made her suspicious.

"Fuyuko, do you still have that air bubble chew I made earlier? Good, here's another one. I want you to explore this area as best you can while I look after Derek. But start on the shore before you use these to dive." When the tall girl had left to begin her scouting, Shizoku settled Derek in to rest his head on her lap until he woke up.

Fuyuko's expedition proved to be quite fruitful. She found the cave behind the waterfall easily enough and was quite happy with the shiny crystals she found there that looked much more valuable than the rocks she'd found at the beginning of the zone.

There were also a few herbs that she recognized the scent of from the training Shizoku had given her, and Fuyuko was careful to tuck those away into her pack as well. Only when she was satisfied did she prepare to go diving. Without a lot of other eyes about, she was more willing to just put away her outer clothing and go swimming in her armor. It didn't actually hinder her, she just felt like she stood out way too much when it was wet like that.

Fuyuko wasn't entirely certain what she was looking for underwater, but there were some particularly metallic-looking fish she managed to snatch by growing claws and using her hand like a spear. She dropped those off at the boat and noted with amusement that the now awake Derek looked rather embarrassed, though Shizoku insisted that he continue to lay there using her lap as a pillow while he rested. After that, she dived back down to explore the bottom of the lake, where she found a large chunk of clear crystal. It was a pain to haul the ten-pound crystal to shore, but she was quite pleased with her find, even if it felt weird every time she squeezed it.

Once it was out of the water and had a chance to dry, Shizoku was able to identify it as quartz. It was mostly glass-like in its clarity with very few inclusions, and the kitsune practically drooled over the idea of getting to make enchanted items with a chunk this large and clear.

In her excitement, she finally let Derek sit up again so that she could examine the quartz and start working on plans for all the things she wanted to make out of it. And she was going to have Derek help her when he had better control of his elemental powers.

There was enough room in the expanded space of Fuyuko's pack to store the large crystal until they had time to deal with it and decide on more details of its fate.

Now that she was up, Shizoku also took the time to test the scales of the fish Fuyuko managed to grab and identified them as having scales of silver-infused steel, the same as the silvered steel that could be forged into weapons and armor, though the quality was not the best. Still, it was enough to get the trio to spend a couple of hours fishing and pulling up what they could, with Derek taking the lead and showing the others how to craft a makeshift fishing rod. They even managed to get a couple of gold-scaled fish, and one covered in ruby scales.

When they were done, the trio gutted and cleaned all their fish before they set out on the lake again, crossing to the far end where several campsites were clearly marked. The exhausted teens made camp there and kept the fish preserved in one of Shizoku's storage pouches while eating simpler fair. The fire was easily lit at least, with Derek's elemental powers coming to the fore again.