The mountain did not take its redirection lightly. Every hour, the sound of the timber changed; the heavy oak beams, once solid and defiant, began to groan under the weight of the saturated earth. It was a low, rhythmic protest, a sound that vibrated through his teeth and settled deep in his marrow. To the villagers watching from a distance, it was merely the sound of construction. To him, it was the sound of a beast straining against its cage.
The saturation was the true enemy. The more the water flowed through the newly carved throat of the tunnel, the more it turned the surrounding soil into a heavy, treacherous slurry. The ground around the entrance was no longer solid earth; it was a living thing, a hungry mouth of mud that sought to swallow the very reinforcements he had labored to install. Furthermore, he spent the night in shifts, rarely sleeping more than an hour at a time, always jolting awake at the sound of a settling stone or the sudden, wet slap of mud sliding down the embankment.
By the third day, the exhaustion had moved beyond mere tiredness. It was a profound, cellular ache that made every movement feel like he was wading through thick honey. His hands, once calloused and tough, were now a map of raw blisters and deep-seated grime that no amount of scrubbing could reach. Yet, as he worked to drive another wedge into a shifting joint, a shadow fell over his workspace. He looked up, expecting a villager with more supplies, but found instead the blacksmith, holding a heavy iron pry bar and a look of grim determination.
“The timber alone won’t hold if the bank keeps melting,” the blacksmith said, his voice low. “You need more than wood. You need stone. You need a collar.”
The man was right, but the cost of stone was a problem he hadn’t yet calculated. To bring heavy rock to this saturated slope would require a stable path, a path that the river itself was currently trying to wash away. He looked back at the dark, swirling maw of the tunnel. He had redirected the river, but in doing so, he had created a new, more concentrated force of destruction. He had given the water a weapon, and now he had to build a shield strong enough to survive its fury.
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