In the languid hours of yesterday, I went to the tangled grasses near the river, so tangled that humans don’t often venture there, and had heaps of fun playing alone. As per usual, I had had a glass of sue-ju with grandmother in the morning, and drunk, I grabbed a towel and stumbled my way up. There won’t be any watchers, my body thought, and it slipped so easily into the water. Floating in the clear and pretty water I looked at the sky, saw the floating clouds. Hee hee… in that small space I even had a go at swimming like the pros. If you sit on the rock and rest for a bit you can see the small sand-colored fishes swimming around. Even such small creatures made shadows on the river bed and moved around. Yeah, every day I play at being a mountain wizard. Whether the axe handles decay or not…

A collection of short stories.