Rillbell Flood Surveyors — Anthro Fantasy Character Sheet

The story of Rillbell Flood Surveyors

A fictional story inspired by the artwork.

At breakfast the otter found a fish in the town bell. It had swum up the bell rope through the open window of the tollhouse. The river itself still lay quietly between its banks. Someone had even walked across the ford that morning without wetting the hems of her skirts.

The surveyors went out in their blue coats. The heron set up the brass sight on the old ferry step. The beaver drove stakes beside the dry ford. Meanwhile the frog held a ruler against the tollhouse wall and watched the damp line climb another inch. All three measurements were perfectly true. That was what made the matter difficult.

It was the turtle who remembered a second river on an older map. The kingfisher followed its buried course from above and saw six cellar windows steaming in a neat line. Under the street, an abandoned brick channel had filled with spring water. Its only outlet was the narrow shaft beneath the bell.

By supper they had opened a grate beneath the ferry step. Clear water poured out between the stakes. The otter carried the fish back in a measuring cup and gave it a moment to choose its direction. On the town map the turtle inked the hidden river in blue, then left room beside it for the names of people who lived overhead.

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