I tried not to disturb any of the guys as I stepped outside the tent. Ah! Nothing like greeting the fresh, mountain breeze in the soothing touch of the sun's dawning rays. It was an extraordinary feeling.

I stretched and started doing some exercise. The regular, you know? Rotated my arms, my hands, twisted my body, and ran in place for five minutes. Afterwards, I was after getting my hiking clothes on and packing my bag, Larry came out with a cap. "Morning, Spiny."

"Morning, Larry. How did you sleep?"

"I didn't get a wink of sleep. Those guys just make too much noise, right?"

Well, you're no sleeping beauty, yourself. "Yeah, I guess so. Are the guys almost up?"

"Uh, no not yet. I'll get them up."

Afterwards, we all got up and ate breakfast, which were scrambled eggs I made over the campfire and some rabbit meat I'd hunted earlier in the morning. Yes, I have a hunting license and I only hunt for food, not for sport.

Hunting for sport is a major felony in Amarkia and can be punishable with more than 150 years in prison. Anyways, once breakfast was finished, Darla said, "So, Spiny, what do you have planned for today?"

Everyone gathered into a group around me. I clasped my hands together. "I know the perfect morning activity we can do after a pioneer-style breakfast. How about fishing?"

Greeny cheered and jumped in the air. "Yay! Fishing. I'll get to hold the worms!"

"Greeny, please!" Kathy said, disgusted.

"Well, let's go then! I'm ready!" Robert said, his box and fishing pole already over his shoulder. We grabbed our stuff and after properly putting the fire out, we left the camp and I lead the way to the river.

I'd spent lots of time before in this national park, so I knew the whole place almost by memory. We reached it pretty soon and we all settled down near the banks of the river. Dimetroodon took the fishing line in his mouth, since he's four-legged and can't…well, you know.

But the thing is that I had my back turned and was bending over to get some things out of the box with the bait, the hooks, and all that stuff. All of the sudden, I felt something sharp and cold hit me in the lower back.

Dimetroodon yelled, "Here goes the first catch of the day!" Then I felt something pull at my underwear and …RIP! I suddenly felt a cold rush of air. I looked down and….AAAHHH! Larry popped up and covered me with a towel. "Thanks."

"Hey, I got something!" Dimetroodon yelled. "I got…these shorts? Who'd would leave underwear in the river?"

"Maybe a couple sneaked down to go skinny-dipping together and returned to their tent without clothes," said Robert.

"ROBERT!" Patty scolded him.

"Those are mine!" I yelled at Dimetroodon.

"Uh…these horrible wet things?"

"GIVE THEM!"

"Okay, okay. Chill, dude!" He swung the fishing pole over to me and I grabbed my…ugh. Never mind. I left and took care of the problem then returned. Darla and Lilia had also cast their lines. Patty was helping Greeny while Kathy was sitting back, taking pictures with her old camera.

I sat a few feet next to Robert, right beside Lilia. "Hey, Spiny!" Larry yelled.

"Yeah, what is it?" I said.

"Can you hand me that cup of worms next to you? The one next to the thermos bottle!"

"Sure," I replied. I grabbed the box of bait and walked over to hand it to him.

I don't know what everyone's problem with me is! Do I have a natural gift for attracting trouble? No, I didn't get my pants ripped off again. Robert swung back the fishing line and the hook…well, let's put it this way. My eyeball was in the way.

"Ye-OW! Robert, why don't you watch it!"

"What? Oh, sorry! I meant to hit both eyes."

"WHAT?"

"Nothing, nothing!"

Ugh.

I returned next to my girlfriend and cast in my line. I waited….and waited…and waited…and waited…and WAITED. Good grief! Did fish even swim anymore? I was just about to give up when I felt something pulling the line. "Hey, I think I got something!" I yelled.

"Hey, I've got something, too!" Larry yelled.

"So do I," said Rudy.

"Holy cow! We stumbled upon the Fish Community Center!" said Dimetroodon.

We all pulled and reeled our lines in. Boy, did we fall upon some great luck! I pulled out a beautiful foot-long trout. Robert got a salmon, while Rudy pulled in a small bass. Some fish community center this was!

"Ohhh, hang on!" Larry shouted. I'm not kidding; he started sliding towards the river. I handed my line to Lilia and Roger and I grabbed Larry and pulled back. He pulled out a monstrosity!

A giant, glossy, two-foot bass. "Whoa! Ain't she a beauty?" Larry held up the fish for all to see. I should've been jealous, yes. But sincerely, he'd done it real cool. "Well, I have to hand it to you, Larry. You've finally achieved something great by sticking to the job and not playing or clowning around. I have to thank you."

He let the bass slip out of his fingers and it slapped me in the face. "Or not." I need to learn to not speak too soon.

"Well…at least I got a nice fish for when we cook up dinner."

Darla returned with her fishing gear. "I think the fish have decided to move City Hall to another location. In the meantime, let's put the fish away in the box and go do some other great activity."

She picked up the green box where we'd all stored the fish and placed her catch in there. Not two seconds had passed when Larry pulled his line back and the hook caught onto the box.

And that's the last of our long waits and hard work to get a true camp-like dinner. "Hey, what was that big green I just saw on my fishing line?" said Larry, oblivious of the whole thing.

"That was our dinner, you jerk!" Kathy yelled.

Larry reeled it in, and pulled out the box. "Well, at least it's closed," said Roger.

I opened the box and water dripped out of it. Water and nothing else. "Well, I guess we can get more in the evening shift," said Lilia.

"Well, we can do something else. What do you think, Spiny? Shall we go hiking, hunting, climb a mountain, photograph wildlife?" Patty asked.

Then it hit me. I snapped my fingers. "Aha! I know. Canoeing. Let's go canoeing!"

We brought out the canoe from the trunk of TIV and placed it on the river bank. It was a special one I'd ordered about...what was it? I think it was 530 years ago. It was long and narrow, but wide enough for everyone to be comfortable in it.

After we'd all slipped into our safety vests and I checked the canoe, we hopped on board and sailed into the river, with Rudy at the oars. The misty from the river kissed our faces and freshened our skin.

"Ah…isn't this so peaceful?" Lilia said, putting her head on my shoulder.

"Sure is. The perfect start to a perfect vacation," I replied.

Just then, my subconscious kicked in. You idiot! You know what happens when you think too soon. Especially about optimistic thoughts.

We suddenly hit a bump and we all rocked in the canoe. "Whoa! What was that?" Dimetroodon exclaimed.

"Maybe we hit an underwater bump," said Robert.

The wind suddenly gusted really quickly and my hair was all over the place. "Hey, it's getting windy!"

"If it's windy, how come the trees aren't swaying?" said Darla.

I looked at the rows of trees on either side of the river. They were perfectly still. And yet, the wind was blowing mist, dust, and even a fly into my face. It was definitely close to 20 miles per hour. That's enough to move branches. But they weren't.

"Huh? That's strange? If the wind is this strong, then why aren't the trees moving?" said Roger.

I just happened to noticed the water that was being cut by the front end of the canoe. Up in front the water changed color. From clear blue to white. Uh-oh. "Um…guys. I don't think it's the wind!"

"What do you mean?" said Rudy.

"I do know one thing. You might want to hang on to something! We are about to go through the…"

We accelerated abruptly and the canoe started thrashing wildly out of control. Amidst everyone's screaming, I finished my declaration. "RAPIDS!"

The canoe thrashed about and foam and spray found its way into my nose, which send me coughing and gasping for air. "Hang on!" Lilia yelled, grabbing hold of me. I grabbed her too and shut my eyes.

Then, I felt another huge bump, and the sound of the thrashing water suddenly died down, but not completely. This time, I felt the wind really speed up. I heard Larry's voice yell, "Ah! I don't think flying was in the agenda, was it, Spiny?"

What's he talking about?! I opened my eyes. Holy cats! We were flying in the air. "Hold on to whatever you can! The landing's going to be a little bit…" Of course, the river and the canoe weren't going to let me finish.

We landed with a tremendous SPLASH! We were all now drenched and dripping as if we'd taken a Jacuzzi bath with all our clothes on. Except this wasn't exactly a stress-releasing experience. More like a stress-causing experience.

Then the canoe went crazy. It started spinning in circles. "I regret having eaten three eggs this morning!" Robert yelled. His face had gone completely green.

"Don't you throw up on me, Robert!" I barely managed to yell over the thunderclap of the river.

"No, don't worry! I'll aim for Lilia!"

"What?" she yelled.

Well, at least I know that Robert will be sarcastic, even in the face of death. I felt the sensation of a force throwing me forward, like I was about to do a front-flip. Only it was on water and I didn't have the proper equipment.

Yep, the canoe did a front-flip and for a few seconds, it was upside-down. With all of us under the water. We hit another rock and the canoe went rightside-up again. I nearly lost grip of it and sank further.

The canoe was not only filled with ten, drenching kids, but also jumping fish. "Hey, this is great! This'll make-up for what I lost," Larry said. He held up one of the fish so show me. But his trophy didn't last long.

A piranha came out of the still violent waters and snatched it, jumping over the canoe and making a perfect landing. They all started jumping all over the place. You could hear their jaws snapping and their teeth chomping.

"Ah! Help! Attack of the mutated, mini-aliens!" said Darla.

"Actually, it's Pygocentrus nattereri! Or commonly known as a red-bellied piranha!" said Dimetroodon.

"Whatever! I don't plan to have chunks of my skin ripped off!" she said, still holding on for dear life to the edge of the canoe.

"Don't worry! I'll take care of this!" Larry shouted, taking something out of his bag. I was surprised he still had it. All the other ones had been lost when the canoe went flying in the air and when it flipped over.

"Larry! What are you doing with a shotgun?"

Either he ignored me or didn't hear me over the roar of the water and the snapping piranhas. In any case, he started firing wildly in all directions while we all ducked down to avoid becoming buckshot.

After hearing nothing but the sound of explosions in my ears for three straight minutes, Larry yelled at the top of his lungs. "All clear!"

Just as he was finishing his sentence, the roar of the water quieted dramatically to normal. I opened my eyes and lifted my head to look around. We'd left the rapids and were now at a normal pace.

Well, we were wet, scared, hair all over the face, bugs in our faces, and a little bruised, but alive. "Phew! That's the first and last time I go canoeing," Kathy stated, dumping the water out of her cap.

"Hey, guys, I don't want to alarm anyone, but why is it that I have water bubbling up my feet?" Roger said.

"What?" Larry stood up and looked around him. "Uh-oh. We have ten holes on the bottom of the canoe."

"That's not comforting after what we just went through," said Robert.

"At least we're not going so fast anymore," said Greeny.

"Now we can pull over to shore and get out of here," said Patty. She looked at Rudy. "Rudy, row us back to shore, please?"

"Um…about that…I have a confession to make." He laughed nervously and fidgeted with his hands. "I lost all oars when we were back in the rapids."

"Oh, great! Now we have no way of getting off of this thing!" said Roger.

Like I said, the current was now calm, but firm, so there was no way of paddling to either side. Roger climbed over to the front end of the canoe and pointed ahead. "Hey, guys, look! There's a ton of mist ahead."

We all turned our eyes towards where his finger pointed. Sure enough, a wall of low-hanging clouds touched the water. "You sure that's mist? Or fog? It looks more like clouds!" said Lilia.

"Well, they're all the same thing, aren't they?" said Kathy.

The familiar roar of water was audible again. But this roar sounded a lot more deeper and ferocious.

Clouds…roar of water…calm yet firm current…uh-oh. That means only one thing.

While I was thinking, Roger said, "Who votes that those are clouds?" Kathy, Darla, Roger, and Dimetroodon raised their hands. Or tails, in the case of the latter.

"All right, who votes that it's mist?"

"Waterfall, anyone?" I blurted out.

Larry's eyes jumped. "Ah-heh heh. IN that case…SAY YOUR PRAYERS, EVERYONE!"

Everyone grabbed the nearest able-bodied living organism and held on for our very dear lives. I held onto Lilia and shut my eyes. The still air suddenly became a strong gust of moist, cool wind and I felt the whole world spinning crazily.

It was much quicker than I imagined going down a waterfall would be. The sensation of the water hit me like a lash and I lost grip on Lilia. As soon as I went under, I was pulled by a violent current.

I thrashed around wildly trying to reach the surface, but I was pulled down even more. The light of the sun soon became invisible. I saw nothing but black. No canoe, no Lilia, no nothing. The current pulled me downwards another half mile or so then it changed abruptly to make a horizontal path.

I got pulled deeper into the darkness of the heavy liquid that was now robbing my peace and plunging me into terror.

I was ready to let it all in (literally) and surrender. Then, the current stopped. It didn't slow down. It stopped. Completely. I looked around the murkiness and saw faint lights above me. On instinct, I speed upwards until I breached the surface.

I gasped for air, as my lungs cried out in desperation. I saw a rocky surface nearby and rushed over to there.

That must've been some current, because as I was dragging my exhausted body onto dry land, I saw more figures coming out of the water. The faint lights on the ceiling of the subterranean cave illuminated me enough to see what everyone was accounted for and alive.

I rushed over to where they were all gathering together, worn out and gasping for breath. "Well….that was the best free roller coaster I've ever had," Darla said.

"Oh, shut up!" Robert managed to say in between panting.

"Next time we go on a canoe, can you do something, Spiny?" said Lilia.

"What?"

"Please install seat belts!