The Nurmermer Canyon was wide and vast. It stretched from this horizon to that horizon and took ages to get there. It was an impressive sight to behold indeed and Hem, Bram, and Crawley were staggerstruck by its majesty.

“Why we never been out here before?” Crawley sputtered. “It’s near enough to Gilba Gilba!” They had been walkin’ most of the day to be fair, but it did occur to all three pals that they shoulda been to this place earlier in their lifetimes.

“Gilba Gilba’s got a weird sense o’ things,” remarked Hem, poking the ground with his pokin’ stick. “And I reckon the folk in charge of makin’ edicts about how life goes for the younger characters don’t exactly remember what it was like to be a younger character themselves.”

Bram and Crawley nodded in assent. This was a familiar topic for them: makin’ complaints ‘bout how things were constrictin’ their sense o’ freedom. ALL YOUNG FOLK HAD THESE THOUGHTS. Nothin’ new here.

“We headin’ down on down or?” Crawley said, fingering his compass with a rather insane sort o’ eagerness. The guy loved his compass. “Down down down!”

“Aye,” Hem said. “Would ya get yourself stable? Careful now. I suspect the rocky trails lead down to the river.”

“That the Ravin’ River that shoots through Gilba Gilba?” Bram asked.

“The very same or so I reckon by the nature o’ things.”

“Well like as not we can sorta fashion ourselves a raft or simply follow the banks back to town,” pondered Bram with a finger to his chin.

“Aye. Now remember what Glen said.”

Bram and Crawley looked at each other and Bram said “Nope.”

“Aye that’s true. Ya weren’t there when he said it,” Hem said.

“Well what he say?!”

“Glen said the Nurmermermaids make their havens down here at the bottom o’ the Canyon and in the currents of the Ravin’ River.”

“I reckon we can find ‘em before nightfall,” Bram said.

“Let’s make ourselves get started then,” Hem said with a NOTE OF FINALITY. They shuckered up their packs and found a fancy lil’ trail that wended and wound and weeeeeemed through the rocks in a descendin’ sorta way. They reckoned they could hit the river in no more than two hours.