[Child of the 7th Age]

By the end of the afternoon, Bingo was feeling considerably better. His stomach was calm, and he had regained his strength and spirits. The hobbits had even managed to work together to get through several hard stretches of the river. Bingo was relatively optomistic that they would soon find a way to maneuver the craft towards shore and settle down for food and rest before darkness fell.

However rejuvenated Bingo may have felt, his expectations soon met with a very different outcome. In the space of only a few moments, dark shadows and rain had descended like a grey iron curtain over the river, shutting out all the light and making it impossible to see. At the last moment, they had gone hurtling forward towards a huge, submerged rock, which had only a few inches of its surface visible above the water. No one on the raft, not even Sondo, had seen it.

Bingo heard a sickening noise as wood met rock. The front of the raft tilted crazily upward and then came smashing down on top of the jagged stone. Several of the logs snapped in two. It seemed as if their mighty raft was no more than a toy boat that a child might take out to play. Under the weight of the collision, one side of the raft dipped omenously low and began to sink. Water rushed in, sending luggage and supplies and all of the hobbits hurling into the water.

Everything happened so fast that Bingo had no time to prepare or be afraid. It was almost as if he was in a dream....only this time he could not wake up, no matter how hard he tried. He felt his body smack the water. It was cold, far too cold. Bingo tried to move his hands and legs to swim but they refused to obey him. He took in a mouthful of water and began to choke and gag, feeling an insistent tugging on his leg. Something was beginning to pull him down. Looking desperately around for a way to save himself, he spied a long tree branch hurtling down stream, apparently caught in a faster current in the very middle of the river. With a final gasp, he lunged forward, forced himself to grab onto the makeshift lifeboat and held on desperately as he was carried along. Looking back, he saw that his companions were still desperately floundering near the spot where the raft had capsized. They were screaming and yelling for help.

As the current slung him forward, Bingo hastily glanced back over his shoulder scanning the horizon for a glimpse of his brother. But, with the heavy grey shadows and dark moonless night, all the hobbits looked like tiny dots: it was impossible to tell one from another. The current was still too strong for Bingo to let go, even though he wanted to turn back to help. Still clinging to the branch, he made his way around a bend in the river, hanging on by the barest edge of his fingernails. All signs of the original raft and the rest of the hobbits were now totally hidden from his view.

I've got to get out of here. I must go back and find my brother. If something happens, it's all my fault. I should never have let him come. But, however desperately Bingo may have wanted to do that, he had no choice now but to continue hurling forward, trapped on his makeshift craft.