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Dull muffled roars roll across the region, borne by winds shocked into silence. Not, all together told, a large charge. Simply one placed at the right place at the right time. Two. In twin detonation. One to disrupt a bridge, banging it badly, and to cause chunks of the old masonry to block into the river below and stem the enormity of the deluge in parts.
But this can all be repaired. Simple work, of dredge-work and shovels.
It is the second charge, much smaller, that becomes the knife-charge. High, towering cliffs. The waters have carved through them for years and years and so, they *lean*. The channels twist the foundations, deep in the earth, and the venerable rock stands against the churning erosion. Have stood for centuries.
No more.
Masses of rock, an avalanche shook loose, tumble down the mountain side and hammers into the waters below. The reaction rips more stones from the precariously balanced walls. The waters choke with new sediment, shift, the enormous water leviathan roiling like a damaged beast pelted with arrows. The bridge up ahead, where the flow is concentrated, is temporarily dammed.
Pressure builds. Enormous, world-changing pressure. Until it is simply far too much to bear and a minirature tidal wave erupts down the deluge, sweeping aside the toll booth, some of the rocks and the dry, loose soil along the channl sides.
The wider opening from the rocks behind it bleeds water like a hemorrhaging stab-wound. No more is the thousand small channels and streams broken in their fury against this section of stout stone. No, here, the current gathers *speed*.
