Rill
The River Mother’s child
Rill came out of the storm as an egg in an eel trap. The ferrywoman Suri kept it in a wash tub under her stilt house, then in a hidden willow pool deep in the reeds, and named it Rill — a small running stream.
Wherever Rill swam, the nets filled. That was the first reason the village was glad of it, and the first reason they began to fear it.
Spoilers — only open this after watching
On the night the Old Wall broke, Rill laid its body into the breach and held back the flood. It did not come out of the dike again. The long grass mound on top of the Old Wall is where it lies — and where, twenty years later, something hatched.
Appears in
27 min · Watch freeThe River Mother
A lonely ferrywoman pulls a strange egg from the river on a stormy night. What hatches will feed her village, frighten its elders, and one day decide whether the whole valley drowns.
839K views · 19 Sept 2026
29 min · Watch freeThe River Mother II: The Other Child
Twenty years after the flood, a ferrywoman raises a river creature with a name. The man across the water raised its sibling with a ring through its jaw.
66K views · 23 Sept 2026
