A neat and tidy eddy swelled up from the edge of the expertly placed oar, moving off to the side and backward as the canoe wended its way along the riverbank. The woods in which the river was set were old and still, with animals moving furtively through the shadows, hiding from each other naturally. Under the water, the eddies generated by the action of the oar extended into long, deep spirals - graceful in their own way and unaware of that which applied the force that formed them and which petered into the end of the downspout of the eddy. To the fish below, the canoe could have been just any felled tree- loosed from the bank and drifting down to a new home further down the river - except that it's movement was upstream so something must propel it. The shadow it cast on the river bottom edged like the sun but faster and on a different plane. Interrupting light and sound above, but not making much sound itself, it was enough to make a deer look up while chewing. Cautiously, the deer remained still as the interlocutor passed through