This story took place in the heart of Eclipse Island — in a river valley where peculiar water-cheeked creatures lived. They were called that for their unusual ability to fill their cheeks with water and shoot it out at high speed. The water-cheeked ones would flood enormous trees and build dams and homes from them.
Chip was the most ordinary young water-cheeked one, but everyone considered him very strong. He earned this status through deception, but no one suspected it.
Water-cheeked creatures often competed with each other, filling their cheeks with water and moving stones with the stream. Chip was cunning: he moved boulders not only with the force of water, but also with the help of his friend — a transparent tail-footed creature. Of course, his stones always ended up farther than everyone else's. Chip thought it was harmless deception because no prizes were given for winning, and everyone competed just for fun.
And the little fibber was also very sociable and could chat for hours with anyone he met. Naturally, the inhabitants of Eclipse learned about his achievements very quickly.
One day something happened on the island that forced Chip to keep his mouth shut in the most literal sense, which is how he saved all the valley residents and came to value the truth. But let me tell you everything in order.
Life in the river valleys was bustling: water-cheeked creatures built dams, and their little ones played on the shore. The biggest concern was building the most beautiful dam. But suddenly the waterfall that fed all the rivers dried up. It fell from the highest cliff surrounding the valley, and now there wasn't a drop. Fear filled the hearts of the residents: without water they would perish.
The elders decided to send a scout team of flying crabs to the cliff. The crabs left at dawn and returned only the next day with bad news. A landslide had occurred in the gorge, and a huge piece of rock had blocked the river that ended in the waterfall.
They needed to urgently send water-cheeked creatures to the cliff to break the stone with water. But walking uphill and then going to the blockage would take a very long time, and the water in the valley was decreasing every hour.
The flying crabs wanted to lift a water-cheeked one to the cliff, but it didn't work: water-cheeked creatures, though small, were heavy. So the elders decided to choose the strongest from the tribe and launch him to the summit using a fountain that several water-cheeked creatures could create together.
The scout crabs warned that there was no water at the blockage site, so the chosen hero would have to fill his cheeks in the valley.
Chip was chosen, of course, since he was always the one who won the stone-rolling competitions. The water-cheeked one was very frightened, but he couldn't bring himself to tell everyone that he was a cheater.
The water-cheeked creatures gathered as a tribe. Chip sat on the roof of the tallest house in the valley. His cheeks were full of water. A voice rang out:
