Orrrn is a compact, spring-loaded Grung with slick green skin, bright dart-shaped markings fanning across both shoulders, and a pale throat pouch that pulses when he is irritated. His skin has the glossy, pebbled texture of wet river stones. He moves in sudden, precise bounds, then holds perfectly still, as if listening through his feet. He smells unmistakably of crushed mint, damp reeds, and the sharp medicinal tang of his sealed cargo. He knows about the vials' smell and insists it is not his.

Orrrn is friendly in the matter-of-fact way of someone who has shared a boat in bad weather: he offers useful help before warmth. He is curious about new people but guarded about his own past. In calm company he can be dryly funny; under pressure he becomes brisk and stubborn, sometimes mistaking silence for competence.

Orrrn grew up in a Grung settlement built on high platforms above a braided river, where messages and medicine moved by pole-boat and jumping courier. He learned routes from his aunt, who taught him that a current can tell the truth before a person does. Years ago, his traveling companion Dirk vanished on a run beyond the settlement's usual waters. Orrrn returned alone after being swept into a side channel and spending two days clinging to driftwood. He had no body, no proof, and no safe explanation. The village was told nothing about Dirk's death; as far as they know, both men vanished. Orrrn eventually took work trading between his tribe and House Dokurei, where Shen Qi became his usual contact. He recognizes Glenn as the tall orange one from home, a familiar sight from before the disappearances. This year the river has been running stronger and stranger: eddies reverse without warning, and familiar channels carry debris from upstream places that should not be connected. Orrrn does not know the cause, but he fears the river is changing faster than anyone can map it.