Stone Circle Why is the [water] gone?!

Merrit had gone to the river today with plan and purpose in mind. Ma had told him that father was sick, which meant he had to spend a lot of time resting, and a lot of time holed up and confined in the safer areas of the pack.

Today, he wanted to find a way to cheer his father up. Merrit had seen an interesting quarry the last time he'd come to this stretch of the river, and that was what brought him here now. The heavy stench of mud and fish lifted through the cattails, and he wound through their thick stalks until his paws grazed the slick ground on the other side. He readied himself for the shock of water, but instead his found his toes gracing - 

Mud? He furrowed his brow. Hadn't the shoreline lapped with water right up to the river reeds? A dark stretch of sodden dirt separated him from the river's edge, and he turned and meandered down the riverside, his prize momentarily forgotten as he surveyed the thinning stream.

Eventually, he picked up his sister's familiar shape bent low in the bank. He hopped down and joined her, lowering his neck to mimic her movement and sniff at the mud himself.  "Why's th'water nah'here?" he queried, and expected that she would have the answers, like adults always do.