Something With a Prince

Chapter Forty-Four: Starlight

Lansing

Falling is a strange sensation. Especially when your eyes are closed, because you don't know whether you are moving up or down. Of course, I knew we were falling down. That is really the only way you can go when cliffs are involved. What I did not know was what lay at the bottom, how hard we were going to land, and how to slow down the process.

A glimpse over Thea's shoulder told me we were about to hit water just before the icy surface clawed its way up my nose and down my throat. A current swept us up, wrenching Thea from my arms. Rushing filled my ears, threatening my senses with deafness, messing with the only grain of perception I had left. My head bobbed above the surface for a second, but there was nothing to see other than white foam of the river, and grey, slanting faces of rocks approaching at lightning speed. Scarcely drawing breath, I was pulled back under. Blind, deaf, and senseless of my orientation to Thea. The only choice was to kick my legs up and swim, otherwise I would drown before I got the chance to do anything else.

The current fought hard against me, until I could find an angle that did more helping than harm. Arms and legs, pumping as hard as they could manage, my chest was on fire in the fight for air. Just ahead of me, I saw a form clinging to a log sticking out from the side of the riverbank. Her knuckles were white with strain, and I knew it wouldn't be long before she let go.

"Hold on!" My words were drowned out by water, careening down the passage of my throat. A violent fit of coughing taking their place.

Out of nowhere a rock smashed into my knee, ringing my leg with numbness, and I dropped under. Water seemed to coil around me, crushing my sides like jaws, only to spit me back to the surface. Kicking with a dead leg was difficult, pointless even, as it was dragging me further under the rapids. So, I went to my arms, gritting my teeth as I clawed through the water; my body was carried closer to where Thea had saved herself. An eternity went by, but it had me at that same log she was clinging to. I grappled for her hand, just as she let go, pulling her back to its safety.

"Thea?" I had her between my arms, both of us curled over the log, but she was barely conscious and bleeding from the head. "Thea? Can you move?"

The water was so loud, it had me nearly yelling, but she faintly nodded her head.

"Okay, one hand at a time, we're going to get to that bank!" I didn't have to gesture to the one I meant, as the log was protruding from a muddied sliver of land about 13 feet away from where we were.

She nodded again, and moved her hand, just a couple inches on the log. Slowly, we pulled ourselves out of the river...just as the log began to give way.

"Give me a break!" I howled to the river, and it cackled at me.

"Faster!"

This was directed to Thea, who, having woken up a little more, had enough consciousness to glare over her shoulder and yell back, "Does it look like I can go any faster!?"

She did in fact, pick up her pace, and I was able to let go of the log and climb to shore just in time to snatch her out of the river as the log cracked in half. Its body exploded into splinters against the rocks a few feet down. Thea's body crashed into mine, knocking us both into the mud.

It took a while, but we somehow managed to crawl up the eroding bank and into the foliage above. Our chests were heaving with exhaustion and pain as the two of us flopped into a small clearing surrounded by tall bushes and rabbit holes. Just big enough to harbor two freezing, half-dead, idiots.

And I knew we were idiots by the first things that came out of our mouth's, the moment we had reached safety.

"Told you I'd get us out." Thea said.