Prosaic.

Clear Waters

Felicity was thrust underwater, upside-down, in less than a second. Her body wanted to float to the surface, but a large wooden structure - the boat - was in her way, capsized. Her lungs and stomach burned as if on fire, but she was smothered with water and unable to breathe, choking. In such a panicked state, she could not decipher which direction was up and which was down, and began to spin hopelessly and frantically.

Suddenly, mighty arms found her abdomen and pulled her out from underneath the boat in a single swift motion, and her body broke through the rolling surface of the water and into crisp, clean air. Well, really, the air was thick and hot with humidity; but after being submerged in water for so long, to Felicity, it truly felt crisp and clear. She hacked and spit up water, her body quaking and feeling sick from the waves that still rolled around her, roughly slapping into her body. Huan held her in his large arms, where she managed to find comfort and stay afloat, using his wide, heavy body as a sort of floaty. He smiled grimly at her, as if that could bring her comfort. Hanging on to the boat was Kiui (whom tightly held the poor dog in her arms), Marina, Zephyr, and Tati, all exhausted and yet still pushing through and managing to keep their heads above the water, clinging to the boat, their arms over the slick curved bottom of it, which was now facing the sky. Huan used his free arm to hold on to the boat, and his other arm to keep Felicity above the water.

Felicity had begun to hold a large amount of respect for Huan. Despite his occasionally hot temper, he was extremely protective of everyone on the boat, and seemed to genuinely want to help them. When problems arose, thus far, he always seemed to be some sort of solution, be it helping Felicity with defending them against the alligators, helping Marina and Kiui fish, rescuing Kiui after tumbling overboard, or rescuing Felicity just now. Felicity was too exhausted and light-headed to manage anything louder than a mumble, but she thanked him, and he responded with a gentle, "Save your energy." Felicity did just that, and either fell asleep or passed out completely. Either way, time skipped, and they awoke when the sun was high in the sky, early afternoon.

Felicity was familiar to this feeling of her skin feeling dry and wet simultaneously. Her skin was pasty and flaky, the salt water and sun beaming down drying it out, but most of her body was still submerged, resulting in wet skin that looked more as though it had been dried out. It wasn't necessarily painful, although it was very uncomfortable; her lips were chapped and cracked at the corners, her eyes crusted shut, and her skin tinged with sunburn and minuscule scrapes from the abrasive salt in the water. She could feel aching bruises or even cuts lining her back, shoulder blades, calves, and ankles, of which she assumed she had managed to get when the boat fell over on top of her. Her feet had gotten stuck for a moment underneath the benches of the boat as it was tipped over, and so her feet and ankles were especially sore. Her stomach growled desperately, and her muscles entirely ached with over-exertion and exhaustion. Despite having slept, she still felt very low on stamina, and her head felt heavy and throbbed like hell. By their sluggish and drowsy appearances, the rest of the ragtag crew felt the same. Marina and Kiui rested with their chins on the bottom of the boat, sighing heavily, the dog looking quite disturbed in the water beside them with wide, crescent moon eyes, his front paws lamely paddling despite Kiui's secure grip on him.

It was only after she had already been awake for about half an hour that Felicity's eyesight began to clear enough for her to see their new surroundings. The storm had seemed to knock them wildly off-course, and her sense of direction was officially gone entirely. And yet, as Felicity lifted her head achingly and looked around, she discovered that perhaps they had been blown in the correct direction, after all. The distant silhouette of shallow mountains was clearer than before despite the heavy fog, and the roofs of houses had begun to peak out from the water, signalling that the ground was getting higher, and the water shallower. In fact, in the close distance, some taller two or three-story houses had entire roofs and even floors above the water.