A LEAP OF FAITH

Chapter 34: I hope you know how to swim.

Sharlet shrieked and pointed at the waterfall.

"Shit..." Sugar cursed under her breath and looked around anxiously. "Okay, no one panic-" Kiren and Maverick definitely ignored her instructions. They both couldn't get wet without getting incredibly hurt.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Maverick clung on tightly to Ari, not letting him go.

"We won't die," Ari said blankly. His calm expression hid the fact that he was extremely stressed. He knew that if Maverick were to fall into the water, he'd be electrocuted and could possibly die.

"Well, what do we do-?!" Kiren demanded.

"I don't know?! Sharlet, can't you stop the boat-?!" Sugar turned to her with a frown.

"The water's moving way too fast, I can't-!" She tried to cast a spell, but it was no use. Though, Sharlet needed to find at least one way to make herself useful.

She raised her hands into the air, reciting a long spell. She had been practicing the spell for a while, it was an extremely difficult one. It'd take a lot of life out of her, but she knew she needed to. A small force field-like object surrounded Maverick and Kiren. It was a waterproof spell to keep them from getting wet at all. She groaned, shutting her eyes tightly. Keeping the spell going hurt quite a bit, but she persisted. The raft sped up even more until it flew off of the edge, dropping down the waterfall. Everyone was knocked into the water, but Maverick and Kiren were safe. When they stopped falling, they quickly made their way to solid ground before the spell broke. Their hands and feet hit the warm sand as they rejoiced that they were still alive. Sharlet quickly picked Sugar up and brought her to the sand and dove back into the water to retrieve Ari. He held tightly onto his hat whilst struggling to stay above water. Sharlet quickly scooped him into her arms, swimming back to the others. He clutched his right leg, the one that always had a bandage wrapped around it. He groaned and laid down on his side, his smile fading to a look of distress.

"Are you okay-?!" Maverick inspected his leg, trying to find out what was wrong despite not knowing anything about the human body. He had fallen and shattered his leg on a rock. It'd take a while to heal, but it eventually would. Ari grunted, pulling his hat over his face so no one saw his pained expression. He tried to stand up, clutching onto Maverick's arm for support.

"One of us can hold you if you want, your leg really doesn't seem okay..." mumbled Sugar.

He shook his head, "I'm perfectly fine on my own." He straightened his back, popping it slightly.

"I literally saw you fall, your leg may be broken." Sharlet took him by the shoulders, forcing him to sit back down. She crouched in front of him and inspected his possibly broken leg. His bandage was peeling off of his skin, he quickly pulled his leg away. Sugar knew that Sharlet had no idea about nursing people, so she moved her aside and took her place.

"Ari, let me see your leg," she said sternly. He shook his head, trying to hide the panic in his eyes. She sighed and gently grabbed his ankle, propping his leg up on her lap. "I'm going to take this bandage off, alright?" She said in a kinder tone than before.

Ari shook his head again, "Don't take it off," he murmured.

"I need to, do you want your leg to be crippled your whole life?" She scoffed and began unwrapping the bandage from his leg. His breathing grew shakier, he looked away from his now-exposed scars on his leg. There were large gashes and burns in it, he pulled his hat further down his face. "You've been walking around... with these burn scars on your leg... this whole time-?! Ari, we could've fixed this, does it not hurt-?!" She looked at him with a worried expression.

He shrugged, "I don't know...- it's just... numb, I suppose..." he mumbled.

"How did this even happen-?" She asked. He went quiet, not answering her question. He thought back to the months he spent in the asylum at SpringBrook. Every time he'd act up, they'd burn a certain part of his body to symbolize the fact that he allegedly 'burned down' The Church of Ambrosia.