ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 19

I hate water, I really do. I couldn't help but have a massive distaste for it. Granted, that could also be caused by the fact we were rushing down a river, or stream, or rapid, I don't know the actual term for it, being swept away from the giant rhino and a burning forest.

I was screaming as we went down the rapids, being thrown into rocks and falling small distances before being caught by the water and continuing down once again. The water rushed in my ears, and I would consider the sound lovely if it didn't mean more danger. At the same time, it was a lot more comforting than being trampled. It meant that our death was in our own hands, instead of the hands of the rhino.

I kept Prin close to me, but I had accidentally let go of Aknon's hand as we raced down. I think that it was for the best though, as it was beginning to get dangerous with us so close to each other like this. I felt like I was close to kicking Aknon's head several times, so the further we were, maybe the better.

But I had the feeling that Prin couldn't swim, judging from her grip on my hand and the scream which came from her mouth. It wasn't smart of either of us to scream, because of the water which was threatening to fill our lungs and causing us to splutter. The saltwater went into our mouths and left a strange and horrid taste.

I couldn't see much through the water due to panic. Most of the time I'd been forced to look at the dark sky, so seeing things was tricky and unhelpful.

It was both a lifetime and a few seconds between us jumping into the river and being at the bottom of some kind of waterfall. I couldn't tell you what kind of geological disaster this place was, but Sarphi and Onyx had managed to get out of the water quickly. But Sarphi was coughing and spluttering just like I was. Her breaths sounded painful, and Onyx had to pull Sarphi out of the water, since she was too weak to get out herself.

I lifted Prin out of the water and tried kicking to push us forward and towards land, but it wasn't doing very much in terms of movement. She tried moving her arms to help us forward, but that didn't work either. She was panicking a significant amount, and her feet were kicking in the water, causing water to splash into my face.

Aknon had grabbed onto a rock to stop him from moving further down the river. "Onyx!" he called, trying to reach out for the dog with one arm. "Come here. Help."

The dog looked between Sarphi and us. He was seemingly really confused about what he should do. But I knew that he couldn't do a lot for my sister as he was. He moved to the edge of the river and jumped in, he struggled to swim against the pressure of the water, but he grabbed Aknon's leg and pulled him towards land. But that meant that Aknon's head was under the water for a good few minutes as he was dragged over to land.

I wrapped my tail, which I'd just remembered I had, around a rock. It hurt a lot, like you were doing a pull-up with one arm for several minutes.

"Are you okay?" I asked Prin, wincing slightly as the water droplets kept hitting me from the bottom of the waterfall.

Prin nodded her head and took deep breaths, glancing around with wide grey eyes.

Aknon had found his way to the side of the river and Onyx came back towards us.

"Take her hand." I said as I moved just a bit so that he could take her hand carefully in his mouth. The very notion caused Prin to whimper as he pulled her away from me and over to the side of the river. Her legs kicked in the water which was probably causing her more harm than help in this case as her toes were bashing against rocks and dirt.

I was going to shout at her and tell her to stop but she was so close to land that I didn't think that it was worth it. I kept my tail around the rock and waited for Onyx to come and get me. But he didn't. Instead, he turned back to Sarphi and kept nudging her with his head. He turned her onto her side and kept patting her back with a loud thump.