Pursued - Entire book

Chapter 77

"Noon, Klair."

He could not open his eyes; he was just too tired to try. His senses were dull. The voice he heard came thickly through his ears. He couldn't even move. He felt blisters covering his body. His reaction to the hot water most likely.

"Water!" he rasped.

After several long moments he felt something prickly press against his mouth. Bark? A stream of water slouched against his lips and drizzled down his chest. He drank greedily from the small pool offered.

With a short groan, darkness claimed him one more.

The second time consciousness came, he opened his eyes to the dark. The cave was hot and stifling but a hand on his shoulder offered comfort.

Klair addressed the darkness.

"Where are we?"

"We swam to a cave below the rapids."

"We?"

Campe chuckled. "Well I did, swim and floated. I'm afraid you were not in the condition to volunteer your services. I doubt neither of us would have made it except I was able to latch onto one of the crates. It kept us a float long enough to get here." After a pause he asked, "How are you feeling?"

Klair opened his mouth and closed it. After a moment of silence, "Don't ask."

"You almost didn't make it." Campe shifted in the darkness. "The water wasn't too hot when we hit the rock but with the sheer volume... I guess it was enough. Since you were unconscious, maybe you didn't have to experience the worse of it." He leaned a little closer. "It's good we found a cave. We wouldn't have survived otherwise."

Klair did not even have the energy to nod his head. The heaviness weighed upon him and sleep took him once more.

*****

"Wake up."

He felt a hand shake him. When Klair tried to close his eyes, Campe hand returned to shake him. Memories of spasms, pain and water drifted from his mind.

"No more sleeping," Campe ordered.

"How long?"

"Three days."

"Three!" At least he could talk more easily. As he opened his eyes he shifted his head to face Campe. Muted sunlight filled the door of the cave, and the walls prevented little illumination.

"I think you would sleep your life away if I let you. Your siphon seems more..." Campe paused in search of a word. "You seem very vulnerable to the water." His voice moved away as he shifted around in the cave. Klair remained quiet as he watched his companion breaking wood from a small mound of driftwood lying near the entrance of the cave. Campe was feeding pieces of it into the fire in the center of the room. There was no crate but a pile of meager supplies in one corner.

Klair smelled cooked fish. His stomach growled in accompaniment to the aroma.

"Hungry?" Campe asked with an amused voice.

Klair tried to sit up, engaging his entire body in the process. For a moment, he almost was able to remain upright but the energy quickly dissipated causing him to fall back to the hard rock. He groaned at the pain.

"That was stupid." Campe's voice was hard, but he was also bringing over something in the flat of a piece of wood. "I don't want to spend any more time than necessary here. I would advise you try things slowly and one at a time, not all at once." In accompaniment to his words, Campe lifted him up, from behind, giving his back support as he dragged him closer to the wall.