Destined Fur More

Teague = Master of Pulling Things From His Ass, Including Teague

FISHER

I came-to with the pretense that I would simply be passed out on the muddy forest ground, but that wasn't so. In fact, to be quite blunt, a mouthful of freezing fish urine woke me. But after a moment, I realized that it was not actually urine, but a nice shot of river water that simply tasted like urine. My eyes shot open, but saw nothing. Well, not nothing, just something hidden by a nice cloud of water.

That's when I suddenly discovered I was in the middle of a river. And not just farthest from both shorelines, but also several feet below the surface of the actual water line. And getting several more feet below that. I felt pressure on my leg, pulling my down, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was. I immediately started flailing my body in hopes of getting closer to the surface. And though I stopped descending, I wasn't exactly going up. I was pulling up the exact same amount whatever below me was pulling down.

I began kicking my foot, in hopes it would shake off. Then I realized it was the duffel filled with cans—the very bitch that put me in the water. I was able to wrap my fingers around the strap and shove it off my foot. If I did get out of here, I'd die of starvation. Great. By the time I was fully extracted from the straps, I was so exhausted from keeping myself in place that when the undercurrent swept me with it, I didn't bother fighting. But, luck decided to show that very second, and the current shoved me to the surface.

My head broke through the violent river, and I quickly swallowed as much air I could before a large wave swept me back under the surface. My body was pushed and knocked by the strong flow of the river and a few nicely placed rocks. My body so disoriented with all the flips and twists it was doing, I couldn't see the surface anymore. I let out a few bubbles, watching them float to my left, and kicked as hard as I could after them. The second I resurfaced, I gulped in another mouthful of air and saw an upcoming rock ten feet ahead. My hands flew out a few feet ahead of it, already hugging the moss-covered stone. I clawed at it, my fingers just barely catching on a jutted out section. A large smile of relief cracked my face, at least until an exceptionally large wave hit me in the face and nearly knocked me off.

But I was able to hold on.

I pulled myself up until my stomach was on top of the rock, then found a new hand-hold to keep myself in place. It wasn't until another strong wave hit me and I still hadn't been knocked off the rock that I noticed I was in my leopard form. Relief flooded through me; I'd much rather be in my four-inch nailed form built for killing than the adolescent, obese girl who couldn't swim for shit.

Now aware I was covered in fur and much more lethal, I dug my nails deeper into the stone and braced as another wave broke over the rock. Once it passed, I looked around me and saw I was only twenty feet from the closest shore. But in-between that and me was a loud-roaring rapids. The other sandbar was at least thirty-five feet away, but the water looked reasonably calmer, though who was I to say what was going on underneath the surface?

I slammed my eyes shut. My lithe body was now shaking in desperation. Suddenly, I became incredibly cold. Then again, I was in the middle of an Alaskan river in December. Why the hell wasn't it frozen or something? Why the hell wasn't I frozen? My locked muscles broke out into tremors.

Oh.

I was frozen.

I let out a piercing yowl, trying to think of any time I'd ever been told anything about rapids. Were they dangerous? Well, I guess they were, considering. But were they that dangerous? More lethal than the calmer bit to my right? God, I don't know! Was my leopard a strong swimmer? Strong-enough to make it through whatever was underneath the calm part?

I had to do something. I couldn't just stay on this rock and hope somebody finds me in the hundreds of thousands of square miles that is Alaska—

"FISHER?"