A Pirate's Life For Me

Escape (Or Not)

Bubbles.

In my nose, in my mouth, in my eyes and through my fingers, bubbles tickle my skin as they fly fast to the surface.

Unlike me; I'm sinking, arms locked around a flailing rock.

Calm down, I want to scream, wrestling her body from under mine, to pulled against it, but she only panics harder. Apparently a hip throws her into panic mode. She socks me in the jaw, loosing air that dissolves into bubbles, and then elbows me in the gut, letting loose an air pocket bigger than the rest. She's not even trying. I'm just collateral damage. In an attempt to pull her arms down to float her back to the surface, I receive another four or five blows to the gut, one narrowly missing my groin.

That does it.

I blow out an angry breath, letting loose the last bubbles I have left, and grab one arm around her shoulders, the other arm hooked around a thigh, and with three or four kicks we've begun to make progress toward the surface. She continues to fight me, and since I can't scream, I force her to face me so I can glare her into submission. I use the bunched fabric of her torn dress to spin her to face me. I notice two things.

One, that she's the kid from the crowd, the one person that didn't seem all too pleased at the aspect of my death.

Two, the emotions in her eyes, the clouds that block her sight as she wildly thrashes, not seeing anything but fear.

She's terrified.

All of my anger dissipates into concern, and I continue to kick, pulling her body closer and lifting her head higher, so that once we reach the surface, she's the first thing to break through. And break through she does, in a cough and a splash as she almost goes under again, not giving me a single break, other than to gasp. I grab under her arms to hold her up and kick furiously to keep us both afloat.

"Hey!" I say, shaking her, holding her head far above the water. "Hey, calm down, okay? It's okay, alright? I've got you." She stills slightly, twitching now instead of flailing about like a wounded fish, and her eyes blink once, twice, lock on mine. She can see. I smile. "See? I've got you, I won't let you drown. You're okay."

The water stings across my cheek.

"What the hell was that for?!" I yell, as soon as I can reach the surface again. I have plenty of hands to hold my face as she shoves me unceremoniously away from her, growling indignantly.

"You threw me over the wall with you! And you held me in no way a lady should be held!" She splashes a wave or two at me, timing them perfectly. I go under a wave a little larger than the others, caught in the current for a millisecond before I can kick myself back to the surface.

I cough.

"A-Are you okay?" She's paddled closer.

I wipe the sopping hair from my face. "Oh, yeah, I'm perfectly fine, just excuse me for a second while I drown."

The concern on her face changes instantly back into haughty satisfaction. "Serves you right, you wretched pirate!"

I am annoyed. "Yeah, duh, sorry, I totally deserve to get slapped and dunked after saving a drowning girl, directly after saving both her and my life by falling backwards off of a cliff, all following a life or death chase through the courtyard of a kingdom that wants me dead!"

By the end I'm yelling, but pieces have been swallowed up by the sea so I don't know how much she's heard. Truth be told, I don't really care. I'm mostly trying to chill her out so I can swim towards open sea without her scratching me to death.