fish of a scale, swim together

Chapter 4 life or death

The storm was brewing all the more. I tried to not panic but I slipped every so often. Anyone would with a dark shark after them, a bleeding seal by their side and waves that were becoming disastrous. So yah anyone would freak out.

-' Not so crazy Page! You wanna kill me! '

-' yes '

-' wait what? '

Thunder flashed and I felt my swimming patterns eraticate. Any animal on the hunt would of stopped by now and found a safe place to stay. Except our predator .

I could of swam zig- zagging to confuse the shark on were my exact location was, but since my cohost had a gash. Zig-zagging would only pseu out more blood.

-' Were almost their ' I try to keep my voice calm but it ended up border line anxious.

-' And by that you mean. Dont expect land yet. '

-' uhh not quite, but yes' Huh, even though Terrence was on the edge of death he still had a pissy atitude and strangely it calmed my nerves that non of the danger was affecting him.

Land had appeared by now and even though I knew our cove was way farther, I still directed my swim toward it.

-' Wait! Were are we going? The hideout place is farther off.' His seal body barked slighlty

-' Its just better if we get out right now. The dark shark is heading closer '

I swiveled my head back and recieve a slap in the face for that. My seal body yelped.

-' Dont look back. Keep your eyes toward the land or unless you want to slow us down and get us eat'n this second. '

I don't answer and instead. Continue swimming ahead. We reached the land finally and I hauled him over instantly disentangling my seal skin off. I run into the coverage of the rocks and quickly grabbed a pile of clothes hidden in a grove of a towering column of rock. Yes, Breath Mother's secret stash of clothing. Before I thought it had been prejuced because ,come on, who would hide a stash of clothes on a whole different cove, but know the rain was pelting on my skin and I suddenly felt very grateful for her idea.

I put on a thin, tan dress with one pocket . It didn't really give me any protection and the dress gets soaked within minutes. Well any protection from the rain was good enough for me. With that I reached my hand deeper into the corned of the rock and my hand came in contact with something soft. I yank it out to see An old , plush blanket. Perfect.

Terrence had already discarded his seal amd crawled over to some vegetation. He was breathing heavily, but at least he was breathing. I lay the blanket down on the floor and he crawled to lay on it. Instantly the blanket became soaked with blood and I nearly retched at the sight. Oh and the gash was turning deadly. So much blood covered his skin I had to wonder how much was left in his body. I grabbed the seal skins and quickly covered him. To keep him slighlty warm and ....well, uh.........to cover his parts.

" Terrence?" I awkwardly sat down beside him.

" yah, Page"

" How do you feel?"

He turned his head slighlty away as if looking off into the distance.

" like a pile of old seaweed"

" oh." Silence ensueded and I had to wonder at the bizarreness of this scene. Here I have the strong, fierce, if not deadly, Terrence. Who is usually the one that was mostly fed out of all of us pups. Know he was reduced to a heap of flesh all because of a joke gone wrong. Know he had to rely on a scrawny little selion, that freaked out over a simple things like say, little Simone getting hurt and stuck in a cave.

A small groan escaped Terrence lips and I instantly snapped out of my pity party. I turn toward Terrence and undoubtly he saw the question in my eyes.

What's wrong? Are you okay?

He gave me a reassuring gaze and I simply nodded back all the while staring at his deep eyes. Know matter what was gonna happen or what we were going to do I prayed to the heavens that we would make it. I grabbed the remaining clothes which consisted of an old, but sturdy jacket and some pants. With that I proceeded to make a bind. I started by folding up the shirt to create an all around bind. Then I ripped some pieces of the pants and the rest I formed a wadded up clump to press it to the gash to wipe the blood off and tried to stop the blood from gushing out even more. I then tied the bind on around his stomach.

That didn't stop the blood from sneaking out of the gash so I continued on cleaning.

Terrence was holding his pain in well but nonetheless a gasp would sometimes escape from his mouth followed by a deep breath. It made my insides churn to what he could be experiencing right now maybe a jolt at his side or maybe a pain in his stomach. Did he feel every time the gash spilled blood, did he feel a thousand prickles of pain on his side or was it like a slow sucking away of his energy. All of them sounded too horrible to guess.

I had found some herbs in the grove of the rock that breath mother must of also stashed away. A small memory played in my mind of breath mother teaching us which herb did which and I ran back like my legs were being chased by the very dark shark itself. I sped toward Terrence in blinded glory.

" Terrence!" I took a wheezing Breath " Terrence I found some herbs."

He raised a weak eye toward me. The rain had stopped by now, but the clouds looked far form finished. I gingerly lifted the seal pelt down and undid the binding to get a good look at the wound.

Was it okay to have such red skin? The flesh was swollen twice it's normal size and the blood was in various stages of dryness and wetness overlapping each other to form a grotesque picture. The wadded up shirt was blood red and a layer of slime seemed to coat it.

Why was the skin so red?

Suddenly I raised a hand to Terrence's forehead.

He was burning up. Oh my goodness. The life I knew for so long was quickly slipping away.

Which this I bulldozed onto my next movements. Cleaning the wadded cloth quickly and sanitizing it with some herbs. I grabbed another bind and binded him again then I forced some herbs down Terrence's throat. He swallowed aimlessly and with a glazed look in his eyes. What was I going to do? The eyes that were always so sharp and clear and precise were loosing their focus.

I placed my hand on his forehead and the heat nearly scared me to death. He was getting worse and worse and slowly he was going to die. And it was all because of me.

"no! I can't let that happen to you! " I stood up and my eyes zeroed toward a path. A path that led an unsuspected trail higher up the cliff . Maybe toward a village?

" Page . " it was the reply coming from the victim a fevered, dying victim . " don't it'll be okay ."

" it will after I try" I looked down at him and sent a reassuring smile at Terrence who was actually seeing me. " your not dying withought me trying every last possible solution."

With that I ran as fast as my legs could go.