The Origin of Roh-Shan

F: Floating

Kota kicked hard with her good foot, which still caused pain to shoot through her bad ankle, lighting up nerves all the way to her chest. She broke above the surface and scanned the dark waves frantically for that floating body she'd just seen. She'd jumped so close to it, he should be right...

There. She used her arms only, although none of her body really had any strength left and she already felt like she was slipping under, even alone.

She reached the young boy and rolled his pale body over, confirming her absolute worst fears.

"Jaso." She shook the boy's body slightly. "Jaso. Please." She pressed two fingers to his neck. She couldn't be 100% sure it really was a pulse or if it was just her own, or if she was imagining it to cope with everything happening. Or maybe this boy wasn't even her little brother, maybe it was some stranger and she was hallucinating his face.

She wasn't about to take any chances. She wrapped an arm around him, so his back was to her chest, and turned herself face-up. The bison had definitely moved on but the shore wasn't too far off. Maybe if she could catch the right wave current...

She kicked harder but felt herself going nowhere. Pure reflex kept her kicking, eventually with both feet, her brain shutting off pain signals from her foot. Without turning around, she kept feeling like the shore was just a few kicks away, but she never turned around.

It seemed like she was blacking out between blinks now, not even positive this wasn't a dream. Whenever she would black out, her head would slip under the waves and the coldness jolted her back awake for a few seconds, but now her head felt warm...

~

The cresting waves took the duo towards shore, but she went limp just before where the final row of waves was drawing from. The boy floated in the water, face-up, while the girl's position trying to hold him left her face-down. Not more than twelve feet from shore, but never getting any closer.

~//~