Academy Island

Tumbled

My limbs trembled, heavy, languid. The island was nearly upon me now, a blurry green and white fixed in my vision that swayed as the water became more turbulent the closer I got to shore. My mouth and nose were raw, grainy from coughing and retching. I wanted the tossing and exhausting swimming to be over, almost giving up several times when I was so close. Despair of reaching land before I drowned entered my thoughts, flurrying up every time I felt fatigue quelling my efforts. The waves grew stronger, wilder, trying to confirm my fear by dragging me under with them. I sunk below a large one that snuck up behind me and crashed over my head, bobbing up only to be immediately bashed by another.

I was going to die at the foot of my salvation.

I became immersed and rolled with the next wave, my body feeling numb and painful all at once. Water was everywhere, bubbles, roaring, filled my head. I screamed, then inhaled water. My arms flailed, reaching out for anything to catch as the panic took over my body, the first sign that I was about to drown.

My toes dragged over something hard. My first reaction was to yank them away, afraid suddenly of sharks. The sensation of solid brushed against me again, this time on the heel of my foot. I reached for it, searching desperately for the sand. A wave lifted me up, then set me back down abruptly on top of it. My feet dug into the shifting grains, sinking a bit as I pushed with everything I had upwards.
My head broke the surface and I vomited, the stinging from it bringing me somewhat back to my senses. A helpful wave pushed me forward, then pulled back at me, holding on to my soul. Another foot found land again, a leg pushing though it felt dead. I pumped my legs at every touch of the bed of sand, using it to push forward, and also to keep from being pulled back to the sea. My feet finally had purchase on the sand and my torso emerged, bent forward and ready to collapse at how heavy it felt out of the water.

I walked at first, then dropped forward and crawled. The shore and air made me feel heavier, weaker. The water swirled and the foam stuck to my arms, the sand was a blessing and a curse as it helped move me forward and also held me back. My hair hung in my face, a small bit of swirling foam and dirty water filled with disturbed sand all I could see. I cried the further along I got, weak, silent sobs as I fisted handfuls of wet sand that had finally no waves to wash over it.

I collapsed, the water still at my feet. The sand was warm, very different from the wind that blew against my wet skin, exposed and freezing. I shivered violently, but remained where I was. I was never going to move again. I couldn't. I knew I couldn't. Water tickled the bottoms of my feet and wetted my knees again, swiftly retreating away with a quiet shush. I blinked at the sand pressed against my face, then closed my eyes, willing myself to continue somehow.

I slept instead.