He was being pulled along at a staggering pace. His body was slammed by rocks and logs. The water was cold, numbing his body and making it even more difficult to breathe.
“Blade!” he heard Dakota calling.
Turning in the direction of her voice, he saw her running along the edge of the riverbank. The water swallowed him again, and he had to fight to resurface. He wasn’t sure how long he was going to be able to last. He needed to find a way out of the river, or he was going to die.
“Get closer!” Dakota yelled. She was further ahead now. There was a rocky outcrop, and she was lying on her stomach, leaning over it slightly. In her hand, she held a rope.
Blade fought against the current as he tried to swim toward her. He was quickly running out of strength and was about to lose the fight when the current suddenly slowed down, allowing him to swim to where Dakota was.
She threw one end of the rope into the water. “Grab it! I’ll pull you out!”
Blade gripped the rope, relief washing over him as Dakota pulled him closer. The current was still tugging at him, but not as relentlessly. There was one last problem, though. The cliff wall was at least a couple of feet high, and he had to somehow get up there. There were grooves in the rock, but they were slick from the water, and his fingers simply slipped right off.
Blade looked up into Dakota’s panicked eyes. “I’m going to need you to hold on real tight so that I can climb up the rope.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
Blade wasn’t a tremendously big man, but he was larger and weighed a lot more than Dakota. She was strong, but he just wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to support his weight. He gripped the rope tightly and started to climb, but as he moved up, the rope started to slip from her hands. It wasn’t going to work.
“Look for something you can tie the rope to,” he instructed, trying his best to remain calm.
Dakota looked around frantically. “I don’t see anything.” Her voice was scratchy, and her eyes shone brightly.
“Where’s Africa and Riot?” Blade asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied, shaking her head.
“Africa!” Blade called, knowing his horse would come running if he could hear him.
For a moment, there was only the sound of the raging river, but then loud footfalls could be heard approaching.
“Africa,” Blade said again. “Come closer.”
The horse moved closer to the edge, and Dakota stood up, wrapping the rope around him. “It’s secure,” she said.
Blade gripped the rope tighter. “Back up, Africa,” he instructed.
Africa took one step back, and then another.
“That’s right,” Blade praised. “Back up.”
The horse kept on going, pulling Blade over the edge and back onto dry land. He let go of the rope, rolling onto his back as he tried to catch his breath. That was downright exhausting.
“Are you okay?” Dakota asked as she crouched beside him. “Did you get hurt?”
Everything happened so fast, and his body ached all over. He was cold, his limbs numb despite the adrenaline rushing through his veins. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
“You’re ice cold,” Dakota whispered as she helped him out of his coat. “We have to get you dry.”
“That’ll help,” Blade agreed, feeling more like himself with every second that passed.
Dakota quickly got him a change of clothes from his bag, and soon enough, he was dry and warming up next to a fire.
“You look all right,” Dakota announced, her eyes still focused on him. “How do you feel now?”
Blade ran a hand through his drying hair, combing the knots out with his fingers. “Better, thanks to you,” he replied with a smile. “You saved my life.”
Chapter 26
