I slumped forward. My cheek pressed into the mud of the riverbank.
I didn’t care.
I had done it.
Rain pelted my sodden back in heavy, spiteful drops.
Fucking water. It was everywhere.
My lungs heaved, making up for lost time.
Sound came back to me slowly.
First, the heavy thudding of my own pulse, nearly drowned out by the ringing of my ears.
Then the roar of the downpour, broken by shocking cracks of thunder.
Then my Ginger’s voice.
Her voice was panicked, frantic, strangled by sobs, but still the sweetest thing I had ever heard.
And then it was coming closer.
My cheek lifted.
My mate was okay. I’d kept her out of the river.
She entered my field of vision, her hooves trodding through the mud before she dropped to a sitting position beside me. Her hands fluttered over my back, patting and stroking, unsure where to settle as she babbled nervously. “Oh! Oh, gods. Are you okay? Shade! What do we do? Are you dying? Please don’t die. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” And then her fists were thumping my back. “Fuck you! Why did you stop me?”
I groaned. I couldn’t even properly appreciate her rare use of profanity.
Words were painful in my water-choked throat. “He’s alright?”
She thumped my back harder for a moment before she dropped her shoulder to the ground beside me, her face level with mine. “He’s okay.” Her cheeks were raw and tear streaked.
“He’s okay,” I repeated. I let my eyes fall closed.
Her warm breath huffed against my face. “Hey. Hey! Don’t pass out on me!”
With great effort, I forced my eyes open again.
Ginger scrambled into a sitting position again, slipping her hands under my armpits and tugging with all her might.
The faun was trying to pull me the rest of the way out of the water.
My stomach warmed.
I helped her as much as I could, digging my elbows and knees into the slick ground and leaning my weight forward. My exhausted shadows assisted.
When my feet left the water and I was a few feet safely away from shore, she shoved at my shoulder, flipping me onto my back. I fell with a sodden splat.
She flopped down beside me with an exhausted huff.
The rain washed the mud from our fronts, piling it beneath us.
We looked at each other.
Her chest was heaving wildly, her hair a crown of tangles around her antlers.
