The waves kept coming, crashing over the red streaked woman as she struggled to even tread water. Each attempt to break the surface was harder. She could feel her strength waning. She was desperately fighting. Rivin was afraid, afraid of what might await her after death. Death had never felt real before, but now that she was knocking on it’s door, she scrambled. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to leave those she cared for behind. If she could have cried beneath the waves she would have. She tried to go to the surface for another breath, but she fell short. She felt water enter her nose. This was it then. She was going to die and no one would know what happened. Would there even be a body to be found? Rivin closed her eyes. She stopped struggling. It was going to happen regardless… Why not accept it?
She was going down. Her mind became one with the waves, swaying, pulling. She could feel her consciousness slipping. ‘Sorry Jack… guess I didn’t get as good at swimming as I thought…’ She’d fade out as another made their way to her. Her body was heavy as Jack wrapped around her. He pulls her to the surface and drags her upper half onto his chest. For several long, painful seconds she is still, deathly still. Then, in the presence of air, as her body makes one last attempt to stir, to fight, she takes in air and begins to hack. Her head barely rises, and she coughs, the sting of the salt making her throat burn. The coughs keep coming until the water comes up, and she expels the salt water and the meager remains of a meal earlier that day into the water beside Jack. Then her head comes down against his chest, her breathing raspy as she takes air in.
His voice… his sweet voice… concerned for her… Rivin feels like she is still floundering, trying to surface back to the moment. A whine leaves her lips, a single word escaping her maw in a struggling whisper. “Jack…?” She struggles to make sense of what is happening. She can still feel the waves, and wonders for a moment if she had passed on. If she only saw Jack because that was the only wolf she had wanted there in her final moments. She curled towards him, her paws weakly wrapping around him. She tries to open her eyes. It takes several seconds due to the sting from the water but she can make out his colors. A relieved smile crosses onto her lips. No matter if this was life or death, she felt at peace. She knew she was safe, so long as she was with him.
"Speech," 'Thought.'
