Ander - Part 1: Subchapter 27
27
The water washed over Ander's head, bitter cold, stinging his wounds with a bombardment of sand and grit and broken twigs. The pressure he felt pushing against his body was enormous, almost enough to straighten him out with the current, threatening to break his hold on the clump of roots he had grabbed onto as he and his brother rolled over the edge.
He broke the surface, gasping for breath. The first thing he heard over the roar of the water all around him was Kiana's screams.
The second was the voice of his brother.
"You're mad!" he shouted.
"Perhaps! I'm not sure anymore!" Ander shouted back, struggling to keep the current from wrenching his brother from his grasp.
Kiana suddenly appeared above him, frantic, tearing at her hair. "Ander! By the gods what did you do!? Hang on! I'll see if I can help you out -"
"No! It's too dangerous! Get back!"
"But -"
"Get back!"
Kiana did as she was asked, but stayed close enough to look over the edge. Ander didn't like it. There were still bits and pieces of the bank sluicing off in the rain, but he couldn't exactly force her any further back like he was now.
He could feel the river sapping him of his energy, pulling the strength from his arms. "Banno! I can't hold on much longer! Grab the roots!"
Banno reached for the closest clump of roots, twitching and jerking as their tips brushed the river's surface, but he just couldn't make it. His head kept disappearing beneath the muddy water, and Ander knew exactly what was causing it: the iron biter around his ankle. Ander would have to do something, and fast, before his strength gave way completely. Grinding his teeth against the pain, he flexed his arm, pulling his brother in closer, his puncture wounds screaming bloody murder. Banno was heavy enough without an entire river pushing against his body, but with that biter weighing him down, it was next to impossible.
No! Don't you dare give up! Nobody is going to die tonight! Not you, not Kiana, not Banno!
Water kept spraying up against Ander's back in sheets, flowing into his mouth and getting inside his nostrils, making him cough and splutter. It tasted like silt.
Knowing he only had enough left in him to try this once, Ander dug down deep and pulled Banno in even closer, screaming against the pain flaring up inside his arm.
Banno reached out with his free hand and closed it around a good, strong root, almost thick enough to be called a branch.
Confident that Banno wouldn't be washed away, Ander let go, his arm completely limp, allowing the current to buffet it this way and that. It kept alternating between a throbbing ache and freezing numbness, and Ander knew he would be very lucky to get out of this with full use of his arm.
He tried to pull himself up onto the bank with his good arm, but it was simply no use. The current was too strong, and he was too weak. He tried again, with even less success than last time. Is this how it's supposed to end? Ander thought as he tried for a third time, river water spraying up against his shoulder and into his face. After all the hell I've been through tonight, when the end is literally just an arm's length above my head, I don't have the strength to keep going?
"Come on, Ander! You can do it!" Kiana was screaming herself hoarse, urging him to try harder. "You have to do it! You have to!"
She believes in you, Ander. Are you really going to give up this easily?
His left arm pretty much useless, Ander bit into the root with his teeth and shifted his grip higher, to where it disappeared into the crumbling earth. Closing his eyes against the stinging spray, Ander pulled himself as high as he could, his body weighing a ton, and swung his leg over the edge. He could feel the river grabbing and pulling at every part of him still submerged with its greedy, wet fingers, reluctant to let go of its prize. He could feel himself slipping back in, could feel the earth shifting beneath his weight.
Then suddenly, Kiana was there, grabbing at his vest, pulling back with everything she had.
"What are you doing!?" Ander spluttered through a mouthful of dirty water.
"I'm saving your gigantic behind, what does it look like I'm doing!?"
Ander pushed down with his foot while pulling himself up with his arm, every muscle in his body on fire. One last desperate tug from Kiana and Ander suddenly rolled over onto soggy, but solid land, staring up at the clouds, gasping for breath, his throat burning as if he had swallowed a bowl of searing hot coals.
"Ander! Are you all right?" Kiana said, her hands anxiously flitting across his chest like hummingbirds.
"Not yet," he said, sitting up with a groan.
"Ander, you're hurt! What are you...?"
Ander looked over the edge, praying that he wouldn't be too late. Panic gripped his heart when he saw nothing but roiling brown water, but then, amidst the foam, a flash of black and a gasp for breath. Banno was still holding on!
Ander lay flat on his stomach, getting as close as he could, and reached out. "Banno! Grab my hand!"
Banno looked at him as if he had gone crazy, and he wasn't the only one.
"What are you doing, Ander!?" Kiana shrieked. "That monster tried to kill you! It tried to kill the both of us! Let it drown! And good riddance!"
Without looking back, Ander said, "Banno may be a monster, but he is still...
This has been the 27th subchapter in my serial novel, "Ander". If you enjoyed it, please help keep my face un-mauled by irritable ostriches by dropping me a donation. Thank you! ^_^
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