2.4 - Facing Death

I do not know how long I was down. It could only have been seconds but it felt like hours. I felt the chill water seep into every pore, chilling me to the bone. I should have died then, but my ambition was not yet complete. I focused, I reflected. I had come here to dispatch Hakon Varr, to make all know my name, and yet here I would be defeated by a nameless foe and lost beneath the waves, to be forgotten by all before my journey had begun? No! I felt a white-hot rage build inside me then. I would not die here, I would not succumb to such a base fate. I challenged icy death with burning vengeance, they would all die. Every fool who thought that Hakon Varr was worth following. Even the man from the mining camp. The Commander and the Ward promised him his freedom and let him go. I do not know where I will find him next, but he must die as well.

With that thought firmly anchored in my mind, I forced my limbs to work. Slowly I clawed my way back to the surface. The man in the canoe was well away by now, and the only thing I could do was try to make it back to the shore. I fought for every stroke, for every breath, until at last the ground came up to meet the surface of the lake and I crawled through freezing mud and stone onto the bank. The wind hit me then. The cold water of the lake had seeped into my body, pressing in, the wind was different. soaking wet and lying on the cold ground, the biting wind began to strip every last shred of heat from body.

Footsteps then, and voices. I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was so warm it almost burned, Sera. I heard heavy boots crunching the sand and gravel, the Commander. I opened my eyes and saw a spear planted into the ground and looked up to a scrunched face easing with relief in the moonlight, Brynn. My companions surrounded me. It hasn't been two weeks since we met, and yet in that moment I felt a deeper connection with them than any in that raiding band I was part of for years. This is what Sera had meant when she said she needed someone she could trust. When all and everything abandons you, who remains? Who can you rely on? One more then. A weight leaned against my side, furry and warm. Even Vicejaw had come.

They helped me to my feet, and first we got off the shore and into the woods. Then Brynn got out dry clothes from a pack and helped me change. Even so it was slow moving. We needed to find somewhere to shelter, from the weather and the raiders, but this was unknown territory. Little chance to find anything as convenient as a cave, and they would likely know it and search it first anyway. Instead the Commander eventually finds a dense patch of the forest where trees crowded close and underbrush grew thick at their heels. We crawled in through the bushes and huddled close together, pulling out blankets to cover us and keep me warm. We slept fitfully, and the others each took turns at watch.

It wasn't long before we could hear commotion. Distant shouts and commands, then flickers of torchlight in the distance. At one point a group came close enough that an orange glow seeped through the brush into our hiding place. In the daylight it wouldn't have held up, but in the dark, with limited sightline, they didn't find us. In the morning we would decide what to do.