LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 18: Swept Away
"That's it," called Loveday to Delphi. "It won't get any lower and we'll miss the tide and end up in deep water if we wait any longer."
"Move out girls," said Delphi. "Try and keep your weapons out of the salt water."
They kicked the horses onto the sandbar. Although the water was very fast flowing as it was dragged back out to sea, it came no higher than the brumbies' knees, so they made quick time across the wide estuary, until they reached the deep channel separating them from the opposite bank.
The girls peered into the channel doubtfully. It was rushing out to sea and looked bottomless and dark. Delphi rode up and down the sandbar hoping there was a better choice further along, but it looked pretty much the same everywhere. There was one section where the sandbar jutted out marginally further, making the crossing shorter.
"This is as good as it gets," she called, "we'll cross here. I'll cross first Feifei. Once I get there, you head downstream a little and we'll see if we can get a rope across to catch anyone that doesn't make it."
Feifei nodded resolutely.
The girls watched nervously as Delphi and her horse entered the channel. Delphi had her belongings tied up high around her neck. The large horse Delphi had chosen was not unused to swimming and it fared quite well, pulling strongly across the current without flagging, then scrambling out the other side in a gap between the rocks. She waved at them cheerfully.
"Next!" she shouted.
Feifei and Delphi threw a rope across the channel further down, and each horse and rider crossed, one at a time.
All fared well until, last but one, Ruby tried to cross with her small mare black and the remaining riderless 'spare'. Her little pony immediately struggled with the current. She was twisted about in the wrong direction and soon faced the ocean, where the mare was being pulled out by the current. The riderless stallion whinnied in fear as he was dragged out with them.
"Let the stallion go, Ruby!" shouted Delphi.
The small girl let the stallion's rope loose and he swam across the channel to join the other horses where Lili caught him and tied him to her own horse. Indy was on the bank running alongside her sister on the flailing mare.
"Jump off her and grab the rope Ruby," she called in fear. "It's coming up now. Are you ready?"
Ruby's eyes were wide with fright, but she nodded with determination, fixing her eyes on the rope which Delphi and Feifei had now pulled tight and held about a foot above the water for her. Ruby flung her belongings as hard as she could, and they nearly hit the bank, floating in the slower water near the rocks. Winter rushed down and fished them out for her.
"Get ready to jump Ruby," Winter shouted to her from the bank.
"Brace!" yelled Delphi as the girl and the horse collided with the rope.
Ruby grabbed the rope and hung on for dear life. The horse's head hit the rope and then it was swept under and on past them, out towards the dangerous bar where the ocean met the river. Ruby now hung under the rope and was monkeying along it rapidly. Delphi had help, with Indy and Loveday having joined her to take-up the weight of the girl and the current.
Feifei was under enormous strain, and her end was dropping lower and lower. In the end it didn't matter, because Ruby continued to move rapidly along the rope, whether she was under the water or above it, like the excellent gymnast that she was. Indy hauled her out of the water and hugged her tightly.
"Don't frighten me like that again meimei," she said fiercely. "You and your bloody animals. I told you not to select that pretty black mare with the white star. Didn't I say she looked small and weak?"
Indy looked sadly out to the bar where the mare's head could still be seen bobbing along in the fast-flowing water.
"I hope she'll be okay."
"She's a horse. She'll hop out somewhere. Worry about yourself," said her sister.
Delphi shouted above the roar to Feifei. "Hold onto the rope and we'll pull you both across."
Feifei nodded and gave Delphi a thumbs up.
They moved further up the sandbar, so they had some distance to travel towards the sea before the sandbank ran out. Feifei tied the rope around her horse's neck and didn't waste any time urging the creature into the channel crossing. It tried to resist, after watching what had happened to Ruby's mount, but Feifei wouldn't have a bar of its dissension, and she kicked it firmly ahead.
The current was getting swifter, and even though she had a large horse, the pair were immediately swept away with the flow that was strongly sucking out to the ocean now. All seven girls were on the other end of the rope, and they had anchored it around Indy's horse, which was the largest in the group. The horse staggered, but held firm, taking the full weight of the girl, her horse and the current that had them in its grip.
The seven girls gradually pulled the rope in with cries of, "heave… heave… heave."
Hands' length by hands' length they pulled Feifei and her horse across the channel until finally she reached the calmer eddies close to shore, and her horse managed to find its feet and clamber out.
Everyone collapsed on their backs, panting, blisters already forming on their palms from the rope burn.
Feifei remained mounted, her belongings still dry, looking for all the world like some invincible Japanese warrior princess.
"Feif, you're a legend," called Ruby. "That's twice in one day. While I got swept away you pranced across there like a mermaid riding her seahorse."
"Hardly Rubes. What I saw was a tough little gymnast that shimmied across that channel in two seconds flat, even when you were completely submerged by the current. You powered through there like an underwater assassin."
"Yes, yes, you're both legends," said their captain shortly. "But let's stop congratulating each other," she had the binoculars raised to her eyes. "The guards are on the other side, on horseback, and they're watching us…"
As she focused in on the guards, she saw Commander Meyer, who had binoculars trained on them, give her a friendly wave.