Chapter 7

The voice was very clear and after long seconds he was able to tell that it was Nika talking to him. He then recalled the raft, the rapids, and the falling sensation. How could they be still alive after that fall he thought? Was it possible to survive such an ordeal?

"What happened? Where are we?"

"We are on big, big river. I thought you gone to spirit world."

Vincent managed to turn his head slowly. Everywhere he looked there was water. They were on a large body of water either a lake or even the sea.

"Tell me, does the water taste salty?"

"Water is bad, not good for drinking. Nika did try and was sick."

"No, you mustn't drink that water, we are on a sea. Why didn't you push the raft toward the shore earlier before we got so far onto the sea? "

But he didn't give her a chance to explain. He tried to move and a bolt of pain in his leg hit him like a sledgehammer. He couldn't move. It then occurred to him that he had been hurt during the fall and he asked Nika if his leg was broken.

"Yes, leg broken. Very bad." She then went on to add, "But Nika fix it now, you will be well again."

With her help, he managed to get into a sitting position. The pain was almost unbearable whenever he moved, so he did try to remain as still as possible. When he was able to examine his right leg, he saw that it was broken indeed. The bone just below the knee must have pierced the skin since there was a long ugly open gash there, but it was no longer bleeding.

Nika had placed half a dozen of her arrows tied with a length of rope around his leg. There was nothing else that she could have done especially with the little they had on hand. It might heal given time, but he doubted very much that he would ever be able to walk properly again.

She explained to him as best she could what had happened after he had passed out. Both of them had fallen off the raft before they reached the bottom of the fall. It was because of this that they were both alive now. Otherwise they would have struck the logs and been killed instantly. When her head finally came out of the water she was within an arms reach of the raft, which had miraculously fallen right side up with their supplies still tied and intact.

Their raft had partly split in two parts in the fall and it had now only one rope holding the logs together as two of the logs had opened up thus creating a wide gap. There was a real danger that their supplies were going to fall through the opening created by the untied logs but there was nothing she could do about it at that moment since she was still fighting for her life. She was able, after much effort, to grab the end of one of the logs and hold on to the raft. By then the waters were calm and since she wasn't seriously hurt, she was able to pull herself onto the half- broken raft. But while doing so, she felt the rope around her waist pulling on her. Remembering that Vincent was still tied to the other end of the rope, she immediately pulled him toward her. Then, at the expense of a lot of her energy, she was able to pull him completely onto the raft after many long minutes of great effort.

Once she realized that he was breathing and even coughing, she began to pay attention to their supplies. It was a good thing that they had taken the precaution of tying them up securely. All of their possessions seemed to be still intact and even Vincent's rifle was still securely tied to the bundle. However, the risk of everything falling through the ever increasing opening of the logs was getting worse by the minute. It took her a while to tie both halves of the raft together but she did manage to close the split after much effort. When she checked to see if anything was missing, she discovered that all of their smoked meat - except for a small pack - was gone, but everything else was still there. Only then did she notice that Vincent had an injury on his leg.

Before she was done mending his leg as best she could, the raft emerged onto a large body of water and the current carried it away from shore. Having lost the two long poles to push it, she was thus helpless. Gradually she lost sight of the shoreline. All these things had occurred a day and a half previously.

It was now in the middle of the afternoon, and Vincent, although in great pain, was still realistic enough to understand how precarious their situation was. There could be all sorts of dangers on this sea - from high winds to underwater creatures that could overturn the raft. That was not taking into account the winged creatures such as the giant condors they had seen earlier.

They were in great danger and the sooner they could get to land, the better their chances of survival would be.

Throughout the night, Vincent developed a high fever and became delirious. The fever persisted for most of the following day. When he was conscious again, it was dusk of their second day at sea. He noticed then that Nika looked very tired and upon talking to her, learned that she had been awake during all that time to keep an eye on him. She said that twice he had almost rolled off the raft while he was delirious with fever. So this is why she had to keep a constant eye on him.

As soon as he realised how exhausted she was, he told her he was much better and he made her lie next to him. Barely a few minutes later she was sound asleep.

His leg was still hurting a lot and he thought that it was a good sign. Had there been no pain it could have meant that gangrene was setting in.

That evening the sea was calm and a very light wind was blowing from the west. It was just enough to cool them and make the raft move a little over the water. While Nika slept on the half-soaked sleeping bag, he examined her beautifully shapely breasts in the starlight. She would have been a beauty queen on his world and while she was breathing regularly next to him, he let his hand stroke her hair.

They were both pulled out of their sleep in mid-morning by a spray of cold water all over their half naked bodies. The wind had greatly increased and the sea was reacting with five and six foot waves. They immediately set themselves to the task of securing all their supplies. Vincent even used the remaining rope to tie the logs of the raft more securely.

By mid afternoon the wind got worse and he was no longer sure if the raft would remain as a single unit for much longer. But it did, and throughout that night the wind blew and the waves pounded the raft and sent showers of cold water over its two occupants.

On the morning of the fourth day, the wind died down completely. When the sun came out, they both fell into a deep sleep since all through the night they had been rocked by the sea and sprayed by the waves. They slept until past noon and they felt much better after that.

They had been at sea for four and a half days now and their remaining water supply consisted of only half of one of the transparent plastic bottles he had brought. Before leaving his cottage he had filled from his well a couple of two litre bottles that used to contain soft drinks. Just before they got on the turbulent waters he had filled them again from the water of the river. If they were very careful, what was left of the water would last two more days but after that there would be none left.

Even though his leg was still very painful, it seemed to be healing well. Whether he would walk again on it remained to be seen. Nika had done a superb job of resetting the bone and if he ever walked again it would be because of her fast intervention. They watched the horizon for the following two days. There was always one of them awake during the night, but they didn't see any sign of land. Then the last of the water was gone and they knew that the end would be near if they didn't get to fresh water soon.