SERAPHINA'S POV
Falling is anything but how it is depicted in dreams.
I've had occasional dreams where I'd become a bird, soaring through the sky and feeling the wind in my feathers. There are also those dreams where I'd fall freely through the air, only to crash into my bed and wake up.
I'd guessed that it'd be faintly similar to the real thing - not that I ever thought I'd have to check it myself just to be sure.
But boy, was I fucking wrong.
It's terrifying in actuality. The force of the air pushes against you harshly while gravity fights back.
It's as if you're caught in a push and pull game between the two, your heart racing, pounding, like you're about to die. You scream so loudly, your mouth wide open, enough to catch a good number of bugs.
I black out the moment we fall into the water, recalling nothing else of what happened next. That is until I wake up probably hours later at the bank of a river I've been washed onto.
I sit up abruptly, breathing fast and looking around, remembering that we were being chased by a bunch of wolves - but then, I relax in the next moment.
They probably won't be looking for us again, seeing as we're definitely lost now.
I look around for Kamila, not seeing any sign of her, and I immediately panic - which doesn't make sense.
She tried to sell me out. Twice. The second time being more painful than the first after I saved her life, but who cares?
She might be a cold-blooded reptile but, in my opinion, she's not someone that deserves to be abandoned or killed.
I manage to get on my two feet despite the pounding in my head and my bruised arm. My ears ring and my vision blurs, but I push through, searching for her.
"Kamila!" I yell out her name, groaning in pain the second I try to yell with my sore throat.
I cough painfully, tasting a bit of blood in my mouth.
"Kamila."
I search for a while until I hear faint groaning coming from a direction, rushing towards it.
She's a few feet away from where I washed up, sitting against a small shrub.
Her face is sweating and contorted in pain while she pants heavily. I sigh with relief when she comes into my vision. She made it and in one full piece, thankfully.
I wouldn't have known how to tell Artemis that his mate lost an arm or a foot because I grabbed her and jumped off the cliff.
I let out a laugh now at how stupid the thought alone is.
"Have you lost your mind?" She looks at me with a raised brow.
"Maybe. I just escaped another attempt to my life with my own nemesis by jumping off a fucking cliff into water when I can't fucking swim, and we still survived." I say, pausing to laugh some more, clutching onto my gut that stings.
Her face contorts into disgust now.
"You have lost your mind."
"You'd have to lose your mind to remain sane in a situation like this, Kamila."
I walk closer to her, offering my hand to get her off the floor and she looks at me like a dung of cow poop.
"Do you want my help, or do you want to die out here? Because I don't mind letting you do just that."
She's reluctant but finally gives in, taking my hand.
***
The sun has long set over the horizon, now leaving nothing but pitch-black darkness covering the entirety of the forest in only just a few hours.
Both Kamila and I manage to find ourselves in a small cave, big enough for the both of us to fit in without being too close - it's last thing either of us needs right now.
I made a fire with a bunch of dried out twigs I found, and it keeps us warm from the cold breeze sipping into our hiding spot.
"What is this atrocity?" She asks, communicating her dissatisfaction with the situation for the umpteenth time. She stares at the bug barbecue I roasted up for her.
And now, I'm starting to regret doing so.
"It's food. Eat up."
She glares at me again, this time without a comeback.
I guess she's becoming tired as well. I was beginning to think she had an unnatural amount of stamina stored up somewhere. I stare at her from the corner of my eye, and she eventually puts it into her mouth after minutes of staring at it.
She gags next, tossing it aside in disgust.
"I thought werewolves could eat anything as long as it lived at some point." I comment with a chuckle, biting into my dinner.
She scoffs now, completely fed up with me.
"Of all people to get stuck in the forest with, and it's fucking you." She snaps
"Hey, be grateful. Not many people would have dragged you into a cave, made a fire, and cooked dinner while you did nothing but complain constantly. In fact, if it weren't for me, you'd probably have died from the cold." I point out plainly, glaring back at her.
I'm just as fed up as she is, having to put up with her nagging and cranky attitude after she sold me out twice.
I'm never letting that go, that's for sure.
A 'thank you' wouldn't hurt, but it's clear she doesn't have those words in her dictionary- at least not for me, the lowly human she despises so much.
She looks at me, breathing more erratically through her nostrils, fuming again.
Can't take criticism, I guess.
She stands up from the floor, now walking away with her awful limp and leaving the cave which is the only safe place we can stay in right now.
"Where are you going now?" I yell after her while, yet again, she puts both our lives in danger.
"I don't need any of this right now."
"C'mon, don't be bitch right now. You're already a liability, might as well stay put so I don't have to cater to you anymore than I have." I say, running after her.
I know I should just leave her so she can fall into whatever ditch is waiting for her, and maybe she'd finally see how useless she is right now without me - but I can't.
Every second I watch her struggling with her injury and her own emotional state, trying so hard not to cry, I feel my knees go weak and every mental restraint built against her just breaks into pieces.
"Hey!" I call to her again.
She finally stops just at the edge of the same river that had washed us up here, looking at me with even more anger.
The more her frustration grows, the more she dumps it all on me.
"Just leave me alone. I don't need your help or your pity. I am an Alpha!" She screams at me while her voice trembles.
I can't see her face clearly due to the darkness, but I can tell she's already in tears with the way her body trembles.
Years of trauma and a false narrative of strength that's been drilled into her finally shines through the cracks of her hardened exterior.
She's clearly terrified and scared, with no way of expressing those emotions except through screaming at the nearest person she can trample on.
I approach her slowly now, calmer than earlier, as I see through her walls. However, she backs away from me as well, not turning around until she trips and falls into the river.
"Kamila!"
She emerges at the top again seconds later, but it's obvious that she's drowning. With that broken leg, there's no way for her to swim properly, and her hands flail up and down.
"Help!" She pleads now, trying desperately to get herself out, and terror splays all over her face.
In a state of panic, I look around me, desperately trying to think up something. Jumping in would be stupid because then we'd both drown with no one to tell the tale of how we died.
I see a long trunk at the side, broken off from a tree, and I reach for it.
It's heavy but I drag it all the way to the edge, pushing it closer to her before she can lose any more energy
"Grab on." I yell to her, pointing at the edge of it.
She struggles a bit, but finally grabs onto it, securing herself on the wood. I reach out to it and grab her hand, pulling her out.
After minutes of struggle, the both of us fall back onto the grassy earth, breathing hard and fully exhausted from it.
"You saved me... again." She mutters, using a different tone in her voice now.
Something akin to wonder and surprise.
"Yeah, and I'm getting tired of it at this point, so can you stop having a fucking tantrum and just stay put, please?" I scowl.
I truly have no energy left, not even to stand up from this spot I'm lying on. Plus, my entire body hurts as well.
"Why? I would have let you drown."
"Yeah, I got the message already." I comment, referring to the stunt she pulled earlier.
What could have happened if they had taken her up on her offer? What if I was the only one who had jumped off and found myself missing in the bushes?
I won't be this exhausted, that's for sure.
And she'd have probably gone back and told everyone some make-believe lies about me running away, so no one would look for me.
When I think about it, it sounds horrible for anyone to do that to someone that literally hasn't ever done anything to hurt them.
"Well, I'm not a bitch, and even if you're mean, I can see just how broken you are."
"Don't act like you know me." She snaps venomously like a baby python trying too hard to protect herself.
"I don't, but like I said, I know what a hurt person looks like, and believe me, I know what despicable is. My life hasn't been easy either; I didn't have parents or friends or a fancy roof over my head. Everything I have right now, I had to work for it, twice as hard than most, and I'm grateful for each of them every day." I pause to catch my breath.
She doesn't make a sound, so I look at her just to be sure that I haven't bored her to the point that she's slept off.
When I see her, her eyes remain fixed on the open endless sky, shimmering with moisture that doesn't spill yet. Her lower lips tremble, and her forehead furrows.
She looks so very sad.
"Being small or weak isn't a bad thing; it's the willingness to fight and persevere when it truly counts that truly matters." I add.
She sniffles silently, offering no more words.
I try to say something else, but she turns the other way quickly, hiding her face and probably her tears as well.