River breaks the water’s surface with a strangling gasp.
A hot burning sensation spreads along the bridge of her nose and head, as she had mistakenly inhaled a lungful of water once they plunged into the freezing water. The impact had stolen her breath, and she reflexively released Hadrius.
River coughs violently while her arms flail about, reaching for any sort of anchor and flat ground. There is none. Dark water rolls over her face and the roaring waterfall begins to dim as the black serpentine river slowly meanders further from the foaming base.
She struggles to swim, but does not know how, and resorts to maintaining a rather pitiful doggy paddle that still periodically submerges her beneath the icy waters.
Something hard wraps around her waist from behind and she gasps again, refle
