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“What happened?” I asked, looking around the area but not seeing anything out of place besides our new location.
Instead of being out in the middle of the river, we were suddenly underneath and up against a cypress tree. I reached out to try and calm Thorn as he bolted up and shook the boat, glancing around. I really wasn’t looking forward to swimming in the bayou.
“I— I don’t know,” Rave answered before checking to her left. “Ugh.” She groaned before raising her boot and kicking at something on the other side.
“Woah, you’re rocking the boat,” I yelled.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious! I didn’t realize that’s the action I was doing.” She punctuated each word with a kick, getting angrier as she went. Her brunette hair was starting to come out of her messy bun. Mumbling a few curses under her breath, the boat shifted and started to float away from the tree.
“Oh! We were stuck on Cypress knees,” I said as I finally got a view of what was sticking out of the water.
“Whose knee?” Rave asked, and I sent her a disapproving look.
“Cypress. They grow up from the tree’s roots and stick out of the water. Some say they help stabilize the trees against a hurricane and maybe aid in respiration for the trees that are constantly in water,” I said proudly, finally able to put my knowledge to the test.
“How the fuck do you know that?” Rave screeched.
“Well, I studied up while you got your nookie on between the library and the abbey again,” I chuckled.
“Shit, you could see us?” She sent me a shocked look before pushing off with the pole once again. “I could have sworn we were far enough away from the light that no one could see us, ” she mumbled.
“You were, but your screams probably woke up the whole academy.”
“Damn it. I knew I should have gagged Walker with his shirt. He wouldn’t know how to stay quiet even if our lives depended on it.”
Smiling to myself, I turned my attention back to the map and noticed we were almost to another turn-off when we started drifting back into the trees.
“Damn it!” Rave grunted and viciously smacked the water with the pole out of frustration.
“Having problems, Rave?”
She threw the pole back into the boat and ripped off her jacket while I held out my hand to catch it as that, too, was thrown to the bottom of this floating wood pile. Her bracelet was also on the floor, which also spoke volumes of how upset she was that she was throwing her precious jacket around and didn’t notice her bracelet came off, especially out here in this dump. I slipped the intricate metal into my bag for safekeeping while her face pinched in anger.
“Fuck this damn swamp!” she shouted. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but all of a sudden, I can’t control where we’re going,” she said as she wiped the back of her hand across her forehead and roughly redid her messy bun.
“What do you mean you can’t control where we’re going?” I laid her jacket down beside me and stared up at my bestie.
Rave glared back, and if looks could kill, I would be ashes right now.
“Just what I sa?—”
The boat suddenly swayed so hard that I dropped the map and reached for the edge to hold on. My foot pushed Thorn back down to keep him from flopping around, and that’s when I heard a splash.
I looked around but didn’t notice anything out of place. A growl ripped from Thorn’s body, and he shook me enough to dislodge my foot so he could lean over the edge of the boat.
“What’s wrong with him, Rave?” I asked while trying to pull him back to me. “Rave?” My head snapped up, looking for her, and it was then I finally realized she was missing.
Shit.
Rave surfaced a few feet away, sputtering water. She blindly reached around for the boat as her hair was plastered to her face and covered her eyes. “Motherfucker… piece of— what the hell hit us?” Rave cursed, forcibly pushing her hair out of her eyes before taking my hand and getting into the boat.
“Is that why you fell over?” I asked, taking in the swamp water and some green stuff clinging to her.
“No,” she growled, picking the green slime off her shoulder. “I decided to jump in and finally try one of those mud baths I’ve heard so much about.” She pulled her tank away from her body and wrung it out with a sneer. “Thankfully, I took a dip without my jacket,” she mumbled to herself.
“Okay, I don’t need the snarky quips. I’m sorry that your mud bath didn’t work out like you wanted, but obviously, something is going on,” I said, grabbing the bag between my feet and throwing her a towel. Don’t ask why I had one; it was just a hygiene thing.
Before turning my attention elsewhere, I felt a thump at the bottom of my feet.
