The Return - Part 2

"Oh crap."

Nothing else needed to be said as Sylvia looked in the direction Octavia had and saw the same horrible sight that was coming towards them. Both girls very quickly sped up after that.

They trudged through the river, being pelted by the powerful flow of the water as they did. They still had quite a distance to go before reaching the other side. A fact that didn't seem to bother the massive section of a tree that was thundering down the river.

"Come on, faster Sylvia."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Sylvia said through grunts as she trudged through the mud at the bed of the river.

It was a pointless thing to say, but it came out of Octavia's mouth on instinct.

They still had some time before the debris would reach them, and things were going swimmingly, that is until she heard Sylvia call out from behind her.

"I'm stuck!"

"What, how can-" Octavia started to say as she turned around and headed back to her.

"I'm stepping through thick mud here. I don't have a conveniently wide tail to slide along it." Sylvia said in a very annoyed tone. But while she sounded annoyed, Octavia could see it was her way of trying to remain calm, while she was terrified on the inside.

Heading back, she didn't have far to move, having only been a few slithers in front, so she reached her in no time.

"Ok, time for plan B."

As she said that, she moved in to take hold of Sylvia's hips and lift her out.

"What's plan-"

*thud*

In the process of pulling her up and out of the mud, a massive branch that neither of them saw, slammed into the side of them. It was likely a smaller section of the tree that fell in the river earlier, but still big enough, that the speed it was moving was enough to knock them both down.

Both of them fell into the water, ending up completely submerged. The flow of the water pushed them down the river, causing them to be dragged along the bottom, Sylvia's feet and Octavia's tail both being pulled through the mud.

As she moved, Octavia struggled and tried to right herself as she was swept away. She managed to find purchase when she reached out and gripped a root or something similar at the bottom of the river. She was able to sort herself out, digging her short tail into the mud, and managed to get her head above the water.

*Gasp* "That was a close one."

She then started to frantically look around for Sylvia but saw neither hide nor hair of her. That is until she saw her backpack bobbing up in the water a short distance away.

"Sylvia!" Panicked at the sight, she slithered along the mud as fast as she could towards her back, calling out as she did. Once she reached it, she pulled it up, and along with it came Sylvia.

Who wasn't moving.

"Oh no, no, no."

She tried to move her, but like how she managed to grab hold of a root, Sylvia was stuck on something as well. Octavia buried her head in the water and found the culprit. Another root which she quickly pulled Sylvia's foot out of.

With no time to lose, Sylvia's life in the balance, and her own with the section of a tree heading towards her, she made a beeline for the embankment. She moved as fast as her now tiny tail could carry her, slithering through the mud at her max pace.

The tree section was getting closer and closer to her as she got nearer to exiting the river, but the more frightening thing was that Sylvia was still silent. She needed to get her out of the water, now.

The tree was just coming around the last bend in the river when she reached the side. She quickly placed Sylvia onto the ground and then went to pull herself up. She struggled to lift herself up off the embankment, and time was running out fast.

Using all the strength she had, she managed to get her upper body up over the side, right as the section of the tree flowed by.

It covered the entire width of the river, which meant her lower snake half did not get out unscathed.

"Ahhh!" Octavia cried out in pain as the tough and sharp branches scraped along her tail. It scraped along her scaly tail, which hardly did a thing to her. But once it reached the end of her tail, which was still healing from being chopped off, it ripped through the exposed flesh and reopened all manner of wounds, causing blood to flow and run into the dirt.

But, while it was again excruciating, she had no time to care about the pain, dashing over to Sylvia.

"Crap, crap, crap, what do I?"

How much she wished she had gone on some sort of first aid training or something back on Earth. All she had to go on was what she had seen in films, and she didn't have long.

Putting her hand close to her mouth and nose, she felt no breath. In her limited knowledge, she realised that must mean her airwaves were blocked by the water.

So, she jumped to the next thing she could recall, where she placed her linked hands over Sylvia's chest and started to pump.

"Come on, come on."

She gave it several pumps before she moved on to mouth-to-mouth and quickly breathed air into her lungs.

No response.

She went back to pushing on her chest several more times.

"Don't do this to me!"

She cried out in anger as she moved over to go for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation again.

She pulled away, but again there was nothing.

That is until she went to press on her chest again.

The sound of almost puking and spitting out water was music to Octavia's ears, as she saw Sylvia clearing her airways as the water flowed down her face.

Tears sprung from Octavia's eyes as she lunged over and pulled her onto her side to let it all out, and then into a sitting position, where she then wrapped her arms around her.

"Thank you, thank you."

*cough*, I think…I think I should be *cough* saying that to you."

"Don't you dare do that to me again."

They both sat there in silence for several minutes holding each other, just taking in the fact that Sylvia had almost died.

…

After basking in the sun in silence for a good twenty minutes or so, they decided to get up and head on their way. Nothing else needed to be said. Not after the dozen or so thank yous or the many promises to not die again. So, they continued on their goal and headed towards the village.

Octavia was still in a bit of pain from the tree, but for now, she hardly cared about it, and there wasn't much they could do aside from letting it heal. If they came across some medicinal plants or something that would be great, but neither really knew much about that. But compared to a blade, the branches of a tree were nothing.

Before leaving however, they decided to grab some of the fruit from the nearby trees to add to the meal they would be stopping for soon.

The only problem was that Octavia could not just get them as she did before. The lack of a tail meant she couldn't use the same process as last time to reach them, so they had to come up with another plan.

"So, what do you think?" Sylvia said as she looked up at the fruit.

"Well, let's give it a try and see if it reaches."

Thankfully, Octavia had something now that she didn't before.

A massively long weapon.

Holding it right at the end, and lifting herself up by her damaged tail as best she could, she swung her poleaxe at the fruit. Amazingly, it had just enough reach that she was able to knock some of the low-hanging ones.

The plan was simple and it worked. That is until Octavia's nemesis turned up.

*Thunk*

*Scuttle*

As Octavia went to pick it up, a squirrel-like creature came dashing out behind the tree, and grabbed the fruit. It then hurried off and turned invisible. Before it did though, it turned to look at her and Octavia was sure that she saw it wink at her.

"No, nooo." Octavia cried out as she saw the little beast disappear. It had to be the same one from before. For it to have got one over on her again shattered Octavia's spirit.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll just get another one." Sylvia said consoling her.

"You don't understand. That little menace did the same thing to me the last time I was here. Damn it."

Sylvia had no response to that. Part of her thought that Octavia was a little bit crazy to think that the animal had been hounding her. It was likely just another one that saw the fruit and went for it. But seeing it affect her so, she decided it would be best to just, leave it at that.

After Octavia picked herself up off the floor and swore vengeance on that critter, she went to grab another fruit.

Oh, how she would find a way to rid the world of those squirrel things. Just they wait and see.