Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
With a Practiced Motion, we Lifted the Boat

“Alright,” I said hesitantly. “On the count of three, we jump. Ready?”

He nodded calmly. “One, two,” we counted together. “Three!” we jumped together, holding one another’s hand firmly, but releasing once the cold had smashed into our bones and froze our joints. We shot to the surface, hoping to leave the icy water as quickly as possible. I shivered as I swam over to the boat and floated there for a moment, holding the boat waiting for Akuma. He perked his head up next to mine, he too held the boat.

“I’ll swim to the other side and try to flip it over, while you try to push it up from here, good?” I asked, beginning to move over to the other side, but still watching him.

He nodded, waiting for me to ready myself at the other end of the boat. Arriving there, he began to push up on his end, as I pushed straight down, putting all my weight on the boat, while I held the other hand up to guide our small boat back into the water when it was close enough to the sea. When we had pulled it up far enough, I hoisted myself up out of the water and placed my two feet at the wood boards which were typically at the side of the boat. I kept my balance by holding onto the other side which Akuma had just pushed over to me. Slowly, the weight of my body pulled the boat enough for it to fall back into the water. I jumped off of my perch just before the boat fell, landing with a great splash, the icy water once more penetrating my skin quickly and efficiently stiffening everything inside of me, the boat just beside me. I quickly climbed on next to Akuma who already stood, shivering on the boat.

“We’ll quickly dry ourselves off, using my powers, then we’ll worry about your leather armor, otherwise, we freeze worrying about the leather,” I said.

Akuma nodded, “should we build a quick fire? Or maybe we could use a torch, or I guess you could just try to warm what you can with your hands,” he replied with a tremble as if trying to shake the cold from his body.

“Take off as much leather as you can, because whatever we do requires heat and that would just make it lose more shape,” I said.

Akuma nodded, removing all leather parts of his armor, and leaving just the under layer of fabric, placing each piece, one by one over to the side. As he was doing this, I opened the inner compartment of the boat and pulled out a torch, quickly lighting it, I stuck it between two boards to keep it close enough to keep us warm and hopefully to stop the endless shivers which ran up, down, and around our spines.

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