CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: ONDINA'S COVE

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Gritting her teeth, Arwen throws her hand up to a dent in the rock and she uses it to start pulling herself up

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Gritting her teeth, Arwen throws her hand up to a dent in the rock and she uses it to start pulling herself up. Every movement is an effort but she finally pulls herself up, wincing in pain as she cuts her hand on the rock. Ignoring the pain she allows herself a single moment of rest before she pulls Klaude up. It takes several attempts but she does it. 

Once they are both safely on the rock, Arwen lays him on her lap and puts her fingers to his neck. 

A pulse. Good. 

She starts pressing her hands over his heart and keeps breathing into his mouth, something she once watched an Umbra woman do when trying to save her son. By some miracle her son had awoken so perhaps Klaude will too. 

Arwen hears a cough and a splutter.She instantly raises her head as Klaude spits out so much sea water and gasps for a breath of air.  Arwen breathes a sigh of relief as she holds him as he coughs up half of the sea. Still gasping, Klaude wipes some salt off of his mouth and faces her.

He looks horrible. 

His face is ten shades paler then usual, his eyes have gone almost colourless and he looks like a living drowned corpse. 

"Well if this is heaven then I am quite content to be dead," he says, laughing which causes him to cough up more water. 

She laughs in relief and kisses his brow, "You shouldn't joke about such things." 

"I'm sorry," he says, trying to sit up but the pain hits immediately with a sharp pang and he immediately lies back down, "looks like I'll be stuck here for a while, you should go and get yourself to safety." 

Arwen shakes her head immediately, "no, I won't leave you here alone and injured, I would never do that. Not now and not ever would I ever leave you to face life alone." 

"You won't have to leave me alone in life for I could die soon from these injuries," Klaude says, attempting to laugh but ends up wincing as he puts his hand to his side, where an increasing circle of blood has formed, "I would much rather you live than I, you risk dying from the cold if you are out here for much longer, you need to return home and get dry."

She shakes her head adamantly and in determination as she replies to him. 

"Don't be silly, people may think me weak but I am stubborn, and I will not let you die, not here and you aren't going to leave me alone to face Cierra's wrath at our recklessness, you and I still have a lot of our tale to tell and explore together," she says but then the light in her eyes vanishes as she spies the worst wound in his side, the blood is already staining the rocks scarlet. 

Arwen eyes light up in concern, how did she possibly miss it before? Without thinking she rips a massive chunk of her dress, surprising herself at the sudden surge of strength she gets and presses it to his wound to help staunch the bleeding. It helps a little but blood has stained the white scarlet within seconds. He needs something more to bind his wounds or he could bleed out. But that will not happen. She refuses to let it happen. The injury might not be as bad as it appears, she doesn't know how deep the cut from the rocks runs.

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