I didn’t like the image of anyone chasing Devina. “Has anyone been killed by wolves on your side?”
“Not recently, but I’m not taking a chance.”
“We could fly my drone to your side of the beach and I could wait with you.”
“No, it’s too risky. I’m sure if you crossed over in your drone there would be an alarm of some kind going off.”
“Wait here.” I ran back to the beach, turned off my drone, and picked up my clothes and shoes before returning to her. “Open your bag.”
“Are you coming with me to wait on the beach?” This time I didn’t sense a rejection but rather relief from her.
“It would make more sense to wait in my drone, but since you’re insisting on waiting on the beach, I’ll wait with you.”
When she held out the open bag to me, I leaned forward to put my clothes in. My pulse picked up from how close my face was to her chest.
“You ready?” She closed the bag.
“I’m ready.”
We walked shoulder to shoulder further out in the ocean. Devina took ten quick inhalations before getting her shoulders under water.
“You don’t like cold water?” I began swimming next to her.
“No one likes cold water.”
“You loved the cool stream in the meadow.”
“Because I was over-heating and it was so peaceful there.” She kept swimming, always holding her head above the water. I followed close by, making sure she was closest to the wall and had me between her and the large ocean. The ocean wasn’t calm like the first time she had done this, and I could tell she was worn out from the long day.
“You’ve got this,” I encouraged her when she swam against the current and seemed to get nowhere.
Once we reached Devina’s side of the beach and we could walk the rest of the way, she wrapped her arms around her body to shield herself from the wind that felt so cold against our skin.
Her teeth were chattering and her fingers stiff when she untied the bag’s rope from her waist.
I was in awe of her. Devina was a decent swimmer, but no expert, and it made her willingness to swim to our side of the border to save Wilma that much more impressive. For her to walk into a dark ocean, swim against the current, only to run into a foreign territory where she was convinced there was danger was the craziest thing ever.
“How long did it take you to plan your first rescue mission?”
“You mean my mission gone wrong?”
“Ah, come on, give yourself some credit here. It wasn’t a complete failure, was it? I mean you saw for yourself that Wilma wasn’t being forced to marry.”
Devina put the hoodie back on. It was long enough that she could remove her wet panties without showing anything.
“Here.” She handed me my clothes from the bag. When I put my foot through the leg of my pants, she made a “tsk” sound. “Why would you put your dry pants over your soaked briefs?”
“Ehh…” The idea of stripping naked in front of her was strange, even with what had happened between us earlier. “Are you saying that you wouldn’t mind if I removed my briefs?”
“If I were you, I would take them off.” She picked up her things and left me to stand alone, balancing with one foot inside the pants.
Okay then.
I got rid of the wet briefs and put on my clothing before following her.
Devina sat on the ground next to something I’d only heard about.
“Is that a bicycle?”
