"Cough… cough… cough."
Sorayah continued to cough violently the moment she managed to swim out of the freezing river...the same one Dimitri had warned they would fall into, and unfortunately, they had. Her soaked body trembled uncontrollably as she collapsed onto the wet grass, her fingers curling into the cold earth in an effort to ground herself.
The sounds of rushing water filled the air, accompanied by the distant chirping of birds and the mournful howling of the wind. The temperature in the forest had plummeted further, chilled even more by the icy river that wound through the trees.
Dimitri sat beside her for a moment, watching in silence, but soon he rose to his feet and vanished into the forest without a word. Sorayah, still shivering and breathless, didn't even register his absence. Her mind was preoccupied with the sharp cold cutting through her limbs and the ache in her bones.
