Great Depths by Mina Hinves

Author:Mina Hinves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Action, Young Adult, Adventure, Queer Romance, M/M Romance, Dystopian
Publisher: Envis Books
Published: 2024-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Gone Fishing

THEIR DESPERATE PRAYERS were finally answered. Whipping winds drew a shroud of clouds across the sky. Loose tendrils of hair began whipping around Lena’s sunburnt cheeks as the first cool droplets splashed atop their shelter roof.

"Rain!" she cried, fumbling for anything - empty tins, crumpled old plastic bottles, the battered bowl they’d crushed the kelp poultice in - to gather as much of the precipitation as possible. "Catch the rainwater!"

Her brother scrambled to obey, grinning broadly at her through a curtain of lukewarm rainfall. Once they’d laid out everything they could think to use, Lena couldn't help but tip her head back and laugh with giddy relief as fresh water splattered her cracked lips and parched tongue. Kai pulled Tavi a few feet out into the open to enjoy the cool shower too. It was hard to feel like they could get enough, after the agonizing days of meager rationing. Several sodden minutes later, every conceivable container and hollow brimmed with fresh, clean rainwater.

Lena dared look over at Tavi with renewed hope. A faint grimace creased his features as Kai carefully dribbled some of their collected water directly into his parched mouth. He made a faint, appreciative sound in the back of his throat as the cool liquid went down.

"There you are," Kai murmured, combing Tavi's lank hair away from his face with feather-light fingertips. "Drink up."

Lena watched with bated breath. A hint of lucidity slowly seeped back into Tavi's face. His eyelids fluttered open. His eyes were no longer flitting aimlessly - instead they found cautious purchase on Kai's damp features.

"...You're all wet," he rasped after a long pause, the barest ghost of a smile on his pallid lips.

Kai let out a wet sob of pure joy, leaning forward to press his cheek against Tavi's forehead. "Because it’s raining, you idiot," he choked out.

Lena just shook her head in bewildered exasperation at the two of them, blinking back grateful tears.

The rain was a godsend, not just for sustaining Tavi's recovery but reinvigorating their own drive to carry on improving the raft. By late afternoon, Lena and Kai had lashed together another makeshift cover fashioned from a torn sailcloth. It was large enough to tent over all of them while they slept. As the rain tapered off into a misty drizzle, Lena busied herself suspending a length of snarled netting from a sturdy length of wood and tying on a couple of heavier chunks of debris to weigh the middle down. She attached it to the back of their raft and waited for it to submerge.

Kai watched with quiet interest. "Looking to catch us some dinner?" he asked after her handiwork had unfolded into a passable drag net.

"We can’t live off rainwater alone," Lena shot back. "And we both know I've never had the patience to learn all of Tavi’s knots and lures. This kind of basic rigging is more my speed."

Kai chuckled at that, good natured. Tavi had caught all of about six fish in his life, but he would never let them forget it.

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