Jane was able to latch her arms onto a rock. She looked pleadingly at Benny as the man was about shoot her, but Benny pushed him off his horse and into the river where he hit his head and fell unconscious, following the stream towards the end. "I'm sorry," Benny whispered to Jane before running towards Ethan and leaving her there.
"Benny! Please!" She kept screaming please but there was nothing that was going to convince Benny to turn around. At this point, she knew Benny was not turning around and cursed 'love' for allowing her to die. "Please, please, pleaseā¦"
Damn Benny AND Ethan, Jane thought as the cold water tickled - no, pinched - her ankles and her legs. And damn gender roles for making me wear this dress because now I'm going to freeze to death! And damn Ethan for dragging me into this. AND DAMN BENNY FOR NOT HELPING ME! And damn Shau- okay I should stop damning people and actually figure out how to get out of this situation.
She couldn't just try to swim to where she fell in because she would just be swept away by the tide. She couldn't stay here because she would lose all feeling in her legs. She had to figure out a way to get to the shore without using her legs and without swimming.
So how is that even possible? She looked around for a long stick, maybe, or a broken log to help her get onto land. As she was looking around, she remembered the horse, who was sitting down and eating the grass.
"Hey! Horse...ee" Jane said in a voice that you would use on your puppy if you were sitting down and didn't want to get up just to go get them and sit back down. Surprisingly, the horse lifted its head up and neighed at Jane. Jane silently congratulated herself on getting the horses attention.
She saw an about-ten-foot-long log a few feet away from the horse. "Hey, horsey, could you please get me that log?" Jane said in a high pitched voice and used her head to gesture towards the log. The horse merely looked at the log and didn't move any other part of its body. I don't know what I expected. 'Of course Jane I'm a horse but I understand English and can also speak!' No. That's something of a movie.
She tried it one more time, but this time she lifted one hand from the rock to quickly point at the log and put it back because she wasn't going to risk slipping from the rock into the fast-flowing river. The horse actually got up this time, but instead of going to pick up the log, it started to walk towards Jane. When Jane showed no sign of getting out of the river, the horse simply sat down. The only difference between this position and the last was that it was closer to Jane.
Then Jane had an idea. What if she held out her hand again? She held out her hand and used her other arm to clutch to the rock for dear life. It seemed that her idea worked, because the horses head perked up and its neck extended towards Janes hand. I'm sorry for this, Jane thought before she clenched her hand around the horses mane and used her feet to push off the rock.
As soon as her other hand left the rock, it clutched the ground and she used it to haul her legs out of the water. She found that her legs and elbows where blue and let go of the whimpering horse, a bunch of its hair left in Janes fingernails. She sat down and began to cry because what if I have to get my legs and elbows-down amputated? I'll just be a torso!
But then she realized she was able to use her hands and her legs so he decided she wouldn't become an amputee. The horse sat down next to her and she laid against it. However, she moved her legs to rest them against the warm horse and put her arms in between her shivering body and the horses warm body.
Before she fell asleep, finally semi-comfortable, she had a single thought.
I'm going to kill Ethan and Benny.
But mostly Benny.
