The butler had not been exaggerating—the next half-hour was truly rough. Eleanora pressed her body over the young Master's so that he would be protected—the butler was not as gentle as he would have liked to be, and the oar would occasionally smack against her back. And every now and then, the creatures would be too quick for him and they would try and devour her. Luckily, they never got very far in that endeavor.
The little lifeboat was rocking and heaving and Ciel was starting to feel a bit sick. Just when he was sure that he was going to vomit, everything stopped.
There was a pause, and then Eleanora slowly sat up, rubbing her sore and bleeding back. Ciel looked up as well—the boat was surrounded by twice-dead corpses.
"Is it…Is it…over?"
"It's over," Eleanora said. "It's over!" She leapt to her feet. "Hot DAMN it's OVER! And I'm ALIVE! I'm still ALIVE!"
Sebastian dropped the oar.
"…again…"
"What?" She turned to look at him. "What was that?"
"…again…Never again…"
"What are you say—"
She never finished her sentence, because Sebastian suddenly grabbed her and kissed her.
"Again," he sighed when he released her, still cradling her head so that their foreheads were touching. "Never again…Never…Never scare me like that…ever again…"
"…Alright," Eleanora said, dizzy and more than a little shocked. Sebastian smiled and leaned in, and at first she thought that he was going to kiss her again, when he sighed and collapsed onto his knees. "Hey! A-Are you alright?"
He groaned. He felt his body freezing up; he was losing quite a lot of blood. Eleanora looked up at Ciel.
"My Lord, help me…"
But Ciel had turned away in embarrassment after the kiss and was staring at the horizon.
"Look, the sun…"
The sky was slowly becoming lighter; light could be seen in the distance. And in the distance, they could see a rescue ship approaching.
Eleanora smiled upon seeing the ship. She had never been so happy to see a boat in her whole life—that ship meant safety and comfort and health; it meant that they were all alive; it meant that everything was alright now.
And as soon as she realized this, all of the exhaustion and pain and terror that she had repressed throughout the night came to her all at once and she fainted.