I pull and tear the kelp a lot harder and faster now. My breath quickens as I struggle to get free from the kelp. I tear the final strand of kelp holding me captive and start to swim toward the resting spot as fast as I can.
I turn around at the sound of another growl to see the creature that was once a few meters away to now be five-ish feet away from me. I swim even faster now, my body aching all over from my tenseness and my non stop swim. I can feel the creature getting closer to me by the second. I turn around again to see what I'm up against.
The creature is a rather large creature, possessing an elongated, smooth body with smooth skin. Its head features a long snout, which greatly resembles that of real life gharials. Several dorsal plates protrude from its back, running along the body from the neck to the tail. It has two pectoral and pelvic purple-tipped fins on each side of the body. The body ends with a broad, whale-like tail fin. The dorsal side is blue-green in color, and is patterned in dark blue and purple, with a bright green and aqua underside.
I continue to swim with everything I have. I see the clear area where Caleb right ahead of me. I push through the kelp at the end of the forest, as I get out of the kelp forest I feel an immense pain in my leg and see my watch glow red and beep loudly. I turn to see the creature's tooth stab my leg and scrape down it before the creature dives down and eats a fish then returns to the kelp forest. I break through the surface and take off my mask i tap my watch screen and stop the alert.
I attach the mask back to my side and grunt at the pain in my leg as I swim back to meet Caleb. "What happened?!" Caleb asks seeing the blood trail behind me coming to the surface. He swims over to me and tries to help hold me over the water. "It's not safe.." I say through the clenching of my teeth and grunts that I can't stop from coming out. Caleb grabs the med kit from the small bag he was holding.
"Okay put your mask back on and try to flip so we can get your leg out of the water so I can wrap it properly" Caleb half asks half commands. I do as I was instructed, I flip upside down with my leg up out of the water trying my best to keep my leg up with just my arms as support. I feel the Caleb wrap around my leg quickly but carefully.
The wound is a few inches below my knee all the way down to my ankle of my left leg. My wetsuit is torn from the bite leaving it hanging off of my leg awkwardly. Caleb finishes wrapping my leg and taps my foot, signaling that he was done. I flip back around and pop my head out of the water again, I take off my mask putting it back on my side. Caleb hands me 3 painkillers from the med kit, I take them with no hesitation. Caleb puts the med kit back into the bag flipping it over his shoulder when he was done.
I float letting the painkillers kick in, it only takes a few seconds for the painkillers to take effect. The painkillers took away a lot of the pain in my leg. I grab the edge of my wetsuit that was already torn and rip the rest of it off and wrap it around the bandage on my leg keeping it all nice and tight. I swing my leg a few times to make sure the wrap will stay in place even when I swim, I adjust the wrap a few times swinging my leg in between until it feels secure. Caleb scans the biome that looks like a kelp forest and creates a path around it. I take the small bag back from Caleb and throw it over my shoulders.
As Caleb's PDA loads the route we have to take I check my health status. I look at the now growing list that appears on my watch screen when I click the status button. "Minor concussion, wound across right side of head, wound covering both sides of your right hand and extending down your right wrist likely from a fire, wound across the left side of your left leg extending 17.4 inches long and 0.5-1 inch wide, it differs in size along the wound area. Find professional help as soon as possible!" The watch flashed the last line of the list. I sigh as I read down the list.
"Okay so hear me out ,but how about next time one of us is injured you take one for the team" I say with a laugh following it and nudging Caleb. Caleb smiles and roughs up my hair "yeah right keep dreaming" Caleb watch beeps which gains both of our attention.
"Okay so the route is done, I'll send it over to your watch" Caleb says pressing a few buttons on his watch. My watch beeps within a few seconds "New route downloaded" The watch switches screens to show a new way toward the flare site.
"Okay then let's continue" I say looking up to Caleb. Caleb nods and we are off