Chapter 16

Maybe the fact that she survived a wolf encounter and felt braver than she had ever felt before is why she found herself standing on the shore of the lake looking at the canoe. Rayne hugged the container she’d sealed her camera in, mostly because she treasured it and drowning it would upset her more than drowning herself. Do I want to try canoeing? Yes, mostly. She set the camera down and walked over to the canoe. Taking a deep breath, she flipped it over, finding out it was much heavier than it had looked. The paddle was on the ground, having been hidden underneath. Picking it up, she frowned at it. It was almost as tall as she was. Rayne looked at the water and then back to the canoe, there was no way around it, some of her was going to get wet. She knew she didn’t have the strength to climb in on shore and shove it out into the water. She placed the paddle in and then her shoes, carefully setting the camera on top.

Grabbing the handle as she’d seen Devin do, she yanked on it only to discover that it was going to be a challenge just getting it to the water, never mind getting in it once it was there. Would pushing it be easier? Doubtful. Rayne grabbed the handle again with both hands and backed towards the lake, one inch at a time. This gave her a new-found respect for early settlers that used to carry their canoes over their heads when they hit a spot without water. Obviously modern life made people soft and weak, well, at least it had her.

During the back-straining event of getting the canoe to the water thinking that would be the hardest part, and she was wrong. Rayne stood in the water up to her knees holding the canoe and trying to figure out the best way to get inside it without tipping right out the other side only to land on her face with a splash. She wasn’t going to make the mistake again of thinking any part of this was going to be easy. Balancing on one foot, she lifted the other one to rest inside, longer legs probably would have made this simpler, but, she didn’t have any of those handy. Rayne stretched so her foot was close to the middle and then slowly shifted her weight to swing the other foot in. Her yoga instructor would have been proud of her technique and flexibility when she finally had both feet inside.

As she started to straighten the canoe started rocking from side to side and the more she tried to counter balance the worse it rocked. Her camera rolled around making her wonder if she was even in enough water to flip it. Not having any other choice, she plopped down onto her knees and held the sides until the rocking stopped. The expression ‘don’t rock the boat’ took on a whole new meaning that she completely understood now. Making sure she made small movements she wiggled around until she was comfortable. She’d seen how people used the narrow seats at either end, but there was no way she was going to try to move to try to get to them. She felt less like she was going to fall out by sitting in the middle.

Looking around, she decided she’d just paddle a bit along the shore and see how this worked before she left the safety of a few feet of water to the deeper, darker water in the middle of the lake. How hard could this be? Rayne took the paddle and slid it in her hands a few times trying to figure out at which length she should hold it. Small movements worked for her and hopefully she could control things.

It took less than twenty practise strokes to figure out that she had to paddle a bit on each side or she didn’t go straight forward. The third try she ended up with the front of the canoe beached on the shore, and she knew if she was going to accomplish anything, she’d have to go out deeper where she couldn’t ground herself so easily. As the bottom of the lake started to get harder to see, she looked back at the shore and was surprised how far out she’d travelled. She’d never win any races, but she was managing to go straight and hadn’t fallen out, yet. A win for her.

Rayne could see why people liked this as she rested the paddle in front of her and coasted through the water, it was peaceful. One more thing that made her want to stay longer.

She pushed herself along a few more times and then just sat there, thinking. Aside from taking pictures, what had she decided to do? Nothing, but that was okay, it had only been a few days. Rayne laughed out loud, thinking what a few days it had been. She was no longer engaged, employed, or had a place to live. She was hiding out in the wilderness with no real clue to what she was doing. Then again, she’d also survived a near miss with a racoon and a social visit with a wolf, not to mention she was coasting in a canoe on a serene lake right at this moment. Maybe the good didn’t outweigh the bad, but she’d take what she could get.

Figuring she was close to the middle of the lake, she put the paddle down, inside the canoe so she wouldn’t knock it in the water. Making tiny movements, she stretched until she could grasp the camera and took it out of its waterproof container. Rayne felt a little overwhelmed, not sure what she should take a picture of first, but then realized there was really no rush, was there?

Rayne spent several minutes trying to capture a picture of a fish, at least she really hoped it was a fish, as it skimmed the surface and caused ripples to spread out. The problem with that was she didn’t know where to look other than where it had been last, and she suspected they kept moving and didn’t hit the same place more than once.

She looked everywhere, taking pictures of everything within her sight, she would always want to remember this, and the more pictures she had the more she could conjure the same feeling as the moment she took the picture. Everything was so natural and beautiful. The trees surrounding the lake weren’t perfectly balanced, they just grew where they wanted to. The water, so many shades of blue but colorless at the same time, even the sky...

She lowered the camera and moved her eyes to the sky. There were some very dark, foreboding clouds heading her way, fast.

After experiencing a few storms of this area, she didn’t need to think twice about putting her camera back into the container and heading to the shore. She did not want to be in the middle of a body of water when that darkness reached here. How long did she have?

Rayne turned the canoe without any problems and made the call that carefree paddling was out of the question, however going fast seemed to rock her around too much, and she didn’t want to tip over, so she found a pace that wasn’t meandering and didn’t tip her over, and hoped it would get her there in time.

There had been no wind to speak of two seconds ago, but a gust of wind caught her and started to turn her away from the shore. Rayne had no idea what to do other than to keep paddling and trying to get closer. Glancing towards the trees, she caught sight of several birds heading for cover, she didn’t need to be an outdoorsman to know that wasn’t a good sign at all. The wind continued to pick up causing the calm water to become choppy. What kind of storm was she in for?

She was trying not to panic when she noticed she wasn’t lined up with where she’d been heading, the wind was forcing the canoe away from the small building on the shore. Rayne glanced behind her and panicked when she realized she was closer to the other side than to Devin’s shore line. Did she turn and head for the closest land or keep trying? As the first few drops of rain hit her face she found the decision much easier to make. Any land was better than blowing around a lake during a storm. A loud crack of thunder sounded in the distance sent a warning chill down her spine.

Rayne’s heart was racing faster than she was moving when the rain began to fall with stinging force against her skin. Just let me reach a shore, soon. She prayed as she pushed the paddle through the water to bring the shore closer to her. She was able to steer in the very general direction of some taller trees, hoping when she got there she’d be able to get the canoe out of the water and find somewhere reasonably sheltered to sit the storm out. The weather in this part of the world was pure craziness. She’d just been worrying about getting sunburned one moment and then the next the sky washes black and she’s soaked to the skin.

This time when the thunder echoed across the water a bright jagged bolt of lightning lit up half the sky in the dark clouds. The shore was still at least a hundred feet away as she leaned and took longer strokes through the water, believing she was reaching it in record time. The rain pelted her in the strong wind and she had half a mind to let the wind blow her to the nearest ground, but that held no guarantee, so she got up on her knees and kept her head low and fought to keep the canoe heading to the trees.

The bottom of the canoe dragged across something and she cried out in relief knowing she was close now. Rayne didn’t wait to see if she was strong enough to push it further in, she dropped the paddle and scrambled out the second she could see the bottom beneath the murky water. The canoe was stuck on a log so she jumped in the water and didn’t even pause when it was up to her hips, grabbing the edge, she worked her way to the front and grasped the handle. She ignored the roughened lake bed that hurt her feet and used the adrenalin to find the strength, pulling the canoe further onto the shore. A rock blocked her from pulling it completely onto land, but with most of it out of the water, she figured it wasn’t going to go too far. Another bolt of lightning flashed overhead and she stumbled towards the trees.

Rayne knew nothing of safety in the wilderness during a storm, but logic told her to find the tightest grouping of trees so she would be safe from anything falling on her. She just prayed she was right. Spotting a group of larger trunks, she didn’t stop until she was between them. Let these be big strong trees that will hide me safely. She looked up. The rain was coming down so hard that the thick foliage on the tops wasn’t able to stop her from getting wet, but at least she was on land and safer.

Limbs creaked as the wind howled through them. Rayne dropped down to lean against the largest tree and wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn’t know if she was shivering from fear or was cold, but wasn’t able to stop. Wind she was used to, but never had she heard wind like this. All around her trees were swaying in the force of the gusts that seemed to go in more than one direction. She didn’t want to think what would have happened to her out there in the open if she hadn’t seen the clouds in time, or barely in time. She was a strong swimmer, but Mother Nature was much stronger. She hoped Mother Nature would get this out of her system quickly and move along to somewhere she wasn’t.

A terrifying snap cracked through the air and she jumped up looking around. No more than thirty feet from her, the top of a large tree was speared into the ground. Rayne looked up at the trees she was using as her sanctuary and wondered if they were stronger than the tree that had plummeted to its death. She was really, really starting to not like thunder storms. Sliding back down, she sat on the large root at the bottom of the tree. There was nothing she could do but wait this out.

Rayne wondered for a moment how she was going to get the water out of the canoe, but decided that wasn’t important right this second. Turning, she looked through the trees towards the lake. Just seeing the water rising up in choppy waves made her more thankful she’d reached the shore when she did. Through the pelting rain, she glanced to where she’d left the canoe, it wasn’t there. Had she run straight into the trees or weaved through them? She stood up and leaned around the tree more, looking along the edge of the lake as far as she could from there. She did not see the canoe. Maybe the wind had blown it away. Wiping the water off her face she squinted through the rain trying to see if the canoe was out in the lake when a something whipped up against her face.

Holding her stinging cheek, she lowered herself back down to sit on the root again. A canoe search and rescue was going to have to wait, she was not giving up this shelter for anything until the storm was gone.

She had no idea how long she’d stayed hidden amongst the trees. It was one of those times that felt like hours but, in reality, could only be a few minutes. Peeking around the tree once more, she noticed the puddles on the ground in the open area between the shore and where she hid, she was pretty sure it was more than a few minutes. Her muscles hurt, she was cold and now that the adrenalin had ebbed, she was scared. All the wrong thoughts were whizzing around in her brain. What if the canoe was gone, how would she get back? Could she even find her way back by going all the way around the lake? What if the storm didn’t end before it got dark? Was she going to last the night here alone? Unless Devin noticed the canoe missing, there wasn’t another soul on earth that would even know she was missing. She didn’t want to turn into one of those horror stories of people lost in wilderness and never found again. She really didn’t.

Rolling her shoulders Rayne tried to relax, but with her shivering and fear wouldn’t allow that to happen. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and tried to warm up. Her feet were throbbing and she finally allowed herself to examine them and see how much damage she’d done by running over the rough ground. Picking up her right foot, she turned it to look at the bottom, it had a few scratches and was dirty, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it. Her left foot, however, wasn’t in great shape. There was a long gash covered with bits of nature and blood. She brushed it off as best as she could, gritting her teeth as she pulled a piece of twig out. If she had to walk back, she was sure it would be the longest walk of her life.

Her bare legs hadn’t faired all that well either. They were covered in scratches that were likely going to attract every mosquito on the planet when the wind and rain stopped. She was going to be an insect smorgasbord. Rayne looked deeper into the trees and scanned the area around her, if the bugs were the only thing she had to worry about, she’d consider herself very lucky.

Unable to distract herself from the noise of the storm any longer, she covered her ears, just wanting a few seconds of silence. How long could a storm like this last? Didn’t they scream themselves out quickly when they were this intense? She had no idea, but was starting to think that she should begin coming up with a plan to get out of here. She couldn’t leave her survival to a man that may not even know she was missing.

She was so cold now, her body started to ache. Uncovering her ears, she leaned around the tree and looked for the canoe again. If she could drag it ashore further she might be able to flip it over and hide under it out of the rain. Of course, that plan would only work if she could find where she had left it, and that she was brave enough to go look. She stood up on stiff legs and stepped away from the comfort of the trees and back into the wind.

Her foot objected to touching the ground, but she ignored it and moved in the direction she thought she’d come from. If she couldn’t move the canoe, she could at least get her shoes and camera. I can’t believe I left my camera. Not that she’d had any time, the only thing she’d been concerned with at that moment was to get off the water.

The closer she got to the water, the stronger the wind was. The rain, although it hurt, didn’t really matter. There was no getting any wetter than she was. Rayne crouched down and held onto a fallen tree to catch her breath and look along the shore. She saw the log that had stopped her being able to pull the canoe all the way in, but she did not see the canoe. It wasn’t there. She looked along the shore for as far as she could see and it wasn’t there. Squinting, she looked out onto the lake and her heart sunk as the blurry image of the canoe spinning about, out in the deep water, registered. She was stranded. Would Devin see it? Would he come looking for her now?

A small branch smacked up against her arm and snapped her back into action. The only choice she had was to go back to find a better spot to wait this out. Her wet hair whipped around and stuck to her face as she stepped carefully away from the shore, so discouraged she didn’t even bother to move it away from her face. Something blew right past her and she straightened to follow it with her eyes. It looked like a piece of plastic. Plastic was waterproof. Rayne held her breath and watched as it snagged in a branch and flapped chaotically in the wind. She looked back at the trees she’d been hiding in, memorizing what they looked like so she could head back and turned to work her way to capture the snapping piece of plastic.

She hissed with each step, the gash on her foot burned now, but she kept going, determined to get that plastic. When she was a few feet from it, it jerkedin the wind like it was trying to free itself. Rayne lunged and grabbed just as the wind jerked it free from the branch. Quickly, she hugged it tight before the wind claimed it again. She had to use both hands as she jogged, well, limped back towards the shelter of the trees.

As she slid back against the large tree, she discovered the plastic wasn’t as large as it had looked, there were a few tears, but it would still cover part of her and give her a short respite from the rain. Carefully, she opened one of the tears further and pulled it over her head. She didn’t know what the bag had been used for, but at this point it didn’t matter. Wiggling it down over her wet shoulders, she was more than happy that it covered her almost to the waist. Even though she was wet and cold, the plastic hugged her and brought a small amount of comfort with it.

Now she just had to wait for the wind to go away. She didn’t care if the rain stopped or not, it was the wind that scared her and prevented her from going anywhere. Had the thunder lessened? She hadn’t even noticed, but hoped she was right and this onslaught was almost over.

She just had to wait.