Pure Blood

When Fye and Holidee fi nally reached the beach behind the house,Holidee jumped out of the salt water and ran to the shore. She only pausedan instant to look back at Fye with a look of gratitude. She ran as fast as shecould in her heavy jeans. She wrapped the baby sea otter in her wet camiso that its fur wouldn’t dry out in the humid air. She struggled, tripped,and fell going up the wooden stairs because her legs were so tired. Shereached the grass and started to call Crix’s name. She stumbled only oncein the grass but caught herself from falling.Crix heard her cries immediately and sprinted out of the houseworried that Holidee was hurt. He slowed down a little when he saw herdrop to the ground. Then he sped up again, his heart beating faster.'Holidee,' he called out of breath. Crix slid to a stop beside her. Thegrass was wet. Why was the grass wet? Then he noticed Holidee was soakedand only half dressed. Fear built up in him. He knelt down beside her andput his hand on her bare shoulder. She was freezing. Oh god, no.'Holidee,' he said softly, trying to calm himself down, 'Holidee, whatis it? What’s wrong?' He was about to say more, but Holidee lifted herhead and looked sadly at him. Crix couldn’t tell her tears from the waterdripping from her hair. Her face was pale.'I . . . I . . .' Holidee began. Then she looked back down. Crix noticedthat she was looking at something. 'I tried. I did. I . . .' her voice trailedoff. She shifted a little, and Crix saw she was holding a baby sea otter.The little creature wasn’t breathing. Crix looked back at Holidee who wassilent. C’mon. Cry! he thought. Please! She didn’t cry. Oh god. He racked hismind on what to do, but he couldn’t remember. He touched her whiteskin again. She was getting colder.'Holidee, we can save it. We can.' Holidee didn’t move or speak. Herbreathing slowed down. 'You have to believe! Believe, Holidee! We cansave it.' She started to shake slowly. Oh god. Crix didn’t know what to doat fi rst. He knew what could happen, but he had no choice. 'Holidee,set the otter down.' He guided her hands to the ground, and she slowlyreleased the mammal from her fi ngers. 'Good. Now, give me your hands.'Crix took her hands, which felt like ice. Holidee seemed to be in a daze.Crix closed his eyes and then opened them after several minutes. Nothinghappened. Please, no! He looked at Holidee and took one of her hands.He put her hand on the dead baby sea otter. He set his hand on top ofhers. Then he took his other arm and wrapped it around Holidee. Hepulled her close to him. Her skin gave him chills, and his shirt soaked upthe water droplets. He squeezed her tightly and closed his eyes. C’mon!Please! Then he felt her arm go around him. He felt her getting warmer.He kept his eyes closed and concentrated. He was getting colder. Hestarted to shiver, but he didn’t let go of Holidee or the otter. Holidee gotPURE BLOOD 41warm. Crix couldn’t concentrate any longer. He opened his eyes, shiveringmore rapidly and uncontrollably. His vision went blurry, and he lost anyfocus he had. He felt the sea otter’s chest go up and then down. It wasbreathing. Crix’s eyelids were half open. He couldn’t see. He couldn’tmove. He felt so cold. So very cold.Holidee felt life pour back into the sea otter. She felt warm and happy.Everything was good. Then she felt Crix shivering as he held her. Hisgrip was getting loose. He started to shake uncontrollably. He felt cold.Freezing, in fact. Holidee narrowed her eyebrows in confusion. What’sgoing on? Then before she could do anything, Crix fell to the ground,still shivering.'Crix!' She ran to his side. He was as white as paste. His eyes were closed.His lips were turning purple. His arms were wrapped around himself as iftrying to keep himself warm. Holidee was worried. She had no clue as towhat was going on or what was wrong with him. Then, all of a sudden, Crixstopped shivering. He stopped moving. No! 'Crix!' She sh