Morning on the beach was Nefir’s favorite. There were no crowds, no noise besides the wind and the surf, and she could ride for miles up and down the sandy shores watching the sun rise. Her horse this morning was Starfish. She usually rode him on her morning rides because he seemed to enjoy it as much as she did. He didn’t even balk when she led him into the surf, up to his belly, while waves crashed around them.

They waited there for a few minutes as the tide began to recede.

“Come on,” she urged Starfish to turn around and leave the water but he resisted her, even going so far as to take a few more steps forward until the water was lapping at Nefir’s knees. “Whoa, that’s far enough.”

She knew if they went out too far the waves would begin breaking over Starfish’s head and he might spook. Besides, the saltwater wouldn’t be good for the saddle. Starfish finally allowed her to pull the reins back enough to turn his head and he began to turn back towards shore. As he turned, with his body running parallel to the incoming waves, the current of the outgoing tide pulled on Starfish and Nefir felt Starfish sliding with the pull of the tide.

“Come on, come on,” she urged as they slid a bit further.

A moment later and Nefir’s saddle slid beneath the water and Starfish had to angle his head up to keep it above water. He moved his legs but the ground had dropped out from beneath him and he was swimming now with Nefir weighing him down.

“UP!” Nefir called out, still pulling on the reins to turn Starfish back to shore.

He twisted and kicked but the shore was growing ever more distant as Nefir watched. Without thinking, as the next wave arrived Nefir leapt from her saddle and swam with all her might, trying to body surf the wave.

“Come on Starfish,” she called over her shoulder, hoping that without her added weight he’d be able to follow.

A mad whinny was the reply. She couldn’t risk turning back as the wave she was riding pulled ahead of her and she began to be drawn back out to sea once more and without something to push off of she doubted in her ability to catch another wave. Nefir was never the best swimmer but she wasn’t going to let that stop her now from trying her hardest to get back to shore. Her arms and legs were already burning from the effort, however, and she was at best just maintaining her distance to the shore.

“Come on Starfish,” she called again.

She could at least still hear him as he tread water somewhere behind her.

“Come on.”

She’d only been swimming a short while, less than a minute, and yet it felt like much longer. A part of her knew she was beginning to panic but she couldn’t quite keep herself calm as the very real danger she was in settled over her.

As though on cue, her mother’s warning that morning came back to her to “stay out of the surf”.

The shore wasn’t even that far away from her and yet it was all she could do just to maintain her position. No, as she looked back to shore she realized she wasn’t even doing that anymore. The beach was shrinking as the tide pulled her out to sea.

Her feet bumped against something solid and Starfish whinnied at her. Looking back she saw her feet were bumping up against Starfish’s head.

“Sorry,” she said as she drew even with the horse and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Together they swam, still trying to get back to shore even as it fell farther and farther away.

“We’ll find a boat,” Nefir said as she finally gave up on trying to swim back to shore. “We’ve got to be pretty easy to spot so any boats around here will see us.”

There was almost always someone out in a boat, even in the early morning but as she scanned the open water she couldn’t see any boats.

“There’s the marina around that peninsula,” she said more to herself than to Starfish. It helped to hear herself talking and kept her from panicking even worse.

The spit of land she was referring to was perhaps a mile south of where she was but she could swim a mile. Even just getting closer to the marina would likely be enough for her to find a boat that could get her and Starfish back to shore.

“Come on Starfish,” she said and began swimming south.

Starfish followed her, swimming almost as fast as Nefir. She slowed down a little so they would stay together. The current was still pulling them farther out to sea but now that they weren’t trying to swim against the current they were making decent progress towards the marina. Telling exact distances was difficult from her low vantage point but Nefir figured they would need to keep swimming for another ten or so minutes before they would be able to see the marina. That wasn’t so bad. This pace wasn’t too hard.

Starfish whinnied again and huffed at the exertion of swimming.

“I know, boy, but we gotta get to a boat or something.”

She kept swimming for a bit before she realized Starfish wasn’t beside her anymore. She turned back and saw him just floating in the water, no longer moving ahead.

“Come on, Starfish,” she said as she swam back to him.

It took a moment to fish the reins out of the water but once she had them in her hands she resumed her swimming, pulling on the reins as she went. It made no difference, however, and Starfish refused to swim any farther. By the time Nefir turned back again, Starfish had sunk a few more inches lower in the water.

“You gotta swim!” she cried out in real terror. “Come on!”

A final whinny was his only reply as he slipped beneath the waves. Nefir wanted to stay holding onto the reins but she knew that would only pull her down with Starfish. All she could do was watch as the dark shadow of her horse shrank as he fell deeper and deeper into the sea. The very real danger of her situation finally hit her and she began swimming with all her might towards the marina. The loss of Starfish was devastating but what else could she do? If she didn’t make it to the marina and get the attention of someone there, she’d go the same way as Starfish.

When she’d started swimming for the marina, the point of the peninsula had still been further out to sea than she was, but now she was drawing level with it. That was both good and bad, she figured. Good, in that she could see into the marina sooner and already could see some of the sails. It was bad, though, because it meant she was that much farther out to sea. By the time she could cover the distance to the marina, would she be close enough to get anyone’s attention?

“No time to worry about that,” she told herself and just focused on swimming.

It was a waste of energy to keep her head up so she only allowed herself to look up and make sure she was on the right path every now and then. It wasn’t all that hard to stay going in the right direction since all she had to do was swim perpendicular to the waves. Fortunately, this far out from shore the waves were small and didn’t break over her or drag her down.

Each time she looked up, the marina was more and more to her left. She could see a few people on the docks but there was no way they’d hear her even if she screamed. She needed a boat to be closer to her but everyone was taking their time this morning, waiting, not sailing out of the marina like they usually would.

Finally, it clicked for her. This was a riptide. The boaters were waiting for it to pass before sailing out which meant no one would be out her to rescue her.

“HEY!” she screamed, waving her arms in the vain hope that someone would see her.

She already knew they couldn’t hear her from this distance but that didn’t stop her from trying now that she knew there would be no boats out here for her to get a ride back on.

Only now that she’d stopped swimming did she feel the fatigue in her arms and legs. The adrenaline from her panic was making her shake. Her breathing started coming in short gasps and her vision began to narrow.

“No,” she gulped, trying to breathe more deeply but only getting a mouthful of water.

Her body spasmed in shock as water closed in around her head, propelling her back up and she spluttered while trying to resume swimming. There was little use in swimming with no boats out here but it was all she could think of doing. She swam towards shore, if only to slow her rate of being swept out to sea. If she could outlast the riptide, then she could swim to the marina or be picked up by one of the outcoming boats.

Part of her knew this was futile. The marina was shrinking in her view even with her swimming towards it as fast and as hard as she was able. Her muscles ached and her vision was still cloudy but she didn’t let herself stop. She forced herself to breathe and keep swimming. That was all she needed to stay alive.

Breathe and swim.

Breathe and swim.

Breathe.

Swim.

How long she managed to keep going she couldn’t tell. She just put her head down and focused. When she looked up, finally, unable to swim any more and deciding that she’d rest for a bit before resuming her swim, she couldn’t see the marina anymore. The entire coastline was gone and all she could see in every direction was water.

Floating on her back was a welcome relief for her exhausted arms and legs. Her lungs burned from the exertion and she found her thoughts wandering back to her morning ride. Her mom’s warning, that fateful moment when Starfish ignored her and stepped farther into the surf rather than back out of it.

The sun was uncomfortably hot on her exposed skin and she knew she was getting sunburned. She laughed at how insignificant that was for her right now. What did it matter if she got a little sunburned? With a bit of clarity she realized the sun was high in the sky which meant she must have been swimming for hours. She was certainly late getting back home so perhaps they knew she’d been caught in the riptide. Perhaps the search was already underway. It didn’t matter. She was too tired. So tired that even floating on her back was too much effort. She fought the entire time, never giving up, but at some point her body stopped listening to her and her arms and legs couldn’t tread the water fast enough to keep her head above water.

As she dipped below the surface, coughing and still struggling, she thought of the dark shadow that had been Starfish as she watched him drown and realized she was joining him, darkening the sea in this tiny spot for a few moments before no further sign of her could be seen.