Stavanger Bay her early leaf's a flower

It goes on a few more times. The up and down, inhaling water, limbs flailing. One second she can see—if she's lucky—but mostly she's blind to her surroundings. On one particular buoy, she sees a glimpse of Appeh but his words are long drowned out by the water rushing around her. She quickly becomes tired with each attempted stroke and she doesn't know where to go from here.

The word swim becomes apparent in the back of her mind, but lost in the mix, she doesn't know what she's doing wrong. Qilaq tries to fight against the panic with even more furious swings of her legs but it only causes her to drop into the water again, this time for several seconds longer than before.

She doesn't know how, or when, but it is with a big wave outstretching across the shore that rolls her upon wet sand. Enough of her weight goes forward, albeit limp, onto the beach to prevent her from being dragged back more than a foot or two. Her breathing is ragged and spittle pools at her nose, disappearing into the retreating water while she dare not move, too afraid the water might come back and wash her away into its depths once more.