I was the first up with Sally in my arms. The second I got her head up above the surface. She gasped desperately for air and chokes up tons of water. I waited for a second for her to cough up the water. This way she could furthermore catch her breath. Very easily, I turned her body around to face me.
The rest of the guys resurfaced now. I nod to Pete, Justin, and Zig, indicating we were good. They swim back to the same rock where their wives were anxiously waiting for them.
Maria, Abby, and the rest of the women were still on the low jump waterfall rock. With their husbands by them. They too were all scared for Sally. Other groups of men and women were off in different sections watching in the same watering hole. Groups of people were either in the water or swimming near the waterfalls. Others were sitting on the rocky edges with their legs in the water. My men kept a watchful eye on me and the Primaries. Awaiting if any more orders were given.
Sally looked at me not even paying attention to everybody around her staring. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and neck. And then laid her head on my left shoulder above the water from exhaustion. Very carefully, I took Sally to the rock where our stuff is at. Once reaching the rock, I laid her down on it. Her knees were hanging on the rock side. So her legs and feet were still in the water. From behind Nick, Jay, and Aaron followed me. But I didn't pay attention to them, I was genuinely worried about my bride.
Sally just lays on the rock breathing heavily from exhaustion. For the moment, I stayed in the waist-high water by her knees watching her. My cut hand was on the rock beside her bleeding down into the water. But I didn't even care about that. I wanted to be sure Sally was ok before attending to my wounds.
Loud splashing water came up somewhere from behind me. Before I could look who it was JJ came flying passed.
Not playing around, he got on the rock and went to his backpack taking out first aid kits. Seeing that we were all bleeding. JJ starts handing supplies to Nick, Jay, and Aaron.
Aaron looked at his hand and saw he had cut himself to the bone from around his palm.
"What happened?"JJ asked us, shocked. "You were down there a long time."
"It was a big huge guppy-jellyfish," Aaron jokes when digging out bits of coral from his palm.
"Oh, yeah, that was some guppy-jellyfish," joked Jay working on his hand too.
JJ rolled his eyes and got in the water to examine Sally. So I got out letting JJ do his thing. Still, Sally laid there depleted of stamina but he saw blood beading on her stomach.
"Cory, is this your blood or Sally's blood?" JJ asked, making Sally panic and she tried sitting up. But JJ held her down by her shoulders. "Relax Sally and lay back."
"It's my blood on her stomach but her foot is cut," I answered after I dried myself.
Once she calmed down, using the supplies on his left, JJ began cleaning the blood off her stomach with a cloth.
While JJ was taking care of Sally. I scrutinized my right hand and saw it sliced open at the palm. Also, it had some coral rock embedded in it. So I took my knife out and got to work digging out this rock so I could heal my wound.
Nick's gashes were on the side of his one hand and fingers. Jay only had some cuts on his palm. Knowing how to care for our wounds. We each did that ourselves while JJ took care of Sally.
The first thing JJ checked was her breathing by using this phone-size scanner from the first aid kit. A green light beamed on her chest three times.
"Looks like your airway is good," informed JJ. "She came up still conscious. Did you guys pass her any air?"
I shook my head while I was healing my wound with glue. "No, she was able to hold her breath for that amount of time," I said.
Normally I'd use a healing pen. But it wouldn't be wise to inject myself with adrenaline during the moon phase. That will spike my arousal too high and I may lose control of myself at the moon's peak.
"Surprisingly, we broke her free just when she would have needed us to pass her air," Jay added, baffled by it.
"Free from what?"JJ asked, perplexed. "You guys aren't explaining much here."
"Her foot somehow got caught on some coral rock," I told. "Sally, you would need to explain how that happened."
Sally just lay there starting to smile for the moment. "I think that may be a little weird to explain," she finally said.
"Oh, after that one, please do explain." Nick laughed saying, "I am all ears on this one."
Most of us chuckle except for JJ. He was puzzled and wasn't amused by the jokes. When it comes to juries JJ is quite serious, and he was genuinely concerned for Sally.
"How were you able to hold your breath so long?" JJ asked in a serious tone. "You were down there longer than anyone."
Sally took in a breath and then said staring at the clear blue-purple tint sky. "Sometimes my masters would throw my face into the water for punishment. They'd pull my head out just before I'd pass out. After a while, I learned to hold my breath for a longer period. They called me a freak and told me no female was ever known to do that."
My friends nodded when she shared this with us. Meanwhile, I was fumed and irritated with how poorly she had been treated. I had to pull myself together. My friends noticed I was getting very mad from hearing this information.
"Alright, Sally, let me take a look at that foot," said JJ in the gentlest tone.
Sally didn't say anything and sat up and then lifted her foot out of the water. She was shocked to see deep puncture wounds all around it. On top of that, it was still bleeding.
JJ got his supplies ready, he first dug out a few pieces of rock which caused her to screech in pain. So I went over to her and had her lean her back up against my torso. I held her hand and she squeezed it tightly. Once that step was done, JJ used some glue to heal her foot. She squirmed in my arms and dug her fingernails into my wrists. Her breath pants out heavily in excruciating pain.
"How do you guys even do this without feeling any ounce of pain!" Sally cried out in agony.
Most of us chuckled at her and JJ looked at her with a smile saying, "you're doing good and it's almost done."
After kissing the side of her head, I explained. "It still hurts but we hardly notice it. We all have a high pain tolerance."
JJ finished with her foot, he said. "Alright, Sally take a seat for a second and just chill out."