"Don't frighten me like that again meimei," she said fiercely. "You and your bloody animals. I told you not to select that pretty black mare with the white star. Didn't I say she looked small and weak?"
Indy looked sadly out to the bar where the pretty mare's head could still be seen bobbing along in the fast-flowing water.
"I hope she'll be okay," she said anxiously.
"She's a horse. She'll hop out somewhere. Worry about yourself," said her sister.
Delphi shouted above the roar to Feifei, "hold onto the rope and we'll pull you both across."
Feifei nodded and gave Delphi a thumbs up.
They moved further up the sandbar, so they had some distance to travel towards the sea before the sandbank ran out.
Feifei tied the rope around her horse's neck and didn't waste any time urging the creature into the channel crossing. It tried to resist, after watching what had happened to Ruby's mount, but Feifei wouldn't have a bar of its dissension, and she kicked it firmly ahead.
The current was getting swifter, and even though she had a large horse, the pair were immediately swept away with the flow that was strongly sucking out to the ocean.
All seven girls were on the other end of the rope, and they had anchored it around Indy's horse, which was the largest in the group. The horse staggered, but held firm, taking the full weight of the girl, her horse and the current that had them in its grip.
The seven girls gradually pulled the rope in with cries of, "heave… heave… heave".
Hands' length by hands' length they pulled Feifei and her horse across the channel until finally she reached the calmer eddies close to shore, and her horse managed to find its feet and clamber out.
Everyone collapsed on their backs, panting, blisters already forming on their palms from the rope burn.
Feifei remained mounted, her belongings still dry, looking for all the world like some invincible Japanese warrior princess.
"Feif, you're a legend," called Ruby.
"Yes, yes, you're both legends," said their captain shortly. "But let's stop congratulating each other," she had the binoculars raised to her eyes. "The guards are on the other side, on horseback, and they're watching us…"
As she focused in on the guards, she saw Commander Meyer, who had his binoculars trained on them, give her a friendly wave.
The men had wasted no time capturing a brumby each, and the commander hadn't given them a moment to break the ponies in; rather, they were just clinging onto their backs and 'breaking them in' as they forced them to follow the girls' trail.
The commander knew that there was no scenario where they could afford to lose the girls' tracks, or let them get too far into this unknown territory alone.
He surveyed the huge bridge, using his binoculars to check out the damage.
"Cormac, Magnus, Bo, make us some blinkers for the horses. We're crossing that bridge. We'll need to keep them focussed on the road not the drop."
"Sir!" acknowledged Bo.
The three men started to work on makeshift hoods for the brumbies.
Niko approached his commander who stood alone, contemplating the bridge. "What happened at the lake, Sir?"
The commander put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. "A bloody disaster, that's what. I had Miss Chastain in my sights while she was fetching water in the lake."
He politely neglected to describe what she was wearing, which was well, nothing…
"I intended to capture her when she was back on dry land, but when she was ankle deep, a tubiàn crocodile launched itself at her from behind. I barely managed to save her life. I grabbed her and stabbed the croc through the underside of its jaw. She tried to run, and I fell on top of her in the sand."
Niko's eyebrows raised.
"Don't say anything!" growled Alton. "The sand was soft, it was unstable; she's stronger than she looks… In any event, I fell on her."
"Fell or feel, Sir," Niko ribbed his commander.
Alton glared at him, and Niko shut up, "continue, Sir."
"I'll admit I completely underestimated her after I'd disarmed her. I threw her dagger out of reach, and I thought she was defenceless; she was lying there placidly. Anyway, the next thing I knew, she head-butted me in the face," he fingered his fat lip, "and shoved her knee into my rocks".
Niko groaned in sympathised pain. "She didn't? I told you she was a piece of work, didn't I?"
"You did. And you were right; she's something alright. As you can imagine, I was incapacitated for a few minutes while she ran off."
That seemed to have gone well, Alton reflected. No holes in his story.
He didn't want to give away any of the details about Delphi's state of undress, or their kiss.
The memories already felt special to him, a private moment, just between the two of them. A fated second meeting.
In a secret corner of his heart that he was trying very hard to stomp on, he imagined laughing with her about the first two times they met; in this pretty daydream, they were growing old together...
Cormac arrived with hoods for their brumbies, bringing an end to Commander Meyer's conversation with his 2IC.
He would work on the longer-term plan as they went.
Right now, they had the potential to gain some ground on the young women, who had crossed the estuary the hard way.