"Alec!" He half screamed, half chocked. "Alec!" But he couldn't keep his head up forever, and his tired body slid under once more. He didn't know how long her was under, and things were going black and blurry when a strong hand grabbed the back of his jacket, and pulled him upward.
Scooting on his stomach along the thicker ice, Jeffery Taylor managed to pull his oldest son to the safty of the shore before picking him up and cradling him in his arms.
"Tristan! Tristan, look at me! Come on, open your eyes!" Struggling against the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him, he did as told. A blurry form of a man with blue eyes and wild blond hair met his gaze.
"Daddy?" He coughed.
"Tristan! Tristan you're alive! Thank the stars."
"Alec!" Tristan tried to wiggle out of his father's arms, but it was useless in his current condition. "I need to find Alec! Daddy, where's Alec?!" Jeffery Taylor looked out acrosss the river, and saw his youngest son a ways down stream. He was laying, half caught in the ice, completly limp and pale. The only thing moving was his hair in the frozen January wind. The man turned his face away, choosing to focus on the need of the one son he had left at that moment, and to grieve later.
"Come on, Tristan. Lets go." As his father began to walk away, Tristan struggled to get away.
"No! No! Alec! Alec!" As the panic striken cries of his older brother died away, the limp form of the seven-year-old was pulled under once more, and slipped away into the eternal darkness of the river.