Zeyuki: Destined

~Chapter 19~

★~(◡﹏◕✿)★~(◡﹏◕✿)★~(◡﹏◕✿)

"Okay, shoulders back, chin up, deep breath in, deep breath out," I repeated to myself. Slowly and anxiously bringing my hand to the door that belonged to Zen's office, I was about to knock when I heard stifled laughter. Immediately, I retracted my hand and glared towards the laughter, "Obi!" He laughed even harder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just that Master's not even in his office," I opened my mouth in shock at Obi's laughter.

Turning my back to him, I began to pout. Where would Zen be at this time?  I felt a hand land on my head and I looked at Obi patting my head, "Sorry?" I asked him where Zen was only for him to respond, "I dunno," If Zen's not in his office, does that mean he's with Prince Izana? "Oh! Figure something out?" Obi grinned, I nodded and smiled back, "Mhm! He's with Prince Izana!" As if were natural, Obi took my hand and proceeded to leap out the window into a tree.

The branch felt extra thin causing me to cling to Obi before I fell over, "Haven't done this in a while have you?" He chuckled, "Just need to get used to it again," I sighed, holding onto Obi's shoulder for support and straightening myself up. Gradually, I took my hand off of him and he immediately jumped to the next tree, "Obi?!" I gasped, almost toppling over again. "Jump to me, I'll you if you fall," He said with his hand stretched out to me.

I clung to the trunk of the tree and looked down, then to Obi. The size of this gap is terrifying. I took a deep breath and removed myself from the bark of the tree. You can trust Obi, he's saved you many times before. As I exhaled, I threw myself towards Obi. The breeze stringing through my hair, I felt like I was flying. One foot touched the branch, then the other so I thought I was safe but I leaned a little and fell backwards.

Letting out a short gasp, I reached upwards to Obi who grabbed my hand and pulled me back up, "I feel like I'm teaching you to travel again," He smiled. Once I regained my balance, I jumped to the next one without warning as though it was natural, landing with a smaller stumble. "I can still do it!" I grinned, my arms out to the side to keep my balance. Obi leaped over with ease, he had his hands on the back of his head and leaned over with a smirk.

"What do you say we have a race?" He said, I blinked at him. "A race?" I repeated. "Yeah, from here to Prince Izana's office, what d'ya say?" Well... I'm not going to step down from a challenge. "Mhm! Let's go!" I grinned, preparing to jump to the next tree. "3... 2...." I took a deep breath in as I lowered my stance getting ready to push off the branch, instead of hearing a '1', I heard a whistle on which my legs instinctively moved.

I didn't need to worry about landing, I just needed to moved forward as fast as I could, once I landed on a single branch, I should jump to the next one immediately. No hesitations. I felt the rush of adrenaline whiz through my veins and the wind brushing through my hair with each jump, I felt free like I was before discovering Zen. Not that I'm not free now but back then there were no limits to what I was allowed to do. 

I took one last jump and clung to the tree for balance. "I... won..." I panted, looking around seeing no signs of Obi. "Did you now?" I turned to face forward and saw Obi hanging in front of me upside down, with a small scream, I toppled backwards only for him to catch me whilst laughing. When he looked towards Izana's office, he stopped laughing and pulled me up, putting a finger by his lips telling me to be quiet.

Looking into the room, I could clearly see Zen was getting fired up whilst Izana was calmly responding. Though I couldn't hear them, it was clear to see they were having an argument. "Brother! You can't be serious!" I heard Zen shout, guessing Izana was responding, I tried to lean closer to hear him but I fell forward out of the tree. Obi jumped down after me, he made it so when we landed on the ground, I landed on top of him.

I immediately got up and asked in a panicked voice whether he was okay but he replied with a groan and a small smile, "All good," He began to slowly sit up, clearly wincing so I wrapped an arm around my shoulder and helped him to his feet, I can't call Gazelt, she's gone to Tanbarun along with Ryu to help the herbalists there improve their skills. So he's left with me for now. "Right, I know what to do," I muttered to myself.

Obi moaned in response and walked beside me to the room I was leading him to. The guards looked at us strangely as we walked through the halls but I tried to ignore it and focus on carrying Obi to my room. When we reached it, I sat him down and helped him to remove his shirt. I wasn't as flustered as I should be since we've been together for multiple years so I've seen him shirtless before and his injury was far more important.

There weren't any visible injuries so I assume he knocked his back really hard. I reached to my desk to get and ointment for him and placed it next to me. I looked back at him and sighed, "You shouldn't harm yourself for me," With a small smile, I added, "But thank you," I went to take the lid off the ointment when Obi responded with, "It's my job to take care of you," I gasped and saw he had a small smile on his face.

"I'm okay! Promise!" I began to reach towards him but he grabbed my hand to stop me and smiled at me, "You shouldn't be worrying about me, I'm perfectly fine," His smile seemed genuinely happy so I couldn't help but smile back, "If you say so..." I looked out the window and saw the sun was beginning to set and I began to get upset. "What's wrong?" Obi asked, I put my hands together on my lap and clutched onto my dress, "I didn't get to see Zen today," Obi grinned and began to get dressed again, with a small smile, he turned back and looked at me, saying,

"Who says you can't confess now?"