Always by my Side

I Think I Love Her

"Get away from her!" Sadi rushes up, putting himself between Tyriss and Zell as she gets back to her feet, Sadi can see tears in her eyes as well as a small amount of her wavy raven hair in Tyriss's fist.

"No. I'm having a word with my soon to be wife." He shouts back, tossing the strands of hair to the ground.

"She isn't your wife yet, you know temple law says that no one can marry until twenty, last I checked you're only fifteen." Sadi spits his words with a harsh cutting tone, he sees Tyriss's nose begin to slowly bleed. He hadn't realized he was using his magic. The other, larger male takes a wild swing at Sadi only for him to pull his traditional duck. Only this time as he ducks he hears Tyriss's fist make impact regardless. Time seems to freeze for him as he watches Zell be knocked to the ground again. Her eye already turning a deeper purplish black. In that moment, the normal calm and collected Sadi loses all control as he turns back to Tyriss and unleashes all his rage. Before long adults hear the noise and come to pull the two boys apart. As they drag Sadi back he yells once more at Tyriss.

"You lay a single one of your slimy fingers on her and I'll kill you!" As they take him to a cell in the temple hold. Zell is still on the classroom floor, crying. Tyriss too is taken away, sent to his father for causing an unnecessary fight. After a few moments one of the women take Zell home to her mother. She goes very quiet until finally Sadi is allowed to come back home too. He looks rough, his nose broken and his hair disheveled in every which way.

"Sadi! What happened?" She comes up to him, and with her golden light begins to use a healing spell on his face.

"The guard of the keep let Tyriss come down and beat the crap out of me while I was chained up. They said that a commoner like me had to be punished for talking back to a noble." He holds her hand affectionately and for the first time, he feels something that he's never felt before. He has a strong urge to pull her close and never let her go. He feels for a fleeting moment that he is in love with her.

...

Sadi and Zell took up going on walks as a way to kill time, she loves to just relax and walk in the jungle. Her purple sheen had only grown darker as she moved into her later teens. The pair was now almost adults and the marriage to Tyriss was only looming over her shoudler. Sadi tried to keep her mind away from it, either by helping her with the Kamadan project, or taking her on walks. The jungle was definitely not the safest place to go, but it was quiet. Now that the Kamadan was done Sadi felt a lot safer going into the jungle with her.

"I've decided what I'm doing after training now. You asked me a while back, remember" He says, his voice was lower now, and he had outgrown his awkward lankiness becoming slim yet well built. Zell had heard some of the other young women mentioning that he would make a fine husband. Sadi was of course oblivious to all this as when he turned sixteen he picked up more and more training hours often pulling all nighters to practice with his rapier. It had been a couple years since the last run in with her father or Tyriss for that matter and she was enjoying the quiet time, however with Tyriss nearing twenty her fears would soon be realized. Trying to take her mind away from it she turns back to Sadi,

"What's that?" She asks, Zell too had grown into a beautiful young woman and her choice at only fourteen to pursue crafting and metal working made her very attractive to all the men in the tribe.

"I'm going to be a bounty hunter."

"You're going to leave Chult?" Her face twists into an expression of almost pain, her thinking about not having her best friend around.

"Not leaving, but definitely doing some work elsewhere and then coming back to visit. After the last of school of course." Despite their age of nearly eighteen, both still had a few more classes about religion and such to finish up at the school, though most of class time was spent practicing their chosen paths.

"I'll miss you, you know" She whispers softly, not looking him in the eye. He stops her, taking her face in his hand. He gently rubs her cheek.

"I'll come back to you. I would never leave you here forever... you could come with me" He offers genuinely hoping that she will take it and leave this place with him. But, before she can answer, a group of raptors coming running at them. They take off running, the Kamadan trying to slow the little dinosaurs down. They come to a cliff with a waterfall to their right with the current flowing back toward the village. It's a bluff they had walked along many times, and joked about jumping off. This time however Zell simply yells over.

"We have to jump!" He is quick to heed her words and leaps off, her mere seconds behind him. When they hit the water, he surfaces and begins to look around for her. He manages to catch a glimpse of purple as she slips underwater, struggling to swim. He makes his way to her, and finally drags her lifeless figure to the river bank.

"Zell. Zell!" He pushes on her chest, trying to get her to cough up the water, after what feels like an eternity to him she finally gags up all the water and takes a deep breath.

"Thank you." She manages to choke out, he can't resist pulling her into a tight hug. They walk back to the village together, the Kamadan soon catching up, holding a dead raptor in it's jaws. The beast was essentially a leopard crossed with a gorgon so it made sense that picking off a small pack of raptors was no trouble for it. Although it being robotic made Zell question why it brought one back

"Spit that out" She looks down at her creation. Sure enough it drops the little dinosaur at Zell's feet.

"Maybe it thought you needed one" Sadi chuckles. He takes her hand in his and they begin to head home.