Chapter 5: Zanarkand Abes vs. Bevelle Jowiles
It had been a few months and it came time for the championship game between the two reigning blitz teams. The Abes came a long way and Bevelle was our next and final target for the season. This game wasn't going to be easy as the team from Bevelle had to beat the Aurochs to get here. Now, even though our game with the Aurochs wasn't very spectacular, I knew that they were a really tough team to conquer. That game we played against them in the pre-season was just an off day for them. Last season, the championship game was us against them and we nearly lost had it not been for one miscalculation on their part that allowed one of the guys to score just one more goal than they did on us.
So far, our team defeated the Al Bhed Psyches, Ronso Fangs, and Luca Goers in order to finally get here. Bevelle had to beat the Kilika Beasts, Guado Glories, and, of course, the Besaid Aurochs. The Al Bhed team was not really anything special and so that can't really compare to Bevelle. The Ronso were a lot of tough guys, but they weren't as swift upstairs. You could easily spot their strategy. The Luca Goers was something to gloat about when we beat them. All jokes aside, those Goers had the potential to rival teams as strong as the Guado Glories. Then again, those Guado were sneaky people and they showed it in their blitz games. How the Jowiles beat them so easily in their last game was something that impressed me.
Getting on to current standings, the reigning record has been held at a tie between the Aurochs, Jowiles, and our very own Abes for having thirty victories each. The Goers were next in line with a record of twenty-five. The Abes were actually racking up straight victories as of these past few seasons. Every team across Spira wanted us defeated. Unfortunately for them, my father had won every game he played except his first two and I continued the straights for the five years I'd been around since his death. If we beat Bevelle, we'd be the all time best team with a straight record of fifteen victories and an overall record of thirty-one. This was a game we had to win. It would make the Abes the undisputable champions of blitz for all time.
Of course, Lenne was sitting amongst the crowd. She wouldn't miss this game for anything. This time, we were in Bevelle's stadium so she didn't need to worry about over-excited fans. They were all in Zanarkand... Well, some were here, too. Those would be the super fans. They would bravely cheer for us while the citizens of this city shunned and threw things at them. I admired their courage.
Ok. Can't think about these things, now. I got a game to win. Then, it hit me. 'Championship game with the world record at stake.' This was going to be a tremendous challenge. Ho boy. I was shaking. I was actually shaking. What was so I nervous about? I'm Tidus, dammit. Well, that thought didn't really help. "Hey! C'mon buddy. Let's get out there and win us a blitz game!" One of the guys shouted with a pat to my back, trying to give me confidence. "Yea... Let's get out there!" I got up and headed out with the team this time. We were going to come out first, since we were in the rival's stadium. They wouldn't announce our names like back home.
When we were all out of the back, it was time for our signature game starting tradition. "So, what's our goal?" I asked the Abes, yet again. "VICTORY!" Only the guys on the team and those super fans shouted this time. Of course that was to be expected. We weren't in a stadium of Abes fans anymore. We were in a stadium filled to the brim with Jowiles fans. I took my seat along the side of the Sphere Pool and waited for it to fill with water. This was it. Time to claim the title of best team of blitz.
The game started and I had to start us off. A game started basically with two players in the center and the ball would be thrown upward. I had to get the ball before that other guy so that we might have an early advantage. The ball was shot up through the water. I swam up and so did my opponent. I reached for the ball and... NO. He batted it away from my hand right as my fingers felt its surface. At that point, my job was to keep them from scoring on us. I quickly swam towards the guy with the ball. He tried to lose me, but it's unfortunate for him that I'm no ordinary player. I maneuvered around his attempts to get away from me and tackled him out of the pool, grabbing the ball just before. Time to show these guys what blitz was all about. I swam at the speed of a torpedo straight for the goal. The goalie looked at me like I was a real torpedo, ready to blow him to kingdom come. I let go of the ball near my legs and spun side-ways, kicking the sucker as I came around. The scene I witnessed just after I kicked the ball was hilarious. That goalie, shocked initially by my speed in the water, became petrified as the ball flew from my foot towards him. He didn't even try to move as it hit the triangular field behind him. I scored that easily. I thought this team would be a challenge.
It was the opposition's turn to have the ball. I watched as their star player made a few hand motions to his team, signaling for some sort of formation they would use against us. I moved in front of the guy and he tried to get past me to keep up his strategy. I didn't know yet what that strategy was so I figured that I'd just keep him occupied while my team tried to stop them from scoring. After a while, I started to see what was going on. This player that I was blocking was a decoy. They wanted me to stay with him. The strategy was to keep me a distance away so that the real star player, who looked almost identical to the one I was guarding, could maneuver past my team and secure a goal. I was not going to let that happen. I quickly swam away from the decoy and found an opening to get at the true target. Just as I was about to get to him though, one of their team knocked a rookie, the same one who had tried my special move, into me. It threw off my coordination just enough so that when I got to the star, he just had to push off of me, and spike the ball into our goal. What happened was that originally, he was going straight for the goal and our goalie was ready for it. However, by kicking off of me, he changed his position to diagonally above the goal and got it in before our goalie could respond. I caused the score to become a tie.
The game went on with both teams scoring when it had the ball. The first half passed with the score at a tie; 6-6. Bevelle had been watching us. I guess they knew we were the team to beat and tried to key in on our weaknesses. They knew I'd go after the best players of any team so that the rest of the Abes could easily pick apart the rest of the opposition. They knew that the other guys liked to have more coverage towards the goal and less further from it so that it was more difficult to get a score from close up. I had to think of something. It was now getting towards the end of the game and I didn't want to play in overtime, since it looked like we'd end the second half with a tie. Lenne was sitting up there in the crowd. I couldn't disappoint her. A tie meant that our two teams were equals and I for one wanted everyone to know that the Abes are second to none. It would give Lenne something to remember.
My mind back to the game, I saw that it was our turn with the ball and my closest friend, Rothel, just scored. The score was 12-11. I had to make sure that Bevelle didn't score the next goal. I was going to make the final score be a 13-11. I had to so that we'd win and that would be that.
The Jowiles tried to get me distracted again, with the clock down to a minute and a half. Too bad, at this point, I knew who really was their star and I wasn't going to let myself be fooled more than once. I chased after him and I saw him ball up a fist. He was obviously worried that I was going to ruin his plan of attack. I swam up next to him and ducked, moving right underneath his form. "I'll take that!" I confidently said as I reached upwards to grab the ball from his hands. "I can't let that happen!" He fumed and kicked me in the back as I went to grasp the ball. That wasn't good. They probably knew I had a slight back problem from last season that hadn't yet vanished. The star Auroch knocked me out of the pool last season, when I was... err, um... trying to... ugh. Okay, I was flirting with these girls. ANYWAY, getting back to the game at hand...
I winced at the pain in my spine, while trying to look for him. I found him and saw what he was up to. He placed the ball over him and head-butted it out of the Sphere Pool, him right under it. He spun around. The Jecht Shot! He was going to use my move against me. The shot was unblockable! He was going to tie the score and we'd go into overtime! That's not how I wanted to end the game! I couldn't let that happen! But, to stop him, I had to deflect my own invincible shot! He kicked it hard and it flew towards the goal. Our goalie just moved aside, knowing it would be useless to try and defend against it. I swam towards the ball's trajectory and stopped just in front of it, with my back facing it. Everyone I could see was in shock. What could I have possible been thinking?
This was it. I spun my left leg around and the ball smacked into it hard. I winced, my eyes shutting tightly. I wouldn't care to go through that again. Time seemed to freeze after that stunt. The ball was floating in front of me as my injured leg passed it by. I had one chance. I kicked it again with my right leg. The ball flew from my right leg, forward. Everything besides the ball and myself was frozen solid. I watched in complete disbelief as that blitz ball slowly streamed across the Sphere Pool and hit the goal on the other side. I had done it. I countered the Jecht Shot. I won the game. The buzzer sounded and the second five-minute period was over. The final score was 13-11. Victory was ours. The Zanarkand Abes were the champions of the world. Victory...
"VICTORY!!!" All of the Abes yelled in sync as we headed back to the locker room. I was still in shock over how I ended that game. The guy had used my shot perfectly and I... I... "I rock!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as my friends lifted me onto their shoulders and drunkenly cried out, "Tidus! Tidus!" They put me down and some guys from behind dumped a big barrel of B.T. PowerThirst on top of me. We had every reason to party and go crazy. We had won the season. Our score beat the Aurochs of Besaid and the Jowiles of Bevelle.
An hour or so later, I left the locker room and the team. They all looked back at me with a little disappointment since I was leaving them to party by themselves. I was sorry for doing it, but I had other plans. I had a girl waiting for me back at the arena, who I was in love with. After an hour, everyone would have cleared out so she and I would be by ourselves. "Lenne." I said softly, looking at her sitting quietly, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. She breathed deeply, sighed and looked up at me. "You are incredible." She looked into my eyes. I smiled and took her hand. "You told me that that Jecht Shot was untouchable. You told me that even you couldn't block it, but... you just did." She looked back over to where the Sphere Pool had been. It was put away to be used again next season. I put my hand on her cheek and moved her face so I could look into her eyes again. "I did it for you. You inspired me to block it. I wouldn't have thought to do it until I met you. You were sitting there, in the crowd, watching me. I couldn't disappoint you." I said, completely lost in those hazel pearls. I did do it for her. Yes, I wanted to win. However, I wanted to win that badly because of her. I could have easily let the game go into overtime and scored then, but I wanted to give her a real show. Beating my own shot definitely counts. Her eyes shifted downward, at my leg. "But you didn't hurt yourself, did you? She noticed my pained expression back in the game; right after my leg slowed the ball. "I'm perfectly fine." She touched my leg and I cringed from the horrible jolt. "No you aren't. Let's get you home and I'll have a look at that injury." She said softly, but sternly.
We walked slowly towards a hover-glide station, Lenne's hand on my chest, trying to support me. I limped a lot. I guess I didn't even realize to what extent the damage that blitzball did on my leg was. Suddenly, I was in the midst of a crowd. We both forgot that I just won an incredible championship game in the most tremendously outrageous way. "So Tidus, how did you do it?" A reporter asked. "What was going through your head when Areth performed your father's shot?" Another reporter inquired. "Does this mean that the Super Shot really isn't all that invincible?" A third one questioned, not knowing the name of my move. "Ah, look. I'm kinda..." I tried to dodge them, but was bombarded with microphones. The questions were endless and annoying. I looked all around me and saw a sea of these leeches from every which way. Then, I noticed a little further on, a few menacing looks from, if I had to take a guess, Areth and his Jowiles. I didn't like that look. I really didn't like the look Areth gave me next. He smirked like something was going to happen and I was going to be too late to find out.
The reporters redirected my attention back to them with their incessant noise. "Ok, ok! The Jecht Shot might not be unblockable. I don't know. I just know that I blocked it for Lenne." I shouted. "Who's Lenne?" Some of them asked. At first, I was taken aback a little. However, I realized a moment later that this was Bevelle. They didn't know Lenne. She was nobody to them. Heck, I wasn't anyone to them. I just did something really cool and they wanted to know why. After they were done with me, I'm sure they'd just make a half-minute report, a short paragraph-long article, and they'd be back to talking about next season and how the Jowiles would stomp on the Abes then. "This is Lenne." I looked at the love of my life, cowering before the reporters while still trying to keep me on my feet. "So anyway, what was going through you're mind when Areth used your shot?" They switched their attention back to me. "What was I thinking? I was thinking, 'Holy crap!' The guy was gonna tie the score. I just thought about stopping him. I couldn't let him tie the game. I have a reputation to uphold." I said. The reporters took a few notes, asked me a few bits of my history, and wrapped it up. It was over.
Lenne and I boarded the hover-glide that was headed out for Zanarkand. I yawned and put my head back when we sat down. Lenne was probably tired. She put her head down on my chest and put her arms around my waist before falling asleep. I looked at her. I was one lucky guy. Not only did I have such a great victory in the record books, a big house, and lots of gil to spend on anything I wanted, but I also had her. I had someone to give my life a purpose. That purpose was to protect her. It was to keep her safe, keep her happy, and give her my all. The guys on the Abes were close to me, too, but none of them could give me this definition.
We reached Zanarkand and the stop closest to my house. I gently woke Lenne up and got off the hover-glide with her. She continued to support me with her delicate hand on my chest. We walked up to my house and she brought me over to my sofa. She elevated my leg slowly to the coffee table in front of the sofa, careful not to hurt it. Once my leg was rested on the table, she began to check out the damage. It wasn't bad at all, but she looked at me like I had just fought a war and was mortally wounded. I couldn't help but smile at her. "I'll get you some ice." She quickly got up and walked over to my freezer. I heard a few clanks and crunches as she dumped the ice in my freezer into a towel and cracked the cubes with the hilt of a butcher knife. She came back over to me, putting the towel with the crushed ice onto my leg. At first, the sudden cold felt like needles being shoved through my bone. Then, my leg went numb. I felt the swelling slow down as my leg began to get colder. Lenne held the sack of ice on it for over an hour, without getting exhausted once. She really cared about my injury. My mind filled with tranquility as I gazed at her. She, on the other hand, looked pained. It looked like this bruise was equivalent to something like having a sword shoved into your gut and explode. I put my hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. She couldn't act like this whenever I got hurt. People get hurt all the time. I didn't want her to be so distraught over such a trivial thing. "Lenne, I'm fine. You don't have to worry so much." I said lightly. "I just don't want to see you in pain." Lenne's eyes watered slightly. "Lenne, if this is how you're going to react whenever I get hurt, I don't think you want to come to anymore of my tougher games." I smiled as I said this. Lenne sighed and smiled as well. She nodded and took away the ice, looking to see the condition of my wound. Noticing that it was mostly better, she felt my leg, knew it was cold enough, and went back to the kitchen to put the towel into the sink. When she came back, I was trying to stand up. My leg was still a little numb, but I was fine. Lenne didn't agree, though, seeing how she quickly plopped me back onto my sofa and scolded me with her eyes. I kept trying to get Lenne to lighten up, telling her that this injury wasn't as bad as she was making it. This went on for at least another two hours until, finally, I was too exhausted to talk and fell asleep.
It had been a few months and it came time for the championship game between the two reigning blitz teams. The Abes came a long way and Bevelle was our next and final target for the season. This game wasn't going to be easy as the team from Bevelle had to beat the Aurochs to get here. Now, even though our game with the Aurochs wasn't very spectacular, I knew that they were a really tough team to conquer. That game we played against them in the pre-season was just an off day for them. Last season, the championship game was us against them and we nearly lost had it not been for one miscalculation on their part that allowed one of the guys to score just one more goal than they did on us.
So far, our team defeated the Al Bhed Psyches, Ronso Fangs, and Luca Goers in order to finally get here. Bevelle had to beat the Kilika Beasts, Guado Glories, and, of course, the Besaid Aurochs. The Al Bhed team was not really anything special and so that can't really compare to Bevelle. The Ronso were a lot of tough guys, but they weren't as swift upstairs. You could easily spot their strategy. The Luca Goers was something to gloat about when we beat them. All jokes aside, those Goers had the potential to rival teams as strong as the Guado Glories. Then again, those Guado were sneaky people and they showed it in their blitz games. How the Jowiles beat them so easily in their last game was something that impressed me.
Getting on to current standings, the reigning record has been held at a tie between the Aurochs, Jowiles, and our very own Abes for having thirty victories each. The Goers were next in line with a record of twenty-five. The Abes were actually racking up straight victories as of these past few seasons. Every team across Spira wanted us defeated. Unfortunately for them, my father had won every game he played except his first two and I continued the straights for the five years I'd been around since his death. If we beat Bevelle, we'd be the all time best team with a straight record of fifteen victories and an overall record of thirty-one. This was a game we had to win. It would make the Abes the undisputable champions of blitz for all time.
Of course, Lenne was sitting amongst the crowd. She wouldn't miss this game for anything. This time, we were in Bevelle's stadium so she didn't need to worry about over-excited fans. They were all in Zanarkand... Well, some were here, too. Those would be the super fans. They would bravely cheer for us while the citizens of this city shunned and threw things at them. I admired their courage.
Ok. Can't think about these things, now. I got a game to win. Then, it hit me. 'Championship game with the world record at stake.' This was going to be a tremendous challenge. Ho boy. I was shaking. I was actually shaking. What was so I nervous about? I'm Tidus, dammit. Well, that thought didn't really help. "Hey! C'mon buddy. Let's get out there and win us a blitz game!" One of the guys shouted with a pat to my back, trying to give me confidence. "Yea... Let's get out there!" I got up and headed out with the team this time. We were going to come out first, since we were in the rival's stadium. They wouldn't announce our names like back home.
When we were all out of the back, it was time for our signature game starting tradition. "So, what's our goal?" I asked the Abes, yet again. "VICTORY!" Only the guys on the team and those super fans shouted this time. Of course that was to be expected. We weren't in a stadium of Abes fans anymore. We were in a stadium filled to the brim with Jowiles fans. I took my seat along the side of the Sphere Pool and waited for it to fill with water. This was it. Time to claim the title of best team of blitz.
The game started and I had to start us off. A game started basically with two players in the center and the ball would be thrown upward. I had to get the ball before that other guy so that we might have an early advantage. The ball was shot up through the water. I swam up and so did my opponent. I reached for the ball and... NO. He batted it away from my hand right as my fingers felt its surface. At that point, my job was to keep them from scoring on us. I quickly swam towards the guy with the ball. He tried to lose me, but it's unfortunate for him that I'm no ordinary player. I maneuvered around his attempts to get away from me and tackled him out of the pool, grabbing the ball just before. Time to show these guys what blitz was all about. I swam at the speed of a torpedo straight for the goal. The goalie looked at me like I was a real torpedo, ready to blow him to kingdom come. I let go of the ball near my legs and spun side-ways, kicking the sucker as I came around. The scene I witnessed just after I kicked the ball was hilarious. That goalie, shocked initially by my speed in the water, became petrified as the ball flew from my foot towards him. He didn't even try to move as it hit the triangular field behind him. I scored that easily. I thought this team would be a challenge.
It was the opposition's turn to have the ball. I watched as their star player made a few hand motions to his team, signaling for some sort of formation they would use against us. I moved in front of the guy and he tried to get past me to keep up his strategy. I didn't know yet what that strategy was so I figured that I'd just keep him occupied while my team tried to stop them from scoring. After a while, I started to see what was going on. This player that I was blocking was a decoy. They wanted me to stay with him. The strategy was to keep me a distance away so that the real star player, who looked almost identical to the one I was guarding, could maneuver past my team and secure a goal. I was not going to let that happen. I quickly swam away from the decoy and found an opening to get at the true target. Just as I was about to get to him though, one of their team knocked a rookie, the same one who had tried my special move, into me. It threw off my coordination just enough so that when I got to the star, he just had to push off of me, and spike the ball into our goal. What happened was that originally, he was going straight for the goal and our goalie was ready for it. However, by kicking off of me, he changed his position to diagonally above the goal and got it in before our goalie could respond. I caused the score to become a tie.
The game went on with both teams scoring when it had the ball. The first half passed with the score at a tie; 6-6. Bevelle had been watching us. I guess they knew we were the team to beat and tried to key in on our weaknesses. They knew I'd go after the best players of any team so that the rest of the Abes could easily pick apart the rest of the opposition. They knew that the other guys liked to have more coverage towards the goal and less further from it so that it was more difficult to get a score from close up. I had to think of something. It was now getting towards the end of the game and I didn't want to play in overtime, since it looked like we'd end the second half with a tie. Lenne was sitting up there in the crowd. I couldn't disappoint her. A tie meant that our two teams were equals and I for one wanted everyone to know that the Abes are second to none. It would give Lenne something to remember.
My mind back to the game, I saw that it was our turn with the ball and my closest friend, Rothel, just scored. The score was 12-11. I had to make sure that Bevelle didn't score the next goal. I was going to make the final score be a 13-11. I had to so that we'd win and that would be that.
The Jowiles tried to get me distracted again, with the clock down to a minute and a half. Too bad, at this point, I knew who really was their star and I wasn't going to let myself be fooled more than once. I chased after him and I saw him ball up a fist. He was obviously worried that I was going to ruin his plan of attack. I swam up next to him and ducked, moving right underneath his form. "I'll take that!" I confidently said as I reached upwards to grab the ball from his hands. "I can't let that happen!" He fumed and kicked me in the back as I went to grasp the ball. That wasn't good. They probably knew I had a slight back problem from last season that hadn't yet vanished. The star Auroch knocked me out of the pool last season, when I was... err, um... trying to... ugh. Okay, I was flirting with these girls. ANYWAY, getting back to the game at hand...
I winced at the pain in my spine, while trying to look for him. I found him and saw what he was up to. He placed the ball over him and head-butted it out of the Sphere Pool, him right under it. He spun around. The Jecht Shot! He was going to use my move against me. The shot was unblockable! He was going to tie the score and we'd go into overtime! That's not how I wanted to end the game! I couldn't let that happen! But, to stop him, I had to deflect my own invincible shot! He kicked it hard and it flew towards the goal. Our goalie just moved aside, knowing it would be useless to try and defend against it. I swam towards the ball's trajectory and stopped just in front of it, with my back facing it. Everyone I could see was in shock. What could I have possible been thinking?
This was it. I spun my left leg around and the ball smacked into it hard. I winced, my eyes shutting tightly. I wouldn't care to go through that again. Time seemed to freeze after that stunt. The ball was floating in front of me as my injured leg passed it by. I had one chance. I kicked it again with my right leg. The ball flew from my right leg, forward. Everything besides the ball and myself was frozen solid. I watched in complete disbelief as that blitz ball slowly streamed across the Sphere Pool and hit the goal on the other side. I had done it. I countered the Jecht Shot. I won the game. The buzzer sounded and the second five-minute period was over. The final score was 13-11. Victory was ours. The Zanarkand Abes were the champions of the world. Victory...
"VICTORY!!!" All of the Abes yelled in sync as we headed back to the locker room. I was still in shock over how I ended that game. The guy had used my shot perfectly and I... I... "I rock!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as my friends lifted me onto their shoulders and drunkenly cried out, "Tidus! Tidus!" They put me down and some guys from behind dumped a big barrel of B.T. PowerThirst on top of me. We had every reason to party and go crazy. We had won the season. Our score beat the Aurochs of Besaid and the Jowiles of Bevelle.
An hour or so later, I left the locker room and the team. They all looked back at me with a little disappointment since I was leaving them to party by themselves. I was sorry for doing it, but I had other plans. I had a girl waiting for me back at the arena, who I was in love with. After an hour, everyone would have cleared out so she and I would be by ourselves. "Lenne." I said softly, looking at her sitting quietly, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. She breathed deeply, sighed and looked up at me. "You are incredible." She looked into my eyes. I smiled and took her hand. "You told me that that Jecht Shot was untouchable. You told me that even you couldn't block it, but... you just did." She looked back over to where the Sphere Pool had been. It was put away to be used again next season. I put my hand on her cheek and moved her face so I could look into her eyes again. "I did it for you. You inspired me to block it. I wouldn't have thought to do it until I met you. You were sitting there, in the crowd, watching me. I couldn't disappoint you." I said, completely lost in those hazel pearls. I did do it for her. Yes, I wanted to win. However, I wanted to win that badly because of her. I could have easily let the game go into overtime and scored then, but I wanted to give her a real show. Beating my own shot definitely counts. Her eyes shifted downward, at my leg. "But you didn't hurt yourself, did you? She noticed my pained expression back in the game; right after my leg slowed the ball. "I'm perfectly fine." She touched my leg and I cringed from the horrible jolt. "No you aren't. Let's get you home and I'll have a look at that injury." She said softly, but sternly.
We walked slowly towards a hover-glide station, Lenne's hand on my chest, trying to support me. I limped a lot. I guess I didn't even realize to what extent the damage that blitzball did on my leg was. Suddenly, I was in the midst of a crowd. We both forgot that I just won an incredible championship game in the most tremendously outrageous way. "So Tidus, how did you do it?" A reporter asked. "What was going through your head when Areth performed your father's shot?" Another reporter inquired. "Does this mean that the Super Shot really isn't all that invincible?" A third one questioned, not knowing the name of my move. "Ah, look. I'm kinda..." I tried to dodge them, but was bombarded with microphones. The questions were endless and annoying. I looked all around me and saw a sea of these leeches from every which way. Then, I noticed a little further on, a few menacing looks from, if I had to take a guess, Areth and his Jowiles. I didn't like that look. I really didn't like the look Areth gave me next. He smirked like something was going to happen and I was going to be too late to find out.
The reporters redirected my attention back to them with their incessant noise. "Ok, ok! The Jecht Shot might not be unblockable. I don't know. I just know that I blocked it for Lenne." I shouted. "Who's Lenne?" Some of them asked. At first, I was taken aback a little. However, I realized a moment later that this was Bevelle. They didn't know Lenne. She was nobody to them. Heck, I wasn't anyone to them. I just did something really cool and they wanted to know why. After they were done with me, I'm sure they'd just make a half-minute report, a short paragraph-long article, and they'd be back to talking about next season and how the Jowiles would stomp on the Abes then. "This is Lenne." I looked at the love of my life, cowering before the reporters while still trying to keep me on my feet. "So anyway, what was going through you're mind when Areth used your shot?" They switched their attention back to me. "What was I thinking? I was thinking, 'Holy crap!' The guy was gonna tie the score. I just thought about stopping him. I couldn't let him tie the game. I have a reputation to uphold." I said. The reporters took a few notes, asked me a few bits of my history, and wrapped it up. It was over.
Lenne and I boarded the hover-glide that was headed out for Zanarkand. I yawned and put my head back when we sat down. Lenne was probably tired. She put her head down on my chest and put her arms around my waist before falling asleep. I looked at her. I was one lucky guy. Not only did I have such a great victory in the record books, a big house, and lots of gil to spend on anything I wanted, but I also had her. I had someone to give my life a purpose. That purpose was to protect her. It was to keep her safe, keep her happy, and give her my all. The guys on the Abes were close to me, too, but none of them could give me this definition.
We reached Zanarkand and the stop closest to my house. I gently woke Lenne up and got off the hover-glide with her. She continued to support me with her delicate hand on my chest. We walked up to my house and she brought me over to my sofa. She elevated my leg slowly to the coffee table in front of the sofa, careful not to hurt it. Once my leg was rested on the table, she began to check out the damage. It wasn't bad at all, but she looked at me like I had just fought a war and was mortally wounded. I couldn't help but smile at her. "I'll get you some ice." She quickly got up and walked over to my freezer. I heard a few clanks and crunches as she dumped the ice in my freezer into a towel and cracked the cubes with the hilt of a butcher knife. She came back over to me, putting the towel with the crushed ice onto my leg. At first, the sudden cold felt like needles being shoved through my bone. Then, my leg went numb. I felt the swelling slow down as my leg began to get colder. Lenne held the sack of ice on it for over an hour, without getting exhausted once. She really cared about my injury. My mind filled with tranquility as I gazed at her. She, on the other hand, looked pained. It looked like this bruise was equivalent to something like having a sword shoved into your gut and explode. I put my hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. She couldn't act like this whenever I got hurt. People get hurt all the time. I didn't want her to be so distraught over such a trivial thing. "Lenne, I'm fine. You don't have to worry so much." I said lightly. "I just don't want to see you in pain." Lenne's eyes watered slightly. "Lenne, if this is how you're going to react whenever I get hurt, I don't think you want to come to anymore of my tougher games." I smiled as I said this. Lenne sighed and smiled as well. She nodded and took away the ice, looking to see the condition of my wound. Noticing that it was mostly better, she felt my leg, knew it was cold enough, and went back to the kitchen to put the towel into the sink. When she came back, I was trying to stand up. My leg was still a little numb, but I was fine. Lenne didn't agree, though, seeing how she quickly plopped me back onto my sofa and scolded me with her eyes. I kept trying to get Lenne to lighten up, telling her that this injury wasn't as bad as she was making it. This went on for at least another two hours until, finally, I was too exhausted to talk and fell asleep.