Chapter 34 - Y

"You found him where?!" I asked again.

"He was working on honing his skills in the Tower of Trials," Terius said again. He had carried Zael all the way back to his room in the castle then come straight to the tavern to get us.

"Why didn't you just heal him or something? Doesn't the castle have plenty of healers?" I was kind of freaking out. It was more of an angry worry towards Zael, not Therius. "I'm sorry, I'm just- I don't care. Just let us see him," Mirania was in the library last time I'd checked. It'd have been easy enough to go to her first. Syrenne and Lowell were in the tavern when Therius had come to share the news. All three of us were worried, but at the same time we were all just tired of him getting himself nearly killed.

*** *** *** *** *** *** In the Castle *** *** *** *** *** ***

We opened the door and flooded onto the bed around him. Mirania had already gotten there, so I guess Therius had gotten her first… good…

"He's not awake yet. His wound wasn't that severe, but he was near death, so it will take a little while before he's fully healed," Mirania informed us.

Therius nodded his goodbye and left us to tend to our teammate.

"I wasn't worried," Syrenne tried to brush it off. "He gets himself hurt all the time and he ain't dead yet, so why should I be worried?" she sat on the couch with a huff. Lowell had stayed at the tavern. He said he wasn't too worried either.

I crossed my arms and looked out of the window at the sky. Just then, my peace was interrupted when the door opened and a certain girl ran to Zael's bedside.

"Oh my! I've just heard. Will he be okay?" Calista held her hands in worry.

"Yes, he'll be fine," Mirania smiled.

I refused to make eye contact with her. I stood and leaned against the wall, watching Zael sleep. When I find out who did this…

"Yurick," Syrenne hissed quietly, "Stop it. You're makin' it stuffy in here. There's already too many people as it is."

I didn't want to apologise. I tried to think of other things to get my mind off of things that irritated me. I was staring at his face and felt calm. I thought about how we met and about our first night together… then our first night together… I blushed and looked out the window.

"We should give him some space. He needs to sleep. All this rowdiness will only prolong his healing," Mirania nicely scolded. The three ladies got up and started for the door. Calista looked back at me.

"What? I'm not leaving," I stared her down, which to my surprise she retaliated. Eventually, she backed down and left with the others. Did she challenge me? I waited until the door had closed before laying down next to him and brushing the hair off of his face. "Why do you do this to yourself? You constantly go out of your way to get hurt. It's like you want to be injured," then I thought about it. "Are you doing this to get attention? I knew it. You've always been a bit of an attention hog," I smiled and kissed his cheek. "It works, you know, but it does piss me off." I rested my head on his shoulder. "I can't wait until you wake up so you can hear me yell at you."

"Jiral," he mumbled.

I sat up quickly and glared down at him. Jiral?! What in the hell?! His face was angry. He was dreaming about something. Maybe what happened? "Did that bastard do this to you?" I laid my head back down. "I'll kill him. I swear it." I closed my eyes just for a second.

"Yurick," I heard a familiar voice. I could feel it. It shook my entire body. "Yurick, wake up," he said. I opened my eyes and felt a hand playing with my hair. I sat up. My head had been on his stomach.

"You're awake!" I fell back down and wrapped my arms around him.

"Yurick, you're squeezing me," he laughed.

"Sorry," but I didn't let go. He ran his hand through my hair again, relaxing me. Then I remembered and shot up again. "Who did this to you, tell me."

He looked startled and confused then smiled. "Don't worry about that. I'm fine now. That's all that matters," he sat up against the headboard and gestured for me to lay back down, which I did… reluctantly… kinda…

"It does matter. I'm sick of you getting yourself hurt. The only way to stop it is to eliminate the threat," I glared at his toes as I thought of Jiral's face.

"Then you'll have to kill every single reptid, dragon, muruk, gurak, and person that ever wished me ill will," he laughed. "That's a lot of things."

"I'll do it," I stared harder at his foot. "I'll take out everything that wants to hurt you."

"With that attitude, you'll be a knight in no time," he laughed again and pet my hair.

I shook my head. "No, I'm much too selfish to be a knight. I don't care about anything else, not the people, not the island, not the world. I'd kill for selfish reasons alone and be no better than a common crook."

"Don't say that," he was going to argue with me. "You're so much cuter than the common crook." I looked up at him slowly. He smiled childishly before leaning down to kiss me. I sat up and turned towards him, holding his hand to my cheek. "Don't. If you act like that," he paused and I leaned forward, waiting for him to give in, when the door opened and I had to back up.

My eyes jumped to Calista, who had brought some breakfast for Zael. I wanted so much to scowl at her and cling to him like an over protective dog, but I couldn't. Not here, at least.

"Oh, you're awake," she smiled. Her eyes moved to me. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Well," Zael started, but I cut him off.

"No. What's there to interrupt?" I kept eye contact with her as I stood and leaned against the bedpost, arms crossed.

She smiled and placed the plate next to Zael on the bed. Then proceeded to sit on the bed by his knees. The only way I could keep my jealously controlled was if I left the room. So I did.