Zephyr: The Elemental Clans

7 - Fiancé

Xyder Zephyr - POV;

"F-f-f-f-f-f-f-fiancée?!!!" Storm and I burst out in surprise. Storm stood with his mouth ajar as he had been stunned into silence be the revalation. I myself was unsure of what exactly was happening. The last time I checked, I had never had a girlfriend, let alone a wife-to-be.

"I'm sorry but I'm not sure that I follow you," I told her.

"So you really don't remember huh? That's a bit disheartening," she muttered.

"I-.... I'm sorry," I hung my head.

"Well, I can't exactly blame you. Its been well over six years since we've last met and you've been through so much all by yourself," she stated with a smile.

A million and one thoughts all invaded my mind but none could be rationally diseccted in my confusion.

"So let me reintroduce myself," she continued, "I am the daughter of the most important man in this town, Cheryl Amie Mayer. We used to be quite close when we were children. And then there was that one incident that settled the affair and all that." Cheryl seemed deep in thought as she finished her sentence.

"How exactly did meeting as children make you her betrothed again, Xyder," Storm inquired, cold sweat running down his forehead.

I rubbed my temple with my fingers as I thought hard about my past. I began to think out loud, "I....... I think I recall something. Wetness. Was it rain? No... It was moving water. The ocean then? A beach maybe? No, no, no. It was a swift moving and directed flow.........oh god."

I gasped out loud as the memories came flooding back in. "The river.... the rapids..... how could I forget," I shuddered.

The relationship between the Zephyr Clan and the Mayor's town wasn't always as friendly as it currently is. In fact, a deep hatred ran through them both for generations. No one was entirely sure of how this bad blood originally came to be but nevertheless, a tension was built and reinforced between the neighboring people.

Between the land owned by Zephyr and the Mayor's town was a large expanse of thick forests which formed a natural barrier. Once I had been camping with my father when I was six, which was a rare occasion indeed. Being the heir to the Clan and the exceptional person he was, my father was always busy and would rarely even be home to see my mother and I.

One of those morning, my father had woken prior to me and had left a note in our tent saying that he had run out for only a few hours and would be back soon.

Even at this young age, I had been no stranger to spending time alone and surviving by myself. My father had always believed in certain ideals and parameters one must meet to be a man and his opinion had rubbed off on me. Survival of the fittest was his motto and he always preached that one must be fit physically, mentally and spiritually.

While killing time with a handmade slingshot, I had noticed a series of cries coming from the nearby river. Curiously, I walked towards the bank and began to scan the flat lands around the channel of water.

"Daddy!!!" a high pitched voice screeched downstream. I took off in the direction of the plea, keeping my eyes peeled.

"Kyaaah!" I could distinctly make out the voice of a little girl nearby. Looking across the oxbow lake formed by an old meander, I could notice a small figure being swept up in the newly formed rapids where the river cut the meander bends.

I rushed to the end of the rapidswhere it made a cliché and devastating end at a terrifying 30 ft. drop. My father always used a long rope, which he would wrap around his waist, as a belt and luckily, I had emulated for this trip. Securing the loose end to a fallen log on the land, I dove into the swift waters.