Yu-Gi-Oh © Kazuki Takahashi
I thought I had uploaded this last week... I guess I was wrong. I can't find this story anywhere. Huh. Forgive me if this is a double post and I didn't realize.
Winter was coming. Yugi shivered and pressed his light tunic around him as much as he could. The tunic was torn and covered in dirt, but it was the only item of clothing that he had. His family could barely afford to feed him and his siblings, much less get them decent winter apparel.
Yugi stared at the water and sighed. He had been knee-deep in the icy depths for the last hour, yet not a single fish had passed by. It wasn't as if he had anything else to do, of course. School, friends, apprenticing for trades… that was all for the people who lived in or near the city. Such opportunities were not available in the rough land of Pelionath. There was only one thing to do here, and that was survive. Still, that one task occupied most of his families time.
His mother was a seamstress, and a quite accomplished one at that. Once a week she would travel all day and night to get into the city, where she would take clothing orders from those more wealthy and distinguished citizens. Then she would travel back, finish her orders, and deliver them personally to each of her customers. Though she worked for the greatest names in Argon, she was paid very little. The higher ups seemed to think that such dirty and unworthy hands touching their clothing diminished the clothing's value.
His father spent most of his time tending their family's scrawny cows. He was able to siphon small amounts of milk from the animals, but just enough to feed the twins. When the cows would die, the meat would be sold rather than eaten. An ounce of meat would buy them a pound of vegetables in the market.
Having grown up on a lean diet of milk and produce, Yugi was small in stature and very thin. He fit in with his brothers and sister in this way, but not in any other. His features were extreme and differed greatly from anyone else he had ever seen. His hair was a combination of red, black, and gold, and his irises were a vivid violet. He had a small nose and wide eyes. He was basically an outcast in his own family, and Yugi often wondered if he came from the same place as the others had.
A small fish darted in front of him, and Yugi waited patiently until the fish slipped between his motionless fingers. In one swift motion, Yugi seized the creature and lifted it out of the water. It wriggled in his hands, and Yugi quickly sliced off its head with a sharp rock. The head was not put to waste, however. Yugi carried it home with the rest of the fish's body, as it could be eaten just like any other part of it.
"Found anything, sweetie?" his mother asked. Her fingers were stiff with cold, but she still managed to sew at record speeds.
Yugi threw the fish into a bowl of carved wood and sat down next to her. "Yup! I caught a fish!"
"Just one?" she asked. Her tone was casual, but it hurt Yugi. He had worked hard for that single fish. It wasn't his fault that they seemed to be getting fewer and fewer in population every day.
"Yeah, Mom, just one," he answered quietly.
She seemed to realize her mistake and stopped her work. Sighing, she turned around and caressed his face with her hand. "You did very well, Yugi. I'll make stew, so everyone can have a little bit of it. We don't get fish very often."
"That's 'cause the Harts have tried to keep us from fishing in their water," Yugi said bitterly. "Funny how now that it's winter they don't seem to care. They just didn't want us messing up their perfect picnic scenery."
"Now, now, Yugi, they have their reasons, and that's not for us to decide," his mother chided. "Technically, they do own that river, so they can do whatever they please with it. Consider it a privilege that they're letting us fish there now."
That was how Yugi was raised. "We may not have much," Yugi's mother always said, "but we have what's important: a family that loves one another, a roof over our heads, and enough food to get by."
Yugi repeated this mantra over and over in his head as the days grew colder and the light grew shorter. Soon there were no fish at all, and the vegetables had grown even more expensive. Supposedly a mysterious famine had begun to spread over the known earth, a black and purple cloud that made the sun disappear and the crops shrivel.
A cow died mid-December, leaving them with meat to sell. Yet prices for vegetables had become so high that it was worth it just to eat the meat itself rather than go through the trouble of getting to the market. "How's it taste, Yugi?" his father asked, smiling at him, his older sister, and the twin toddlers.
Yugi tore into the meat like an animal, for he hadn't eaten in two days. It tasted more wonderful than he could have imagined, yet at the same time it tasted strangely… familiar. But Yugi could never have tasted real beef before. He had lived in this place his entire life, and his parents would never have let meat go unsold before.
Soon even the sparse meals they had became nonexistent. Yugi's father and one of the twins had come down with a strong sickness, and winter was still one month from ending. "Yugi," Yugi sister said to him, "You know I can't stay here. You know that I'm just one more mouth to feed. If I find some way of earning decent money, then I'll do my best to get our family some help, but… I don't know. I'm leaving." She kissed him on the forehead. "Goodbye, little brother."
Two days later, the sick twin died. There was nothing else to do. Would the entire family die like that? Would they all starve and freeze to death? There was only one person who could ever help them… but would he listen?
Yugi snuck off to the market that evening while his father and mother were trying to tend to their one remaining twin. Sneaking into the back room of the library, he stole a piece of paper and an ink pen. He needed to write a letter, a letter to the king.
Yugi had learned to write by befriending the woman who worked at the library. She had sat him down and shown him the letters and the sounds that accompanied them. He hated having to steal from her. She might have even given him the paper and pen for free. But Yugi could not take that risk. This was too serious.
"To the esteemed lord and ruler of Ishravitas," Yugi began. "From Yugi Mutou, a resident of the plains of Pelionath.
"My lord, our family is starving and dying. The famine may not have a big impact on someone as rich as you, but the vegetables in the city of Argon have gotten too expensive for us to buy. My sister left the house to try and feed herself, and my little brother died of the cold sickness.
"Please, if you ever get this letter, send someone to help us! We work very hard, but we still can't do enough."
Yugi folded up the letter and wrote the king's address on it. Then, sneaking beside the postman, he slipped the letter into the mailman's bag and dashed back to his house. The king lived far away, but maybe he would read Yugi's letter and help them… before something worse happened.