Sand
This is my first story in the Yugioh category, centered around the pairing Black Magician/Black Magician Girl or Mahad/Mana.
I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Yugioh
Sand…
That was the only thing she could see…
Miles upon miles of endless sand…
Mana wasn't the kind of person to really enjoy looking at all the sands of Egypt, especially at midnight when there was absolutely nothing to do. She dug her bare feet into the soft earth, watching as little grains nestled themselves between her toes. Despite the cool night air tousling the girl's long brown locks, all she could feel was warmth as she dug her toes even deeper into the ground.
Mana looked up again, searching the endless stretch of desert for something, anything that interrupted the endless sandy landscape. Off in the distance, she could've sworn she saw trees or something, but it only turned out to be a mirage, a figment of her imagination. Mana sat back with a small sigh, her insomnia never wavering.
"You are certainly out late tonight," a soft voice spoke up behind her.
Had it been any other voice, she would've jumped right out of her skin. She knew who this particular voice belonged to even before she turned around and gazed at him with shining brown eyes.
There he stood behind her, his face illuminated by the light of the moon, emphasizing his sharp features and piercing eyes. He wore the garments of a high priest and around his neck hung the Millennium Ring, one of the many sacred treasures guarded by only the most devoted of the Pharaoh's servants. Though he looked down upon her with a small frown of disapproval, the tiniest of all smiles tugged at his lips.
"Master Mahad…" Mana breathed, her panic building up inside her.
Her teacher sat down next to her and gazed absentmindedly at the endless stretch of sand before them. "Don't you have lessons with me tomorrow, Mana?" His tone was amused.
"I-I'm sorry, Master," the girl stammered, "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I could take a bit of a breather out here before going back to bed since the sands can sometimes really bore me to sleep and-"
She stopped when her master raised a dark eyebrow. "The sands of Egypt bore you, my apprentice?"
Mana nodded. "Well, yeah, I mean… just look at it! There's pretty much nothing out there except sand… and not a lot of animals come around here since we always scare them away for some weird reason and you keep saying that the Nile's too dangerous to swim in so Atem and I can't go swimming!" She ended this with a slight pout at the thought of her not being allowed to swim in the clear waters of the Nile. This pout, however, soon faded into a look of surprise when Mahad threw back his head and let out a small laugh.
"Oh Mana, Mana… if you've only known…" he chuckled, "There have been crocodile sightings in the river, you know… I was only trying to keep you and the Pharaoh safe…"
"I can protect us both just fine, Master," she pouted again, "You worry too much!" Though she meant this as a joke, Mahad's eyes darkened considerably at her words.
"This is no laughing matter, Mana," he said gravelly, "these are dark times. Powerful as he is, our Pharaoh is only one man. And there are many out to kill him. All of our efforts to keep him safe will be in vain if he should fall to something as low as a crocodile, especially when we have spent countless hours practicing how to protect him in case of an attack…"
"But Master…"
"No 'but's, Mana. This is serious…"
For a moment, there was nothing but silence between the two. Mana pulled her toes out of the sand and looked up at her master, who was silently gazing out into the distance. She didn't understand what in the world could possibly be so interesting to him in this endless world of sand, so with a snap of her fingers, she brought him back to reality.
"Yes, Mana?" Mahad asked, slightly irked from his apprentice's constant wriggling. She had always been a bit of an annoyance to him, but much of that had changed as of late.
In many ways, she was growing up…
"What are you looking at, Master?"
Mahad thought for a moment before answering. "The sand, of course. I find it quite interesting…"
Mana was taken aback. Surely even her master couldn't find sand that interesting. She always knew him to be a bit of a boring stick in the mud, but even he couldn't find sand to be all that interesting.
Mahad saw her expression and suppressed a smile. "Mana, you have much to learn about the world around you… the sands hold many, many interesting possibilities waiting to be discovered… you just have to wait and see…" He absentmindedly picked up a small handful of sand and watched as it trailed through his fingers. "Observe, Mana."
The tiny granules of sand trickled right through Mahad's fingers and onto the ground, something that Mana had seen many times before. "Uh… what am I supposed to be looking at, Master?"
Mahad tipped his hand and allowed the sand to leave the safety of his fingers. "A million different worlds…"
Now he was just crazy in her eyes. "…What…?"
"Each grain of sand might just be a whole new world…" Mahad explained, shifting the many grains around him, "A whole new world that's just waiting to be discovered… just think of it, Mana… all these little grains of sand… this whole desert… it can hold millions upon millions of worlds too tiny for us to see… some of them are not nearly as great as ours, but others…" He took a deep breath and looked back across the sea of sand. "Others… others can be even more glorious than ours…"
Mana looked at her master, wondering if he really was crazy or just talking nonsense. The way his face was illuminated by the moonlight made her cheeks warm slightly. In truth, he never really struck her as handsome, but something stirred within her as she gazed upon her master and teacher. It was then that she noticed his fingers were so close to her hand that they were almost touching. If she only moved a bit…
Her master moved his hand slightly off to the side to draw even more circles in the dirt. Mana felt a wave of disappointment go through her, but she just barely managed to hide it. Mahad stared fascinated at the circles he drew for a second before turning back to his apprentice.
"You have not yet told me whether or not the sand still bores you, Mana," he said quietly, his piercing eyes meeting hers. Mana felt the blush deepen upon her cheeks and immediately glanced down at the ground to hide her red face.
"I-I'm sorry, Master," she stammered, "But it's just sand… it's not like it has any real uses in our world…"
Mahad raised an eyebrow. "No real uses? Mana, do you not know what glass is made of…?"
"Magic!" she answered immediately, "The makers of glass know an ancient magic so powerful it can mold anything into clear crystal!" She grinned proudly for knowing that. But her grin faded almost immediately as her master shook his head.
"The glassmakers may claim that…" he said quietly, "But it is not true…" He picked up a small handful of sand. Though it was not at all interesting at first, it began to glow right before Mana's eyes.
The tiny pile of sand in Mahad's hand seemed to pulse with life as his hand grew brighter and brighter, to the point where it was red hot. She had seen her master use the power of fire many times before, but this was ridiculous. Rather than catching fire like she expected, the sand seemed to mold and shape itself, meshing together tighter and tighter until it was no longer sand.
"Sand has its many uses," Mahad told her, smiling as he watched her staring at the glass slowly taking shape on his palm, "It can be used to make bricks, it can hold many different worlds, it can be made into glass, and…" he form the glass into the unmistakable shape of a tiny heart. "It can be used… to proclaim one's love for another…" He held the heart out to her. "Will you have me…?"
Mana gasped as she realized that her master was talking to her, gazing at her with his piercing dark eyes. But while she had become accustomed to the occasionally cold stares he gave her during their lessons or even the rare flash of pride, she saw something deep within them that she thought she would never see from him: the warm pulse of love.
Love…
"You did not answer me, Mana…" Mahad whispered, a hint of sadness in his voice.
Mana blinked, coming out of her shock. She couldn't believe it, she just couldn't believe it. There sat her teacher right next to her, holding out a glass heart for her to see. There sat her teacher, the man who had sworn off love after a certain young woman he held close to him died long ago. There sat her teacher, who was so stern in his ways, yet gentle at the same time. There sat her teacher, handsome as ever in the moonlight, yet dark and imposing all at once.
And she loved him more than ever…
Mana closed her hands upon her master's, nestling the heart between her fingers. She inched closer to him and closed her eyes, breathing in his intoxicating scent of musty books and never-ending sand. Their lips met…
"Tell me, Mana..." Mahad said when they pulled away, "Do you still think the sand is so... 'boring'...?"
His apprentice's face lit up in a smile as she leaned in for another kiss. "No way..."