Silmeria: Wow. Hello! It's been so long since I've posted! It's nice to be back in the game. I wanted to come back with a couple of surprises including two new stories along with the re-write Bonds of the Soul now named Intertwined Souls. I really hope you guys enjoy Dragon Chronicles: The Sworn Blade which is a three-part story that will expand more than ten years within the story. I worked super hard on this so, please, show it some love.

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to Yu-gi-oh!

Chapter One – An Existence

"I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty: —
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?

Ellen Sturgis Hoope, Duty.

"You must be cautious." Sugoroku Motou bent down and placed a finger against his lips, his amber eyes twinkling underneath the cover of darkness. "You must be respectful of their Presence." Sugoroku's eyes slid next to Yuugi's small feet to see a black cat with deep green staring back up at him with great amusement. "No matter how small or big, one must be respectful of the Spirits."

Yuugi's amethyst eyes followed his Grandpa's gaze and found nothing but the wet ground and wondered, briefly, if his Grandpa was acting funny again. He always did, but Dad said to take his behavior with "a grain of salt"

Or something like that.

"Okay," Yuugi whispered, not wanting to upset his Grandpa. He didn't want to upset anyone since Mama went to Heaven. He didn't like seeing his Dad, or his Grandpa cry so he did as he was told and ate all his vegetables, cleaned up his room and did his homework, making him wonder what, exactly, he did to be woken up on a Saturday night when it was supposed to be his bed-time. Yuugi knew he wasn't a normal child, but he liked his naps and his bed-time.

It was the one time he didn't have to think about how sad his Dad looked. Or wonder if his Mama was still upset with him for not cleaning up his room before she went to Heaven.

Yuugi swallowed back his tears and turned his attention back to his Grandpa when he noticed the elderly man staring down at him with a saddened expression as if knew exactly what he was feeling.

"Do you want to go home, my boy?" Grandpa inquired gently, reaching up with a weathering hand ruffling Yuugi's already wild hair – it was time for a trim.

A spike of terror raced through Yuugi at the question and he shook his head so wildly that Sugoroku thought it was going to fall off.

"No!" Yuugi burst out, his tiny heart beating so fast that he was positive that his Grandpa could hear it. "I'm okay! Really-"

"Hush," Sugoroku commanded, furrowing his brows when Yuugi was silent, biting his lips and lowering his eyes to the wet ground. He huffed before reaching down and lifting his small grandson into his arms and burying his face into the tuft of hair. "I know it's hard." He murmured into Yuugi's hair. "I know that you miss your mother, my boy."

Yuugi said nothing, burying his face in his grandfather's coat, inhaling the cinnamon smell that always surrounded him. He did. He missed his mother.

"Your mother will always love you." Sugoroku continued softly moving them away from the pond and towards the ivy-covered bench. "She thought the world of you, you know?" Sugoroku set Yuugi down on the bench before taking a seat next to him before tilting his head up and taking in the silence, the numerous stars that littered the sky. "She called you her Little Shadow."

"Little Shadow?" Yuugi mumbled. "What does that mean?"

Sugoroku chuckled, tweaking Yuugi on the nose and muffling another huff of laughter when the smaller boy scrunched up his nose. "It means that you always followed her. Whenever she looked down, there you were, smiling and holding up something to hold, touch or keep - her little shadow."

"Oh." Yuugi fiddled with the buttons of his own coat before he looked up to his grandfather again. "Grandpa?"

"Yes?"

"How did you know I was thinking about Mom? I didn't say anything." Yuugi had been wondering for a long time how his grandpa knew just exactly how he was feeling. He never said much since his mother died, but his grandpa? He knew always knew when he was sad, angry, hungry, sleepy. He knew all sorts of things.

"That's because Grandpa is a Guide." Sugoroku didn't have to wait long to feel a rush of confusion coming from the bundle of energy sitting next to him. Children were always loud, bright, bursts of emotions and colors to a Guide or Sentinel.

"What's a Guide?" Yuugi tilted his head to the side. He had heard his teacher and schoolmates talking about Guides and Sentinels, but he had always been afraid to ask what, exactly, they were.

"A Guide is a person who can experience emotions on a deeper level than a normal person can." Sugoroku turned, enfolded Yuugi in his arms, before placing him on his lap. "We can tell when you're feeling sad, happy, angry, hungry, disappointed and if the feeling is strong enough then we can feel them too. So, that's why I always know what my little grandson is up to when he sneaks cookies off the plate before dinner."

"Oh." Yuugi flushed at having been caught out. The cookies were good though. "What about Sentinels? What are those?"

"Sentinels?" Sugoroku brows furrowed at the question. "Sentinels are a little different from Guides. While Guides can feel emotions and experience them, Sentinels can hear, see, touch, smell and taste better than a normal person. So, those cookies that you like so much? They taste much better if a Sentinel eats them. You like the smell of flowers, don't you? Sunflowers?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Sentinels can smell them better than you or I can. They can smell them from very far away and it's like they're sitting right in front of them. And with their hearing, they can hear a dog bark or a cat meow from all the way across the city."

Yuugi's eyes grew large at what is Grandpa was saying. To him, it sounded better to be a Sentinel than a Guide.

"Is everyone a Sentinel or Guide?"

"No," Sugoroku responded lightly. "Not everyone gets to become a Sentinel or Guide. It is the Spirits that chose who becomes a Sentinel or Guide."

"Will I become a Guide or Sentinel?" Yuugi asked, reaching up and grabbing his grandfather's coat. "Will I?"

"I don't know, but everyone in our family was either a Sentinel or Guide which gives you a good chance of becoming one when you get older. Did you know that your mother was a Guide too?"

"Really?"

"Really," Sugoroku confirmed, feeling the sharp loss of his daughter once again. She would never have the chance to teach her son the ways of the Guide and Sentinel – the balance between the two intertwined souls. "And your Dad is a Sentinel."

"Is that why he can always tell when I go downstairs to get a cookie at night? He can hear me?"

"That's right," Sugoroku responded, not telling his little grandson that he usually made enough noise to wake the dead, but that was another story for another time, he supposed.

Sugoroku leaned down, staring into the wide, naivete eyes of his grandson. "You Dad can hear your heartbeat. So—" Sugoroku gently pointed to Yuugi's heart. "He knows when your fibbing. Remember the cat?"

"Mr. Fluffins was nice!" Yuugi protested, his hair wilting at the thought of the poor cat that his dad eventually gave away to the neighbors. He didn't know that his dad was allergic. He didn't even know what allergic meant. It was no wonder that his dad puffed up like a balloon or that pufferfish that he saw at the aquarium last summer.

"Mr. Fluffins was nice, but it was harming your father even when he didn't mean to do it." Sugoroku gave his grandson a tight smile which only caused Yuugi to flush and lower his head. A moment passed before Sugoroku sighed and leaned back and stared at the pond. On the water, two air spirits floated on the surface, their tiny legs barely touching the surface of the water before shooting into the forest, leaving a trail of energy behind. It was only due to his grandson's yawn that forced him out of the trance and made him turn to see Yuugi's rubbing his eyes, his small body leaning into his side.

"Let's get you home." Sugoroku stood before lifting his grandson into his arms and leading him out of the small sanctuary that his daughter created when her son was born. He knew, in time, that his grandson would return with the same golden eyes that their family was destined to bore. Those golden eyes that saw as the world and spirits merged into one, but for now, he was content to allow his grandson to live in peace.

Away from the turmoil, his future role as Eyes of the Eagle laid before him. His daughter was blessed to have skipped the ability, but deep down, she knew that the Gods would not grant the same mercy for her son whom she loved dearly, from the conception to birth and onwards. Not a day passed when she didn't shed a tear about her son's fate. How desperate she must have felt when she felt the hidden power under her child's skin? How she mourned when she realized that her son would never live a normal life?

How her soul must cry out from the Otherworld as she watched her son, husband, and father mourn when she could do nothing?

Sugoroku came to a stop just at the edge of the entrance and turned, narrowing his eyes at the lone spirit that stood on the surface of the water.

"Aurelia?" Sugoroku took a step forward, blinking when the spirit vanished before he could put a face to it. He stepped closer, halting when Yuugi wiggled in his arms, groaning about a bed and being cold.

"Alright, little one. We can go home now."

Sugoroku tightened his grip on his grandson before leaving the sanctuary and locking the gates tightly, leaving the despair and loss of a mother behind. Sugoroku closed his eyes for a long moment, allowing his own sadness to drift into the air like leaves on a breezy day. The loss of his daughter held a tight grip on his heart, but his son-in-law not only lost his wife, but his Guide was as well, and it was tragic fact that once a Sentinel lost a Guide there would be no other to replace it. His precious son had begun the long road of death.

Mamoru's senses would lose their function as the years without his Guide lurched forward. His sight would fade until he saw nothing but black. His ears would become muffled until silence reigned. His taste and smell would fade until food tasted bland and the smell of flowers, the rain, and his wife's perfume vanished. He would become a shell of a man and he would no longer be Aurelia's husband, Yuugi's father and his son-in-law.

He would be man awaiting death.

Sugoroku opened his eyes and stared down at his sleeping grandson and fought back his tears. Nothing awaited this child, but death and duty and it broke his damn heart.

"I won't let you suffer." Sugoroku uttered, allowing his tears to slid down cheeks and into Yuugi's hair. "I will do everything in my power to make sure that you have happiness even at the cost of this world's own."

Sugoroku huffed when a small meow caught his attention and he looked down, the small black cat stared back up at him with a calm expression that belied its physical age.

"I suppose you will help as well?" Sugoroku shook his head at the thought. Already four years old and blessed with a Spirit Animal. What an incredible child. It spoke of Yuugi's talent and the power that awaited him as he matured. Eventually, the two would meet, but until then, Sugoroku would be its caretaker.

"What do the Gods call you?"

The black cat huffed, lifting a paw and giving it a tentative lick. "You Humans do not know of my existence, but in the Spirit Realm I am called Kuriboh, the Guardian of the Gates."

"Guardian of the Gates?" Sugoroku uttered. "I was not aware that there was a new Guardian? What happened to the Celtic?"

Kuriboh's ears twitched in surprise. "A smart human? Color me surprised, eh? The Celtic was assigned to a human four cycles ago. He goes by the name of Jounouchi Katsuya. This generation of Sentinel and Guides are taking our best Spirits and the Gods are amused and fascinated."

"I'm assuming you're my grandson's Spirit? Or else, you wouldn't have made an appearance."

"Indeed." Kuriboh's tail swayed as he climbed to Sugoroku's shoulder. "The Gods were not amused when they found out that they had to replace the Guardian of the Gates again after such a short term. However, now, I couldn't care less what mood the Gods are in. I have a little one and I am overjoyed that he wields the famed Eyes of the Eagle. We will be talked about for generations after we pass."

Sugoroku's eyes watched the cat with dull amusement. His poor grandson kept getting into awful situations and he was only four.

"Please," Sugoroku prayed fervently. "Let the Gods amusement fade before the child realizes what's going on."

"Where is home?" Kuriboh asked, placing his tail on the older human's nose. "The thing about the human world is that we spirits gain certain traits and one of them is hunger. You have food at home?"

"Yes." Sugoroku uttered, displeased with the current situation. Wondering if he could toss the cat on its ass until Yuugi became of age. What an arrogant thing.

"Good." Kuriboh purred, hopping onto Sugoroku's head, smirking at the disgusted sigh of the action. "Home now?"

"Very well." Sugoroku started off once more, heart still in a vice grip at the loss his grandson will face, but comforted at the thought that he wouldn't have to face them alone. He would have a companion to guide him as best it could.

No matter how demanding the creature was.