The Village of Kul Elna, Egypt

Many Egyptians might think of Kul Elna as the heart of darkness and evil in the Pharaoh Aknamkanon's Kingdom, but most of Kul Elna's inhabits did not. Most of its inhabitants were bandits, thieves, and outlaws though so most didn't take their opinion seriously.

What many of the other people forgot was that the village of Kul Elna was more than a base to those who lived within it. It was also a home. Yes, many bandits, thieves, and outlaws lived here, but their families and children also lived here.

Two of the children were about half-an-hour's walk from town. One sat on a stone in the shade casted by the high walls of the ravine, and the second stood on the sand in the middle of the space between canyon walls. They were siblings, a brother and sister, possessing silver-grey hair, slimmer frames, and grey-purple eyes.

The sister that stood had her eyes closed and was focusing on slowing her heartbeat and breathing while her brother watched. Kul Elna was not a rich town by any stretch of the mind, and everyone had to pull their weight to keep the village functioning smoothly. Both men and women had to preform labor and find food. Often they had to hunt, so the overwhelming majority of people in the village had some skill in archery. Since duties were shared, women dressed as men did in shirts, sandals, and pants as it would be foolish to go hunting in a dress. No one questioned it.

As such, both the brother and sister wore the same clothing and both were armed. It was foolish, if not suicidal, to stray from camp and be unarmed. The girl worked to slow her breathing and heartbeat, trying to get into the mindset she needed in order for this to work. Her brother, older by two years, was watching intently in anticipation for what was to come though and she could feel his gaze on her.

"Stop staring," she ordered without opening her eyes. "You're distracting me Cassim."

Cassim reluctantly dropped his eyes to the stone he sat on, fidgeting with the curved sword he wore on his waist.

"Sorry Ani," he apologized to his sibling, looking back up. "But what you do is so amazing."

"I'm not going to be able to do anything with you staring at me," Ani grumbled.

Cassim huffed, and the two siblings faced down. It was Cassim who backed down first, knowing that if he didn't he wouldn't get to see Ani practice with her gift.

"It's just amazing," Cassim said, interrupting Ani's concentration again.

He realized he should have stayed quiet and gave her a wide-eyed innocent expression when she glared at him.

"You still thinking about how you're going to become Bandit King with my help?" Ani challenged.

Cassim felt this was a loaded question, and wasn't sure how to answer it. Eventually he nodded and vowed, "I will become Bandit King one day."

"What if I decide not to help you?" Ani challenged. "What if I use my gift and become Bandit Queen? Bandit King Cassim just doesn't sound right."

"Oh," Cassim smirked, "and Bandit Queen Ani sounds so much better?"

"I could always practice with my gift on you," Ani pointed out absentmindedly.

"I'd rather not," Cassim told her cautiously, leaning so his back rested on the cool stone behind him. "Besides, the title would be by our last name so it would be Bandit King – or Queen – Bakura."

He added the "or queen" when Ani raised an eyebrow at him. Although his little sister would never really hurt him, outside of a few bruises when they sparred with shafts of wood, she could be very scary when she wanted to be.

"I suppose that sounds better," Ani mused.

A short gust funneled down the narrow canyon, throwing up sand in a dust devil. Cassim shut his eyes and ducked his head to avoid the flying sand, and didn't open his eyes until the air had calmed again. Ani hadn't even seemed to notice the sand, and was standing with her eyes closed. The air around her distorted like it did above the hot sand when the sun was beating down. To see it as an aura around a person was unnatural and chilling.

He adjusted how he was sitting and shook some of the sand out of his air, eyes not leaving his sister. His hand brushed against the eleven-inch long dagger of Ani's that she had set beside him before she had begun. The strap that was used to tie it to her belt had been broken, and she had gotten tired of carrying it. She was barely ten, but she was already a prodigy around the village. Never had she been treated as normal, and the reason why was about to appear.

When it started, the distorted air around Ani faded away and then began to ripple behind her. The size of the distortion was large, large enough to make Cassim swallow. Then the distortion began to evolve into a distinct shape. Some might say it was feline, but it was larger than any desert lion Cassim had ever encountered.

The second indication was when the afternoon light pouring on the canyon began to dim as if a cloud was passing in front of the sun. Cassim looked up, but there was no cloud. He didn't expect there to be. Sweat that had slicked his hair and clothes from the heat of the desert cooled and vanished. It felt like it was now autumn instead of summer, and the temperature was no longer sweltering. Indeed, it felt almost comfortable.

Muscles rippled as the distortion near Ani became more distinct and then Cassim saw a pair of cat eyes, glowing as silver as the light of the full moon, appear in midair. Other features appeared in rapid order. Tufted ears twitched and whiskers bounced. A long tail swept over the sand.

Stars seemed to shimmer in the creature's fur and moonlight gathered and flowed around her paws, giving her a gentle aura. Light shimmered around the creature's mouth and a pair of ivory saber fangs hooked down from the cat's lips while ivory claws slid out from all four paws. They seemed to glow themselves like they had absorbing light for so long they were now radiating it. Blue fur, long and soft, covered the cat's frame, the colors rippling like the blue-black of twilight sky. The sight of her always took Cassim's breath away, and the only way he could describe her was luminescent.

Sand shifted and crunched beneath the four paws as she became solid, no longer a mere illusion. Ani opened her eyes and smiled at the giant feline. She was as tall as a horse, but unlike a horse, which was all legs, her cat was pure muscle. His sister reached forward with one hand and the cat leaned down, nuzzling the child's palm with her black nose.

"Hello Star Saber," Ani greeted her Ka.

Cassim hoped down from his perch and walked over to his sister, the temperature becoming cooler and more comfortable the closer he came to the cat. The ability to summon a Ka, a Spirit Monster, was thought originally to be a thing of legends. They made good stories, but of course there was no such thing as a Ka.

Ani had claimed they were real her entire life, and that she had one. She had been able to see the feline her entire life, but no one else could, so no one believed her. At first they had humored her, believing that she had merely created an imaginary friend. As she had gotten older, their patience for her childishness became strained.

She was told to grow up and stop lying. Ani had said she wasn't, and that just because they couldn't see Star Saber didn't mean she wasn't real. Others had given their parents and Cassim pitying looks, as if they felt sorry that their family had a daughter that was so weak in the mind and idiotic. It wasn't unexpected since she was talking about seeing a giant blue cat made of starlight, but Ani had still been outraged no one believed her.

Although Cassim had defended her against the other children as they taunted her for being a liar and a fool, he had never believed her stories of a Ka. Who would? He had always played along with her though, assuming that was all he was doing.

Strange things had always happened around Ani though. She had never cried as a baby or fussed, and was always said to be watching something besides their parents. Ani would smile and giggle, holding out her hands towards something only she could see. Then she started to know things, like when someone was trying to sneak up on her. It was unnatural, and her claims that Star Saber had told her tired their parents. No matter how hot it was she would never get overheated or dehydrated. Her skin was always cool to the touch.

Then a year ago, Cassim and a few of his friends had left the village and gone exploring. They had gotten lost, and had been startled to find Ani following them. When Cassim had demanded why she was following them and how they knew they were going to leave, Ani had said Star Saber had told her, and that she thought they would need help. Cassim had been hot and irritated, frustrated that he was lost, so he had just given up on Ani's "imaginary friend" and snapped at her.

That was the moment they had been attacked. The three boys had been so caught up in exploring that they hadn't realized a pride of desert lions had been stalking them, not until it was too late. Cassim's memory of the event was blurry because all he remembered was his sword being ripped out of his hands by a lion's strike and then blinding pain as its claws connected with the side of his face. The others had told him later that a giant blue cat made of starlight had appeared and chased off the lions – Ani's imaginary friend.

The adults hadn't believed them very much since they were all children, but all of that had changed when Ani had finally made Star Saber appear, visible to everyone, a week later. Their father had guessed that the stress of the near-death situation had unlocked her full range of her Ka's powers.

Everyone had stopped treating her like a half-wit and begun looking at her like a gift. Spirit Monsters were real, and the bandits had one. They could become solid enough to kill but could only be harmed by another Spirit Monster, and were immortal otherwise. The advantage Star Saber and Ani gave the bandits was unprecedented. The siblings' family became all the more important to the community.

Cassim and Ani's father, Tau, used to be a priest in the employ of Aknadin, Aknamkanon's younger twin. He knew about Ka's and the spirit world. Aknadin had been obsessed with the stories of the Spirit World, convinced they were real and that there was some way to harness its power. His obsession had continued to deepen to the point where he frightened Tau.

Not long after that, Tau had met and fallen in love with the siblings' mother, Iseret, the daughter of the current Bandit King. He had defected from the Pharaoh, in part to escape Aknadin's "experiments" as he tried to unlock a Ka. Being born and raised in the palace, Tau had extensive knowledge of how the palace and the Pharaoh's troops worked as well as of the Spirit World. His knowledge of the guards helped the bandits dodge, ambush, and outwit them.

Bandit King Nakht, Iseret's father, had been thrilled with Tau and agreed to let him marry his daughter. Recently, Nakht's right leg and the sight in his right eye had been damaged when a cliff's edge he had been standing on had given. He had started giving his son-in-law more responsibility within Kul Elna, so Tau had become the acting king of the bandits. Despite Ani's teasing, they knew Cassim stood a good chance of one day becoming Bandit King.

Cassim approached the gigantic feline and Star Saber turned her large head, shaped like a lion's head, towards him. Her glowing silver eyes apprised him, and Cassim bowed to her out of respect. His movement seemed to state the Ka because she sat down beside Ani. Her long tail, one the adults said was similar to a creature called a leopard, curled around three of her paws as she licked the fourth and began to groom herself like any car would.

The air around her was as cool as a spring night, and it made it easy for Cassim to understand why Ani never got overheated. Star Saber's ability to become invisible and incorporeal to everyone but Ani made it, and as such Ani, invaluable for scouting. Cassim was not invaluable, not like his sister now was.

"I wish I had a Ka," Cassim sighed.

He hadn't been thinking before he had spoken, a bad habit of his, and he regretted his words when he saw Ani turn from him and pet Star Saber. Cassim opened his mouth to apologize, but he wasn't sure what he could saw. There had been a time he remembered when Ani had been sitting in the corner of their home crying. She had looked at something Cassim couldn't see and shouted at it to go away and leave her alone. Ani had wished that Star Saber wasn't there. Then, people wouldn't have called her a liar. Her life would have been a lot easier if her Ka wasn't real. His words had been callous indeed.

Ani seemed to understand that Cassim was sorry and glanced at him briefly, her irises reflecting the sunlight like a cat's would, like Star Saber's did.

"You're my brother," Ani said softly. "Since I have one, you might to."

Cassim wanted to complain that Ani had been able to see Star Saber her whole life. He couldn't see a Ka, so that might mean he didn't have one. He didn't, not wanting to touch the old wound again. Maybe she was right and he did have one. Perhaps he just needed something to trigger it, like the lion attack had triggered Ani's ability to make Star Saber visible.

Instead of continuing about Ka's, he looked up at the sun. Based on the length of the shadows on the canyon walls, there were only about two hours of sunlight left. He held out his sister's dagger to her as a sort of peace offering. She took it back without a word, holding it awkwardly next to her canteen.

"We should probably head back to the village," Cassim announced.

Ani gave him a blank look, seeing the sunlight in the sky. "Why? It's only half-an-hour home. We have plenty of time until sunset."

"Remember what father said?" Cassim asked her.

Ani hummed under her breath as she remembered their father's words from the morning.

"Oh yeah," she said softly, "the Pharaoh's troops. I guess Aknamkanon will never learn he won't find Kul Elna, although you have to give him credit for persistence."

Cassim snorted. "That's all you can give that idiot credit for."

Ani smiled agreement and the tension from his careless statement about Ka faded away. This was something the siblings could always agree on. Every year or so, Aknamkanon got the dazzling idea to send troops to try and destroy the bandits. All the bandits needed to do was lay low while some of their assassins spread out among the mountains to kill the soldiers a few at a time, using the cloak of night and fear to drive the troops away.

The Pharaoh was a fool before and a double fool now that Star Saber was able to reinforce the bandits. He was a triple fool to be chasing down bandits when there was an invading army camped outside his capital. Although the invaders were no concern to Kul Elna's citizens, the threat of the Pharaoh's troops were. Children or not, the siblings would be killed if they were caught by their enemies. For their own safety, they would have to go back early. Cassim didn't think they were in any danger with Star Saber present, but he understood his father's logic.

"Come on," Ani waved her brother forward.

Star Saber seemed to understand the problem and lay on the ground in front of the children. Ani put her hands on the Ka's shoulders and swung onto the giant's feline back. The Ka was too large to ride like a horse, so Ani sat sidesaddle on the cat. Cassim didn't move, and Ani held out her hand, an invention for him to join her.

"You want me to get on that?" Cassim asked with eyes huge.

Star Saber flicked her ears back at being called a 'that', the tip of her tail flicking back and forth in irritation.

"Sorry," Cassim apologized to the Ka quickly, not wanting to offend the immortal spirit monster.

Star Saber swung her giant head the other way, silently accepting the apology.

"Come on," Ani repeated in a sharper voice, "unless you want to be walking under the sun for half an hour. We'll be home in half the time on Star Saber, and you won't get overheated this way."

Cassim didn't doubt Ani's time estimate, and he knew he wouldn't get hot while he was near the Ka. She seemed to radiate a cooling aura like she radiated light. That didn't exactly make him eager to get near a cat whose fangs were as long as his forearm. He might have gotten used to seeing Star Saber over the past year but he had never ridden her before. There wasn't even a saddle or anything to help him keep his seat.

Cassim froze for a long moment, but at Ani's reassuring smile took a wary step forward. She had a dimple on her left cheek, and her upper canines were pointed into fangs like a cat's. It was amazing how much her Ka influenced his sister's appearance.

He took care not to step on one of Star Saber's paws or her tail as he approached and climbed onto the Ka behind Ani. Unlike Ani, he didn't have practice being on the Ka. It stunned him how silky her thick fur was, how his hands sank into her fur. Never had he felt anything so soft.

When Star Saber stood, he bobbed forward and grabbed his sister's waist. His fear got a giggle from Ani. Cassim huffed and Star Saber turned her head so she could see him. It seemed like the Ka was siding with its guardian.

"Don't worry Saber," Ani addressed the Ka first, "you can go. And you," she elbowed her brother, "can relax your grip. You won't fall off her, not as long as long as she doesn't want you to. There's nothing to worry about."

He couldn't fall off? What did that mean? Star Saber took a step forward before he could ask, and Cassim focused on making sure he had a grip on his sister. She began to walk faster and then lengthened her strides. The steps became rough as she started to trot but then leveled out as she broke into an open run.

It was similar to a horse, Cassim decided, his eyes firmly shut, but her paws were absorbing the shock from for a smoother ride. It was also amazingly quiet, and the only thing he could hear was the wind blowing past and the sand shifting under their weight. There was no obnoxious echo of hooves on stone, and the stride was so smooth he doubted he even needed a saddle.

"Open your eyes," Ani chastised him. "You'll love the view."

Reluctantly, Cassim did so. The golden brown desert and stone had melted into a swirl of honey. They were going too fast to make out details, and it felt like they were flying. The sensation of freedom was intoxicating, as if the earth itself was not strong enough to hold them down. He could feel a smile start to spread across his lips and he fractionally relaxed his grip on Ani.

Now Cassim Bakura really wanted a Ka of his own.

Okay, this story is undergoing a reboot as of 9/27/16. If you have read the story beforehand go back and read it again. I really thought I was going to abandon this story, but I can't let it die out like that. It has the same general plot as it does from before the reboot, but names have changed.

Ani Bakura used to be called Layla Bakura before the reboot. I changed her name to Ani because it sounds like Amane, the sister of Ryo Bakura. Ryo Bakura is the present day reincarnation of Cassim Bakura, so consider the name change a nod to a sister most people don't know Ryo had. (I didn't know Amane existed until one of my readers corrected me at least, but maybe you knew.)

If anyone's still reading the story, which might not be very many given how long it's been since my last update, let me know if you like the new version. I always look forward to hearing to my readers, so don't be shy about leaving a review.