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The Age of Reason

On the outskirts of a dirt-poor little village in a remote part of Egypt, a little white-haired boy played by himself in a sand-pit of his own devising. Since most of Egypt was a desert, it did not really require much application on his part. This particular little boy was very cute and somewhat cuddly, although his advanced state of grubbiness did little to enhance this. His name was Bakura, after his thoroughly Egyptian mother had a strange urge to give him a Japanese name. Bakura also happened to be an inhabitant of Kul-Elna, the Village of Thieves. His father was Thief Lord, an imposing (non-white haired) individual whose appearance put fear into the hearts of all law-abiding citizens.

Although doted on by his mother, Bakura was shunned by the rest of the village on account of his having white hair and slate-blue eyes. The origins of this strange phenomenon were unknown, but weird enough for primitive Egyptians to find suitably terrifying.

To them he was known as "Demon-child", "Abominable Snow-boy" and, in the case of certained hardened thieves, who refused to show fear, he was simply known as "Little Thingy." There was catchiness to this nick-name that appealed even to Bakura. Unfortunately, it was so catchy that some of the thieves started referring to his father as "Thingy." The name stuck. Father was not happy. He blamed Bakura for this, along with his alcohol problem, his womanizing tendencies, taxes and the bad weather. This did not create a "Happy household" situation.

Thus Bakura spent his childhood years shunned and alone, but he remained a happy child, if a trifle lonely, content to wander the sand-dunes by himself with his imaginary friend, Pickles. Until one fateful day, when he turned 8, his life changed forever.

Bakura had been out saving Pickles from drowning in the bottomless sand-pit of doom (there was no such thing as cops and robbers in those days) when he heard the thunder of hooves announcing the return of his father from a raid. Excited, he ran towards the village, hoping that he would get a diamond ring or some other such pretty trinket as a reward for staying out of sight that week. But the atmosphere in Kul-Elna was far from jubilant as it usually was after a good raid. His father began shouting orders to his men who were scattering throughout the village, passing on shouted instructions and striding with grim faces through the narrow streets. Villagers scuttled about, grabbing their few belongings and barricading themselves within their houses.

"Papa!" shouted Bakura, trying valiantly not to be trampled, "What's happening?"

"Oi, Little Thingy!" said a hideous one-eyed thief who Bakura had regarded as his father from day one, even though he already had a father, "You better scram! The Pharoah's Royal troops have found our location and they're coming to destroy the village."

"Gaaaaaaah!!!" shouted Bakura and ran off in search of his Mama. One-eye stared after him in confusion. You see, since Bakura spent most of his time alone, this had not turned him into the most eloquent of children. To make matters worse, he had made up an imaginary language to communicate with Pickles, which was currently flavour of the month. Hence, Gaaaaaaah.

Bakura found his mother hastily hiding their valuables in a small, well hidden alcove behind the clay bricks in the wall of their hut. "Bakura!" she shouted, "Take this bag and run to that secret hiding place where Pickles lives!" You see, even though she was an Ancient Egyptian, she still had good grasp of child psychology.

"But Mama . . ."

"Go! Quickly! I'll meet you there later."

Bakura's cute bottom lip trembled. "What if you don't . . ."

"Hush, child, don't you worry about your Mama. I'll find you, I promise."

With a final kiss, she pushed him out of the house and proceeded with her fruitless preparations. Gold is not much good when you're dead, after all.

Bakura did exactly as his mother bade him, hightailing it out of the village and straight to the little hidden cave where Pickles spent his nights. He stayed there for many hours, munching on the apples his mother had packed him.

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When he awoke, it was dark, causing immediate alarm. He sat up and crawled to the cave entrance where he stumbled out into the night air and ran in the direction of his village. An ominous feeling entered his stomach when he noted the dead silence and the smell of smoke and burnt flesh, all compounded when he beheld the horror of his destroyed home. Blindly, he staggered into the village, searching desperately for some sign of his parents. He found his father with an axe buried in his head and ran off, crying when he realised what he would find at his own home. His mother had been killed with an arrow, and he sat and cried over her body for days, not eating or sleeping, and unlike some people, didn't care much when she started to smell. She was his mother after all, smelly or not.

After some time, he managed to climb to his feet and went in search of food. Finding some onion and raw steak in the larder, he wolfed them both down (thus developing his deplorable taste in food). When he regained his strength, the innocent child no longer remained. He burned with a terrible desire for revenge against this "Fairoh" (his spelling wasn't that good either) who had snatched his dear mother away from him. He would find this man and teach him what it meant to suffer. He would make him pay. And the little boy threw back his head and let out a howl of demonic laughter, that was later to become his trademark and thus, the King of Thieves was born.

And soon: We return to the lovely Cassandra and play witness to a meeting with her future mind sla . . .(cough) love interest, the Pharoah of Egypt!