Chapter 1 - Lost
Yugi looked around in order to get his bearings, and he saw sand, lots and lots of sand. In every direction he looked there was nothing but the monotony of dunes, broken only slightly by small rock outlets and the occasional stubborn piece of plant life.
Yugi's first thoughts were that of panic. How had he gotten here? He had been in his cupboard of a room at the orphanage two minutes ago, and now he found himself here, where exactly was here?
"Come on Yugi, no time to lose your head now" he told himself, speaking aloud for lack of someone else to talk to. "Now, what would Grandpa say?" he asked the air, looking around he knew the answer.
"Find your bearings."
Yugi stood to get a better look around himself, and felt two items fall out of his lap. Looking down he realised that both his puzzle and his Grandpa's deck were now resting on the sand at his feet.
"Hmm," Yugi mused aloud, "they must have come with me when... I... came... umm, here." Slightly disturbed by his own line of thought, he bent down and gathered his items, placing the deck in his pocket and looping the puzzle around his neck with one of his shoelaces, before slipping it beneath the folds of his jacked – somewhere in his mind he reflected dully that it had been fortunate he had not prepared for bed before completing the puzzle.
Pushing aside that thought he straightened to take in his surroundings.
Yugi noted a rock outlet not far from where he had found himself and headed towards that for a base on where to start. He scooped up a good sturdy stick from the ground along the way, he might have a long way to go before finding someone, and he wouldn't be without a walking stick. When he reached the crest he looked around and saw to his delight a lone traveller, off in the distance. From afar, the only features he could make out were the large star-shaped, ebony hairstyle with crimson points, and the unusual, black clothing.
In his current situation, Yugi didn't think twice before heading off towards the traveller, hoping to find some answers, and maybe a companion to help him. The man appeared to be resting, or perhaps had fallen asleep, Yugi noticed, for as he had approached the man hadn't seemed to move a muscle. Worrying slightly at what he might do if the man was indeed asleep, he slowed down, thinking out his options. Getting more anxious as he came closer and it became apparent that he was dead to the world.
Halting several meters away he worried if he should wake the man or wait for him to wake. Both courses had their dangers. He looked over the man again; he couldn't have been much older than himself.
His eyes travelled further up his form towards the young man's face, where he noticed something very worrying. His thoughts flew off into the distance as sprinted forward the few steps separating them, raising his makeshift staff high and bringing it down just inches from the man's face.
Killing the snake beneath it instantly.
The man's eyes snapped open, and Yugi only had a split second to note their unusual, blood red colour before he had been thrown to the ground with the man standing over him, sword in hand.
He shouted something at him in an unusual tongue. Yugi frowned at him in confusion.
"I don't understand," he said, from habit speaking in Japanese, realising that it wasn't a very common language outside his homeland – and it was very obvious he was no longer in Japan – he repeated the phrase in English, far more commonly spoken.
The man looked at him in confusion and it was evident that he had understood neither of the languages. He barked what was obviously a question at him, in the same tongue as before.
Frowning slightly at the familiarity of it he still couldn't pinpoint what language it was, but from the man's gestures he guessed that his question had something to do with why he had woken up to a stick slamming into the ground before his face.
'A fair question' he said to himself, before gesturing at the dead snake, which still lay underneath his staff.
Realisation dawned on his face as the man realised what had occurred. Quickly he stepped away from Yugi, sheathing his sword and muttering what Yugi interpreted as an apology.
Frowning once more at the familiarity of the language, Yugi stood and brushed himself off.
Noting the curious look of the other, Yugi realised that the man had been expecting some sort of greeting. Looking over his refined and heavily embroidered clothing he realised that, whilst impractical, it meant that the man was probably both very wealthy, and very well know.
He bowed his head slightly in his usual courteous manner, not wanting to offend the only person who could help him.
The man said something again in that elusive language, however now it was even more familiar. Finally Yugi managed to pinpoint it as Arabic, not the language itself – if it had been he would have noticed straight away – but the consonants and vowels were very close. And the man had just said a very good approximation of the ancient Arabic word for hello.
Armed with this new knowledge he tried switching languages once again, this time speaking Arabic.
"Hello," Yugi said, "I'm lost and I don't know how I got here, can you understand me?" realising how much he sounded like a five year old kid, he shrugged off the thought in some hopes of communication. He wasn't as fluent in traditional Arabic as he was, for example, modern Egyptian Arabic.
To his dismay the confused look on the man's face remained. His heart fell. The languages were similar but obviously not similar enough.
Sighing he picked up his stick and drew a map of the world in the sand, making sure to get all of the major continents. He drew a small line next to the main East-Asian continent, and then pointed from himself to the crude representation of his home land.
Crude though it may be, the man seemed to get the idea and dusted out the map before them. In its place he drew another, far more skilled map.
A map he knew well.
The amount of hours he had spent staring at this map wishing he could go there one day. To see what is had been like and to experience what life was like there, thousands of miles away.
It was a map of Egypt, drawn as one would be in one of his Grandpa's ancient books.
His astonishment grew as he watched the man begin to write on the already intricate map, in Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
The man looked up from his map and pointed to a blank area south west of where the capital had been marked. He then gestured to the two of them, pointing to that spot once more. His message was clear, this was where they were, and he was in Egypt.
But something else was exciting Yugi more.
This man knew how to read and write in ancient Egyptian, they had a means to communicate.
A/N: Thankyou to everyone who reviewed the prologue, it has really inspired me... please keep them comming, I can never get enough of the sound of my own horn. *walks off to deflate head a little*
Please review
- Phoenix