Discovery

By Sailor Pheonix1997

Noah drove his hand into the stones in the mud and came up with quite an amount of large ones that could really hurt if thrown at someone. He pulled a small slingshot from his robes and placed one rock in before moving to put the others in his pocket.

"What do you think you're doing Noah?" Seto asked.

"I'm going to find out what's going on with all this blood in the stream." Seto sighed and stood up.

"First thing, I'd suggest against putting those stones in your pocket. If they clatter together you could be discovered," Seto said as he pulled off his belts and stuck them into his pocket. He almost looked like a normal teenager. Noah nodded at his brother's words of advice and headed upstream with Seto following him.

The blood in the river seemed to increase as they got further up until the entire stream and the rocks around it were red. Noah pushed a few plants aside and chuckled to himself before walking towards a man hunched over the carcass of a large buck. The man had pale violet hair and darkened skin. He was dressed in black robes as well but he had a sword's sheath strapped to his side and a shield strapped to his back.

"Akefia, don't do that!" Noah chided. The man, Akefia, looked up with violet eyes and looked from Noah to Seto uneasily.

"Who's the man with you Noah?" he said coolly before returning to skinning the buck with a knife.

"My step-brother, Seto." Akefia nodded.

"From the same place as you?" Noah nodded again as the bushes started rustling. Noah snapped around, slingshot ready, as Kisara stepped out with her hand at a quiver of arrows now strapped to her back. She groaned and lowered her bow.

"Akefia! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?! Mana ran back to the camp screaming about blood in the river. You know that if you skin anything it's not to be in the river of all places!" Akefia bit his lip nervously. Seto was slightly confused. Akefia had a shield and sword while Kisara only had a bow and arrow. She couldn't be all that intimidating. Noah shook his head with a smile before Kisara turned to him. "Back to camp with you two," she said jerking her head towards the camp. Noah nodded, walked over to Seto and pulled on his hand.

"Let's go," Noah whispered. "This is going to get ugly and I'm famished!" Seto smirked at his brother and let him lead him back to the camp.

Several fires were spread about the cabins. A good dozen were huddled around each as Noah lead Seto to one and they sat down. The woman Seto had seen earlier gave him a frightened look and tightened her grip on her baby. Noah gave her a kind smile and the woman nodded gently, her hood falling away as she did. She had short brown hair and deep brown eyes.

"That's Naori. She lived with her husband and father-in-law until the soldiers came and burned down their barn because her father-in-law had gotten ill and they hadn't been able to pay their taxes. Naori's husband died trying to save the animals while her father-in-law died telling her to run. She was almost half-dead when Kisara found her. She'd been keeping her baby alive all on her own and she even delivered him alone, the very same night she lost her family," Noah explained. Seto nodded understanding as a spit of meat was passed their way by a blond man with hazel eyes.

"Wheeler?" Seto said. The man turned a curious gaze. Noah smiled.

"Someone he knows that looks like you Jou," he quickly explained. Jou nodded and bit into his own meat. "Quick thing, you're in a different world so these people have different names." Seto nodded as he pulled off a piece of meat and handed it to Naori.

He looked around at the people around the fire. Across from him were Mahad and Mana. Rebecca sat next to the latter with a little boy with red hair and blue eyes next to her. Next to them was a look alike of Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin and Serenity Wheeler then the man Jou. On the opposite side was a woman that looked like Téa Gardner with a man that looked like the Pharoah Atem, a look alike of Ishizu Ishtar and her two brothers.

"Well, next to Jou is his sister Shizuka, followed by her two admirers Otogi and Honda. Then we've got Leonhart. On Mahad's side we've got Anzu and her husband Atemu, Isis, Rishid, and Malik. Most of these people here have someone either killed by the king or imprisoned by him. Ever since he took over, he's been increasing taxes to pay for his excessive drinking and has declared that he can only marry a princess and only that child will become his heir. As a result if any women go to prison, they're given to him as slaves. He sleeps with them and impregnates them. So far, zero pure-blooded royal children and sixteen half-royal children." Noah sighed before biting into his food.

Seto sighed, so far this king was not scoring any good points with him. He could understand enforcing laws when a multitude ignored them but doing it just for his own pleasure was monstrous.

Kisara and Akefia appeared from the underbrush a moment later, Kisara looking quite satisfied with herself and Akefia hauling his skinned buck over his shoulder. Kisara took a seat next to Noah and Seto and rubbed her hands on her robes.

"How did it go?" Noah asked as Akefia tied his buck to a spit and put it over the fire, turning it gently.

"Well," Kisara started as she picked up an apple, "He won't be scaring anyone with that river anytime soon." Seto chuckled as a cold wind blew through the camp, making him rub his arms slightly. His fingers came over a bump on his forearm. Curious, he rolled up his sleeve and almost had a stroke at the sight of a small, round… something embedded in his skin. It looked like a sapphire and pearl-colored marble the size of his eye that had burrowed halfway into his flesh. Noah's eyes widened at the sight of the thing on his stepbrother's arm.

"Cool," Noah breathed. The colors swirled as if they could understand what Noah said. Kisara's arched eyebrows had raised at the sight of Seto's arm.

"It took Noah a few days before he grew one," she commented.

"To grow what? This?" Seto said pointing at the bump. Kisara nodded. "What is this thing?"

"It's a Kaa egg. Basically, the monster that dwells within your soul is starting to become a physical being," she explained.

"Thank you, that is so helpful. Now how do I get rid of this thing?!" Kisara shrugged and bit into her apple again.

"I would appreciate you not take your frustrations out on me. But to answer your question: you don't. It'll hatch when it's ready. The best way for that is to have a lot of adrenaline. A Kaa reacts to energy. Once it hatches, your flesh will return to normal. We all go through it here. What about your people?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sure if this ever happens. But I do know that if this were to happen where I come from, it would more than likely cause my arm to be chopped off!" Kisara looked at Seto as if he were a fly that annoyed her.

"I believe I said that I would appreciate not being your vent for anger. It's not my fault this is happening to you. This is nature's course. Now, calm down. By tomorrow, you'll start your job around here. Remember one small rule, unless you are physically or mentally unable to work and earn your keep, you do not eat. Do you have any abilities you can use?"

"My stepfather taught me to read, write, and do maths," Seto replied. Gozaboro had also taught Seto how to weild a sword, javelin, bow and arrow, and ride horses but he felt like that was information best kept to him. Kisara nodded.

"Many of us here can read and write. But the younger ones, that's another story. Perhaps you could teach them. We'll discuss these things tomorrow though. It is late and I tire of this conversation," she said as she threw the last of her apple core into the fire and rose to her feet. She dusted off her robes. "Come along children," she said. Almost immediately Leonhart, Rebecca and Noah rose to their feet. "Seto, your dwellings will be with us. Just come into the house when you're ready for rest." With an elegant curtsy she turned and left.

"Interesting girl," Seto said as he pulled his sleeve back into place. A few people around him nodded.

"She can be like that but underneath she's a wonderful woman," Isis reported. "She started this refugee hiding place. Everything she does is for the better of the people here. She's been asked multiple times of her reasons for being here. Some have even asked if she was the King's daughter or a relative like that but she has declined all those questions. The only think she'll say is that she desires justice be served for all the blood that was spilt without reason." Seto looked back at the disappearing form of Kisara as she entered the cabin holding the hand of a small girl who'd hidden her features with her hood. He realized, somewhat sickeningly, that he and Kisara were very much the same.

Pheonix: Well, that's all. See ya next time!