Atem wiped the sheen of sweat from his forehead as he stepped into the shade of the porch. "Whew," he mumbled, "Going to be hot today." Having spent his childhood in the Egyptian desert, he was no stranger to heat. He didn't mind that the temperature rarely felt as if it dropped below twenty degrees; it was the humidity he couldn't tolerate. The sheer mugginess weighed down the air, making him feel like he was trapped within a suffocating blanket. He could easily escape the sun by retreating to the shade or going inside, but escaping the air wasn't as easy.

'It's a shame the solar panels don't make enough electricity to power the house and an air conditioner,' he mused as he opened a window, hoping to tempt in a breeze. 'But if I had an air conditioner, I'd have to give up either the fridge or the deep freeze. I need food more than climactic comfort, so that's not an option. I wonder if a small fan would take too much electricity….'

Alluring waves danced invitingly, the water glistening in the sun as Atem looked out the window. A grin spread across his face as he stepped out of his flipflops and hung his hat by the door. "There is ONE good way to cool off," he mumbled. He turned away from the window and strode back to the pile of clothes in his bedroom closet. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. He stripped out of everything he had on and tossed it on his bed, then pulled on slightly faded purple swim trunks. Already he felt more comfortable as he walked, shirtless, to the front door. Even in cooler clothes, the humidity still had him sweating as soon as he stepped off the porch.

The sand was hot beneath his bare feet, but Atem scarcely noticed. For him, walking on scorched sand was just one more thing he had learned to tolerate as a child. He made his way down to the shoreline. Waves swept back and forth over damp sand, washing away the sun's heat. The cool sand felt good between his toes as he waded into the shallowest water. As the next wave broke and splashed his knees, he recalled a handful of times during his childhood when he'd played in the crisp waters of the Nile. He hadn't been allowed to do that often, due to crocodiles and other dangers that hid in the river, but sometimes on the hottest days of the Egyptian summer, he had snuck out to go wading in the Nile. Now he was no longer a child. No one could scold him for wanting to go for a swim, and instead of a river, he had an entire ocean to dive into.

Atem took a deep breath as he leaned into another wave. He had waded in far enough that the waves splashed over his waist. Arms outstretched, he closed his eyes and flung himself into the next wave that came towards him. The water swirled around him, cool and refreshing compared to the stifling air. He turned around until a red haze filtering through his closed eyelids told him the sun was overhead. Kicking hard, he let out the breath he'd been holding with a gasp as he broke the surface. Weighed down by the saltwater, Atem's wet hair plastered itself to his face. He shook his head to clear it from his eyes as he tread water, noticing he was about a meter and a half from the shore. Although it was clear enough for him to see the bottom, he didn't have to swim out very far before the water depth was over his head.

Atem quickly sucked in a breath as another wave submerged his head. With all the free time on his hands, he'd managed to teach himself to swim rather well since he moved to the island. Until he first dived into the ocean, he wouldn't have believed anything could make his eyes burn worse than a grain of sand. The salty waters had proved him wrong. Over the months, he'd managed to build a slight tolerance to it, and now he could squint underwater for as long as it took him to count to thirty.

As he surfaced again and gulped down air, a flashing swirl of silvery yellow rushed past. 'I don't think I've seen that type of fish before,' Atem thought as he watched the school race towards the southern end of the island. 'I bet I know where they're going though.' Kicking out against the water, he propelled himself after the school. As he approached the southernmost tip of the island, the sea floor gave way to a forest of rocks, sponges, and corals of all shapes and colors. Countless varieties of fish, including the shoal that he'd followed, flitted about the small reef. Some were feeding, others resting, and many were doing activities that Atem couldn't begin to guess at. An anemone pulled in its tendrils as he swam past, startled by his shadow. Some fish scattered, while others swarmed around him in curiosity.

Atem swam over to one of the taller rocks and let himself sink into a sitting position. The water lapped at his chin and waves could easily cover his head, but from here he had a good view of the reef. His sudden movement scared some of the fish into hiding. Calmly he held still and waited. Soon tiny fish, no more than silver darts in the light, felt emboldened enough to swim closer. A sea krait drifted lazily past his stomach. He tried not to move as a blue fish nibbled his toes.

'I could sit here for hours on end,' he mused, 'And never get tired of watching. The only thing that would make this better is if I had goggles…or a snorkel…or both.' Atem's eyes tracked a sea turtle as it glided over the reef, ducking its head now and then to feed. A sense of peace washed over him as he shut his eyes. He didn't notice the flashes of scales beneath the water as the fish once again scattered to various nooks and crannies in the reef.

Atem sputtered as a splash of water hit him in the face. He blinked in surprise as the ocean around him filled with a series of clicks and squeaks. Something nudged him from behind. A fin sliced through the water beside him while another darted in front of him. One of the creatures leapt from the water giving him a clear view of a sleek grey body. Warm dark eyes and a narrow snout grinned at him as it slipped back beneath the water. This was the first time he'd seen a pod of dolphins up close.

Atem found himself laughing as the pod pushed him around. He couldn't help it. Their calls whistled through both air and water, a sound of boisterous mirth. He tried to count how many there were in the group, but it was hard to keep track of their constantly moving shapes. After a few attempts, he felt sure there were about sixteen large dolphins in the pod, along with two or three that looked small enough to be babies.

Unlike the shy fish of the reef, the dolphins approached him with bold curiosity. One would squeak at him, nudge him, click some more, and then dart off to click and whistle at its friends, while another dolphin started investigating him from behind. Slowly, Atem reached toward the nearest one. The dolphin squeaked and bumped its head against his hand, opening its snout in a toothy grin.

The breeze across Atem's face suddenly seemed chilly despite the evening sun. He stood motionless as his gaze turned to the northwest. The dolphin's skin had reminded him of a wet rubber toy. Toys made him think of games, and games always brought his thoughts to Yugi. A sense of loneliness wrapped around him as he stared past the island. The ocean beyond seemed to stretch forever to the horizon, obscuring the rest of the world with vast distance. Atem wasn't sure how long he spent gazing into the distance when a bump at his side drew his attention back to his current surroundings. The dolphin he'd been petting clicked at him. It turned its head to scrutinize him with dark, intelligent eyes.

"There is a very dear friend of mine who lives very far away," Atem softly told the dolphin as he patted its head. "I haven't seen him in a long time. I miss him." He watched in silence for a moment as some of the other dolphins snatched fish from the reef. "Bad things...seem to happen when I'm around. As if my presence is a magnet for dark and evil forces. It's better that I stay here alone than risk the unnecessary suffering of others."

Glancing back to the northwest, Atem was surprised to see the red and purple hues of twilight beginning to fill in the sky. 'Guess I've been out here longer than I thought.' He turned to the north and swam back along the shore toward his house. As he swam, the dolphin followed him, swimming loops around him and racing ahead and back to him like an aquatic puppy.

When he reached chest deep water, Atem let his feet sink to the bottom. He hadn't realized how tired his muscles were, but he felt it now that his legs had to support his weight again. A slight twinge made him wince. It felt like he was probably going to get a cramp in his left calf sometime tonight or tomorrow. A squeak from the water made him turn around. The dolphin that followed him chirped again. It swished its tail and tilted its head as if confused by Atem's actions.

"Sorry, but I can't stay in the water all night like you," Atem told the dolphin. "My dinner and my home are on land. Go on and go back to your family." He gave the dolphin one last pat before turning his back on the water and wading to shore.

Sand clung to his wet feet and ankles as Atem trudged up to his front door. He frowned slightly at the puddles of saltwater forming around his feet. 'That's the problem with going barefoot, it's too easy to track stuff inside. And that just means a mess that needs cleaning later.' He snapped his fingers and whispered, "Suab rediui." The excess water dripping off him suddenly gathered and ran down his back. It swirled gently at his feet, washing away the sand, and then trickled off the edge of the porch back towards the ocean.

"That's better," he sighed to himself as he ran a hand through his hair. Now that it was dryer, his hair was starting to stick up again. He knew it was best to rinse the salt out before it dried completely, but he decided that could wait until after dinner.

The clock on the wall showed a little past 8:30 as Atem reclined on the sofa with another cup of ramen. "Wonder if I can find anything to watch," he mumbled. He blew on the hot noodles as he picked up the remote for the TV. The TV set was an older model, sporting rabbit ear antennae, but it could get a decent picture. At least it could when it could pick up a signal. There was no guarantee of what programs it would pick up on any given day, and the quirky thing never seemed to get the same channel for two days in a row. Even the clarity was as unpredictable as the wind.

Atem flipped through five stations with various levels of distortion. Finally, he came to some sort of news program that had both intelligible audio and a picture with minimal distortion. 'Better than anything else I'll probably find tonight,' he mused. On the TV, the newscaster's last few words concluded a story and the program cut away to a commercial break.

The news station's logo flashed across the screen, and a sputtering noise drowned out the cat food jingle that began to play. Atem quickly reached for the glass of water he had sitting on the nearby table. He managed to swallow the noodles he was choking on after a few gulps, then stared at the TV in disbelief. 'Domino City Local News! Impossible! This thing NEVER picks up channels from that far away!' He watched in fascination as some of the commercials advertised places he remembered well. 'It's been so long...' he mused as the news logo flashed across the screen again.

The newscaster launched into a story about business dealings at Kaiba Corp that Atem had no interest in. He frowned when she played a clip of Seto Kaiba at a press conference. "There's one person I'm certainly not pining for," he muttered. Kaiba's voice droned on about his company being strong despite some recent economic troubles that Atem knew nothing about. 'No matter how connected he may be to my cousin, Kaiba's attitude just makes him so difficult to deal with….' Growing tired of the news, Atem picked up the remote as the newscaster moved on to her next story. Something she said caught his attention, and instead of pressing the channel up button, he hit the volume instead.

"...Fire in the college's third floor chemistry lab," she was saying. "Students and teachers were forced to evacuate the building due to the thick clouds of potentially toxic smoke. A few of the students were seen falling out of the windows when emergency responders arrived on the scene." The TV cut away from the newscaster to footage of the incident.

The camera was grainy, possibly taken from a cell phone, as it panned across a school building that had fire and sickly yellow and black smoke billowing from some of the windows. Maybe the smoke just looked strange because of some of the static on the screen. The wail of sirens came in as the first fire trucks arrived and began setting up hoses and ladders. A voice screamed somewhere off-screen, and the camera quickly turned towards the crowd of frightened students. Then it swung in the direction some of them were pointing, the burning windows. A small figure was just outside the window, its arms crossed over its face to shield itself as it fell.

Atem watched the screen as two larger figures fell out of the window after the first one, flames filling the window behind them. 'No,' he realized, 'Not falling...they're jumping!' The camera followed their path, and Atem heard himself gasp as his stomach clenched violently and painfully. The flashing lights on the fire trucks briefly lit up the smallest figure as it fell. He shut the TV off, feeling as if he was going to be sick as a cold chill spread through him. He would recognize that hair color anywhere.

"Yugi…." he whispered in shock to the now silent TV.

A cold shower failed to erase the news footage from his mind. "Makat Kemt ati menk, makat khenhemseku," he sighed. 'I need to calm my nerves.' Atem took a shaky breath and opened the door to the basement. The scents of stone and faint smoke caressed him in a tender embrace as he descended into his little piece of the past. The comforts of ancient Egypt surrounding Atem soothed him enough that his hands were steady when he lit the torches with magic.

"Nebiu deser." Warm light flickered into existence, burning away the dark gloom in the air. He picked up two sticks of incense from the small pile. Tonight he had two favors in mind. Using the torches, he lit the incense one at a time. Holding them across his chest in the traditional way, he carried the smoldering offering to the altar. Keeping the incense crossed, he laid it down and knelt amidst the smoke.

"Naunet nekheta hena nerimuta, Hestesa ne medjui aum," he whispered, "Wi nedjech nech di warkhet dju duaat nu na neti wefapa chen mitu." Smoke swirled around Atem as one of the incense burned brighter. It swept over the altar like a mighty wave from the depths of the ocean. Atem thought he could sense vague shapes flickering in and out of existence before they had definite form, but he kept his eyes closed.

A note of sorrow crept into his voice as he continued to whisper. "Wi nedjek nen hesu, Shed Necher ne makat hena kari." The smoky air rippled as the second incense burned more intensely. Atem felt as if a crocodile had crawled out of the Nile to watch him. He kept murmuring uninterrupted. "Me pah ren Horus, meneh nef makat. Su khenhems meriui hena su khet nebt nei." When he finished speaking, the smoke and the figures within vanished. Ash now lay where the incense had been. Atem stood as the torches sputtered out. As he turned around to head upstairs to his bed, the news footage played once more in his mind. Silent, glimmering tears finally spilled over and rolled down his cheek.

"How did he disappear like that?" Yugi wondered aloud as they stood beneath the bright Egyptian sun. "Or did we...just imagine that guy?"

"He was definitely here," Atem replied as he glanced down at the drying bandage on his arm. Picking up the canteen, he turned back to the direction the man had said they would find the river. "We should probably get moving. The longer we're out here with limited water, the worse off we'll be. This place is just as dry as it was back in my time."

Yugi nodded, following as Atem started walking in the direction of the river. "This heat's pretty brutal," he remarked as he wiped sweat out of his eyes.

Atem nodded. "…Yet another thing that hasn't changed."

Together, Yugi and Atem trekked steadily across the sand dunes. Silently they had agreed to drink as little and as infrequently as possible from their finite water supply. Their parched mouths and the oppressive heat discouraged conversation, so they spoke only when necessary. Dunes in the distance shimmered in the hazy air, sometimes even seemed to gleam with moisture, but when they got closer they found only dry sand.

Every step was double the effort that it should have been. The sand gave way beneath their feet ever so slightly, gently holding on until they pulled free. It also filled their shoes, forcing them to travel with a feeling of grit between their toes. The sheer vastness of the desert also messed with their perception of size. Sand dunes that looked tiny in the distance seemed to loom over them once they got closer.

'How far have we come?' Yugi found himself wondering as they climbed up yet another dune. It felt like hours since he'd lost track of how many times they had gone up and down the sand. 'How do we even know how much farther we have to go?'Some time ago, the heat had driven him to remove his jacket and leave it behind. While it had helped him feel cooler, Yugi was well aware of the sun's rays searing his arms, cheeks, and the back of his neck. He was sure he would end up with a nasty sunburn.

Sweat trickled down Yugi's skin as he panted from a combination of exertion and the heat surrounding him, causing his shirt to stick to his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment as he scaled a dune. The shimmering heat haze was making him a little dizzy. The sand beneath Yugi's feet suddenly gave way, and a sudden lurching sensation in his stomach was his only warning as he slipped. His eyes snapped open. He scrambled to find a hold as he began sliding back down the dune, but his hands could find nothing to grasp. A warm hand seized his good arm, stopping his fall.

"Are you alright?" asked Atem's voice from overhead.

"Yeah," Yugi replied as he scrambled back up, using Atem's arm for support. "It's just this stupid heat. But you don't seem to mind at all. How do you stand it?"

Atem shrugged and offered Yugi the canteen. He was sweating just as much as Yugi, yet somehow he didn't find it as disorienting. "I did grow up in it. Guess I'm just used to it." Shielding his eyes as he looked out over the horizon in search of some sign of the Nile, Atem briefly noticed his unbandaged arm looked a few shades darker. It seemed the desert sun was swiftly bringing out his natural Egyptian tan.

"If I remember right, there tend to be fewer large sand dunes near the river, so it shouldn't be this bad the whole way..." Atem let himself slide down the other side of the dune. "And it will be cooler as the sun goes down," he called back.

"That's good to know," Yugi mumbled. He gently shook the canteen. Water sloshed around inside, the echoing sounding suggesting that the canteen was about half full. He let himself have no more than two small mouthfuls before screwing the cap back on. His tongue and throat craved more, even though the water had grown warm in the sun. 'No,' he told himself as he hung the canteen over his shoulder. 'I can't drink it all, we have to share and make it last until we reach the river.' Feeling a little better, he slid down the dune to where Atem was waiting for him.

The sun was dipping ever closer to the western horizon when Atem finally reached the top of the tallest dune yet. He glanced behind him as he panted to catch his breath. The distance they had traveled was starting to wear him out; he wasn't sure how much farther he could go before his legs gave out. Looking down the dune, he saw that Yugi was just a couple meters below him.

"Throw me the canteen," he called down to Yugi. Yugi obliged, and Atem caught the shoulder strap before the canteen could fall to the bottom of the dune. Quickly he took a small sip, and then hung it over his shoulder. Something in the distance caught his eye as he looked ahead again, prompting him to rub his eyes to ensure it wasn't a mirage.

"I see it!" he cried excitedly.

"What?"

"The river!"

"Where!" The sand beside him slipped a little as Yugi scampered the remaining distance to the top.

"There!" Atem pointed to the expanse of land before them. Smaller ripples of sand replaced the giant dunes they had climbed all day. The sand gradually flattened out into a carpet of velvety green. A narrow ribbon of water shone like molten gold as it reflected the evening sun, bisecting the verdant canvas as it flowed parallel to the horizon.

"We're almost there!" Yugi felt a broad smile spread across his sunburned face. He stared at the river, imagining all the plentiful, cool water that had to be flowing in it. After so long in the heat it was the best daydream he'd had in his life. The only thing that would be better would be the real thing. Just the sight of the river so close sent a feeling of renewed strength and hope swept through Yugi's tired body. He couldn't wait to get there.

"Race ya!" he laughed at Atem as he took off sliding and rolling down the dune.

"Aibou!" Atem chortled, "It's not a fair race if you get a head start!" He quickly followed Yugi, feeling every bit as excited that they were so close.

The distance to the riverbank proved to be much farther than it looked. They finally reached it just as the setting sun was touching the western horizon. 'I can't believe we ran that whole way,' Yugi thought as they collapsed together, sweat dripping off their bodies. 'It must have been at least half a kilometer.' Breathless, they lay side by side in the grass as a bird swooped low over the river. Finally they could rest their weary bodies.

When his ragged panting had calmed to more normal breathing, Atem raised himself to a sitting position. His legs felt too tired to stand, so he crawled to the river and scooped up handfuls of water to slake his thirst. Water never tasted sweeter or crisper, in his opinion, than it did after spending a day without any under the Egyptian sun.

'Some things never change,' Atem mused as he surveyed the river valley. Yugi joined him at the water's edge, splashing water on his sunburned face before drinking. After a few moments, Atem stripped his shirt off. It felt cooler that way, and he wondered why he didn't take it off sooner. He dipped his shirt into the river. When the fabric was completely soaked, he pulled it out and draped it over his shoulders, wringing it so the cool water ran down his chest and back.

"That looks refreshing," Yugi observed. He wasted no time using his own shirt to copy Atem's actions. A sigh escaped Yugi's lips when he felt the cool water on his skin. "That feels so good."

Atem studied their surroundings again. "That strange man was right," he said softly.

Yugi blinked, an unspoken question reflected in his eyes.

"This is definitely hap wer," Atem answered.

"Ho... hap were?" Yugi struggled to wrap his tongue around the foreign words.

"It means 'great Nile'. It's what the river was called back during my time," Atem explained. "In fact…if I'm recognizing some of these land marks correctly…I think I might know where we are."

"Really?"

"Yes. The sun is setting in the direction we came, so that's west. And to the other side of hap wer is the east." Atem pointed in the direction the river was flowing. "So that's north, towards re hap and Cairo." He turned to the south and traced the river's curves in midair. "And a little ways to the south of here…used to be a town in my time. I don't think it's there anymore though."

"Well at least we know where Cairo is." Yugi shook his head. When he had been in the world of Atem's memories, the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian language had no meaning when he looked at them, yet he'd been able to understand the Pharaoh's words as easily as if they were conversing in Japanese.

'Why can't I understand him now,' Yugi wondered. 'Why could I understand him then? Did it have something to do with our link…? Or was it because the spirit in Bakura's Millennium Ring turned the world of memory into a Shadow Game…?' He didn't know for sure. All he did know was that now, when Atem slipped into his native tongue, the words rang smoothly and fluidly through the air. Yet to his ears, it sounded like meaningless, elegant gibberish.

"You look troubled Aibou, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just…Egyptian kind of confuses me," Yugi smiled reassuringly. "Oh, that reminds me." Yugi dug in his pockets and pulled out their dueling decks. Aside from being stuffed with sand, the cards seemed to be fine. "How'd you manage to make our cards gather up like that? You said some funny stuff in Egyptian then, too, didn't you?"

Atem nodded. "The power of the Millennium Items…is just one kind of magic. There were other kinds before the Items were made, and those other kinds didn't just disappear because of the Items. Although to be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull it off."

"Lucky for us that you did." He handed one of the decks to Atem. "Here, this is yours."

"Thanks."

Yugi was silent for a few moments before he spoke again. "...I'm sunburned to a crisp, aren't I?" he asked. "Be honest." He knew he was burned; he could see his arms were red and felt heat radiating from his cheeks, almost like a miniature sun. What he wanted to know was how bad it was.

"Well...you are pretty red... Pretty much anywhere you've got skin exposed except your chest...yeah." Atem glanced at his unbandaged arm, unsure how his skin had taken on a rich bronze color instead of burning. He decided not to think about it too much. Certainly he didn't envy the color the sun had painted on Yugi's skin.

"I knew it. I got fried and you just tanned. You're lucky."

"Honestly your face makes me think of a cherry rather than something fried." Atem tried not to laugh.

"Very funny." Yugi felt a pinch in his abdomen as his stomach grumbled audibly. "I wouldn't mind cherries OR something fried right now though."

Atem nodded, trying not to figure out how long it had been since they last ate. "There's always been fish in the river," he remarked, trying to think of something else.

"We have to catch them though, don't we?" Yugi asked as they both stared into the water.

"Yeah."

"…With what?"

"Our hands?" Atem felt too fatigued to try thinking of any better fishing methods.

Yugi sighed as he collapsed, lying on his back in the grass. "I'm too tired to catch fish," he groaned. "My legs hurt."

Atem flopped back and lay beside him. "Ugh, same here. Let's wait until morning; the river isn't going to disappear overnight."

They lay together in silence, feeling the aches in their bodies. Neither of them wanted to move unless it was necessary. Above them, the sky's colors faded from a bluish mauve hue in the west, to violet, to inky black in the distant east. Shadows on the ground around them grew longer and darker as the first faint stars appeared overhead. All along the river, a whispering melody from nocturnal animals began to drift through the air.

"How far do you think we are from Cairo?" Yugi asked suddenly.

"I'm not sure…if we are where I think we are, then we've got a long walk ahead of us…."

Silence once again surrounded them as moonshine replaced the vanished daylight. In the absence of the sun's blazing glare, the air was cooling quickly around them. Yugi found himself shivering as a cool breeze blew past. The night seemed abnormally cold to him after being in the sun for most of the day. Through the darkness, Yugi's ears picked up the sound of something large sliding into the water.

"Hey, Atem?"

"Hm?"

"What kinds of animals live along the Nile? Anything we should watch out for?"

Atem didn't answer right away. "Well," he finally said, "The river has changed in the last three thousand years, so I'm not sure what lives around here now…but there were lots of creatures that could be found in this area in my time. The river itself has fish and birds, but hippos and crocodiles are the biggest dangers. And in the more remote parts of the river valley sometimes there were lions. Or at least rumors of lions being seen."

"Anything else?" Yugi tried to keep his mind from being carried away by ideas about the noise he'd heard.

"Oh yeah. Snakes. You never know where you'll run into snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous. Although most of the dangerous animals tend to avoid large groups of people, like villages and towns."

"So out in the open was where it was dangerous," Yugi said quietly as he looked into the dusky night surrounding them. 'In other words, where we are right now.' A shiver ran through him, and he wasn't sure if it was from the night air or his imagination running wild. His sunburned face seemed pale in the moonlight as he quietly berated himself for being afraid of the dark.

A gentle breeze wove its way around Yugi. He shivered again, surprised by just how cool the desert could be. As recently as a week ago, he'd assumed deserts were hot all the time, even at night. 'Fire is warm…and most animals don't like to go near a fire….' The notion of a campfire seemed appealing to him as he lay in the dark. 'But we haven't even got anything to burn….' He ran his hands over the ground as his thoughts wandered. After a few moments, he realized the ground was littered with dead leaves, small twigs, and dry grass. Wearily he stood up despite the burning protest in his leg muscles.

"Something wrong?" Atem asked as Yugi bent over and began gathering the dry material.

"I was just thinking, maybe we should get a fire going."

"That's not a bad idea." Atem sat up and began clearing a wide patch of grass. He saved the grass to use for tinder as he bared a spot for the fire. It was tricky with only the wan light from the moon and stars, but together they managed to clear about a meter of ground.

Yugi kneeled in the middle and piled a small mound of dried leaves in the middle. Then he stood the smallest twigs in a cone shape around the leaves, and surrounded it all with dry grass. He kept the larger sticks set aside, intending to add them once the fire was lit. While Yugi was doing this, Atem gathered more fuel to keep the fire going. He sensed more than heard Yugi's quiet mutterings of frustration.

"Aibou?" he whispered gently as he turned to see what was the cause.

"I can't get this effing thing to light!" Yugi grumbled, frustration and fatigue overwhelming his usually pleasant demeanor. He held the two largest sticks they'd found in his hands. Despite rubbing them together furiously, he didn't even have a whiff of smoke to show for his efforts. "I KNOW we should be able to get a fire going this way! It's in nearly every stupid survival show on TV! What the hell am I doing wrong?"

Atem watched in silence as Yugi struggled. An idea was forming in his head, but he wasn't certain if it would work.He put a hand on Yugi's shoulder to get his attention. "Let me try something." Yugi gladly handed over the sticks he'd been abusing and watched. Atem held the sticks crossed in an X shape, resting the point where they touched on top of the kindling. For a moment he held still, hoping he wouldn't mess up.

"Asebiu," he murmured. A burst of heat radiated down his arms as a fiery sparks flickered into existence where the sticks touched. "There," he smiled as he dropped the sticks.

"Let me guess," Yugi said as he watched the sparks grow into flames that licked eagerly at the kindling. "More Egyptian magic?"

"Yeah, I couldn't think of anything else to try." Sparks flew up into the air as Atem added some dried grass and twigs to the fire.

"It worked better than my method, that's for sure. That's better than matches."

"Well there's no law that bans magic from being used for practical purposes." Atem stretched and lay down, tucking the canteen under his head for a pillow. "We should get some sleep. We've got to keep going tomorrow, and it's a long walk to Cairo."

"Great, another long hike," Yugi yawned as he felt his leg muscles throb.

"At least the river has water and fish."

Yugi's eyelids grew heavy. With the fire's heat taking the edge off the coolness of the night, fatigue was swiftly clouding his mind. Yawning again, he curled up next to Atem and they both fell asleep quickly.

Yugi gradually became aware of bright, red-tinted sunlight streaming through his closed eyelids. Groaning slightly, he turned his head and squeezed his eyes shut tighter, trying to block it out. 'Who left the bedroom curtains open?'he wondered sleepily. He didn't want to get up yet. His legs were sore and cramped.

In response to his movement, someone nearby mumbled in their sleep. Yugi felt an arm slip around him and pull him a little closer to a warm body. He snuggled against the other person, feeling safe in the embrace. A twinge of mild annoyance flickered through Yugi's mind as a sound reached his ears. He couldn't identify it, but it sounded like distant voices calling his name.

A sudden cacophonous sound blasted through the air, causing Yugi's eyes to fly open. "I'M AWAKE!" Yugi screamed as he leapt up, scattering the ashes of the fire. His heart pounded like it was about to jump out of his chest. Every muscle in his legs quivered from adrenalin, ready to ignore the fatigue and run from the source of the noise.

Yugi heard Atem exclaim vehemently in Egyptian, something that sounded roughly like "San chess mess!" He was on his feet beside Yugi, looking around wild-eyed for the source of the racket. More voices drew his attention.

"Yugi! Hey look! Pharaoh over here! Look here guys!" The voices came from the river. Atem blinked and squinted while Yugi rubbed his eyes. The morning sun reflecting off the water left them momentarily blinded. Once their eyes adjusted, they saw the Ishtars' boat sitting in the water before them. Jounouchi and Anzu stood waving on the deck as the boat's horn blared again.

"I guess we won't be walking all the way to Cairo," Yugi grinned as he waved back.

"We found 'em!" Jounouchi yelled as he turned and ran inside the boat. "It's them! We found 'em!"

"Race ya," Yugi teased, still riding his adrenalin buzz.

Atem laughed. Despite his protesting muscles, he managed to find the energy to jog after Yugi to the rope ladder that Anzu lowered from the side of the boat.