Chapter 6: The Cave of Wonders
Through the desert, Bakura and Marik led the horse on which Strings was sitting, scarves tied around their mouths to stop themselves from inhaling the harsh desert sand being blown into their faces. If Marik were alone with Bakura, he would've started complaining a long time ago, but the thought of riches and the determined look on his white-haired friend's face made him keep his mouth shut.
At last, the three approached a sand dune where Strings ordered them to stop. The Quiet One held up two pieces of a gold scarab and fitted them together.
At once, the scarab dove into a sand dune, and the dune rose up into a giant tiger head, just as it had for Kaiba and Weevil that first Egyptian night.
"Who disturbs my slumber?" asked the giant tiger head in a booming roar.
Marik was trembling from head-to-toe. Bakura felt just as scared, although he did not show it on his face, as he choked out the words,
"It is I, Bakura…I am a thief."
"And who are your companions, Thief Bakura?"
Knowing Marik was too petrified to speak and, remembering Strings was known as the Quiet One, Bakura spoke for both of them.
"This is Marik…he's my friend and a fellow thief," said Bakura, "And this is Strings the Quiet One. He showed us the way here."
"What do you plan to do with the treasures within, Thief Bakura?"
"I wish to impress the Sultan so I can ask him to marry his son, Ryou," Bakura answered, "I…I met him, and…well, I really like him," he finished rather lamely.
The tiger head didn't speak at first, but only eyed Bakura suspiciously; then it growled, "Thief Bakura, you and your comrade Marik may proceed. Touch nothing but the Millennium Puzzle."
The tiger opened its mouth wide enough to admit them.
"Remember our deal, boy," Strings spoke to Bakura, "Fetch me the Puzzle, and you shall have your reward."
And with that statement in mind, Marik and Bakura started their slow journey down the long set of steps of the Cave of Wonders,
When the two reached the landing at the end of the staircase, they found themselves inside of a gold-encrusted room, nearly covered in exotic treasures made of every gem and precious metal imaginable, different colors reflect off the walls thanks to the candlelight bouncing off of the different jewels.
"Ra Almighty," Marik breathed.
Bakura couldn't help but laugh. "Imagine…one handful of this stuff would make me richer than the Sultan himself!"
Then he sighed. "But a promise is a promise. We gotta find that Millennium Trinket before we get anything. Come on, Marik."
"But can't we just take one thing?" Marik pleaded, eying a golden crown with deep-set emeralds and diamonds in particular, "I mean, that guy will never know-"
"Come on," Bakura growled.
Marik pouted, his eyes still on the crown as he followed his friend.
"But we're thieves…surely he doesn't expect us not to-?"
"We're not taking anything until we find that Puzzle," snapped Bakura.
"But-"
"Shut up and walk, Marik."
Marik and Bakura walked in silence for a few moments through the glittering chamber…
And from the corner, an Arabian-looking rug uncurled itself from the tight roll it had been in, and in an almost curious way, lifted itself off the ground to take a look at Marik.
The platinum-blond-haired Egyptian whirled around, only to see the rug lying down on the floor near his feet. Assuming he had been seeing things, he turned around and continued walking.
The rug flew up off the floor again and continued to follow Marik; when he turned around again, the rug dodged his sight by flying above his head.
"Bakura…" Marik muttered awkwardly.
"What?" Bakura barked without turning around. He didn't quite mean for his voice to be so harsh, but it was kind of hard not to be when Marik had been testing his temper earlier.
"I feel like someone's watching us…or something…"
"That's nonsense, Marik," Bakura said gruffly, "What would be watching us, a chandelier?"
Marik jerked involuntarily to look above him, and when he did, he finally saw the flying rug. He screamed like a girl, before jumping to try and hide behind Bakura, but instead pouncing on him like a cat would a mouse.
"Marik, what the fuck…get off me, you nimrod!" Bakura struggled to push his panicked friend off of his back, and turned around to see the rug hiding behind a golden chest.
His dark brown eyes widened.
"A Magic Carpet," he whispered in thrilled astonishment.
After a moment, Bakura spoke to the Carpet as gently as he could speak with his harsh, deep voice, "Come on. Come out…we won't hurt ya."
"Bakura, you do realize you're talking to a rug, don't you?" Marik muttered exasperatedly, but he continued to hide behind Bakura as though the Magic Carpet was going to eat him.
But the Magic Carpet peeked over the chest like a little kid playing Peek-a-Boo, before flying meekly over to the two men.
"I'm Bakura," the thief introduced himself, "And this idiot hiding from you is Marik. We're-"
Bakura would've said more, but the Magic Carpet waved its front right tassel as if to tell him to get his attention, before the same tassel, almost acting like a human's hand, started to trace letters into the sandy ground in front of them.
"Y-U," Bakura read the letters out loud, "G-I. Yugi. Is that your name?"
The Carpet tapped its front tassels together like human hands applauding a wonderful musical performance.
"Great, it's a rug with a name," growled Marik, "I thought it being able to fly was bad enough…"
"Oh shut up, you idiot," Bakura hit him over the head, "He might be able to help us."
He looked back at Yugi. "We're trying to find this 'Millennium Puzzle.' Do you know where we might find it?"
Yugi flew up into the air rather quickly, as if excited about something, before gesturing with his tassel to follow him as he flew off down a passage into a darker section of the Cave of Wonders.
"For once, Bakura," Marik grinned, "I'm glad you decided to talk to a rug!"
Yugi the Magic Carpet led the two thieves down the dark, cavernous passageway, through different, smaller halls that zigzagged in a complex pattern like a mythological labyrinth.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Marik muttered after staring at Yugi for more than fifteen minutes in puzzlement, "How can a rug without eyes or ears navigate through these tunnels so easily when we couldn't even find the beginning of this passage?"
"It's magic," Bakura said with a shrug, "It's not supposed to make sense."
Two minutes later, Bakura, Marik and Yugi found themselves entering a tall antechamber, and on the top of a tall mountain-like rock with an almost staircase of stone on the side facing them, Bakura could see something gold shining in the candlelight.
Yugi pointed with his tassel at the top of the rock, and Bakura nodded in understanding. That shine must be the Millennium Puzzle.
The white-haired thief stepped onto the first of the stone "steps," before climbing up to the second, the third, the fourth and so on.
Marik sighed, looking around the dark antechamber in distaste. If he had only stayed behind in the treasure room, there might be something of value…
Then a red glint caught his eye.
A large red ruby was in the arms of an enormous golden statue of a jackal sitting in the corner, glinting tauntingly at the Egyptian. Next to the jackal's head on the stone wall was a gold plaque with the engraved words:
RUBY OF ANUBIS: AT SIGHT, GREED SHALL CONSUME THEE.
Unfortunately, Marik had only eyes for the ruby and not its message. Almost out of his own control and his lavender eyes hazing up like a fogged-up window, the Egyptian took a step…then another…
Yugi, however, noticed in silent horror what had happened, and immediately tried grabbing onto Marik's shirt with his tassels to try and pull him back. But his tassels were not hands, and therefore could not hold back the hypnotized young man. Marik took another large step…his hands outstretched…
And Bakura picked up the small, rectangular box waiting for him at the landing. It was gold and engraved with various hieroglyphs and pictures of Egyptian gods, and in the center was a large eye: the symbol of the Millennium Items.
Feeling excitement flood his veins, Bakura pulled the lid off of the box.
Inside was an odd necklace with an upside-down triangle pendent, with a gaping hole in the center where another piece of gold should've completed it.
"This…is it?" Bakura looked at it in disgust and disappointment, "We came all the way down here for a broken necklace? What kind of stupid joke-?"
It was here that he had looked down at Marik being pulled back by Yugi, and his eyes widened in shock when he caught sight of the gold plaque.
"MARIK, NO!" Bakura shouted, but it was too late: Marik's fingers had already found the jewel.
"INFEDELS!" the tiger's voice roared through-out the cavern as Marik shook his head to clear his thoughts, "YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE FORBIDDEN TREASURE!"
Marik was still trying to figure out what was going on when the ruby in his hand started to melt; in alarm, he dropped it, as the golden jackal where the jewel had once sat started to melt also.
"NOW, YOU SHALL NEVER AGAIN SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!"
The top of the rock where the box holding the broken Puzzle had sat burst into flame. In surprised fright, Bakura ran down the rock as fast as he could, clutching the golden box close to his chest, and jumped over the small pool of lava quickly forming where the floor had once been to get back to Marik.
"What are we going to do?" yelled Marik, before jumping out of the way of a rock falling from the collapsing ceiling, "The whole cave is coming down, and we're way too far from the exit to run for it!"
Bakura opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he felt something touch his shoulder. He turned around to look at Yugi, who was now floating horizontally a little ways above the ground.
Bakura's dark eyes widened. "You'd really help us out of here?"
Yugi's tassel formed a shape that looked like a hand with a thumb's-up.
"I take back every single bad thing I said about you," Marik said weakly.
Yugi merely gestured for them to hurry up, and without any more hesitation, Marik and Bakura jumped onto the Magic Carpet, before Yugi zoomed back toward the exit.
The two young men were having difficulty holding onto the rug as Yugi went upside down and dodged sharply as to avoid the falling rock and spurts of lava shooting in various directions. It was as if the Cave of Wonders was determined to have two dead bodies resting inside by the end of the day, or maybe sooner.
At last when they were near three feet of the breaking entrance, a large boulder from the ceiling fell on top of Yugi, throwing Bakura and Marik into the falling-apart steps they had used to enter the cave in the first place. The two clung on for dear life (Marik with both hands and Bakura with only one since he was still holding onto the Millennium Puzzle), before their only savior came into sight.
"Strings!" shouted Marik, "Help us out!"
"Throw me the Puzzle!" Strings yelled back.
"I can't hold on!" Bakura said desperately, trying to steady his sweaty grip on the stone step, "Give me your hand!"
"First give me the Puzzle!" Strings repeated more forcefully.
Seeing he had no choice, Bakura stretched the hand holding the box over to the Quiet One.
But the hand that grabbed it from him was much larger and tanner than Strings'.
A tall, dark figure held onto the box, laughing in evil triumph and a golden rod with the Millennium symbol shining in his hand. All Marik and Bakura could see of him was his narrowing azure eyes glinting through the darkness.
"Who…who are you?" Bakura demanded, his eyes narrowing.
The figure stopped laughing.
"I give voice to the Quiet One," Strings and the man spoke together, "He is but my simple mind slave…and now, thanks to you, boy, I now have the power to take over the entire world…I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you."
"You…!"
"Oh, but there is one way," the figure's mouth went up into a smirk, "I'll give you and your friend painless deaths before I head up to the palace and handle the Sultan and your pretty little boyfriend."
Bakura snapped.
"You'll do no such thing!"
He grabbed a medium-sized rock off of the stone steps, and aimed only vaguely before throwing it in the figure's direction.
The rock hit right on target in his eye; the man cried out in pain and dropped the box, just as Bakura lost his grip on the stone steps and fell into the dark chasms below.
"BAKURA!" yelled Marik, before the box holding the Millennium Puzzle fell onto his head, knocking him unconscious and making him let go and fall down after Bakura.
Luckily for the two thieves, Yugi the Magic Carpet had finally struggled free from his prison underneath the giant boulder, before flying up to catch Bakura, the golden box, and the unconscious Marik and drifted them gently to the ground.
The figure and the motionless Strings watched as the tiger head slowly closed its mouth and faded back into the sand forever.
Seto Kaiba's cursing shouts were loud enough to be heard throughout the desert, but weren't ever heard by anyone.