Note: Whoa, this chapter is finished faster than I expected! Now if only it were as easy with my other work... anyway, as things get worse for the Delta, Atem makes yet another new friend. Who is it? Time to read and find out!
Chapter 7: Shield
Four days had passed since the travelers' arrival at the Delta, and during those four days, everything started to change. It was the night of the fourth day, and Shizuka stepped inside the living quarters of her house, putting down her latest basket. Jonouchi looked up and saw the forlorn look on his sister's face, and he grew concerned. "Hey Shizuka," Jonouchi greeted, "How did your business go this time?"
"Not good." Shizuka replied, "Ever since Princess Nimea disappeared, it's getting even harder to sell my baskets."
"I don't understand." Seth muttered, "Your baskets are wonderful! Why would anyone not want to buy them?"
"It's not that. Almost everyone wants to have at least one of my handmade baskets." Shizuka said, "But now it seems that for some reason they can't buy them! When I tried to get customers, they always gave complaints about some new law that's making them too poor to buy even a single basket."
"You're kidding me!" Honda gasped in shock.
"No I'm not!" Shizuka cried, her tears starting to form, "If this keeps up, I would be forced to shut down my business and wander the streets as a beggar!" Atem, who was sitting at the door facing the beach, couldn't help but frown.
"This is nothing like Anzu described." He said, "She spoke of fishermen singing songs and giving praises as they catch fish. Yet ever since I came, I hear none of that. In the past two days, I heard people out at sea giving cries of horror. Even those cries have become silent today, leaving only the sound of the crashing wave."
"Now that you mention it, Atem," Shizuka said, "The rivers and seas seem to be empty of every fisherman as of recently. This never happened before."
"Clearly, something is going on here." Atem said, and with that, he stood up. Using his sword to guide him, he took a loaf of bread that was baked fresh from the basket weaver's oven. "I'll be at the beach if you need me." Atem said, heading out the door.
"Just be careful out there." Jonouchi said, "After all, this is foreign land." Atem gave a single nod, then went out. The sound of the waves seemed to give a sense of peace for the Blind Prince as he walked. But he knew better.
"By what Shizuka was telling me, things have gotten too quiet since my friends and I arrived." he said to himself, "I wonder… could all of those recent events be connected to each other?" He walked for a while in thought, until finally he grew a bit tired. Using the sound of the waves to aid his echolocation, he located what looked like a large round stone lying by a palm tree, not far away from the view of Shizuka's house. Atem stepped toward the stone, and sat down upon it for a rest. "Where's Yugi when you need him?" he asked himself as he broke the bread, "Surely, after spending so much time at the palace with Princess Anzu, he must know what's going on."
"Uh, hello!" a seemingly childish voice spoke out suddenly, grabbing Atem's attention.
"Huh? Who's there?" Atem called out, sensing immediately that he was not alone.
"Before you ask any more questions," the voice said, "Please get off of my back, will you?" At first, the Blind Prince was confused, but then he quickly realized what was going on: the voice he heard was coming from right beneath him! He was so surprised by the fact that he jumped off immediately. "Uuugh!" the voice groaned. Quickly, Atem ran his fingers over the stone he was sitting on. There were several large bumps, and as he went downward, he soon felt a large flipper. And as his supernatural senses told him, the object was a deep sea green. All this information immediately came together like pieces of a puzzle. The 'stone' he just sat on wasn't a stone at all: it was a large sea turtle!
"By the gods of the desert!" he gasped, "Please forgive me! I didn't hurt you, did I?"
The sea turtle gasped for a moment, then muttered, "Nothing's broken, to say the least. But DAMN! Do you know how heavy you are?"
"To be honest, I thought you were a stone. It turns out I didn't read my echolocation thoroughly this time. I'm very sorry."
"Oh don't you worry about it." The sea turtle said, "Just make sure you don't do that again, okay?"
"I'll be more careful in the future." Atem said, right when a loud rumbling noise echoed in his ears. The sea turtle pushed up slightly to look at her armored stomach, and she let out an exasperated sigh.
"Oh great!" she whined, "I'm getting hungry! And all I could find all day were locusts. Locusts! I can't stand the thought of those things in my mouth!" Atem listened with deep pity.
"You can have half of the bread I'm going eat," he said, holding the bread loaf in front of the sea turtle, "It's not much, but it's better than bugs, that's for sure."
The sea turtle happily took the bread loaf and started gobbling it up. "Thank you so much!" she said.
"It was my pleasure." Atem replied, taking a bite out of his bread loaf.
"By the way, I heard you say something about echolocation."
"Oh, that?" Atem said, "It's one of my gifts. For most of my life, they make up for my lack of sight."
"Lack… of sight?" the sea turtle asked in puzzlement, "You mean to say you're blind?"
"Yes." he said, "All I ever see is nothing but thick darkness, even in the daytime." That was when the sea turtle got a good look at Atem's milky-veiled eyes.
"Oh my! You weren't even kidding!" she gasped, "No wonder you mistook me for a rock!"
"If it weren't for your voice, I would have been none the wiser." said Atem, "Now that I think about it, I've never met a talking sea turtle before." He put his hand upon the hard shell, casually navigating his fingers over it. "You know," he said, "the way your shell is shaped? It reminds me of a shield. And from what I read about sea turtles, their shells are just as strong as shields."
"In that case," the sea turtle chuckled, "You can call me Shield."
"All right Shield," Atem said with a smile, "My name is Atem."
"Pleasure to meet you!" said the sea turtle, now known as Shield. She munched down the rest of her bread straight to the very last crumb. "So have you been blind like this for most of your life?"
"Mm-hmm," Atem said, "I was like this ever since the day I was born. And it's all thanks to a curse that was laid upon me days before that."
"You are under a curse?" Shield asked in curiosity.
"That's right. In a more basic sense, it was my father's punishment for a crime he committed in his past. He has since learned his lesson and has become a better person." His expression became more sorrowful. "Still, there are often times when I feel this sense of shame deep in my heart, and I think… it's so unfair!"
"Aw, don't be so hard on yourself." Shield reassured, "I mean, think about it. Not very many humans have echolocation like you do. To me, that makes you special, and you should be thankful for that."
The sorrow slowly began to fade, and Atem wiped away the tears that he started shedding. "Thank you Shield. I'll try my best to be thankful for my gifts."
"Oh, it's nothing!" Shield said, "Just doing my best to help!"
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, listening to the peaceful sound of the waves crashing at the beach. "Say Shield, do you mind if I sleep out here with you tonight?" asked Atem, "I find this part of the seashore very relaxing."
"Don't mind at all!" replied Shield happily, "Besides, it does get pretty lonely. I'm happy to have some company around for once." With that, the Blind Prince stood up.
"Okay then! I'll go to my friend's house for a moment, then I'll be right back to join you." And as he started walking back to Shizuka's house, he paused to say, "Oh, and Shield? Thanks again for the time we had tonight. Perhaps we could spend more time tomorrow."
"Oh definitely!" Shield said in excitement, "I'll look forward to it!" And with that, Atem went to tell his friends that he was going to spend the night at the beach.
Note: I bet you didn't expect him to make friends with a sea turtle, did you? So why are things going wrong in the delta? The answers lie in the next chapter! Until next time!