Chapter 9, ladies and gents! Sorry for the fake-out, if you were fast enough to catch it—my document renumbered itself on me (it pays to know your story—that was how I caught it).

Yu-Gi-Oh! © 1996 Kazuki Takahashi

Don't Starve © 2013 Klei Entertainment

Yami woke up to find the being gone.

He sat up and looked about—it couldn't have gotten far. Yami was the only one who could easily go in and out of the cave. It must just be looking around.

He walked over to his bed area to find that yes, it was up and about, and looking at his things on the shelves. He noted that it walked on its hind legs. Intrigued, he sat back on his haunches and stood up in imitation. He was surprised to find that it came easy to him, although four-legged still served him better, he thought. He cleared his throat, prompting the being to turn.


Yugi froze.

Not literally—at least, not yet. But this being…it must be the Frost King. There was nothing else it could have been. It was tall, with thin limbs, blue, antlers scraping against the icy ceiling. Frosty blue fur formed a huge ruff about its neck and shoulders, with more fur around its wrists. Long fingers ending in black claws, large feet built for running on snow, swishing tail….

Strangely, the face was fairly human—it was longer than average, and had short fur and fuzz on it, and of course there was that strange third eye spouting blue flame (although from here, it looked carved in), but the face was humanesque. The hair was shades of blue spiked up, with pale yellow bolts of lightning for bangs—hair very similar to Yugi's own.

Yugi decided not to think about that. He had more important things to worry about.

The Frost King was lowering its head, nostrils quivering, icy blue eyes staring, wolflike ears twitching forward—if Yugi didn't know any better, he'd think that it was sizing him up to eat him.

It took a step forward.

Yugi took a step back—

And slipped on a particularly slick spot of ice.

"Augh!" Yugi cried as he fell. "No please don't eat me!"


Yami's ears perked up.

Oh, so that's what they talk like, he thought. He hadn't been sure about that—as far as he knew, the beings in the valley only had two eyes, not four, so he wasn't sure if this one was some sort of subspecies or something like that.

Whatever it said when it slipped and fell came out as a blurb, but Yami was pretty sure it said something about eating. "There's some soup in that pot over there," Yami said, gesturing with his head.

The way the being was looking at him reminded him of a rabbit. He hoped the conversation wasn't going to be like that.

It occurred to him that he was standing in the way. He stepped to one side, feeling slightly awkward on two legs. The being matched his movements, pressed against the opposite wall. When he was opposite the tunnel, the being bolted down it.

Yami resumed his four-legged gait as he followed it, interested. When he got to the other cave, he found the being at the far end, frantically scrambling through the assorted stuff and apparently searching for something.

It found whatever it was looking for; it pressed its back against the far wall and held out something long and shiny, stiff-armed. Yami went closer, curious as to what it had.

"Don't come near me!" it barked, squeakily. Yami stopped and tilted his head.

"Where am I?" it squeaked. "Why am I here?"

Yami glanced about and gave this some thought, although the answers were pretty straightforward. "You're in my home," he said carefully, feeling that the being needed to be addressed in a certain way at this juncture. "I brought you here. You were freezing to death in the snow."