Chapter 9

What Would Frodo Do?

BTW!!! Please read the authors note. It's got some important stuff in it. TY!

HEY!! Oh MY GOSH I haven't updated in like 4eva! I'm soo sorry. I've had a heap of stuff on and like loads of other stories that have suddenly hit it off. I know I know, no excuse really but whatever. And OMG!!! I've got like so many of other readers that have put this story in their favs and alerts so I'm eternally grateful. Never thought that any of my stuff would get that. BUT… yes, yes. I know. There's always a 'but'. But I have to say it. Can you guys please review? I'm so friggin happy you like it but I need to hear some reviews about whether it was good or not and what I need to improve. One more last thing. I've decided to change the Title of this story to "Countless Rescues" SO the next update will be in this title k? I'm still thinking about the summary. Anyway without further delay…

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"Stupid, conceited, male chauvinistic pig…" Mina muttered, stalking through the forest. She had spent the last few hours in the northern forest, exploring. The tribe had warned her not to go through the Northern Forest as there were dangerous creatures nesting in its depths but she went heedlessly. Mina figured that she had her Sais and Duel Monsters to help her if the need arose. She swung her wooden stick around, the flame on the tip of it illuminating the horrible darkness.

'Plus, I would welcome a fight.' Mina thought to herself. 'Anything to get my mind of that STUPID ass hole that calls himself Seto Kaiba. I just spent three perfect days with him and then he has to go and ruin it all. ARGH! I can't believe he went and did that.'

Mina stalked off under a large tree and leant against it. She stared out into the gloom and bright yellow eyes seemed to stare out of everywhere. She began to realise that maybe coming in here wasn't such a good idea after all.

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'Crap. I really shouldn't have done that. But I couldn't help it. Bloody hell! Does she have to be so fucking uptight. Maybe I should go say sorry. Wait, Seto Kaiba doesn't say sorry to anybody. But I can't help feeling bad… No. Stop. All right, fine. I better go find her.'

Seto Kaiba groaned and jumped neatly out of his hammock that Mina promptly decided was his to sleep in the first night they were here in the year 1020. He walked out of their tiny hut and stretched. The clothes he was wearing was quite different from anything he usually wore but then again no one knew him here except for Mina and Kaiba wanted to show Mina that he wasn't a heartless asshole. As he stretched, the hem of the t-shirt he wore rose above his stomach, showing of his perfectly structured abs. The young women in the huts around him all started. Women are women after all, no matter whether you live in the 21st centaury or the year 1020. No matter what time you're in, a perfect body on a perfect male tends to make you go weak at the knees. To bad Mina wasn't there to acknowledge the sight as well. His long, stylish black tracksuit pants flowed over his long legs and the red stripe on the side of the pants continued down the leg until it reached his black shoes.

He walked around the village trying to get a clue as to which way the upset girl had gone. Soon he reached the Chamber of the Dark Star where Fallen Angel and Ahanu were talking about Fallen Angel's past.

"Where's Mina?" Kaiba demanded, walking into the chamber and facing the two.

"She said she was going out to the Northern Woods. You know, what you said hurt." Fallen Angel looked sternly at Kaiba.

"She went out to the Northern Forest? Today?" Ahanu asked worried.

"Yeah. That's what she told me."

"Oh no…"

"What's wrong?" Kaiba asked worriedly. No matter what he tells himself, subconsciously he knew that he liked Mina a lot and wanted to make sure she was ok.

"This is the time when Arillarachs breed. And they are particularly fierce in protecting their nests."

"Uh… What are Arillarachs?" Fallen Angel looked around nervously and Kaiba nodded in agreement.

"They are this land's native hunters. We are not the top of the food chain here. The Arillarachs are. They are built for killing. They are giant spiders about one and a half metres high and about one and a quarter metres long. They hunt by piercing their prey with their long pincers and eating them whole. Sometimes they inject a liquid into their prey, keeping them fresh until time to eat. But the worst time to come across them is during their breeding time. Then, they will do anything to take care of their young. The parents cannot eat for two months after the breeding and so to quell their horrible killing instinct, if they catch you, they will inject a different type of liquid into you. It is a poison, specific for the Arillarachs. The purple liquid enters your veins and kills you slowly. After being poisoned by the Arillarachs, you will only live for a span of two days and one night."

"SHIT!" Kaiba swore and ran outside. There, he flicked open and card and scanned it on his ankh's eyes. The card glowed and Blue Eyes appeared out, screeching its terrifying roar.

Kaiba climbed up onto its back and shouted his orders to it and the two sped away, followed closely by Fallen Angel.

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"Ok. So I wasn't thinking very clearly when I came out here." Mina backed away slowly from the incoming spider that was scuttling towards her.

It was almost exactly like Shelob from The Lord Of The Rings except that it was real and that it wasn't Frodo that was about to get stabbed, but Mina. 'What did Frodo do in this situation? Oh wait; he got pierced by its giant, hideous pincers. Not a good idea. Um… SHIT! What the hell am I supposed to do!?'

Mina slowly edged her right hand to the place where she kept her Duel Monster card but the Arillarach didn't allow her to get that far. It hissed, blinked its thousands of disgusting eyes and lunged forward. Mina dodged to the side and edged backwards. Slowly she backed away from the incoming Arillarach. Suddenly she bumped into something hard. 'Great. A tree. Now what am I supposed to do?' Mina reached her hands down slowly to her belt and drew out her Sais. Now she felt safer. The Arillarach lunged at her, its massive pincers snapping at her face and Mina dodged out of the way. She flipped her Sais in her hands and plunged one of them deep into the Arillarach's body. It screeched and lunged back, taking one of Mina's Sais with it. It scuttled forward, slightly hurt and now hungry for Mina's blood. Her eyes went wide as it leapt for her head. Quickly she rolled out of the way and wrenched the Sai out of the Arillarach's body. Mina ran behind the giant monster and began thrusting both Sais, in and out of the Arillarach's body. It just screeched and flipped round, its many eyes blinking in her face. 'Jesus Christ! Does this thing ever die?!' The Arillarach snapped its foot out and threw Mina over its head, making her land right in front of a tree. She backed up into it and stood up, panting. The Arillarach slowly crept up to her, every one of its eyes staring at its prey. Mina stared back at it not knowing that another Arillarach was right on top of her, slowly climbing down the huge tree. Mina heard a loud snapping sound right beside her ear and she whirled round, looking straight into the face of a large Arillarach. She screamed in shock and fell to the ground just as the Arillarach pulled back its long sharp tongue back into its mouth, dripping with purple venom.

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A scream filled the air and it resonated all around the forest, eerily echoing all around Kaiba.

"Did you hear that?" he looked down at Blue Eyes whom he was riding on.

Blue eyes just nodded and flew faster. Fallen Angel looked around worriedly for any sight of the raven-head but nothing other than the piercing black of the forest. Without warning, Blue Eyes snapped to the right and sped up.

"What's the matter?" Fallen Angel looked at the huge white dragon next to her.

Its only response was a small indication with its head to dark part of the forest, in between the trees, where a small yellow glow was coming from. Fallen Angel's eyes widened and the three of them dodged up and down through the trees trying to get through the mess of trees.

"Look!" Kaiba yelled

As Blue Eyes, Fallen Angel and Kaiba got closer, they saw a horrible sight. About 50 Arillarach's surrounded a small body, which was lying on the ground barely breathing. Kaiba's breath hitched in his throat and urged Blue Eyes on. Blue Eyes let out a deafening roar and flew directly above the Arillarachs. Hissing and snapping their pincers, the Arillarachs jumped in the air, trying to attack Blue Eyes but to no avail.

"Blast them!" Kaiba yelled to the two powerful duel monsters.

"With pleasure!" Fallen Angel called and raised her hands up in the air.

Blue Eyes opened it mouth and a white surge of energy accumulated there. When enough energy and power was gathered, Blue Eyes let fly! A blast of white came from above and hit the surrounding Arillarachs. From the right, a huge ray of power came from Fallen Angel, striking at least 7 of the Arillarach's dead. The Arillarachs were not used to this kind of power. They screeched and scuttled away into the darkness. Blue Eyes landed and Kaiba sprinted towards Mina, who lay at the side, face pale. He pressed two fingers to her neck and felt her pulse.

"Just barely alive." He whispered.

He looked her over and saw the wound that the large Arillarach had given her. It was covered in a sticky purple substance.

"No…" Fallen Angel whispered walking over to her friend.

Kaiba slowly picked her up, bridal-style, and carried her to Blue Eyes, who helped Kaiba get on its back. Slowly the three of them carried the poisoned girl back to the village.

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Ahanu looked out of his hut to see the shape of a tall woman with wings on her back flying towards the village. Next to her, a giant white dragon flew, carrying a tall, straight-backed man who seemed to be carrying something. Ahanu ran out to meet them and his face fell as Kaiba jumped of Blue Eyes carrying the limp form of Mina. Kaiba looked at Ahanu and closed his eyes for a second. Slowly, he carried Mina to their hut and laid her on the bed, Blue Eyes and Fallen Angel following closely.

"Thanks Blue Eyes. We couldn't have saved her without you." Kaiba looked at his favourite Duel Monster and smiled weakly. "Here, have some rest." And with that, he called Blue Eyes back into its card and slipped it into the top of his deck. He turned to face Fallen Angel.

"Do you - "

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"You were going to ask if I wanted to go back into my card and the answer is no."

"Fine. But do you have any idea how to cure her?"

"I don't know. She may have Magician of Faith in her deck. Tea gave it to her for a present when Tea decided she didn't want to duel anymore. Not that she duelled much before anyway."

Kaiba turned to the sleeping woman and slowly touched her arm. He slipped her deck out of the deck holder she was wearing on one of her two belts. Quickly, he shuffled through the deck until he found the one he was looking for. Snapping it in front of his ankh's eyes, the card glowed. Magician of Faith stood in front of him, her pink hair waving in the slight breeze that slipped through the open door. Kaiba motioned to Mina and Fallen Angel took her aside, whispering what happened to Mina. The Magician of Faith nodded.

"I do not know whether this will work or not. Do you know any other way to cure her?" she asked in a small voice.

"Ahanu said there was not." Fallen Angel replied.

"Alright."

Magician of Faith laid her hands over Mina's wound, which was just by her waist. Her hands glowed and so did Mina's wound. They stayed like that for about fifteen minutes or so until Magician of Faith took her hands away from Mina.

"This is all I can do. I have tried all my magic and I cannot do any more. I think she may live. The venom that was injected into her has all been sucked away. But she will have a very high fever for a long time and she will not wake up for a few days. But the danger still has not passed yet. I cannot do any more for my magic has run out and none of the other Duel Monsters can do anything as Mina nor you, Kaiba, have anything in your deck that can heal. You have that one thing in common at least."

"Is there anything we can do to make her better?" Fallen Angel asked.

"Yes. Make sure she is always warm. And make sure you moisten her brow and lips every few hours. Her lips will become dry and cracked while her brow will become to hot, which doesn't help with her fever. Always make sure there is enough food by her bedside, just in case she wakes up. When she does, she will be ravenous."

"Thank you." Fallen Angel clasped the Magician of Faith's hands in hers and smiled slightly. Kaiba just nodded.

"Now I must go. I am very tired and need to rest for a good five days. I really do hope she recovers. Mina was a very wonderful girl."

"She still is."

Magician of Faith nodded and glowed bright as she returned to her card. Fallen Angel looked out to the blackening sky and then looked back at Kaiba.

"I'm going to go hunt for some food as well as get some other types of food for us. Then I'm going to go to sleep in my room. I'm really tired. I'll be back first thing in the morning to give you the food. Make sure Mina's warm enough." She instructed and turned around.

Kaiba nodded and watched as Fallen Angel flew away. He turned his attention back to the woman lying on the bed. Her black hair lay all round her head, spreading out like a crown while the red highlights in her hair seemed to glow from the dying light. Her sharp, angular face looked peaceful as she lay there although tiny beads of sweat were coming out of her brow. She was wearing a pair of light blue jeans that fit her quite nicely, along with a white tank top. A necklace lay at her chest and Kaiba just realised that she never took it of. It was a beautiful design of a tear shape covered in a sapphire coloured glass.

There was a catch on the side and Kaiba couldn't help but feel a little curious. Giving Mina an apologetic look, he opened up the necklace and stared at three pictures. On the right was a picture of her grandfather, whose white hair was standing up at all ends while he drew a card from his deck. To the left was a picture of her parents, smiling joyfully. And in the middle lay a picture of Yugi and Mina. They looked very young, around the age of ten even. Yugi was carrying her and was in the process of spinning her around. Mina had a look of pure joy on her face and her smile was so large it could reach her eyes. Her eyes… They seemed to sparkle in the picture.

Kaiba looked at the sleeping woman who lay there and closed the locket. He placed it back onto her chest, accidentally brushing her bare skin of the top of her chest. (A/N: Accidentally? Yeah Right Seto darling. You just keep thinking that eh?) Mina began to shiver and Kaiba looked around for a blanket. Upon seeing one, he unfolded it and placed it over her and got up to close the door of the hut. He then closed the window. But the cold air was still getting in.

'That's what happens when you live in a hut of sticks I guess. Ok its not sticks but still, its quite close.' He thought to himself.

Mina was still shivering as he walked up to her and now the shivering had gotten worse. Kaiba grabbed his coat out of his bag and wrapped it around her and then pulled the blankets over her. As he looked down at her, he got an uncontrollable need to just hold her. He pulled back the blankets and slipped down underneath them and wrapped his arms around the sleeping girl. Her shivering almost immediately went away. Her slow, steady breathing was a sort of lullaby for Kaiba and he found himself drifting off to sleep.

In the last moment of his consciousness, a thought entered his mind.

'I love Minako Moto.'