Chapter Eight: Wolf in Bro's Clothing
"This is ridiculous," Kaiba snarled as he shoved a pink-and-white-flowered branch out of his way with his free hand. He and Mokuba had been travelling for what seemed like an eternity through a sea of delicate petals and rough tree bark, and yet they hadn't come across any sort of separate exit from this mysterious place whatsoever. "Whoever brought us here is completely wasting our time."
Kaiba was so focused on the path before him that he didn't notice his little brother roll his eyes at the comment. Does this human ever do anything but complain? Geez, I'm not really sure if I'd enjoy such a sour meal…
His eyes flashed with a glint of yellow once more. Then again, it's not as though I have an extensive menu to choose from…when you live in these secluded woods, you take whatever people you can get…He licked his lips as he looked up and down Kaiba's sleeveless red trenchcoat. Especially red-clothed ones…I've always had a big taste for them, for some reason.
"What sort of place is this, anyway?" Kaiba continued. He paused and opened his palm out before him, allowing a few of the small, fluttering petals to drop into his cupped hand. "If someone wanted to torment us, they might have chosen something a little more along the lines of fearful," he dropped the petals to the ground in disgust.
Ugh, enough of this complaining already! Mokuba gnashed his teeth together. He took in a deep breath and spoke in as calm a voice as he could muster, "Seto, what if the fearful part of this world is hidden under all of this pretty scenery, just so that once we let our guard down it can come out and eat us or something?"
Kaiba glanced down at his brother in disbelief. "Mokuba, exactly what do you imagine here that could scare somebody?"
"I dunno…bears, bees…maybe a wolf?" He spoke the last three words in a bit of a rush.
"A wolf." Kaiba glanced down at his died jacket and pulled at its collar. "So is that supposed to make me, what's her name…"
"Red Riding Hood!" Mokuba burst out in exasperation. How in the world can any kid not be aware of every detail in that fairy tale? It's a classic, for crying out loud!
Kaiba was a bit taken aback by his little brother's sudden outburst, but he simply put it down to his brother feeling as annoyed as he did about being stuck in these woods. When he regained his composure, he conceded, "Right, that was it."
He turned and continued down the path with a noise of disgust, his brother just a little bit behind him. "What a ridiculous story; only someone who's completely blind would be oblivious to the fact that their grandmother has been replaced with a grey, dog-like creature in her clothing!" He raised his voice up to a higher, mocking tone: "Oh, what big eyes you have!"
Mokuba gave a small, devilish grin. "All the better to see you with," he whispered with glee. The yellow gleam flashed once more in his dark eyes.
"Oh, what big ears you have!"
"All the better to hear you with." Mokuba couldn't help but rub his hands together and lick his lips.
"And her last line is my personal favorite," Kaiba rolled his eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, what big teeth you have!"
That's my cue. "All the better to EAT YOU WITH!"
Kaiba whipped around at the sound of his brother's screaming. His eyes widened with shock when he saw that his little brother's eyes had turned a shining, distinct shade of yellow, looking at him extremely hungrily. When he grinned, he revealed a mouth filled with sharp, pointed teeth able to rip through just about anything they bit.
When he finally snapped out of his initial shock and disgust, he screamed at the creature, "Where's my brother, you freak?!"
"Currently being digested," the thing grinned nastily as he began to grow in height and muscle. Grey tufts of fur started to burst out all over his body, ripping his clothing into shreds that fluttered to the ground. Shining claws came forth from the tips of his fingers and toes before he slammed down onto all fours, his neck craning forward with a sickening crick to reveal a snout grown forth on his face and pointed ears atop his head. "But don't worry," the wolf growled in a low, guttural voice, "he was the appetizer, and you'll see him once more by being my main course!"
"Not if I can help it," Kaiba snarled. He pulled one hand back and flung it out towards the creature.
A few little sparks of white lightning burst forth from his palm, sputtering and dissipating into the air almost the instant after they appeared.
Kaiba raised his palm towards his face and stared at it in horror. "What the-"
The wolf's maniacal laughter made him look back up. "You foolish human. Those who become parts of fairy tales in this world aren't able to use their powers; it simply wouldn't befit their characters!"
He opened his mouth wide, little streams of drool dripping down his pointed teeth, and crouched down in preparation to pounce. "Now, then-FEEDING TIME!"
The large beast leapt into the air with a howl, stretching its mouth open as wide as it possibly could as it came down towards the C.E.O.
Kaiba, however, wasn't about to be defeated that easily. Gripping firmly onto its handle, he swung his briefcase into the air above his head, its metal body crashing directly into the wolf's open snout.
The beast remained crushed up against the briefcase for a few moments, its body frozen with the shock of the pain in midair and tail pointing straight up towards the sky. It fell to the ground in what seemed like slow motion and simply laid there once it hit the earth, its yellow eyes glazed over with daze and tongue lopping out one side of its mouth.
As Kaiba lowered the briefcase, the distinct sound of twigs snapping and the crushing of underbrush made him whip around, fully prepared for yet another attack.
When he saw the four members of the 'geek squad' step out from amongst the pink and white trees, however, he almost immediately relaxed and his facial expression changed from anger to disgust. "Oh, great-you're here," he muttered.
"Aw, great," Joey groaned when he saw the blue-eyed young man. "We come here hopin' for some sweets, an instead we hafta find de ultimate sourball."
"Humph!" Kaiba ignored Joey's comment for the moment and turned his attentions back to the wolf, snapping over his shoulder, "As long as you're here, hold this vile creature down while I try to make it empty the contents of its stomach."
The four could only stare at him in response to his bizarre comment. Joey was the one who finally expressed the confusion they all felt: "HUH?!"
"THE THING ATE MOKUBA!" Kaiba snarled as he knelt down by the side of the semiconscious beast, placing his briefcase by his side. "I don't care how it has to be done, I'm just going to get this sick creature to throw up if it's the last thing I do!!"
He clenched one hand into a fist and pulled it back, aiming the blow directly for the beast's stomach.
The wolf blinked at that moment, the glazed cover fading from its eyes. When the creature saw Kaiba kneeling by its side, it grinned a toothy grin and let out a hushed growl of triumph.
In one lightning fast movement, the wolf turned and jumped right back onto all fours, knocking Kaiba backwards as its large snout shoved against his body.
He sat up just in time to see the wolf's open mouth heading straight towards him, its pointed teeth aligning the dark void of an entryway to its stomach.
The four teens quickly shut their eyes and cringed in disgust and horror. They forced back the gags rising to their throats as the sounds of fading screams of terrible pain and sickening crunches of bones reached their ears.
When the terrible noises finally ceased, replaced with a far less sickening sound of a growl of satisfaction, the four slowly slid their eyes open. Only the wolf stood before them, licking the crimson stains off of its teeth. Lying by its feet was the silver briefcase, the clear impression of a snout pressed into its metal side, and a few completely shredded pieces of red cloth.
"Deee-licious," the wolf smacked its lips.
"More like deees-gusting," Joey muttered.
When the wolf finished licking all of the blood off its glistening fangs, it focused its gaze on the four heroes, its eyes flashing with a yellowish gleam. They slowly took a step backwards as it grinned nastily, little drops of drool seeping out of its mouth.
"Now that I've finished with the annoying red-cloak, I do believe I'd like to have some dessert," it growled in a garbled voice.
"Why are all a de nutty tings here convinced that we taste good, for some reason??" Joey hissed to the others.
"Beats me; considering how often you shower, you'd probably taste like dirt," Tristan whispered back.
While the two got caught up in yet another escalating argument, the wolf slowly moving in on them, the gleam of something against a cherry blossom tree caught Pharaoh's eye. He innocuously glanced in the light's direction and saw an axe leaning against its wooden trunk, the sharpened blade of its silver head glittering under a ray of sunlight.
An idea slowly formed in his mind. Perhaps if they have yet to be digested, then…but I need to obtain that weapon first…
He quietly murmured to Téa, "I believe I know of a way to defeat the beast and set Kaiba and Mokuba free. I simply need you guys to distract it for a few moments."
"Of course," Téa nodded.
She stepped up towards the wolf and, clenching her hands into fists by her side, snapped, "What kind of sick freak of nature are you?! How can you just swallow a person practically whole??"
Joey and Tristan had been about to lunge at one another, arms stretched out and fingers flexing to grab onto a throat, but they stopped and turned their heads towards Téa upon hearing her outburst. They stared at her in complete shock and confusion for a few moments, but as she continued with her nonstop raving, they figured perhaps they should accompany her.
"What you just did was really disgusting, you know that?" Tristan lowered his arms and stepped forward to Téa's side.
"Are you completely nuts?" Joey moved to her other side, putting an extremely livid look onto his face. "You just swallowed a human bein' 'cause you were hungry, like some kinda animal!!"
From before them, Pharaoh could hear the sound of the wolf letting out a gruff laugh at their cries of anger, clearly unaffected by any comments they shot towards him. With the three standing side-by-side, the wolf's view of him was completely blocked.
Pharaoh smiled. Excellent, you guys, he cheered them on. Just a little bit more…
He quietly but quickly stepped towards the cherry blossom tree, grabbing the axe firmly with both hands by its wooden handle. He swung it over his shoulder, the blade glistening just inches away from his ear.
"ENOUGH!" the wolf finally screamed out, sick of hearing so much ranting and raving from humans in one day. The three teenagers almost immediately fell silent. "Are you thinking that you'll be able to annoy me so much that I'll simply leave? If so, then you're sadly mistaken."
It bore its pointed fangs at them, licking them dry of the drool of hunger. "Especially since the longer I wait, THE HUNGRIER I GET!"
Pharaoh quickly rose the axe above his head as his friends stepped back, indicating that the beast was about to strike. When the wolf appeared in the air above their heads, mouth open wide in a howl of anger, they quickly turned on their heels and ran.
He stepped forward to the spot they had been in, the blade of the axe glistening above his head. The wolf saw the gleam of the weapon against the sunlight, but it was stuck in mid-leap and could do nothing but widen its yellow eyes in horror as it came nearer and nearer the boy with the axe.
The three teenagers hadn't gotten very far in their dash when they heard the high-pitched howl of the wolf reverberate throughout the cherry blossom woods. The haunting cry of sheer pain paralyzed them to the core, sounding like the banshee's wail of death.
When they finally regained control of themselves, the three turned around to behold the sight behind them. They saw Pharaoh standing in the space where they'd been, glaring down at what appeared to be the mere shadowy silhouette of a wolf sliced into two on the ground before him. The axe he gripped in one hand was now covered with a black, dripping substance similar to that of the wolf.
The shadowy wolf slowly lifted its head and let out one tiny whine of pain before it collapsed back to the ground, defeated in entirety.
As its miniscule cry faded away, the two shadowy parts of the wolf began shifting into different forms, transforming into the dark shapes of what appeared to be two human beings, one tall and one short, sprawled out on the ground. The dark shadows lifted from around the figures once fully formed and slowly dissipated into the air above them, revealing the two to be Kaiba and Mokuba.
Kaiba awoke to the feeling of a cool breeze flowing across his face. He recalled being swallowed up by the sick beast that had dared to eat his brother, feelings of horrific pain shooting through his arms and legs as sharp fangs sank deeply into his flesh…then everything had gone black.
He opened his eyes and found himself staring up into the four faces of the nerd patrol. Behind them he could see the slightly blurred pink-and-white cherry blossoms atop their wooden perches, so at least he knew they hadn't been stupid enough to get swallowed up as well.
"You certainly took your sweet time," he narrowed his eyes at them as he brought himself to a sitting position.
"How de heck would you know?! You were chewed inta bits!" Joey cried.
"We should've just let the wolf digest him," Tristan muttered.
Kaiba was about to fire some more insults at the idiots when he heard the sound of someone groaning by his side. When he turned and saw the noise's source, all of his annoyance became instantly replaced with something quite close to happiness.
"Mokuba!" he smiled.
His little brother's eyelids fluttered open at the sound of the faintly familiar voice. When his eyes glanced up into the gleaming blue orbs he knew so well, he immediately sat up and flung his arms around their owner's neck. "Seto!"
Kaiba tightly wrapped his arms around his little brother, holding on as though letting go would mean he'd lose him again. The others simply smiled and remained silent so that the two could fully savor their reunion without interruption.
When they finally pulled away from one another, Mokuba murmured, "Seto, what happened? All I can remember is suddenly stepping into a forest of cherry blossom trees, and then there was a wolf jumping at me with its mouth wide open…and then I kind of blanked out…"
"Don't dwell on it at the moment, Mokuba," Kaiba smiled, brushing some of his little brother's hair out of his face. "It's over now."
The instant after he spoke, a small, luminescent orb materialized between the brothers and the four heroes. Mokuba was startled by the orb's sudden appearance and hid his face in his brother's chest, who in return stroked his dark hair reassuringly.
"There's no need to worry; it's just a portal," Pharaoh assured Mokuba as the orb expanded once more into the doorway's gleaming outline.
The little one glanced up to see the entryway in its entirety hovering in midair, its center filled with the image of an autumnal forest alit by the beams of the golden harvest moon.
"Where's that supposed to be?" he asked, pulling away from Kaiba and walking around to see the portal from the heroes' perspective. "It doesn't look like anywhere in Domino."
"It's not," Pharaoh explained. "It's another part of this world, wherever it is. The rest of our team must be here as well…"
"Oh, great," Kaiba muttered as he followed Mokuba around the portal. "So we still have more of this insanity to go through?"
"There shouldn't be much more that we have to do," Pharaoh ignored the nastiness of his comment, "it should only perhaps be three more places to go to."
"Humph. Let's go, then," Kaiba snarled. "The sooner we get through this, the better. C'mon, Mokuba."
The two Kaiba brothers stepped through the doorway, its image slightly wavering as they passed through it.
"Why couldn't we 'ave found Mr. Sunshine after savin' everybody else?" Joey groaned.
"Come on everyone; Kaiba's correct, in a way. The sooner we save everyone, the better off they will most likely be," Pharaoh insisted.
The other three nodded in agreement, though Joey did so with a bit of a sulk on his face. He maintained the look as the four stepped through the portal, its image rippling like water with their entrance.
