A/N: I'm back in town finally, folks. It's been hell of a school year. Exams actually finished a few weeks ago but I have had to read old stories and reviews to reacquaint myself to writing again.
So I have received a review telling me that my story isn't very well-planned and that I should consider fixing some things. I myself have noticed a little lack of consistency in the chapters, but had no idea how or what to fix. If the reviewer is still out there, can you or any of my readers tell me and maybe give some advice to improve the story as well? I have tried to look for someone to beta-read my story and so far have got none.
Chapter 12: A Chance Meeting.
Yami, the crown prince of the dark Ulennia, was weaving his way through the marketplace as though the demon from hell was on his tail.
Which, was probably true, from a certain point of view. Yamis of Eternia and demons of the human world were rather alike, more so than the hikaris, obviously. Yami himself had never met a demon, so he could only rely on human's tales. Unlike what their opposites think, and say, howerver, yamis are not cold, sadistic killers. Some of them liked feeding on raw meat, occassionally blood and lurking in the shadows, but it was their way of life. They never initiated a fight nor killed unnecessarily. In a way, they resembled sea snakes who were usually timid and seeking escape from danger, yet their venom is as deadly as any other when feeling threatened.
Anyway, back to the point.
And the point was that the almighty, I'm-superior-to-you-in-every-way high priest Seto was chasing him around the city with a fury Yami wouldn't even wish on a hikari.
Maybe he would, if they pissed him off enough.
Wrong subject again. If he kept on distracting himself with irrelevant trains of thought, the next two hours would be wasted on lecturing and other...unpleasantries. He still had no idea how Seto got Bakura and Marik on his side this time. They couldn't have known he was the one who dyed their hair blue and bright orange last week, could they?
Yami cursed as he knocked over a basket for the seemingly thousandth time that morning. The people were looking at him strangely, but didn't dare to comment on it. He needed to focus, he needed to...
"Yami! You get that lazy ass of yours back here right now!" Bakura's voice sounded behind him. The prince of Ulennia let out a string of profanities as he forced his legs to move faster. They were screaming for a break and he felt like dropping dead from exhaustion any moment now. It was with this realization that Yami started looking around frantically for a place to hide. The sound of footsteps was getting louder every second while his eyes darted around...There! He made a sharp turn, using every last ounce of strenght to speed up so fast in order to escape Bakura's notice and dove into a small storage house on the far left side. It worked. He smirked triumphantly as the former thief ran past.
It didn't occur to him at the time that the existence of a storage house in the middle of the marketplace, surrounded by fruit stands was odd.
Panting, he looked around. There was nothing inside exept for some straw that looked so tempting for his now sore legs. He sighed, thanking Zorc no one was in, and dropped himself on the straw while listening intently for the passing soldiers that accompanied Bakura. Yami closed his eyes tiredly. Why could they not just let him be? He did not want to rule. He did not ask to be born to the current king, he did not ask for power and unlimited wealth, or the people fawning over him. He wanted to be able to enjoy himself like Bakura and Marik, without care nor worry. His 'teenage' mind could not stand the thought of the constant boring paperwork, the frustrating complaints of his people, and the worst was the expectations. As a prince, he was expected to know everything and solve everything. He was expected to be decisive, wise, calm and composed. Even his stance was usually met with heavy judgement. He had to attend every party, meeting, ball, and even trial where frightening punishments are executed. No one thought of how traumatizing it was for a pre-teen to witness them, prince or not.
Yami leaned against the wall, sighing. There were some times when he wished Akhnamkanon was not his father, not to say that the man wasn't a good father though. He just couldn't deal with so many expections and burdens on his shoulders. Yami had inherited his mother's personality, a water elemental yami who enjoyed freedom and rebelliousness and who had hated conformity with a vengeance. When she was alive, she had told him that he was special and for him to never let others dictate his life. She told him a story about a princess, embittered and hateful who would later be his savior and his 'guardian angel'. At the time he had thought her slightly insane, but then she had also foretold the arrival of a 'white thief in priest's robe', a 'runaway maniac who used to serve the dead' and a 'poor boy whose loved one had been stolen by the cruel, cruel Ptylix'. He was not sure who the last was, but since then only Seto, Bakura and Marik had come to the palace and risen to such high authority, he could only assume it was Seto. But he didn't dare ask the brunette about it in fear of unintentionally bringing up painful memories. After the trio, he had convinced that his mother had been some kind of seer. He still had not met this 'guardian angel', though. Yami found the term odd. Angels should be used to refer to hikaris, not any yami. There was no way a hikari would be his savior. He had seen terrible fates befalling lesser yamis in the hands of the so-called 'angels'. They would happily celebrate while stomping on his mangled, bloodied body should they ever capture him. Furthermore, the hikaris have no princess, only a council. That part had him most confused.
"How about you wait and see how all would turn out instead?" A voice rang out, soft and melodic and so enchanting. He whipped his head to face the door to see a young girl in a knee-length, off-shoulder, plain crimson dress standing at the door. She wore black patent leather pumps, silver wrist bracelets and a silver, sapphire encrusted circlet. The girl could be not a day older than ten, yet her stance and posture spoke of royalty. She had smooth pale skin and soft spiky tricolored hair, dark red at the tip, ebony crown and golden, practically the female version of him. Her bright lavender eyes seemed to sparkle like the purest of amethysts, which immediately filled him with a sense of warmth and familiarity, since they were the most common gemstones of Ulennia. She started to move slowly towards him, her movements graceful and elegant, her clothing simple but tasteful. She was definitely an aristocrat, yet it was strange that Yami could not seem to recall seeing her before. After all, she had pitch black wings, so she must be a yami, one that belonged to the noble houses of the kingdom. When he had gotten over the initial awe and envy over her calm and cool demeanor, what Yami had always wished for in etiquette lessons, he started to scoot away warily. It seemed unlikely for one such as her to come in a place like this. The girl sensed his tenseness and stopped, her penetrative eyes still boring into his. An awful silence reigned throughout the building before he decided to speak, still watchful of any move from her.
"Who are you? What are you doing here and what did you just say?" Typical Yami, very typical. Suddenly he felt like one of those very cliché human 'movies'. The tricolored hair girl smiled enigmatically, still not moving from her current spot.
"Forgive my intrusion, your highness." Her smile grew wider. "I've alway been prone to knowing when someone around me is in trouble and I couldn't help but notice your...mental conflict. Perhaps I can offer some...assistance for whatever you are beating yourself over. After all, as a citizen of Ulennia, I hope to aid the famed crown prince as much as possible."
Yami eyed her suspiciously. "You still have not stated who you are." Her smile turned into a grin and she shifted to lean against the wall to her left.
"I am Yugi."
"I know no one by that name."
"'Course you don't."
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
"It means some things are not meant to be known, yet."
"And just when do you reckon those things be known?"
"At the right time."
"When is the right time?"
"When those things are known."
"We are getting nowhere, aren't we?"
"Would you prefer a destination?"
"Yes, answers."
"You already had your answers."
"..." They stood staring at each other before Yami broke the silence, again.
"Well, Yugi, isn't it?"
"That's my name."
"You said you sensed my troubling."
"Do you wish to restate everything I have said from the beginning?" Yami sighed exasperatedly.
"Right. So your manners have told me that you are of noble upbringing, and your wings a yami. I have, however, attended every noble houses gatherings, and not once seen you. Why is that?"
"Because I am not a Yami." Yami's eyes widened. What was she talking about?
"But your wings are black. Only yamis have darker colored wings, and all hikaris have white wings." She rolled her eyes at him as if he was the idiot, which, he might be, in her opinion. Yami felt so inferior in her presence, what with answers only she could give, him confused and she so calm and collected even when her words were dripping with sarcasm. His newfound annoyance was abruptly replaced with amazement as she started to glow bright yellow.
"Conformity is such a pain, my prince. And here I thought you were special."
When the light began to die down, Yami removed his hands which had shielded his eyes, and he thought his heart must have jumped out of his chest right then and there.
The girl, Yugi, was still the same, but now behind her back was a pair of golden wings twice the size of his and approximately six times the size of her body. They shone as the metalic surface reflected the fading light, creating golden columns of light throughout the place. The wings fanned slightly and the columns moved accordingly.
"Can you tell me now, my prince, what species am I? And please close your mouth. It's really impolite in the presence of the lady." Yami closed his gaping mouth, he just realized, still eying her in astonishment.
"How do you do that?"
"It is not nice to answer a question with another question."
"Fine by me. Not like I'm the proper prince they expected me to be anyway." The words came out a little more bitterly and resignedly that he would have liked. She laughed softly, effectively startling him out of his self-hate.
"That is what's troubling you?" The prince looked away, a bit irritated at being laughed at but at the same time stunned by the beautiful sound.
"Not what we're talking about, but sure." She tilted her head to the side curiously. Yami's heart beat faster at that. The way she does everything was just plain adorable.
"If my memory serves me well, that was what I came here for." Yugi was striding to his place on the straw pile again, but did not stop when he tensed. She sat down beside him. Yami's posture became stiff, but he made no attempt to move away. "To help you sort things out."
"Why though? I barely know you, and don't give me that bull about you being a citizen of Ulennia. Gods of Eternia, you are not even normal. I have not seen anyone with that kind of wings before. You said so yourself that you are not a yami. What are you? A hikari?"
"To answer your first question, just because I'm not a yami doesn't mean I cannot be a citizen of Ulennia. I travel both realms frequently, sometimes I spend time in the human world. Furthermore, I do enjoy helping people, when I am in the mood, that is. Secondly, I am neither. It is truly hard to put into words what I am without letting out too much. So, to make it simpler, you can think of me as a princess."
Princess, that bisyllabic word rang in his mind. Could she be the one mother used to constantly tell him about? Yet...
"You don't seem embittered or hateful, though." He blurred out without thinking. Yugi didn't look offended. If anything, she seemed amused.
"Oh, I assure you, I am. Someone else helped me...suppress that side though. Bitterness and hate results in evil. And she was much too powerful to be left running amok." Her smooth voice, devoid of any emotion, actually sent chills down his back. Him, the great prince of all yamis, soon to supreme ruler. It was still a nice voice though.
"But that is not important right now." She continued before he could reply. "My time here is almost over. Let me help you or I'll leave." Yami nodded. He still wanted to know more, but there wasn't a chance that she would be talking anytime soon. And his instincts were telling him to trust her, trust her to share his problems and for her not to hurt him. His instincts were rarely wrong.
"As you already know, I am the crown prince and the only child of the current king. Expectations fall on my shoulders that I be the level-headed, confident, wise and committed ruler like my father is. I am supposed to succeed the throne, marry some girl, produce an heir and rule until he replaced me. That would sound divine if one knows not what the ruling part entails. I could have handled getting jumped by assassins, witnessing scarring executions, listening to the people's complaints everyday, but I am not the one for expectations. They look to me to deal with everything and expect me to present a foolproof solution to everything that goes wrong. They expect me to be perfect." Yami sighed and slumped against the wall. "It's just so...frustrating! I don't want my life to be laid out before me and waiting for me to live accordingly! I want to be free, like my mother! I..."
"You need anger management." Yugi cut him off gently with an amused smirk. He groaned. Why must she be so beautiful, so cute one moment then mocking and unfeeling the next?
"Even you think so! Whenever I have had enough of the meetings and paperwork and lessons and everything, and I tried to talk to my father or one of his advisors, they would make it out to be my goddamn fault! They think I was just being difficult and rebellious and telling me to go cool off and stop interrupting important trials when it was them who forced me to attend every trial when I was seven!"
"If you approached them with that attitude, I am not surprised."
"What!?"
"Take a deep breath and calm yourself."
"I am calm."
"No you are not."
"I am calm."
"Good. As I was saying, you need only calmly reason with them."
"I tried it once. They completely ignored me."
"When you get back, try it again. They will this time."
"You aren't going to do anything to make them listen are you?"
"Maybe. But nothing harmful, I assure you."
"..."
"...As for the people's expectations, well, I can tell you that your father has made a lot of mistakes during his reign as well, the millenium items, for example. In the end, however, he did it all for the kingdom's protection." She played with her blond strands thoughtfully. "All I could tell you is this: when writing the story of your life, do not let another hold the pen for you. Follow your heart, take your mind with you, and do what you think is best, because let me tell you that no one is perfect. There will be people who love you, and those who hate you. You cannot please everyone." She looked at him with one of her beautiful bright smiles again. "There is a reason everything happens. There is a reason you are the future king and not your uncle Akhnadin nor your cousin..."
"My cousin?"
"Doesn't matter. My point is that you have your family, friends and trusted mentors whom you care about and who also care about you. They are the ones you should strive to be worthy of, not your people who know of you but know nothing about you. Why are you even afraid of letting people you don't know down?"
"What if the people do really care about me even if they don't know me?"
"Then they shouldn't expect so much from you. Anyway, there are five millions of yamis in the whole Eternia, each one is different from another. If have not the qualities they want in you, then surely you have others. Use them to the best of your ability and rule Ulennia your way. You will be the king, Yami, not the priests, not the generals and certainly not the idiots they call advisors."
Yami chuckled at that. "Oh they are fools alright. I'm glad at least someone agrees with me on this. Seto seems to admire them pretty much."
"Oh, trust me, he does not."
"What?"
"Seto is smarter and more cautious than you, prince. He keeps his mouth shut because the advisors make the council, and the council rules half the kingdom. They can ruin him. He keeps mouth shut and makes his move in secret. If anything, he would pretend to worship the ground they walk on in order to lower their guard."
"You speak like you know him very well." Yami said.
"Who said I don't?" Yugi gave him one of her mysterious smile again. Yami cursed the girl for the hundredth time that day, without meaning any word, of course. Seriously, that tender and hypnotic voice of hers can get the rock elemental yamis, which were the most stubborn and defiant of all, to kill themselves anytime.
"Okay. So you have golden wings, you can sense people's thoughts, and you know Seto well. Is there something else you want to add so I can blow myself up with curiosity and unanswered questions?"
"Yes." She laughed at my groan. "But I think you've had enough of that for the day." She stood up, pulling him along with her and smiled.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck, my prince."
Yami stopped her hastily. "Wait. When will I see you again? Can I see you again?"
She chuckled. "Of course, prince, but not for a long time, I'm afraid." Yami's heart dropped to his stomach when she reached up to kiss his forehead. "Expect me when your mother's prediction comes true."
With these last words, she disappeared, leaving behind only the scent of fresh rain and lavender.
A/N: What do you think? I would like to note that one year in Eternia is the same as ten year on Earth. Therefore, a yami or hikari's one-year-old is actually ten years, so Yami has lived one hundred and fifteen human years. Please R & R.