Silmeria: Welcome! Dragon Chronicles: The Sworn Blade is my project. This tale will expand into three books and this will be one of the longest stories that I have written since I've started on this site over ten years ago. So, I ask that you bear with me on the launching of the first book: The Sworn Blade. Thanks for reading or continuously reading.

Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Yu-gi-oh!

Chapter Six: A New Dawn

"I never wanted this for you." Rebecca reached out her cool palm against his cheek. "You must believe me when I swear that this is the last thing I wanted for you." Rebecca stepped back, lowering her weathered hand to her chest. "I never wanted you bound to that-that beast." Rebecca covered her mouth forcing Yuugi's gaze to the floor. A strong woman Rebecca would always claim to be, but she was still a woman and a mother who had lost more than could be comprehended. And he was afraid that this would break her forcing Yuugi to realize that this decision would not affect him alone.

"You must settle your nerves, Elder," Yuugi murmured, reaching out with a scale-covered arm to reach for Rebecca's shaking hand. "You are not at fault. You burden yourself with too much."

"I asked you to save us with no regard to your safety." Rebecca stepped back, snatching her arm out of Yuugi's grasp tossing him a mournful look. "I am Elder. I am Protector and I left our lives in the hands of a - a child." Rebecca lowered her dulling gaze. "I am the reason that you are bound to that Dragon. If I had no asked you to investigate the Hall of the Gaians then he would have remained sleeping - undisturbed." Rebecca turned away swallowing as if she couldn't bear to look at him. "I will find a solution."

Yuugi stilled at the words. He didn't like her tone. Didn't like what the words were implying. "You will find a solution? Of what solution-"

"I will find a solution." Rebecca murmured, turning back to him and Yuugi's heart skipped a beat at the soft smile aimed at his direction. It was empty and lacked warmth. "I will help you."

"Elder-" Yuugi stepped back his eyes straying to the door but they were quick to flicker back to Rebecca who was pulling out the drawers letting out a hiss of frustration when she didn't find what she was looking for. "Lady Hawkins? What are you-?"

"A SOLUTION." Rebecca turned back to him, tossing the drawer she had in her hand against the wall and splintering it to pieces. "I WANT TO HELP YOU. TO FIND A SOLUTION-" Rebecca stopped and stilled as her eyes strayed to a crossbow sitting innocently against the wall. "...there..."

Yuugi followed her gaze and paled at the sight of the crossbow. "Elder? Please-" Yuugi was moving towards the weapon as Rebecca raced towards it, faltering when she reached it first and aimed it in his direction. "Rebecca-"

"I told you," Rebecca whispered, raising it higher and aiming for Yuugi's heart. "I would find a solution-I-I just want to help you-" Rebecca took a step closer. "I couldn't help him but I can help you. I won't let that-that-that- beast-"

"Atem," Yuugi whispered, taking a step back and pressing his back against the door. "It is too late for Kratos, Elder, but it is not too late for me."

"You are a Dragon-Borne." Rebecca countered. "It will always be too late for the likes of you, but it won't be if you will let me help you. I can save you, Yuugi."

Yuugi shook his head his eyes blurring with unshed tears as Rebecca stepped closer with the crossbow. How did it come to this? His parents. His grandfather. Yoshimori. Kratos and now Rebecca? Why did he keep losing people? Was he next? Was he to stand here and die by Rebecca's hands?

"You will see that this will be for the-"

"No."

Rebecca stopped mere inches from Yuugi and stared at him with a confused expression. "No?"

"No." Yuugi raised his head and met her gaze and forced down the shiver when he met nothing but emptiness. Rebecca was gone - lost in a haze of insanity that he could bear to witness no longer. "I'm sorry, Elder. I'm sorry for not being stronger for you when you needed it the most. I am sorry and I bid you farewell." Yuugi reached up and flung the door open and threw himself out into the freezing night heedless to Rebecca's indignant shrieks. He had to escape the village and flee into the forest and back to the Hall of the Gaians.

He had to return to Atem.

"CLOSE THE GATES." Rebecca roared as Yuugi swung onto a horse and raced towards the village gates with nothing but the clothes on his back and a broken heart. "CLOSE THE GATES, I SAID! I WANT THE DRAGON-BORNE."

"What in the Seven Hells is going?!" one of the Knights of Illyrian cried out before snarling in pain at the arrow in his arm. He looked up to see Elder Hawkins rushing towards him. "Elder-" The Knight slumped over with another arrow through his eye as Rebecca raced past him.

"CLOSE THE GATES."

Yuugi's jaw clenched as the ominous click of the village gates echoed in the night air. He whipped the reins and urged the horse into a full gallop.

"STOP HIM." Rebecca commanded coldly. "KILL THE DRAGON-BORNE."

Yuugi kept his head lowered as an arrow whizzed past his head and turned his head to see Rebecca on her own steed. He turned back to the gates to see the guards with their own crossbows with hesitation clear on their features. The sight of them - of the Knights who trained and fought beside him and Kratos cracked his heart further, but sympathy would get him killed.

The village gate inched closer and Yuugi snarled as the Knights took aim but it was much to his surprise that it was the Elder that was the target.

"RUN." The Knight-Commander bellowed, kicking the switch to the gate and forcing it back open before aiming his crossbow towards Rebecca. "RUN, DRAGON-BORNE."

The ominous click of the village gates echoed for a second time, but Yuugi's heart leaped as he cleared them just as they swung shut with Rebecca's enraged screams at his back.

He was free.

Yet, what did that mean to him now? He was free to do as he pleased but where would he go? He had no home and no family so what did that freedom mean?

Yuugi forced back his tears and urged his horse to a trot once he deemed he was a safe distance from the village. He couldn't help but look back into the darkness where, even at his distance, he could still see the smoke from his former village billowing into the night air. Winter was as its ends and the people were preparing for their harvest and would begin tilling the fields tomorrow and Yuugi-

He had always been there to help Rebecca and Kratos and now-

Yuugi didn't stop the tears from trailing down his cheeks as he forced his gaze away and continued deeper into the forest where the Hall of the Gaians and surprisingly enough, Atem, waited.

The Dragon's ears twitched at the sound of Yuugi's horse and he turned to greet them, stopping when he noticed Yuugi's condition. He lowered his head and met Yuugi's eyes with wary ones of his own.

"What has happened?"

Yuugi opened his mouth only for a wretched sob to escape his throat. Before his mind could catch up with his body, Yuugi was off the horse burying his face into one of Atem's forelegs. He shook his head and gripped the appendage tighter when Atem huffed in a soothing manner.

"What has caused you so much distress?" Atem inquired. "You must tell me what is the matter. I cannot read your mind. "

"She-" Yuugi swallowed down a sob and clenched his eyes as Rebecca's emotionless eyes flashed before his mind. "Elder Rebecca is gone."

Atem stilled underneath him at the information before he jerked back to life. "She is gone? She seemed in right health before I left-"

"She kept apologizing about what happened to me and she-she-" Yuugi gripped Atem's leg tighter. "...she tried to end my life."

Silence pervaded after Yuugi's confession and even if their link was still fresh, Yuugi wasn't immune to the shock that came off the dragon in small waves that forced him back a step giving him the opportunity to look up and stare into Atem's dark crimson eyes which were laced with anger and indignation.

"I can give you a choice." Atem lowered his head to Yuugi's height, staring into his bond-mate's eyes watching the tepid curiosity that lingered in the now silver eyes.

"A choice?"

"We can leave." Atem continued softly. "I can take you away and we will never return to this wretched place. We can make a new home." Atem's eyes darkened at his next words. "I can burn it to the ground and those people can never harm another person whether it be their own hand or by sacrifice."

Yuugi's lips trembled at the thought. Illysian is -was-his home and the thought of it being wiped out caused a well of sadness to emerge from his chest. Despite the tragedies, Illysian was a good place and its people treated them well and even Rebecca, in all of her insanity, treated him as a second son. How could he want for their deaths when they treated him so kindly? Want for the death of the children who ran through the fields and markets freely? For the Knights that trained in those same fields and helped him escape the village? And the woman whom he called Elder since he was old enough to speak. Could really tell Atem to burn his home and feel nothing for it?

"No." Yuugi decided to step back away from the comfort Atem provided. "We will make our situation worse if we take the lives of innocents who harbor no ill will towards us."

"Yet."

Yuugi snorted, a quirk on his lips. "Yet." he agreed, stepping closer to Atem. "I will take our first option, Dragon King. We will leave this place and make a new home for us." Yuugi grimaced, staring down at his scaled arms and hands. "A home that will not turn away or try to burn, maim, decapitate-"

"Yes." Atem huffed amused. "Our chances of dying are ever-increasing, but I take it that isn't going to stop you from leaving?"

"No," Yuugi responded, a determined look in his eyes. "Illysian will always be my heart - my hearth and home - but I am afraid that I will have to leave it behind for the foreseeable future." Yuugi lifted his eyes. "I don't know where we will go. The world is a rather large place."

"We can go anywhere you desire, but I believe our current path lies in getting answers for you and I, Yuugi?" Atem lowered his head and urged Yuugi to climb on his back. "I plan on flying in the skies of this new world to recover my memories and I would not adhere to company."

Yuugi's lips thinned at the proposition and gripped Atem's tightly as the dragon spread his wings in preparation. "...what if you don't find anything? What will you do?"

"I do not know," Atem admitted softly. "Once before, my path was clear and my destiny set, but now? I feel like a hatchling in a world that wants nothing to do with me, but the difference? Is that I will carve my own path and create my place in a world that thinks of me as nothing but a legend. And you, little one? What awaits you beyond today?"

"I don't know," Yuugi admitted, repeating Atem's answer. "I am now a being - a creature - that serves as a warning to the world. I know people will look upon me with fear and anger and will use those emotions to strike me down, but I-" Yuugi swallowed back the lump in his throat as Rebecca's face flashed before his mind. "I want to live. I want to see the world and discover its secrets. I want to meet people from all walks of life. I want to know what the world was like before the war. I want many things, but I am frightened of what lies ahead."

"Fear is what often drives men and women to do many things, little one," Atem stated a faraway look in his eyes that brought a surge of curiosity to Yuugi's mind. "It will be up to you what to do with this fear and whether or not it drives you to do good or bad things." Atem's wings lifted in a great arc before swinging down and creating a gust of wind that lifted them above the trees and beyond the horizon, Yuugi could see his village and a well of sadness emerged in his chest. He wondered if he would ever be able to return home? If he would ever be able to see Elder Hawkins filled with warmth again?

"You must look towards the dawn, Yuugi Motou." Atem's booming voice echoed over the cold wind forcing a shiver down his spine. "No longer must you linger in the past. We must bid our farewells."

Finally, in the rising of the bright sun, Yuugi smiled, a wide beaming gesture as two lone tears trailed down his flushed cheeks. He turned his head, raised his hood over his head, shielding his face from the world, and whispered his goodbye to the village that had given him life, love, anger, sadness, and courage to face a world that would be crueler than he would have dreamed.

"Off we go, Dragon King," Yuugi whispered. "To a new path."