7. Memories
Over the next few days, Yami and Atemu kept teaching one another to speak each other's language. At first, Yami had been embarrassed by what the nurse had done, but Atemu acted like he hadn't really seen what she had done which made it a bit easier for the pale boy to get over.
Unfortunately, after a couple hours of using the program, Atemu's father discovered the unauthorised access and locked him out, so they were back to square one with trying to communicate. They had to go back to basics once again.
Atemu had better understanding of Ancient Egyptian than Yami did of English, so they focused on correcting Atemu's pronunciation before going back to trying to teach Yami to speak English. Fortunately for them, they were both quick studies and picked up the others' language quite quickly.
Yami then began to teach Atemu how to speak Meritan. That one was taking a while since Atemu had never heard it spoken. They now had the benefit of having at least one language they could communicate in and Yami's improving ability to speak in English. He still struggled a lot, but he could at least tell the nurses what he wanted.
Atemu smiled when Yami was wheeled back into the room on a wheelchair. They had taken the pale boy for physio after removing the casts from his limbs this morning. He had overheard them talking about taking Yami to the bars so that he could learn to walk again.
Yami couldn't help but bite his lip in pain as the two physios helped him stand and spin to sit on his bed once again. "Thank you," Yami muttered as they helped him lift his legs back onto the bed, breathing heavily as he laid flat on the bed.
"Do you want the head up a bit more?" one of the physios asked with a smile.
"No thank you," Yami responded with his eyes closed, trying to keep still so that the pain in his body could settle.
The physio nodded and left the room, going to speak to the nurse. Once they were out of the room, Atemu hobbled over to the bed and sat beside the boy. "How did it go?" Atemu asked in ancient Egyptian.
"Stupid question, Atemu. I feel like I got thrown off the leviathan again," Yami responded, opening his eyes to look at the tanned man.
Atemu raised an eyebrow at him. "Thrown off a leviathan? Again?"
Yami blushed darkly. "You don't remember?"
"Remember what?" Atemu asked with a frown.
"You really don't remember?" Yami asked again with a deep frown of his own.
"Obviously not. Care to explain?" Atemu responded.
"I stole the leviathan when I escaped Atlantis. It bucked me once I hit your kingdom and ended up crushing your lover. That's what started our war," Yami explained. "You don't remember that?"
"No… We were at war?" Atemu asked.
"For a year and a half," Yami answered.
"How did the war end?" Atemu enquired with a curious tilt of his head.
Yami shrugged. "I don't know. The last thing I remember before waking up with two old men and a young woman standing over me was your men coming to attack one of my villages. Our men swarmed the village to protect them before your men arrived."
"What happened?" Atemu asked, flicking back to English without realising.
"I'll show you," Yami responded, seeing Atemu raise a curious eyebrow. The tanned man hesitantly accepted Yami's hands when the boy held them up for him to grasp. Yami closed his eyes and focused on the memory from before he passed out amongst his people.
Atemu closed his own eyes with a frown, seeing nothing but darkness for a few moments before a bright light almost blinding him.
Flashback Start
"Sir, all the villagers have been evacuated," a soldier said as he approached Yami who was dressed in the outfit that he was found wearing in the sarcophagus. The only difference was a sword attached to his left hip.
"Good. Thank you, Amanda. Go with them," Yami instructed.
"But I can help," Amanda protested.
"I know. But I would feel better knowing someone could protect them if we fail our mission. I'm not sending you away to insult you. I'm sending you with them because I know you won't fail them," Yami responded, seeing her frown turn to a smile before she nodded and left to join the villagers.
"They're coming," one of the other soldiers noted, seeing a dust storm approaching as the soldiers from Egypt came their way.
"Stand ready. Do not let them through," Yami instructed, drawing his sword. He wasn't about to stand back and let these men destroy his village. This whole situation was because of an accident. But he had tried to fix things. Atemu just wouldn't listen to him! Now he was going to regret picking a fight with Yami's men.
The soldiers from the other kingdom came to a halt just before the soldiers who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the village. They honestly hadn't expected the King to know of their approach or for so many soldiers to stand proud with the pale king in the centre.
"You surprise me, Yami," Atemu commented in Meritan as he jumped off his horse, giving his men a sign to prepare the catapults.
"I tend to do that. It's rarely intentional, but it happens. I don't want to fight you, Pharaoh. But I will if you push me," Yami responded coldly.
"You'll try. We will defeat you," Atemu growled back, drawing his own sword.
"I've tried to end this. You know that! This is all unnecessary," Yami responded.
"You killed my WIFE, and you think I can just let it go?!" Atemu snapped back.
"No, I don't expect you to let it go. But it's not fair to set out and kill the husbands of other couples because of an accident," Yami responded. "Do you seriously think I would have killed her intentionally?"
"Anything is possible with a bastard like you," Atemu growled, giving the signal for the attack to begin.
His men charged forward, stopped by Yami's soldiers. Sure, Yami's soldiers were severely outnumbered. But that never stopped them. They were the best soldiers in the district for a reason. They knew how to throw their weight around in a way that allowed them to defend multiple men at once. The boulders blasting the buildings wasn't helping though.
"Why aren't you afraid of the builders striking the village?" Atemu asked as Yami blocked yet another attack.
"Because the buildings are empty, and the village will be rebuilt within a few days. I'm no fool. Never leave an opening that your enemy can exploit," Yami responded, forcing the Pharaoh back and launched an attack of his own.
Atemu grunted as Yami ducked under his arm and slammed the hilt of his blade into an ancient scar on his left thigh. "That's a dirty tactic," Atemu growled, spinning to try and strike Yami but the boy ducked the attack and landed a kick in the tan man's stomach.
"Says the man who bought boulders to a knife fight," Yami responded, his head snapping to the side when he noticed a boy no older than four run from one of Atemu's carriages towards a building.
Atemu didn't notice what had caught the man's attention and finally managed to land an attack. He didn't expect Yami to suddenly run towards a building though so only the tip of his blade managed to cut Yami from left shoulder to right hip.
Yami hissed in pain at the strike but ignored it as he ran as fast as he could towards the child. He heard the boulder be launched towards the building where the child was hiding and pushing himself even harder, scooping the boy into his arms.
Atemu's eyes widened in shock to see the King scoop the child up into his arms just as the boulder scraped through his hair and struck the building beside them, causing the building to explode at the impact. He heard the child call out for his father as Yami turned his back to the building so that his body would absorb the impact.
"HEBA!" Atemu shouted as he ran towards the building, recognising the child that Yami had just scooped up.
All the soldiers stopped their battle and ran over to help the Pharaoh who was desperately trying to move debris from a building. "What happened?" one of the soldiers from Yami's side asked.
"H-He's trapped under here," Atemu responded, sounding panicked.
"Who is?" one of Atemu's soldiers asked.
"Heba and Yami," Atemu responded quickly.
"Who's Heba?" Yami's soldier from before asked as both teams started working together to remove the rocks from the two trapped boys.
"My son!" Atemu responded.
"You brought your son here?" the soldier asked with a judgemental tone.
"No," Atemu growled. "He must have snuck here in one of the carriages. I thought he was at home with Mana."
The rocks slowly pulled away to reveal Yami's body slightly face down with blood pooling under him.
"Father," Heba whimpered in Egyptian as his father pulled the King's body backwards and scooped his son up, moving aside so the others could check on the King.
"Are you alright?" Atemu asked, placing the child down so that he could check him over for wounds. He had some small cuts and bruises but nothing major like Yami's body obviously had.
4-year-old Heba looks a lot like Yami but is shorter than most boys his age with caramel tan skin like his father; round cheekbones; a button nose; large, round amethyst eyes; thick lips; small muscles; and tricoloured hair shot around his head in five large spikes forming a star. The base is black, and the tips match his eyes, blonde lightning bolts framing his face. He has three to the right of his forehead too and two to the left with one small one exactly in the centre of his forehead.
He is dressed in only a white skirt that fell to his knees with a gold belt, bands from knees to ankles, and wrist to elbow. He didn't even have a crown yet.
"I-I'm alright. I-Is he alright?" Heba asked, looking over at the teen that was surrounded by people. Most of them were panicking and uncertain how to help.
"Stay here," Atemu said sternly as he stood up, walking back over so he could see just how badly the King had been hurt in return for saving his son.
"We can't save him," one of the medics from Atemu's fleet said.
"Then get a sarcophagus," Atemu ordered.
"What?! Why?!" one of Yami's soldiers exclaimed.
"We can place a spell on him to save him until we can get him to somewhere with more resources. Perhaps Atlantis can help," Atemu responded, seeing a group of men disappear to source a sarcophagus.
"They can't help," Heba muttered, eyes glowing slightly with his eyes fixed onto what seemed to be thin air.
Flashback End
Atemu blinked open his eyes with a frown. "You saw all that?" Atemu asked, wondering why he felt like Heba's eyes were locked onto him while he observed everyone swarming around Yami's body. It didn't make sense to him how Yami could see everything from third person.
"It wasn't me specifically. But my soul creature. A young pink, blue and purple dragon," Yami explained. "She was too small to help us though."
"Oh… I'm sorry," Atemu mumbled, looking down at his lap.
"Sorry?" Yami asked with a tilt of his head.
"I'm sorry that I caused that war. The battle doesn't even make sense! It sounds like an accident… So, why was I so angry?" Atemu asked.
"I can't answer that. Only you know the answer," Yami responded. "I still don't know why you can't remember though."
Atemu shrugged and climbed off the bed, going back to his. He felt like he needed to think about what he had just seen. Somehow, he was responsible for Yami being trapped in the hospital with him. How did Yami wind up here though? He definitely didn't belong to this time!