The Windows of Your Eyes

II

The Guardian King

My birth, my death, are all a mystery to me. I cannot recall my life before my ageless imprisonment, nor can I speak of those I knew back then. All I know is that I was once Pharaoh of a distant land called Egypt.

Egypt is a desert country; they travel by camel, an odd, four legged beast, there. The great pyramids, built by slaves in the time I was ruler, stand stark against the golden sand and the blue of the sky. Enigmatic sphinxes and forgotten temples dot the alien landscape, and somewhere buried beneath a dune of sand is my past.

It is said I ruled in a palace, looming over a prosperous city. That I took part in shadow games of great magnitude, games for power and finally for the fate of the world. In the last, fateful game, I sealed away my soul and the souls of six others into seven Millennium items. We slept away the ages until the evil in this world awoke once more and thus we were called to fight or belong to it. My history is repeating itself and yet I cannot remember what has happened.

My life sounds catastrphic. It is not.

The Millennium puzzle, the item that housed my dormant spirit, was solved be a youth named Yugi Moto. I could spend hours describing him to you: his wide, innocent, amethyst eyes, his tri-colored and shockingly spiked hair, his soft heart and stalwart courage. He is an amazingly wonderful individual, someone I am glad to share my life with. He is a gem, an unique jewel, and I am the setting for that jewel. We depend on one another, but he far outshines me. I am the background player, and he is the soloist.

I once had a serious heart-to-heart talk with Yugi's and my best friend Jounochi Katsuya. He is a bumbling blonde Brooklyn youth and a budding duelist. I asked him what came to mind when he thought of me.

"You're jaded," he answered after some thought.

The answer took me by surprise. I asked why.

"You've been through a lot an' have the weight a' savin' da world on your shoulders. Shouldn't come as a huge surprise, Yug'." Even after I told him who I was, he still referred to me as 'Yugi'.

"I didn't realize…" I murmured, sadly.

He placed a warm hand on my shoulder; I turned in surprise. His smile was comforting and as warm as the hand. "Don' worry about it. We all have our share a' heartache. We're all a little jaded."

Then he grinned and took the hand away. "Whaddaya think a' me?"

I answered him as humorously as I could, but all humor was gone from me. I was jaded, he said. I knew they thought me a little crazy, but then everyone was crazy now and then. And I am tired, tired of this destiny which haunts me. But I am not tired of this world. I am not jaded in the sense that I am not done living.

I know my duty. I am the guardian of the little one. I see his heart, his innermost turmoils, troubles, and thoughts. I am his blanket, to keep him warm when the world tries to turn his spirit cold. I am his pillow, to be comforted by and cried into, even punched at times in anger. I am his shadow, keeping watch over him, even when he forgets I am there. I am the protector. I am Pharaoh. I am the guardian king.