Disclaimer: WookieeBeta does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! (unfortunately for her, but that's a good thing for the rest of the world…)
Unknown Identity
Chapter Twelve: A New Life
"Hey, Strange-Eyes," Ashkari said. "You've been very quiet lately. What's wrong?"
"It was a year ago today," Strange-Eyes said, his gaze distant. "I haven't spoken to him for a year…"
"Spoken to who?" Ashkari queried. She and Strange-Eyes had become fast friends, though both had to insist to others that it was no more than that. They spent much time together, to be sure, but it was mostly because Strange-Eyes was still uncomfortable speaking the native language. He had made the transition from outsider to tribe member quite smoothly after a sudden recovery from his strange illness, though he still couldn't - or won't, Ashkari thought – explain what had happened. The villagers had all but given up hope that he would survive and were in the process of preparing for mourning and the funeral when he suddenly stood and walked to the river. He had returned a day later, completely healthy.
"Hey, Strange-Eyes," she pressed. "Spoken to who?"
"A good friend," Strange-Eyes replied, shaking his head slightly as if to clear his head. "Come on, let's take this stuff back to the village."
Two days later, Strange-Eyes was taken ill again. Ashkari stayed by his side, ignoring the chief's orders to leave. He muttered many strange things that she did not understand. A great deal of it seemed to revolve around a Yami, but she could not figure out who this Yami could be. Just over a week later, he stood and walked to the riverbanks. This time, Ashkari followed him. He washed and trimmed his hair, and then climbed into a tree, where he seemed to sleep. She crept away to await him at the village the next day.
Another year passed, relatively uneventfully. There was a small drought, but the tribespeople were well prepared and suffered few illnesses or injuries. As the second anniversary of his induction into the tribe rolled around, Ashkari noted that Strange-Eyes seemed to get more and more distant, often the first to leave in the morning and the last to return from the forests, where he had chosen the job of hunting. He was well skilled at it, but Ashkari followed him every day for a week and found that he in truth did not spend his time hunting.
He would sit at the base of a tree and pull something from a pouch that he always carried. Then the strange ornament that he wore around his neck would begin to glow, and some kind of shadow would begin to collect around him. But always he shook himself violently before the cloud gathered completely around him, and would sometimes throw the ornament away from him violently. If he did this, he would weep, and then carefully pick the ornament up and place it back around his neck before going on the hunt. Ashkari did not mention this to anyone, but she began to keep a close eye on him. He was strange, and in more than just his eyes.
Two years ago today I was first brought into the tribe, Yugi thought darkly. That means that in two days I will fall ill again. This year, I will go into the forest, where I will not frighten my people…
"Ashkari," he said quietly that evening as he tended the fire. "I am going into the forest tomorrow evening. I will be back in just over a week." He spoke in Japanese so that the other tribespeople would not overhear him, though he was now completely fluent in the native tongue.
"The illness?" Ashkari asked, also speaking in Japanese. Strange-Eyes nodded.
"Yes. It gets worse each year. I do not want to frighten our people in case I do something strange."
"You fear you will summon the dark cloud, the cloud that frightens you so much," Ashkari said flatly.
"How do you know about that?" Strange-Eyes demanded, whirling. Ashkari bowed her head, expecting punishment, but spoke anyway.
"I followed you into the forest for a week," she said, fighting back tears. "I wanted to know why you were so strange. I saw you begin to summon it, and then send it away." She shrunk back, expecting Strange-Eyes to be angry. But instead he became very quiet and sat down on the far side of their small fire. Then she heard a strange sound – weeping.
"Strange-Eyes?" she asked, concerned.
"If I go to the Shadow Realm, I may be able to find Yami," Strange-Eyes said as evenly as possible, "but I fear it so, and now I am not sure I want to find him." His shoulders shook.
"Who is Yami?" Ashkari asked.
"A good friend who saved my life many times," Strange-Eyes said.
"I have not seen him," Ashkari said. "Where is he?"
"He was in my mind," Strange-Eyes said, "but now I do not know where he is. He has been gone for two years. I miss him…" He stood and walked to his mattress where he lay down with his back to Ashkari. She just looked on in wonder. Strange-Eyes was indeed strange in more than his eyes.
Why, Yami? Why must I suffer this each year? Yugi thought desperately in one of his moments of sanity between memories. He had stopped experiencing his own memories, though - they were all Yami's now. He wasn't sure if this was any better. He now had a vague notion that Grandpa had once been very important to him, and that someone named Kaiba had at one time been his enemy, but that was all. He did not know their faces, nor their full names, nor their relationship to him, though he suspected that Grandpa was indeed his grandfather.
Now, when I want to know my past, I have no way of learning it, Yugi thought mournfully. Yet two years ago when I was a boy lost in the forest with a spirit that could have shown me everything I turned down his offer. Why was I so stupid? But Yugi did not have the opportunity to answer his own question as the memories dragged him into the dark abyss once more.
"You're late," Ashkari said when Strange-Eyes stumbled wearily into the village nearly two weeks later. "And hurt!" she exclaimed, noticing a deep cut on his side. She sprang forward to inspect it, but Strange-Eyes waved her away.
"A scratch," he said. "I slipped from the tree." She nodded in comprehension, but the other villagers were obviously still confused.
"Let me rest," Strange-Eyes begged as the tribespeople crowded around his mattress, wishing to know if he was all right. "I beg of you, just me rest. I have not slept in a week."
"But that is all you do when you are ill every year!" one old woman sneered at him. "You sleep for a week!" Strange-Eyes turned his strange eyes on her, and she quailed when she saw the fires that burned within. She turned and ran. Strange-Eyes seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, and then the fires disappeared to be replaced by an exhausted hopelessness.
"Let me rest," he begged a final time before collapsing on his back. He would sleep, regardless of whether the tribespeople were there or not.
"He is evil," the old woman was still whispering almost a year later. "You did not see the way he looked at me! If the fires in his eyes had been able to leap out at me, there would not have been a soul left alive for miles. He will bring evil," she spat. "He must be sent away…"
A/N: Heh, I kinda like that old woman…gonna have to write her more often ^evil grin^ Finally got around to updating some more (homework's kept me busy for the past few nights)…. I'm going to try to get the rest of this revised and uploaded in the next few days, and then I'll get to working on some more ideas that I have ^motions for plot bunnies bouncing in the background to calm down^ As you can see, they're being fairly impatient with me…and Darth Real Life isn't helping…