Chapter 22-Yami
" The stones are too big. That's why we have miniature cards."
" Oh." Tarkot blinked. He looked at the mat and placed a monster down. "
Ancient Elf."
" Fine. I attack-"
" Hold on." Tarkot giggled nervously. " I have a trap card somewhere, hold it, I
need to find it-hehe..."
I looked at Tarkot and shook my head. " It is just like a child." I began. "
Normally we would have remembered."
" But I'm new at this, remember?" Tarkot said to me shyly. " I can't even read the
cards right...and there were magic cards around and trap cards around and I
forgot the order. Ah, Negate attack. So you're attack's not here, and I have a
magic card somewhere that gives my elf a boost of three hundred points, so your
monster is finished, and can you hold on because I need to look at my magic cards
so I can remember what I put down?"
I chuckled quietly and waited as the young slave child picked on card after another and looked at it, even reading it to remind himself what the function was, then putting the card face down and picking the next one up and reading it. I waited quite patiently-there was nothing to do that day. I did not want to see aristocrats, because the child was more entertaining.
For some reason I wanted Tarkot to be more than a peasant, more than a
slave. Maybe he can leap from a slave to a noble, if I could make it. However he
has no support so I had to wait. In the meantime, I might as well teach him some
aspects of noblehood.
But Tarkot wasn't really interested in the game, as always. He treated it as a type of play, and I decided to let it go for now. Tarkot was a child. A smart boy, but a child nonetheless. Tarkot giggled as he relooked at his cards again.
But in the end we tied. Somehow our lifepoints dropped to zero at the same time. Tarkot clapped his hands in delight and dropped his cards while I blinked in surprise. I didn't even try to lose.
Several hours later I found the boy had finished most of his work and was
outside playing. He was trying to catch a dragonfly, and was pouncing on it.
Right in front of my eyes I saw him fall into a pond.
Afraid for him, I began to start forward, only to see the little black head
appear, and Tarkot blinking his golden eyes, wriggling out and giggling. He
coughed a little, sneezed once, and then searched for the dragonfly again. There
was a burst of flames and I cried out, but the flames went down as suddenly as
they came, and Tarkot hopped out, perfectly dry.
" What a marvel," Said the High Priest beside me, and I nodded in agreement.
Tarkot ventured into the town, his hood coverint his face. I held his hand.
No one knew we were gone, nor will they know when we return. I looked around.
" This is your hometown?" I asked softly.
" Mm." Was his answer.
This place was a slum!
Tarkot looked down and I glanced all around him. Beggars littered the streets. Madmen, drunkards. Hurriedly I pushed Tarkot out of there. Then I appeared in the palace with him. I did not want Tarkot to go back there again. It's time to let his past go.
One day a stranger came into the palace, armed and slaying the guards that
stepped in his way.
" Who are you, and why are you intruding?" I asked. I was in a better mood that
day so I decided not to punish him outright. Although it probably was what I
should have done.
" My name is Enmut." Said the young man. " I've come to see Tarkot."
Tarkot just appeared carrying a pile of plates, but dropped them at the sight
of the man.
" Enmut!"
" You bastard!" Enmut's voice was deadly. " You treacherous bastard!"
Tarkot's eyes were filled with confusion as he stepped back cautiously.
" You're alive?" He asked softly.
" What happened to them?" Enmut asked darkly. " What happened to the others?
To Dakar, to Raka, to Isis?"
Tarkot's eyes welled up with tears. He didn't say anything.
" I'm going to kill you, you treacherous bastard! You filthy demon!" Enmut cried,
and the tall young man lifted a noble sword, one of the pyramids. " You killed
them all! You killed your own mother, your own sisters, your own friends!"
" He did no such thing." I countered, stepping in the way.
" I swear, I didn't know!" Tarkot cried. " I didn't know why I didn't get the illness,
but-"
" Then why are you the only one that's alive? Why is it that when I was away in
another town, everyone around you perished, while you ran off here, filled with
sin, trying to forget your evil deeds as a rich healthy servant in the palace of the
living Horus?"
And in his rage the man charged at Tarkot. I tried to stop him, but Tarkot went first.
" Ank shamon!"
And suddenly before me was a pile of rotten flesh, charred bones, and a sword, pale and gleaming. Blinking in surprise I turned around at Tarkot, who was pale as snow, his golden eyes gleaming and wide in horror, and he stood very still with his hands out before him summoning the first offensive attack that had killed the last of those he knew.
Sobs.
Closing my eyes I tried to block the heartbreaking sobs out of my mind but I couldn't. Each sob was like a tug at my heart, a will to let me go and comfort him. But the door wouldn't open. Not even to the Pharaoh. Tarkot didn't care about the consequences and he had no reason to either.
So many sobs.
And then...laughter?
Hurriedly I banged on the door. Why was Tarkot laughing? Something told me that it wasn't right. I opened the door, forcing it to, and saw Tarkot on his small bed, tears still pouring out of his eyes but laughing like one of those lunatics in the slumtown. I hurried over to him and tried to silence him, but his laughter turned to sobs again and he buried his head into me. And then he started screaming and shrieking.
Calling upon one of the monsters, my own choice of attendants, I summoned the Dark Magician to my aid. The magician was not use to seeing me with a child and stood there puzzled for a brief moment, before realizing the situation and gently prying the boy away from me, and as soon as the eyes made contact the child stopped crying and his mouth fell open in a silent gasp.
At first the Dark Magician stared back at him for a minute, a little resentful
at the boy's reaction. But I was smiling a little, and was trying to relax, because I
was so unbelievably tired. So tired, so tired, so tired-
" Uh-uh-oaw," Tarkot uttered, staring at the Dark Magician in complete shock.
Then he poked at the magician's outfit, blinking, shutting his mouth and tilted his
head up so he saw the staff. He suddenly reached out to grab it, then yelled, as his
hand was slightly burned. I hurried over and rubbed his hand.
" Don't do that." I warned.
The Dark Magician tilted his head at the boy curiously and I wondered when he will return to card form. When it was apparent that he wouldn't any time soon I sat down to my work and allowed the two to observe each other.
" Pharaoh, these guys are real?" Was Tarkot's young voice, still shaky and hoarse
after the sobbing.
" They're as real as I am." I answered.
There was a moment of silence.
" What's your name?" Now it was the child again, this time more curious, and he
hiccuped.
The Dark Magician looked my way. I didn't look back but I felt it, and I
nodded.
" Omea."
There was a brief silence.
Keep talking. I thought to the Dark Magician, or rather secretly prayed. Keep his mind off everything that happened today. Keep talking, or do something, even, even hug him, right, hug him, good heavens!
" S-Sana!" The boy sobbed, and I heard his voice crack, and suddenly it was muffled. Turning around I saw the Dark Magician was indeed hugging him close his eyes, normally emotionless, were sad.
Sobs.
