"Seto, look!" called Mokuba.
"What is it, Mokuba?" he asked, stopping his pacing to look where his brother was pointing.
A boat was headed their way. It stopped in front of the rock island, and a rope was thrown down.
"Need a lift?" someone called to them. The voice sounded familiar. No, it couldn't be, thought Seto. Anyway, I'll take my chances with whoever's on that boat. Besides, anything's better than starving to death on this barren rock. He reconsidered his last thought. Well, almost anything . . .
"I'll go first," he told Mokuba. "Just in case."
Seto climbed up the rope, with Mokuba following him. As he reached the railing, a pair of hands reached down to help him up. Seto looked into a face that he had been seeing all too often for his liking.
"Yugi Moto?!" he said in shock.
"Seto Kaiba?!" exclaimed Yugi in equal surprise.
"I should have known," said Seto, recovering quickly and adopting his usual cold attitude he used with everyone except his brother.
Three seconds later, Mokuba's head appeared. Seto helped his brother up and turned back to Yugi. Just then, Joey came back from his fruitless pursuit of Tristan.
"So, Yug," Joey said. "Who was on the rock?"
"See for yourself," replied Yugi.
"Wha?! Kaiba?! What's he doin' all the way out here?!" exclaimed Joey.
"Yeah, what are you and Mokuba doing out here?" asked Yugi.
"Our helicopter hit the side of a mountain and crashed," said Mokuba. "So Seto and I got stuck on those rocks."
"And what are you doing out here, Yugi?" asked Seto.
"We were . . ." began Joey, but Seto interrupted him.
"I wasn't talking to you," he said to Joey.
"Well, Grandpa was taking my friends and me on a boat trip, but we hit a rock and he fell overboard. He was picked up by the coastguard but we got lost, and now we're trying to get back to the dock," explained Yugi. "You're welcome to stay with us. You already know everyone on the boat, except for Serenity, Joey's little sister. She's the one who spotted you guys. There's some food in the bag, and pop in the cooler, so help yourselves if you get hungry."
After Yugi's explanation, Mokuba went to get a snack, while Seto opened a pop and walked to the back of the boat to drink it in peace, as far away as possible from Yugi and his friends.
"That guy is such a jerk! What's his problem, anyway?" asked Joey after Seto had left.
"The usual, probably," said Yugi.
"Which is . . .?"
"We just helped him out by getting him and Mokuba off of that rock, and he doesn't like us to see him in need of help."
"How come?"
"Pride, Joey. Kaiba has a lot of pride, and I think he believes that asking for, or even accepting help when it is offered, is a sign of weakness."
Joey thought for a moment. "That's crazy, Yug," he said.
"I know, but that's the way he feels," said Yugi. "And there's not much we can do about that, until he learns to trust us."
That's the end of that chapter. Not much is happening, but it'll get interesting again . . . ^_~ (that's supposed to be a wink, if you couldn't tell!)