I sincerely apologize for not updating for...WHAT!!! TWO MONTHS!?!?! *kills self*
*ahem* Lately I've taken to liking LOTR (Legolas and Aragorn rule)and DBGT (yes, it's not as good as DBZ, but so what?!), and I'm not as interested in Yugioh as I used to be...
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Atari, why did you die...and leave me? Why? Please! Come back...!
"Ra!" The young prince's eyes snapped open. He lay still for a moment, before realizing that he had fallen onto the floor. Sighing in disgust, Yami pulled himself to his feet and slumped on his bed.
Another nightmare, he thought angrily, rubbing a hand across his burning eyes. Will they ever stop?!
It had been four months since Yami had become, and it seemed that his life had gone from bad to worse. Ever since he had been adopted into Pharaoh Ka-aper's family, Yami had continually been at the firstborn son Amar's mercy. Being the only son of the pharaoh's beloved wife, who had died several years ago, Amar had been thunderstruck when he had learned that a slave—a rebel's son, no less—was replacing him as Ka-aper's heir. So the older teen began taking his hurt and anger out on Yami.
And the pharaoh's two remaining wives...! Just thinking about them made the spiky haired boy wince. They abhorred him—
—but they have quite a right to do so, Yami thought bitterly as he tried to go back to sleep.
It was true. After all, they'd spent a great deal of their lives producing sons to please the pharaoh...and the spiky haired teenager's adoption was like a slap in the face. It said that Ka-aper preferred boys of uncertain birth to his own children.
I wish I wasn't so alone... Without realizing it, Yami found himself blinking back tears at the childish thought.
No. I can't go back to sleep. It's a waste of time to lie thinking like this... With that thought, the teenager got up and, after wrapping a thick, black cloak around him and fastening the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, stepped from his room into the cool halls.
Yami had never overcome his amazement at how vast the palace was. He had nearly gotten lost once. Remembering this, the prince smirked as he slipped from the palace through a servant's entrance; one that was unguarded.
"Ra..." the teenager murmured as he glanced up and saw the night desert sky, all strewn with stars. "I never knew..." Suddenly tired, he sank down against the palace wall, mentally identifying the various constellations he recognized.
Exhaustion washed over him after several moments. Yami was about to succumb to sleep when a stealthy but audible footstep abruptly put him on his guard. "Who's there?" he demanded, getting to his feet.
A figure emerged from the darkness, revealing itself to be none other than the pharaoh's firstborn son. Yami scowled.
"What are you doing here, Amar?"
The newcomer was a young man, about seventeen years old, with straight black hair and onyx eyes. He was noticeably taller and more muscular than Yami, but not half as smart.
"I was born here," Amar replied quietly. "It matters little where I go or what I do. Besides," he added, looking up to the skies, "I need to study the stars of the goddess Nut this clear night, for I am being tutored in the art of astrology." His midnight glare turned back to rest accusingly upon Yami. "And thanks to you, I will never have any use for it as pharaoh..."
"Why does everyone insist on blaming me for this?" the spiky haired teenager demanded. "I wasn't the one who wanted to be adopted!"
"True, but I heard no objection from you, either." Amar clenched his fists. Raising his head to the sky, he spoke to the gods—the very habit that had made others consider him mad at times. "Ra, why do you insist on torturing me this way? What have I done to deserve Yami...a slave...for a brother?"
Ordinarily, Yami would have ignored Amar, but the mention of his name and that hated word "slave" in the same sentence made him unusually angry. So before he knew it, his fist had smashed into Amar's face, sending the unsuspecting one sprawling.
"Take that back, in Nekhbet's name!" he exclaimed, ready to punch the prince again if he tried to get up. "I am no slave!"
Amar clenched his teeth, rising to his elbows. "Then what are you?" Yami hesitated. "A prince? No, Yami, a true prince is of noble blood. A commoner? You are far too tricky for that. That still leaves one possibility—"
"I told you, I am not a slave!" The spiky haired teenager bent to deal another blow, but before he could react, Amar had his arm painfully locked behind his back, and his body was roughly shoved into the wall. The younger one tried not to cry out as the sharp edges of the Puzzle dug into his stomach. "Look at yourself," the prince hissed in Yami's ear. He ripped off the teenager's cloak, exposing his scarred back. "Feel your old wounds!"
The knife Amar always kept in his belt came up and traced faded whip marks on the younger one's back, slowly at first, but then fast enough to draw blood. "If you aren't a slave, then what are you?" His hand came up swiftly, snapping Yami's head against the wall. "Answer me!"
No. Barely feeling the trickle of warm blood down his hot face, Yami shut his eyes. His face was hit again, and harder this time, but the teenager sealed his lips. Not a word...
"So you won't answer me?" Amar's cold voice burst in on the roar that filled Yami's ears. He suddenly released the boy, thrusting him to the hard-packed sand. "Fine, then." The black haired prince kicked the motionless body on the ground. "Just remember this, Yami. A slave is what you always have been, and always will continue to be."
Then like the little patches of dew before the sun, Amar was gone.
The teenager on the ground stayed immobile for several long moments as the night sounds of the desert crept back into the air, just letting the revived pain from his old wounds subside. Finally, he reached down, his hands fumbling for the Puzzle.
Relief washed over him as he realized it was undamaged, but this quickly gave way to boiling anger as the young prince pushed away from the sand.
Atari...
"How could this have happened?" he hissed as he touched his bleeding face and looked down at his reddened hand. "After all you promised me...how could you leave me here in this hell while you went on to the afterlife? You lied to me, just like all the others, Atari."
Ice began to fill the teenager's mind. "Curse you," Yami whispered heatedly to the stars. "From the bottom of my soul I curse you all!"
There were tears in his crimson eyes as he went back to bed.
****
"You wanted to speak to me...Father?" The teenager spat the last word.
Pharaoh Ka-aper nodded. "Come in, my son."
Your son. Yami scowled openly as he bowed and entered, knowing that his father wouldn't see it in the dark library.
"You can read and write, can you not?" was the ruler's first question.
Yami was caught off guard. "Yes..." he answered slowly. "You were the one who appointed me a tutor to teach me when I was first adopted."
"And you are progressing well?"
"I am." A pause. "Why do you ask?"
"There is something I need you to see." Ka-aper indicated the map on the table. It, the teenager saw, was a map of Egypt. "Tomorrow," he continued as Yami scanned it quickly, "I have called for a council of my generals and closest advisors. We meet to discuss certain trouble along our southern border...mainly below the fifth cataract."
"And?" Yami arched an eyebrow.
"You are to be present."
"What?" Scarlet eyes widened. "But I'm—"
"—only a youth, I know." The pharaoh smiled, and the dim torchlight made him look mysterious. "But you are wise beyond your years...wiser than you know."
Why does he insist on reminding me of that? "I see. I...thank you, Father." In spite of his astonishment, Yami had fully expected something like this to happen.
But there was still one more thing... "And what of Amar, my father? Is he to attend?"
"Of course," Ka-aper replied coolly. "And why should he not? He is my eldest son."
Shit. "I see." Yami bowed. "It's late. I'll take my leave now, if it pleases you, Father."
"Hn." Pharaoh Ka-aper nodded. His smile disappeared abruptly. "Yami..."
"Yes?" The dark haired teenager snapped his eyes back to the elderly man.
"Your back...what happened?"
Curse it! Of all things, how could I have forgotten to wear my cloak after what Amar did to me last night? "It is nothing, Father," the young prince said hastily as he backed out of the room. "Those were old scars."
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Gomen ne if the angst was underdeveloped. *sigh* I believe I am losing my touch...but review anyway, for OSIRIS commands thee!! XP