Author- Thank you all my loyal readers, once again! I must thank every
chapter, because, its fun. I luv daylight savings time. ^^ I get to stay up
an hour later every night, and sleep in an extra hour. What's not to like?
Disclaimer- Yeah yeah I know, 'It's about time she wrote one of these' and in my defence, does anyone REALLY care? Because I had a little too much time on my hands, I made a whole list at the bottom of the story that says what I do and do not own. Now for the review responses!
= = = = = = = =
^^ Aw well, sorry loyal readers but that is the way of the story. And now, time to write readers back for their review! In fact, TWO reviewers! YAYNESS! TWOTWOTWOTWO! (My face looks sorta like this right now: ^________________^ )
Livi- THANKIES for the review...s! I'm so happy that peoples take enough interest in my writing to tell me what they think at the end of the chapters. Just so's I know I'm still doing ok and not pooping out. : P Ok, here's the reason Cami was able to read the magazine when Caitlin was gone. She was still half existing between the shadow realm and the real realm. As soon as she entered the Dream Realm, which was about when she ran into Hugo and when Yami and Bakura entered the room, Cami lost the ability to read. He never noticed it because he stopped reading the magazine at that time. The rest of the memories went pretty soon after. So there's the reason. ^__^
...man I'm getting way too complicated with these stories. I have about a bazillion rules to follow, that I made for myself! e_e
Kelsey- YAY! YAYAYAYAY I'm so HAPPY PEOPLES LIKE MY WRITING THAT MUCH! ^____^ AND People like Caitlin and Cami, I am so proud of myself. And I'm glad I deserve more reviews! That makes me happy too! Action is coming up, in the very near future. As I said before, the beginning is a very slow point of the story. I've even found a way (And plot) that incorporates action (sorta kinda) into the Physical Realm as well. But if I stink, just say so and I'll fix it right up. ^^; And don't worry too much about Ryou, although I have put him in a lot of hard moments, (poor Ryou...) I'm not going to let my favorite Bishie die anytime soon!
*glomps Ryou*
NOW TO THE ACTUAL STORY!
= = = = = = = = =
Caitlin struggled with her losing battle against the bars that trapped us. She muttered to herself and used every means possible to try and pry them open, none of the idea's working. I cast a skeptical look to Darren and Cavamick, who both sighed in return.
"Why wont it open...?" She growled, turning around and pressing hard against it with her back. "Stupid stupid stupid thing won't open."
It had been a long time since almost all of us had woken up in our cage. It was a huge dome shaped building, like a canary cage (only about the size of a two car garage), built with mostly ferns and long sticks of bamboo. There was only one thing that looked remotely like a door was tightly suspended, and no one could open it.
I had no idea how we had gotten here, or no idea where almost half of my men were, and that made me feel uneasy.
It's never good in the Dream Realm not to know what's going on.
I didn't even know if it was night or day yet. The only light in the entire building peaked out from the small gaps in the bamboo that whoever built this cage forgot to fill in with ferns. The light dropped small patches on the ground that allowed us to see.
There was a loud banging noise, and a few pieces of dirt fell from the top of the roof and rained on us. Instinctively, I turned to see who did that, and not to my surprise, I realized it was Caitlin.
No surprise there at all.
"OPENOPENOPENOPEN!" She screamed at the door, giving it another kick that sent more dirt and fern down on us.
"Caitlin!" I hissed. "Don't, do that!"
She glared at me for a moment, then at the door, then stormed off to the other side of the cage and sat on the ground with her arms crossed on in front of her chest. Needless to say, she did not look happy.
But her war was not yet over.
Suddenly, she growled again and ran straight into the door with her shoulder without warning. All the men covered their heads with their arms when the third plague of dirt fell. Caitlin cursed very loudly and gave the door one last kick before returning to her patch of ground.
NOW, her war was over.
There were a few soft laughs from my men as they observed Caitlin's frustration from a distance, and I secretly wondered how the hell I was going to be able to live with someone like that. She acted upon impulse, and that could be a major flaw and disadvantage to her entire education in magic, or even in surviving in general.
Many of us were playing around with random item, such as our swords or tassels on clothing. Two of our number, were sleeping. These two being Yugi and Gale.
We had given up on Gale a long time ago. You had to learn quick that he was a greatly deep sleeper, or you would end up wasting a ton of time and energy trying to wake him up. Though so far, Yugi didn't seem to be much better.
"Yugi..." Yoko said again, trying for the second time to wake him by shaking his shoulder gently, "Wake up Yugi."
Yugi groaned and covered his head with his cloak. Yoko sighed and tried again, shaking him more vigorously.
"Yugi, you have to wake up!"
Another groan in reply, but no other sign he was waking up at all. Caitlin rolled her eyes while muttering, 'amateurs...' and leaned over Yugi.
"WAKE UP YUGI!!" She screamed in his ear.
Yugi jolted awake and rubbed his ears; "Jeez. You didn't have to yell so loud..."
"Sorry, but I'm in a bad mood." Caitlin said with a quick glare at the door. "Ryou's gone, I don't know where the hell we are, and that STUPID door won't open!"
"Oh..." Yugi said, eyelids drooping while he spoke, "Oh ok..."
"You know," She said, turning to me and Darren with mock sweetness, "You two have SWORDS. This place is made of WOOD and plants and stuff. Why don't you just CUT through the thing and we can go find Ryou and save our butts!?"
"Already tried." Darren said, pulling out the sword and attempting to slash through the wall.
Unfortunately, the sword went right through the wall without so much as a rustle as the sword cut through. The wall didn't even look like it was touched when he pulled his sword back and put it back into it's place.
"This whole thing is an illusion." He explained.
Caitlin looked about ready to rip her hair out. "If it's an illusion, then WHY CAN'T WE JUST WALK THROUGH IT!?"
"Tupokian magic." I cut in, realizing quickly the conclusion that Darren had already come to. "This must be Tupokian magic, because you can't puncture it and it leaves no trace of ever being there, but it feels real to only us. Only Tupoks can create something as complicated as this, which means..."
"Which means that we've been captured by a bunch of Tupok Monsters." Darren said, nodding and letting his head fall onto the wall of the cage.
I ran my hand through my hair and mentally cursed. Just our luck, we were attacked by Tupoks on the day we found the little destiny runts. Yugi looked more awake now, and looked curiously from me to Darren with great interest.
"What are Tupoks?" He asked, "Are they dangerous?"
"Of course they're dangerous!" I snapped, looking around for any other way out of the cage, "Did you think they would be fuzzy pink kitties or something!?"
"Tupoks are very dangerous beasts." Cavamick said, sending me a 'look' for being snippy. "People without a single drop of magic pulsating through their veins don't even know they exist, but they are extremely deadly to both magic and non-magical souls alike."
"Part of what makes them dangerous is that they get to choose when people get to see them or not." Darren brought up, "They can choose if they want to be heard or touched or seen or even smelled. Not that anyone would want to smell them, it's said that they smell so putrid that the soul that catches a single whiff could drop down dead."
"Wow..." Yugi breathed, both fear and amazement starting to fill his eyes, "They're that bad?"
"Yes." Cavamick said, a hint of a smile playing upon his lips because Yugi was paying such close attention to his tale; "There are, however, a small number of people who can actually see or hear or touch the Tupok when they don't mean to be seen or heard or touched. Those people are a great annoyance to the Tupok. They don't like being exposed to just anyone. In fact, there aren't very many of those people left, because the Tupok kill them off if they find them."
"Terrible isn't it?" Darren offered.
"And you know what else?" Gale said drowsily, grinning with his eyes still closed and his legs still scrunched against his chest. "They eat too. A lot."
"Eat what?" Yugi asked.
I instantly knew that Yugi was playing into Gale's hands and rolled my eyes. Gale cracked his eyes open and looked at Yugi evilly, raising his hands like claws up by his face.
"They eat...human flesh." He hissed. "Especially living human's flesh."
A few spooky 'Oooooh' noises came from random members of The Alliance. They were always very vocal about these sort of things, and Yugi gave them much to be amused by with his look of horror.
He was obviously still too groggy to notice the smirks and false sincerity from the others.
Tupoks really didn't eat much, but when they did, it was something small like a mouse. But to tell the truth, I had no intention of telling Yugi this any time soon, and went back to my current problem.
How was I going to get out of here? And where were my last men?
=*= Ryou =*=
[A/N: Just before you ask, Ryou is in something like what The Alliance is in, only smaller.]
"Get up, you."
I felt a hard kick on my side that shocked me out of an almost peaceful sleep. My hand's flew to where the white hot pain was pulsing and I quickly rose into sitting position. There was a gruff laugh from behind me that made me jump, and I spun around fearfully.
"Aren't you paranoid?" The voice chuckled.
I was sure I heard a voice, but there was no one in the small hut I had been resting in. I trembled a little when the idea of, 'Ghosts' surfaced in my mind, and tried to remain calm.
That was very hard.
"W-who said that?" I said, eyes flying around the room for any movement.
Another hit. Only this time, I was hit against the face. Although I had become used to blows like this, taking into consideration that I had a pretty abusive Yami, I wasn't ready for any of these attacks, and didn't like the surprise.
Without much time to dwell on my wound, I felt the front of my shirt being lifted into the air not unlike last night. Last night when voices attacked me...what was going on here? There was a difference to being lifted this time though. This time around, the 'ghost' didn't seem to be trying to kill me.
"You should die." The voice growled in my ear, "You should die with the rest of your friends. It's all because of you."
"I d-don't understand!" I managed to squeak, "What did I do!"
I was lifted higher, "What did you do!? Because of you all my people have left me to join the war! I have no people left and it's all your fault!"
"Please! I still don't understand! How is it my fault for the war? I haven't even been here!"
"That makes no difference!" The voice answered coldly, "Because of your role in destiny my people are gone! Without you there would be no war! Without you my people wouldn't leave and continue to die out before my eyes because of the cruelty of Yukio! I can do nothing to help them and it's all your fault!"
I was thrown from the air against the wall and felt my head hit hard wood. I clutched my head with my hands and closed my eyes in and effort to ease the pain.
"I hope you suffer." The voice said coldly, "I hope you suffer and die because of what you've done! Damn you! I tried to choke you to death but you just wouldn't die!"
I was shaking with pain and fear for my life. I hadn't even really done anything and he was going to kill me. I was ready for a hit that would kill me, a hit that would destroy me forever like this creature's wishes, but it didn't come. Instead, I heard a low humming noise, and a figure appeared in front of me.
It was almost human like, as in it had two arms, two legs, one head, and a normal looking body. But he had three eyes all in a row where only three should be, and he was much bigger. His skin was a tint of green that I had never seen before, covered in large dark green welts and warts that went down to his feet. His hands and teeth were razor sharp, and in his hand he held a long sheathed dagger.
With a loud battle cry, he charged at me with the dagger and swung at me. As soon as I realized he was trying to chop my arm off, I barely dodged the blow by rolling to the side. Blow after blow was thrown at me, and because I was unarmed, I could only dodge the swings.
"DON'T MOVE!" He screeched at me, "IT WILL ONLY DELAY YOUR FATE! I WANT YOU DEAD!"
I ducked as he swiped the dagger at my head and ran to the other side of the room. The more angry he got, the more inaccurate his blows were.
But they also came faster, and the longer I dodged, the slower I became.
The monster approached me, murder in his eyes and dagger at the ready in his fist. I had no where to run now, I was trapped without anything to protect myself with. I was doomed.
"Aw, trapped like a rat?" He growled, raising the dagger above his head with both hands, "You never should have come, Destiny Bearer, you and your friends have caused nothing but pain and trouble among the land. But no worries, I end your journey now."
I shut my eyes as he lunged to me, and felt my own hand jolt up from where it was to grip the arm of the monster before it hit me. I blinked, amazed at my own reflexes as I took this chance to yank the dagger from his hand and drop it onto the ground. The monster was as amazed and shocked as I was, and he pushed me against the wall with both hands.
"How dare you touch me." He hissed, "How dare you still live. Why do you live!? Why won't you DIE!?" [1]
I kicked him in the stomach with my knee and knocked the wind out of him, the thought finally clicking in me that this was a life or death situation. The monster let me go for a split second, just enough for him to catch his breath again and me to again grab the dagger from the ground and point it at his chest.
"G-get away from me." I said, trying my best to sound threatening. "Or I'll have to hurt you."
The monster wasn't fazed at all by my threat, and just stood still, eyes bugged out and glued on the dagger in my hands. My shoulders and hands were shaking at the intensity of the moment, and I did my best to stay calm.
"I said get away." I repeated, letting the dagger come closer to the beast.
"You wouldn't kill me." He said, smirk starting to show on his face, "You don't have enough back bone to be able to kill me off."
He took a step forward, as if to emphasize his point, and I backed away. I didn't want to do what I needed to. Seeing my fear, the monster came even closer so I couldn't back away any further. He touched my with his index finger and laughed.
"Not much of a threat are you?"
He came even closer to me, if it was possible, and raised a clawed hand into the air right over to me. He smiled demonically and I flinched at the thought of being cut to ribbons. In one last laugh, he screamed, "Now I have you!" and started to come down on me.
I had no choice. In order to save myself, I did something I never thought I would ever do.
I killed him.
I shoved the dagger into the monster's chest like I promised I would, and looked away as I felt warm blood trickle onto my fingers. I let the dagger go in disgust. The beast gasped when I did it, and he fell to his knees on the ground, dagger still embedded in his chest. He choked for air, and had to put his hands onto the ground to support himself. I was trembling like mad now, not daring to even look at my own blood stained hands as my eyes strayed again to the monster I had stabbed.
I felt an overwhelming pang of guilt in the pit of my heart, and although I had no other choice, I felt unbelievably dirty. I killed him. I had a blood thirsty Yami, and even HE hadn't killed anyone. I did. I killed him. I felt a hand on my arm and I looked down at the monster. He opened his mouth to speak, took a last gasp of air, and his eyes started to glaze over.
"D-damn you." He whispered, letting his grip fall loose and his eyes glaze over completely.
He was dead. I killed him.
In my shock I stood in silence, not knowing if I could face anyone yet. How would I tell them? How could I admit to anyone but myself that I had murdered someone? I closed my eyes for a minute to escape the world around me, then whipped my hands off on the walls around me. Shaking a little, I pulled the dagger out from the monster's chest and wiped that too, off on the wall, knowing I might need it again later. I couldn't just wallow in self pity, there was too much going on. I had to find the others.
Because the walls were made of, what seemed to be, wood and plants, I found it easy to cut through to the other side where new sunlight met me. It was morning already. Before leaving, I gave one last weary look to the body on the ground.
"I'm sorry." I said softly.
In response, the whole thing dissolved into a sort of colorful dust before my eyes and flew away on the breeze. Yoko had mentioned something about people doing something like that when they were killed, I remembered. Grasping the dagger firmly, though my body still felt weak, I ran out the hole I had cut in the wall to find my friends.
=*= Yugi =*=
After many, of what seemed to be, hours, I had come to a conclusion.
It was very dull being trapped in a wooden cage.
There was nothing for me to do here. I didn't have anything to fiddle with, I didn't have anyone to talk to, (Except Caitlin, who was currently having a 'bad day' and not very sociable) and as soon as Yoko let me have her stick to draw with, it broke.
Bryac seemed to be thinking about something, the entire time, that was very important. I didn't really feel like asking him what that was, and so I sat in silence. In fact, Gale was the only one in the whole cage that seemed to be as bored as I was. He kept fidgeting against the wall and trying to get back to sleep.
"Hey Yugi." He suddenly said, "You still alive over there?"
I looked at him and nodded, "Yeah, what is it?"
"I've got a question, and it's kind of weird but, what the hey. What's the world you live in like now?"
It seemed all ears perked up at the question, and I was reminded that all of them had been dead for quite a while. Everyone looked eagerly to me, and I blushed a little at the attention. How do you even begin telling someone that looked, based on his attire, like he was from at least a thousand years in the past, about your world?
"What would you like to know?" I asked him.
Gale stretched and smiled, "Is that how people normally dress in your time?"
He pointing at my shirt and jeans and a few people laughed.
"Yes." I said with a sigh, "This is how most people dress."
"Wow." Gale said, "Now tell me, Yugi, how many hours in the morning does it take you to put all those belts and buckles on?"
"And do your hair!" A random person from the group joined in.
Another groan from me. This conversation was not turning out how I planned it would go.
"It doesn't take me very long." I answered, "I've gotten used to buckling buckles fast, and I don't have to do more then run a comb through my hair to get it looking good. Its natural."
A loud gasp from everyone in the cage, and they all laughed at their own joke. I didn't see what was so funny, and gave up talking to them all together. Boredom was better then being tortured with stupid questions about my hair. Caitlin shrugged at me before continuing to plot against the door.
Suddenly, we heard a deafening noise that made everyone's hands fly to cover their ears. It was like long nails on a chalkboard, only a lot louder. Light flooded the room as the noise grew even more terrible, and then it was gone. We all turned to look at where the light was coming from, and saw none other than-
"Ryou!" I said, getting up from the ground and going over to him.
"You killed the door!" Caitlin cheered joyously; pointing at the fallen mess of bamboo and fern that had once been an unopenable door before Ryou cut through it.
Ryou smiled at us and came inside, but strangely, he didn't look all too happy. Sure he looked relieved to find us, but he didn't look happy about something. He had a bruise on his cheek that hadn't been there before, and in his hand, was a dagger. Bryac noticed this the second it was possible and snatched it from his grasp.
"Where did you get this?" He demanded, holding it up to the sun and making blade on it shine.
"I took it." Ryou admitted, "Something tried to attack me and I took it from him."
"Do you know what this is?" Bryac said, still examining the dagger thoroughly. "This is the Dagger of Kusdai!"
By the way everyone but Caitlin, Ryou, and I reacted, we could tell this was some great find. And now that I got a better look at it, I could tell it was a gorgeous weapon. The hilt was a deep black color, with each side of it stretched out longer then most daggers I had seen in my life. The blade itself was perfect and new looking, but everything else looked old and used to its limit. In the middle of the hilt, there was a small looking sort of skull that was painted with thick silver. Bryac swished it around a few times and marveled at it before continuing.
"The Dagger of Kusdai is only as strong as it's wielder. It's affected by your emotions, you see, and it's what people around here call a 'Blessed Blade.' Blessed Blades are very rare to find, because not only are they the only blades to be able to kill off another, but they usually have some sort of magical properties to them." Bryac explained.
"This is wonderful!" Yoko chirped, "Now Ryou can learn how to be a swords man like you, Bryac!"
"You MUST tell me where you found it, Ryou," Bryac said, a sort of eagerness and excitement in his eyes I hadn't seen before, "The Dagger of Kusdai has been missing for centuries by now and you found it!"
All eyes turned to Ryou, who shrunk back at the attention. He fiddled with a piece of his hair nervously and looked down at the ground.
"I got it from someone who attacked me." Ryou said, "Or something, rather. It tried to kill me, but I got the dagger."
"Tried to kill you?" Caitlin said, eyes wide, "Well that makes two of us, now all that's left is for someone to try to kill Yugi and we're all on the same page."
"What did this thing look like?" I asked him.
"Like a person, strangely enough, only...greener and...sharper. More like a beast then a human even though he more resembled a man."
"That's Tupoks for you." Darren said.
"I knew it." Bryac nodded to him.
"Why did it try to kill you?" Gale said, quizzically, "You, of all people."
"I-I'm really not that sure. He kept saying something about how the war was my entire fault and how his people abandoned him. He said he wanted me to suffer and then die." Ryou said, voice lowering as his gaze lingered on the dagger in his hands.
"Where is he now?" Darren asked.
Ryou flinched at the question and, again, averted his gaze to the ground. Hesitation was easy to sense as Ryou looked like he was going over everything again in his mind. Finally, in a defeated sort of way, Ryou sighed and shook his head.
"I killed him." Ryou said softly, words barely audible.
No one knew what to say to that. Although I'm sure Bryac, Gale, Darren and everyone else besides us in the building had killed many a soul in the past, they seemed to understand something I didn't. Something about killing someone for the first time. Ryou looked like he was silently grieving, and didn't make eye contact with anyone.
"You killed him?" Darren repeated, "Well, that's your first big step."
"True." Gale jumped in, "It'll be easier the second time, and you won't mind it as much."
Everyone glared at Gale as Ryou tensed. I was sure that hearing about his, 'second time' wasn't helping.
Ryou had never especially liked having a Yami. Although Bakura and Ryou had sort of, come to grips with each other and started to get along better, there still was this distance between the two. Ryou didn't want to be like his Yami, and therefore, didn't really try his hardest to get along. He looked to him more as a bad influence, and whatever Bakura did Ryou saw as something to avoid doing. Ryou was very particular about not saying things Bakura would say, liking things Bakura would like, or doing things Bakura would do. Just accidentally cursing, to Ryou, was a travesty. And even though Bakura talked tough, he had never actually killed anyone.
And now Ryou had done what Bakura had never achieved.
Bryac gave it a second of quiet before clearing his throat and adjusting his belt. "Come on, everyone, we've got to start back up again if we ever hope to reach the Opanian Sea before nightfall. Gather your things and let's go."
Everyone picked up their belongings from the ground and headed out the hole Ryou had created. On the way out, Bryac patted Ryou on the shoulder and muttered, 'You'll be alright.' Ryou nodded weakly, still not looking up, and let out a last sigh. I followed Darren out the hole in the wall and Caitlin came up behind me. She touched me on the shoulder and pulled me aside, now obviously feeling better that her door feud had been avenged.
"Yugi," She said, "You think Ryou will be alright?"
"I'm sure he'll be ok." I answered, "He'll snap back, just wait."
"I hope so." She said, looking at him from afar, "Because I've been overhearing Thina and Bryac talking lately, and, well-"
"What?"
"Oh Yugi." She said with a droop in her shoulders, "We've still got a long way to go before we get home, and a lot more problems like this to face before we're through. This is only just the beginning."
~*~*~*~
Author- ^^ OK! I'm finally done with this chapter! I'm sorry if this went a little bit slower and more, dramatic then usual. I just wanted to get it really known that Ryou is REALLY shook up about this. I mean, what would YOU do if you killed someone?
Anyway, next chapter is going to be back in the Physical Realm, but you wont get that for a little while. -.- My school work is really starting to pile up on me now, and I've got a piano competition coming up, and humanities and literature and UGH!
Anyway, to make it easier for me (and you I think) I'm going to be making this a weekly thing. You'll get a new chapter every Sunday (maybe Saturday, depends) and that will be my schedule! If there's a crisis, or I finish a chapter extra early then you'll have to excuse me from the rule.
~ NOW, THE LIST OF THINGS I DO/ DO NOT OWN ~
LIST- I do not own YGO, I do not own Yugi, I do not Ryou, or Tea, or Joey, or Tristen, or Bakura, or Yami, or the Millenium Puzzle, or Ring. I do not own The Shadow Realm, or the High School the YGO peoples attend. I do not own the tree out my window and in my story, or the computer I am typing on this very second. Isn't that sad? It's almost mine.
I DO however, own- The Pink Frilly House, the Mother, Jena, Caitlin, Yoko, Bryac, Gale, Thina, Darren, Yukio, Kanika, Cami, The Dream Realm, Gylimde, Cavamick, Montaii Birds, The Blue Flute, the Bow of Courage, the Tupok monsters, The Temple of Time, The Nightmare Region, The Drop of Star, Sidonia, Hi Hime Zaria, The Falsers, The Golden Sword, The Blessed Blade, the Cursed Arrows, The Field of Nothingness, Dream Water, The Cat Monster, Hugo, The Jewel or Koden, the Dagger or Kusdai, The Accursed Sliding Puzzle of Doom, Rewunon, and a whole big bunch of other junk that I am too lazy to write down.
THANKIES PEOPLES! R&R AND I'LL SUNC!
[1] = If you remember, Ryou has the power to hear the Tupoks. The only reason he could touch it, was because the Tupok had let his anger get hold of him and let his guard down. That's also why he turned visible. If Tupoks can't control themselves, they temporarily look their powers except for smell.
Which really, Darren and Cavamick were kind of messing with Yugi about and just throwing that in. The whole story that goes on about how some people can smell Tupoks is a myth. There's just a little bit of background information for you. ^^
Disclaimer- Yeah yeah I know, 'It's about time she wrote one of these' and in my defence, does anyone REALLY care? Because I had a little too much time on my hands, I made a whole list at the bottom of the story that says what I do and do not own. Now for the review responses!
= = = = = = = =
^^ Aw well, sorry loyal readers but that is the way of the story. And now, time to write readers back for their review! In fact, TWO reviewers! YAYNESS! TWOTWOTWOTWO! (My face looks sorta like this right now: ^________________^ )
Livi- THANKIES for the review...s! I'm so happy that peoples take enough interest in my writing to tell me what they think at the end of the chapters. Just so's I know I'm still doing ok and not pooping out. : P Ok, here's the reason Cami was able to read the magazine when Caitlin was gone. She was still half existing between the shadow realm and the real realm. As soon as she entered the Dream Realm, which was about when she ran into Hugo and when Yami and Bakura entered the room, Cami lost the ability to read. He never noticed it because he stopped reading the magazine at that time. The rest of the memories went pretty soon after. So there's the reason. ^__^
...man I'm getting way too complicated with these stories. I have about a bazillion rules to follow, that I made for myself! e_e
Kelsey- YAY! YAYAYAYAY I'm so HAPPY PEOPLES LIKE MY WRITING THAT MUCH! ^____^ AND People like Caitlin and Cami, I am so proud of myself. And I'm glad I deserve more reviews! That makes me happy too! Action is coming up, in the very near future. As I said before, the beginning is a very slow point of the story. I've even found a way (And plot) that incorporates action (sorta kinda) into the Physical Realm as well. But if I stink, just say so and I'll fix it right up. ^^; And don't worry too much about Ryou, although I have put him in a lot of hard moments, (poor Ryou...) I'm not going to let my favorite Bishie die anytime soon!
*glomps Ryou*
NOW TO THE ACTUAL STORY!
= = = = = = = = =
Caitlin struggled with her losing battle against the bars that trapped us. She muttered to herself and used every means possible to try and pry them open, none of the idea's working. I cast a skeptical look to Darren and Cavamick, who both sighed in return.
"Why wont it open...?" She growled, turning around and pressing hard against it with her back. "Stupid stupid stupid thing won't open."
It had been a long time since almost all of us had woken up in our cage. It was a huge dome shaped building, like a canary cage (only about the size of a two car garage), built with mostly ferns and long sticks of bamboo. There was only one thing that looked remotely like a door was tightly suspended, and no one could open it.
I had no idea how we had gotten here, or no idea where almost half of my men were, and that made me feel uneasy.
It's never good in the Dream Realm not to know what's going on.
I didn't even know if it was night or day yet. The only light in the entire building peaked out from the small gaps in the bamboo that whoever built this cage forgot to fill in with ferns. The light dropped small patches on the ground that allowed us to see.
There was a loud banging noise, and a few pieces of dirt fell from the top of the roof and rained on us. Instinctively, I turned to see who did that, and not to my surprise, I realized it was Caitlin.
No surprise there at all.
"OPENOPENOPENOPEN!" She screamed at the door, giving it another kick that sent more dirt and fern down on us.
"Caitlin!" I hissed. "Don't, do that!"
She glared at me for a moment, then at the door, then stormed off to the other side of the cage and sat on the ground with her arms crossed on in front of her chest. Needless to say, she did not look happy.
But her war was not yet over.
Suddenly, she growled again and ran straight into the door with her shoulder without warning. All the men covered their heads with their arms when the third plague of dirt fell. Caitlin cursed very loudly and gave the door one last kick before returning to her patch of ground.
NOW, her war was over.
There were a few soft laughs from my men as they observed Caitlin's frustration from a distance, and I secretly wondered how the hell I was going to be able to live with someone like that. She acted upon impulse, and that could be a major flaw and disadvantage to her entire education in magic, or even in surviving in general.
Many of us were playing around with random item, such as our swords or tassels on clothing. Two of our number, were sleeping. These two being Yugi and Gale.
We had given up on Gale a long time ago. You had to learn quick that he was a greatly deep sleeper, or you would end up wasting a ton of time and energy trying to wake him up. Though so far, Yugi didn't seem to be much better.
"Yugi..." Yoko said again, trying for the second time to wake him by shaking his shoulder gently, "Wake up Yugi."
Yugi groaned and covered his head with his cloak. Yoko sighed and tried again, shaking him more vigorously.
"Yugi, you have to wake up!"
Another groan in reply, but no other sign he was waking up at all. Caitlin rolled her eyes while muttering, 'amateurs...' and leaned over Yugi.
"WAKE UP YUGI!!" She screamed in his ear.
Yugi jolted awake and rubbed his ears; "Jeez. You didn't have to yell so loud..."
"Sorry, but I'm in a bad mood." Caitlin said with a quick glare at the door. "Ryou's gone, I don't know where the hell we are, and that STUPID door won't open!"
"Oh..." Yugi said, eyelids drooping while he spoke, "Oh ok..."
"You know," She said, turning to me and Darren with mock sweetness, "You two have SWORDS. This place is made of WOOD and plants and stuff. Why don't you just CUT through the thing and we can go find Ryou and save our butts!?"
"Already tried." Darren said, pulling out the sword and attempting to slash through the wall.
Unfortunately, the sword went right through the wall without so much as a rustle as the sword cut through. The wall didn't even look like it was touched when he pulled his sword back and put it back into it's place.
"This whole thing is an illusion." He explained.
Caitlin looked about ready to rip her hair out. "If it's an illusion, then WHY CAN'T WE JUST WALK THROUGH IT!?"
"Tupokian magic." I cut in, realizing quickly the conclusion that Darren had already come to. "This must be Tupokian magic, because you can't puncture it and it leaves no trace of ever being there, but it feels real to only us. Only Tupoks can create something as complicated as this, which means..."
"Which means that we've been captured by a bunch of Tupok Monsters." Darren said, nodding and letting his head fall onto the wall of the cage.
I ran my hand through my hair and mentally cursed. Just our luck, we were attacked by Tupoks on the day we found the little destiny runts. Yugi looked more awake now, and looked curiously from me to Darren with great interest.
"What are Tupoks?" He asked, "Are they dangerous?"
"Of course they're dangerous!" I snapped, looking around for any other way out of the cage, "Did you think they would be fuzzy pink kitties or something!?"
"Tupoks are very dangerous beasts." Cavamick said, sending me a 'look' for being snippy. "People without a single drop of magic pulsating through their veins don't even know they exist, but they are extremely deadly to both magic and non-magical souls alike."
"Part of what makes them dangerous is that they get to choose when people get to see them or not." Darren brought up, "They can choose if they want to be heard or touched or seen or even smelled. Not that anyone would want to smell them, it's said that they smell so putrid that the soul that catches a single whiff could drop down dead."
"Wow..." Yugi breathed, both fear and amazement starting to fill his eyes, "They're that bad?"
"Yes." Cavamick said, a hint of a smile playing upon his lips because Yugi was paying such close attention to his tale; "There are, however, a small number of people who can actually see or hear or touch the Tupok when they don't mean to be seen or heard or touched. Those people are a great annoyance to the Tupok. They don't like being exposed to just anyone. In fact, there aren't very many of those people left, because the Tupok kill them off if they find them."
"Terrible isn't it?" Darren offered.
"And you know what else?" Gale said drowsily, grinning with his eyes still closed and his legs still scrunched against his chest. "They eat too. A lot."
"Eat what?" Yugi asked.
I instantly knew that Yugi was playing into Gale's hands and rolled my eyes. Gale cracked his eyes open and looked at Yugi evilly, raising his hands like claws up by his face.
"They eat...human flesh." He hissed. "Especially living human's flesh."
A few spooky 'Oooooh' noises came from random members of The Alliance. They were always very vocal about these sort of things, and Yugi gave them much to be amused by with his look of horror.
He was obviously still too groggy to notice the smirks and false sincerity from the others.
Tupoks really didn't eat much, but when they did, it was something small like a mouse. But to tell the truth, I had no intention of telling Yugi this any time soon, and went back to my current problem.
How was I going to get out of here? And where were my last men?
=*= Ryou =*=
[A/N: Just before you ask, Ryou is in something like what The Alliance is in, only smaller.]
"Get up, you."
I felt a hard kick on my side that shocked me out of an almost peaceful sleep. My hand's flew to where the white hot pain was pulsing and I quickly rose into sitting position. There was a gruff laugh from behind me that made me jump, and I spun around fearfully.
"Aren't you paranoid?" The voice chuckled.
I was sure I heard a voice, but there was no one in the small hut I had been resting in. I trembled a little when the idea of, 'Ghosts' surfaced in my mind, and tried to remain calm.
That was very hard.
"W-who said that?" I said, eyes flying around the room for any movement.
Another hit. Only this time, I was hit against the face. Although I had become used to blows like this, taking into consideration that I had a pretty abusive Yami, I wasn't ready for any of these attacks, and didn't like the surprise.
Without much time to dwell on my wound, I felt the front of my shirt being lifted into the air not unlike last night. Last night when voices attacked me...what was going on here? There was a difference to being lifted this time though. This time around, the 'ghost' didn't seem to be trying to kill me.
"You should die." The voice growled in my ear, "You should die with the rest of your friends. It's all because of you."
"I d-don't understand!" I managed to squeak, "What did I do!"
I was lifted higher, "What did you do!? Because of you all my people have left me to join the war! I have no people left and it's all your fault!"
"Please! I still don't understand! How is it my fault for the war? I haven't even been here!"
"That makes no difference!" The voice answered coldly, "Because of your role in destiny my people are gone! Without you there would be no war! Without you my people wouldn't leave and continue to die out before my eyes because of the cruelty of Yukio! I can do nothing to help them and it's all your fault!"
I was thrown from the air against the wall and felt my head hit hard wood. I clutched my head with my hands and closed my eyes in and effort to ease the pain.
"I hope you suffer." The voice said coldly, "I hope you suffer and die because of what you've done! Damn you! I tried to choke you to death but you just wouldn't die!"
I was shaking with pain and fear for my life. I hadn't even really done anything and he was going to kill me. I was ready for a hit that would kill me, a hit that would destroy me forever like this creature's wishes, but it didn't come. Instead, I heard a low humming noise, and a figure appeared in front of me.
It was almost human like, as in it had two arms, two legs, one head, and a normal looking body. But he had three eyes all in a row where only three should be, and he was much bigger. His skin was a tint of green that I had never seen before, covered in large dark green welts and warts that went down to his feet. His hands and teeth were razor sharp, and in his hand he held a long sheathed dagger.
With a loud battle cry, he charged at me with the dagger and swung at me. As soon as I realized he was trying to chop my arm off, I barely dodged the blow by rolling to the side. Blow after blow was thrown at me, and because I was unarmed, I could only dodge the swings.
"DON'T MOVE!" He screeched at me, "IT WILL ONLY DELAY YOUR FATE! I WANT YOU DEAD!"
I ducked as he swiped the dagger at my head and ran to the other side of the room. The more angry he got, the more inaccurate his blows were.
But they also came faster, and the longer I dodged, the slower I became.
The monster approached me, murder in his eyes and dagger at the ready in his fist. I had no where to run now, I was trapped without anything to protect myself with. I was doomed.
"Aw, trapped like a rat?" He growled, raising the dagger above his head with both hands, "You never should have come, Destiny Bearer, you and your friends have caused nothing but pain and trouble among the land. But no worries, I end your journey now."
I shut my eyes as he lunged to me, and felt my own hand jolt up from where it was to grip the arm of the monster before it hit me. I blinked, amazed at my own reflexes as I took this chance to yank the dagger from his hand and drop it onto the ground. The monster was as amazed and shocked as I was, and he pushed me against the wall with both hands.
"How dare you touch me." He hissed, "How dare you still live. Why do you live!? Why won't you DIE!?" [1]
I kicked him in the stomach with my knee and knocked the wind out of him, the thought finally clicking in me that this was a life or death situation. The monster let me go for a split second, just enough for him to catch his breath again and me to again grab the dagger from the ground and point it at his chest.
"G-get away from me." I said, trying my best to sound threatening. "Or I'll have to hurt you."
The monster wasn't fazed at all by my threat, and just stood still, eyes bugged out and glued on the dagger in my hands. My shoulders and hands were shaking at the intensity of the moment, and I did my best to stay calm.
"I said get away." I repeated, letting the dagger come closer to the beast.
"You wouldn't kill me." He said, smirk starting to show on his face, "You don't have enough back bone to be able to kill me off."
He took a step forward, as if to emphasize his point, and I backed away. I didn't want to do what I needed to. Seeing my fear, the monster came even closer so I couldn't back away any further. He touched my with his index finger and laughed.
"Not much of a threat are you?"
He came even closer to me, if it was possible, and raised a clawed hand into the air right over to me. He smiled demonically and I flinched at the thought of being cut to ribbons. In one last laugh, he screamed, "Now I have you!" and started to come down on me.
I had no choice. In order to save myself, I did something I never thought I would ever do.
I killed him.
I shoved the dagger into the monster's chest like I promised I would, and looked away as I felt warm blood trickle onto my fingers. I let the dagger go in disgust. The beast gasped when I did it, and he fell to his knees on the ground, dagger still embedded in his chest. He choked for air, and had to put his hands onto the ground to support himself. I was trembling like mad now, not daring to even look at my own blood stained hands as my eyes strayed again to the monster I had stabbed.
I felt an overwhelming pang of guilt in the pit of my heart, and although I had no other choice, I felt unbelievably dirty. I killed him. I had a blood thirsty Yami, and even HE hadn't killed anyone. I did. I killed him. I felt a hand on my arm and I looked down at the monster. He opened his mouth to speak, took a last gasp of air, and his eyes started to glaze over.
"D-damn you." He whispered, letting his grip fall loose and his eyes glaze over completely.
He was dead. I killed him.
In my shock I stood in silence, not knowing if I could face anyone yet. How would I tell them? How could I admit to anyone but myself that I had murdered someone? I closed my eyes for a minute to escape the world around me, then whipped my hands off on the walls around me. Shaking a little, I pulled the dagger out from the monster's chest and wiped that too, off on the wall, knowing I might need it again later. I couldn't just wallow in self pity, there was too much going on. I had to find the others.
Because the walls were made of, what seemed to be, wood and plants, I found it easy to cut through to the other side where new sunlight met me. It was morning already. Before leaving, I gave one last weary look to the body on the ground.
"I'm sorry." I said softly.
In response, the whole thing dissolved into a sort of colorful dust before my eyes and flew away on the breeze. Yoko had mentioned something about people doing something like that when they were killed, I remembered. Grasping the dagger firmly, though my body still felt weak, I ran out the hole I had cut in the wall to find my friends.
=*= Yugi =*=
After many, of what seemed to be, hours, I had come to a conclusion.
It was very dull being trapped in a wooden cage.
There was nothing for me to do here. I didn't have anything to fiddle with, I didn't have anyone to talk to, (Except Caitlin, who was currently having a 'bad day' and not very sociable) and as soon as Yoko let me have her stick to draw with, it broke.
Bryac seemed to be thinking about something, the entire time, that was very important. I didn't really feel like asking him what that was, and so I sat in silence. In fact, Gale was the only one in the whole cage that seemed to be as bored as I was. He kept fidgeting against the wall and trying to get back to sleep.
"Hey Yugi." He suddenly said, "You still alive over there?"
I looked at him and nodded, "Yeah, what is it?"
"I've got a question, and it's kind of weird but, what the hey. What's the world you live in like now?"
It seemed all ears perked up at the question, and I was reminded that all of them had been dead for quite a while. Everyone looked eagerly to me, and I blushed a little at the attention. How do you even begin telling someone that looked, based on his attire, like he was from at least a thousand years in the past, about your world?
"What would you like to know?" I asked him.
Gale stretched and smiled, "Is that how people normally dress in your time?"
He pointing at my shirt and jeans and a few people laughed.
"Yes." I said with a sigh, "This is how most people dress."
"Wow." Gale said, "Now tell me, Yugi, how many hours in the morning does it take you to put all those belts and buckles on?"
"And do your hair!" A random person from the group joined in.
Another groan from me. This conversation was not turning out how I planned it would go.
"It doesn't take me very long." I answered, "I've gotten used to buckling buckles fast, and I don't have to do more then run a comb through my hair to get it looking good. Its natural."
A loud gasp from everyone in the cage, and they all laughed at their own joke. I didn't see what was so funny, and gave up talking to them all together. Boredom was better then being tortured with stupid questions about my hair. Caitlin shrugged at me before continuing to plot against the door.
Suddenly, we heard a deafening noise that made everyone's hands fly to cover their ears. It was like long nails on a chalkboard, only a lot louder. Light flooded the room as the noise grew even more terrible, and then it was gone. We all turned to look at where the light was coming from, and saw none other than-
"Ryou!" I said, getting up from the ground and going over to him.
"You killed the door!" Caitlin cheered joyously; pointing at the fallen mess of bamboo and fern that had once been an unopenable door before Ryou cut through it.
Ryou smiled at us and came inside, but strangely, he didn't look all too happy. Sure he looked relieved to find us, but he didn't look happy about something. He had a bruise on his cheek that hadn't been there before, and in his hand, was a dagger. Bryac noticed this the second it was possible and snatched it from his grasp.
"Where did you get this?" He demanded, holding it up to the sun and making blade on it shine.
"I took it." Ryou admitted, "Something tried to attack me and I took it from him."
"Do you know what this is?" Bryac said, still examining the dagger thoroughly. "This is the Dagger of Kusdai!"
By the way everyone but Caitlin, Ryou, and I reacted, we could tell this was some great find. And now that I got a better look at it, I could tell it was a gorgeous weapon. The hilt was a deep black color, with each side of it stretched out longer then most daggers I had seen in my life. The blade itself was perfect and new looking, but everything else looked old and used to its limit. In the middle of the hilt, there was a small looking sort of skull that was painted with thick silver. Bryac swished it around a few times and marveled at it before continuing.
"The Dagger of Kusdai is only as strong as it's wielder. It's affected by your emotions, you see, and it's what people around here call a 'Blessed Blade.' Blessed Blades are very rare to find, because not only are they the only blades to be able to kill off another, but they usually have some sort of magical properties to them." Bryac explained.
"This is wonderful!" Yoko chirped, "Now Ryou can learn how to be a swords man like you, Bryac!"
"You MUST tell me where you found it, Ryou," Bryac said, a sort of eagerness and excitement in his eyes I hadn't seen before, "The Dagger of Kusdai has been missing for centuries by now and you found it!"
All eyes turned to Ryou, who shrunk back at the attention. He fiddled with a piece of his hair nervously and looked down at the ground.
"I got it from someone who attacked me." Ryou said, "Or something, rather. It tried to kill me, but I got the dagger."
"Tried to kill you?" Caitlin said, eyes wide, "Well that makes two of us, now all that's left is for someone to try to kill Yugi and we're all on the same page."
"What did this thing look like?" I asked him.
"Like a person, strangely enough, only...greener and...sharper. More like a beast then a human even though he more resembled a man."
"That's Tupoks for you." Darren said.
"I knew it." Bryac nodded to him.
"Why did it try to kill you?" Gale said, quizzically, "You, of all people."
"I-I'm really not that sure. He kept saying something about how the war was my entire fault and how his people abandoned him. He said he wanted me to suffer and then die." Ryou said, voice lowering as his gaze lingered on the dagger in his hands.
"Where is he now?" Darren asked.
Ryou flinched at the question and, again, averted his gaze to the ground. Hesitation was easy to sense as Ryou looked like he was going over everything again in his mind. Finally, in a defeated sort of way, Ryou sighed and shook his head.
"I killed him." Ryou said softly, words barely audible.
No one knew what to say to that. Although I'm sure Bryac, Gale, Darren and everyone else besides us in the building had killed many a soul in the past, they seemed to understand something I didn't. Something about killing someone for the first time. Ryou looked like he was silently grieving, and didn't make eye contact with anyone.
"You killed him?" Darren repeated, "Well, that's your first big step."
"True." Gale jumped in, "It'll be easier the second time, and you won't mind it as much."
Everyone glared at Gale as Ryou tensed. I was sure that hearing about his, 'second time' wasn't helping.
Ryou had never especially liked having a Yami. Although Bakura and Ryou had sort of, come to grips with each other and started to get along better, there still was this distance between the two. Ryou didn't want to be like his Yami, and therefore, didn't really try his hardest to get along. He looked to him more as a bad influence, and whatever Bakura did Ryou saw as something to avoid doing. Ryou was very particular about not saying things Bakura would say, liking things Bakura would like, or doing things Bakura would do. Just accidentally cursing, to Ryou, was a travesty. And even though Bakura talked tough, he had never actually killed anyone.
And now Ryou had done what Bakura had never achieved.
Bryac gave it a second of quiet before clearing his throat and adjusting his belt. "Come on, everyone, we've got to start back up again if we ever hope to reach the Opanian Sea before nightfall. Gather your things and let's go."
Everyone picked up their belongings from the ground and headed out the hole Ryou had created. On the way out, Bryac patted Ryou on the shoulder and muttered, 'You'll be alright.' Ryou nodded weakly, still not looking up, and let out a last sigh. I followed Darren out the hole in the wall and Caitlin came up behind me. She touched me on the shoulder and pulled me aside, now obviously feeling better that her door feud had been avenged.
"Yugi," She said, "You think Ryou will be alright?"
"I'm sure he'll be ok." I answered, "He'll snap back, just wait."
"I hope so." She said, looking at him from afar, "Because I've been overhearing Thina and Bryac talking lately, and, well-"
"What?"
"Oh Yugi." She said with a droop in her shoulders, "We've still got a long way to go before we get home, and a lot more problems like this to face before we're through. This is only just the beginning."
~*~*~*~
Author- ^^ OK! I'm finally done with this chapter! I'm sorry if this went a little bit slower and more, dramatic then usual. I just wanted to get it really known that Ryou is REALLY shook up about this. I mean, what would YOU do if you killed someone?
Anyway, next chapter is going to be back in the Physical Realm, but you wont get that for a little while. -.- My school work is really starting to pile up on me now, and I've got a piano competition coming up, and humanities and literature and UGH!
Anyway, to make it easier for me (and you I think) I'm going to be making this a weekly thing. You'll get a new chapter every Sunday (maybe Saturday, depends) and that will be my schedule! If there's a crisis, or I finish a chapter extra early then you'll have to excuse me from the rule.
~ NOW, THE LIST OF THINGS I DO/ DO NOT OWN ~
LIST- I do not own YGO, I do not own Yugi, I do not Ryou, or Tea, or Joey, or Tristen, or Bakura, or Yami, or the Millenium Puzzle, or Ring. I do not own The Shadow Realm, or the High School the YGO peoples attend. I do not own the tree out my window and in my story, or the computer I am typing on this very second. Isn't that sad? It's almost mine.
I DO however, own- The Pink Frilly House, the Mother, Jena, Caitlin, Yoko, Bryac, Gale, Thina, Darren, Yukio, Kanika, Cami, The Dream Realm, Gylimde, Cavamick, Montaii Birds, The Blue Flute, the Bow of Courage, the Tupok monsters, The Temple of Time, The Nightmare Region, The Drop of Star, Sidonia, Hi Hime Zaria, The Falsers, The Golden Sword, The Blessed Blade, the Cursed Arrows, The Field of Nothingness, Dream Water, The Cat Monster, Hugo, The Jewel or Koden, the Dagger or Kusdai, The Accursed Sliding Puzzle of Doom, Rewunon, and a whole big bunch of other junk that I am too lazy to write down.
THANKIES PEOPLES! R&R AND I'LL SUNC!
[1] = If you remember, Ryou has the power to hear the Tupoks. The only reason he could touch it, was because the Tupok had let his anger get hold of him and let his guard down. That's also why he turned visible. If Tupoks can't control themselves, they temporarily look their powers except for smell.
Which really, Darren and Cavamick were kind of messing with Yugi about and just throwing that in. The whole story that goes on about how some people can smell Tupoks is a myth. There's just a little bit of background information for you. ^^