No Yugi-oh owning…
Chapter Five: Creatures In The Mist
Ryou laid in a crumpled heap. He would have looked to the world like a small patch of snow freshly fallen if streams of scarlet blood hadn't surrounded his body. Patches of his once snow coloured hair had absorbed a lot of the readying seeping liquid. His pasty face was expressionless. His heart beat slow-to-none, perhaps faint if at all. To the world he appeared dead, maybe he was, if not he would be soon.
The young almost corpse at first glance appeared to be crying but upon further inspection the liquid sliding from his eyes was not the salty mixture of sweet tears but deep crimson lines of blood. His left leg started to twitch rapidly but his face remained emotionless. He himself made no noise, silent as the night. His school uniform was growing darker by the second as blood stained the dirty fabric. Still Ryou made no noise as it was simply beyond him.
Yugi sat on the gritty mud, clothes soaked through and through. His clothes were still damp from the harsh rain that showered on his creamy peach skin that now looked clammy and pale. His normally spiky hair lay down loosely and tasselled his shoulders and over his eyes. He made no attempt to move it. He laid there, back against the tree trunk slumped. He was going to meet his fate soon, it didn't matter how he looked anymore; his visions had doomed him. He could not help but wait for fate to meet him. "Fate's certainly taking its sweet time." He muttered softly to himself while toying with a small twig.
(a/n: this tiny paragraph here was written by my Yami. Just givin' credit)
Soon the small teen had woven a picture in the mud, stick still resting in his hands. With a sigh Yugi wiped the water, which must have been dripping from the tall tree above, from his face. After smearing the water with a bit of dirt from the back of his hand four times in a row Yugi heart wrenchingly realized that the water wasn't from the tree above him but from his very own eyes. Feeling betrayed from his body the tri-haired teen furiously wiped the tears clean from his face and concentrated on stopping them from falling. He wasn't crying, he couldn't be, he shouldn't be crying. No sobs or wails echoed from his mouth but the tears still continued to fall. To Yugi's horror he couldn't make them stop.
After twenty more seconds of this Yugi buried his face in his hands and shakily got to feet, not watching where he was going Yugi once again ran and stumbled through the strange forest. And yet again he still had no clue where he was running to, only that he could no longer see, his vision too blurred by the onslaught of unwelcome tears. Twice the small one fell, and twice he re-rooted himself and stood back up still furiously wiping his face. Eventually Yugi ran out of energy, not eating anything in a full days time. So when something knocked him down, stopping him from his wild escape of tears Yugi had no choice but to comply.
Tristen was walking three steps ahead of Joey, who was legging, still feeling the aftermath of killing the Kuribo. (Or so he thought.) Feeling his friends obvious reluctance to hurry Tristen calmly reminded Joey that they had to find Yugi and fast, Tristen too, was disgusted and slightly traumatized by the exploding Kuribo. However, upon being reminded of a Yugi alone in this deep dark forest frightened Joey and took Tristen by surprise as he raced ahead, grabbing at Tristen's jacket to pull him along. Then a thought occurred to the lemon-haired joker. Stopping their run to ponder this.
"…'Eh Tristen? What if, ya know… what if Yug didn't leave the camp willin'ly?"
"You mean like- someone took him?"
"Yeah."
"Joey, I have a bad feeling about this. We should hurry and find Yugi, he must be scared all alone, especially after he lost his grandfather."
Joey and Tristen wasted no time scowling the dark forest, the only thing was, the dark forest was humongous! And then it happened. The path they were following, in hopes that it was the same one Yugi took, forked off. Now, neither boy wanted to be alone in this place, especially with the prospect that other such creatures as the Kuribo may still very well be alive and well… possibly hungry. No, being alone did not sit well with either teen. Even so, it was not wise to split up. If one of them found Yugi, then the search would have to start all over again for the other missing friend.
However, to Tristen the choice of path was obvious. One of the forked paths lead into a dead portion of the forest, where a thick blue mist seemed to cover the ground, the other led into a more cheerful, albeit dark, road… without the odd mist. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. Tristen turned to the mist-less path and started walking, once again calling Yugi's name as he had since the search started. Joey, on the other hand, yanked Tristen back.
"What are you-?" Tristen said, obviously disfigured from the sudden yanking.
"Shhhh."
Both boys stood in silence, then they heard a noise far off into the distance of the eerier leafless patch of the forest. "Err..." They both muttered while looking down the path and not seeing a thing. But they heard something, a soft voice, a female's voice? No, two! And they were conversing. Glancing at each other they nudged closer, each picking a different direction on the path, i.e. one left, the other right, and hiding themselves behind a tree. Both being as quiet as possible, oddly cautious.
"…I think it unwise to-"
"Shhh… do you hear that? Someone not of this world dares to listen to us!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I am, they listen in the trees. This is a sign. I must return to the dragons."
"Will the tiny Blue-Eyes be safe without your protection?"
"Yes. Another Guardian of the Dragons will be arriving shortly."
"Another?"
A faint soft laugh was heard and the speakers voice lowered even lower, making it extremely hard for the two listeners to make out. "Yes. One from the previous world. I shall go to him soon. The small Blue-Eyes will be fine in his care, the babe wanted to protect him."
"My duty is split, as always. It may not be wise to share this knowledge with me. I might betray you."
"True. But you've chosen sides long ago. I need not worry, but I must leave now. I must prepare for his arrival."
"Farewell my friend."
"And you." A flapping of wings was clearly audible causing both boys to peer out from the trees to see what was causing it. Without warning something burst between the pathway causing both boys to fall over backwards from the sudden gust. A faint blur of a girl with unmistakable features of a dragon whizzed by, shattering the mist for but a few seconds.
After half a minutes time Tristen joined Joey's side. "Who was that?" But Joey didn't know and had to merely shake his head, still in awe of the creature he had just seen. The other voice broke the silence, the one talking to the dragon girl.
"Mortals of the previous world. Show yourselves to me." The voice was not sweet but it did hold the qualities that could have made it so, there was a roughness in the girl's tone that made you take whatever she said seriously. "It is rude to listen to another's private conversation." The being didn't seem happy or sad but neutral.
Joey and Tristen both slowly turned their heads to one another, obviously not to eager to meet this being, creature- thingy. Given two more seconds and they would have bolted. But with a one second time period something had shifted in the mist, a shadow was walking towards them. Both could hear the others heart race as the being approached. She was an odd figure in the shadows, and then she stopped abruptly and stared directly towards the pair. "Come." Unwilling yet feeling reluctant to disobey they both took a step foreword, then Tristen pushed Joey forward, who gasped in a start when he clearly saw the being before him.
The girl wasn't tall, about average height with dirty honey coloured hair. She was dressed in a simple robe with a heart placed over the chest. "Don't be alarmed mortal. I will not harm you… yet." That, of course, was not why Joey had gasped. The girl seemed to be split in two right down the middle. Besides the fact that half her face was mischievously hidden in shadow the other was totally visible. The play of light and shadow divided her wholly, even the soft glow that radiated from her was divided. One a soft purple haze, the other a bright white-yellow. But it was neither the light, her skin, the outfit or her light to dark shadows dividing her that caused Joey to stare, whether the wings that protruded from her back. The devils and the angels wing. Noticing Joey's attention the split girl simply smiled… a very odd smile indeed; Joey couldn't tell if it was a smirk or an actual inviting warm smile. "You do not know what has happened, mortal. Tell me, how did you escape your catastrophe."
Joey gulped and slowly turned his head towards Tristen, who, unlike Joey was deep in thought about how to respond to the question. As such it was Tristen who responded. "If we answer you this, will you help us?" The female creature snorted indignantly.
"I will not, mortal."
Joey, taking this as an insult to the greatest degree forgot about whatever danger they were in, forgot about any help she may give and, as always lost his temper. "'eh! And why, might I ask, is that!"
"I have no duty towards you. I am in search of another, a more worthy being. And don't be fooled by me doing so. I will not become a servant." The girl smiled again. "I shall test this one. We shall see whom is worthy to whom."
Joey was about to yell something else but Tristen covered his mouth. "I did not mean servitude. I only want to know if you could part with some information, see we lost our friend and mffmmmph."
"Shad up, Tristen."
"Did you now? All right. You tell me how you escaped your deaths and I will, if I've seen him, point you in his direction." Although this was good news to the two there was something mischievous in the pretty girls voice. Regardless, both Tristen and Joey wanted to know, they had to find Yugi at all costs, if there were these creatures roaming about then Yugi wasn't safe all alone.
Joey spoke first, choosing his words carefully. "Our friend had been given' a warnin' about the destruction of our city so we knew to leave."
The creature frowned at this. "How."
Tristen spoke quickly before Joey had time to start another fight where no answers would be given. "Dreams."
"Ah. I see, so the visionists walk this earth now, do they? Yes, that would explain our release. What does your friend look like, mortals."
Tristen once again acted quickly and covered Joey's mouth like Joey had done to him previous. "Short. Tri-coloured hair with spikes, black with red highlights and blonde bangs."
The girl smiled innocently. "Yes, come to think of it I know which direction such a creature is." She slowly raised her left hand and stretched it out to her left. She then slowly raised her right hand and, just as slowly raised it ahead of her. "The ones you seek are where I point." The girl smiled once more before her wings suddenly stretched out to their full extent, silencing Joey and Tristen immediately. Then she jumped into the air, her robes flaring out as she did so. Wings flapped downward propelling her up and then she was gone, leaving Joey and Tristen back on the ground.
Yugi looked up at his captor through blurry eyes. "Joey? Tristen, is that you?" Not wanting his friends to see him cry Yugi once again rubbed his eyes furiously. Eventually he blinked away the tears. "How did you find m…" Yugi stopped talking immediately, he could feel warm breath on his neck, very warm and very near.
Suddenly Yugi got a very bad feeling Yugi groped behind him with his eyes closed, scrunched in fear. His small hand touched something furry and ruff. Gulping, apparently very loudly, Yugi stood up; his back still turned and took a step forward as if to leave, a very large growl told him that that, apparently, was not an option. However, not knowing what was behind him, Yugi felt it best to simply NOT find out and bolted.
Bad move.
Within seconds something silver flashed between Yugi's vision and smacked into him causing the small and light teen to go flying in the air at a rapid speed. He landed with a thud on the top of his back skidding across the terrain. As his upper back made contact with the ground Yugi's head snapped forward, his arm went flying above his head and he could feel it strain as he skidded. He didn't even know what his legs had done at that exact moment in time.
Not being able to make any other noise other than a yell that soon faltered into pain filled gasps Yugi shakily opened one eye, the other shut tight in pain. Something big and white briefly crossed his vision again. For a brief moment in time Yugi was reminded of Ryou, the white of the…dead boy's hair. Pain though, does not disappear with thoughts of other things, in fact, Yugi found it continuously hard to concentrate on anything but pain.
Forcing himself to sit up- mainly so that he was off his aching back, Yugi dazedly looked around, and then came face to face with huge teeth. Giving a sound of freight Yugi inched backwards but failed miserably at keeping a distance between him and- and- wait a sec, this creature looked familiar? Whimpering slightly Yugi slowly, so as to not give the creature cause to hurt him again, gingerly touched his back. Blood came back on his fingers. The White wolf- as Yugi took the thing to be, had walked behind him and was licking at his back, Yugi screamed at the pain of pressure but soon was calmed as his back stopped aching. The Wolf came back to Yugi's side and sat patiently. Yugi sat examining the wolf- no, Yugi realized, Silver Fang, it looked exactly like the wolf card in his deck! Wincing slightly Yugi got his deck out from his pocket- it seemed so long ago that Yugi had put it their to duel Joey with at school. And sure enough the 'Silver Fang' card was identical to the creature before him.
"…Silver-Fang?" Yugi whispered, trying to keep his voice calm. Upon being recognized Silver-Fang made a small growl, but a pleasant growl, almost like a bark. "Silver-Fang can you understand me?" This time Yugi's voice was filled with awe. All thoughts of doom and fate and destiny pushed to the very back of his mind. Once again Silver-Fang let a small happy growl form from his mouth. "Silver-Fang..." Yugi's voice was serious and he watched the wolf carefully, "are you going to hurt me- or eat me?" This time the wolf shook his head once to the left and once to the right. Feeling a HUGE relief Yugi smiled up at the creature. "Well then, why are you here... I mean do you know what's happened, I don't. Are there other duel creatures here…" Yugi trailed off as the Silver-Fang looked at him, with an expression that undoubtedly stated 'do I look like I can talk'. Laughing nervously Yugi shrugged.
Becoming all too aware that he was still damp and that the temperature was still freezing Yugi shivered. The Silver-Fang stood and walked into the trees. This oddly caused Yugi to be afraid. With the Silver-Fang around he felt safe and no longer alone. Well, that is after it stopped chucking him. "Silver Fang… errr, wait!" But the wolf was gone, leaving Yugi alone and injured. The boy fell asleep shivering against a tree. In the morning, however, the small boy would wake to the huge wolf wrapped around him, this night will eventually become warmer and a Silver-Fang will be there to greet- not eat- him in the morning.
(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)
Draggy: ah ha! How's that! Yes, thank you, thank you. Another chapter written. Please leave reviews, thank you!
…Now, I believe the squirrel story is in order. SO! Let's begin our classic tale of a half blind, cute, little squirrel… our story begins……..
School was finally over, the mischievous squirrel long forgotten in the minds of Yugi, Tristen and Tea, but not Joey who smiled to himself as they walked along. In fact, Joey kept on snickering to himself, not only on the walk home but at odd moments in school causing the trio and others to look at him oddly. Finally Tea had enough and demanded to know what was so funny! Joey just snickered louder before laughing more. Through busts of laughter Joey managed to wheeze out, "Oh man- oh man- your face- funky dance- Yugi- butt- face!"
Yugi, who was talking to Yami and therefore hadn't heard Tea's question, or most of Joey's answer came in a bit late, in fact he came in at… "You think I have a butt face!"
Thus causing Tristen to snicker. Joey, on the other hand stopped laughing immediately. "No Yug. It wasn't like that! I didn't say- Yugi, wait up where are ya going!"
"Yugi!" Tea was first to follow as Yugi dashed off, then Joey, then Tristen, who was no longer smiling. "Yugi!"
Yugi dashed off around a corner, hurt that his friends were making fun of him. Unfortunately for Yugi he ran headlong into Ryou causing them both to smack into each other until both flew backwards. An onslaught of apologies was quickly spoken by both highschoolers until they blankly stared at one another. "Heh heh', they both half heartedly said while scratching their heads. (Riiiiight)
Within seconds the trio following Yugi caught up to him. "Ryou?" They all said in unison, shocked and surprised. Ryou had avoided them all day at school.
"Yugi, man listen. You misunderstood. I din't say that about you, really." Before Yugi could respond Tristen added, "It's true man. He was talking incoherently about that squirrel"
While Yugi looked relieved Ryou looked horrified. /oh no, oh no, oh no. I know you're listening yami and if you dare speak one word of earlier today I swear I'll…/
//What, let me?//
Yugi, realizing Ryou was having a conversation with his Yami brought his Yami to awareness, who had slept the whole day away! …Yugi was actually grateful for this, not wanting his other half to know of his most humiliating experience. (/(Come on- guess who's next *rubs hands together gleefully*)/)
"I'm glad that's settled", said Tea. "Ryou, you know, we didn't see much of you today? Are you feeling okay."
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine… I was just… you know… … busy…" Mentally Ryou cussed at his extremely lame excuse, Bakura snickered. //Ouh, how evil Ryou.// Ryou couldn't tell if Bakura was mocking his excuse or laughing at him for cussing. Didn't matter.
Of course this sparked Yami's interest and after asking a reluctant Yugi if he cold take over asked, "Does this have to do with the thief."
Again Ryou cursed mentally, but this time Bakura didn't snicker. Ryou knew his worst fear was about to happen. Yami and Bakura… and the squirrel story Bakura was eager to tell his friends. /Why me?/
"Why Pharaoh, I didn't know you cared." Bakura ignored Yami's scowl, ignored the group who had dropped their faces to their hands in a 'why now' fashion.
"Why was Ryou late, thief, and why did he ignore us all day."
Bakura could feel Ryou pressing to take control of his body but obviously Bakura did not relent. "Why pharaoh. If you really want to know I'll be glad to tell you. See there was this." Bakura stopped speaking immediately. His eyes had darted to the upper-side of Yami's head, unnoticed by the pharaoh. An evil grin fastened itself to Bakura's face. The little grey squirrel was walking on a telephone wire and in a few seconds- now- was just above the pharaoh's head. Silently casting a bit of shadow power upwards the squirrel came downwards. (Hehe, the wonders of gravity! ^-^) Now, Bakura had no way of knowing this was the exact same squirrel that had attacked Ryou, nor the exact same squirrel that had attacked Yugi, Tea, Tristen and Joey- because he wasn't there at the time. But the squirrel knew. The squirrel recognized the comfy soft landing of Yugi's hair, and the familiar jumps of the person beneath him; the squirrel just didn't recognize the pointed blonde streaks that hardened his soft landing.
Bakura was in a fit of laughter. Tears were coming from his eyes. Yami was worse than Yugi; he didn't run in circles, he ran in loops! Little figure eights! And every now and then he would jump, causing Bakura to howl, and dare I say it, fall over backwards in a fit of laughter. No matter how hard he tried Yami just couldn't dislodge the squirrel from his hair, he swatted and shouted and jumped and ran but the little bugger had a hold of one of his spikes. Feeling justified Yami quickly retreated to his soul room leaving a disgruntled Yugi in charge. Oh man, the look of shock and- betrayal on Yugi's face made Bakura laugh so hard he couldn't breath!
But with the spike gone the squirrel unexpectedly went flying. No body moved. …except Yugi who was gasping for breath and Bakura who was still laughing wildly.
Now, as one could imagine our happy little squirrel wasn't too happy. In fact, he was rather mad. His ride on the spike head wasn't too fun and lo and behold, here was everybody who had hurt him earlier that day. Fun!
Now our smart little squirrel was at an odd with who to get his revenge on. The Apricot… who he remembered being the last thing he saw before everything went dark, or the white haired boy who had humiliated him. (/( Can squirrels be humiliated? Well this one was! ^-^ )/)
Choosing the first person he saw the squirrel dodged forward and to his horror was met with a boot, Apricot's boot. He skidded towards Bakura, who was still laughing but was able to comprehend the situation and shoved Ryou out to take his place, since he couldn't do anything while laughing. …But something was wrong. Ryou had... had... locked his soul room? With a sudden burst of reality Bakura got off the ground and ran. He ran soo fast! Everyone started laughing… at him! Those bastards will pay for this!
Yami took over again, not wanting to miss the spectacle and indeed did he enjoy it! That was until Bakura caught sight of him. Within seconds he made a beeline towards Yami who was, with memory of that squirrel on his head, pushing Yugi out again, reasoning that since it was no longer him Bakura would stop his dash. This didn't work. Yugi also decided he liked his soul room a lot better than the squirrel and was already mad with Yami for his earlier actions. "eep."
Yami took off at a bolt, followed by Bakura, followed by the squirrel. Regardless to the seriousness (is there any seriousness in this story) Tristen, Tea and Joey couldn't help but laugh at the high and powerful ancient spirits running in a line from… a squirrel.
And then, when Bakura and Yami thought things couldn't get any worse. …It rained. Yami's hair started to flop downwards and his bangs un-spiked leaving a wet mess of blonde in his face. Bakura was faring no better, his hair just weighed down, causing a mop to form on his head.
Eventually Bakura finally caught up with Yami, the gang trying to catch up as the two boys and squirrel ran down the streets in the rain.
Yami slipped in a puddle, shoes sliding in the rain, Bakura, who was looking behind him at that exact moment ran headlong into Yami, who had almost caught his balance, and SMACK they were both down for the count.
Groggily they both looked up and to their horror the squirrel had jumped and was about to land on them when… it swivelled mid-air and landed to the side before dashing off to a tree. Two pairs of eyes who had previously been bulging blinked in surprise.
"Get off me, thief"
"I'll get up when I'm good and ready, pharaoh!"
"Now!"
"In a moment!"
"Now!"
"Hmph. Now I'm good." Bakura got up, Yami pushing him off.
"What happened?"
"Hi!"
The two swivelled around to see a soaking wet, yet oddly cheerful Marik. He was smiling sweetly, Millennium rod in one hand, the other waving cheerfully. His hair, although wet, didn't look like a mop or demented hat, rather wet hair. In the wet and dismal day Marik looked like a saint. "You know. I never realized how funny you two are. Want to come over for milk and cookies… no! Hot chocolate…. You look horrid. Where are your hikari's?"
Yami and Bakura just stared at one another then mumbled a 'yes'. Neither particularly wanted to but their hikari's had insisted.
***At Marik's*** ^-^
Ryou and Yugi told Marik all about the demented little squirrel. Ryou no longer embarrassed about his happenings since he could now laugh at Bakura or any of his other friends if they brought it up again. When they got to the part of Bakura being chased by a squirrel but still managing to chase Yami Marik had to laugh. Yep, sipping their hot chocolates and musing over past squirrel stories with Marik was fun. Of course, their Yami's just sulked in their soul rooms, being absolutely quiet, trying to forget the whole ordeal.
Meanwhile back on the street, in the pouring rain…
"Humph… I say they went home!" Shouted tea, overly soaked with a clingy wet shirt on.
"But what if they need our help," insisted Joey. Afraid Yugi was still mad at being called a butt-face.
"That squirrel should be barred" Tristen said.
"That's it, I'm going home!" Tea turned, but Joey caught her arm. "Come on, they wouldn't leave without telling us they're okay."
Through the rain, the wet, muddy rain four names could be heard through out the streets…
"YUGI!!!"
"RYOU!!!!"
"YAMI!!!!!"
"….Bakura…"
Draggy: Wow. Longest ever squirrel story! OVER 1,500 words. But you guys deserve it. You've only waited how many months? So review! Feel free if you have a favourite duel monster you want added to the story or a certain someone for a squirrel story. Remember, only Yugi, Tea, Ryou, and Bakura have been victims. A certain loud mouth blonde teenager, a younger brother… a well, I'll let you decide so pick one. Go ahead. ..And no, the squirrel wasn't under Mariks control the whole time, just at the last little bit. Aww, he was acting so sweet!
Thank you!