The Thief
Chapter 5
Disclaimer: No, I swear I don't own anything. Nothing except this computer…wait, no, I don't own the computer either. Okay, so please don't sue me. Thanks!
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Kura woke up on the floor again, covered in a spare blanket. A few feet away he could see Malik and Ryou, both asleep. Like the first day, Odion entered almost as soon as Kura was awake and rudely took away Kura's blanket.
"Everyone up," Odion said, ignoring Kura's furious cursing.
Malik, who's eyes had slit open at Odion's entrance, tumbled out of his bed and yawned sleepily before staggering over to the dresser to grab his overshirt.
But Ryou didn't move. Kura inched over and peered at the sleeping boy. His eyes might as well have been glued shut. Kura gave Ryou and experimental poke, but the boy only snuggled deeper into his bed.
"Psst!" Malik hissed, but it was too late.
Odion reached past Kura and picked Ryou up, holding him for a brief moment. Ryou turned and cuddled against Odion, still not waking up. Then Odion dropped him, waking the small boy up as efficiently has he had woken Kura up the previous day. But at least Ryou landed on his soft bed.
"Ack!" Ryou thrashed about in surprised and proceeded to fall off the side on his bed, landing on Kura.
"Hey! Get off me!" Kura hollered, pushing Ryou roughly.
"That's enough," Odion said, his voice suddenly sharp, from somewhere over their heads and he leant down to offer Ryou a hand up.
Kura snorted, hauled himself to his feet and followed them outside to the water pump where Kaiba was already washing his face.
"Another bath?" Kura asked loudly. Then he quickly stepped away from Odion, using Ryou as a shield. "I can wash myself. If you try to wash me again," Kura said to Odion, "I swear to Ra that I'll bite you."
"Don't risk it, Odion," Malik teased as he splashed in the water, "He's probably septic."
"Very well," Odion said, handing Kura the washcloth.
Kura, reassured, went to the water and stuck his hand in. "Holy Ra!" he shrieked, yanking his hand back, "It's cold! There's no way…what? NOOOOOO!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What was that loud thumping noise this morning?" Kaiba asked as everyone sat down to breakfast. He looked at the very wet thief suspiciously and Kura stuck his tongue out in reply.
But Odion shook his head. "That one," he said, pointing his spoon at Ryou, "Could sleep through cannon fire. One of these days he's not going to wake up until someone runs him through with a longspear."
Ryou blushed bright as everyone around him laughed.
"But seriously, Odion," Kaiba said, calming down, "Sleeping lightly is a necessary and prized virtue for a soldier. It's not necessarily a fault in anyone else."
"Well, who wants to be a soldier?" Ryou muttered, hiding his still pink face in his arms.
"Not me," Kura said, swallowing his mouthful of oatmeal.
All eyes turned on him, as though everyone had forgotten he could talk. Even Ryou lifted his eyes from his arms to look at Kura.
"Who asked you anyway?" Malik said, flicking a small piece of bread at Kura.
"He did, oatmeal brain," Kura said, pointing to Ryou and eating the bread Malik had thrown at him.
Malik scowled and turned away haughtily. "And would scum of the gutter know about being a soldier?" he said, a challenging gleam in his eyes.
Kura felt himself bristle. "I wouldn't know," he shot back, "Not being scum of the gutter. But my father is a soldier and it's a bloody, thankless, useless job for people too stupid and too ugly to do anything else."
A complete silence followed and all eyes turned to Odion to see how he would react to Kura's insult on his profession, manners, and intelligence.
"I see," Odion said slowly, "And what does your father think of your chosen profession?"
Kura shrugged. "He's gotten used to it."
That ended the discussion but Kaiba did take the time to tell Kura that in the future he should just keep his mouth shut unless directly addressed and ignore conversation not specifically directed towards him.
"I'll do and say whatever I Ra dammed want," Kura snapped back.
Kaiba's frown deepened and he leaned closer to him. "I have a riding crop in one of the saddlebags," his voice was low, but everyone at the table heard, "I will not hesitate to have it used on you. Understand?"
Kura scowled and looked away. "Perfectly," he said.
"Good."
~~~~~~~~~
A few extra packages, Kura hoped they contained food, had to be loaded onto the horses before the party could set out on the road again. Ryou, Malik, and Kura sat under the trees, waiting for Kaiba and Odion to finish packing, and Kura took the opportunity to contemplate Odion.
He clearly wasn't a common foot soldier. Ryou and Malik did not treat him like he was a drafted army man, and Kaiba obviously liked and respected him. Plus Odion did not speak or hold himself like a commoner. He was too sharp, too disciplined. And Kaiba was clearly relying on Odion to enforce any orders he had concerning Kura.
Kura snorted when he remembered Kaiba's threat about the riding crop. If it came to that, he was sure Kaiba would order Odion to be the one to use it.
Not far out of the little town, it became clear why Kaiba had not brought a cart for Kura. Kaiba led the group off the main road that led to the pass through the Horusial Mountains and onto a path that had experienced far less travel.
They passed fewer signs of civilization now and the trail got very steep in some places so that the horses had to work hard to get up the incline, moving slowly in a single file line.
Kura clung to the saddle and horse as best he could, fearing that each new rise in the trail would be the one that caused him to slip off the back end of the saddle. He held on with both his hands and knees, and by midmorning his fatigued body shook with the strain.
"I say we should stop for lunch," Kura said, trying to see Kaiba past the dark spots in his vision.
Kaiba looked back at Kura in disgust, but stopped his horse at the next grassy, open space he found. Kura's horse followed obediently and stopped beside Kaiba's horse, despite Kura's attempts to get it to move into the shade.
"Why won't this damned beast go where I tell it?" Kura asked, exasperated and too exhausted to play games with the animal.
"Stop jerking the reins, it won't move," Kaiba told Kura as he began to unpack their noon meal.
"So I've noticed," Kura grumbled as he slid off the horse, "It must like your horse a lot more than I like you."
Beside him, Ryou laughed and shook his head. "It's a packhorse," Ryou explained to Kura. "It's been trained to stop beside it's leader."
"Really?" Kura looked at the horse curiously, analyzing the creature from top to bottom. "Are they really that smart?"
"Smarter, at least, than you," Malik said, coming up behind the two white-haired boys.
Kura smirked. "I've never heard of a horse that could steal a king's seal," he replied.
"That's what I meant," said Malik with a sneer.
"Go eat horse shit," Kura snarled and stomped over to where the food was.
Ryou starred after him, and Kura noticed.
"What?" Kura snapped at Ryou, and the boy looked away quickly.
"He wants to know if you were stupid enough to bet a man that you could steal the king's seal and then bring it back the next day as proof."
'Professional risk,' Kura though, but he didn't tell Malik that and turned his attention back to the skimpy meal. "You didn't bring enough," Kura complained to Kaiba when the magus refused to give him more.
"We'll pick up some more provisions tonight," Kaiba said, "You won't starve."
"You could always just give me Malik's food," Kura suggested.
Kaiba gave Kura an ugly look. "You'll eat your share and no one else's," here he shot a meaningful glare at Ryou, "No one is going to go hungry so that you can eat."
~~~~~~~~
They party stopped again in the early evening. It was far earlier than Kaiba had wanted to stop, but had taken Odion's advice to look for a campsite when they watched Kura nearly slide off the back end of the horse at a steep spot in the trail.
Kura dismounted and collapsed in the grass. He lay there, just resting, while he watched Kaiba and Odion unpack the horses and Ryou and Malik make the fire.
Malik starred at the pathetic pile of wood that was trying to pretend to be a campfire. "Haven't you ever gone out hunting overnight?" he asked Ryou.
Ryou blushed and looked embarrassed over at Odion. "Not alone," he admitted.
Malik rolled his eyes. "Probably for the best," he said, "You'd probably get lost and eaten by a wild animal. Now, Your Highness," Malik teased, "You can't pile the wood on top of each other. Here."
Kura ignored the rest of Ryou's lesson in making a campfire and drifted off to sleep, not waking until dinner was ready and Ryou came over to get him.
"Hey," Ryou said, shaking the thief's shoulder, "Hey, Kura, Magus says to come eat."
The fact that Ryou had used his name didn't go unnoticed and Kura slowly opened one eye and looked up at Ryou. "Magus is going to be ticked off if he hears your talk to me like an actual person," Kura said.
Ryou, predictably, blushed, but he held Kura's gaze. "You are a person," Ryou said, and Kura couldn't doubt the sincerity in the smaller boy's voice.
Kura almost smiled and covered by rolling to his knees and climbing to his feet. "Hurry up," Kura said to Ryou, "Or Malik will eat everything just to spite me."
After dinner, which Kura deemed decidedly skimpy, Kaiba gave Kura a bed roll to use. It wasn't dark yet, but Kura set out the blanket anyway and lay down. There was a heavy cloak as well for Kura to cover himself with.
Kura pulled the cloak close up to his neck and ran his hand over the finely woven wool. The cloak was dark blue on the outside and lined a creamy gold color. It was not decorated with embroidery, but it was well and carefully made.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kura saw Kaiba watching him examine the wool, like a merchant assessing the value-or scum of the gutter touching something he knows he shouldn't. Kura turned his back and let Kaiba think what he wanted.
~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning the group reached a small white farmhouse. It looked abandoned and forgotten, like an echo of times long forgotten. But as they neared, the horses stepping on weeds and flaked plaster, a man came to the door.
"I thought you'd be here yesterday," the man said to Kaiba was he dismounted from the horse. "What was the cause of the delay?"
Everyone turned to look at Kura.
"He moved slower than I expected," Kaiba said, letting the blame fall squarely on the thief, which was mostly right. "Did you get what I asked for?"
"Yeah," the man said, "And I've got enough here to watch the horses for two weeks. If you're not back by then, I'll take them back to the city."
"Fine," Kaiba said with a dismissing wave. He made his way inside the house, the others following obediently behind him.
Kura looked at the halls and in the rooms that they passed. The walls had no decoration, no signs or hints about who had once been there. The rooms were cold and dusty. A few pieces of furniture were draped in white cloth.
Kura was so busy examining, that he didn't notice that the group had stopped and he walked right into Ryou, nearly knocking him over. "Sorry," Kura mumbled.
Kaiba had led them to a back room where a row of beds had been set up. "It's too late to start up the mountain today," Kaiba told the group. "We'll head out early tomorrow morning."
"Wonderful," Kura said, pushing past all them, "Then I'm going to sleep," and he threw himself down on the bed closest to the big window and closed his eyes.
Kura spent the rest of the day drifting in and out of sleep. Once he thought he saw Ryou and Malik outside his window, Odion coaching them as they fought each other with a pair of beginners' swords, but it might have been a dream and when Kura woke again, they were gone. At one point Ryou came in and asked if he wanted anything to eat, but Kura was content to just sleep.
The sun had set by the time Kura woke up next. In the other beds, the rest of the travelers were sleeping soundly. Kura could see Ryou curled up on the bed closest to his own and Odion in the one closest to the door.
Slowly, Kura got up and, because he knew Odion would wake up if he tried to get out that way, slipped out the window.
Kura didn't go far. He could just imagine the uproar that would ensure if they woke and found his missing. And it was tempting, just to see the mass chaos. But no, Kura hadn't gone outside in a fool's attempt to escape. He just had to pee.
After emptying his bladder, Kura turned to go back inside, knowing that he'd probably get Kaiba's promised riding crop if he was found outside, but a white gleam from a brushy area stopped him. Curious, Kura went over to investigate.
What he found was a small, upright white stone. It was weathered from the elements, but the etchings on it where still deep enough to be legible. It looked like a grave marker.
Kura looked around and spotted two identical, though slightly older, stone a few feet away. They were all graves.
"Mokuba," Kura read aloud. And from the dates carved into the stone, he had died as a child. The other two graves belonged to adults, probably the kid's parents.
Kura shivered a little, wishing he had at least brought his cloak with him and hurried back to the room and his warm bed. Once snuggled in the blankets, Kura closed his eyes and the steady breathing of the others soon lulled him to sleep.
~TBC