The Thief
By The Inspector
Chapter 8
Disclaimer: Don't own. Not mine. Just fun. Make no money. So don't sue. Thanks so much.
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Kura soon became bored of Ryou's conversation with Odion and checked on Kaiba and Malik. Kura could barely quell a snicker when he saw how bored Malik seemed. What, more mountain ranges? Or was it tree classifications this time. Ah, close. Flower identifications.
"Hey, Kura?"
Kura looked up, surprised to see that Ryou had moved up beside him. It was beyond him why the shy boy sought out his company, but he couldn't say that he minded…much. "What?" Kura asked.
"Are you really named after the god of thieves?" Ryou picked a leaf out of his hair and then looked hopefully at Kura, waiting for him to answer.
'Ah,' Kura thought, deciding not the roll his eyes at the younger boy. Ryou knew that he was, so this was just a way to get him talking. In other words, Ryou was feeling chatty. "Yup, sure am," Kura answered.
Ryou shook his head, confused. "But how did they know what you were going to be when you were only a baby."
Kura winced. Even the idea that he had ever been something a weak and defenseless as a baby made him shudder. "Well," Kura returned, mentally subtracting the 'baby' from the sentence, "How did they know what you were going to be?"
"My father was a duke," Ryou replied, not quite sure what that had to do with anything.
"And my mother was a thief," Kura finished. "My father wanted me to be a soldier but he's been disappointed." Behind them, Kura heard Odion make a noise, clearly signifying that he believed the disappointment of Kura's father was justified.
"Your father?" Ryou said, his eyebrows lifting, "Did he?"
Kura looked up from the trail (making sure he didn't do anything stupid like trip over a rock and land on his face) at the surprise in Ryou's voice. When he searched Ryou's face, he found the same surprise there. "Why shouldn't he?" Kura asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Oh," Ryou said, startled. Who would have thought the boy was so jumpy. "I, well, I mean, oh dear." Ryou blushed bright and Kura scowled.
"What surprises you, Ryou," Kura snapped, suddenly stepping in front of Ryou and stopping. Ryou skid to a halt to avoid running into the thief and looked up to meet his eyes. "That my father was a soldier?" Kura's teeth clenched together and Ryou took a few hesitant steps back. "Or that I knew him?" Kura's blood was boiling and he glared at Ryou, not caring that he was scaring the smaller boy. "Did you think I was illegitimate?" he hissed.
Ryou became even redder and then went very pale. He never meant to anger Kura so. "I, I didn't m-mean, I-" Ryou stammered, his hands coming up in defense.
"That's enough," Odion said sternly, coming up behind Ryou and placing a steadying hand on his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes at Kura. It was times like these that he felt like a nursemaid to the group. Odion prodded Kura forward. "Get moving."
Kura scowled and whirled around, his hair almost hitting Ryou in the face. He stalked forward and then turned back to glare at the two, but his glare fizzled and died, as did his anger. Ryou, having moved away from Odion, seemed to waver uncertainly on his feet and his face was too pale. He seemed, so sad.
Kura blinked and shook his head once. Could anyone really look that pathetic? Ryou's eyes widened and sparkled with sorrowful apology. Kura signed. Yes, then. Kura went back and grabbed Ryou's arm, pulling him along, careful not to hold so tightly as to bruise the kid's fair skin.
"Come on then," Kura grumbled, ignoring the look of startlement that flashed through Odion's eyes when his young change was bodily handled by the thief.
"I'm really, really sorry," Ryou said after a minute. His voice was so soft that Kura almost had trouble hearing him. "I didn't mean any insult-"
"I know," Kura said, cutting him off. "Had Malik said what you did, then yeah, it would have been an insult and I would have knocked his ass to the ground. But you…" Kura tugged on a long stand of Ryou's hair. "You wouldn't be able to insult someone on purpose it your life depended on it."
Ryou smiled and shook his head, happy that Kura's mood had changed and that he wasn't angry with him. "No, I don't suppose I could," he said, oddly cheerful. "Not convincingly, anyway."
Kura threw his head back and laughed, flashing his sharp teeth. "I'll bet," he snickered.
In front, Kaiba heard the noise behind him and held up his hand for Malik to stop his recitation. Kaiba turned around to check on the others. The thief had his arm thrown lazily around Ryou's shoulders and was laughing about something. Oh, this would not do. "Ryou," Kaiba snapped, causing the small boy to flinch before guiltily looking up to meet Kaiba's eyes. "Get over here and stop fraternizing with that thief."
Ryou nodded quickly and hurried to catch up with his teacher. Even though he had gotten mostly used to Kaiba's bark, he still didn't like to push his patience. Just in case.
Kaiba let Ryou pass him, locked eyes with Odion and jerked his head towards Kura. He and Odion had talked earlier about what to do about the growing friendship between the thief and Ryou. Odion inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement and grabbed the back of Kura's shirt.
"Hey!" Kura yelled, twisting in Odion's grip. He felt like a cat being picked up by the scruff of its neck. "Let go!"
"I need to speak with you," Odion replied sternly, not loosening his hold on Kura.
"Ever hear of tapping someone on the shoulder?" Kura groused. He stopped struggling and turned around. "What?"
Odion looked down at Kura and frowned. "The magus doesn't want you hanging around Ryou," Odion said, not bothering to tiptoe around the topic. "And frankly, neither do I."
Kura scowled and jerked out of Odion's hold. "I'll talk to him if I want," he retorted flippantly. Besides, since when did he start caring about why Kaiba said?
"You are born beneath him."
Kura went ridged and his eyes flashed. "Shut up!" Kura snapped. "Don't preach to me about my 'place' because I don't want to hear it. You don't seem to mind Ryou forgetting how high and mighty he is to talk to you."
"I have known Ryou since he was born," Odion said, his voice getting sharper.
"That's no excuse," Kura sneered. "So unless you want to try to convince Ryou to stop talking to the both of us, I suggest you leave me alone. I'll talk to Ryou if I want to and neither you nor the magus can do anything about it." With that, Kura turned and stomped down the tail, cursing both Odion and Kaiba in all the languages he knew.
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The sun was just beginning to set, casting its golden beams over the land when the travelers began their descent into Attolia.
Ryou titled his head back and let the warm wind play on his face, blowing his hair back in silky tangles. "It's so green," Ryou breathed, opening his eyes again and peering down into the valley. "It's pretty."
"Attolia gets twice as much rain as home," Malik spoke up. "The export wine, figs, olives, and grapes. They have pastureland to raise their own grazing animals."
Four sets of eyes turned to stare at him.
Malik scowled at his shocked companions. "So I was listening?" he said. "What? It's either that or zone out, which usually ends up with me tripping over my feet."
Ryou laughed and promptly slipped on the steep incline. Kura reached out instinctively and grabbed his hand, catching him before Ryou ended up face down in the dirt.
"I think Ryou wins the clumsy category," Kura told Malik. He set Ryou on his feet and then turned to Kaiba. "So when do we eat?"
After dinner everyone settled around the fire and Ryou asked Kaiba if there were any more stories about the gods in a thinly veiled attempt to get Kaiba to tell another story.
"Magus?" Ryou repeated when Kaiba didn't even look up from his journal.
"No, there are not," Kaiba replied, continuing his record of the day's events and how far they had gotten. The stories were amusing at best and they were still a day behind. He didn't have the time for amusing.
Kura scowled at Kaiba as Ryou's tentative smile faded. In Ra's name, how hard was it to take a few minutes to tell a story? "Of course there are," Kura said to Ryou, "I happened to know one, a favorite of mine. It's about my patron god."
"Bakura?" Ryou clarified, already enraptured with interest. "Will you tell me?"
"Yes," Kura said, he wouldn't have mentioned it he hadn't intended to share the story with Ryou. Kura settled down in front of the fire, laying on his stomach so that the flames sent their flickering shadows over his face.
Ryou gathered up his bed roll from its place near Malik and spread it out next to Kura before plopping down next to him.
Kura smiled at Ryou's innocent eagerness and closed his eyes, just letting his mine drift to the legend he was about to tell. He could practically hear his mother's voice on the wind, just the way it had sounded when he was younger and had trouble sleeping. She'd cradle him against her and recite her story, carding her gentle finger through his hair. And with his eyes closed, Kura could almost pretend that Ryou laying against him was his brother, snuggled close in sleep, while the breathing and movement of the other people around the fire was the baby, noisy in his cradle.
Still in his trance-like state, Kura rested his head against Ryou's, his hand moving up to Ryou's hair, stroking the soft white strands. Everything was so still, so mystical. The wood cackled as it burned, and Kura began.
The Birth
Of Bakura
God of Thieves
Many years after man's creation, Earth was walking in her forests when she met a woodcutter who was weeping as though his heart was broken. "Why do you weep?" Earth asked. "I can see no injury."
The woodcutter explained that he was crying because he and his wife had no children, and they wanted one more than any treasure that they could imagine. Earth felt the purity of his wish, smiled, and wiped away the woodcutter's tears. "Come back in nine days," she said, "And I will bring you and your wife a son."
When nine days had passed, the woodcutter and his wife returned to the forest. Earth was waiting for them with a baby in her arms.
"What is his name?" the woodcutter's wife asked. But Earth had no name for the child. "Then we'll call him Bakura," the woodcutter's wife said, "The wished for."
Then the couple took Bakura home and he was their son. Earth would come to visit him at times, and would bring him gifts. When he was still a baby, his gifts were small; a top to spin in different colors, soap bubbles to hang over his cradle, a moleskin blanket to keep him warm. When he was five, Earth gave Bakura the gift of languages so that he could converse with the animals. When he was ten, she gave him the power to summon the lesser gods and goddesses so that he could learn from them.
When Bakura turned fifteen Earth intended to give him the gift of immortality, but the Sky stopped her.
"Where are you going?" the Sky asked the Earth.
"To see my son," she said.
"What son?" the Sky demanded.
"Mine and the woodcutter's son," the Earth replied, and the Sky became angry. He went to Bakura's home and destroyed it with thunderbolts while Bakura and his parents ran into the woods where they were hidden by Earth's loyal trees. The Sky grew angrier and attacked the people who thanked the Earth for her gifts, burning their villages to the ground. But the Sky left his own people unharmed.
And now the Earth grew angry, shaking with fury and destroying all the people that the Sky had spared. The people were afraid and prayed and pleaded for rescue, but Earth and the Sky were too angry to hear.
But Horus heard the people's cries and went to his parents. "Why shouldn't the Earth have what children she pleases?" Horus asked his father. "Look at the children you have had that are not hers." And the Sky remembered his stream and river children and saw that they were clogged with debris from his thunderbolts.
Both saw that their people were homeless and scared. Everything they had was destroyed in the gods' anger at each other. The Earth and the Sky agreed to stop fighting for the sake of their people.
"The people should not suffer because you are angry with each other," Horus said. "Give me your thunderbolts, father, and your power to shake the ground, mother. I will make sure that your fights do not harm the people."
And so Earth gave Horus her power to shake the ground and the Sky promised to hand over this thunderbolts. The Sky also promised not to harm Bakura, but the Earth was forbidden to grant immortality to any but his children.
The Earth and the Sky were at peace. The people rebuilt their homes and this time included to alters in every village, one for Earth and one for the Sky. But in times of great need, it is to Horus that they pray, for him to speak on their behalf to his parents.
A calm silence followed the end of Kura's story, as if the very trees that sheltered them had been listening.
"You sound very different when you're telling a story," Ryou said at last.
Kura very nearly flinched. He pulled his hand away from Ryou's hair like it had tried to bite him and scowled. "That's how my mother told me the story," he said.
Ryou smiled at Kura, not at all bothered by Kura's change in attitude. "I liked it," he said happily. "Thank you."
"That's enough for tonight," Kaiba said, standing up and snapping his journal shut. He looked down at Kura. "Your mother seems to have taken the story and made it her own."
"Of course she did," Malik said cheerfully, "She was a thief."
"I was not telling the story for your enjoyment," Kura snipped. "If you didn't wish to hear the story, then you should not have listened." He had told the story because Ryou had asked for it. He should have known that the others would eavesdrop.
"Enough," Kaiba said again. "It's late. We're starting before dawn tomorrow. I suggest you all get some sleep."
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"Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungryhungeyhungry-"
"Will you please shut up?" Malik practically begged Kura. "We're all hungry."
"There will be fresh bread for lunch," Kaiba called back to the bickering boys. "I promise. So in the meantime, can it!"
A short silence followed. Then, "How long till lunch?"
"If you hadn't thrown out your breakfast, you wouldn't be hungry," Odion pointed out.
"Hey, I wasn't the only one," Kura said, pointing to the rest of the group. "You were the only one who could manage to swallow that rock masquerading as bread." Besides, no one likes a know-it-all.
"I'm eaten worse," Odion replied in a calm and I'm-going-to-force-feed-that-worse-to-you-if-you-don't-shut-up tone.
Several hours passed, emphasized by Kura's complaints and Kaiba's shouts for him to shut up, which did little good.
When they *finally* stopped outside a small town, Kura was threatening to eat the leather straps on Kaiba's journal. Now stopped, they made themselves comfortable in the shade while Kaiba went into town to get supplies and horses.
Alas, they didn't stay idle long as Odion decided to make the best of their down time. He pulled two swords out of the packs and handed one each to Ryou and Malik. Kura remembered the fencing lesson from the mountain hut and guessed that it hadn't been a dream after all.
"Swords up," Odion called after the two had warmed up. Kura lay back against one of the trees and settled in to watch.
Ryou and Malik sparred carefully and slowly, going through the movements only a little faster than slow motion. Kura saw that Malik was by far, the better swordsman, but then, he had more training than Ryou and was taller as well. Malik's form wasn't bad, but Ryou was far more interesting to watch. He was just learning the motions and with a good instructor he'd one day make a dangerous opponent.
But right now, Ryou was too small and too new at this sport than to do anything other than wave his sword around and hope it connected. And he had a bad habit of closing his eyes at the most critical moments.
As Kura watched from his place against the tree, Malik leaned over Ryou's guard and whacked him soundly on the head with the blunt side of his sword. Kura winced and began to his to his feet to see if Ryou was hurt.
"Are you all right?" Malik asked Ryou, lowering his sword. "I was sure that you would block that."
"He should have," Odion agreed, motioning for Kura to sit back down. "Try again." He had Malik repeat the move, waiting for Ryou to work out a block for himself that would come naturally.
Ryou got hit twice more and almost hit even more before finally, on about the eighth time, he stepped to the side and blocked Malik's attack there.
"Good enough," Odion said and ended the lesson.
Malik flopped out flat on his face in the grass and Ryou lay down in the shade by Kura.
Kura glanced over at Ryou and then leaned over him, looking down at him. How hard mad Malik hit him? Ryou opened his eyes when he felt Kura over him and gave him a small, tired smile. "Hey," Kura said, reaching out and pulling a strand of hair out of Ryou's mouth. "Want me to go kick the snot out of Malik?"
Ryou starred up at him for a moment and the dissolved into soft laughter. "No," he said, "It's quite all right. I'm not hurt. Just painfully aware of how much further I have to go."
Kura snorted and pressed his index finger to Ryou's nose. "He's just been doing this longer than you. Against an armed opponent his size, he'd be mincemeat."
"I heard that," Malik shouted over, his voice slightly muffled by the ground, and Ryou began to laugh.
The air was warm and the grass still green and soft. Within minutes, all three of the young boys were asleep under the shade of the trees, Odion keeping watch over them.
Kura didn't wake up until he heard Kaiba coming back with food and the horses. Kura rolled over and shook Ryou awake. "Food's here," he said, and hopped to his feet, all but running to his meal.
Kaiba hurried everyone to eat fast and then they were off on the trail again, towards their destination. "Make sure you keep your mouths shut when we're within earshot of other travelers," Kaiba warned Malik and Ryou. "Your accents give you away as members of upper class of Sounis."
"Well, Kura doesn't have to worry," Malik sneered. "Gutter speech is the same, no matter where you go." To Malik's surprise, Kura simply laughed.
"I happen to be very proud of my slang and swallowed words," he said. "Gutter is a highly prized dialect among the best thieves of the world."
Malik rolled his eyes, ignoring Ryou's laughter in the background. "You're weird," he informed Kura.
"And you're insane," Kura replied sweetly. "So what's your point?"
"Hey, magus?" Ryou said suddenly, "What happens if someone figures out that we're not from Attolia?"
"Nothing," Kaiba said calmly, dismissing Ryou's concern. "Traders are always around. Nothing except war can keep merchants out, and even then that may not stop them. As long as there is money and people to spend it, traders will do business."
"And what if they did find out why we are here," Kura asked suspiciously.
Kiaba gave Kura a sharp look. "Then they'd arrest us all and turn us over to the queen," he answered curtly.
But Kura could sense that there was something being unsaid. "And she would?" Kura prompted.
"Behead us all," Kaiba finally answered, scowling at Kura. "Publicly." Although Odion and Malik seemed unfazed at this revelation, Kaiba obviously hadn't wanted to share it. And a second later, Kura knew why.
Ryou's hand flew to his chest and he paled alarmingly. Kura's head snapped around at the odd choking sound Ryou made. "Breathe," Kura said, risking his life by learning over his horse to grip Ryou's arm. "Ryou, come on, breathe." Ryou gasped for air and Kura pulled his horse up against Ryou's and grabbed the smaller boy's face in both hands. "Breathe," he repeated, keeping Ryou's eyes locked with his. "Just breathe."
With Kura acting as his anchor, Ryou's breathing evened out again as his panic subsided. When Kura felt it safe, he let go of Ryou and settled back into his saddle. Then he gave Kaiba a fierce glare. If he had known it was going to scare Ryou like that, why had the bastard said anything?
Kaiba, reading Kura's glare quite accurately, tossed his head and turned his horse back to the trail. "You're the one who asked," he reminded Kura.
Kura decided not to comment and settled for rubbing the back of his neck. He intended to avoid feeling the cold steel of the Attolia queen's sword, at all costs.
TBC
Author's Note" Remember, reading the book that this is based off may spoil different points in the plot.