The Thief
By The Inspector
Chapter 10
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Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I don't make anything. Don't sue me! Thanks so much for your understanding.
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When Kaiba got back with the rest of the food he accepted Odion's story about Kura's wrists without question or suspicion. He seemed only concerned that Kura's hands would be functional, which Odion assured him they would be. Somehow, that only served to annoy Kura more.
Malik jabbed Ryou in the ribs when he heard what Odion said, taking it to mean that he was right that the ropes weren't too tight. But Ryou was visibly relieved and looked close to tears, again. When they got back on the trail, Ryou pulled his horse up alongside Kura's and gave him a very pretty apology. Kura rolled his eyes, told him to shut up, and watched him blush.
Ryou stayed at his side though despite Kura's attitude, and Odion didn't say a word about it. Kura took it as the man's way of thanking him for keeping his mouth shut.
The groves of olives changed as they moved further into the country. Rather than the tightly packed rows there were gaps like an old man's teeth between the trunks. The irrigation ditches began to show signs of neglect before they were choked out of existence all together by weeds and silt. Before long, it was obvious that the area they were entering had been let go completely wild.
"Doesn't anyone harvest these olives?" Ryou asked as he watched his horse step on the old rotted fruit in the grass.
"No anymore," Kaiba called back over his shoulder. "Since the plague there haven't been enough people in Attolia to harvest all these trees. The town where we just bought more provisions was very likely responsible for this part of the Sea of Olives at one time. However, there are only five or six families living in the town now and they only take care of the groves nearest them."
"Ah, the plague," Malik said fondly as if discussing the pleasant summer weather. "Traveled piggyback on the trading ships across the Middle Sea. Then it seeped into the lowlands and killed off entire families."
"Eddis closed her passes during the plague thirty years ago and then again during the small reoccurrence about a decade ago," Kura added. "My grandfather was a young man back in the first one. He said that no thief, no matter what the bounty, would touch the possessions of a plague victim. Everything was burned. I heard that the plague thirty years ago killed at least half of the people in Sounis."
"The thief knows his history," Kaiba remarked dryly. "Yes, it's true."
"Then are there places like this in Sounis?" Ryou asked, "Where there aren't enough people to farm the land?"
"Not many," Kaiba answered. "Sounis is a smaller country than Attolia and so has already accumulated a surplus population again while the Attolia is sparsely spread out. The few abandoned farms, like the one that we stayed at before starting up the mountain, are mostly a result from the second wave of the plague that Kura mentioned."
Kaiba's eyes got distant, as though he wasn't staying actively in the here and now. Like he was remembering something painful from the past. "The family at that farm was killed by the second plague all except for one who was away in the city at the time, studying to get an education."
Kura wasn't stupid, he knew when one was discussing their own history. He remembered the names on the stones at the abandoned house and for once felt slightly sorry for the magus. He had lost his whole family to the plague. He must have been very young then when he was orphaned suddenly. His mother, father, and…little brother. They were all he had. And then they were ripped away from him.
Kura had a lot of relatives, and most were nothing but a pain in his backside, but if there hadn't been at least one he had cared about, he would never have landed himself in the king's Prison. Maybe then, it was better to have them all than none at all. Heh, it was the first generous thought he'd ever had about several of his cousins.
"I'm astonished, Kura," Kaiba said, breaking into Kura's self discovery, his own thoughts back to the present, "You are thinking about something. I must admit that I am curious to know what it is."
"I have an overabundance of relatives," Kura told him, ignoring the magus's jab at his intelligence, "And I wonder if I am better off than you to have them all rather than none at all."
"You could be," Kaiba replied and shook his head before urging his horse forward from where it had dropped beside Kura's.
After a while Ryou starting talking again. He could rarely be kept quiet for long. "If there aren't enough people in the village, why don't people move into there from somewhere else?"
"Where else?" Kaiba asked.
Ryou hesitated a moment before timidly suggesting, "The rest of Attolia?"
"They're dead too, stupid," Malik answered, and Kaiba winced at the lack of tact from his senior apprentice.
"The plague thinned out the population across all of Attolia," Kaiba explained, using more grace than Malik. "There are very few surplus people anywhere in the country. Even the cities are not crowded."
"Then they could come from Sounis," Ryou suggested. THAT, Kura realized, was exactly what King Yami had in mind.
"That would be considered an invasion," Kura reminded them in a challenging tone. He doubted the Attolians would sit still and just watch it happen.
"So?" Malik shrugged.
"So," Kura growled, rolling his eyes, "The people of Attolia might object."
"That won't matter," Kaiba said, waving off Kura's observation as though it were as insignificant to the scheme of things.
"It will matter to the Attolians," Kura muttered under his breath. But he doubted anyone cared.
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It took the whole day to reach the edge of the Sea of Olives. The little group of travelers moved out of the trees just as the sun began to set. The mountains that had been hidden by the trees were black against the brilliant dusk colors and Kura was happy to see them. They were a familiar marker in an unfamiliar place.
Ahead of them stretched a bleak expanse of black earth that few brushes grew on, and no trees whatsoever.
"What happened here?" Ryou asked, his eyes wide as he scanned the horizon. "It looks like there was a really bad fire."
"Not exactly," Kaiba corrected him, "It's the dystopia." He halted the horse and glanced at the empty wasteland and the darkening sky. "We'll rest here for the night," he announced.
Kaiba explained while Odion cooked dinner that the dystopia was the remains of the volcanic rock that had poured out of the mountains thousands of years before. As a result, the earth was rich with minerals but too hard to allow for plants to take root and grow.
"There is, of course, a myth to explain it," Kaiba said, covering a yawn and rubbing his hands through his hair. "But I am too tired to even listen to Kura tell it, no matter how interesting. So I will just say that Bakura tried to use the thunderbolts he stole from the Sky and started a fire that burned the ground."
"He killed his brother," Kura said sleepily from where he was already lying on his blankets.
"Hmm? What was that Kura?" Kaiba asked.
"His parents, his mortal parents, finally had children and Bakura killed his brother by accident in the fire. That's when Shadi saved him and Horus gave him his gift to reward him for saving Bakura because Horus was fond of him."
"And now we know the whole story," Malik concluded and they all went to sleep without another word.
Kura had a strange dream that night of a woman dressed all in white and woke just as the moon was setting behind the olive trees. Kura rolled over onto his back, and then onto his stomach, and then onto his side, but he couldn't get comfortable and finally just sat up.
Odion was on watch, making sure that no one snuck up on the little party during the night. Kura was glad it was Odion and not one of the others. If it had been Kaiba, he would have told Kura to lie down and go back to sleep. Ryou would have wanted to talk, and he simply didn't like Malik, but Odion just watched him from across the flickering embers of the fire without a word.
After a few idle minutes, Kura stood up and paced a little back and forth, using his stretching exercises to loosen the muscles in his back. There were a few sore spots on him left from the magus's beating, but it was the throbbing pain in his wrists that bothered him.
Kura cursed Malik fiercely under his breath and crossed over the fire to sit down near Odion. They stayed quiet for a few moments, Kura picking at the grass and gathering it into a small pile. "Those berries you gave me…" Kura said finally.
"The ossil," Odion confirmed, turning to look at Kura.
Kura shifted uneasily under his sharp gaze. "Do you have any more?" he asked. He sincerely hoped that Odion wouldn't hold anything that happened earlier against him, leaving him to suffer.
But Odion pulled the relief kit out of his pack and poured a handful of the berries into his palm before transferring two into Kura's hand. "Just two at a time," Odion reminded Kura.
"Be blessed in your endeavors," Kura thanked Odion automatically and popped the berries into his mouth and went to lie down on his blankets. Ryou turned over in his sleep and moved closer to his back to take advantage of his body heat. Kura let him, smiling just a little, and continued to flex his hands in training exercise until he finally fell asleep.
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The magus stupidly took fate into his own hands then next morning and left Malik, Ryou, and Kura alone again. He thought he had glimpsed a fire between the trees during the night and he wanted to make sure that they would be unobserved as they traveled across the dystopia.
Before Kaiba and Odion left, Odion handed Malik and Ryou their wooden swords and told them to practice and do absolutely nothing else. Malik played dumb and pretended not to understand, but Ryou nodded his head earnestly and glanced guiltily back at Kura. They were both stretching when Odion and Kaiba disappeared from sight between the trees.
As soon as they were gone, Malik turned to Ryou and jabbed him in the ribs with his sword. "Oh guard," he teased, dancing around Ryou, sword at ready.
"I haven't finished my stretching exercises," Ryou protested.
Malik rolled his eyes. "Forget them," he said, "You'll warm up as we go."
So Ryou put his sword into guard position and they began circling each other. Kura watched from where he lay under a tree with his head propped up against a saddle. He was perfectly content to just sit and do nothing while the magus chased phantoms of his paranoid imagination.
Right away, Malik struck over the top of Ryou's guard, but Ryou remembered his last lesson and stepped to the side to block it. He did forget, however, to follow through with his own attack after he blocked Malik's and by the time he remembered, the opening in Malik's guard was closed.
"Good block," Malik said, not bothering to hide his surprise that Ryou had recalled it, and he swung again. Ryou managed to block it too, but he had underestimated the force of the blow and he had to back up to regain his balance.
While Ryou retreated, Malik pushed in and whacked him in the ribs. Ryou brought his elbow down to cover too late, as if an arm would have stopped anything besides a wooden sword. Even their training swords in their packs would have taken a nice piece out of his arm.
Malik managed to hit Ryou's elbow as he pulled his sword back and Ryou yelped like a kicked puppy, but Malik pretended not to hear. He rushed Ryou again and in the guise of fencing practice with Kura didn't dare interrupt in case Kaiba was feeling punish-the-thief-happy, began to give the smaller boy a series of bruises that he wouldn't forget for a month.
Not able to stop the lesson, Kura was reduced to calling advice from the side lines.
"Look," Kura called to Ryou as he and Malik disengaged, "Every time he tries to ride over the top of your guard, he leaves his right side open. Just step to the left and block his attack and then counter immediately to his rib cage." Kura had no idea where Odion got the patience to watch Ryou take a beating. He, for one, wasn't going to see Ryou turn black and blue before he figured it out for himself.
"I'm sorry," Ryou said humbly. He was standing with his shoulders slumped, rubbing a sore elbow. He shook his head and dropped his sword into the dirt in defeat. "I'm just not fast enough. You're a much better swordsman, Malik."
Malik smirked and shrugged as if to say, "But of course," and Ryou blushed in shame. Kura snorted and rolled to his feet.
"All it shows," Kura said, folding his arms across his chest, "Is that Malik is a few inches taller than you and has a longer sword arm and sword to match."
Malik's smug look was gone as he turned to the thief and his eyes were cold. "What do you know about sword fighting, Kura?" he snapped.
"I know that your guard is terrible," Kura snarled. "And I know that any opponent your size would cut you to pieces like a hog for slaughtering."
"Do you mean yourself as this 'opponent' that you speak of?" Malik hissed.
"I'm not your size," Kura sniffed. He didn't bother to mention that Malik's and his own skill levels weren't the same.
"Ha," Malik laughed triumphantly, "Coward!"
"Malik," Ryou pleaded, tugging on his shirt, "Don't."
"Shut up, Ryou," Malik snapped. "Gutter scum should fight his own battles for once."
"No," Kura said. "Gutter scum gets drafted into the infantry and fights for a worthless king while hangers-on like you watch."
"Kura," Ryou protested, dropping his hold on Malik's shirt. "That's treasonous."
"Do I care?" Kura growled.
"Surprised, Ryou?" Malik's contempt made Ryou squirm. "His kind only serve themselves."
With a snarl, Kura launched himself at Malik and they both went down, Kura landing on top. Kura got in one good hit when suddenly he found himself being hauled off Malik by the scruff of his shirt like a disobedient pet.
Kura snarled wordlessly at Odion and was dropped on his ass near Ryou's feet. Malik sat up and wiped his bloody nose with the back of his hand, his eyes furious. But he was not so stupid as to try to get Kura by going through Odion. Instead he turned away and stomped off, humiliated, to sulk and Kura resettled by the saddle just in time for Kaiba to come back. Odion had not trusted them enough to come back right away with the magus. Smart man.
"No unpleasantness, I trust?" Kaiba said, laying down his pack. No one bothered to answer him.
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After a quick lunch, the horses were tied up to the trees and everyone headed out onto the dystopia on foot. Kura for one was glad to leave the stupid horses behind. Malik walked as far away from Kura as he could and glared at him every chance he got.
There was no trail to follow across the dystopia and the group simply followed Kaiba who followed the directions of his compass. Everyone had to carry water, even Kura, because there was no flowing water in the dystopia and in the open summer sun they were sure to need it.
Crossing the dystopia made Kura feel like a bug caught out in the open. Or a very small mouse under a hawk's sharp gaze. His upbringing was making itself know and he longed to have more of the sky shut out. The mountains rising in sheer cliffs on his left seemed to shut him out rather than enclose him. He had been a lot more comfortable in the trees in the Sea of Olives.
By evening they met up with the Seshmu River again and trees started springing up and the earth lightened in color as they moved away from the dark volcanic soil. Kura tried to ignore the world stretching out forever behind his back. Every once in a while, there would be a shallow waterfall that they had to climb over or around and they soon were walking on the sand beside the River.
As the sun began to set, the group hiked around a curve and came to a large waterfall two or three times Kura's height. The river was closed in on the side opposite them by bluffs. Their side the riverbank was practically flat.
"This is it," Kaiba said, dropping his back onto the sand.
"This is what?" Kura asked, looking around for something special about the area.
"This is where you earn your reputation," Kaiba said seriously. His face was grim and it didn't reassure Kura in the slightest.
With this new information to process, Kura looked around the empty rock, river, and sandy soil that crunched under foot with a critical eye. As far as he could see, there was nothing to steal. Nothing at all.
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TBC
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Author's Note: Answering Questions and Such
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Amarin Rose, I have actually been restraining myself from letting this story contain a Kura(who is Bakura)/Ryou pairing. If left to my own devices, I would let them become slightly romantically involved, but I think some of the current readers wouldn't appreciate it. It's a real dilemma. Do I write it the way I want, or bow to those who don't like boy/boy pairings. Heh, that alone makes me want to write it more. Well, we'll see.
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The Inspector
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