all disclaimers apply as usual
Yami watched how others moved about very carefully. He actually noticed two techniques for moving on flat land with downhill skis. One, was like that of cross country skiing, only your boots did not release off the back. It took considerably more effort than the skating technique, but Yami figured it was the easiest to master. Using his poles, Yami began to 'stroke' with poles then skis, much like a cross country skier.
"Hey! Wait for me you pathetic excuse for a king!" Bakura yelled as he tried the same technique, but leaned off balance on one pole and toppled over, thus falling on his side.
Yami halted and looked back. He did not know how to turn around on flat and he wasn't going to spare the effort for the tomb robber. "Well, come now. It's not time to rest." Yami teased.
Bakura continued ranting curse words in every language he knew as he tried to figure out how to stand with long boards attached to his feet. It was harder than it looked. And, there was no way to release his boots from the bindings since he needed to apply pressure from the rear with a pole. He could not apply enough pressure with the binding sideways. He had to get up on the skis, somehow. "I can't get up you dolt!"
Yami considered turning back to him again. But, again, it just seemed too much effort. Then, he saw other skiers removing their skis using their poles in the rear of the binding. Sure enough, when Yami applied pressure with his pole to the back of the bindings, they released. He left his skis and walked over to the thief. But, his gait was like that of a robot...stiff and jaunty...hardly the smooth, dignified gait he was accostomed to.
"Heheheh, you walk funny king." Bakura laughed as he watched the strange walking style of the pharaoh.
"Do you want me to help you or not?"
"Not really, but I have little choice in the matter."
Yami turned to go back to his skis. He was toying with the thief. Naturally he was going to help the thief. If he didn't, the thief wouldn't be joining him on the downhill portion of this little ordeal. But, he didn't want Bakura to think that.
"Hey! You aren't going to leave me here are you?" Bakura asked, a hint of desperation snuck into his voice. What he couldn't see is the smirk of amusement upon Yami's face. The young ruler stopped for a moment, thought...then took another step towards his skis.
"C'mon man, be a hero, help a downed man."
Yami just loved it when the thief whined! He stopped again and turned to face Bakura. His grin was like that of a cat who just caught a stubborn mouse. "Fine thief. So be it." Yami replied smugly as he returned to the thief. He held out his hands for the thief to grab and yanked him upward. "You settled now?" Yami asked as the thief fuddled with his poles.
"Yes, mother."
"I could tip you right back down you know."
Bakura replied with a nasty look. "You wouldn't."
"I could."
"But you wouldn't."
"You want to try me thief? If you fall again, I'm NOT helping you up. You can lay there and freeze your pathetic little ass off."
Bakura remained silent.
Pharaoh-5 Thief-2
After a slow, agonizing trudge that took them nearly a half hour to cover the length of two houses, the two reached the lift line and stood quietly side-by-side as they awaited their turn at a chair. When that time came, both went forward to the line and awaited the chair to come to them, but the seemingly lumbering chair was faster than it looked. Bakura panicked as the chair approached. He grabbed the chair, but his skis swung sidewards and tripped up Yami. Knowing the chair was still moving, Yami remained flat on his belly, allowing the chair...and thief to pass over him. The lift attendent quickly stopped the lift then helped the fallen skier...all the while, Bakura, looking back from his chair, laughing as the pharaoh laid flat, spread eagle on his face.
Pharaoh-5 Thief-3
Yami got on the next chair and could hear Bakura's laugh in front of him. Luckily there was too great a distance between them. Yami could basically ignore him during the long ride to the top of the mountain. He brushed the offending snow from his face and body then simply enjoyed the effortless, scenic ride up the mountain.
The tranquil trip up the mountain was too much for the thief however. He easily became bored looking at trees and just sitting still. So, whenever a skier went down the trail beneath the ski lift, he made some remark down at him or her. When one crashed, Bakura hooted and hollered, urging the skier to get up and crash again. This was Bakura's amusement. Yami rolled his eyes. There was seemingly no end to the thief's thirst for trouble and mayhem!
Once at the top, it was time to release off the chair and down the ramp to trail. This was the first 'downhill' experience for both of them. It caught Bakura completely off guard! He thought they'd exit as they got on...nice flat, smooth ground. He had no chioce, as his chair began over the ramp, Bakura planted his skis and pushed off from the chair. This sent him careening down the short ramp that seemed so long to the thief. The downhill sensation was too strange and awkward for the tomb robber. He lost balance and tumbled the rest of the way down the ramp and came to a complete stop in a tangle of body and equipment below.
Yami was next. The lift attendent couldn't stop the lift in time to prevent Yami from disembarking. Yami rolled off the chair, in the same manner as the thief, but figured he could handle the short downhill ramp. Sadly, however, he didn't factor in one thief in a heap at the bottom! Unable to stop, he smacked right into the pile of thief and flipped over him, thus landing in a royal heap on the other side of the tomb robber. Bakura's bitching turned to laughter at the spectacle he caused. It was the pharaoh's time to utter some choice ancient swear words.
Pharaoh-5 Thief-4 (catchin' up without even tryin'!)
After several minutes and much more bitching and cursing, the two ancient Egyptians finally untangled and righted themselves to an upright standing position. Casually flicking snow off themselves as if nothing had happened, the two glided towards a trail with a big green circle sign at its entrance.
"Green circles are the easiest trails." Yami remarked as he checked his pocket trail map and looked at the key to the various symbols they'd encounter.
"Then let's try something a bit more challenging." the thief spat.
Yami looked at him dumbfounded. Was the thief really that stupid!? They couldn't even get on and off the chairlift properly and the thief wanted a challenge!
"Don't you think staying upright on your skis as you go down is challenge enough?"
"I will NOT be mocked by children! I will go down this...this black diamond one. Black suits me better anyway." Bakura said as he pointed towards a different trail.
Yami checked his map's key. Black diamonds meant, 'most difficult-expert only.' "I don't think that's wise Bakura."
"You chicken?"
"Of course not. But, this trail is for experts only. We're hardly what you call experts."
"Can't be an expert unless one tries."
Yami came to the conclusion that the thief was indeed deluded and insane! But, his own natural sense of caring and competitiveness overrode even the king's own common sense. If the tomb robber was going to go down that trail, the pharaoh would have to follow. What if something happened? Two heads were better than one.
"Yugi and Ryou are going to kick our asses if we harm their bodies Bakura." Yami commented, if only to try to persuade the thief away from the expert trail.
"Don't care."
"You need Ryou's body as much as I need Yugi's."
"Still dont' care. I'm not going to be insulted. If I'm going to make a fool of myself on these boards then I'm going to do so on a respectable trail...not some beginner's slope."
Maybe the thief had a point there. Even the pharaoh found that to make sense. He too, had a certain level of pride and ego to maintain. And, if the thief was focused on the trail and his own skiing, maybe he wouldn't pull any crap...at least Yami hoped as much. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."
Bakura said nothing, but plodded towards the trail of choice. He stopped at the beginning of it, his ski tips hanging in mid air as the trail dropped in a very steep angle. Yami caught up to him and did the same. He didn't like what he saw. The trail was steep and there were strange mounds all over the trail. It wasn't smooth like the others. Yami identified the bumps on the trail map and found their name...moguls. Worse yet, the moguls were tall, well above even Bakura's waistline. "Bakura, this isn't a good idea."
"I don't do good things anyway."
"Allow me to rephrase. This is a STUPID idea!"
"No balls king?" Bakura taunted.
There was no changing course. Bakura was stubbornly sticking to his choice. Yami silently prayed to Ra as he watched Bakura enter the trail. In a split second, Yami followed. If he hesitated, he knew his mind would talk him out of it.
The moguls proved a blessing. It prevented the two from careening straight down the hill at extremely high velocities. Bakura had smacked straight into one and was flung into the air, crashing onto the next one. Yami had to chuckle despite himself. A flailing thief, helpless in midair was a very funny spectacle! But, the amusement was short-lived. Yami had his own skiing to attend to. He'd been sliding down the trail at a snail's pace when suddenly, moguls blocked his 'safe' path. He had figure out how to either go over or around them. Unable to turn tightly, he opted to go over one...and smacked right into the next, just as Bakura did. Like Bakura, he was sent flying into the air, though not quite as high or uncontrolled as he wasn't quite going as fast as Bakura was. An eerie silence replaced their scraping and moaning.
"Bakura, you dead yet?" Yami asked, breaking the silence.
A string of curse words were his answer.
"Guess not." Yami said to himself as he tried to figure out how to get up. He'd lost a ski...which was now resting over a body's length away. A pole was resting on the next mogul. And, one of Bakura's skis was seen nearby. "Hey thief...you missing parts?"
"Depends on definition of parts."
Yami didn't know how to respond to that. Picking up his own gear and using a mogul to balance himself, Yami managed to right himself back onto his skis. He grabbed Bakura's ski...hat...glove...and eventually made his way to the thief, who was doing battle with a small pine tree. From Yami's perspective it looked like some kinky sex scene.
"I didn't know you had a thing for plants thief." Yami teased as he unclipped his own skis so he could help the thief out of his ordeal. The thief said nothing as Yami approached. "Oooh, nice pine smell. That's better than your usual stench." Yami commented.
"You need to shut up king before I shove one of these branches up your own ass!"
Yami ignored him and started to pry thief from shrubbery. "You've hurt this tree." Yami replied as the young pine tree was sporting so many broken branches.
"Tsch! The king cares more about a plant than a person!?"
"You're a person? Hadn't noticed."
Bakura shook one of the branches in response, causing a fluff of snow to fly downward onto the pharaoh.
"Ooooh, snow...yeah, I'm scared." Yami replied sarcastcially. He then gave the thief one big tug. It released Bakura and sent both of them backwards into the snow back first. The tomb robber landed on top of the pharaoh.
"Umpf, get off of me you son of a hippo!"
"Takes one to know one." Bakura snorted back as he rolled off the king.
"Yeah I know one...YOU!" Yami replied as he stood, brushed off more of the offending cold snow and walked back to his own ski equipment.
"You callin' me a hippo?! Cause if you are, I'll make you eat those words...shorty."
"What's the matter? Run out of insults thief? I am short. So what."
Bakura growled as he fuddled with his ski equipment. "Let's finish this like men shall we?"
"I'm game."
"A duel of sorts...you and me, down this damnable trail. First one down wins and has to bow down acknowledging the other as master of insults."
"I bow down to no one."
"Then for your sake king...you'd better win." Bakura replied with narrowed eyes and evil grin.
"I never lose."
"Then prove it."
"I will."
The two set themselves up atop a mogul. "When that chair with the hot pink jacketed chick reaches the next rollers, we begin." Bakura said.
Yami nodded and both watched the girl sitting on the chair with one really bright jacket. Upon her chair reaching the rollers, both launched off the mogul. Neither really knew how to get down, only that one had to beat the other. Both also threw all caution to the wind. As they struggled to get down with a higher speed then common sense would dictate, neither noticed how close to the trail edge they were. On the sides were loads of trees and ditches as the trail had been built up, groomed down, then built up again. As the two hit the same mogul at the same time, they were airborne. They hit each other in mid air and both careened off the trail. Yami grabbed and hugged a tree, thus stopping his fall back to earth. Bakura...well, one minute the king saw him, and the next minute he didn't as the thief made his landing in a ditch below with the sounds of many crunching branches and ancient egyptian curse words. In another moment, all was silent.
From his perch, Yami strained for a better view. He was not about to let go of the tree, especially with his left leg throbbing terribly. "Hey Bakura, you dead?" he yelled below.
"Yeah. I'm dead you DOLT! I think I broke something...probably a leg. Not sure...too tangled up to tell where all my parts are!"
"My leg's sore too. I may have done the same. I can't get out of this tree though."
"So, we're both stuck and with broken bones no less. Y'know, I really do hate you king."
"The feeling's mutual thief."
More silence passed as the two failed to get past their little issue with one another...until Yami broke the silence once again. "Look, we're both going to be in serious danger if we don't get out of this situation. If bones are broken, we could go into shock...and freeze to death even faster."
"Drop out of that tree then. Wouldn't do any more harm to break a few more bones right?"
"Same goes for you. Why don't you climb out of that ditch?"
Both growled in frustration as they reached an impasse once again.
Luckily, good fortune was on their side. Having been gone for some time and missing the scheduled meal meet time, their friends became worried and decided to search for them. They knew the two had skis. After asking each lift attendent if they'd seen two dark skinned egyptians bumbling around on skis, they found which lift the two had taken up the mountain. From there, Marik would comb the difficult trails while Rebecca and Tea donned skis and could ski at least better than Joey and Tristan, would check the beginner trails.
Marik stopped at the top of the black diamond trail. *They wouldn't be stupid enough to try this trail would they?* He asked himself. Then, thinking about the pride and egos of those two, he knew his answer. Slowly, but expertly, he navigated down the trail, stopping now and then to get a good view of what was around him. Half way down the trail, he spotted what he thought was a bear in a tree. As he skied closer, he noticed it was a skier.
"Hey you in the tree, do you need help?" he yelled at the being in the tree above him.
"Marik? Okay, I'm hallucinating. Bakura, you rat, we've been here too long! I'm hearing Marik!" Yami yelled down to the ditch below.
"Sniffin them pine needles are we?" was the reply back.
Marik had to laugh despite the serious predicament the two were in. "No Yami, it really is me. I'm here with my sister who's speaking at that convention. What are you doing in the tree pharaoh?"
"Thought I'd take Bakura's advice and have a little tree sex. What do you think!?" Yami shot back with anger in his voice. The pain from his leg was getting to him.
"And that you down there Bakura?" Marik asked as he leaned forward as close to the ditch as he could get. He saw a bundle resting up against a tree.
"No, it's a fluffy bunny hopping down your damn bunny trail." was Bakura's sarcastic reply. The pain was also getting to him.
Marik didn't reply. Instead, he pulled out a cell phone. "Tea, yeah, it's Marik...I found them. No, no they're not all right. Both are stuck. One in a tree another in a ditch and both apparently hurt. Yes, yes, do get the ski medics. Tell them to bring two sleds to the trail called, 'Hell's Froze Over." I'll stay with them until the medics arrive. Thanks." Marik then put his cell phone away and unhitched his skis. He stuck them tail first into the snow and formed an 'X' with them to signal to the medics where they were.
"Help's on the way you two. Hang in there...ooops sorry pharaoh...didn't mean to...well---"
"Just shut up!" both thief and king replied back in unison. They were cold, humiliated, and in extreme pain. They didn't need a talkative tomb keeper adding annoyed to that list.
Minutes later, the ski medics arrived on snowmobiles with sleds attached. Two went down to assist Bakura while two others with ropes climbed neighboring trees to help Yami. Marik watched and stood with another medic on the trail.
"I don't know how these two ended up this way. I arrived much later. They're friends of mine."
The two medics yelled up from the ditch. "This one's got a broken right leg and arm. Inform base that we'll need the helo warmed up on stand by."
Then the two reported from the trees. "We've got another broken leg here...left one. Maybe other injuries. Won't be able to tell until he's out of the tree."
Marik called Tea back on the cell phone. "Tea, hey, get whomever you came with and have them meet you at the medic lodge. These two will be headed to the hospital via helicopter once they get them down from here. Both apparently have broken legs. I'll meet you all there as well."
As Marik got off the cell phone, the two medics from the ditch had a protesting angry Bakura strapped to a sled and were attaching it to a snowmobile. The two in the tree were slowly lowering Yami down with ropes. Then, like Bakura, he was strapped into another sled and attached to the back of a snowmobile. The medics then gave Marik some instructions as to where to go and meet them and sped off with their injured, still cursing skiers in tow.
Marik grabbed his skis, put them on and whisked down the trail as a true expert would. He skied straight for the lodge where they had all met for a meal. Joey and Tristan were still there an needed to be informed.
"You're kidding right?!" Joey replied, stunned after hearing the news.
"I wish I was. Let's head over there now. Tea and Rebecca should be at the convention getting Yugi's grandfather and Rebecca's grandfather as we speak."
And with that, all were now headed towards the medical lodge to check on the two injured young men.
to be continued...