Sakakku
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Notes: I spelled Kimo's name wrong. Dang. I'm going to leave it like that since I've written several chapters involving him and I'm too darn lazy to change it. Smart reviewers like you will figure out what I mean, right? (Is it true that flattery will get you anywhere in life?)
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Chapter 10
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"We're lost," Duke grumbled.
"Yes," Seto replied coolly, leafing through his deck. If he Summoned a Crush Card, what would it do?
"We've been lost for two days!" Duke exclaimed, kicking at the sand. It stirred a little, and he glared at it balefully.
Seto continued his steady path: "More or less." Did Trap and Magic Cards even work in this new type of Dueling?
"We have a bit of food left," Duke mumbled, hefting the pack on his shoulders.
"I know," he responded. Did the Monsters keep their special effects when you Summoned them? What would happen if he Summoned Lord of Dragons?
"But didn't you say the water you're carrying is running low?" Duke asked, taking a few longer strides to keep up with Seto.
"Yes." If he Summoned Lord of Dragons, and if it kept the special effect, and if he could Summon Flute of Summoning Dragons…
"We should have brought more."
"Of course we should have!" Seto snapped, trying not to lose his concentration. Too many 'if's. Would it make Summoning his powerful dragons any easier?
"Well, excuse me," Duke retorted. "I did ask you if it was enough water, didn't I? And you said Yes, we should be reaching another village before long." He flailed his slender arms. "I think it's been long enough, Kaiba! Why couldn't we take water for safety again? Because it would Attract attention? For crying out loud, we could carry a giant flashing sign that says 'FRIENDS OF THE PHARAOH' and no one out here would care!"
"Lord of Dragons!" Seto roared, holding his Monster Card aloft. The Summoning had grown easier over time and Lord of Dragons appeared swiftly.
"Aaaah!" Duke yelled, jumping back as Lord of Dragons planted its feet firmly in the sand right in front of him. "Kaiba! Didn't I tell you to warn me before you did that again?"
"Go! Flute of Summoning Dragon!" Seto held the card arrogantly in front of Lord of Dragons, waiting.
Lord of Dragons reached up deftly and seemed to pull a flute out of thin air. Duke watched with wide eyes as the Monster put the flute to its lips. "Seto? Didn't you say Marik and Bakura can sense the Summonings?"
"Devlin, you ask this every time," Seto responded coldly, watching Lord of Dragons with narrowed eyes. "Yes. They can."
"Well, why do you keep Summoning?" Duke whined.
Seto might have answered, but it was drowned out. The Flute of Summoning Dragons was impossibly loud! Duke yelped and clamped his hands to his ears. "Well, if they didn't sense that, Marik and Bakura sure heard it!" he hollered.
Seto clenched his teeth. The sound might be painful, but his deck was glowing a brilliant white. With a fierce grin of triumph, he put two fingers lightly to his deck, and two of his Blue Eyes White Dragons appeared, roaring a deadly sound.
xXx
Shadi walked up to the kitchen the next morning to see the visitors already sitting there. His eyes traveled from person to person: an eager Joey, a nervous Mokuba, a disturbed Pegasus, and a concerned Kimo.
"So where are we going?" Joey asked.
"Nowhere, for the time," Shadi responded.
"What??" Joey exclaimed. "I need to go out there! We need to do something!"
"Listen," Shadi replied quietly. He explained about Ishizu's vision.
"All of them?" Joey asked incredulously. "Yugi and Yami and my sister? And-" he swallowed- "Mai? They're all together?" When Shadi nodded, his face split into a giant grin. "This is great!" he said, jumping up. "This is fantastic news!"
"I do not know where they are," Shadi cautioned. "Ishizu might be able to tell us, but she is sleeping. She has been pushing her Millennium Necklace too hard as of late. After this vision of your friends, she had a final vision that she was able to tell me and fell unconscious."
"Oh no!" Mokuba exclaimed. "Is she okay?"
"She needs rest," Shadi said, bowing his head so they could no longer see his eyes. His brow, however, was lined with worry. "But I believe she will be fine."
"What was the final vision?" Kimo spoke up. The man was clever and perceptive, Shadi noted, as well as obviously loyal to his employer. Pegasus had chosen his friend well.
"There is a storm," Shadi said. "A large one. It will blow across many miles of open desert, making traveling dangerous. It will be over within a day, but until then we should not venture outside."
"You're kidding!" Joey said loudly, smacking his fist on the table. "I want to leave now!"
"You should not," Shadi said solemnly. "The risk is great. Wait until the storm passes and Ishizu recovers, Joey, and then we can move on."
"I-" Joey began, but Mokuba, of all people, shushed him.
"Joey, let's wait," Mokuba begged, tugging on his sleeve. "I don't want to go in the desert now. I miss Seto, and I want to find him as much as you want to find your friends, but we can't go out into a storm!"
Joey glanced down at Mokuba. His eyes first softened, then gleamed with a sudden spark. "Okay," he said, ruffling the boy's dark hair. "But we leave as soon as possible."
"Agreed," Pegasus and Shadi said in unison.
"I'm just going to go back to my room," Joey said slowly, getting up. "And… sleep or something."
Mokuba yawned. "I will too, I think," he said, rubbing his eyes blearily. Joey shot him a suspicious look, but relaxed when he saw the tiredness in Mokuba's eyes.
"Shadi?" Pegasus asked tentatively. "Might I have a word with you? In- in private?"
"I'll attend to young Mokuba," Kimo announced suddenly, rising. He shot a smile at Pegasus and left the room, leaving Shadi and Pegasus alone.
"Of course," Shadi said, rising. "But perhaps you would not mind moving this conversation to my library? It is not the most comfortable of rooms, but I need to do some research."
"That's fine," Pegasus said agreeably, and the two moved out.
The kitchen and front room lay quiet for five minutes. And so did Joey Wheeler, who was crouching in his bedroom with his ear pressed to the door. After a while, he judged that everyone was gone and tentatively pushed the door open. He glanced around in paranoia as he grabbed a few canteens of water. He only had a small pack, so slung them all over his shoulders. He took a loaf of bread in the pack, knowing that Shadi and Ishizu would forgive him, and slowly slipped outside.
It was early morning as far as he could tell, and horribly bright. Joey squinted his eyes almost closed and moved with his head bent all the way over. He would find shelter before the storm hit, but hopefully he would only have to stop moving for a few hours. His entire being was filled with thoughts of finding his friends, and his sister.
And Mai.
In fact, he was so absorbed, he didn't notice that he'd picked up a fat gray hitchhiker. Bob, having slipped off the rock and into his pack as Joey brushed by, was happily munching on the bread that had recently come into Joey's possession.
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"Okay, great job," Duke said, his voice growing a little hysterical. "Now can you tell them to go away?"
Lord of Dragons turned a little to look at him, and Duke cringed. "Kaiba?"
Seto was still standing, fighting within himself. Just Summoning Lord of Dragons and Flute of Summoning Dragons had been hard, no matter how easily the Blue Eyes had come afterwards. He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to lie down, but he had his pride. "Well done, my Monsters," he grunted, and the three of them disappeared. Duke breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sorry," he apologized, once he was under control. "The Monsters just scare me a little. It's… different, that's all. I mean… well. Never mind."
Seto ignored his rambling. "I'm going to sit a moment," he announced, and sunk to the ground, holding his head up high.
Duke stared at him with wide eyes. "Sit? But we have to keep moving! Now Marik and Bakura know where we are!"
"They have a vague idea," Seto corrected.
"But-" Duke began, but was cut off by a sudden, sharp wind. "Ack!" he spluttered as sand blew in his face. "Great."
The wind blew by again, this time so strong that Duke stumbled back. "What the-?" he exclaimed, before the wind knocked him down.
Seto, still sitting, cracked open an eye and was hit in the face with sand. He clenched his teeth, willing himself not to scream, and started rubbing the sand out of his eye.
"Did you do this?" Duke screamed, but his voice was coming from far away.
"No!" Seto retorted, finally getting the painful sand out of his eye and closing them tightly. "It's a desert storm, Devlin."
"A storm?" That was all Seto heard of Duke's voice. He strained his ears, but nothing happened. He didn't dare open his eyes again; instead he crouched down under his black trenchcoat and protected himself from the wind.
"DEVLIN!!!" Seto hollered, but the wind whipped his voice away. "DEVLIN!!" He thought he heard someone calling back, "I'm over here," but it was too hard to tell.
The storm came on suddenly, and harsh. Seto had known that desert storms were rough, painful experiences, but had never realized how easy it was to get lost in them.
He'd heard many stories about people dying in these storms. The thought occurred to him briefly that he might be next, but he refused to believe it. He stiffened his muscles against the wind and burrowed farther into the sand, realizing that it was piling on his back as well. He was tired from the Shadow Realm Summonings, so tired… he'd just sleep the storm through.
xXx
"The old fortune teller says that there's going to be a storm today," Ezra told Anuba. She was crouching before the water reserve on the edge of town, staring at her reflection in the blue pool. The village was a nice one by most standards, but even more isolated than others.
Anuba, her tamed jackal, was standing a few feet beyond the water reserve. Anuba's ears were cocked and she was staring intently into the desert.
"Has it started?" Ezra asked curiously, rising to her feet.
When Anuba whimpered, Ezra grew a little worried. She walked up behind the jackal and placed a hand on Anuba's head, gazing into the desert with clouded golden eyes. "I hear something!" she said, startled. It sounded like music… but no one would be playing music out in the desert. Especially not in a storm, and especially not that loud. "It's pretty though," she said after a pause. "It sounds a bit like a flute."
Ezra and Anuba stood at the edge of the desert long after the music faded. "I think the storm is starting," Ezra said dubiously; the music hadn't been a freak trick of wind, had it?
She was startled out of thought when Anuba gave a loud bark and bounded forward into the desert. "Anuba!" she yelled. "Don't go out there!" Normally, the jackal would have rushed right back to her side; but this time Anuba turned and gave her a haunted look before trotting slowly into the desert. Ezra hesitated only a moment before rushing after the jackal.
The storm came on fast; one of the worst she'd ever seen. Anuba had soon returned to her side and guided her forward to… well, she didn't know what yet.
Luckily, it wasn't far until Anuba found what she was apparently looking for. She rushed ahead and buried her nose in the sand, uncovering a small strip of black. Advancing forward cautiously, Ezra reached out and brushed a light dusting of sand off the figure in front of her. When she revealed more of the black cloth, her brow furrowed, and she began sweeping harder. Her hand soon came into contact with something warm, however, and she drew away quickly.
Anuba padded up and nudged the thing. Sand fell away to reveal a groggy, filthy face. The eyes of the boy squinted open briefly, revealing a bright cerulean, and then closed again.
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Notes: Ezra's character/looks are based off of one of my buddies, Mamono. I asked her if she would consent to be in the story. Some of my OCs will be mostly original, but some will be like Ezra- based off of someone I know. See, it's easier for me to write if I have a solid understanding of the character, not to mention more fun. ::grins::
I invented the name Anuba from a derivation of Anubis. Anubis is the jackal-headed Egyptian god. Among other things, he protects the dead, which might come into play later on. We'll have to see.
Joey's little 'hitchhiker' is the idea I got from combining suggestions from hobbitfeet13 (more Bob ) and from Mamono (Joey in comic trouble ). I referenced it a long while back. Thanks again guys!