Anaya's Creator: Good 'ay mates! (Australia) I love your reviews, they make me laugh! R&R!

Mukyuu Tenshi: To answer your questions: Not really, yes, I don't think he remembers, and he gets nicer... eventually.

Pharaoh'sEgyptianArabian: Yes, he is a love-sick-nutcase; he's been smitten with her ever since she saved him. NO I DON"T LIKE YAMI!! THAT'S JUST THE WAY HE IS IN THIS STORY!!! SO LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! (But still review please)

DMoS13 and Torru: She gets out of it, but not right away... just trust me on this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. And before this chapter starts I want to quote from one of my favorite authors:

"The expression 'following suit' is a curious one,

Because it has nothing to do with walking behind a matching set of clothing

If you follow suit, it means you do the same thin someone else has just done.

If all your friends decided to jump off a bridge into the icy waters of an ocean or river,

for instance, and you jumped in right after them you would be following suit.

You can see why following suit can be a dangerous thing to do, because you could end up drowning simply because someone else thought of it first."

--Lemony Snicket

The Austere Academy

(P.S.: I should be writing a fanfic for him sometime in the future. And see if you can find the expression following suit in this chapter somewhere, it's in there.)

Back to Egypt:

The next morning Akina awoke only early before sunrise. Not caring if Yami was still asleep or not, she tried to get up and leave the tent, but, to her wrath, her feet were still tied with rope; she also noticed her weapons were gone. She tried to fumble with the knots but the way they were tied was too complex.

Jeez, these guys don't mess around, she thoughtfuriously. Some how, she was able to get on her hands and knees and crawl out of the tent.

Outside, the embers of last night's fire were, thankfully, still glowing dimly in the dark. Akina felt around until she found a pile of sticks. With one she stirred the embers until a small flame shot up. She put a few smaller sticks from the pile onto the flame. Eventually a slightly medium-sized fire was burning. She took her main stick and stuck it in the flames, allowing it to catch fire. Then she took the flaming stick and placed it to the rope around her ankles. Just as she began to smell the rope starting to burn, a hand grabbed the stick, wrenched it out of her hands, and threw it into the fire.

"Don't do that! You could burn yourself!" a voice admonished. Akina turned and saw Yami glaring at her.

"For your information, Your Highness, I knew what I was doing!" she retorted.

"What, burning your feet off?" he said sardonically.

"No, this," Akina meddled with the rope around her ankles once more and just like she had hoped, the flame on the stick had burnt just enough through the rope that she was able to pull them apart. "It's a handy old thief trick, one of my favorites. I wanted to be able to walk, not depend on a palace peacock or one of his cockroaches to carry me everywhere."

"You learned from thieves?"

"None of your business,"

"Please tell me,

"No."

"Now,"

"You know, is your only purpose in life to piss me off?"

"On the contrary, I'm trying to get you to like me,"

"Well, stop; try being nice to me."

"I am, you're simply being stubborn. There are thousands of girls in Egypt that would die to be in your position!" Now Yami was starting to get really frustrated with this girl.

"Then pick one of them! And I'll bet they'd love to have their best friends and second mother inches from death because some dirty tyrant wants to marry her!" Akina suddenly heard a low hiss.

"I'm not a dirty tyrant; I'm just..."

"Hush, I need to hear." Akina said shoving her hands over Yami's mouth as best she could. She that hiss she just heard had given her the 'look-abouts'. Besides it was about time Yami's yammering ceased, the argument had been going nowhere.

Almost a second later, they saw a large cobra was headed towards one of the other tents. Slowly, Akina began to speak to it.

"Go away," she said softly, in a mixture of hisses. Yami's eyes went wide once more.

The snake paid her no heed.

"I said go!"

Once again the snake ignored her.

She turned to Yami. "Give me your dagger," she said in normal talk.

"How did you know I..."

"Just hand it over,"

Yami gave her his dagger. Slowly and stealthily Akina crept towards the poisonous snake. It turned at her approach.

Slowly, she began to sway back and forth, humming a soft tune, and the cobra followed suit, its eyes never leaving her. When she had gotten really close, it had forgotten that she held a dagger in her hand, all that mattered to it was that the humming and swaying would never stop. In one swift movement she brought it down and killed the cobra. She took the dead snake and tossed it into the fire.

Yami stared at Akina, stunned. She can talk to animals... he thought in amazement. You and me already knew this, but remember: this is the first time Yami has seen her do such a thing.

A while later, when everything was packed up and ready to go, Yami turned to talk to Akina one more time.

"Will, your unicorn allow more than one rider on its back?" he asked.

"Yes, but let me mount fir..." but she was to late Yami was mounting Joshua. "That imbecile, not smart..." she muttered.

As soon as Yami had mounted Joshua, Joshua went berserk. He started bucking and kicking his legs high in the air in an attempt to get the unwanted rider (Yami) off. Meanwhile, Yami was holding on for dear life.

"Jump off, idiot!" Akina yelled. He jumped and attempted to land a good ways from Joshua's rampaging hooves.

Once Joshua realized Yami was off of him, he stamped his hooves and tossed his mane in pride, under the impression he had done something heroic.

Akina saw he thought that he had done the right thing: get the bad guy off you're back when he tries to ride off with you. She strode over to her 'noble steed' and gave him a light thump on the nose.

"You behave! Thieves aren't trying to take you away today," she scolded in what sounded like a rough whinny.

Joshua stomped the ground indignantly and gave Yami a forbidding glare. Reluctantly, he bowed his head in obedience and snorted an apology to his mistress and then gave a rough loud neigh, as if he thought everyone could understand what he was trying to say. Akina smiled and chuckled slightly then turned back to Yami.

"He say's he'll let you ride him, but I have to be the one to guide him, so you ride behind me," she translated. Joshua gave a lout snort and gave her a soft nudge in the small of her back. "He also says: if you like having all ten fingers, keep your hands to yourself, off of him and me, except to hold on." Then she grabbed Joshua's mane and, with a little difficulty, mounted. Yami got on behind her, and this time Joshua behaved, except for turning his head to Yami and giving him a warning glare. Aden came over and settled on her shoulder a desert mouse hanging in his beak. He also gave Yami an ominous glower and Yami suddenly felt as is if he were the mouse in the hawk's curved beak.

"Be nice, the both of you" Akina commanded sternly, and finally the convoy set off.

It is pointless for me to describe the long monotonous trip back to Egypt through the desert. It was as tedious as the one time I went to a football game in second grade and ended up reading through the entire game, not paying attention at all. I haven't been to one since.

At the oasis, Serenity begged her mother to let her go with Jonouchi to Egypt and live with him, and after much argument, her mother gave in. Serenity went inside and gathered her few possessions while her mother gave them all more water. When Serenity ran back out the procession continued back to Egypt.

Two droning days later, they were in sight of Thebes.

Anaya's Creator: Okay, did you find the expression? If not, look again. Review people! I want more reviews please! Also, could you please vote on whether you want this fic to end: Akina x Yami or Akina x Marik? Please and thank you!

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