A/N - I'm glad that people are liking the story. It comes as no surprise that Pysche has already figured out some of the story. Girl there is no way you're going to figure out the entire thing though. :p

Oh, Mette is prounouced as Mett (or Met I guess). The 'E' on the end is silent.

"Atemu are you okay?" a gentle voice asked. Blinking open his eyes, Yami stared up into the concerned face of his mother. Glancing around, Yami saw that he was back in his own room.

"Yes, I'm fine," Yami replied as he sat up and cradled his head in his hands. His head was killing him. "What happened?"

"It's because you haven't used your powers in so long," Mette explained with a small sigh. "It's my fault, I should have trained you as you grew, especially when I realized you remembered nothing. I'm sorry Atemu I was selfish. I thought that the two of us could live here in peace without being discovered, so I saw no need to train you."

"Train me in what?" Yami asked in alarm. "What was that thing?"

Mette gave Yami a gentle smile, easing some of his worries. "That 'thing' was a Kuribo. He was your favorite playmate as a child." Mette's violet eyes shone and the little fur ball returned. The Kuribo bounced against Yami chest and the confused former prince gently wrapped his arms around the small furry body. The Kuribo cuddled close to Yami's chest making happy noises as Yami petted its fur.

"How is this possible?" Yami murmured in amazement.

"We are summoners from Magia," Mette explained.

"Magia? I never heard of that place."

"Nor would you have," Mette replied with a small sigh. "It was destroyed when you were a child by the emperor. He slaughtered almost everyone because he feared our power. Every Magian is born with the power to use magic. We were a powerful race but we were over confident in our abilities. We did not expect an attack and by the time we could start mounting a defense Draak's troops were close enough that they could easily strike us down while we were busy chanting our spells. After Tovenaar fell the rest of our kingdom soon followed. Gozaburo kept a few of us alive to conduct experiments on trying to find a way to gain our powers and used them for his own advantage."

"Are we the only ones who escaped?" Yam asked his voice a whisper. As his mother talked he hugged the Kuribo tighter needing the warm comfort he received from it.

"I don't know," Mette admitted. "The night Tovenaar Castle fell, my father and his grandson, your grandfather and cousin, escaped with us but we separated so that it would be harder for us to get caught. I have no clue whether they survived or not. It's possible that others escaped as well but I heard after he became Emperor there was a massive hunt to kill anyone with any magic abilities."

Yami's eyes widen in alarm as his mother's words. "But those guards….they saw…"

"I know," Mette before leading her son out of his bedroom. Behind them the Kuribo floated through the air after them. Mette led Yami to the chest that she had long ago showed him. Taking out a key, Mette opened the chest and showed him the contents inside. "Here," she said pulling out a black, silk, robe that was trimmed in gold. "I've been making this for you for the past couple of years."

"Mother, thank you," Yami replied. The young prince slipped the robe over his tunic as Mette pulled some more things out of the chest.

"These scrolls contain summoning spells," Mette informed him as she shoved them into a bag and then handed it to him. The next thing she pulled out of the chest was a staff. "Here, take this as well. Practice using the staff and summoning Kaa every day! That staff is a magical one designed by our people and it will help you with your summonings."

"Mother I don't understand," Yami said to her in a pained voice.

"Baby, you have to leave here. Those soldiers, they'll be back."

"But what about you?!" Yami protested as Mette stood up and picked up a heavy brown cloak from a nearby chair. She then tied the cloak around her son's neck.

"I can't go with you," Mette explained as a violent set of coughs overcame her.

"Mother!"

"Atemu, go!" Mette commanded through her coughs. "I will deal with anyone who come looking for you."

"But where should I go?"

"Anywhere," Mette whispered and a small smile formed on her face. "Go where your heart takes you. You must be careful though, not only are you a Summoner but you are also the prince of Magia. You will be turned over to the Emperor for both of those reasons."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Of course you will," Mette replied. With a nod of his head, Yami turned around and walked out of the small cottage he had called home for most of his life. "Take care of him," she told the Kuribo.

"Kuri, kuri!" it replied before floating out the door after the young prince.

"So what should we do?"

"Kuri."

"That's not exactly good advice," Yami had been walking for what seemed like hours. The fields surrounding his home were long gone and he now found himself walking through a large forest. Yami was slowly starting to become bored out his mind as he had no clue where to go and his only companion could only repeat the word 'Kuri'. As far as Yami knew he was walking around in a circle. At least he was following a path so Yami hoped that he was headed in the right direction.

Yami continued to walk along his way, when a growling sound caused him to come to a sudden halt. "What was that?"

"Kuri!" the Kuribo cried, while it narrowed it's eyes.

The growling continued and from out of the woods a large, shaggy, blonde-haired dog appeared. "Umm…not good," Yami murmured pointing the end of his staff at the growling dog. In the air between Yami and the dog, Kuribo hovered ready to attack.

"Jounouchi!" A loud cry rang out throughout the forest. Yami raised an eyebrow and was mildly surprised as the dog obediently sat and quietly calmed down. "Sorry about that," a gentle voice said and Yami looked behind the dog to find a boy with long white hair and a monkey on his shoulder had appeared. "Jounouchi is awfully protective of me."

"Umm…okay," Yami replied eyeing the stranger. "I'm Yami."

"I'm Ryou," the white-haired stranger replied. "You've already met Jounouchi and this guy is Honda." The monkey then jumped off of Ryou's shoulder and climbed on top of Jounouchi's head. "That's a strange little animal," Ryou continued pointing to the Kuribo who was still glaring at Jounouchi. "I've never seen an animal like him before and I thought I knew every kind of animal in the world!"

"It's a Kuribo," Yami replied as he took the Kuribo in his arms and hugged it tightly.

"What's is his name?"

"Uhh…Kuribo?"

"It suits him," Ryou said with a smile on his lips, while he nodded his head. "So are you travelers too? The three of us are headed towards the North Country."

"North Country?" Yami questioned. Vaguely he remembered that the soldiers mentioned that there were rebels in the North Country. "Are you joining the Rebels?"

"Yes," Ryou admitted as he blushed realizing his error. "The Emperor killed my family."

"Me too," Yami sighed.

"Then come with us!" Ryou happily cried. "It'll be nice to have some human company!"

Yami glanced down at Kuribo in his arms before looking back up at Ryou and nodding his head. "Okay."

The Dark Prince, Seto rode high on his black stallion, Critias. His black armor glistened in the sunlight, his long white cape flowed in the wind behind as Critias strolled towards the small cottage. Behind Critias rode a dozen men all armed to the teeth.

Seto's blue eyes grew angrier as the cottage drew nearer. How dare his "father" send him on such an easy mission! Seto knew that the Emperor only wanted to keep him away from the capital and away from younger brother and Seto hated him for it.

With a growl, Seto nudged Critias into a gallop. When he neared the cottage he gracefully hopped off Critias and kicked open the door. He was surprised to discover a raven-haired woman inside wearing an elegant white robe.

"Hello," she calmly said.

"Where is the boy?" Seto demanded to know.

"Strange, you call my son a boy yet you are only a boy yourself. Let me guess, you're the Dark Prince I've heard so much about."

"I am," Seto replied as he narrowed her eyes at the woman.

"It's so nice to meet you. I am Queen Mette of Magia. I'm sorry I could not greet you in a proper fashion but I was ran out of my home many years ago by your father."

"Well Highness," Seto sneered, hating to be reminded of who is father was, "I must insist that you tell me where your son is."

"I do not know," Queen Mette replied with a small smile on her face. "And I'm sorry to say that I must cut our meeting short." It was then that Seto noticed the small golden dagger in her hands. Seto quickly pulled out his sword expecting an attack. Instead though the queen plunged the dagger into her gut.

Dropping his sword, Seto rushed over and caught Mette as she dropped to the ground. "Take care of my son," she whispered to Seto before closing her eyes.

"I'm hungry," Ryou complained. The pair (and their pets) had been traveling for hours. The land was now growing dark and they were still trapped in the forest.

"Me too," Yami agreed. "Perhaps we should stop for the night."

"Yeah I agree," a third voice added. Spinning around both Yami and Ryou found another white haired individual behind them.

"Thief," Yami growled.

"That's treasure hunter," the other person replied before throwing a sexy grin to Ryou. "Why hello there!"

"Bakura, stop it," Yami replied while rolling his eyes. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I was bored," the one called Bakura said as he shrugged his shoulders. "So what are we doing anyway?"

"We're on our way to the North Country to join the Rebels to fight the Emperor," Ryou helpfully informed Bakura. Yami groaned at that remembering they were supposed to keep a low profile.

"Well I guess I better come with you guys then," Bakura replied as he placed an arm around each of their shoulders and gave them both a grin. "This is the start of a beautiful friendship!"

"Don't touch me," Yami complained shoving the arm off his shoulder while wondering why the thief was there in the first place.

"What a grouchy little prince you are," Bakura murmured into Yami's ear as soon as Ryou began walking head of them with Jounouchi, while Honda still rode on Jounouchi's back.

"Shut up Bakura," Yami growled. "Do you want me to get caught? Actually don't answer it because I know you do. What have you been doing? Watching and following me this entire time?"

"Actually I stopped by your home to find all these soldiers around the place including the Dark Prince himself. Looks like you're an orphan now, kiddo."

The color drained from Yami's face as the news sunk in. "Mother is dead?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure the Dark Prince, made it quick and painless."

"Shut up! Just tell me who this Dark Prince is so I can kill him!"

"They say his name is Seto, he's the Emperor's son." With that Bakura ran a head to flirt with Ryou some more, leaving Yami in shock.

"Kuri?" Kuribo said as he hovered in the air in front of Yami. Once again the prince grabbed the Kaa monster out of the air and hugged it tightly to his chest.

A/N – There's actually a reason why Jounouchi is a dog and Honda is a monkey. That will be explained later in the story. ::grin::