.YAY, chapter three!

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Yami prodded along as fast as his injured body would allow causing the young energetic Yugi to halt and let the bloodied pharaoh catch up with him. The muffled far off snarls and barks of beasts reverberated through the forest; but their were also other calls, panicked and pleading, between the intervals of the creatures' echoes. It was pure curiosity and perhaps the need to aid whomever needed it that drove the two closer to the monsters rather than farther away in dread. Yami huffed and damned that thorny meadow for exhausting him of much needed energy and blood in this god forsaken land with its unexpected perils that were revealing concurrently unfortunately to him and his battered body. Yugi's eyes watered again as he looked back to see the strenuous look across Yami's face. "Maybe you," Yugi hesitated. Yami rested his hand against the bristly trunk of an ugly tree and leaned against his supporting limb as he met Yugi's eyes with his. His face grew stern and he shook his head strongly back and forth. "No Yugi, I won't stay behind. I only stay by your side no matter what condition I'm in or hazards that impede."

"But Yami…" Yugi trotted over to him and offered himself as a crutch for the rest of their journey. The pharaoh couldn't deny the boy's gesture of help this time so he appreciatively let some of his body weight fall onto Yugi's shoulders as he leaned against his lover. They then struggled onwards. Yugi's conscience felt a little more at ease for now at least both of them were burdened but that still didn't justify or help his partner's pain. Tears of sympathy dribbled down his cheeks and he straightened his posture against his strained muscles will so Yami wouldn't have to bend over as much.

The massive ebony wolf darted around Joey only to cause him confusion and panic as the other wolves drew in nearer to their prey. Each time the wolf got close enough the blonde would lash out with his good leg hoping to cuff the canine in the face. But it was swift and with each miss a toothy smile seemed to appear against its hairy mug. "Get the hell away from me you stupid mutt!" As he concentrated on the teasing wolf, according to the united beasts' plan, another unexpectedly pounced the boy's injured leg and clamped its salivating maw around it. Joey cried out in agony as the creature then continued with a lethal continuous thrashing about of its head that easily tore away at the soft flesh as its death grip allowed it to hold tight to the flailing limb.

Seto could see everything from his vantage point and now as he descended at an unnatural speed down a rocky slope, his lover's screams riddled with pain filled him with ferocity and crave to obliterate the wolves in a malicious manner. Another grievous cry from his partner drew Seto to a breaking point. He became wholly enraged and impulsively slipped two sharpened stones between his center and index finger. His vision corresponded to that of a hawk as his furious eyes peered down at the wolf latched to Joey's leg. Though he was quite a distance away from the conflict he was confident that his weapon would land its mark.

Crimson fluid drizzled onto the ground as the wolf's teeth excavated deeper into its victims tender flesh. Joey kicked furiously at the attached wolf with his healthy leg but instead of unbinding its maw it clamped tighter intensifying the pain, but while he was focused on assaulting the single wolf the remaining pack rapidly closed in on him. Their eyes glared deviously at their victim and they knew that this creature had no hope of escaping their blood thirsty chops. A loud cry from the wounded boy sent the wolves into a sprint. The loud enclosing snarls caught Joey's attention and he turned only to see several of the hellish hounds charging towards him. He looked around frantically for an escape but which ever direction he would chose would lead him into the jaws of another wolf. His heart froze after he twisted to check his backside and was face to face with rows of large white daggers dripping with vile ooze. He guarded his face with his arms and winced in fear of the pain that was about to be endowed upon him. There was a sound of piercing flesh but it was not his own. He moved his arms away and watched the body of the dark beast skid to a halt before his feet. The weight on his leg also eased away as the wolf clamped to it dropped dead to the blood stained earth. Joey was relieved but utterly confused to why he was suddenly saved and by what. He realized that the wolves had turned their concentration away from him and up towards the sky. A deep roar echoed from above Joey and following it several small objects pierced the ground in front of the wolves. He looked up into toward the heavens and saw a large figure enclosed by the moon. He could not see many of its features but it appeared to bare three razor like claws at the end of its wide spread arms. Its large wing like appendages shimmered under the moons rays, but it was its mystical blue eyes that mesmerized him the most. "A blue eyes?" he thought to himself as he gazed at what he at first thought was the legendary dragon. The wolves continued to bark at the figure as it fell to the earth except two of the wolves that turned to Joey. Their hunger greatly surpassed their superstition and they leaped violently at the injured boy. Joey turned away from the figure as he heard the two wolves barks grow intense. He trembled as they launched closer to him, but one of the beast's attack ended short by a stone which stabbed deep into the animals left eye. The injured wolf flipped and landed fiercely on its back, but the second wolf was still on the assault and it was only a foot from latching its maw around Joey's neck. The wolf was interrupted by the figure's leg striking the side of the beasts head with enough force to send it spinning half a yard away from the boy. The dark figure now stood inside the luminous moon light revealing its true identity.

Seto swiveled in time to thrust another weapon into a springing wolf's chest, his coat billowed with his movement and Joey looked on with hushed awe. He then dug his fingers into the dry ground and leaned forward. "Seto!" The blonde croaked; tears spurted from his aggrieved reflecting eyes. "Don't move Joey!" Seto thrust the now lifeless body to the ground and glared at two wolves sneaking to his lover's right. The pain in his leg suddenly hit Joey as hard as a cinder block to his head might and he groaned in anguish. The wolves relished in the sound of their prey's suffrage and hastily moved in to finish it off and with a bellowing howl they were launching at the helpless boy faster than Seto could interfere, and not that he could have even if he wanted to for the wolf he had kicked in the head earlier was recovered and at him. He shot Joey one more fleeting glance before he tumbled over as the canine was upon him. The pain and approaching demise in the form of two darting crimson eyed monsters was nothing compared to the need he had to save Seto. Joey made to spring to his feet, but his shredded leg stuck to the ground as if a pike had driven through the exposed bone to hold it in place. "God damn…!" The imagery before him fuzzed as his eyes brimmed with tears. He prepared himself for death as he subdued and fell back powerless; but the pitter-pattering of the wolves' paws abruptly stopped and was followed by a heavy thud and scuffle.

Yami tackled the wolf. It was all he could do but he never regretted it for a second as he rolled with the warm robust animal struggling powerfully against his petty clinch; his old wounds trickled fresh blood as he and the wolf thrashed about on the dusty ground. The other wolf had stopped as his companion was attacked by this new arrival which was viewed instantly as the next victim. The wolf attacking Seto also stopped, its ears pricked and its wrinkling snout rose towards the sky as the sent of new blood hit the air. The aroma drove the remaining wolves mad with a lust to finish off and devour the injured. The one leapt from Seto and zigzagged away to finish the task of killing Joey as the idle wolf went to assist the one dealing with Yami.

Yugi pulled in close to Joey with the weapon he had taken from a fallen wolf gripped in his hand. He held his ground as he looked into the forthcoming eyes of doom. The loping hound oddly slowed and when it reached Yugi it stopped all together. Ebony fur bristled and his lips peeled away from its teeth and gums with a throaty snarl. Its ears folded back onto its head and it continued its string of growling hisses. Yugi was baffled. Surely the wolf was not intimidated by him, for the boy doubted his insignificant stance in opposition was enough to make an incensed with starvation beast, reconsider its attack. But what Yugi didn't realize was that there were two grown men behind him; the still uninjured Seto and defiant but ragged Yami with two dead wolves limply slumped on the earth beside them. The one by Yami displayed an obvious broken neck; its head was twisted abnormally and its eyes had rolled back into the sockets to show only their milky white undersides. Seto uttered a growl of his own and took a step towards the wolf which immediately tucked its matted tail between its hind legs and cowered. Its defensive barks turned into whimpers of vulnerability. How had these feeble humans taken down his pack? Their power was incomprehensible to the leader wolf who observed its fallen comrades with alarm. Its hate frenzied eyes peered at its surrounding enemies wishing only to submerge its vengeful jowls into each of their throats, but he knew that he could not take them down alone. With its tail drooped under its legs it darted off into the shadows of the forest leaving his fallen comrades and conceit behind.

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