Silver Coins

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh and/or Sailor Moon.


It was one of those days again. The ones where it was all sunny and fine weather like; where everyone was outside enjoying the day while you were stuck cooped inside a humid room damp with sweat. It was a typical day for Yami, where he had to be under the pretence that he was listening to the councillors, when, in fact, his mind was drifting in the white clouds.

Seconds, minutes, and finally, hours passed before the meeting was adjourned. Yami raced to be the first to leave, but as he was about to step outside the 'Room of Doom,' as he so affectionately liked to call it, his father's voice drifted to his ears, saying, "Don't forget your training practices in the hour before Ra is at the zenith (1). I don't want to hear from your instructors about you skipping again."

"Yes, Father," replied Yami resignedly. 'Damn it! And I was hoping I could have some rest today too.'

Later

Yami was practicing fighting on horseback that day. He mechanically swung his glistening sword at the target as he galloped past. Although he usually enjoyed training with Mek-Tak, his trainer and close friend, he was simply not in the mood for it that day. He wanted to go to the marketplace again and see everything his parents shielded from him in their golden cage called a palace. He wanted to see the winders, watch the potters' skills with clay, the village children play and the sailors in their ships. He just wanted to have fun; a normal day for a normal, typical person.

Yami was suddenly wretched from his thoughts when Mek-Tak knocked him clean off his black obsidian saddle, and landed in the dust, coughing.

"Prince Yami, I fear that you aren't focusing well today. Something on your mind?" Mek-Tak asked, concerned.

"How many times have I told you not to call me Prince Ya-"?

"- As many times as I've called you that," came the amused reply.

"You're my friend, and friends call each other by name." Yami abruptly sighed, "You know me too well. I don't feel like training today, that's all. It's too hot and sunny today."

Mek-Tak laughed. "Is that it? I thought that it was something terrible, like your Millennium Puzzle was broken or something as equally horrible. Well, if it is what you really desire, you could sneak out of the palace again.

He was the only one of the few people that knew of the prince's outings.

"I'll send my loyal servant, Tam-Pa, to find you if needed."

"Will he tell? Do you trust him?" Yami asked.

"I'll trust him with my life. Go Yami. Have some fun in your life. The fun you'll have now will have to compensate for the lack of it when you become pharaoh."

"Don't remind me. And thank you," with that, Yami headed towards his room to change into his peasant garb.

"No problem. What are friends for?" Mek-Tak called out to his friends retreating back.

Afterwards

Yami was in the marketplace again, looking at the goods the market stalls sold and the life outside the palace walls.

Yami sighed. ' This would be so much better if there was someone I could talk to right now.'

The prince of Upper and Lower Egypt drifted from stall to stall, pushing and shoving his way through the current of laughing and yelling people. As he pushed along through the crowds, Yami noticed a bustling group of excited yelling and shouting people. Curiosity struck the blond to-be-pharaoh and he pressed through the throng of people towards his point of interest. As he neared his destination, he tried to peer through the pack to see what was so fascinating.

Looking over the shoulders of a tanned shouting young man, he saw two teens kneeling on the sandy ground face-to-face in front of a low, flat rock. On the rock were thin cards of sorts. When Yami squinted against the burning sun, a closer look told him that the cards' centres had crude symbols and pictures of unearthly creatures. Although they had no colour and did not look like anything special, the rough sketches of these beings somehow stirred the blood inside him. The cards somehow captivated him, forcing his eyes to gaze at them. As he did this, slowly, the background began to fade to black, the noise and cheering became silent and the cards began to glow with an unearthly light. Yami blinked, and everything became normal again.

When the game ended, the mass began to disperse. Yami stayed where he was as the two teens he had been watching began to pack up their cards. One of them looked up and met the violet-blue eyes of Yami.

"Um, greetings. Can I help you?"

" Can you tell me what that game was called? It looked very…fascinating," came the answer.

"Oh! Interested, are you?" came the enthusiastic reply, "It's called Duel Monsters. You're new at this aren't you? I mean, it's not a very well known game yet."

"Duel Monsters, huh? Aye, it is my first time seeing this game played. It looked very interesting, so I came to watch you two play. May I see the cards?"

The young teen dug into his pockets and fished out his deck of slightly worn cards. "Ah, here they are. Be careful though, it took a lot of my coppers to get all of these."

"You have no need to worry," Yami gave his swift reply, his eyes shining, "I'll handle them with care. Hmm, these are beautiful. Do the different cards have unique names, or are they all called duel cards?"

"Ah! You have a quick mind, don't you? Aye, they have different names and different types too. Say," the teen took the deck gently out of Yami's hands and shuffled through it looking for something. When he found what he was looking for, he took it out of the deck and showed it to the blond. " This card! This one's called Beaver Warrior and is mainly used for defence. It's a dark monster."

"I see," came a contemplating reply. "Where did you get these cards? You did say that they were not very well known yet, so I'm guessing only a few specific locations have them in stock, correct?"

"Correct. You are interested in this, aren't you? Sadly, there isn't a store that sells these. You see, this is a self-made game. This means that all these cards are self-made. But if you want to purchase some of these, you can go to this person named, Sam-Uk. He's the only one that makes these cards. Mention my name, Keay-Ra, to him, and he won't give you any trouble. I'll draw you a map."

After saying this much, Keay-Ra took a nearby stick and drew the directions on the dirt ground. Once committing them to memory, Yami thanked him and departed towards his next destination. As he proceeded down the people-packed, Yami mulled over his reaction towards the game and cards. He had felt something in him stir when he had seen the cards, something that forced him to see the cards, and only the cards. He did not understand why this was happening, but he thought that if it were the gods' wills, then so be it. He will need no other reason.

He had never felt this way in his life before. It felt like the gods were trying to tell him something. Somehow, those creatures in the cards were his destiny; they were going to shape what his future holds. Yami knew nothing about the game, except that there were different cards; he didn't even know how to play the game. He felt very mystified and didn't know what to do next. The only thing he knew he had to do was visit the creator of the cards, Sam-Uk.

When he withdrew from his thoughts, he was standing in front of the place where Keay-Ra had told him to go. Yami looked up and saw a small home suitable for one person to live in. The building was decorated with statues and symbols of the gods, the walls, the garden, the windows. He concluded that this man must be very religious, probably much more than most people. Yami took and deep breath, walked towards the door, and knocked. He had taken his first step towards his destiny.


Yes, I know I did not, in fact, update after the summer vacation. For that, I apologize. Anyhow, I updated now. Just to tell you, I am a horrible writer, I can't write a chapter per week or month since my ideas come very slow. I think I'm averaging three-four chapters per year. Dang, I'm slow.

I'm so happy! It's officially spring and the next thing we know, it's summer! Also, Anime North is coming up. Wahoo! Anyways, what I was wondering is that does anyone know a site where there is online readings (scanlations) of Prince of Tennis, the manga? I know a lot of sites for downloading, but I don't know any for online readings.

Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter and please review.