Wish You Were Here

Chapter 8:

Since their encounter with the Monkey Man about ten minutes ago, the yamis were still running, madly, down a hill. Trees blurred along the sidelines and all they could see was the non-Monkey Man scene in front of them.

"R-Ra!" Yami screamed as he continued to run with the two others slightly ahead, "Why does that animal chase us? That's the second time we've seen him!"

Marik looked back at him, "Maybe it's a different one! A-After all, you said there could be more in these woods! He looked like he was hurt!"

"Who cares if it was a different one?" Bakura started to run faster, "Wounded or not wounded, he touched me! Me! I think we're in serious troub- AAHH!"

Bakura was talking so much, he hadn't bothered to pay attention to a cliff that he happened to be teetering on the edge of. He gained his balance by holding out his arms and steadying himself. He sighed with relief and was about to turn around but Marik and Yami were still running right behind him.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Stop! You're going the wrong w-" It was too late for any type of warning. Marik and Yami ran right into Bakura, shoving all three of them right off the edge of the cliff.

"AAHH!"

They went bouncing on the rough terrain that lay right ahead and got a few nicks and bruises. Yami hit a pretty large rock with his head, and though he felt like he wanted to die, he just kept tumbling on down. As Marik came down, a little faster than Yami, he scarred quite a few small animals away with all his tormented growling.

Bakura's rate of speed was much faster than the two behind him. Since he was pushed off first, he was falling and hitting his head twice as much on the large rocks that lay on the mountain trail.

After many feet of tumbling downwards, the ground came into full view as they hit it, face first. Marik sort of bounced off of a patch of grass and remained virtually unharmed. Yami's air bag happened to be Marik. As he landed on Marik's back, Marik fell down and growled.

Bakura, however, wasn't as lucky as the other two and slammed into some sign at the foot of another very large mountain. He slid down and, once he regained consciousness, grabbed his head and moaned.

"Oooohhh… You guuuuys… I-I…!" He doubled over in pain and gasped, "I think I'm dead!"

Yami was laying, sprawled out on the grass, "Bakura…" He sighed, "If you're dead then so am I. And since I happen to be fine, save a couple of bruises and scratches-"

"Shut up, Pharaoh! Can't you see I'm in pain! And your shrill voice only makes my headache worse." Marik stood, wobbly, "I must've hit like twenty rocks on the way down."

"Humph!"

Bakura looked behind them, at the large hill they just fell down, "Jeez. We can't climb that… It's gotta be like… a bazillion feet tall."

"Hardly." Yami rolled his eyes. When his eyes fell back to Bakura, Yami noticed the wooden sign behind him, "Hey. Bakura, look at that sign."

"What?" He looked back, "Oh, yeah. That damn board is the reason my head hurts even more. I mean, who puts a big board right at the foot of a mountain, huh? Don't they know people fall here? Inconsiderate mortals…"

Yami barely heard a word Bakura said. He was reading the big bold letters in black. An arrow was pointing towards a trail that swirled around the next mountain, next to it, saying: Cake Mountain. Ranger Sweet's cabin- 10 miles.

"Yes!" Yami hoped up and down then whirled back to look at Bakura and Marik, "Hey, guys, we're saved! Look, we only have ten miles and then we can get to the forest ranger!"

"Ten miles?" Marik and Bakura exclaimed at once and looked up at the mountain. "Ra, that's a long climb…"

"C'mon, all we do is hike up a marked path. That sounds so easy. Don't you wanna go home?"

Marik grinned, "Home? Yami, you're probably going to have to stay out here."

"What? Why should I have to stay out here!"

"Marik, I know what you're getting at." Bakura stood next to him and smirked at Yami, "Yugi's the one who decides to let you back or not. And really, why would he welcome you back when you were responsible for his grandpa's death?"

"Ugh! That's not true! You'll see…" Yami growled under his breath and started up the trail, "… C'mon you two! Climbing this isn't going to get any easier!"

They grinned at each other and eagerly followed Yami.

On the other side of Cake Mountain, in a patch of green woods, a small log cabin sat undisturbed. Inside, a young man about the age of twenty or so was walking around the room with his walkie-talkie in his hand, taking the orders of another young boy over seas.

"I understand completely, sir!" He grinned and saluted, "This is totally routine for a highly-trained forest ranger, such as myself! Your… uh… what'd you say he was?"

"My yami. But never mind what his is, there's three of them and they could be in serious trouble."

"Of course, of course. I'll make sure they're safe and sound as sound can be."

"Good… Oh, and Ranger Sweet? There… there isn't any danger up in those woods is there? I mean, they're not going to be hurt. Are they?"

"Well, Mr. Motou, there are wild animals out here. Mountain lions, bears, coyotes… it's a real wild man's territory." He smiled to himself, "That's how I'm able to survive!"

"Oh, Ra! They're going to be killed!"

"Don't worry! I have a Body Heat Tracker. I just got it about a week ago. It really is for hunting, but this will be the same thing! Just leave it all to loveable Ranger Sweet!"

"…Well, okay. Good luck."

Ranger Sweet clicked a button on the walkie-talkie and sighed, 'Wow. My first mission as a Forest Ranger! This is officially my first step to joining S.W.A.T! Oh, boy! Okay, I'd better fetch Mr. Motou's… erm, yamis. Yeah, that's it.'

He stood up and grabbed his shotgun, "Let's lock and load!"

Back at the foot of Cake Mountain, Marik, Yami, and Bakura had recovered from their dangerous fall and were now hiking up the trail that went round the mountain. They'd been going for about an hour and weren't even halfway up.

"D-Damn…" Bakura panted. "This is one big mountain. It'd be better if we could just drive up…"

"Well, Bakura, if you can pull a jeep out of your pocket, then we'll drive up." Yami glared up at him. "But until then, we shall walk."

Marik growled and then stopped walking. He put his hands on his hips, "There's gotta be a faster way to get up this mountain! If we can't drive then we'll have to…"

"Have to what?" Yami turned to him, "It's not like we can just climb it with… with some kind of… long device!"

"Ugh! It's called rope… and you're living in the past, Pharaoh." Marik grinned and pulled out a small white box from his back pocket. He opened the lid and pulled on a thin white string, "Ta-da! It's floss."

Yami and Bakura starred at him as his tied it into a lasso and slung it around a rock that was stationed a little higher than the trail that they were on. When it caught on, he pulled it tight and sighed with satisfaction, "We'll go up this way."

There was a moment when all Yami and Bakura did was just stare at Marik.

"…" Bakura slowly walked over to Marik and gave him a solemn pat on the back. "I'm at a loss for words." He grabbed onto the floss and began to climb.

"C'mon, my Pharaoh." Marik grinned at Yami, who was walking slowly over to him, "I'm not holding this forever."

As Yami climbed up the rope, after Bakura, he gave one look at Marik, "You're oddly resourceful."

"Tell me something I don't know."

The Rain-Shine Cruise Line had docked at a Mexican Harbor to let off some of the passengers and restock on supplies. Since it was midday Saturday, the cruise was only half over. But, Yugi insisted that he, Malik, and Ryou get off and rescue their yamis from certain doom.

"…" Malik sighed as he and Ryou waited for the ship to let all passengers off. Yugi was asking directions to the nearest airport and would return shortly.

"Oh, don't be so glum, Malik." Ryou smiled at him, "We had a nice time while we were here. And this isn't the last vacation of our lives. There's sure to be more. Next time, I recommend we take our yamis with us though. I do sort of miss Bakura, actually…"

"… Yeah. I miss Marik too, I guess. I miss the way he'd laugh menacingly, the way he'd try to take over the world… even the way he'd play sock-puppet theater at 3 a.m. on Sundays."

"Uh, yeah… Same here…" Ryou quirked an eyebrow.

Yugi's head popped out from the side of the corridor as the door opened. He smiled and told them that the next plane from Mexico City to Domino was in an hour, and they'd have just enough time to get to the airport by cab.

When they were in the cab, going smoothly down the street, Yugi looked at his cell phone and wondered just where is yami was now.