The creature arched its back, ramming it's head into the carpet as it let out a feral growl; it had human hands that had long sharp claws on them, its fingers curled sharply into the carpet clenching and unclenching them rapidly. It was hissing loudly and struggling with it's feet, like it was trying to grip the carpet with its clawed toes. It was a relatively small thing, and it kept on pressing its head into the carpet, pushing out with its legs, as a whip-like tail slashed at the air. Its skin a whitish gray tinge like the skin on a dead person's face. None of them were even attempting to get closer to this strange creature.
"Yami, what is it?" Yugi asked timidly looking up at Jou and Yami, who weren't taking their eyes off 'it.'
"Yami, is that what I think it is?" Jou asked too,
"what is it?" Yugi said completely confused,
"It's what happens when vampires mate with vampiresses," Yami responded.
"Its a fledgeling" he added,
"I've never seen more than a few of them, they normally die in the sunlight or don't even survive birth," Yami told them stepping a little closer to the little creature who was now sounding like it was close to screaming.
"How did this one survive the sunlight?" Jou asked, giving voice to the question bouncing around Yami's head.
"It's not," Yami said quickly speeding up like he had just been going in slow motion. He rushed over to one of the armchairs and grabbed a blanket off of it, he ran to the struggling fledgeling and quickly threw the blanket over it before kneeling next to it and grabbing it wrapping the blanket even tighter around the growling struggling creature. He pulled it away from the shattered window and picked it up despite its struggles. He ran out through the doors, and past Yugi and Jou, Yami turned the corner sharply into a bathroom with the two younger vampires right on his tail. Yugi watched as Yami laid the fledgeling down in the bathtub and unrolled it from the blanket.
"Jou shut the door!" Yami ordered turning on the water as the small fledgeling lashed out at him, growling and barring its long fangs. Yami barely even noticed when the small male's tail wrapped securely around his forearm holding onto it as Yami moved. The fledgling stopped his hissing and fighting almost as soon as he felt water hit his body.
"See, water, it's okay, water is a good thing, it helps," Yami said, speaking to it like one would a baby who was scared of something there was no reason to be afraid of.
"Yami what's wrong with it?" Yugi asked as Yami tried to peel the child's tail off of his arm.
"The sunlight was very slowly burning him if he had stayed there longer he would have died,"
"He?" Yugi said he hadn't seen any signs to whether this thing was male or female yet.
"Yes, it's a he, females tend to have shorter fangs and tails, and the way this one's dressed gives it away too, he's got a mid-thigh kilt on, me and Seto used to wear those back in Egypt," Yami said giving up on the child's tail which he couldn't get to let go of his arm.
The child now that they were looking at him he had a strange anatomy; the child's feet were sticking up like a dogs feet when they are on their back. They were triple jointed so if he walked he walked on his toes. The little thing was relaxed now, taking in hissing raged breaths as his large dark brown eyes stared up at the three of them he didn't mind the fact that he was now submerged in water up to his shoulders.
Yami began to gently scrub at the fledgelings skin, the poor thing looked like it had been dragged through the streets by a car.
"Do you have a name?" Yami asked kindly the fledgeling didn't answer back with clear human speech, it sounded more like a string of clicks and hisses.
Jou came up behind them "Is he going to live?" he asked kneeling next to them.
"He should, just don't let him get into the sunlight again. I've never been this close to one of these before, all of the ones I've ever seen were on their last thread tied to a stake out in the sunlight." Yami said stroking the little one's head which was covered with long white hair. Yami sat him up running his hands along a heavily scarred back the boy hissed at him, squeezing Yami's arm hard with his tail, and shutting his large eyes.
"Hey, its okay, don't cut off the blood flow to my hand," Yami said trying to get the fledgeling to let go of his arm. As soon as Yami said the word blood the child looked at him with those big brown eyes, his fangs overlapped his lower lip; he recognized that word, he needed that to live to survive. The tail finally let go seeming to act on it own free will.
The fledgeling finally reached out to touch Yami's face, feeling his cheek with a rough leathery palm he suddenly drew back his hand barring his claws he struck Yami hard across the cheek; both Yugi and Jou gasped and Jou reached out to grab the child's hand.
"Don't Jou," Yami said allowing the child to run his fingers along the cuts he's just created on his cheek.
The small fledgeling brought his hand back with his fingertips covered in blood; he immediately began to lick it off ravenously, looking at Yami like he had just fallen in love with him. He moved struggling to get his long feet under him, he got out of the water perching on the edge of the bathtub, he sat there staring at them like one of the gargoyles you see on those cathedrals. He slowly got off the bathtub walking on all fours looking like a large frog as he approached them and they backed away, standing up.
"Yami, is he dangerous?" Yugi whispered looking at his lover worried.
"Yugi, that is something I don't even know?" Yami replied pulling Yugi back with him as the fledgeling came closer. The fledgling suddenly jumped at Yami, who in turn jumped back, and hit the door, the little one was staring playfully at him grinning. Yami opened the Bathroom door slightly,
"Yugi, Jou, at the count of three we leave the room," Yami whispered to the two with him.
"One," the fledgeling crouched down readying to jump again.
"Two," Yugi edged closer to Yami.
"Three," Yami flung the bathroom door open causing the child to hiss and run from the light. They all three rushed through the door slamming it behind them,
"Yami, what are we going to do with him?" Yugi asked.
"I don't know, but I think he's the thing Seto's looking for," Yami said,
"Oh, Seto, I almost forgot about him I'll go phone him, uh, right now," Jou said stepping out nervously.
Yugi and Yami both sat down outside the door which every once in a while would bang and rattle as the fledgeling inside smashed himself into it suddenly human screams started to erupt from inside Yami spun around looking at the door when the screaming didn't stop. He looked at Yugi before cracking open the door and looking inside the battered looking fledgeling was curled up on the floor his entire body was shaking and spasming he was screaming and howling as he kicked out with his large feet, writhing almost in what seemed like pain.
"Yugi, get me a blanket quick," Yami told him entering the room and approaching the child.
He was looking even sicker than he had been a few minutes ago. Yami reached out to grab the child when his eyes snapped open; it took him about three seconds to register that it was Yami before he lashed out and sunk his teeth into Yami's wrist, digging them in deep and locking his jaw.
Yami himself hissed, staring at the fledgeling with wide eyes his pupils had contracted he hissed at the little one in hopes to scare him off he even showed him his own long, well-developed, fangs, but the child had closed his eyes again, and was drawing heavily off Yami's wrist concentrating on getting the blood that would keep him alive.
"Fledgling! I command you, let go of my arm!" Yami shouted he was beginning to weaken and he was losing feeling in his arm.
Yugi ran in with the blanket just as Yami grabbed the fledgeling's neck with his free hand.
He didn't care now he was immortal, he'd live to see more fledgelings, if he wanted to go through the pain he himself could make one.
Yami closed his eyes, and made a sharp jerk backwards with the hand on the back of the fledgelings neck; there was a snap and the grip on his arm slackened. Yami opened his eyes looking down at the limp fledgeling with his fangs still embedded in his arm, they had ripped the skin a little bit further from the jerk that had broken his neck.
Yami carefully removed the fangs from his arm, licking his wound closed, he laid the child back on the floor being especially careful of the little one's neck. he truthfully didn't know whether the child could revive like a normal vampire.
"Yami, you killed him," Yugi murmured staring shocked at the dead fledgeling, his bloodstained mouth hanging open.
"I had to Yugi," Yami replied as Yugi came closer,
"Yami! You. killed. Him." Yugi repeated louder this time.
"Yes, I know," Yami said, Yugi grabbed both sides of Yami's face and made him face him.
"killed, Yami, killed! He was a kid!" Yugi shouted tears forming in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Yugi he was a danger to us, he was ready to kill me," Yami said pulling over the blanket Yugi had dropped.
He covered the still limp child and wrapped it around him tightly, leaving his tail hanging out as he picked him up, cradling his head against his shoulder. Yami proceeded to carry the little one out of the dark bathroom covering his head with the blanket; Yugi followed behind him silently holding back tears.
Yami was halfway down the hall when the child's tail twitched, Yami thought nothing of it, it could have just been a reflex after death, but he completely stopped when the tail kept moving on its own and wrapped around his leg; Yami looked back at Yugi with wide eyes.
"Y-Yugi, he isn't dead," Yami stuttered out his voice reaching a higher pitch as the tail constricted around his thigh. The child started to twitch all over, first his legs then the rest of him. The blanket over his head shook back and forth after a loud crack came from under it, the fledgeling began to writhe inside the blanket arching his back and kicking out with those triple jointed feet all the while keeping a hard grip on Yami's thigh with his tail making said vampire squeak and bite his lip.
The fledgeling finally wriggled out of the blanket unwrapping his tail and running off on all fours back into the room they had first seen him in; a high pitch shriek resounded from the room and the fledgling came shooting out of it. Only instead of hitting the wall and staying there he literally began to climb the wall, sticking to it like a gecko but leaving small claw marks in his wake.
Yami and Yugi watched with their mouths hanging open as the little one scaled the wall with as much ease as a small lizard.He finally hit the high ceiling and stopped wedging himself into the corner and securing himself there; you wouldn't even have noticed he was there unless you were looking for him or unless you noticed the tail before he curled it up around himself.
"Yami? you can get him down can't you?" Yugi asked coming to stand next to Yami who was still just standing there looking weak, and somewhat like he had just had cold water suddenly tossed over him.
"N-no Yugi, I can't jump that high without hitting the ceiling," Yami said still staring at the fledging in the corner trying to figure out whether or not he had fallen asleep there.
Just then Jou rounded the corner in front if them, with his lover following right behind, Yami's eyes widened,
"Jou, no, stay there," Yami whispered franticly. Jou stopped crooking an eyebrow at him; Yami pointed towards the ceiling where the fledgeling was.
It took Jou a few seconds to comprehend what Yami was doing and looked up along with Seto and his mouth dropped open.
"Yami how did he get up there!" Seto shouted at him sounding mad.
The shout was just enough to stir the poor creature above them his hands came off the ceiling leaving him hanging upside down from the ceiling he emitted a couple of shrill squeaks before frantically trying to grab for the wall again but his feet let go before he could do it and he fell before any of them could do anything.
He hit the floor hard landing on his back, there was another nasty pop and the pitiful thing went limp again only this time it wasn't a 'dead' limp he was still able to move his tail and blink he just didn't move his body for a moment and even that didn't last long before he rolled over and stretched out like a cat making his back pop again before making a straight shot at the wall again.
Yami looked at Seto who had an eyebrow quirked as the stared at the strange fledgeling. The creature returned to the same spot he had been and anchored himself there once more.
"Yami about that question..." Seto said coming closer he still had his bag of things slung over his shoulder.
"Well, we had him in the bathroom, but he started screaming like he was almost out of blood, and when I came in he sort of latched onto my arm and wouldn't stop drawing blood, so I snapped his neck to make him let go but then I didn't know if he could revive like we do from injuries like that so I wrapped him up in this blanket and started carrying him when he came back to life and he's been stuck up there ever since." Yami said holding up the blanket the fledgeling had been wrapped in.
Seto rolled his eyes, yet another thing for his former lover to mess up. He reached into the his bag and drew out the same darts he had stuck into Yugi's neck, the only difference was that the dart was much longer and had a barbed tip. He took out a small blowdart tube and slid one of the darts into it; Yugi's eyes widened in terror as Seto turned around, and with one quick breath shot the dart up at the fledgeling, who's head immediately shot up staring at the dart embedded in the wall mere centimeters away from its tail, then at Seto hissing and moving into a pose that allowed him to scuttle onto the ceiling.
"That was a warning shot fledgeling!" he shouted up to him putting another dart in the tube.
The frightened fledgeling hissed looking scared and added a few loud growls, whistles, and clicks; he took off running upside down along the ceiling with the grace of a cat despite the foot structure.
Seto pouted looking disappointed before he took up the chase, easily outrunning the fledgeling and getting in front of him, turning around and shooting another dart at the fledgeling, this time he saw it but didn't have the time to move. As he turned around the dart hit him in the back right in the shoulder; the little one shrieked and his clawed hands flew to his chest where the point of the dart was pressing, threatening to pierce the rough skin and go all the way through. He fell off the ceiling, writhing in pain screaming and shrieking for help, in his own strange tongue.
He hit the floor with a loud shriek grinding his head into the floor like the first time Yami and Yugi had seen him. Seto quickly caught hold of the child, pinning him to the floor, as the screaming fledgeling's tail instinctively wrapped itself around Seto's arm a couple times, Seto looked down at the tail before reaching down for the dart; the poor thing was crying now squeezing hard on Seto's arm with his tail.
"You should have listened," Seto said grabbing the dart and yanking forcefully, the little one let out an earsplitting shriek as the barbs were pulled out backwards; he fired off a longs string of whimpers and clicks and Seto looked fed up with it and put a hand on the back of his neck,
"Seto don't!" Yugi shouted he couldn't stand to see the poor thing break his neck for a third time.
"I'm not going to do anything to him!" Seto shouted right back but that wasn't what the fledgeling though he was squeezing so hard on Seto's arm that he was sure to have marks left where it was.
The little thing was squawking up at storm arching his back struggling with him.
Seto began to speak in a tongue that Yugi couldn't understand, pressing down on the fledgeling's neck as his hand began to let out those evil looking tendrils of purple and black. They seeped from his fingers, going through his long white hair and around his face, he whimpered loudly shutting his mouth and shaking his head. Seto sighed and poked him, gently this time, with the blunt end of the dart. The fledgeling opened his mouth to let out and angry click for him to stop, but it was cut short as the tendrils shot into his open mouth, curling down his throat, he sounded strangled and tried to cry out as the tendrils harshly twisted his vocal cords rearranging them and strengthening them, before Seto pulled his hand away the tendrils vanishing the fledgeling coughed, hacking trying to grab for his throat.
"You horrible arrogant bastard," he said this time in the English tongue a little rough but clearly English.
Yami Yugi and Jou all came up behind him as Seto hauled the little one onto his feet; Yugi didn't really find him as 'poor' or 'pitiful' as before once he heard the curses he was throwing at Seto.
"Vwala, one speaking fledgeling," Seto said sneering at Yami, Yugi approached him he was slightly taller than the fledgeling but only because the other crouched at his knees.
"Let me go," he whispered to Yugi but it didn't escape the ears of the three older vampires the little one leaned close to Yugi's ear.
"I could give anything you want," he breathed out into his ear trying to add a seductive twist. Yugi caught what he was trying to do and pulled back smacking him good and hard, no one would ever replace his Yami.
"Yugi!" Yami said looking down sharply at him.
"He asked for it Yami," Yugi said looking up at him.
"So, are you going to tell us your name? or do I have to shoot you again?" Seto said holding up the bloody dart.
"I call myself Ryou, but I've also been called 'demon's child', 'lizard boy'," he said unlooping his tail from Seto's arm.
"and one of my least favorites 'son' you decide, but I prefer Ryou, and if You call me son I swear I'll kill whichever one of you says it," he added threateningly staring at them through his white bangs.
"you look very familiar have I met you before?" Yami asked keeping his distance.
"unless you've been alive for the past eight-hundred years, no,"
"Actually I have, now tell me have I seen you before?" Ryou's eyes widened.
"So that's why you have such sweet blood, funny thing about you full vampires, you always tend to have very good blood," he said changing the subject once more. Yami finally had enough of Ryou's word play; he stepped forward and grabbed him by the neck lifting him easily.
"Just answer my question," he said his lips forming a straight line and his eyelids becoming half lidded,
"All right, all right," Ryou cried kicking at the air.
"Yes, you've seen me they burned me alive a noon when I was only twenty years old, before I had my slight immunity to sunlight, that my boy comes with age," he added grinning slightly, his jaw lacking the capability to do so due to Yami's hand.
"I faintly remember seeing that gods awful hair just as the fire got to my stomach. You know? it hurts like hell when another vampire watches as you hang from a noose or get burned alive," he said glaring at Yami. Yami's face had softened, he slowly sat Ryou down on the floor letting his feet settle before actually letting go. Ryou settled in bending his knees and spreading his toes his tail whipping around frustratedly.
"So what are your names?" he said pushing his head to the side with a hand making his neck crackle.
"I'm Yami, this is Seto, and this is Jou, and the one who just slapped you is Yugi," Yami said staring down at the indeed strange fledgeling.
"Okay, good, Yami, Jou, Seto, Yugi, now leave me alone, and let me sleep, I'm comfortable on the ceiling, so don't you damn well try to shoot me down again," Ryou said turning towards the wall and beginning to climb again; Yami could almost see Seto flinch every time the claws left their marks.
"Wake me when the sun goes down," he said once he'd hit the ceiling and settled in to sleep curling up his tail and muttering some tiny clicks before shutting his eyes.
"He's not very nice," Yugi muttered Yami put an arm around his little koi's shoulder.s
"He's just upset because Seto shot him and changed his voice," Yami told him hugging Yugi to him.
"He sounded a little touchy about seeing you so long ago," Yugi replied,
"I can hear you!" Ryou called from his corner. Yami and Yugi began to walk away when he called again,
"Don't go, I like a little company when I sleep," Ryou said unwrapping himself and crawling along the wall to follow them he sounded much nicer now.
"Why? you seemed like you wanted to be alone a minute ago," Yami said looking up at him as he crawled along following them around the corner.
"Yes, well I normally do have some company while I sleep, my brothers used to stuff me in a bag while I slept and hang me from the church steeple unfortunately that's why my 'parent' didn't like me much they didn't miss me of course when I left I... Oh never mind the fact is I keep something, a dog whatever, with me so I can sleep better," Ryou said crawling back and forth across the ceiling.
"Well we can't just sit here with you all day," Yami replied.
"You don't have to, just give me a pet or something," Ryou said stopping directly over them; Yugi whispered something in Yami's ear smirking as he drew away.
"Do you think it's safe?" Yugi whispered.
"He can't kill him," Yami said looking up at Ryou.
"We have someone for you," Yami called. Ryou's face brightened a bit and he pushed off with his feet flipping over, and he fell, on purpose this time, he landed on his feet his legs bending and his muscles stretching to catch his light body weight.
"Where is he?" Ryou said happy that he was finally going to be able to sleep
"Just follow us we'll lead you right to him," Yami said walking around him with Yugi at his side both grinning at the thought of who they were about to pass the almost bipolar fledgeling off to.
Gruzzee: yay another chapter and a new character
Cazi: and a new lover hopefully
Gruzzee:shut up Cazi, oh well, please R&R and come back for more