Twill: Howdy! The writing bug has struck again and this was the lucky story to be updated. I'm having loads of fun with this story and the original content it has. I hope you readers are, too -grins-

Disclaimer: I'm not fortunate enough to be onscenely wealthy. Therefore, I can't afford something as pricey as Yu-Gi-Oh!

ooo

Picnic

ooo

Yami held ack his tongue until they had reached his room at a local inn. As he gathered his equipment, carefully storing everything he'd need in pouches or pockets sewn onto his quiver of arrows, he finally broke the question.

"What exactly did you do back there?"

Seto regarded him with cool eyes as Jou grinned at Yami over his shoulder. "You've got to be kidding me."

With a hearty chuckle, Jou waltzed over to the confused archer, slinging a tan arm around his shoulders. "Oh come on, Seto. Loads of people have heard of you, but they don't know precisely what you do." He grinned mischievously. "Like me. If I had know what you could do, I would've hid in my tree the entire time."

Seto rolled his eyes humorlessly. "I would've thought you happy with how things turned out, Jou."

Yami glanced between the two, certainly not understanding their banter. Jou picked up on this immediately and smiled wickedly. "I suppose, since you're going to be working with us, you ought to know a few things."

"Jou..." Seto's voice was weary. He knew where the energetic blonde was headed, and wasn't so sure he wanted to follow along.

Sashaying over to the tall brunette, Jou proceeded to explain. "Seto here is quite amazing. You see, he's a Spirit Cleric." Catching Yami about to sigh in exasperation, Jou brought up a hand. "Oh, I know you know that already. I'm getting to the good stuff.

"A Spirit Cleric is someone with one foot in this world, and one in the land of the dead. They can see dead souls, converse with them, and summon ethereal beings to do his bidding. A particularly powerful one can even cross souls over to revive the dead or enchant corpses to make handy puppets." Yami's eyes went wide. "What you saw back at the bar was Seto summoning a spirit to teach those guys a lesson for touching little ol' me."

Seto averted his eyes, now certain of what was to come next. Yami, true to the story Jou had told, opened his mouth to make a comment. "That seems a bit much just for a thrown bar stool."

Smirking, Jou reached over to turn Seto's face. "Well, not when you're in love." He leaned up and kissed the brunette firmly.

For a moment, Seto didn't seem to know where he was. One arm snaked up to grab Jou's waist to hold him there. Then his mind kicked in and he turn abruptly. "Alright, we're going now," he said gruffly, stomping from the small room.

Recovering from the surprise, it was Yami's turn to grin. "Kind of shy for such a stern guy, isn't he?"

Jou laughed. "You said it."

--

Outside the inn, Seto stood ready with two horses. Yami and Jou followed in good humor, chuckling with each other, as the cleric stiffly started toward the outskirts of town. Idly, Yami wondered how the horse arrangements were going to work with three people and two steeds. He supposed that Jou would ride with Seto.

"Here." A set of reigns was tossed toward him, the brown mare turning her head toward Yami. Seto mounted his own horse, a beige stallion, and waited. Jou stood waiting.

Yami mounted, watching the pair. Their relationship was beginning to annoy him with how much he didn't know. Seto urged his horse into a trot and Yami struggled to turn his mare in the right direction.

Beside him, and still on the ground, Jou winked. "I'll see you two when we stop to eat." He disappeared into the bushes along side the rode and Yami hurried to catch up to Seto.

"It would be helpful if I knew more about the situation." And you two, Yami added silently to himself.

As if hearing the unasked question instead of the one actually posed, Seto slowed his horse until he was even with Yami. He pointed up into the trees on either side of them. "Jou's traveling less conventionally, scouting ahead and keeping an eye on us. He'll double back if you get into trouble."

"Me? What about you?"

"I don't get into trouble." Yami scoffed, thinking of what had happened at the bar. "And since you're wondering, Jou's not human. He's a sprite." Seto kept his eyes on the road, obviously not caring that he'd just revealed something so personal. "I trust you know about them."

Yami nodded, now trying to catch a glimpse of the blonde up in foliage of the trees. "Beings that adapt themselves to their environments, and can wield some mastery of the elements therein." He paused. "How far has Jou gone?" He was referring to exposure to the various elements, letting a sprite become familiar with handling them.

Seto turned to him with a bored expression. "We've traveled quite a bit."

"That doesn't really mean anything."

Seto considered briefly, deciding that since Jou had gone far enough to reveal some things about the cleric, that he could safely explain a few things about the blonde. "Air, earth, water, and some light." A note of pride crept into his voice as he spoke.

Yami was surprised. "I didn't think light was possible, since there's no way to be saturated by it."

"It wasn't intentional." The answer was short, bringing up memories that Seto wasn't prepared to deal with.

"And what about fire?" Yami was interested in his main element, being a master over flame himself. If Jou, as a sprite, had some control over it, then they could possibly work together in the future. At least, within the bounds of my oath of secrecy.

"Jou hasn't touched fire since I met him and won't go near it unless it's contained."

"Any idea why?"

"He's never said anything."

There was a rustle in the trees up ahead and Seto drew his mount to a stop. Yami pulled up beside him, shifting a hand to his bow. A moment of silence passed. Jou seemed to melt from the brush on the left right side of Yami. His mount simply blinked at the blonde before lowering her head to nibble at a few weeds.

Fixing his hair which had become rather tussled, Jou indicated the path ahead, which was obscured by a bend. "There's a dead body up in the woods a few yards off the road. And a good spot to stop for lunch."

Now that he knew the truth about Jou, Yami wondered what the blonde really looked like. "A dead body? That's not uncommon."

Jou nodded as he tied the leads of both horses to the branch of a maple tree. He waited for them to dismount before continuing, leading them to the spot. "Yeah, but what the body's of and how it's killed... That's what's interesting."

He pushed away a final frond and pointed to what looked like a small heap of lumpy metal. Yami approached slowly as Seto remained where he was, eyes slowly sliding out of focus.

The lumpy metal turned out to be a crudely shaped breastplate, worn and weathered from both hard use and bad material starting to corrode. Poking out from beneath it were a pair of spindly arms and legs, thin, wiry and smaller than that of any human. The creature's head was stuck under the metal's weight, positioned oddly from its neck.

"Broken neck, but no sign of any other wounds." Yami carefully detached the breastplate from its fastenings and placed it aside. His hunter's instincts kicked in and he scanned the area. Several branches of a number of bushes were snapped and trampled, along with the leaf litter underfoot. "There was some kind of struggle, though."

Jou appeared next to him, frowning down at the small dead form. "Do you know what that thing is?" Yami shook his head, having never seen one in the Autumn Forest. "A gremlin. Nasty little things will do anything to get their hands on something shiny." His frown deepened. "They don't usually venture this far south, though."

Behind them, Seto stirred, shaking frost from his hair. "She was hunting the same thing we are, but it got to her first." He turned and started threading his way back toward their horses. "Let's see this perfect lunch spot."

Jou brightened. "Food, yes!" He quickly followed after the cleric.

Yami waited until they were out of sight, still examining the body. He had yet to be told what exactly they were after, but gathered from the clean kill that it wasn't something to take lightly. He reached into an orange pouch on his yellow belt and sprinkled some black dust over the gremlin. A few murmured words and minutes later, nothing was left but a lump of ashes and a charred bumpy piece of armor. Yami straightened and walked after his two new companions.

--

Jou passed Yami a hunk of bread and some salted beef as he sat down. He had found a nice shady alcove just off the main road, proudly pointing out the fact that there was no better spot for lunch than right there to Seto, who had only grunted.

"So, say some last rites to our dead little friend?"

Yami finished swallowing and shook his head. "No, I burned the body."

Unintentionally, Jou cringed slightly. Seto looked up from his own meal and leveled a warning glare at the archer. "Burned it, huh?" Jou plastered on his usual smile and willed himself to relax. "Why?"

Setting aside his food, Yami straightened out his red tunic. "Have either of you heard of the Fire Child Guild?" When he was met with blank stares, he continued. "Snow Star Guild? Pond Leaf?"

"Oh, that one I have. There was an outpost..." Jous smiled sheepishly at the stare he got from Seto. "What, there was."

"Anyway... these guilds pay homage to nature. Some pay specific attention to elements, others are more for territory or balance. Either way, they're for higher learning and skills." He rifled through a pocket and pulled out a small brass pin of flame. "I used to belong to the Fire Child Guild in Autumn Forest. We believed in burning the dead to prevent the bodies from returning to life as puppets of those intending evil."

Seto scoffed quietly and Jou eyed Yami. He wasn't thrilled at hearing that their hired help was a practitioner of fire, but couldn't do much about it now. "That explains the clothes," he said, indicating the orange, red, and yellow color scheme that Yami was dressed in, head to foot.

Seto studied the pin that the archer was turning over in his hands. "You said used to."

"I was expelled for leading something using a dead body as a host back to our camp. It destroyed everything." Yami tucked the brass flame away again. "I still follow the rules, and I can still mold fire. But I'm sworn to never teach or show anyone those skills."

"So you're useless hired help." Seto wrapped up the uneaten food and tossed the packages to Jou, who began to store them in the horses' saddle bags. "It figures."

Yami stood. "Those tokens I showed you, didn't come from any special knowledge. I earned those with my bow and quiver full of arrows."

"Good." Seto swung up on his horse. "Because I didn't hire you to work magic."

Jou patted Yami on the shoulder in reassurance. "Believe me, we had quite a few mages and sorceress' apply. You're the one who fit Seto's high expectations."

Mounting his horse, the archer shook his head. He figured he'd never understand the pair. "So when are you going to tell me what we're after?" He nudged his horse to catch up with Seto, as Jou leapt up into the trees above.

ooo

Twill: There you have it. The Yami, Seto, Jou trio are moving a little more slowly than the other two groups, but this chapter gives you some more info. I'm sure everyone can guess what they're hunting, ne? And I hope that all the explanations made sense! They did to me, but I'm the author so they should. Anyway, next chapter should be Marik and Ryou unless something drives me to another group. Review and tell me what you think and would like to see next! Remember, there are many characters left to make appearances, in one fashion or another -winks-