One month later while the family was in town Mokuba snuck over to the opening where he found Ryo. He was happy to see him there, practicing with his sword.

"H-Hi Ryo."

"Hmm...Oh hey kiddo."

"W-what are you doing?"

"Well in a couple of weeks I'm going to go to the castle to join my brother Bakura. He's a knight and he's said I can live with him till I can audition. Hopefully I can at least become a guard and work my way to being a knight!"

"What's the d...difference between a k-knight and a guard?"

"Well a knight protects and defends the castle and the people of this land. A guard stays in and around the castle to protect it and the people of the castle. Their primary job is to protect the royal family and the people with in the castle itself."

"That s-sounds c-cool!"

"Yeah actually it is really. So, you want me to teach you a few self-defense moves? I'll even let you hold my sword."

"I-I'd like too, but...but I can't today. I still have to clean out the barn and c-clean the house. I only came to v-visit for a few m-m-minutes."

"You okay you don't look so good? When did you eat last?" Ryo asked squeezing his shoulder.

"I'm f-f-fine." Mokuba said avoiding the last question and wincing when Ryo squeezed his shoulder near recent whip marks.

Ryo sighed. "Look I have a picnic lunch and you know me I always tend to pack more than I plan to eat, so why don't you join me?"

"R-really?"

"Yeah come on." Ryo said and as they started eating Ryo watched Mokuba eat and thought. 'How do they expect this kid to work as much as they expect him too, when they refuse to feed him half the time! Not to mention the third time this week alone I've treated his back for whip marks. I know their going to get infected if I don't wrap them but he won't let me in fear that the family will find out and get even madder. He tells me not to worry that I don't have to treat him but how can I not! If I could, I'd take him with me but Bakura's already allowing me to stay and if I were to show up with some kid he'd freak! We barley get along as it is, the poor kid would just feel like he was in the way. Not to mention Bakura's temper would probably scare the poor kid to death! I wish my parents weren't gallivanting all over the country or I'd ask them to take him in.'

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After they'd finished Ryo packed up the rest of the lunch and his things. He then gave the basket to Mokuba.

"Here kid you take it. You can give it back to me later if you want; no hurry. I've got a couple of more back at the house. I'd help you with your chores too but I promised to meet my brother so we can make arrangements for me to move in with him in a couple of weeks. I'll see ya later."

"I-it's ok, you don't h-have to help me. Bye Ryo."

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The next day at the castle Yami walked out to find Seto saddling his horse.

"Where do you think you're going? Tell me you're not going out and looking for Mokuba again. Seto we go through this every year. If the agents we sent out haven't found anything there's not a lot of chance you will."

"I know what you're saying Yami but it doesn't change the fact that I still want to try. It's just a ride I'll be back in an about two hours."

Yami just sighed.

"I'll be fine, do not worry."

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to; I could read your mind."

"Fine... but do promise you'll be careful, you tend to lose your sense of direction and get lost when you're like this."

"I promise to be super careful big brother I promise you."

"Good I want you to come home safe."

"Stop worrying already, I told you... I'll be fine!" Seto said mounting his horse and riding off.

"I hope so, the last time you were like this you got lost and ended up in the valley of roses. You and your horse came back with cuts and scrapes. But I have a bad feeling I can't shake that this time... it'll be much worse than that." Yami sighed and walked back inside.

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Mokuba had finished his chores for the day. He had gotten up earlier than usual and finished most of the outside work before breakfast and after the family had their breakfast he was thrilled to hear that they were all once again going into town. He reminded himself to ask Ryo if he'd ever been to town and ask what was so thrilling that had the family going there almost every single day of the week. Not that he minded really the longer they were away the more free time he had after he finished his chores.

Ryo had showed up later the day before saying he cut his visit with his brother short so that he could help him out. They worked together to clean the house from top to bottom and then while Mokuba was doing some straightening up and making beds upstairs, Ryo did the laundry for him.

So with all of that out of the way all that Mokuba had to do today was minor cleaning where the family made a mess after that he could eat the breakfast they had left for him. Mokuba finished up and though he still had a little trouble telling time, despite Ryo's trying to teach him he managed well enough to know that he still had an hour till he had to meet Ryo. So, he went to a cave he liked to play in when he had some free time. He liked to collect seashells that he collects from a small beach not too far from his house. He showed Ryo the bracelet he found and Ryo gave him a strap and suggested he should make a belt with the bracelet and seashells.

He kept them in the back of his doll. He had found it when he was taking out the trash a few years ago. It was a little tore and worn out but he didn't care. He kept it on a small opening like shelf in the cave because he knew that the family wouldn't like him playing with a girl's doll. Mokuba didn't care if it was a girls doll or not it was the closet thing he had to a friend before he met Ryo. He also knew he could tell the doll anything and everything he was feeling without fear.

Today he was again working on his belt. He decided upon Ryo's suggestion to add some material, so he had began adding strips of material left over from when he had repair clothes his family tore. He found the bracelet along with a necklace he kept mostly around the dolls neck. He knew if he ever tried to wear the necklace, his oldest sister who was a fashion freak, he was sure if she ever saw it, she'd take it away from him. He found them when he was carrying things and emptied them out on the floor of the cave, the bottom fell out of the bag and the necklace and bracelet fell out.

Mokuba knew there was writing on them he just couldn't read them. He'd been taught to read only a few basic words his stepmother felt he needed to know and everything else was taught to him. He asked Ryo once but he could barely read himself. His parents were scholars and taught Bakura a lot but by the time Ryo was born, they wanted to explore all the places they read about not be tied down to another kid. So, his aunt was left to raise him mostly. She had died a few years back other wise Ryo knew without a doubt she'd have taken Mokuba in, unfortunately he didn't have or know any of his other relatives.

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Seto was traveling along a ridge which wasn't highly traveled. It also happened to be a small ridge not far above Mokuba's cave. As he was riding, he got to thinking, how strange it was that in a town so small how it was that after six years of searching he'd turned up nothing! Not a trace of Mokuba or what his father might have done with him. His royal advisors continually tell him to forget it and move on. But he won't forget it, not till he knows. Then another thought, one that had been there for a while surfaced perhaps his searchers weren't really searching after all. He did notice that once one of the searchers and advisors looked at each other. Then later said advisor and man were talking and shaking hands. Seto began to wonder then, could it be perhaps his advisors were under minding his authority and paying off the searchers not to search. It had to be the only explanation for six years of searching and coming up empty! He too searched but unlike his searchers, he couldn't simply ride up to a house and start asking questions. If anyone recognized him, it would be a serious cause for concern, as the people would start to question whether he was truly competent enough to run the kingdom. The last thing he wanted was more motivation for his advisors to call his rule into question and try to take his kingdom away from him, like they've tried to do in the past. He had met and talked with several children himself on a friendly level enough to get information from them and their parents to know for sure that Mokuba wasn't one of these Children.

A year or so ago he'd been riding when something told him to stop. He did and at first was disappointed when only a woman and her two daughters came out. Then he heard the woman yell for someone named Noah. Seto's heart raced thinking maybe this was it, his father never told them Mokuba's name and this was his new name. Seto had returned the next day over Yami's protest he then waited and was happy when he heard the woman call to Noah to come. But when Seto saw Noah, he was disappointed. If the green hair wasn't enough to tell Seto that this boy wasn't his brother, the resemblance between him and woman were. Seto sighed and left.

However had Seto stuck around a few more minutes he would have seen he woman's two daughters come out and then hear her yell for someone named JJ. He then would have seen a small boy with long black hair come out and be given instructions to make sure the house was spotless before they left.

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Suddenly a shot rang out and Seto tumbled down the side of the mountain through some trees and landed hard on the ground below.

Mokuba hearing an unusual sound goes out and finds Seto lying on the ground. He finds Seto with a wound on the side of his head. Mokuba went back to the cave, got a cloth and wrapped it his head. He looked around but saw no one, however he did see a horse he assumed it was probably the man's. He wasn't sure what he should do. Should he leave him here and hope he'd be okay till he could get Ryo or should he stay here and hope Ryo comes to him. He then shook his head; no odds are Ryo would think he just couldn't meet him. He'd move him but he was sure he going to be too heavy for him to move. He finally decided he'd have to risk leaving him here. He went into the cave and brought out a blanket he'd brought with him and covered the man up.

As he stared at the man, he felt a strange sense of comfort and security with him. He couldn't understand why though. Ryo was about the only person who made him feel that way. His family wouldn't even touch him except to beat him and constantly tell him how much they hate him. He felt no safety or security when he was around them; he never did, except his father who did care for him and sometimes his sister Asana but that's it. He felt fear more than anything from the rest of the family.

He got up and hoped that Ryo was early. He ran as fast as he could till he came to the clearing and to his relief Ryo was already there.

"Ryo!"

"Hey kid...what's wrong you look upset?"

"There's t-there's a m-man he-he's hurt."

"What where show me."

Mokuba quickly grabbed Ryo's hand and took him to the cave where the man was still there.

"Did you cover him?"

"Yeah, I-I wasn't sure what else to do. Hi-his head was bleeding badly an-and I wrapped it. Just-just like you t-taught me."

"You did a very good job kid."

Mokuba was happy when Ryo praised him.

"Now did you see anyone or anything else around?"

"N-no, just a horse."

"Well I'll check the man over for more injuries while you see if you can find that horse, all right?"

Mokuba nodded and ran to find the horse, as Ryo looked Seto over. Besides a few possible bruised or cracked ribs, he couldn't find anything besides the head injury wrong with him. Mokuba returned a few minutes later with the horse.

"N-now what?" Mokuba asked.

"Well I'd take him back to my place but I'm rarely home. There'd be no one there to care for him. I'm often at Master Pegasus' Training camp. It's a great place to train, my brother Bakura told me that a lot of the knights trained there, maybe someday I'll be able to take you there."

"R-really, I'd like that."

"Now what to do with him. I guess put him in the cave and check on him everyday."

"Why? If w-were just going to l-leave him a...alone why can't he s-stay at your place?"

"Well you see my folks are expected back anytime now. And since there are days, I even spend the night at Master Pegasus' after a long day of training if they come home on one of these days and find a strange man in their house there's no telling what they'll do. So the cave is the only place we can put him, we can't take him to your place."

"Why-Why not?"

"Kid what is your family going to say when they see him do you really think their just going to accept him?" Ryo asked. Since both he and Mokuba had agreed they hated the name JJ he'd been given Ryo never called him that. He usually called him kid, kiddo or another nickname.

"Who-who said t-they had to know?"

"How do you plan to keep him a secret?"

"He can l-live with me in the b-basement. N-no one ever comes down. I can t-take care of him Ryo, honest!"

"I don't know kiddo, it could be dangerous. There's no telling what your family would do if they ever found out."

"T-They won't find out, I'll b-be super careful."

"Well I don't like the idea."

"Ryo he'll f-f-freeze to death if-if we l-leave him in the cave. Even w-with the blanket."

"Well you have a point there. The cave does get awfully cold at night. I remember that time your family went away for the weekend and we tried camping out in the cave we couldn't do it cause it was so cold. I guess there's no choice." As Ryo looked over the horse, he thought it strange that it had blue velvet reins; few people in the area could afford such things. His family could but wouldn't. They weren't rich but they were by no means poor. He'd been to the castle a few times but never actually seen anyone in the royal family. Bakura rarely let him out of his room! He did take note that it was the same color material he'd seen on Bakura's horse the other day. But he was certain it wasn't velvet. Perhaps this man lived and worked in the castle. He was dressed nicely but nothing to the point of extremely fancy. He'd see Bakura in a few days he'd ask him to poke around the castle and see if anyone's missing. Then he and the kid could take the man and leave him where a search party could easily find him.

Whenever Seto went riding, he'd dress not in his royal attire but in normal street clothes. Anyone who didn't know him and saw him would only assume he was from the rich part of town.

"Okay kiddo let's get to work on making a stretcher. There's some rope here on this horse we can use it."

They made a stretcher and together placed the man on it. They then started back to Mokuba's place.

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Meanwhile a man with a rife was meeting up with another man.

"Well is the job done?"

"I shot him just like you asked me to."

"So he's dead."

"I assume so or at least he will be."

"What do you mean by that! Look Marik, I'm paying you to take the king out! I'm not paying for guesses!"

"Yeah well you look here Mr. Nezbit, you're not paying me enough to care. I did the job and shot him, that's all I was paid to do. You want conformation you want me to be absolutely certain that he's dead and even finish him off if necessary. Well then, you'll just have to fork over a bit more cash. Then there's also my price for keeping this silent. We wouldn't want to start a wide spread panic by learning the kings either been shot or at least missing now would you?"

The man growled. "You wouldn't dare! That's blackmail! You'd never do it! There'd be to great a risk of your getting caught!"

"Mahwah, caught, you must be joking! I am a professional and as such, I have no criminal record. So why would the royal knights ever suspect me of doing anything to their beloved king? I'm assuming your associates are in on this; you all on the other hand are wide-open targets. You've made your contempt for the king well known since the death of the late Master King. So, if anyone would be suspected of any such atrocities it'd be you and your associates. Me I also have friends all around willing to stand up for me and swear I was with them at the time of the incident in question. Can you say the same?"

The man was furious! He couldn't believe the arrogance of him. But he had a point he's new to the region so few would suspect him of any wrongdoing. He and the others would be the first suspected and if he knew Master Yami like he thins he does, he and his friends would be interrogated till one of them broke down and confessed. He was confident they could all stay strong and not crack but after being thrown in the dungeon, which would surly follow, one of them was bound to crack or break down. So with great contempt he paid the man more and promised to pay even more than that if the job was done right!