Chapter 3
The sun had risen to start the new day. After travelling all night through the city and avoiding a couple of more monsters along the way, the gang finally found themselves at the river. They stood on the embankment and looked both up and down the river to find that all of the bridges crossing it had been destroyed.
"How the heck are we supposed to cross now?" Joey asked as he slumped down to the ground. Like the others he was tired and took the chance to rest while he could.
Yami stared across the water to the other side, and felt like he had just drawn his friends to a dead end and tired them out in the process. He noticed Yugi appear by his side. "I guess we had better turn around and go back the way we came to exit the city from the other side." he told him quietly.
"No." Yugi said and shook his head. "It would take too long and we don't have the time or energy to spare. I've had time to think about this whole thing and decided that we are going in the right direction after all."
"How can you be so sure?" Yami asked as he stared at Yugi who remained silent. "You just know, don't you?"
Yugi nodded. "And we have to move now before ……" He stopped mid sentence and shivered. "We just have to carry on."
"Maybe we should rest and figure out how to cross the river later." Tea suggested.
"Don't be stupid." Kaiba told her. "If we dawdle any longer we won't have a chance of leaving this place."
"What makes you say that?" Yami asked curiously.
"Do you really think that Pegasus would let us get away with defying him? He's bound to have sent a patrol after us already." Kaiba explained. "I know I would if I were him. Plus there's the fact that we're now out in the open and an easy target for any nearby monsters to attack."
"Pardon me, but I think I have an idea." Bakura interrupted the conversation. All eyes fell upon him as he explained his plan. "If we could find enough wooden debris, we could make a raft and sail across the river."
"Building a raft will take too long." Kaiba snapped.
"Not if we all work together." Yami told him. "And at the moment it's the best plan that we have, unless you can think of anything better." But he didn't receive an answer from Kaiba.
"When you say debris, does it include that bench over there?" Tristan asked as he sat beside Joey on the ground and pointed to a little way up the side of the river.
"Well that bench is still fixed up, so I don't really see how we could use it." Bakura replied.
"Leave it to us." Tristan grabbed Joey who moaned as he was pulled back up on to his feet. Together they approached the bench and started to pull it apart.
"How will you fix it together?" Mokuba asked. "We don't have any rope or cable to tie the boards up."
Bakura thought for a moment. "We could use belts instead to do the job." He removed his own and then Yami and Yugi removed all of theirs, Tea did the same.
Mokuba stared up at his big brother, which made Kaiba roll his eyes before he removed the straps from around his arms and legs. He threw them towards Bakura. "There, don't say that I never help out." he turned and began to walk away back up the embankment and out of sight.
"I think that's as much help that you're going to get out of Seto for this." Mokuba sighed as Joey and Tristan returned carrying armfuls of wooden planks that had once been the bench.
Together Bakura, Mokuba and Tea started to build the raft as they fixed the planks tightly together, Joey and Tristan continued to search for more benches to dismantle, and Yami had hold of Yugi who had begun to shake.
Kaiba came back down the embankment at a fast pace. "Forget the raft." he said urgently. "We're going to swim across instead."
"What!" exclaimed Tea. "I'm not getting wet."
Kaiba ignored her, and not wanting to cause panic amongst the others he mouthed the letters; F, G, D, to Yami whose eyes widened in fear of being told about the monster that Kaiba had spotted approaching them.
"We have no time to argue." Yami sternly told his friends. He looked across the wide river and wondered just how long it would take them to swim the distance and if they all would be able to reach the other side as there were clearly exhausted. "We can't wait for the raft to be finished, we have to swim."
"What's that about swimming?" Joey asked dropping more planks to the ground.
"You're going to get into the water and swim the width of the river." Kaiba told him simply.
"Says who!" Joey shouted, not liking the tone of voice that he had been spoken to with.
"I do!" snapped Kaiba as he grew impatient.
"I can't swim." Yugi butted in the argument still shaking.
"That's not my problem." Kaiba told him. "You'll just have to do the best you can."
"That's not good enough!" Yami too became annoyed with Kaiba. "We're all in this together, and will all get out of it together!"
There was silence as the two of them stared at each other before Mokuba spoke. "I can't swim either." he said quietly not looking at anything but the belt he held in his hand.
"What!" Kaiba was surprised to hear his little brother's revelation. He wasn't about to leave him behind and would pull him along through the water as he swam to get him across to the other side if that was what he had to do.
"Don't worry." Bakura said as he lifted the few bits of wood that they had managed to bind together. "It's not very big, but it should be able to take both Yugi and Mokuba's weight. The rest of us can take turns pushing it through the water. Plus it will double as a float if any of us becomes too exhausted."
"What would we do without you?" Yami smiled as they placed the small raft onto the water's surface and helped the two smallest boys climb on board.
"I don't think that this is such a good idea." Joey said as they all stepped into the river.
"No one asked you to think." Kaiba said as the water now came up to his chest.
"Come 'ere an' say that!" Joey shouted back as he waded through the shallow water before finding the point where the river bed dipped sharply and felt the water rise rapidly up to his chest.
"This is no time to argue you two!" Yami told them as he held onto the raft. Kaiba didn't say a word but he heard Joey mumble about how he; hadn't started it. "Please Joey, don't make a fuss, and just swim to the other side, there's a Mythic Dragon heading this way."
Joey's face became full of fear at hearing this, as did the others'. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place!" he said as he swam quickly to join his friend to help push the raft.
"What's a Mythic Dragon?" Tea asked nervously as she bobbed up and down as she swam.
"Just keep facing forward and focus on reaching the embankment at the other side." Yami told her and was beginning to have doubts about whether or not crossing the river was the right thing to do after all. He looked up at Yugi and Mokuba as they sat on the raft and helped to paddle with their hands. Yugi still needed his help and he would do whatever it took to make sure that he and his friends made it to safety. This thought made the doubts disappear from his mind.
Pushing the raft had made swimming easier and faster for Yami, Joey and Bakura who were now over half way there. Tristan wasn't too far behind them, closely followed by Kaiba, and then Tea as she paced herself so that she didn't become too exhausted too quickly.
A loud roaring sound could be heard behind them. Yugi looked back in horror and saw the huge form of the Mythic Dragon take flight into the sky and begin to head towards them. "We're not going to make it!" he cried as he began to shake again.
"We will." Yami told him before looking back behind himself to see the others still quite far behind them, and that Tea had started to panic and was now having difficulty staying above water as she flailed about.
"Keep going, I'll get her!" Tristan shouted as he turned back to go and help Tea.
Yami continued to swim with the raft as did Bakura, but Joey let go to also go back and help his friends. "No, stay here." Yami told him, but it was too late as Joey had sped away.
As she continued to panic, Tea found it harder to keep her head above the water and had swallowed a lot of it which was also making it difficult for her to breath. She went under again but this time she was pulled back to the surface by a helping hand. Coughing, spluttering and gasping for air she saw that it was Kaiba who had hold of her.
"Calm down or you're going to drag me under too." he told her and looked to see just how far off the dragon was. The sight which met him wasn't good as it was now swooping down towards them after being alerted by Tea's flailing. "Hold your breath." he order and then dived down taking her with him to avoid the dragon's outstretched claws.
Under the surface of the river they both felt the current of the water as the claws skimmed through above them. Unable to hold their breath for much longer, they had no choice but to return to the surface and back into the dragon's view.
"We're going to dive under again, so make sure that you take the biggest breath that you can." Kaiba explained calmly as he too struggled to breath. He saw the dragon come back round for another attempt to get them. "Now!" he ordered, and they both took a deep breath and disappeared under the surface again.
This time however, the current that they felt from the dragon's attack didn't come from above them but from in front of them instead. After it's previous failed attempt of grabbing them with it's claws, the dragon had tried a different approach of capturing it's prey and shot a beam from one of it's five mouths which ran deep below the water's surface.
As the beam came closer to them, Tea felt herself being pushed away from her rescuer before she saw the light run through between them. She was pushed even further back through the water and headed up for air once more.
Now that she was back on her own she began to panic again but it was short lived as she felt an arm wrap around her upper body as a voice told her. "Don't worry, I've got you." and pulled her through the water towards the river bank where she had been heading.
"Tristan!" Tea exclaimed in surprise. "What about Kaiba?" she looked to see the dragon circle in the sky above the area she had been just a moment ago.
"I'll go back for him too." Tristan told her, although he wasn't sure if there'd still be a Kaiba to go back for. "Let me get you to safety first."
"So Rich-boy's still out there?" Joey asked but knowing the answer as he appeared beside his two friends. He saw the dragon dive down towards the river. "He's gonna own me big-time for this." he said as he swam off in that direction.
Kaiba had taken most of the force from the dragon's beam as he had failed to clear from it's path in time, and bobbed up and down on the river's surface in pain. Looked around for the monster he finally saw it as it dived towards him. He didn't have the strength and energy needed to try and avoid the huge beast, and just stared up at it as he waited for it to take him. He didn't care if his life was about to end as he knew that Mokuba would be okay with Yugi and the others, but hoped that his brother would forgive him for what was about to happen., and for the first time in years, Kaiba felt himself gripped by fear as he closed his eyes and waited for the approaching dragon to tear him to shreds.
But as he waited listening to the five heads of the Mythic Dragon roar as they came closer he heard another sound. A sound which he recognized after hearing it many times before since the monster it belonged to had once been part of his deck. He opened his eyes to see the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon intercept the other dragon's attack. As he stared in awe at the two dragons fighting in the sky, he felt himself slowly slip under the water's surface.
"I told you that I didn't think that this was such a good idea." Kaiba heard Joey tell him after he had been pulled back up to the surface by his coat's huge collar. "But do you ever listen to me, no."
"Stop complaining, Wheeler." Kaiba managed to say, and tried once more to swim for himself.
"You Ingrate!" Joey laughed. "I'm saving your life and you're still being a jerk."
"And you're still complaining, you mutt." Kaiba said now swimming on his own beside Joey.
The two of them didn't say another word to each other as they continued to swim side by side until they reached the river bank where Joey reminded Kaiba that he; owed him one, as he climbed up the embankment to meet his friends leaving Kaiba standing in the shallow water.
Kaiba turned to see the two dragons still fighting one another. Had the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon appeared to save him or was it just coincidence? He wasn't sure but either way he was grateful that it had appeared.
"Seto are you okay?" Mokuba asked as he carefully made his way down to his brother are hugged him.
"I'm okay." Kaiba winced as his brother squeezed him tightly. He still felt a little weak from the blast that he had taken but a lot better than what he had back in the river before Joey had reached him.
"I think that its time we moved on." Yami spoke and began to lead the way as Kaiba took one last look at his beautiful dragon before he and Mokuba followed on behind everyone else.