Rose Wars
By Ash Kaiba and Katie Mae
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters or Yu-Gi-Oh: Duelists of the Roses video game for PS 2. We do own the original characters: Katharine, Ashlyn, and any other character you don't recognize.
Katie Mae: Welcome to chapter 4! This chapter starts off where Chapter 2 ended, and follows through the end of chapter 3 to add on some new stuff. So, I hope you enjoy! Ash, any thoughts?
Ash Kaiba: I get to say something...Cool! Awesome! Enjoy! Don't forget to review.
Chapter 4: The Milk and The Egg
In the still water of the pond, Katharine saw a fey face: slanted violet eyes, an upturned nose, and a wide mouth shaped in a perfect "o". She looked away from the water and covered her face with her hands for a moment. Slowly, as she calmed down, curiosity got the better of her, and she looked again. This time, she realized she was seeing her own face, distorted by the angle of the water and the light. She recognized her own nose this time, and the mouth looked much more normal. But when she saw the eyes, she screamed again, turned away from the water and ran blindly down the hill, covering her eyes to hide their strangeness from anyone who might see her.
Unfortunately, covering her eyes meant she couldn't see obstacles ahead of her. As she reached the bottom of the hill, she plowed into something hard, sending her flying to the ground. Katharine coughed as the dust rose from the road.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Katharine said apologetically.
"Katharine!" Katharine thought she recognized the voice, but was too afraid to remove her hands to check, in case it was one of the townsfolk.
"I'm sorry!" she wailed. "I should really…"
"Why did you leave the sheep?" Katharine pulled her hands down and looked up to see Seto standing over her. They stared at each other for some time in silence. Then he asked bluntly, "What happened to you?"
"Huh?" Katharine played dumb, hoping he wasn't talking about her fey, unusual eyes.
"Your eyes…they're different. They're purple." Katharine didn't say a word; she didn't want to think about it. "They remind me of lilacs," he added.
This comment made Katharine smile and let out a small laugh. Her brother always knew how to make her feel better. In return, Seto gave her a half-grin. Katharine knew he didn't like to waste words, and that a simple expression could say so much more than mere words, which may not always be truthful.
In response to his question, Katharine said, "I met this mysterious woman at the stones. She gave me some milk…"
"Katharine, you know Mother doesn't like us accepting from strangers," Seto admonished her.
"I know!" She wailed loudly. Seto shushed her, trying to get her to quiet down. Suddenly, she noticed something about Seto that was different. "What about you?"
"What?" Seto asked.
"What about your eyes?"
"They're the same…" he paused as Katharine shook her head. "They…aren't…?"
"They're blue."
Seto shook his head in disbelief. Katharine sighed as she grabbed the front of his tunic. She pulled him by the shirt over to the well and forced him to look down. The water reflected the sunlight and the sky above them. "Look."
"I am. I only see my reflection."
She sighed. "Then look closer!"
Seto leaned closer. Katharine saw his eyes widen as he realized that she was right. "See?" she pointed out. "They're as blue as the summer sky." Both of them looked up to see a bolt of lightning streak across the sky, which was covered by angry gray clouds.
"Look out!" A voice suddenly called. Everyone in the square scattered.
Seto turned to Katharine and pushed her toward the hill. "Get the sheep and return home!"
"It's going to rain?" Katharine asked. That was the only reason why she was ever to bring the sheep home early.
"Yes. I'll check out what's going on.'
Seto ran away from the well and his sister. Rather than going for the sheep, Katharine followed him, watching as he made his way toward a man on the ground. Katharine covered her ears as a loud clap of thunder followed another bolt of lightning. A moment later, Seto jumped on the back of the man's horse, which was neighing loudly and bucking in fright. It had gone wild from the storm.
"Look," a voice pointed out. Katharine recognized it as Tommy's voice. "Look at Seto."
The crowd stopped and watched as Seto reached for the reins, keeping one hand on the saddle. His hand twirled around the long strip of leather and took hold. He slipped his feet into the stirrups, anchoring himself completely in the saddle.
Katharine saw Seto lean his face down to the horse's ear. The stallion slowly calmed, placing its trust in Seto's hands. Seto continued to whisper in its ear as he guided it to its fallen master, a man with shoulder-length platinum blonde hair. Seto jumped off the saddle and approached the man while the horse bumped him with its muzzle. Seto strained to pick the man up onto the horse, but Charlotte's father soon came over to help him.
"Wallace?" Katharine heard Seto ask.
Wallace placed the man on the saddle, positioning him so Seto could ride the horse without losing its burden. "Get him to the Rose and Briar. Hurry!"
Seto leapt back on the saddle and wrapped his left arm around the man's chest. A thunderclap echoed as rain began to fall from the sky, decorating the ground with dark spots. Seto turned the horse toward home, and Wallace slapped the horse's hindquarters. The stallion lunged forward; everyone moved out of the way to avoid being trampled.
Katharine watched her brother ride away, but soon remembered that the sheep were still on the hillside. She ran back to where she'd last seen them; thankfully, they were all together, even the wily lamb that had been trying to run away earlier. She led them all home and got them into the barn without trouble, giving them fresh water from the large container that was fed by a series of troughs and pipes that Seto had rigged up along the roof of the barn. The troughs caught rainwater and poured it through the pipes directly into the barrel, so that a supply was always available without having to leave the barn to go to the well. She also threw some fresh hay into the pen, since the sheep hadn't had a full day of grazing.
When Katharine returned to the house, she saw her mother preparing stew for dinner. "How is the man doing?" Katharine asked her.
"He seems to be all right. He's sleeping now," Mary replied. "I'm not sure why, but your father seems…uneasy about him. It's as if he knows something we don't."
Katharine shrugged her shoulders. She was sure that if anything was wrong, her father would tell them when the time was right.
The Next Morning…
"Seto, hurry up!" Katharine called. "Mother wants us back home soon to help look after our guest." The two teenagers walked down the road that led into the valley, though Seto was more reluctant than Katharine. Katharine stopped and turned toward him with a sigh. "What's your problem? Those berries won't pick themselves, you know."
"I…I don't feel comfortable here…" Seto replied.
Katharine looked around and saw nothing but an empty cave. Suddenly, she realized that they were near the spot where Seto had been found the other night. "Oh…well then, come on, let's go this way!" She turned away from the cave, but a sparkle of light caught her eye and drew her back toward the cave's mouth. She walked over, ignoring her brother's cries to stop.
"Wow…" she whispered as she examined the ground. There, littered across the rocks at the mouth of the cave, were bits and pieces of a silvery material that shined and sparkled in the early light. They were thin and jagged, and some of them seemed to fit together like they had once been part of some larger rock. "Seto, come look at this! Isn't it pretty?"
Seto cautiously approached, keeping a sharp lookout for any danger. He glanced down at the silvery shards and nodded absently. "Yeah, they're great."
Katharine gathered up some of the largest ones and placed them in her basket, gently tucking each one into the folds of her handkerchief.
While she was busy, Seto walked a bit closer to the cave's mouth, his eyes drawn to a particularly smooth rock. Like the shards on the ground, it shone silver and sparkled merrily in the dawn sunbeams. He picked it up carefully, as if it were something expensive. It felt fragile and precious in his hands.
"What do you have there?" Katharine asked from behind him. Seto turned around suddenly, moving the rock behind his back as he did so to keep it hidden from her view.
"It's nothing, don't worry."
"If you have to hide it, it's not 'nothing'!" Katharine tried reaching around him to get it, but he held it out of her reach. "Let me see!"
"No!" Seto replied. Katharine managed to get one hand on it, and tried to pull it away. "Let go of it!"
Katharine pulled harder, finally managing to yank the rock out of Seto's hand. It was roughly six or seven inches in diameter, and seemed to be made of the same kind of silvery-white material as the shards in her basket. It was cool and smooth, and felt frictionless in her hands. "Amazing… All right, here you go."
As she handed it back to Seto, it slipped from her fingers, falling to the ground. Seto tried to catch it, but didn't reach it in time; it hit the ground with a loud crack! Katharine gasped and winced, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry, Seto…"
Seto didn't reply, so Katharine opened her eyes to see him kneeling on the ground and picking up the unscathed rock. Beneath it, the rock it had landed on was broken cleanly in two, despite the fact that it was much thicker and heavier than the rock in Seto's hand. Seto's eyes rose to meet Katharine's. "What just happened?"
"That little rock just broke the bigger rock…" Katharine said softly.
Seto stood and placed the rock in Katharine's basket. "I want to hang on to this…just in case."
Katharine looked at her brother strangely, but didn't say a word as they left the cave and walked toward the wild berry bushes.
Katie Mae: All right, that wraps up chapter 4! Stay tuned for chapter 5!