Chapter 4:
The three shaper shifter siblings left their horses with the stable staff and walked into their home. The palace was built in the middle of an oasis, and truly felt like paradise to the three after their all night journey.
Marik bid good-day to his brother and sister as they all went to their separate chambers to rest. He didn't go straight to his bed chambers, instead he went to the kitchen. The only staff awake at this hour of the morning was the workers in the kitchen. He still carried the boy, but he was so light Marik barely noticed.
He had some of the servants fill several bowls with food and carry it behind him as he headed up to his room. They sat everything down in his main chamber, the room that connected to his bed room, bathing room, private garden, and dressing room. He sat the boy down on a couch, and went to his bed room.
There on the bed was the real reason Marik had tried to get back so quickly. The king sat down gently on the bed and looked over his most treasured possession.
The boy's body was dark, except for a few light colored scars. His hair was blonde like Marik's, except much tamer. The two looked a lot a like in the face as well, excepting of course the boy's much gentler expression.
His sheets were tangled and stuck to the soft skin from sweat. The boy had obviously had a rough night of nightmares, but Marik knew they stopped as soon as he walked in.
He tried not to wake the boy as he moved hair out of the others face, but the motion woke the other.
Soft lavender eyes fluttered open as he sat up and yawned with a grin. "Hello Marik."
Marik relished in his name coming from the other's mouth. "Hello Malik."
"You look tired."
"So do you. Do you want to talk about them?" Malik usually had the same nightmares, but every once in a while they were premonitions of bad things that had recently happened or were about to happen.
"There were a few. One started out like the ones I always have of my sister dying, except it wasn't my sister, and I was able to leave the house. The town was destroyed like mine was, except there were no soldiers."
Marik nodded, but decided not to explain about the dream just yet.
"The other had you talking to some weird looking people. They kinda scared me, and you seemed really nervous. That was all on that one, but it's the last one I want some answers on." Malik's eyes sparkled. "I had a dream that you bought me a friend!"
Marik laughed. "Sort of, and I haven't decided if it's temporary or not."
"Where is he?"
Marik pointed back to the main room. All tiredness was forgotten.
Marik followed Malik's dash into the room, but went much slower.
Malik was sitting on a couch across from the boy, staring intently.
"He needs a bath."
"You can wake him up."
"He's tired!"
"No, it's sleeping potion. Get the salts from that drawer over there."
The boy woke with a jerk. His amethyst eyes looked from Malik to Marik and back to Malik.
Malik was beaming. "Hello friend, I'm Malik and that's Marik."
"I'm… Yugi."
"He's so shy! How cute!"
Yugi tried to grin, but tears welled up in his eyes. He turned his face away from Malik towards the couch as they started to fall.
Malik gave him a hug, and Yugi began to sob heavily on his shoulder. After what seemed like forever and Malik had started crying too, Marik began to feel the radiating emotions lessen, and the on coming tears he felt vanished.
"sorry" hic "I couldn't" hic "help it." Hic "My family's gone." Hic "Ryou's gone" hic "and those men scared me." Yugi's words were frequently interrupted with hiccups and shuddering breathes as he tried to calm down.
"Your okay now though." Malik comforted. "Come on all you need is some friends, food, and a bath."
Yugi giggled, which caused Malik to coo again and give him another hug.
"Okay Malik, you watch Yugi, show him around and such. I'll get the tailor to come up here and fit him for some clothes. I'll be back for lunch, but I've got to get some business taken care of first." Marik kissed Malik on the cheek, and ruffled Yugi's hair, which caused dust to fly and both boys to giggle.
"This campsite was the hunters, but it is a day old. They are out of the forest by now."
Though he'd already prepared for this news, it still hit him hard. Ryou sat down in front of a tree, buried his head in his arms, and cried till he felt better.
Jou began sobbing as well. Seto was about to get on to them for behaving childishly when he began remembering everything sad that had happened to him in his lifetime.
Tears began to form.
Ryou's sobbing suddenly lessened, causing the others to stop as well.
"Jou you said you can leave the forest right?" Ryou thought rapidly as Jou nodded.
"Well then, would you be willing to help me continue to track these guys until I found Yugi?"
Jou thought for only a split second before vigorously nodding.
"And Seto," Ryou turned his big grin and sparkling eyes to the dragon, " would you be willing to come along and help?"
"I have to." He ground out.
"no, you don't," Ryou sent big eyes and a pout towards Seto, "but it would be appreciated. You have done what I asked of helping us follow the hunters through the woods, but we are now leaving the woods. Your debt is repaid."
Seto thought, tried to resist, but gave in. "Fine I will help you till you have found your friend."
"Yeah!" Ryou leapt into the air. "Let's go guys!"
The trio then began their journey into the perilous looking field of flowers.
"It will be fine. The king always has his people's best interest in mind."
"It could all be a set up. The sorcerers could have made the rumor so we would just think the shape shifters needed our help, but in reality they are just infiltrating our lines."
"Yami calm down. There's no need to be so suspicious when you have no reason to be."
"but Bakura I have a horrible feeling about this."
"You used to say you got a horrible feeling whenever I entered the room."
"Hey! I had a right!" Yami turned his fiery eyes towards the white haired fiend next to him. "You were trying to kill me!"
"But in the end I didn't, and that's all that mattered." Bakura feigned innocence.
"That's just because I'm too dead sexy for you!"
They both laughed.
"One of these days your head is going to get so big, it will just pop."
"Oh yeah? Then what will happen?"
"I'll use it as a trophy over my throne."
Yami laughed again, but it ended quickly. "Hey" his voice dropped to a whisper. "Over there. Look." He indicated subtly towards a caravan of men a few hundred feet away.
Bakura nodded, and the two increased the already present invisibility spells and shields.
The two were investigating an area in which the sorcerers were supposedly mining for minerals in vampire territory. If this were true, the group of men in front of them was probably sneaking the minerals in their innocent looking caravan. Yami and Bakura needed to be careful in order to make this as least troublesome as possible. Sorcerers would notice if they instantly appeared closer because they would sense the magic and anyone would notice the dust flying if the two started running.
The two moved as quickly as they could without stirring up dust towards the back of the caravan. From there they could walk without the group noticing the extra footprints.
Soon they caught up to the last of the wagons, and were able to see inside. Sure enough, it was full of glowing stones that were covered by a thin sheet.
Yami estimated there were about thirty men, and only three were actual sorcerers.
The two shared a quick nod before they dropped the cloaks.
Around them the men began to panic. Some tried to attack, but Bakura put them down while Yami stood behind him building the final spell.
It took him a minute but then the vampire unleashed a wave of energy that killed everyone except himself and Bakura. Even the sorcerers.
"You know that is really effective, but its just not much fun." Bakura kicked a dead body. "I just don't get to use my true talents around you." He sighed sadly.
Yami laughed as they marked the territory with a flag. Now the sorcerers that came to investigate would know exactly what happened, and the Pharaohs servants would know where to pick up the minerals.
Tomorrow the two elites would look into the actual mine, but for now they instantly appeared back into their shared room for celebration.
TBC
Review responses:
First of all thanks to all of you! Those are the nicest bunch I've ever received!
Stands-tall-among-shadows: Thank you and wow :blushes: I am really? Thank you so much!
Slave of Darkness: Did I really not say that? Huh… I usually always put up the pairings, but you are right, I didn't. Well there are a lot of hints throughout the story of random pairings that aren't the final pairings (such as the last line of this chapter and the first scene of the next chapter), but since I didn't mention it I guess it will just have to be a surprise! Is that too mean? I've never done a story where you actually have to guess at the pairings. What do you think it will end up being?
AngelViper9: I'm sorry I confused you, and I think the beginning of this chapter answered your question. Thank you for liking the story anyway, and for reviewing some of my others!
Thank you for reading and please tell me what you think!