Chapter 5:
Yugi took a deep breathe, and sprinted from the behind the curtain to the pool.
Malik burst into laughter. "Calm down Yugi. It's not like I've never seen a naked person before."
Yugi turned bright red amid the bubbles. "Yeah but I'm not one to openly display, unlike someone I've just met."
Malik laughed again as he spun in a circle. He was completely nude.
Yugi had been blushing even harder when Malik told him it was bath time as he stripped his own clothes off. When the blonde saw how embarrassed the other became, he chased him around the rooms laughing with glee. Yugi could now handle Malik dancing in a circle naked.
The warm water felt good to Yugi as he dunked his hair and splashed in the bubbles.
"Yugi, catch!" Malik tossed him a few sponges that scattered and splashed all around.
Yugi giggled as the bubbles flew up around him. "Malik are you even going to bathe?"
"Of course! Watch this!" Malik back up from the edge of the pool a few feet, and then sprinted and leapt in the deeper end.
Water flew all over the room, and Yugi clapped and giggled.
Malik didn't surface right away, and Yugi couldn't see under water because of the bubbles coating the surface.
Suddenly Yugi screamed as Malik grabbed his ankles and pulled him under. He thrashed back to the surface to find the blonde laughing again.
"Meanie!" Yugi splashed him.
Malik swam back out to the deeper end. "Come on out here!"
"Malik, I can barely reach on this end."
"So swim!"
"I don't know how!"
The blonde froze. "You don't know how to swim?"
"This is the biggest amount of water I've ever been in."
"This is awesome!"
"What?"
"Now I get to teach you!"
"Achoo!" Ryou sniffled a bit. He was apparently allergic to something in the field. It might be the ragweed, then again it was more likely the non-stop bickering.
"is not!" Jou pushed Seto.
"is too!" Seto regained his composer and pushed back.
"Would you two stop? I swear you could pick a fight over the color of the sky." Ryou sighed. All of them were lost, and all they could do was argue. "What if Seto flew up and looked for a town or something?"
"Why'd you ask him?" Jou began seething. "I can fly too."
"because I know what a town looks like."
Jou took a swat towards the dragon, but he had already sprouted wings and was flying up.
The fairy grumbled till the dragon landed again.
"There is a town that way." He pointed. "But it looks like a long walk. Why don't we just fly? One of us can carry you Ryou."
Ryou thought his legs could use a break so he nodded.
Once up in the air Ryou knew he should have reconsidered. Seto was holding him around his waist. Ryou had learned he was afraid of heights and easily got airsick. Seto was in a demi-dragon form currently meaning he had wings, a tail, and armor, but still looked mostly human. Jou was glaring in their general direction.
Ryou couldn't have been happier when they landed a little bit outside the town. He felt better with his feet on the ground than dangling miles up in the air.
"Why don't we split up and see if we can find out something?" Seto suggested.
Ryou and Jou shrugged.
Once the other two had left Ryou again realized he'd agreed to a bad idea. He didn't know anything about where he was. What if he was caught just like Yugi?
Ryou quickly looked around and noticed it was too late to catch up to either of them. He paused a second to clear his mind. He didn't need the other two so much, he could stand up for himself. He puffed his chest out a little. He was the one to rescue Yugi, not everyone else.
Suddenly a townsperson bumped into Ryou, and he jumped in fright.
"Watch were ya going." They sneered.
Ryou sighed sadly and blended into the crowd to try to overhear any useful information.
Yami let out a frustrated sigh. The sorcerers moved quicker than he thought. They had already cleared out the mine before Bakura and him arrived there the day after the caravan attack.
They had already returned to the palace, and Bakura immediately left to go converse with his generals.
Yami sighed again as he realized he probably wouldn't even see Bakura again till it after the sun had set.
In about an hour he had a meeting with the ambassadors and spies that worked for him.
Since he felt like there was nothing better to do, he waiting in the meeting room.
In the center of the stone walled room was a table covered with a map of the land. His territory, the Dark Forest (called so because it was dark all the time) bordered the eastern most region of the map. Going west divided the map roughly in half between mountains and the Green Forest (called so because the seasons didn't affect the color of the trees). The mountains were inhabited by the sorcerers and harpies while the Green Forest had fairies, and a one point, Hikari's. In the middle of the map was a giant freshwater lake filled with mer-people and surrounded by humans. Humans were either magical beings that had given up their magic or they were born without it. On the western most half of the map was the Great Desert. Shapeshifter communities were spotted throughout but were mainly focused around oasis's. The biggest was where the palace was situated. Dragon communities were found in the mountains, desert tunnels, and randomly throughout the Green Forest. They were rare, however, since Dragons preferred to live alone.
Yami was jerked out of his musings as the door opened.
Blue eyes filled with warmth as they settled on Yami's form.
"Good afternoon Anzu" Yami spoke cordially.
Her slender frame bowed. "Greetings Pharaoh."
Yami could see her wings were still shrinking from the flight here. Suddenly her claws extended as she looked towards a shadowed corner.
A small black cat with startling green eyes slinked out of the shadows and gently jumped up on Yami's lap. "It is alright Anzu." The vampire coaxed.
The harpy nodded sharply and quickly eased into her completely human looking form.
Anzu looked on warily while the cat purred as Yami scratched it behind the ears.
Soon clunky footsteps were heard coming down the hall followed by a crash as the vase outside the door was bumped into.
"Sorry about the vase Pharaoh." The man said as he quickly bowed and found a seat.
"It's okay." Yami sighed. He'd forgotten how clumsy mer people could be when they were on land.
Mako nodded and started scratching his scaly skin.
"I'll call a servant to bring you some water to keep you hydrated."
"Don't bother my king." A small form entered the room with a tray. She bowed, keeping the pitcher of water on the tray balanced.
"Thank you Rebecca. Please have a seat, and since we are all here, we can get started."
"But Pharaoh," The merman spoke. "Duke is not here."
He had barely said the said when the man appeared sitting on Yami. The green eyed man smirked as he took a seat in his own chair.
"What are you talking about? I was here before you."
TBC
2 things: Sorry for any grammar mistakes, and sorry for the choppiness of this chapter. I am really sorry about the map thing. I just felt I had to say it somehow.
Note to Readers: Vampires aren't like the ones in the movies where the sun hurts them and they have to have blood to survive. In this story they are basically just creatures of the dark. They fight best at night for the most part, but strong ones such as Yami and Bakura don't even notice what time of day it is. They drain blood to gain power, not to eat.
Note to everyone who was actually waiting on this chapter: I'm really sorry. This is yet another incidence where I forgot to post the chapter. Expect a long delay on the next chapter because I really don't have a lot of free time. Thank you for reading and please review.