Chapters 1-10 Summary: So far...Seto Kaiba has been mysteriously transformed into a horse and adopted by Rae Gilliland, a former show rider and a novice duelist. He was sent to a Rescue Center for wild horses in Reno, Nevada, (also called the Sanctuary) and given the name Zanzibar. While there, Seto runs into Ishizu who also became a horse, and now is owned by Jeffery one of Dr. Victoria Kyjoui's assistant trainers. Meanwhile, Rebekka Hawkins, Rae's cousin, has invited Yugi, Joey, and the others to the Gilliland's new show horse ranch.

(Sorry if I have misspelled "Nevada" at anytime during this fic, I will try to prevent more mistakes)

Seto was shoved back in his stall again. That vet figured he'd better stay in there one more day before he was allowed back in with Goku and Darigan. He was surprised that ugly nag had survived. It proved only one thing: the mind over-powered the body. That's how it always had been. In Seto's case, both his mind and body were powerful weapons, that's why he was so superior to those lazy dogs Wheeler and Tristan Taylor. Just their names disgusted him. He stamped his foot and a soft nicker startled him. He turned around, he had completely forgotten Ishizu was there.

The little mare had her ears pricked to the side and her big, brown doe eyes were full of concern. What's your problem? She asked. Seto merely snorted and turned away from her. What's wrong? Miss your girl friend?

Seto squealed in rage. He could not believe she would say that. He walked up to her, ears back and his teeth bared threateningly. I wouldn't like that girl if my life depended on it! She betrayed me, she wrecked my life. But I guess it doesn't bother you, Miss Ishtar, after all, it doesn't matter to you if my life is ruined!

Your a typical teenager Young Kaiba. she said with her soft browneyes. Seto shook his head in confusion. He was supposed to be acting like a man! Was she saying he was immature? The nerve of her! All you care about is yourself and that kind of attitude is very childish. You think you can solve your own challenges on your own, but you can't! Seto contiued to glare at her, he pawed the ground. Grow up, Seto Kaiba! Grow up for a change!

Seto sighed and turned away from her. He didn't need to worry about what she said. She was a woman how did she know? Even if she were older than him, she still didn't know what she was talking about. But her words did sort of lay a shock on him and begin to sink in. Was it true? Was it true that he was acting like a silly little boy? No, no. She was just jealous, jealous like all the others were. Jealous of his supiriority. She couldn't be right...could she...?

The Gilliland House the following day...

"Hey, Yugi, could you get my deck out of my backpack?" asked Joey. The gang had made it to the Gilliland house and Joey and Yugi were busy unpacking their belongings.

"Here," Yugi said handing his friend the deck box that held Joey's cards. "Why did you bring them, I'm not going to be able to duel you."

"Of course you are!"

"Huh?"

"Check the bag." Joey said. Yugi dug in the bag and sure enough his own deck was there.

"JOEY, YOU RETARD! WHY DID YOU BRING MY CARDS?" demanded Yugi angrily.

"What's wrong Yugi? I thought I was doing you a favor! Now we can still duel if we get bored." said Joey smiling.

"But Joey, I promised 'the other me' I wouldn't play anymore games this summer. Can't we give Duel Monsters a rest?" asked Yugi. He placed his deck back in Joey's bag. Joey couldn't believe what he just heard. Yugi wanted to quit duel monsters. He had never known Yugi to do something like that! He was speechless for a moment.

"Okay...suit yourself...I'll find something else to do." said Joey shrugging and walking outside. Tea and Rebekka were outside near the barn talking to a girl. At first Joey was going to interrupt and bribe them into playing duel monsters until he saw the girl. She was very cute and looked almost like Mokuba except she was little taller and her hair was brown and was neater (unlike Mokuba's unruly black hair). She was kinda cute...

He was about to introduce himself when Tea said. "Oh, Rae, have you met Joey Wheeler yet?" Rae looked closely at him.

"Oh! I remember you..." she said.

Joey smiled trimphantly. She probably remembered his victory at Duelist Kingdom or Battle City or...

"You were the kid in the doggy suit on one of Duke's Dungeon Dice Monsters commercials!" Rae said. "I knew you had the same blonde bangs." Joey staggered backwards. So much for the show-offy greeting. Rebekka sniggered.

"Uh...anyway...do you like...erm...Duel Monsters?" Joey asked, he grinned, letting the embarrasing moment slide by.

"Yep, I used to duel in the Kentucky Junior Leagues, I'm turning 15 in September and then I'll be able to duel in the big leagues...heh." Rae said. "But, I'm not as good as dueling as I am at horseback riding, wanna check out our horses?"

"Uh...sure...," Joey said and he and Rebekka followed Rae to the enormous barn. Tea stayed behind pretending to be interested in something on the white fence.

"Hey, Tea aren't you coming?" asked Rebekka.

"That's okay, I have too...um...finish unpacking...yeah...finish unpacking and I'll catch up with you guys later!" Tea walking off quickly towards the house.

What's her problem? Rae wandered and she led the two others into the stable. What? Is she afraid of horses...that big chicken.

"So, erm, these are the stables, duh. We keep Saddlebreds and Saddlebred crosses. This is Rex, he's mine." Rae reached over and patted Rex's chestnut neck. The gelding whinnied shrilly, greeting the new-comers, with his ears pricked and his nostrils flared as he searched their pcokets. "He likes people, he's very friendly. But it took a lot of training to get him so tame. Saddlebreds can be very skittish."

Joey watched in horror as the horse began nibbling on his hair and clothing. "What is he doing...?" he asked.

"Heh, heh, he thinks you have treats." Rae laughed.

"Is there some way you can tell him to stop?" asked Joey, he tried to shoo away the horse with his hands.

"Sorry," Rae said, "Here give this to him." Rae handed Joey a small orange carrot. Joey looked at the orange vegetable for a moment and then showed it to Rex. The chestnut gelding nickered in delight and scooped the carrot out of his hand. He crunched noisily on the treat. Before the horse began looking for more, Rae showed them to the others.

"That's Hugo, my mom's old pleasure horse, Zatusuke, he won the national championship two years in a row, Tieko, she used to be a brood mare, Ahrzu, she's part Thoroughbred, and Reiku, one of Teiko's yearling colts." There were many more, but Rae wanted to just introduce the main ones. "Oh, yeah, my mom said it's okay for us to start a riding school and a duel club at our stables. It'll raise money for our..."

"But where's Zanzibar?" Rebekka blurted.

"Oh...Zan...he's...he's at the nearby rescue center, erm...why?" asked Rae. She hope her cousin wouldn't bring that up. Zanzibar was still ornery from the past week. Could he handle a lot of people?

"Oooh! I wanna see him! I've been dying to see him since I got here! Have you ridden him yet? How tall is he? Is he really that beautiful? Is he really wild?" Rebekka asked. Rae wanted to yell that she didn't have time to look at him. She had completely forgotten how annoying Rebekka was, and she had stubborness to back it up. Rae didn't know what to do, but she shrugged.

"Okay, I'll saddle the horses and we can ride down there. It's just a short ride away." said Rae.

"I don't think the others will mind, I think Yugi's ridden a horse before...but I don't care! I just wanna see him!" said Rebekka.

After rounding everyone up...

"Joey, your holding your reins wrong." said Yugi, trying to correct his friend. Joey Wheeler was sitting on a female roan mare named Love Bug. He was having major problems. It wasn't that new to him, he just didn't like doing it.

"Grr..," Joey tried to fix his reins but ended up pulling to tightly. Love Bug's head shot up and she came to a complete stop. "Help Yugi!" Joey groaned. Yugi rolled his eyes. It was the fifth time Joey had messed up. He rode up to Love Bug on his palomino gelding, Thunder. Thunder was blind in one eye so Rae had trusted Yugi to ride him carefully. It turned out he could ride better than any of the others. Tea, Tristan, and Rebekka's grandfather had gone off in the car to tour the city.

"Need help?" Rae laughed and turned Rex around. Joey refused to be helped at all.

"Just let me figure it out!" Joey said.

Yugi sighed. "Everytime you ask for help, when I'm about to give you advice, you always say that!" He didn't Joey would ever get it right.

"How about I 'pony' you?" asked Rae. "We can make it there faster."

"No way! I can figure this out on my own! It's not like a...whups...!" Joey had let go for a split second, lost his balance, and slipped right off Love Bug's back. The mare side-stepped and then looked down at her fallen rider.

"I told you it would save time!" Rae said looking down at Joey who was sprawled out on the ground.

"Don't worry, Rae, I got it..," Joey took Love Bug's reins and tried to get on again. He swung heavily in the saddle almost slipping off the other side. Love Bug grunted and stepped forward with her head raised in her ears back in irritance. Yugi's ribs were snapping from trying to contain his laughter. Rebekka was having a giggle fit, almost falling off her little pony herself. Joey finally got positioned again and then started again, slowly. Yugi stayed beside him. "Go on Yugi, I can deal with her now."

"Joey, you can hardly ride! Why did you tell Rae you wanted to go?" Yugi asked. It was clearly obvious Joey could not ride. He did not have the required skill or posture and he handled his horse roughly by using her as a leaning post when he was about to lose his balance. But if he thought he could handle it, he would let him handle it. Yugi nudged Thunder ahead to catch up with Rae, he just hoped Joey could make it with out falling again.

It was a few minutes before they finally reached the barn. A shrill neigh peirced the silence like an arrow from hell. Zan. Rae swallowed. He was definatly in a bad mood today. Rae told them all to dismount and showed them a place outside the barn where they could put their horses while they visited. Jeff was there already he was using his horse's back as a lounge chair. He looked like he was waiting for her. "Well, I see you brought some friends." he said jumping off Gypsy's back.

"Oh, hi, Jeff." Rae said. "This is my cousin, Rebekka Hawkins and these are her two friends, Joey Wheeler and Yugi Motou." Jeff raised his eyebrow.

"The Yugi? The dude who beat that guy named Kaiba?" asked Jeff. "It's good to see you around here. Welcome to Nevada!" He held out his hand. Yugi returned the greeting reluctantly. Something inside him made him suspicious about this Jeff guy. "Your demon horse is in the back, I'll try to see if I can drag him out for you."

Seto slammed his whole body against the stall door, his own way of demanding his release. He wished to be able to talk so he could give these stupid grooms a piece of his mind. If he owned this stable he would make sure that the staff weren't half-witted dunces. He reared up and landed hard, slamming his hooves into the ground. He had not eaten for two days and he was getting irritable and snappish. His water bucket was nearly empty and all that was left was just backwash. He heard boots coming down the stall. There was that stupid boy again, holding a halter like he was going to do some kind of rodeo trick. Seto arched his neck and bellowed a sharp threat.

"Easy, Boy!" said Jeff walking up to Seto's stall.

Just get me out of here you cattle roping dweeb! Seto stamped his hoof impatiently. He allowed the halter to be put on his head, but he wouldn't give in just yet. It was his turn to lead. He shoved the boy aside and walked out of the barn while. Jeff held the rope tightly but let the stallion go ahead. If he let the horse do what he wanted, it would realize how stupid it was and turn to him for help. He saw Rae waiting outside, but she wasn't alone like usual. Beside her was that kid Rebekka and... Wheeler and Yugi? He stood still twitching his ears. Was it really them? Why were they in a placelike this?

"Oh, Rae! He's gorgeous!" Rebekka said in awe. Seto shook his head. Did she just say he was beautiful? Was he really that astonishing?

"He's tall!" said Yugi.

"I'll say," said Joey, "Ya' think he's a Thoroughbred?"

"No, Joey! He's a mustang! Why else would he be from the wild?" asked Rebekka.

"I've never heard of mustangs this tall!" said Yugi. "I think he's almost 17 hands!"

"Since when did you become a horse expert?" Joey asked.

"Are you sure he was truely wild?" asked Yugi dismissing Joey's lame question.

"Dr. Kyjoui says probably has a little draft blood in him, but it can't be that because he has the physique of an Arabian." said Rae.

"Too many big words!" Joey whined.

"The biggest word she said was 'physique'!" said Rebekka.

Seto was listening to the conversation carefully. Now was his chance, while Yugi was here he could possibly tell him that he was Seto Kaiba and he'd take him to Mokuba. Seto stomped his hoof trying to get Yugi's attention. He shook his mane and nickered low. It's me! Kaiba! I'm here, in a horse's body! You have to believe me! Please! But it was useless. Yugi only stared at Seto admiring his well built frame.

"That's new, he's never done that before." said Rae patting Zan's neck. "Take it easy boy." Rae had taken the rope away from Jeff. Seto shoved her hand away.

"He must sense that I'm a really good duelist! Haha!" said Joey.

Seto froze and glared at the blonde boy. He had forgotten how much of an idiot Wheeler was. That stupid smile, that stupid laugh, and that stupid hair. White hot anger boiled in Seto's heart and slowly began to boil over little by little. Joey was just lucky Rae had a firm grip on the lead rope. Seto's body tensed and he pinned his ears back.

"Did I ever tell you I almost beat Kaiba too?" said Joey. Jeff snorted. I just thought he was like that because he was blonde, now I'm starting to think he's really insane! "He just got lucky, but I could've kicked his butt, you shoulda seen me!"

"Here we go again...," said Yugi. Rebekka rolled her eyes. This was the fifth time they heard that story. And it happened too long ago for them to possibly remember.

"You know, they say not to underestimate Kaiba, but he's just a rich computer geek that can duel really good, that's all." said Joey. "Nothing to be scared of." He began laughing, not realizing what he was saying or who he was saying it to.

That was it! He had had enough. Seto neighed harshly and lunged forward, striking Joey in the chest at full force backed by rage. Joey was knocked clean off his feet and landed on the sharp gravel of the pavement. Rebekka screamed and clung onto Yugi. Seto reared high, and the rope slipped from Rae's hands. The black stallion bellowed and charged forward.

to be continued...