Thank RA! My doc manager is up again! It took almost another week, sorry everyone! Anyway, here is the fifth chapter! Tell me what you think.
TheGodFish: Thank you! I strive to be realistic! And yes, this is the chapter where the real fun begins! yay!
Black-Dranzer-1119: Oh, yes, Bakura most definately tries to act like he is more superior to Ryou, but in reality (in this fic, at least) he conciders Ryou to be above him, because he's beautiful, and...well...to most, the Beast Bakura isn't. Thank you so much for the review!
Helica: No clock, but the goblet is...you'll see next chapter! Keep reading! Thank you very much for reviewing!
Fallon: OOOH! You are really close with all of the characters, but not quite! As far as I know, all possible characters with violet/purple eyes are: Yami Y., Yugi, Mai, Malik, and Marik. I could be missing a few, but that's the main ones. Now, Mai isn't in this fic, so that markes her out. Marik is the bottle, so he couldn't be the cat or the goblet. The goblet is very nice, but still very sophisticated, so he's not likely to be the fiesty Malik, and the cat was very stand-offish and kinda rude... so! You will find out for sure next chapter, but I hope the clues help! Thank you for your great reviews!
Lorna Shadows: Yay! I'm glad you're eager about the story! Yes, I tried to make the whole Bakura thing very intense. That lets everyone know what to expect from his character, and when to know that he is being unusually kind or mean because they have a base to work from. Thank you for your reviews!
And now, ladies and gentleman, on with the fiction! (perhaps as Pegasus would say)
His little body was numb from the adrenaline and the cold winter winds whipping his face. Ryou sheilded himself against the torrential onslaught; it hadn't been raining when the child began his fretful journey...but it was now. Weather conditions were steadily becoming worse the farther they trekked, and soon Ryou feared he would have to dismount and wait out the storm.
If that happened, he'd never find Maurice alive. The man was old and vulnerable, even the best town hunters (Seto Kaiba, his mind grumbled) wouldn't venture out in this windblown hell... Shoving these thoughts away, Ryou spurred Phillipe on, unaware of the exhausted, trembling horse's needs. He was consumed with thoughts of his father, his intuition demanding that the old man was dead. Who knew what had befallen his father? What could possible rip the carriage off of Phillipe's powerful flank, splintering the wood? How long had it taken Phillipe to find his way home, and how long had they been riding? How much time had they wasted? Could he have found Maurice faster if he hadn't tried to rest Phillipe?
Sobbing for breath, the pair crashed on, both pushing their physical limits. The woods around them were thick and feral, vines clutching at Phillipe's massive hooves while low-hanging branches raked thrrough Ryou's hair, tearing out strands of it along the way. Small, spinely bushes were tightly packed on the forest floor and had began to unbalance the animal, sending them through crazy, sprawling leaps of angry branches. It was a struggle to stay upright... Ryou sorely regretted not taking the time to saddle his horse; he could not gain purchase on the wet fur.
Suddenly, the cruely clinging plantlife ended, and they crashed into an open field. Ryou marveled for a split second, and that was all the time he had. Phillipe took a final, full-legged plunge against the now gone underbrush, it's animal mind not realising they were free, and Ryou felt his small, shivering frame collide with that of metal. His body slammed against it with a dull clang that resounded in the night air.
The tense blackness of the woods around them folded into itself, and became impenetrable inside Ryou's mind. He didn't feel it when his back hit the ground, nor did he hear the shrill cry of Phillipe as the horse went down... His world had become a mass of dark, moving figures without form, and in this half concious haze the teen gave a confused grin.
Rain.
That was the first thing that Ryou was aware of when he came to. Then it was pain, and a hell of alot of it. Ryou groaned and twisted onto his back, hissing at the micro explosions of agony that burst when he moved. Clearly, just behind him, he could hear Phillipe's agrivated whinney and stomp. A velvety muzzle with big, rain -dripping lips pulled at his hair, trying to lift him, examine him. Navigating carefully, he raised himself onto his elbows and gradually his knees, wrapping an unsteady arm around the offered nose.
He crouched facing a massive gate which was finishing a wide sweep inward from the impact of Ryou and the horse. Sense murmured in his ear that he could not have been out for more than a moment's time if the gate was still moving; no more than about thirty seconds, at most. This was hard to believe; the darkness had seemed to swim eternally beneath his eyes.
The blackish blue iron was of a beautifully wrought design. There was an old-fashioned gothic appeal to it, and to the walls extending out from it's left and right sides. Ryou gazed with some intrest the six-sided barbes lined against the wall tops, idly wondering what they were for. They looked terrible.
Giving a shudder, Ryou clasped tighter to Phillipe's long nose, and struggled to lift himself from the vulnerable pose he now held. This place, wherever he was, gave him the creeps. He stood beside Phillipe and decided easily not to mount... They were both too tired for that.
Automatically he turned to look at the rest of the area they had litterally stumbled into. His breath caught.
In front of him, wind whistling through it's spires, was a terrible Citadel. It seemed as though it had the scarred face of war, deep battle wounds engraved inside it's blank, gray stone. It went without ornamentation of any kind on large expanses of stone; some of the tiny fractions were adorned with gargoyle-like figures, however. It must have been beautiful at one time...but not now. A terrifyingly massive statue of a dragon adorned the far left section of wall. It's wings flared back and out, creeping up to a stone balcony and forming it's support pillars. The balcony surrounded the entire castle, hundreds of feet above the ground. The spires reached into the heavens, dissapearing easily into clouds. An arch curved ominously above the main double-doors ahead of him, their details not seen fron this great of a distance. The one feature captivating Ryou at the moment, despite the other uniqe attributes, was the french stained windows. They were haunting, and seemed ever changing; once Ryou's eyes decided on a pattern, another one seemed to materialize out of the chaos. It was...undescribable.
It seemed to becon to him, call him, even, and Ryou couldn't help but come forth. He stared at the structure with a kind of delicious numb horror. There was something off about it, something quite altogether wrong. Ryou wanted to run. He found with mounting distress that he couldn't run, and if he would, it would be twards the forset-sheltered castle.
A rough pulling sensation jolting through his arm made him snap out of the semi-trance he had slipped into, and he looked to the source. Phillipe was pulling roughly at his hand, attempting to free his muzzle from the teen who had forgotten his tight grasp.
"Oh, Phillipe, I'm sorry!" Ryou whispered over the gales of wind. For some reason he needed to whisper...although there was no one here to listen, was there? He shuddered. "We're all alone...in the middle of nowhere..." Ryou groaned. Phillipe huffed along in agreement, casting a furtive glance behind himself at gate.
Ryou didn't notice the double doors easing open, even when the they had slid more than halfway, and in response the wood frowned heavily. Who was this odd creature to trespass and then deny to enter the Master's castle? Irritation swept in a wild wave over the castle and the doors howled at Ryou in reprimand. The hinges joined soon, as did the wind, wailing and hissing at the intruder to enter when beckoned to.
Squealing in fright, the horse and human looked away from eachother and up at the castle, watching as the doors complteted their motions. The noise had seemed to be rusty hinges creaking and the wind whistling throught the doors. He did not catch the harsh underbreath of words, which was probably fortunate.
The two stood frozen, both by the cold and by fear for a moment. Ryou 's lungs seemed not to work and he simply gaped for a few seconds... Phillipe, however, found his breath quickly and began to whine in panic.
Finding himself, the boy comforted his animal. "Shhh, quiet, Phillipe! Quit that! Maybe there's someone there who can help us! Maybe-" he wet his lips-" Maybe Papa found this place, too!" The pair moved onward, Ryou expecting at any moment to see someone (the person who had opened the doors, of course) to pop thier head around the corner and greet them.
By the time they reached the doors, however, no one had... and the doors had begun to close. Gasping, Ryou took in with surprise the speed which the door were closing and called hurriedly up, "No! Wait! Please, I'm almost there! I need your help, please!" The doors seemed to slow, hesitate, and then continue more slowly.
Ryou left off trying to persuade Phillipe to come with him and bounded up the steps, trying to save time. He made it faster than his father had just shortly before, and when he reched the great entrance landing he said, "Thank you," quite conversationally. His fear was momentarily forgotten.
Shuffling up to the steps and scooting inside just before they closed, Ryou stepped into the marble-tiled hall and breathed a sigh of releif at having made it. "Thank you so much for letting me inside, my horse and I " - SLAM - "ooh!" Ryou squeaked and whirled around, aware of the doors having slammed shut. "I-I was trying to find...m-my father..." His voice faded away with the sudden sensation that he was talking to no one at all. There was only one source of dim light, burning somewhere to his left that illuminated the space around him. He spun around, taken by the vastness of it all. No one was there.
Swallowing, he tried again. "Hello? He...hello?" Silence greeted him. On a whim, he set off to search for the light source, thinking that he'd never find anything here without a light.
Perhaps the doors had been pushed open by a gale of wind? And...and they were partially open anyway, becasue Maurice had been here, and was asleep somewhere deep in the fortress! Yes! That made sense.
What about the door swinging shut, hm? Did the wind hear you and decide to let you in?
Ryou chose to ignore the chiding little voice in his head and stick to the explaination he had come up with. Walking with purpose to the gleaming light nearby, he found it to be radiating from a tiny candle stuffed onto a high shelf, almost burnt out. It was immensely high, and surrounded with books of various sizes; none of which were ones he recognized. Standing up on his toes, Ryou snatched the candle holder with one carefully crooked slender finger, catcging the small ring. A fleeting moment of triumph passed before he actually pulled the thing from it's place. The holder was made of crystal lead, and much heavier than he anticipated.
With a bright "oy!" he dropped the thing to the ground, hearing it putter out with a light poof.
Ryou groaned unhappily as he was plunged into darkness once more. He gulped softly, resigning to his misfortune. "Hello?" he called miserably. Tears were gathering unbidden at the corners of his eyes; it had been a long night.
He heard a soft noise not so far away and his white mane of lock flew up as he raised his head, eyes groping the darkness. "Hello?"
Another light. He ran at it, it was a ways away and seemed to be fading... "Who's there? Please, Hold on! I need your help, my father-" As he had neared this light source, it snuffed out and left him in the darkness. Before he could regester the fear that was now solidly coursing through his veins, Ryou saw yet another candle strike flame a good ways above him, illuminating a stain case and a small room not far away. The door of this room was torn from it's hinges and lying like a dead animal in the foyer, splintered. He supressed a shiver.
Looking away from the door, he dashed up the stairs without a second thought twards the light. It ascended up past the ceiling (the very high ceiling, he reminded his stomache) and into what Ryou supposed was one of the spire towers.
Again, as neared this light, it snuffed, and another made itself apparent. Ryou's exhausted mind concluded that it must be some kind of magic, leading him...where, exactly? To help...?
The silly game went on for far too long than Ryou liked and soon he was not able to continue, his body weak and already tired. Still, the teen climbed on. Looking above before this light could snuff, he saw stairs spilling endlessly above him, twist after twist, curl after curl.
"Huff...huff...huff..." Maurice heard the panting groan before Ryou met the door to the holding cell. He scuttled away from the entrance as far as he could in the little underground pit, splaying himself onto the stones and pretending to be asleep. Or dead.
The door gave a tentative creak inwards, and a soft, delicat voice whispered "Hello? Is...is anyone in here?" Maurice froze. Was it? Could it really be? "What is this place? Oh, how awful," the boy exclaimed, examining the cells. Some were littered with the remains of long dead men, bodies now reduced to skeletons.
Shuffling up to his knees Maurice peeked out through the bars and he almost screamed at the sight. His little Ryou, clutching pale hands to his delicat chest in a show of revulsion to the remains. He could not speak, his throught was stuck, it was too impossible!
Ryou heard the soft wheeze and whirled, eyes seaching. He opened his mouth to whimper his age old question, hello, but instead his wandering brown orbs caught sight of his beloved father, chained into a tiny cell, lips blue with the cold.
Ryou burst into frantic tears. "Papa! Papa, tell me what happened? I thought you were dead! Who did this to you, Papa!" He flung himself down onto the floor, reaching through the bars to cradle his beloved. They sobbed into eachother's arms, Maurice petting his son's white hair while the latter buried his face agains the old, comforting shoulder. Ryou tried to ask why he was all locked up but Maurice stifled this and took his beloved child's face into both hands, gazing sincerely into them. Confusion bombarded them, and the old man felt his throat clutch.
"R-ryou, child, you have to get away from this cursed place! There's a monster-"
"A what!"
"Monster! A beast! He's evil, he locked me in here and he'll do the same to you if you don't run-!"
"I'm not leaving you here! I have to get you out-"
"NO! Just save yourself, child! Ryou, RYOU! GO!" He could hear the rumbling beneath the stones, the roar of fury which drowned out all else. One minute he was telling his son to go and the next his voice was smothered by the vicious howel approaching quickly. The stairs vibrated with the heavy body racing up them, claws clanging on the metal. He screamed at Ryou to run. There was no where to run, he knew that. His mouth formed the words but his son could not hear him... and then it was too late.
He saw the door fly open and the candles whiff away like they never existed, not even smoke left in their wake. The door had vanished as well after one earsplitting crash against the stone wall. Darkness flooded them, and a sudden silence became deafening.
The only noise to be heard was Ryou's whimpered little breaths which the Beast, he knew, wouldn't mind. The noises were signs of fear, after all. Even his own breathing was silenced for a moment... the stillness hovered for a fragmented second, hovering, hovering in the air by a silk thread... and snapped. The hateful rumble that was the beast's voice hummed in the air and Ryou uttered a small scream, jerking his father closer. He was sobbing incoherent speech, no doubt questioning who was that? Where was that?
Maurice somehow found his voice through it all, and quickly came to Ryou's aid.
"Please, let my son be," he begged in his quavering voice, "the boy's done nothing wrong. He's my son, he came to save me, he wasn't trespassing! W-we love eachother very deeply. Please, let him go, I beg of you!"
There was a deep grumble of response, and at last the Beast spoke. "Why should I let him go, hm? You're an old man, you'll die soon here. I have no intention of feeding you. Letting him go would be suicide." The creature snorted, a sound that made Maurice shudder. "He would run back to the towns people, and my castle would fall under seige by next 'eve. You, old man, are worthless...your son, however..." There was a hissed growl which Maurice did not want to try to translate.
Ryou's soft voice spoke up and shocked him, despite the boy being in his arms, it had felt as though the teen were momentarily out of the room. Bold defiance was in his voice. "If Papa is so worthless, why not let him go and take me instead?" The brazen words were directed at the Beast, and Maurice cringed sharply upon hearing them. He would provoke it's anger with talk like that. "Ryou, no," he warned softly. The child pushed away and only gained momentum at his father's warning.
"Take ME instead!" Ryou stood shakily, a firm light in his brown eyes, glaring determinedly at where he approximated the beast was. "Why pray on a helpless old man? As you said, he is useless to you. He would only make me want to escape if he were here, too...so l-let me take his place." Maurice howled with sadness, begging his son not to do this awful thing. He was near the end of his days, there was no need for Ryou to suffer this way! Ryou still refused, and he could hear the boy dissolving into tears, as he was as well. They sobbed again into eachother's arms, and the Beast stood in silence, hidden by the shadows.
"Stop your pathetic sniveling, both of you. Brat- why would you do this? You know I will kill you in time, why sacrifice yourself for that old fool-"
"Because I love him!" Ryou raged, glaring heatedly at the dark lumbering form in the doorway. "I would do anything for the ones I love. He's more than an old man to me! He's my father. I don't care waht anyone else thinks!"
Stunned silence followed. The beast seemed caught off gaurd... but the moment passed. With a roar that made Ryou scream blindly in panic, the creature threw Ryou across the room and tore open the gate to the cell. Maurice hollered his sons name, fearful for the boy, and heard nothing in return. His world spun in a violent twist of darkness and he found himself flung over the shoulder once more, and hauled away. Somewhere down the stairs he heard Ryou sob "Papa!", and that was it. He was gone from his beloved baby boy...forever...
Ryou stirred in the mound of rotting, damp hay in the corner. The musky scent of it hit him thickly and he resisted the powerful urge to retch. There was a sizeable lump on the back of his head, and his vision was blurry for several moments...so much so that he closed his eyes again and clutched his skull in anticipation of it passing.
When he could handle it, he opened his eyes. There was a little pool of light in front of him, coming from one of those tiny candles which had lighted his path. It was a trap, he thought feebly. The light hit his face, illuminated it to the revelation of the Beast who was hovering in the doorway. Ryou could feel his presence.
Ryou gulped and sat up, still clutching his pounding head with one hand. He could feel it's eyes on him, boring into his body; he shivered.
Unnerved by the shadow and emboldened by his half-right state of mind, Ryou whispered soflty, "Come out of the shadows, why wont you let me see you?"
Nothing moved. Ryou squinted, hoping for a better view... he knew his fears would be quelled when he saw the beast. You can only fear what you are unfamiliar with, right? Right. Ryou's mind confermed shakily. Wrong, something else whispered. You may even fear it more, once you know what it's capable of...what you don't know can't hurt you...
Suddenly the deep voice of his captor grated through the room, which shook Ryou to fully awake very fast. "Pathetic whelp. That's all any of you want, to stare, isn't it? Right! To hiss and boo at the FREAK!" The voice stopped, and when it resumed the tone was calmer, more collected...more infuriated than ever. "When you awake at night, shaking and whimpering with my image swiming behind your eyes, remember...You brought this nightmare upon yourself..."
His heavy stide thumped upon the stone floor, and he lumbered into the circle of light. Ryou watched, captivated as light spilled onto the massive creature, illuminating it.
Ryou's mind crashed sharply, spinning downwards in a spiral of red eyes, glistening teeth and horns. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth to scream but the sound wouldn't come. It was not the being...not the actual being which tore his mind beyond the capacity to understand. It was the blood.
Did you like it? Tell me! Next chapter: It is revealed who the servants are, Ryou gets his first taste of the monster that is Bakura, and Maurice's fate is disclosed! R&R!
