The Frost King 2 Chapter 1: Reports of Parties, a Yu-Gi-Oh + Don't Starve Crossover fanfic

Hello, and welcome to this chilly Yu-Gi-Oh!/Don't Starve crossover. We hope you dress warmly and enjoy your stay…especially if you recall the first entry to this series. :D

Yes, after several years, I've finally gotten something going on the sequel to The Frost King! Seemed fitting that it's once again a year after a Frozen film came out. XD

So for now, just so you all know, updates on this will be spotty until January because I'm finishing up another fic and making sure the others are updated. But we'll be seeing regular updates starting 2021, folks—in the meantime, enjoy a ridiculously long first chapter. XD

Also yes we're referencing Tremors and Guardians of Ga'Hoole don't at me. And we might be straying towards Frozen now and definitely mention The Hobbit. :D Rae's story comes from Greek mythology, by the way.

"The Brother Prince is gone!"

"What do you mean, he's gone?"

"I mean no one can find him—he's missing!"

"What about the Crown Prince? Has anyone checked him?"

"N-no…."

"Augh, I'm surrounded by idiots!"

"Enough of that attitude! Mana! Did you ever get those tracking spells working?"

"I told you, they don't work on the Crown Prince."

"The curse—"

"There is no curse!"

"What about the girl? Has anyone seen her?"

"Not since she set the drapes on fire. Again."

"Enough of this!" Mahado bellowed. "Search everywhere! They must be somewhere!"

The halls thundered, and then quieted.

Yugi glanced at Willow and then pointed, patting his spiky hair in explanation.

Willow grimaced at him before maneuvering to her knees and peeking out of their hiding place in the hollow of one of the huge statues adorning one of the halls of the Palace of the Sunlit Kingdom.

"The coast is clear," she announced, hopping out of the hollow. Yugi followed after her. "You'd think they'd find better things to do."

"You'd think," Yugi agreed. "Come on, let's go."

A year of living in the Sunlit Kingdom had, in Yugi's opinion, done nothing for him except improve his complexion. Even with Akenhadin gone, people had unrealistic perspectives and expectations—like a longstanding feud between the native Tan Skins and the foreign Pale Skins, or the theory that the Crown Prince had been cursed on his foray into the mountains far to the north.

Or that Yugi was actually supposed to do stuff.

Not useful stuff, that he had grown used to—collecting wood, helping out around the village, learning in the evenings and during snowstorms. No, they wanted him to do cushy stuff, like sit around getting boring stuff shoved into his head until it leaked out his ears, or sit with guards watching him, or sit on little sick-people litters and be carted around. Sit sit sit sit sit.

And of course, no associating with riffraff, even if she was the ward of the Royal Scientist, who had been reappointed by the group decision of the Crown Prince and the Sister Queen—Yugi's mother Hannah.

Hence the new approach to life: hide from the Royal Guards and the un-fun people, and then go do their thing and bug their resident Bradbury-Orwells for their learning at night, when they were winding down from all the work they were catching up on.

Wilson, now that he was back in a place where he had resources ready at a moment's notice, was busy creating items from the blueprints Rae had provided from her stores. Rae, meanwhile, was making use of the services of the Gryphons they had allied with a little ways back and making regular trips between her cabin—where she tended her animals and her books—and Wilson's Royal apartment and laboratory, where she alternated between writing up the whole Frost King affair on the typewriter Wilson had painstakingly constructed and aggravating Wilson just for kicks. The latter had slowed quite a bit, Yugi noticed, when Wilson started working on something he called a printing press, and Rae had already selected the first Book to be printed, her old Bible.

But it wasn't even remotely noon yet, and Wilson and Rae wouldn't be open to having them underfoot as they worked. Yugi's mom was in similar straits, busy keeping the country glued together as the Crown King gradually recovered from Akenhadin's evil influence. Sure, they could go visit the Thieves in Kul Elna, but eventually it would occur to one of the important adults—Hannah, Wilson, or Rae—to send for them, and they would be back in and bored to tears.

Hence their new game of hiding for as long as humanly possible from the boring adults: Mahado and the rest.

Mana had been key there, what with showing them how the secret passages hidden in the thick walls worked and telling everyone that the Crown Prince's new magic made him immune to any spells she might cast, and that she was pretty sure it had rubbed off on Yugi and Willow too. Mahado suspected, but had yet to call her on it or test the veracity of her claims for himself. So in all, a good system.

But it still left them with a lot of time on their hands and sharp minds to keep from getting bored. And they were always spoiling for a new adventure anyway, seeing as how their last one had set such a high standard.

Hence why they were stopping off at the kitchens for some biscuits-and-bacon (which the cooks had learned to keep on hand at all times) and headed for the lower levels.

Some of the dungeons down beneath the palace had been filled with Akenhadin's workings, and emptied, cleansed, and sealed off when the Crown and Brother Princes returned. Others had been and still were used for cold storage, while others were just left empty due to the staff numbers and Royal family not yet rebuilding from the devastating losses of the sickness brought by the Pale Skins—but the Tan Skins had given as good as they got, considering the Pale Skins had fallen ill to diseases the Tan Skins thought minor.

And if the Tan Skins had been devastated, the Pale Skins had been decimated.

But it was in one of these empty rooms that Wilson had installed something he called a poor-man's-freezer and what Rae called an Ice-O-Matic—which was why Yugi and Willow were busy putting on thick winter clothes they had hidden in an alcove after shaking them free of any intruders. There may have been words with the scorpions scuttling about, but Yugi still didn't trust the little stinging things (arachnids, Wilson had said). And it was this particular room they would be guaranteed not to be bothered, because few dared to come down here, even after it had been explained over and over again to them.

Because everyone was of the opinion that the Crown Prince had been cursed, and no one wanted to incur the wrath of the Frost King.

The edges of Yugi's mouth twitched up at that—that Yami could even be wrathful was something alien to Yugi's mind, but he had been wanting some peace and quiet and someplace cool a couple of months after returning here without having to dash to the mountains, and had not appreciated someone barging into the room he had found and demanding he make his presence known in the throne room.

That particular worker had fled the palace screaming, a light coating of frost on him. Yugi knew that it hadn't been serious, that Bakura had gotten worse, even with Yami simply teasing him—but the sight of someone coated with ice, such a foreign thing in these hot climes, had shaken quite a few people.

Which was where the rumor of the curse had started. How else could someone explain how the Crown Prince had yet to thaw out, after being so long removed from the chill mountain air?

Wilson—when he heard this—had scoffed and said it was going up to the mountains that thawed the Crown Prince out.

Hence why Yugi and Willow barged into Yami's new room quite happily, mindful of the slick steps as they came in and careful not to knock over the stack of scrolls near the bottom.

"Hi Yami!" Willow greeted brightly. "Howzit?"

An antlered head with a wolflike face looked up, blue spiky hair similar to Yugi's bristling slightly before Yami registered who had come in.

"When's Wilson and Rae going to finish with that printing press?" Yami all but whined, flicking long fingers tipped in black claws at the open scroll in front of him. "This stuff is boring!"

When Yami had regained the Millennium Puzzle and his memories, he had also regained his ability to read, and had spent quite a bit of time working through the Royal libraries reading everything he could. Unfortunately, as he had informed Yugi and Willow, it mostly consisted of dry, boring histories about how great the Tan Skins were and who won what battle—things that no longer interested the Crown Prince, if they ever had.

This news had done nothing to speed up Yugi's learning of the Tan Skin writing, although it had increased Yami's interest in learning Pale Skin writing, especially when they found out that Pale Skin writing had stuff called fiction, which translated into fun reading.

Another thing that had changed upon Yami regaining the Millennium Puzzle—the fact that Yugi and Willow could now flop against his fluffy ruff with no ill consequences, whereas before they hadn't been able to stand prolonged contact. The regained memories must have granted Yami some control, Wilson had mused—Yugi just figured Wilson didn't want to say anything about magic.

"Wilson says it's a work in progress," Yugi said, once settled.

"That means no progress is being made," Willow translated.

"Oh," Yami said, sounding disappointed—wolf ears telegraphed this clearly. "So…."

"So we're hiding from Mahado again," Yugi explained.

"Ah. Understandable."

It was one of the prime reasons Yami stayed in his room as much as he could—most Tan Skins didn't dare come near, and even those like Mahado were loathe to come. Not from threat of curses: from sheer cold. Forget the fact that compared to Frostmore, this room was almost temperate—right at freezing—no one here in the Sunlit Kingdom could stand weather any cooler than eighty.

"So any cool new adventures planned?" Willow asked.

"I thought I'd go say hi to the wolves," Yami said. "They said they miss seeing us around."

"Or we could visit those Gryphons again," Willow said. "They're always interesting. And they said they knew owls that worked with fire."

"Aaah," Yugi and Yami said, nodding.

"Well excuse me for breathing."

Willow would honestly rather give up air than fire. Yugi opened his mouth to say so when the door opened and his Mom stuck her head in.

"I thought I'd find you all in here. Come on, you're needed in the throne room for Mahado's 'daily debriefing.'"

There was a round of protests from all involved.

"Don't make me count to three," Yugi's mom threatened.

Yugi didn't know what happened when she got to three, and never wanted to find out—hence why they were making for the throne room with all haste, shedding winter clothes as they went but still clinging to them: Tan Skins made it a habit to burn unattended Pale Skin 'rags.'

Mahado arrived in the throne room to see them standing there, Yugi's mom behind and looking stern.

"Why are you not seated in the Royal thrones?" he demanded, sounding exasperated.

"Because they're hard?" Yami guessed.

"Because I don't have to go?" Willow whispered to Yugi, who broke down in a laughing fit that was quickly silenced by a glare from Mahado.

"Now that I have you all here, I can proceed with the morning report," Mahado said, pulling out a thick scroll.

Yugi, Yami, and Willow simply tossed their winter clothes on the steps and sat on them as Mahado gave his report, Yami tapping his head in bored tempo with his hands propping his face up on his knees—shifting in between human form and his Frost King form was simple enough for him now, and he had been forced to make it habit when Yugi's mom—his aunt—had asked (mostly because she pointed out that it was scaring people). But while he was still dressed in a loose shirt and some gold bands and jewelry, Yami had kept his blue scarf and followed Pale Skin fashion and wore pants now. Yugi wondered if that was in imitation of Yugi's distaste for the dresses the men were made to wear.

"We have the sultans in the south asking for an audience, rajahs seeking to confirm, everyone is watching us closely to see if we have indeed regained our strength as a kingdom, and several trading parties from across the south plains wish to visit."

"That sounds interesting," Willow said. "What about the owls?"

"What owls?"

"The fire-owls that the Gryphons were talking about."

Yami, meanwhile, seemed to be busy listening to a couple of birds that had flown down from the high perches the arches in the walls provided.

"Sure," he said finally. "Go do that."

The birds—a cardinal and a robin—exchanged glances and head bobs before flying out through the arches.

"Are we done yet?" Yami asked, looking at Mahado.

"No," Mahado said testily—Yugi knew that it had gone around that the Crown Prince talked to birds, and that had been some cause for concern. People thought that the Frost King was spying on them through the feathered beings, and some had caught and killed a few of the birds before word got back to Yami.

Raging subzero fury had stopped such killings, and while Yugi was glad his little feathered friends were all right, he couldn't help but feel that hadn't made things better.

"Moving on," Mahado continued, flicking the paper. "The Sultans of the Shallow Seas have reports of air pirates and a Pale Skin contingent west of them, the Delves seek an audience—GHAH!"

'Ghah' being the normal reaction to the floor suddenly buckling and pushing up and disgorging a conical head with spinning blades opening up to reveal tentacles circling a snout with reflective eyes further up, all attached to a sinuous, coffee-brown body.

"I heard 'Delves,'" the thing said, squinting as it looked around before spotting them. "Does that mean it's time for the meeting?"

"You ruined the floor again," Yami pointed out. "People kind of walk there."

"Oh, sorry. But since I'm here…."

"Proceed."

Delves, as they had found out, were huge sinuous dragon-like things that burrowed beneath the earth like giant, limbed earthworms. They ate metal and minerals and the giant worms that burrowed beneath the surface, and were quite friendly with the sand dragons that lived with the Thieves of Kul Elna, who had introduced them. It was, they said, how they lived in tunnels without being messily devoured by the nasty burrowing creatures like depth worms or Graboids.

They also burrowed sturdy tunnels that never collapsed on their own and could burrow right under the surface without causing a tremor, so it occurred to Yugi that them being friendly was a good thing.

"We found a deposit of gems down south in that field with all the rocks sticking out of it, and some gold too—you said you wanted to know," the Delve said, drumming its claws on the stone. "The Medusa Worms are gone from the southern quadrant and the Graboids are gone from the desert, and there's some sand dragons who want to know if it's all right to live under the section right in front of the palace and maybe let some people use their tunnels for storage."

"I don't see why not," Yami said.

Yugi did—sand dragons might freak people out. But then again, it seemed like a lot of things freaked people out.

"Okay. That was it then," the Delve said, sinking back into the ground. "Good chat."

And with that, its tentacles reached out, grabbed the rocks, and pulled the flooring all back into place.

Willow finally took pity on the one questing tentacle, picked up a small rock that had rolled away, and put it in the tentacle's grasp.

"Thank you," the Delve's voice echoed up, before the last rock was pulled into place.

"Okay, that's done," Willow said, heading for the door. "Good chat."

"Sit," Mahado said, looking frazzled and pointing at the steps where Yugi and Yami were sitting. Willow returned with a groan. "And one final point of note—the kingdom of Arendelle is crowning a new queen, and it would behoove us to be there and secure an alliance, seeing as how they could act as a gateway to the other northern kingdoms."

"I wasn't aware there were more kingdoms up north," Yugi's mom said.

"They mostly either hug the coast or are situated on islands," Mahado said, rolling up his scroll. "Barbarians, the lot of them—Arendelle is the only one approaching a civilized society up there."

"So now are we done?" Yami asked.

"No. There are still your studies to attend to, and as I said, we will need to go to the coronation and try to secure an alliance—it may not be much, but it will help to secure our standing with the other kingdoms and cause more alliances."

"We already have a bunch of those."

"Let me rephrase: an alliance with other human beings."

"Careful, Mahado," Yugi's mom said, smirking behind her fingers as she eyed him narrowly. "You might start calling Pale Skins human beings."

Mahado looked aggrieved. "Well then," he hissed finally. "Seeing as how those in Arendelle are also pale-skinned, this should be to your liking."

"Oh dear me."

"Isn't a coronation like putting a crown on your head and then someone touching your shoulders with a sword?" Yugi asked.

"That last bit is a knighting ceremony," his mother told him.

"It is a most important ceremony," Mahado began.

"Time to go," Willow said, hopping up. "'Ceremony' means it'll be long and boring."

"It is important, sit."

"Then you go, if it's that important," Yugi said. "We're uh, not ready to represent. Yeah."

"I cannot, it needs to be a member of the Royal family."

They looked to Yugi's mother.

"By blood," Mahado amended.

"You know, I'm really starting to think you make these up," Yugi's mother said.

"I do not make up rules that have governed our lands for centuries."

"Mom should go," Yugi said. "Queen means it's a woman, and that's like, an important thing, that women are the ones who chat about these things, right?"

"It is important that you not send a man to do a woman's job," his mom said, eyeing Mahado. "Or are you saying I'm incapable?"

"What? No," Mahado said quickly. "But you cannot be unattended. Someone could injure you—"

"Great—I'll go get Gazim."

"NO!" Mahado yelled, running after her departing form. "Not the King of Thieves!"

They waited until their voices faded down the hall.

"Okay, now we can leave," Yugi announced.

"So when are we going to hear back from the south?" Willow asked, dusting herself off as she stood. "A trading party sounds like fun."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask about the fire-owls."

"I want to know that too."

"It'll take a few days' flight to get there," Yami said. "And then there's…maybe I should have sent a note—not everyone can speak bird."

"You noticed that finally?"

"Maybe we should find a map," Yugi said. "Find out where all that stuff is—the rock field and Arendelle and all the southern kingdoms and the Shallow Seas—that last one sounds cool."

"Sure—there's a map in the library," Yami said, grabbing his coat and indicating they follow.

They grabbed their own coat and trailed after the sound of jingling bells.

The map was actually painted on a great big wall, which was pretty cool.

It didn't take long to find the Sunlit Kingdom or the Shallow Seas in the south, as they were both clearly marked. The rest was a wash—the various other kingdoms to the south of them were only indicated with little labeled arrows indicating their distance, and to the north, before the ceiling made the border—the places where people lived within the Sunlit Kingdom was marked in tiny Tan Skin writing, of which Yugi still only knew a few words. Yami was the one having to decipher the whole thing.

It was late in the day when they found and marked the approximate locations of Frostmore and Newport, much to the chagrin of Mahado, when he found them. The stooped old librarian scolded him for making a fuss, and the trio took their leave while he was distracted, finding their way to Wilson's laboratory.

It was appropriately noisy and cluttered when they arrived, stuff hanging everywhere and covering every available space—except where Rae was working, surrounded by papers and a mug of coffee, working away at the thing they called a typewriter, eliciting bangs and clicks and dings from the device.

Wilson, meanwhile, was literally up to his hips in a machine, working away at some component lost to their view.

"Wilson!" Willow said, coming up right behind him.

There was a jerk, a bang, and an ow from within the machine before Wilson emerged, rubbing at his head with an aggrieved look on his face.

"Hey, that's how Mahado looked at us earlier," Yami pointed out.

"You lot must have been causing trouble again," Wilson said, looking more tired than usual, dirt and grime smudging his long face and spiky hair looking mussed—which was a trick, Yugi knew from personal experience; it paid to have hair that was naturally messy.

"No we weren't," Yugi protested. "We were just, uh…."

"Bored out of our minds?" Willow supplied.

"Yeah, that."

"So we decided to come here and not be bored."

"And because Mahado's upset that we put Frostmore on the map in the library," Yami supplied. "And a few other things, but I wasn't paying attention."

"You know, my opinion of our fates being in your hands hasn't changed," Wilson said, glowering at Yami.

"Why not?"

"Because he thinks he was the one to save the day," Willow supplied. "But we all know better."

"Well I never," Wilson said, affronted.

"No you didn't," Rae offered, taking a sip from her mug. "Because as memory serves, I was the one who had to do the heavy lifting."

"Excuse me? I seem to recall ten years and a trip down a mountain that didn't have you."

"And who killed the Bearger that was going to eat you?"

"And I was the one who saved us from the weird green rocks," Willow said, raising her hand. "And Yugi was the one who found Yami, who saved Yugi from the blizzard."

"Yes, yes, and yes. And you did what, pray tell?"

"Right now? I'm getting a massive headache," Wilson said, rubbing his head, eyes squinched shut like he was reminding himself that he didn't work on getting everyone down off the mountain alive just to kill them now.

"So how's the printing press coming along?" Yugi asked, feeling the need to deflect his focus to something less aggravating.

"Coming, still coming…I'm beginning to suspect Gutenberg had help in constructing his printing press."

"Still no," Willow told Yami; Yami sagged in response.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've got a few things here you all might like," Rae said, flipping open a pack and pulling out a few books. "Let's see what interests you all tonight, hmm? We can get a few chapters in before I catch my flight home."

That definitely sounded like something they could get behind.

Yugi still didn't sleep by himself.

For one, the bed and the room it was in was too big for just him—it made him nervous. Especially after the assassins from the last time.

So he'd crawl into bed with his mom, or sometimes Willow when the adults were too busy—it was comforting to have his back pressed to hers, and sometimes he could bring himself to ignore the hot wind from the balconies and pretend it was in reality the heat from the fireplace, that they were back in Frostmore.

Sometimes, Yami would sleep curled up at the foot of the bed, giving off cool air and completing the illusion.

But tonight Willow was under Wilson's watchful eye, and would sleep while he worked long hours into the night, jotting down notes and thoughts. Yugi wondered how Wilson ever operated on so little sleep.

But Yugi liked sleeping with his mom—she made him feel safe like nothing else did, and it was comforting to breathe in her scent. Although sometimes the pillows had a funny smell to them, that kind of reminded him of someone, but he didn't know who—the thought would never stay for very long.

He rolled over when he felt his mom get into bed, watched as she pillowed her head with her arm and watched him, amused.

"You know, someday you're going to have to sleep in your own bed," she told him.

"I don't like my bed," Yugi said. "It's too big." And it had bad memories, even if it wasn't the same bed he had been in before.

"Maybe you should grow into it."

"Rae told me about this guy who would stretch people or chop them up so they'd fit in the beds he made."

"I imagine he didn't get a lot of repeat customers."

"No," Yugi agreed, quietly thinking that Rae liked to tell spooky stories, or at least ones that made Yugi and Willow wince—he much preferred the ones that made him feel like he was on a huge sweeping adventure, despite quietly thinking that he had been on enough of those. She had been reading a story called The Hobbit to them recently, and Yugi could empathize with Bilbo Baggins quite a bit.

His mom patted his head, and he decided to move on to the next topic of interest. "I don't want to go to the coronary."

"Coronation. But you don't want to go to a coronary either."

"We don't have to go, do we?"

"Now, it's rude to not show up to a girl's party," his mom told him. "Would you want someone to not want to come to your party?"

No. "It didn't sound like a party."

"That's because everyone has to pretend to be stuffy at these things. And think about it—this girl is about to become the ruler of her kingdom. She's nervous and a little scared, because that's a scary job she's about to take. And then someone like you comes up to her, all sweet, and tells her she'll do fine, maybe give her a little gift. And then she doesn't feel so bad about it."

Yugi…hadn't thought of it that way.

"I guess being in charge of everything is pretty scary," he said finally.

"And that makes you smarter," she said, tapping him on the nose. "No one goes out looking to be in charge, not if they're smart—but the ones who are leaders are the ones who find themselves in that job anyway, whether they want to or not, but make the best choice anyway and gets everyone going in the same direction. It's scary, and you want to throw up at times, and you pray that no one sees your knees knocking, but you do it anyway, because that's what you have to do, sometimes."

Yugi nodded a little before thinking about what she said.

"Are you telling me to go to the ceremony?" Yugi asked accusingly.

"Yes," his mom said. "Because it'll be good for you. Trust me, I'm your mother."

Yugi sighed. "All right, fine. But Willow has to come too."

"Of course."

"And I guess Wilson has to come too."

"You let me take care of Wilson."

Yugi considered her statement. "You're not still mad at him, are you?"

"Maybe a little bit."

"But at least we were smart enough to involve an adult."

"Next time, remember that I qualify as an adult and trump Wilson."

"Yeah. We just weren't sure how to explain Yami to you."

"I'm not sure how to explain him either, and I've known him since he was three."

That was kind of weird, in Yugi's opinion—it was very easy for him to just think of Yami as the Frost King, but very hard to picture him as the Crown Prince, and oftentimes awkward to view him as his cousin. And, as he learned, the cousin who used to not like him very much. Yugi was glad that was no longer the case—and it was part of the reason he had a hard time thinking of Yami being Yami before he met him in that blizzard.

His mom smiled, leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "You get some sleep. You've got a busy day tomorrow."

"You're not going to make me spend time learning from Mahado, are you?" Yugi asked with a grimace.

"Maybe. Now go to sleep."

Yugi nodded, curled up against her. "Night. Love you."

"I love you too," she said, hugging him.

He fell asleep to her comforting scent.