Danger

That night, Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba returned to the inn, but didn't see Emily or Gatomon. They hoped that nothing had happened to either of them. Yugi paced around the room in anxiety. "Where are they?"

Joey sensed his friend's concern. "She looked like she was feeling sick."

"If she was, then she couldn't have made it back here," Kaiba stated.

Yugi started blaming himself. "If I had gone with her, this wouldn't have happened. I could have at least gotten her home." He made up his mind. "I'm going to go out and look for her."

Kaiba stopped him. "No, you're not. Not at this hour."

Yugi broke free. "Kaiba, she's sick! What if she's on the streets and feeling worse? Or worse, what if someone found her and killed her?"

Someone like Frollo, Joey thought to himself. He spoke up. "Plus, Gatomon wouldn't just leave her by herself." But in his mind, he argued that she would probably come looking for the others if Emily was in trouble. Joey got his bow and quiver. "I'm coming with you, Yuge."

Yugi nodded, then looked at Kaiba expectantly. The brunette sighed. "All right. But we've got to stay together." So they left the inn and began searching through the town.

They started by retracing their steps and going back to the square. Then they started on the path back to the inn, hoping to get an idea of where Emily was likely last seen. They asked a few townspeople if any of them had seen a blonde haired girl with a white cat. One woman said she saw the girl collapse in the middle of the street and her cat was crying. She was on her way outside to help, but by the time she made it to the front door, the girl and her cat were gone.

Yugi began to fear the worst that someone had found Emily and taken her. He only hoped that it wasn't the minister.

The woman they were talking to earlier figured that maybe someone found Emily and took her to a hospital. She gave them directions on where to go and bade the boys goodnight.

The heroes came to the hospital and asked if a blonde haired girl with a white cat was brought here. The doctors answered that no such person was brought to the hospital today.

They left and stopped at the river to rest for a few minutes. "What are we going to do?" Yugi asked. "The people we've talked to said they've seen Emily, but they don't know what happened to her after she collapsed."

"Calm down," Kaiba said, holding his arm. "Calm down. We will find her. Let's just go back to the inn and we can come up with a plan to find her."

Joey agreed, but as he started on his path, he stumbled as he tripped over a rock. He groaned in pain, but quickly ignored it as he fixed his gaze forward. Fear began building up inside him as he saw Frollo coming their way. "Jesus," he hissed through his teeth. He immediately got up and cried, "Guys, run!" and began running.

"What?" Kaiba asked.

"Talk later, run now!" Joey shouted.

Yugi didn't know what he was talking about until he turned around and saw Frollo. He pushed Kaiba and cried, "Go, go, go!"

"All right," Kaiba shouted and started running. Frollo spurred his horse and began to pursue them. The brunette looked back and saw that the minister was catching up. "What do we do now?"

"The Secret Garden," Yugi cried. "It's our only chance!" He looked for an alley until he saw that they were coming to another bridge above the river. "Jump in the water," Yugi told his friends. They nodded in response and climbed the ledge and jumped into the river.

A few seconds later, they came back to the surface to breathe for air. "What are you going to do now?" Joey taunted the minister. "Bet you can't swim!"

A soldier was about to fire an arrow, but Frollo stopped him. "No! I want them alive!"

This was their chance to escape. The boys took a few deep breaths and submerged themselves. They also found a light nearby, signaling as a way back to the Secret Garden. They followed the light and when they returned to the surface, they found themselves in one of the ponds in the Secret Garden.

Joey gasped as he climbed out of the water and sat at the edge. "That was not fun."

Yugi came out of the water as well. "That confirms that, then. He's after us." He only hoped that Frollo hadn't already captured Emily or Gatomon. He got up and began heading to Celestic Falls.

"Where are you going?" Kaiba asked him. He watched in disbelief as he saw Yugi going to the falls. "Yugi, am I missing something? Weren't we just trying to escape from Frollo?"

"Emily's still back there, Kaiba," he reminded him.

"I know, but if Frollo sees you out in public, he'll capture you," the brunette stated. "And I don't think that path leads to Briar."

Yugi placed his hand over his friend's. "We'll do what we planned and go back to inn. Then we can figure out a plan on how we're going to find Emily."

Joey didn't want to go back, but he knew Yugi was right. So he agreed to go with him. With that being settled, Kaiba followed his friends through the door and the three of them were back in their room in the inn.