Griffin Tale
Chapter 2
Yugi's problem
Back at the Draco Wash, Yugi was scrubbing green slime off a dragon's gigantic tongue. It was disgusting.
"Welcome to Yugi's crib," Yugi said sarcastically, "a sixty-foot slime-covered tongue with plankton encrusted teeth."
"Oh, stop yer moaning, Yugi!" said Joey Wheeler, another tongue scrubber and Yugi's best friend. "It could be a lot worse you know!"
"Yeah, that's true." Yugi said with a sly smile. "I could have this job and look like you!"
All the other tongue scrubbers bust out laughing, even Joey laughed, knowing that Yugi was just playing around.
Suddenly things did get worse – a lot worse. The dragon started to heave and choke. Yugi looked down into his bucket of slime as the watery surface rippled and trembled. His eyes grew wide with fear. Indigestion! "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!" Yugi screamed.
All the scrubbers raced out of the dragon's mouth. They all knew that if a dragon had indigestion it would mean only one thing: a very large burp with flames!
Everyone managed to get out safely, except one little kid who slip on the slime and fell into it face first.
"Wait!" Tristan said, looking back. "That little kid's stuck in there!"
Yugi looked back. The little kid was just starting to pick himself up. Yugi looked down the dragon's throat. He could see the glow of the dragon's fire coming. The kid wouldn't have enough time to run out! He'd be burnt to a crisp!
"Hang on kid!" Yugi doubled back, grabbed the even smaller boy, jumped up and braced against the dragon's uvula. A huge burp erupted from the dragon's mouth and flames blew out, consuming Yugi and the kid in it!
"YUGI!" Joey and Tristan cried.
Yami, Mai and the others rushed up at seeing their friend's daring rescue to save the little kid. The flames soon died down and the dragon began to heave and choke then he spat out Yugi and the young boy. Yugi landed on the ground with a thud. Yami, Mai and the others surround Yugi while the other workers checked on the boy. Yugi's friends were glad to see that he was safe.
Yami and Mai hugged their younger brother, over joyed that he was safe. After losing their parents, Yami and Mai wouldn't be able to live with themselves if they lost Yugi.
"Yugi, are you alright?" Yami asked, checking his brother all over.
"I'm okay." Yugi replied.
"Thank goodness you're safe." Mai said, hugging him tightly.
"Yami, Mai, honestly, I'm fine." Yugi said again, pulling out of they're arms.
Another burp erupted from the dragon's mouth and mucus flew everywhere, hitting Yugi in the face.
"Bleeh, still think it could be worse?" Yugi asked Joey, wiping the slimy stuff off his face.
"Yeah," Joey said. "I could look like you."
All the other scrubbers began to crack up. Even Yugi laughed as he bent down and picked up a handful of slime, "Very funny. Well, see if you laugh at this!" he threw the slime at Joey.
But Joey ducked and the slime hit a button up in the booth. Suddenly a blast of soap caught the dragon right in the eye.
"AHHHHH! That HURTS!" The dragon started to thrash.
"Soap in the eye! Soap in the eye!" Tristan warned as the dragon nearly hit him with its tail.
Yugi thought fast. He darted over to the emergency lever and pulled it. Alarm bells went off as a huge harness clamped down over the dragon. Then he grabbed a bucket and squeegee, ran over to the dragon, and quickly cleaned the soap out of his eye.
"It's all right, it's all right." He said soothingly to the dragon. "Look, I'm gonna get you some coupons, we're gonna get you a free hot wax and all that. You like that?"
The dragon nodded, "Thanks, Yugi."
Phew! Yugi put down the squeegee. He was about to dive back to his station when a stinger zapped him on the shoulder. "Ahh!" he yelped.
He turned to see Ernie and Bernie, Sykes' Marsupial dragon assistants. They looked like a cross between dragons and kangaroos. They had bright green scaly skin with blue feet, hands and a blue stripe from their head to their tails, and yellow underbellies. They had small horns on their heads, small spikes on their back, longs sharp claws and small sharp fangs. They had large kangaroo-like legs, small wings that were completely useless for flying and pouches on their stomachs. Their zaps packed a powerful punch. Their brains, however, were a lot less powerful. Yugi sometimes wondered if they had any brains at all.
"Well, look who it is, Bernie." Ernie sneered.
"Just the boy we're lookin' for." Bernie replied. "The boss be needin' to see you-right now!"
"Ernie! Bernie! Nice to see ya guys! What's up?" Yugi said nervously.
"You are!" Said Ernie. "Up in Mr Sykes office. Now, mon."
Ernie and Bernie grabbed Yugi and hauled him up to Sykes' office. They tossed him inside. Yugi hit the desk with a crash. He stood up and rubbed his sore head, "Hey, Sykes you wanted to see me?"
"Yugi," Sykes gestured to a chair. "Would you please sit down?"
"Sure." Yugi sat down.
"I've been going over my markers," Sykes began. "You're into me for five grand. That's five G's-"
Yugi shook his head, "Five G's? No way it's five G's…"
Sykes picked up a stack of papers and threw them at Yugi's head, "See if this refreshes your memory."
Yugi quickly glanced at all the IOUs. He gulped, "Look at that. I never knew that you wrote down everything that I owe you so you wouldn't forget." He nodded seriously, "This is a perfect example of why you're in management and I'm not."
"Yugi…"Sykes growled, starting to puff up, "I have to start paying Don Lino protection, so everything you owe me – you owe him."
"How do you figure that?" Yugi asked.
"Simple, the food chain." Sykes said simply. Sykes pulled down a diagram of the food chain that was hanging behind his desk. "You see? On top, there's Don Lino. Then there's me, and then there's regular humans."
"That's me." Yugi said helpfully.
"No." Sykes said, rolling the end of the diagram over his desk. "There's dragons, then there's unicorns, then there's phoenixes and centaurs-"
"Then there's me?" Yugi chimed in, pointing to the diagram.
"I'm getin' there." Sykes said, swatting Yugi's hand away. "There's kimeras, there's krakens, there's cerberus', there's hydras, there's werewolf drool, there's bunyip slime…and then there's you." Sykes pointed to the bottom of the chart and sure enough Yugi's picture was there.
Yugi reached over and pulled the chart towards him. He stared at it for a second. He frowned, "That's messed up!"
"So if Don Lino's squeezing me…" Sykes continued, ignoring Yugi's last comment. "…He's squeezing YOU!" Sykes poked Yugi in the chest with his stick.
"What!" Yugi cried, letting go of the chart. The chart whirled up like a window blind, hitting Sykes in the face. "Sykes, I'm sorry!" Yugi apologized quickly.
"YUGI!" Sykes shrieked, starting to blow up.
"Easy boss." Bernie said, moving closer. "Find your happy place."
"Happy place!" Ernie chimed in cheerily.
Sykes rubbed his beck, "There IS no happy place with him around."
"Sykes-" Yugi began.
"I'm serious!" Sykes blew up completely, knocking Yugi to the ground.
"Okay, okay!" Yugi cried, scrambling to get out of Sykes' way. "Please, just gimme some time. That's all I'm asking! I'm begging you, Sykes. Please."
Sykes stared at Yugi. His eyes softened…slightly. "Alright." He said, un-puffing himself. "Cause I 'like' you, I'm gonna give you twenty-four hours to pay up."
"All of it?" Yugi gulped, standing up. Yugi knew that he was in serious trouble now. He, his brother and sister were already in enough dept, there was just no way that he could pay Sykes back by tomorrow! "How am I supposed to do that?"
"That's you're problem." Sykes told him, leaving the office as Ernie and Bernie opened the door for him. "Bring my five thousand dollars to the race track tomorrow…or else."
"Or else what?" Yugi asked.
"The boys'll explain." Sykes said and he closed the door.
Yugi watched as Ernie and Bernie closed in. Five thousand dollars? How was he going to get five thousand dollars by tomorrow? "Somehow, I'll figure something out." Yugi thought. "I just gotta."
But he had to admit, as Bernie (or was it Ernie?) reached out a stinger to zap him, that his dream penthouse was looking a lot further away than it had that morning.