Terzen was preparing a few mold biscuits for the Poya that had recently arrived from Senmar. It wasn't common that Poya came to Klyndeneya, which meant that any Poya food had to be prepared on the spot. "Mold biscuits," Terzen scoffed quietly. "Those Poya have no taste, no taste at all. Why not just have a nice raw steak or sautéed fish eyes? They're much easier to prepare, and they smell better, too."
For a moment, Terzen stopped and wondered if the Poya seated in the table across the room could hear him. Their ears were pointed and huge, which meant that they had pretty good hearing for walking skeletons.
Suddenly, the Trendestad port lit up, and out stepped the human version of the young Yugi. He looked tired and overheated. He took a relieved breath and walked toward the bar.
Next, another human walked out. This one had the same spiky Mutou hair, except he was covered in black blood. He must have tried to hack up a Lilitum without killing it. Terzen chuckled. That stuff's stench took ages to get off. Right now, the boy probably smelled like decomposing sewer rat cooked under a heat lamp, especially after his bout in the Rosterfeld sun.
After him, a bumbling blonde human spilled out of the port, holding his eyes. He must not have remembered to close them before transporting. Terzen had tried that once, just to know what was going on. He had been nearly blinded for a week, and Kryllians eyes were strong.
The sweet human girl Terzen had met earlier came next, holding herself with confidence and accomplishment. Her hunt had gone well, Terzen could tell. And he was happy for her. She deserved a nice glass of pureed sheep liver. "But then again," Terzen thought, "maybe humans don't care for that sort of thing."
Another guy came through, slightly disoriented but not as much as the blonde was.
"Hey, Terzen!" Yugi said cheerfully. He was holding a Lilithim. His fight had ended in success. "We finished our assignment!"
Terzen held out his hand, and Yugi gave the Lilithim to him. The Kryllian took out a small, metallic device and ran it over the Lilithim's smooth surface. Then he punched a few things into the bottom of the scanner and the Lilithim disintegrated.
"Your pay's on your card, snowflake," Terzen said, smiling. "Four hundred rasta."
Yugi's eyebrows rose high. "Four hundred rasta?" Joey asked himself. "If one rasta is five dollars, then four hundred rasta would be…"
"It's two thousand dollars," Tea said. Then it hit her. "Two thousand dollars?!" she yelled.
"For one mission?!" Tristan exclaimed. "We were out there for, like, a day!"
Terzen shrugged. "Risk of life and limb always results in high pay, mates. Besides, that's for all of you, and most people don't take a new assignment every day."
Atem didn't look that happy. "Let's go home, if you don't mind. I'd like to take a shower," he said, glancing distastefully at his blood-covered shirt.
"Of course," Yugi said, trying to hold his breath for as long as he could. "Let's go home. We'll come back soon."
Six months later, the summer sun was beating down on the city of Domino. The air wavered with the heat and school-children sweated and frolicked beneath the harsh rays.
Yugi lay on the ground beneath his ceiling fan, panting heavily. This was nearly as bad as Rosterfeld. Other the other hand, Atem was taking it fine. Apparently, ninety degrees was relatively cool in Egypt. Yugi chuckled cheerlessly. Ninety degrees in Astala would mean that the world was melting. One was lucky to get an average temperature of sixty during summer in Yugi's hometown, Poranis.
"Are you going to be alright, Yugi?" Atem asked, grinning at the poor, perspiring Astalan who was collapsed on the floor. "You don't look very good."
"I miss Poranis!" Yugi exclaimed miserably. What he would give to walk barefoot in the snow again… to taste the sweet slate from the Perjharian Mines…
"Maybe we can go there," Atem suggested. Yugi's ears perked at that. "If it's summer in Poranis, then that would mean humans are allowed, and we could always take a new assignment."
Yugi sat up. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I mean, you're used to warm weather. Poranis is going to be really cold for you and the others, even in summer."
Atem shook his head. "You're obviously uncomfortable, Yugi. I can take a day or two of cold weather if you can get out of the heat for a while."
Yugi grinned. "Thanks!" he said, and was about to hug Atem when he suddenly realized that it would be extremely gross. "Be sure to pack warm clothing. It will probably be about thirty degrees around Poranis, because it's only mid-spring."
An hour later, the entire gang arrived as Klyndeneya, ready to take a mission in or around Poranis. They had packed their bags full of human food and winter-wear. Human food was scarce and expensive in Astala, because it could only be grown in the Frevernarè Valley.
A Loramys was tending the bar in Terzen's stead. She saw Yugi and smiled. "Trezha, Yugi."
Yugi waved happily in her direction. "Frenji!" He rushed over to the bar and began talking animatedly to her in a foreign language.
"Do all Loramysha speak that language?" Tea asked Atem quietly. He shrugged.
"Yugi doesn't talk much about his home planet, even after telling us about his race," he admitted. "I don't like to push. I think perhaps it's because of his parents."
Frenji noticed Yugi's look-alike standing apprehensively with the others. "And who's this?" she asked Yugi. Her voice was heavily accented.
"This is Atem," Yugi said, pointing to the ex-pharaoh. "And these are my friends Joey, Tristan, and Tea."
"It is pleasuring to meet you," she said, making a strange gesture with her frosty-blue hand. "Are you 'ere on business?"
"Yes, we are," Atem said. "We'd like to take a mission in Poranis, actually."
"Ah, Poranis," she sighed. "A lovely city, time of year that this is. The kreikeshna are all in bloom."
"Rock blood flowers," Yugi explained when Atem looked at him for an explanation. "They're beautiful, and they bloom in early spring around the month of Reshsa. They earned their name because they grow right out of stone."
"So are there any available missions in your city?" Tristan asked. "We could be too late, or too early."
Yugi took out his account card and slid it into one of the discreet slots in the counter. A screen popped up, and Yugi selected "available assignments". The long list of missions popped up. "Are we supposed ta sort though all dat?" Joey asked, dismayed.
"Nope." Yugi said, and pressed "search". Then he entered "ten miles from Poranis" under location and confirmed. Only three missions were displayed now.
"One Slime Lilitum in the Poranis Sewers. One Yeti Lilitum in the Beromeit Fields. And one Ice Lilitum in the Caves of Mt. Fortanya." Atem read. "Which one do you think we should do, Yugi?"
"Well, Slime Lilitu are pains. You have to sift through the sludge to find a certain vulnerable crystal shard in its center," Yugi said pensively. "The Beromeit Fields are constantly covered in blizzards and snowstorms. And you have to climb Mt. Fortanya to get to the Caves… I guess it's up to you guys."
"I vote no on the Sewers," Atem said. "I've had my fill of sludge." He was thinking back to the unfortunate event with the Snake Lilitum. He had to scrub off the outer layer of his skin to get the smell out.
"I don't think I wanna be walkin' though any blizzard," Joey said.
"So that leaves the Mt. Fortanya Caves, right?" Tea asked. "Is climbing it hard? Is it like Mt. Everest or something?"
Yugi shook his head. "It's not that hard, no. But it is going to take some effort to get to the Caves. It's going to be cold, and painfully bright, too. But I guess that it's better than the Sewers or blizzards. We'll take it." Yugi pressed "accept". The mission was removed from the list.
"The 'umans are going to climb Fortanya?" Frenji asked. "Well, I wish you the best of luck. The caves are relatively low, but the trip can be dangerous. Be careful, and stay close to each other. You don't want to lose someone to the snow or ice."
"We will, Frenji!" Yugi responded. He couldn't help a small feeling of trepidation in his gut. What if they did get separated? Even in spring, Mt. Fortanya was bitter cold, and humans didn't usually fare well on its slopes. Yugi could only hope that his bout of nostalgia wouldn't get his friends killed.