As the gang happily roasted by an open fire, a deep rumbling sound was heard from the caves depths.
"Uh…. Yug'?" Joey asked nervously. "What was dat?"
"It could have been an earthquake," Yugi said hesitantly. "We get them a lot on the mountain."
Suddenly, a 7-foot tall woman walked out of the dark cavernous beyond. She looked white and slightly transparent, as if she was a ghost. Her eyes were blank and empty, and her hair never moved. She was made entirely of ice.
"This is the Lilitum?" Tristan asked incredulously. "It's a tall, white-haired chick!"
This tall, white-haired chick thrust out her hand. The ice hanging from the ceiling melted, as the water molecules assembled neatly in the form of an extremely large sword. Her stiff fingers grasped it, and with a mighty blow she sent a shock wave that nearly threw Yugi and the gang clear out of the cavern entrance.
"Holy crap, she's strong!" Joey said, pulling out his iron knuckles. The others readied their weapons.
Yugi was the first to strike. With inhuman agility that the humans didn't even knew he possessed, he dodged another tremendous blow and slashed at the Lilitum's arm. The Getya sword glanced off, not even leaving a scratch. Yugi stood, horrified, for a moment, until the ice-woman hit him across the face with her arm. The hit was so powerful that it knocked Yugi off his feet and into the opposite cave wall.
Tea loosed an arrow into the woman's chest, but the arrow shattered on impact. Tristan swung his staff at the Lilitum, but it bounced back, causing him to lose balance.
"Dis chick is invincible!?" Joey exclaimed, aiming a few punches at the Lilitum's lovely face and only succeeding in getting a brutal kick in the stomach.
"This Lilitum is made of ice…" Atem pondered, dodging another furious blow from the ice-woman's giant sword. He glanced at the fire they had started. "And fire melts ice."
Atem quickly removed the flask Pijana had given him from his coat pocket and opened it, dumping its contents onto his broadsword's blade. Then he quickly ran over and stuck his sword into the flames. It caught on fire instantly.
The Lilitum approached him steadily. Atem spun around, and shoved his flaming sword into the ice-woman's gut. She seemed to gasp, and unreasonable amounts of water gushed from her abdomen. Atem ripped the sword out and she fell to her knees, screaming an unearthly howl. As the wail echoed in the caverns, the ice turned to water, and the water turned to steam. Eventually, only a black, square Lilithim remained.
The gang stared at it for a while. "Good thinking, Atem!" Yugi exclaimed happily, rubbing the back of his head. He then he looked at that hand. A gleaming, blue-white substance covered his fingers. "That can't be good…" he said absently, and passed out.
Atem rushed over to the unconscious Loramys' side. "Yugi!" he said, holding up the alien's limp form. "Yugi, are you alright?"
"He must have hit his head pretty hard when that ice chick threw him into a wall." Tristan said. "Check out his blood, though."
"It's blue…" Atem mused.
"Yeah," Joey agreed. "And he hit dat Lilitum faster dan I could blink."
"He did move really fast," Tea agreed. "It must be a special ability of Loramysha that he never told us about."
"He never told us about a lot of things," Atem said.
"I'm up…" Yugi mumbled suddenly, sitting up and blinking the drowsiness from re-acquired consciousness.
Atem put a steady hand on the Loramys' chest. "No, you're not," he commanded. "You were just knocked unconscious, and you shouldn't move."
Yugi pushed him off and stood up shakily. "I'll be fine," he said, swaying like a blade of grass in wind. "I bet you're looking forward to going home anyway."
Tea took a few bandages out of her backpack and wrapped them around Yugi's bleeding, white-blue head. "Just let us take care of you a bit, Yugi," she chided. "And we'll do the best we can."
Yugi winced as she tied a knot in the gauze, but he obediently sat back down. "Thanks," he said softly.
In the silence that followed, Joey whipped out a skewer and a piece of bread from his backpack and began toasted the slice over the still-burning fire. "My goodness, Joey, how much stuff did you take?" Atem asked incredulously.
"The skewer, some salt, jam, pizza, bananas…" Again, the list went on and on.
Tea raised her hands in a sign of defeat. "I give up. I can't keep track of everything he took."
Yugi's stomach rumbled loudly at that moment. He blushed a silvery-blue color. "Uh… did you bring any rocks, Joe?" he asked embarrassedly.
Joey dramatically raised a finger and pulled a leather bag out of his coat pocket. "They used ta be Serenity's, back when she was doin' her whole 'geology' spiel. It's got all kinds in dere."
Yugi opened the bag and drooled. He began sticking things in his mouth, oohing and aahing as he discovered new varieties. A few minutes later, when Yugi and Joey had finished eating, Tea began to pack herself up. "Are you ready to go back to Earth, guys?" she asked.
"Yeah, was there anything else you wanted to see, Yugi?" Tristan asked the pale alien.
Yugi shook his head. "No. I'd like to go home now."
"Oi!" Frenji yelled to the back room. "Our little Yugi's gone and gotten 'imself another mission."
Terzen had taken the previous day off to take his wife to the Kryllian Sandshore. Watching the wind sweep the grains back and forth was an amazing spectacle, especially with his beloved spouse there beside him. But Terzen had always cared about Yugi. They had grown a bit apart when Yugi's parents died, but now that the snowflake was taking missions of his own, he'd be stopping by a lot more. It was unfortunate that he had come for his mission on Terzen's vacation day.
Terzen walked back out to the counter, which was too high for Frenji anyway. "Another mission, you say?" he confirmed. "It's good to know that he's getting his feet wet, if you'll pardon the expression."
Loramysha were like cats. They did not like to be wet, and most definitely not in warm water. A Loramys getting their feet wet would probably result in projectile vomit.
Frenji shrugged. "It's good to 'ave 'im back, yeah? Maybe we should celebrate or something."
"What, you mean in honor of him?" Terzen asked. "You want me to throw a party in Klyndeneya for some kid of an old mate of mine?"
"Why not?" Frenji said. "The poor boy is just coming back to 'is old life after ten years. Besides, 'e rescued your great, great, great, great-grandfather's artifacts. I believe they are in another tomb in Rosterfeld, yeah?"
"Yeah…"
"Besides, if 'e defeats the Lilitum in the caves 'e will 'ave saved your wife's favorite vacation site. You owe 'im your thanks, Terzen," she said matter-of-factly.
Terzen laughed. "I guess you're right, snowflake," he said, rubbing her white head cheerfully.
"Do not call me that!" she scolded, brushing his large, six-fingered hand away. "We Loramysha are not some delicate thing floated 'round in the wind. We are strong and quick, and so we 'ave been able to defend our 'omes from Lilitu for thousands of years! Do not treat us so cavalier!"
Yugi stepped out of the Poranis port and into the warm atmosphere of Klyndeneya. He was met with cheers and singing from various patrons. "Uh… what's going on?" he asked shyly.
Atem and the others bumped into him as he stood, shell shocked, in front of the crowd. "Why did you stop, partner?" Atem asked, confused.
"We wanted to congratulate you on some sweeping successes, snowflake!" Terzen said, completely disregarding Frenji's reprimand. "You're here and not dead, so this mission went well too, I'd wager?"
Yugi held up the lilithim. The crowd roared in triumph. "We just completed a few missions, guys," Yugi stated. "Why are you cheering?"
"Are you kiddin' me?" said a nearby Poyo who was usually friendly. Maybe it was the intoxicating effects of the mold biscuits. "I go spelunking there—" He hiccupped. "—nearly all the time. If you hadn't o' taken out that Lilitum, we woulda never been able to do it… again…" he slurred, and fell off of his chair.
"I take my children to the Tree of the First Age every week." one Loramyshan woman said. "I wouldn't have thought it safe if it wasn't for you."
"You saved the Rosterfeld treasure!" roared a Kryllian man. A half-dozen other Kryllians shouted in triumph after him.
"You might not 'ave noticed it, Yugi, but there 'ave been quite a few missions lately." Frenji said, walking up to them "They've no one to take them, you see. You are our first new Union in many years."
"Well, we're just happy ta help!" Joey said, clenching his fist bravely. "Dat Midgard Serpent was hard work, but I pulled through, and here we are!"
His self-magnifying speech instigated the respect of the seven Kryllians, who whooped and shouted their approval.
Atem turned to Yugi. "I guess we really are making a difference," he said. "We can be busy with school, but I don't see why we can't come here as often as we can."
At that moment, Yugi swooned and passed out again. Atem caught him quickly. "I guess that's why."