Duelists of Dark and Light

Ch. 2:

Seto's eyes narrowed as the fallen post began to sent a small trail of fire down through the village in the form of a fireball and Shelen winced every time there was a cry of pain or a crash. The fire then barreled past the duelists that were holding down the Blacklanders and the dragons broke free from the spell and most flew off with some of the livestock.

"Um...I can fix this..." She tried to say with a nervous look as Seto's glare intencified, "Well..I hit the Sky Dragon."

He suddenly grabbed her by the arm and began pulling her along. She knew she was going to get an earfull if she didn't do something to save her ass, and quick.

"It's not like the last few times, Kaiba!" She tried to explain, "I really did hit them! You all were busy and I had a perfectly clear shot! He went just over Kingdom Come Pass. Let's get a search party and go after hi-"

"STOP!" Seto's voice was filled with anger despite the calm firm tone he used, "Stop. How many times do I have to tell you to STAY INSIDE before you get it through your head?"

"Uh..."

"That was rhetorical." Seto said, he then gestured to the villagers asembled, "Can't you see we have bigger problems? Winter's nearly here and there's an entire village to feed!"

"Well, if ya ask me, the village could do with a little less feeding, you know." Shelen shrugged a few of the larger duelists placed hands to their stomachs, obviously offended.

"This is NOT a joke, Pendragon!" Seto hissed through grit teeth, "This is why we're losing to them! You can't even listen to the simplist orders!"

"I-I can't help it!" She defended, "I see a monster just gotta kill it, ya know?" She made a motion with her hands as though she was twisting off a dragon's head, "It's who I am, Seto!"

Seto sighed and shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose and supporting the arm the hand belonged to with the opposite by hugging his other side.

"You are many things, Shelen. But a duelist ISN'T one of them." He then turned to Shimon, "Take her back to the house. And make sure she stays there. I have her mess to clean up." Seto then walked away to get the spell cards for repairs and helpful revival spells out to clean up.

Shimon took Shelen by the arm and gave her a pat on the back for comfort and pushed her forward. She walked back toward the house with her head down.

"Nice going, Dweeb!" Crystal snickered. Marik and Bakura also laughed as Shelen passed them.

"I have NEVER seen anyone screw up this bad!" Jazz laughed.

"Thank you, I was trying." Shelen muttered sarcastically. Daren and Kyla kept quiet. Shelen ignored them anyway, not caring what Daren thought of her now. Shimon frowned and shoved Jazz out of the way. She was pushed back and continued lightly giggling as the blond and her mentor passed them.

...

"I really did hit it." Shelen said as he climbed the high hill to the house, which had a Blue'Eyes head carved into the front above the door.

"Sure you did, Shelen." Shimon sighed.

"He just never believes me!"

"Runs in his family." Shimon shrugged.

"I mean, if he doesn't even like me, why am I here?"

"He likes you! You're his last living blood relative!"

"Well why doesn't he show it?"

"This is how he expresses his love."

"By glaring at people?"

"..."

"That's what I though."

Shelen then opened the door to the house and was about to go in.

"Look, it's not so much the difference in looks he hates. It's what's inside that he can't stand." Shimon tried to say. She stared at him with a 'not-helping' expression on her face.

"Thank you for summing that up." Shelen said sarcastically.

"I'm just trying to say stop trying to be something you're not." Shimon tried a different saying.

"I just want to be like you guys." She said and pushed open the door then shut it again. Shimon sighed and walked away. He did not notice Shelen jump through the back door and hurry off to the woods.

...

Shelen had been wandering around the woods near Kingdom Come Pass and was using a map of the forest she had found in the library a while back, that had X marks drawn into it by her as she marked off each spot she tried to find the fallen rider. She took a deep breath and looked up to see...Nothing. She sighed and crossed out the area of the forest then grew frustrated and scribbled all over the map in her stress. Taking out her frustration on the piece of paper. She then crumbled it up and sighed again.

"Why me?" She asked herself as she kicked a small pebble, "How is it that I managed to lose a dragon? A frickin' dragon?"

She suddenly grabbed the rock on the ground and threw it as hard as she could in front of her. She heard a thump and a grunt of pain. She suddenly froze and looked to where she had thrown the rock. A wide cut trench was dug in front of her and she gasped. She then climbed over the small rise to see what was on the other side. She gasped again and ducked.

What she had seen was something will red and black hair that was wildly spiked up. She gathered up her courage and grabbed her dagger from in her belt. Just because she didn't have spell cards or a Duel Disk didn't mean she wasn't armed. She then peaked out and looked around. She then hurried over the rise and hid behind a large boulder. She took a deep breath then looked behind the rock.

The thing she had hit was actually a person. A man that looked at least a year older than her. His back was turned to her but she saw he had on a dark purple cape and wore ankle bracelets. His hair was black with crimson ends, and his skin was a slight tan colored from what she saw.

"The Shadow Prince..." she whispered in shock. She then came closer and saw he wasn't moving. She then nearly laughed as she came closer.

"I-I did it...I brought down the mighty King of Darkness!" She cheered and placed a foot on the body. There was a loud groan and the body shifted. She jumped back and held up her knife at the ready. The man's chest was moving up and down in heavy breathing. She came closer again and looked up his body. She saw he also wore a white tunic and arm and wristbands not unlike his anklebands. A gold headband with a golden Eye of Horus was on his forhead. Suddenly his eyelids went up and she stared into deep firely crimson red eyes.

She gaped at the beautiful eyes of the man. She was trancefixed in those blood red depths. But they were filled with fear, hatred was there as well, but mostly fear. She then remembered the deeds done by the man. She still remembered the explosions his shadow magic caused, and the deaths of many people. She wasn't sure if her parents were in the group that were killed but she knew she had to stop him before he killed anyone else.

She took a deep breath. He was a murderer, a terrorist, and a threat to the island. He had to be stopped. She steeled herself and took the knife to plunge it into the man's chest. He just stared at her. A grudging acceptence to his fate was also in those eyes of his. She tried not to look at them, for fear she would go soft and spare him. But she couldn't look away from those eyes again.

The crimson then disappeared again behind thin tan flesh of his eyelids. His face was relaxed but his muscles were tense. He was prepared to die.

/Just finish me./ A deep baritone voice spoke. She thought it had come from her head so she ignored it. Then instead of plunging the dagger into him, she sighed and lowered her weapon. She looked from it to the man.

"No..." She whispered to herself, "This is wrong..."

The sounds of snapping rope reached the man's ears. His eyes snapped open again and he looked up to see Shelen cutting away the ropes. She was looking around as she did for fear of being seen and was about to tell the man to get out of the woods as soon as possible. To call his dragon and return to his home, but before she could get a word out once the ropes were loosened enough, the man had pounced. She was soon pinned under him, he had his foot on her chest and a sword was to her throat, poised to attack.

His crimson eyes were blazing with fury, hate, and a thirst for blood. She stared into them wide-eyed but felt no fear.

Well...At least I wont be missed. Everything may go better now that I'll be gone...Seto will get his wish, no more sharing a house with me.

Suddenly though, the pressure on her chest was lifted. She opened her eyes and saw the sword was inches from her head, stabbed into the ground. It was then lifted with a little jerk of the man's wrist and he resheathed it. She sat up and he walked away.

"Wait!" She said. He only stopped, "Why did you spare me?"

He was silent for a moment, then when she was about to get up and also walk away she heard a deep baritone voice again. This time it was from the man.

"A life for a life. You spared my life, I was only returning the favor."

He then walked through the small gap in the trees and disappeared. She stood shakily and dusted herself off. Then she picked up her fallen dagger and resheathed it then began the long walk home.

...

When she got back to her house, shelen snuck in and saw that Seto was at his desk. His back was turned to her and he was hunched over so he must have been writing or sorting through his spell cards. she tiptoed past him and hurried up the stairs. She was half-way up when-

"Pendragon." Seto looked up but didn't turn to face her. She knew that tone, it was his 'Get-your-ass-down-here-now' tone.

"Cousin!" She said in false suprise. Then she sighed, "I-I gotta talk to you, Kaiba."

"I have something to talk to you about too, Pendragon." Seto stood and faced her. She stepped down the steps and both took a deep breath.

"I realized I don't want to be a duelist!" Shelen said.

"It's time you learn to be a duelist." Seto said. Both had spoken at the same time. They looked at eachother and blinked.

"What?" They said together.

"You go first." Seto said, if he was going to open up to Shelen some he had to start concidering her oppinion.

"N-No, no, you go first." She offered.

"Alright. I have signed you up for Duel Monsters training." Seto said, "You start tomorrow morning."

"Oh, crap! I think I shoulda gone first!" Shelen made different nervous hand motions, "You know I was thinking, you guys were right! I am WAY otu there and I don't exactly qualify for being a Duelist. Maybe I should stick to what I do in the forge and-"

Kaiba wasn't exactly listening and had grabbed an old deck of spell cards.

"You'll need this." He placed the cards in her hand after grabbing one and slapping it softly but forcefully down into her hand.

"I-I don't want to be a Duelist." She got to the point.

"What are you talking about? It's all you ever think about ever since you were old enough to join the forces."

"Ok, let me rephrase. Kaiba, I CAN'T kill Shadow Beasts!"

"But you will kill them." Kaiba told her.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"It's time, Pendragon. Your parents wanted you to do this."

"Kaiba-!"

"Pendragon! This is serious. You have to be in charge someday and it's best to learn now."

"What? Where are you going?"

"We're going to find the Nest."

Shelen groaned. Seto's goal ever since becoming leader of the village had been to find the Nest. Where the Shadow Beasts lived and force them to leave, one way or another. They called the place the 'Shadow Realm' for the dark mist that surrounded it and pulsated with evil. Some could hear the shrieks and roars of the monsters on the island if they sailed far enough in. Last time they had found the location, this time they were going to the island.

"But-"

"No 'buts'! Now, when you carry this deck, you carry all of us with you." Kaiba said.

Oh joy...Shimon's 'Heart of the Cards' speech has even ogtten to Kaiba... Shelen thought sarcastically.

"Which means you walk like us," He made her stand straight by pulling her shoulders up slightly, "You talk like us," He was indicating to her slang being unnessisary, "You think like us." He placed a finger to his temple in example, he meant think strategy, not about the game, "No more of...THIS."

"You just gestured to all of me." Shelen was getting pretty annoyed now.

"Deal?"

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided."

"Deal?" Kaiba asked more firmly.

She sighed. "Deal."

"Good. Train hard. I'll be back. Probably." Seto said as he grabbed his Duel Disk and placed it on his wrist then placed his deck in his pocket and walked out the door.

"And I'll be here. Maybe." Shelen replied halfheartedly.

...

That night as she dreamed only thoughts of the Shadow Prince's words were in her dreams.

'A life for a life...'

A life for a life...That was for sure.

Chapter 2 is over. Shelen meets the mysterious Shadow Prince and she doesn't kill him. He doesn't kill her. Also I did a little more on Shelen and Seto's relationship. Seto isn't like Stoik at all so I had to make Seto a bit like Stoik in a way. If he was a little OOC please tell me and I will warn you in advanced next time.

Yami: Why is it that every time Shelen and I meet she's trying to kill me?

Shelen: What do you mean?

Yami: In 'YGO:Crimson Sapphire' you had a kitchen knife. In 'My Only' you had a knife you had found in my chambers, and in this one you tried to kill me with a dagger you owned.

Shelen: Yeah, I guess we do have a sorta pattern...

I like knives ok. They're cool. Light-weight, deadly, easy to hold, and draws blood easily. :D

Shelen and Yami: *sweatdrop*

Shelen: You've been hanging with Bakura haven't you...

Nope. I already cut him. His blood wasn't as red as Yami's though.

Shami! Get off the computer!

Shelen: Oh, that explains it.

Shami: Aw. I never get to be in the chats!

This is exactly why! Now scram! I'll let you talk in your onw story!

Shami: *leaves to find something to do. Preferably terrify his little sister.*

Kaze: R & R. Be back shortly.