The Queen had a songbird that sang in the dark Chapter 2, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Yep, this one IS being updated slower than the other one.

Why?

Frankly, I'm getting finished with fanfiction. I probably won't be posting anything after this fic is finished...luckily for you lot, I'm going to end up posting so slowly that that'll be in a few years or so...

Disclaimer: Yugioh and Black&White not owned here

In an effort to hold down his temper, Yami tried to help the villagers with the harvest. Chucking the grain in from a few miles away did improve his aim, but he still felt miserable.

'I cannot find the way to send you home,' Kazul's words repeated mockingly in his head, 'Unless more people from your world travel to this one, it cannot be done. I am sorry, but this is the only way.'

'The Only Way'…now those were three words that left Yami sick to his stomach.

Passively noting how several of the younger villagers were pointing at and talking eagerly about his throwing prowess, Yami flung in the last of the field and headed off to find something else to occupy his time with.

Not even the work of the Great Endeavor that the newly christened HighGod had given to his subordinate gods and goddesses - which, by a cruel twist of fate, also included Yami - could keep Yami's mind off the woes plaguing it.

And to think, only a year earlier he had been embroiled in a battle that would save or destroy the world of Eden, fighting as a young and powerful God…and as a simple fool who had no idea that he had ever been anything more.

But old Kazul, before departing, had rectified that.

"What good are memories if they only hurt you," Yami sighed, speaking to himself as he aimlessly floated around, "What good's a bond if you can't find the person on the other end…"

((Master!))

Blinking, Yami looked towards the owner of the telepathic voice and found himself floating face-to-face with Laurel. She was getting rather tall these days, wasn't she…

The leopard Creature crossed her forearms and stared at her master with a disapproving frown on her feline features.

"What, Laurel?" he asked, not liking this look.

((Master, you were throwing something, weren't you?)) Laurel inquired.

"Food, from the field, to the Village Store," Yami retorted.

((Food from a field of a village to the Village Store of a completely different village,)) the Creature countered, ((I saw you…and more importantly, Jake saw you. He had finished with grain and was using villagers before I found a chance to smack him!))

"And your point is…" Yami said impatiently, not in the mood for this sort of interrogation.

Much to his surprise, his floating, glowing ball-of-a-self was snatched out of the air by paws.

Or maybe it wasn't so much of a surprise. Laurel was very sweet and quite gentle-natured - until something happened to threaten the humans and other beings she was protecting. Then she got predatorily vicious.

Such as right now.

((I have been patient and I have been kind,)) Laurel growled, ((But enough is enough. Ever since we found out the truth, the most you've done is sulk. Except for the times you undermine everything I've tried to teach Jake about being a good Creature.))

Yami should have punished her for so manhandling him - as a god, he was well within his right to. But it was hard to get mad at someone who was so obviously right…not to mention kind of scary. Even if she was a subordinate.

"…Laurel, you're right. And I apologize," he told her.

She looked him over carefully, and then her fierce countenance softened to its more familiar and friendly appearance.

((I wish you would open up a little bit more, Master,)) Laurel said, ((I appreciate that you told me about the other land you come from, but I've been able to tell you've been so depressed for months on end, and I want to help.))

As she spoke, she had casually turned around and started walking to a different part of the Influence.

((But first, you do need to deal with Jake. He's just a cub and he keeps imitating what he sees you do!))

"…All right," Yami sighed, "Let me change, and then I'll talk with him."

And change he did, from the normal glowing sphere-shape of the gods of Eden to the shape they referred to as 'Humanform'. At least for true gods, it was only a change in shape, but Yami's so-called 'Humanform' had always been his true appearance.

Laurel let him sit on her head as she walked to where Jake was waiting.

Jake was licking at a bruise on his arm when his master and trainer came up. A young tiger Creature, Jake only came up to Laurel's waist. Compared to the both of them, Yami was especially puny, even more so in a human body.

But this was the territory of the God Yuugioh - as Yami, in his previous amnesic state, had named himself - and they both served him.

And yet, barely a year ago, the mere idea of a god having the power of more than one Creature at his disposal would have been unthinkable. Not anymore, though - it was a part of the HighGod's Great Endeavor. Much of Eden had been ruined during the course of the war, possibly the least of which had been the complete destruction of The Continent during the final battle. Entire islands had sunk beneath the waves of the Great Sea, and strange new ones had been forced up out of the water by the powerful disturbance.

With the number of gods and goddesses of both denominations thinned by the war, there were too many humans to be looked after by too many weakened spirits.

So the HighGod had proposed a solution: since Creatures were naturally capable of many of the same tasks as gods, some extra ones would be trained and set to fill the gaps in support.

They owed it, as the HighGod said, to the humans to give them a good chance at their future, for without the humans' prayers gods and goddesses would have never existed in Eden in the first place.

And so Yami, who already had a perfectly capable leopard Creature, had been given the tiger cub Jake.

Although normally a god raised a Creature themselves, Jake's training was supposed to be overseen by Laurel - at the time, Yami had already suspected he wouldn't be fit to raise anything with the thought of his separation from Yugi constant in his mind.

((Jake,)) Laurel said, bringing the cub's attention their way, ((As I said, here is our master to speak with you about your actions.))

Jake eyed Yami as Laurel gingerly plucked him off of her head and set him gently on the grass.

"Yes, well," Yami said, feeling slightly ridiculous at lecturing someone half the size of Kaiba Corp, "Laurel has told me you were throwing villagers, Jake."

((Yes sir,)) Jake replied, sounding sorrowful, ((I ran out of grain, sir.))

"That is no excuse to harm the humans under our care, Jake," Yami said firmly.

((Yes sir.))

((This is not the first time he has endangered the villages, Master,)) Laurel spoke up, ((Tossing cows and horses into houses, practicing hunting on the children…))

"Ah hah…Jake, if you must practice your hunting, select a target that knows how to run and hide properly," Yami interrupted her, "For example, Laurel."

((Me?)) Laurel blinked.

((Miss Laurel, sir?)) Jake blinked.

"Why not? Laurel can evaluate your progress for you, surely she can defend herself if you get carried away…" Yami said, smiling slightly, "It seems perfectly all right to me…Jake, you will have to learn when not to bother someone, but that's good practice as well, isn't it."

((If you say so, sir,)) Jake said, his tail waving gently as he relaxed; he wasn't being yelled at or smacked again as he had expected.

"Furthermore, as for the horses and cows," Yami continued, "You've seen me throw them, haven't you. That's where you learned it from."

((…Yes, sir. Miss Laurel smacked me for breaking a building with them…))

"As well she should. That was dangerous and irresponsible, and the fault behind it is ultimately mine."

((No, sir!)) Jake protested, ((You didn't destroy any houses! Just some trees, and you grew them back!))

"Jake, one must learn to take responsibility for their actions or lack thereof. My actions caused you to desire to experiment. My lack of actions in not showing you that such actions are highly destructive caused you to experiment in the middle of the village. Therefore, it is my fault. Do you understand?"

Jake puzzled over the statement for a bit, before nodding and saying, ((Yes, sir, I do. I must become responsible for my actions.))

The tiger hesitated before adding, ((And I must also practice my hunting on Miss Laurel.))

"Right," Yami said, trying to pretend he didn't notice Laurel's irritated gaze peering down at him from ten stories up.

((Thank you for telling me, sir,)) Jake said, tail swishing back and forth.

Yami turned, about to shift back into his other shape and find something constructive that needed doing, but before he could a strange feeling hit him. A very odd feeling, and it wasn't him feeling it, but it was flooding into his mind all the same…

((…Master?))

((Sir? Is something wrong?))

…He waited, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Was it coming from…the bond? It was, it was coming down like a runaway train, straight down the link that connected him to -

Not just a feeling now. There was PAIN!

((MASTER!)) Laurel cried, seeing her beloved master suddenly seize up and then collapse.

Yami didn't register it, though, he was too busy trying to fight past the feeling, past the pain, to find what sort of thing it could be coming from.

No, not a what. Most definitely a who.

"Yugi!" Yami gasped, before the pain overwhelmed his senses and knocked him out.