Trail.

Joey's POV

We reached the city that the tribe was traveling to yesterday; Yugi had known this from his Gramps at his last visit two month ago. After this point they could have gone anywhere. This will be a long search since we're two months behind the tribe and we have two children with us slowing us down, but the tribe will need even more time to prepare for the night or for a break during the day, and that is the only reason we might catch up to them at all.

Yugi is walking around the city with me while Seto is staying at the camp with the children. It isn't easy to keep two small kids under control when in a big city and they aren't that far away, I can still get there fast if I get a vision and Yugi will be safe enough with me by his side and more comfortable with me than with my husband. He used to be terrified by him and still fears him a little. Seto's death glare can get rather terrifying, and before Yugi married the pharaoh he had gotten on the wrong side of said glare a few times.

I walk into a small and dirty bar and Yugi runs up to a bar tender and says, "Hey Tristan, long time no see."

"Hey Yugi, how are you my little friend?" he asks and hugs Yugi before suddenly stepping back and making a bow before the husband of the pharaoh and adding, "Sorry, I'm probably not allowed to do that anymore, your highness."

"Oh don't worry," Yugi says. "As long as Atemu doesn't get a reason to misinterpret this it's fine, old friend. But I need to find my old tribe. I know that they wanted to come here; Gramps told me on his last visit."

"You're still a desert child aren't you, to run around hunting down your tribe?" Tristan asks with a smile. "I'll only tell you what I know if you have a drink with your old friend."

"Tristan you know how bad I react to alcohol," Yugi says with a blush.

"Yeah, and I wonder how you manage to cope on those big feasts the pharaoh has all the time. Doesn't just about everyone want to drink on to your health?" Tristan asks.

"No, the only ones that aren't praying that my spot gets free for them know how I react and are nice enough to spare me. Atemu is the one who gets drunk on a regular basis," Yugi says with a smile, and I wonder if he truly believes it.

The truth is that Atemu keeps everyone from getting too close to his little husband, knowing already how easily he gets drunk and how sick he gets from it. He hates seeing Yugi unwell and does it to keep him safe. I probably will have to tell Yugi that at some point to make sure that he doesn't think everyone is wishing him dead just to be able to get married to Atemu.

"Well I'm not so nice I want to drink with our highness to your health, and one drink isn't going to kill you my friend," Tristan says and gets out three huge glasses placing, one in front of me. At least I react better to it by now since I also drink some at those parties, but still not much and never on a regular basis and Atemu makes damn sure to have much smaller glasses since he knows how many he's forced to drink. "By the way, Yugi, who's that friend you have with you?"

"That's Joey. He's my best friend in the palace, and one of the sacred guardians," Yugi introduces me. "By the way, Joey, this is Tristan. His grandfather used to own this bar and was a good friend of Gramps. He always stops by here when he's in the area and usually tells him where they go next."

"So this is how you're going to follow them." I finally know how to trail the tribe and why only Yugi can do it. I wouldn't know someone in every city of Egypt to ask for the way, but I bet that Yugi does. He must know all of his Gramps's friends.

Once Yugi drank a bit of the beer he asks again, "So will you tell me now where they went? I think Gramps is in trouble and I need to find him."

"He told me that he wanted to visit another friend, someone called Rebecca. She is the granddaughter of another friend, just like me I guess," Tristan says with a smile. "I don't know where she is though, just that she isn't living with her grandpa anymore and that after that they all wanted to go to Bolbitine* at the coast."

I see Yugi smile and just hope that he knows where this Rebecca lives, and where we might be able to catch up to his tribe. I listen to them talk for a little while until the beer is finished and I notice that he must know where to go next since he promises Tristan to say hi to someone called Duke if we get far enough. It is just past noon and if we hurry we can ride a little further today. From what I hear from their conversation, the tribe stayed for a week to do some trading on the market here. They probably want to do the same wherever this Rebecca lives, which should give us some extra time.

I'm happy once we leave the bar and are on our way back to the camp. Even though the twins aren't far away I still feel a bit uneasy. "Do you know where we need to go next?" I ask Yugi, unable to wait till we're back.

"Sure Joey," He says smiling. "And I bet I know a short cut too. There are two possible routes through the dessert but they definitely pass a city, to which one I know a little short cut. If we can talk Seto to leave the river a little to our left, it's just half a day's ride and I know a waterhole for the night but it isn't on his map and you know him."

"Total control freak." I already see the problem with this. He's never going to believe that Yugi knows something his map doesn't know, but I know how Yugi grew up and I saw him the last days run around the desert. And unlike Seto, I know how trapped he feels in the palace even after all the years he lived there. If it wasn't for Atemu he would never stay there of his own free will. It's like a golden cage and only the love for his husband is holding him inside.

On our way back I had another one of those troublesome visions. "Yugi," I say after I see Mana showing her brother some nice and cute pets in the river and pushing him in to play with the nice crocodiles. "Run!" I just add and start running myself, but not at full speed since I can't leave the pharaohs husband out of my side and Yugi is shorter and slower as well.

I'm not even completely at the resting place where Seto should be with the kids when I see Mana and Aknamkanon standing close to the river and no Seto in sight. "Get Seto," I say to Yugi and run faster. She is already standing behind him and I call out to tell them to get away from the river, but I'm a tiny bit too late and Aknamkanon is pushed into the river. The water is still high and I jump in after him. He isn't far in but it's already too deep for him to stand and I can just about grab him before the first crocodile is in front of me. The crocodile opens his jaw and I dive under in the last second, still holding onto Aknamkanon, and try to get away from the dangerous animal; but in the current they're much faster then I am, and I fear that I can't even keep myself safe here never mind Aknamkanon.

I swim towards shore as fast as I can and try to avoid the dangerous attacks of the crocodiles. My fear starts to spike when more and more of those animals swim towards me and the young prince of Egypt. I hear Aknamkanon cough and know that he already must have swallowed a lot of water, and he is crying in fear clinging to me so tightly that I have trouble breathing even when over water; and my arms aren't really free to swim either because I have to hold on to him.

Two crocodile are getting closer again and I know that it's going to be hard to avoid both. I manage to avoid one but the other is to close and I see his mouth open, and my arm is nearly inside when something golden flashes by and I see blood come from the crocodile. It all goes so fast I hardly notice anything, nothing but the strong arm that finds it's way around my waist so effortlessly that it can only be Seto's. I feel myself relax even though we're all still in danger but I feel much safer with Seto close to me.

I see him fight off another crocodile with the knife that is hidden in the hilt of his rod while helping me to swim with Aknamkanon towards the shore, much faster now that he's keeping the crocodiles at bay. Once I'm out I cuddle the boy and whisper, "It's alright, you're safe now. They won't come out, we're faster here, it's alright now."

He calms a little but still tries to get out of my embrace, and I see his sister cry from the corner of my eyes. I put him down and see them hug each other. I see Seto look at the girl with anger but he isn't scolding her, obviously noticing that she wasn't the same right now. Something must be controlling her, either that or she is possessed by something.

I feel Seto's arms around me pulling me closer and feel his breath at my ear before I hear his voice. "I thought you could keep yourself safe."

"Sorry," I whisper back. "I certainly wasn't expecting this."

"Next time don't jump," he whispers even more quietly, obviously not wanting Yugi-who stood close by-to hear this.

I had to jump and save the heir to the throne of Egypt, and I wanted to do it because I loved my nephew, but I knew why he said this. I wouldn't have wanted Seto to risk his life, not even for Aknamkanon. "You know I can't just watch. You would have done the same," I say, but cuddle him a little.

"Sure, but unlike you, I would have a weapon with me," Seto points out. "And I don't want to lose you. This is the fourth time I've nearly lost you and, let me point out, this time due to a four year old."

I feel the blood run upwards into my cheeks and mumble "Wrong, due to some crocodiles. And now lets discus this later, we need to get moving, we're still on a mission for Yugi."

I see in his eyes that he doesn't like that I pretend like nothing happened, but there isn't much I can do about it. I have no idea what is going on with the twins. Something didn't make sense to me but I wasn't ready to tell the others about the fear I started to harbor.

I keep thinking about it though, but don't find any explanation by the time we reach the resting place where our horses are. Seto gets out his map and Yugi shows us the route he talked about.

"Rebecca lives north from here in Iunu*; we're at Giza right now. Knowing my tribe they will follow the eastern river from here and, after staying there for a while, they'll use those three waterholes for resting places to reach Merimda and travel along the river to Bolbitine."

"Then we should skip Iunu and go straight to Merimda. If we hurry and they took their time there then we might be able to catch up to them shortly after Merimda," Seto says, and is about to pack the map away.

"If we use that water hole we can reach them one day sooner," Yugi says and points to a spot not far southwest from the Nile.

"Just that there is no waterhole," Seto says, and I can see the fight starting already.

"Yeah sure. You're the one who grew up in the desert, so you must know," Yugi says and I see him shiver a little under the death glare he's earning himself from my husband. But instead of letting his fear get the better of him he takes the map and rips it to shreds.

"Have you lost your mind?" Seto says, furious now. "We can't leave the river without a map, we'll get lost in the desert!"

"You would," Yugi agrees. "but I won't. I know the desert better then anyone writing such a stupid map. No Nomad would ever write a map because no Nomad needs a map. What we know about our desert is our secret, and I'm one of the Nomads; no matter how long I live in the palace my heart's in the desert. The desert is my home, always was and always will be. I know that there is a waterhole nourished by the Nile; it's dry when the river has a dry period, which is why it isn't on your stupid map! It isn't stable enough to be on it but it is there, and now that the river is at it's high point it won't fail us. And anyway it's half a days ride from the Nile, so there is hardly a big risk of dehydration. And just so you know, I don't give a damn what you say about directions! This is my desert and I go to where I know I need to go to find my Gramps, and if you want to keep me safe like Atemu ordered you to do then you better follow my directions!"

My jaw drops. Yugi is still shivering in fear though the whole speech, but he still talked back bravely.

Seto is speechless. In all the years I've lived with him now, I have never seen him speechless. Yugi just stares back into his death glare, still shivering until he obviously can't bare it anymore, but instead of giving in he stands up and starts packing his stuff. I see Seto move his hand to his millennium rod and I put mine on his with a whispered, "Try to control Yugi's mind and Atemu is going to make me a widower."

"At least then you'd know how it was for me to watch you die," Seto says icily.

I move my arms around him and give him a short kiss, "I'm sorry I scared you."

I hear him sigh and know that he isn't truly mad at me; he's just worried like always. "I know you didn't have much of a choice but, please, try to think of your own safety a little more. At least get a weapon or something with you when happily go jumping into the water to dance with some crocodiles."

"I don't need a weapon," I say with a smile. "I'll send someone to get you. You're better then any weapon."

I see him smile, happy that I had at least done that much and trust him to save me even when I don't want him hovering protectively around me all the time. "And now let's pack. We have to follow Yugi." I cast one more look towards the twins that are still hugging and wonder how long it will last this time, and I pray to Anubis to protect us on this journey and help us return safely in inb-hD*.

* Bolbitine is a city that was located north of the modern Rosetta and named after the so called Nile Delta a Delta in the north where the river Nile spreads out and runs into the sea. It isn't in existence anymore, not in the same way since Rosetta took it's place. The tribe goes there because the markets near the coast might have some other goods that might even be cheaper since it doesn't have to travel the Nile after traveling the sea. Since I mostly usually watched the English anime version of Yugioh where Atemu was born 5000 years ago, and therefore at around 3000 B.C. I chose to go with the original name since that would be in the time of the old Kingdom instead of the modern time name Rosetta. I hope it isn't too confusing.

* Iunu is now a ruin north of Cairo and was known as Heliopolis in a later time but since I'm going to use the ancient names that I found online to fit the time period better, I used this one.

* Giza is a city that is at the west bank of the river Nile where it starts to divide. It still exists.

* Merimda is a city that has existed since about 5000 B.C. and is located on the western arm of the river after it spreads out, and the river leads towards Rosetta

* inb-hD translates as 'the white wall(s)' and is named after the walls surrounding the ancient city. It was the capital of Egypt and home of the reigning pharaoh during the old Kingdom before it was moved to Thebes. It is the original name but was also called Mn-nfr at some times in ancient Egypt. The Greeks version of the name is Memphis and still exists in upper Egypt. At first Memphis was only the name of a monument, but by now the whole area, including the city. is named this way. It is just south of Cairo. Since I chose the time of the old Kingdom for this fic I go with this city as the capital where the palace is located and use the original name of the city, even though I have NO idea how to pronounce it.