Hooray for the awesomeness that is me. Enjoy Chapter 2 of Dusk!
Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I own Sarana
Chapter Two: The Pharaoh's Tomb
"Hey Sarana, you up yet?"
I groaned and turned over onto my stomach and mumbled, "No."
Dad sighed. "Should've known you weren't a morning person. Guess that means you'll miss the special tour of the nameless pharaoh's tomb in an hour."
"Wha-?" I tumbled out of bed. "Tour, what?"
Dad laughed. "Yeah, the tomb's open for tours now, and you get free entry for the first one. Wanna get up now?"
"Why didn't you say something sooner?" I demanded rhetorically, shutting the door (he had opened it wake me up) and getting some clothes on.
"Wear a sweater; it's chilly in the crypt," my father said.
"Well, crap," I answered after digging through my suitcase. "I completely forgot one!"
"That's okay; I have one you can use."
"Dad, you're a life saver!"
An hour later, I stood in front of the tomb entrance with about thirty other excited tourists, in a burgundy hoodie borrowed from my dad, a T-shirt underneath, and jeans. My Duel Monsters deck was in my pocket again. Why, my father had said, would be explained later.
"Hey, it's Sarana, right?" a teenage male voice asked. I whirled and saw a short boy with the craziest hair ever. Blonde bangs framed violet eyes, and tufts of red and black hair stuck out in all directions.
"Yeah," I answered, slightly cautiously.
"I'm Yugi Muto," he introduced himself, holding out a hand to shake. "My grandfather is a member of the archeology team. Your dad told us quite a bit about you. Nice to meet you!"
"Uh, nice to meet you too," I said awkwardly, and shook his hand. Gosh, did Dad have to be so incredibly excited about me coming that he had to tell everyone about it?
"If everyone is ready, the tour is about to begin," said our guide, a perky woman with curly red hair pulled into a knot on top of her head.
"So, I'll see you around, okay?" Yugi said, with a grin.
"Okay," I answered, and with the other tourists, we walked into the tomb.
The air was chilly, damp, and stale; it felt and smelled like it had been trapped in this rock for over five thousand years. With a jolt, I realized that that might just be the case.
"When this tomb was first discovered, it was full of dangerous and testing traps," the guide said perkily, "However, we have managed to disable all of them, so you may proceed without fear.
"In this room, for instance," she continued as we entered a spacious room with a maze, the wall of which were just drops into an endless abyss, with stone statues holding sharp blades blocking the way every few feet, "Robbers and our archeologists had to tread carefully, with their left foot in front at all times, or else those statues would attack." She proceeded to explain how a statue created with its left foot forward was a sign of respect to their pharaoh. "In other words, we had to show submission and respect to the pharaoh of this tomb, or we would be punished. Thankfully, we built this bridge with a rail so that you won't have to deal with that danger." We crossed the bridge into the next room.
"And here," the guide said as we entered a room with a long narrow bridge with rectangular dents, "Visitors had to prove their courage by walking across the bridge lines with the monster ka sealed in the stone slabs. If they were fearless, there was nothing special about this room. Cowards however were devoured by the monsters of darkness. However, we have removed the stone slabs, which are on display at the Cairo museum, and added a rail to the bridge for your safety.
"Here," the guide continued once we were across, pointing to a golden altar, "was where our team of archeologists discovered a box containing some sort of three-dimensional puzzle, which was solved by one of our team's grandson, and so the completed puzzle is also on display at the Cairo museum."
I glanced in Yugi's direction; he had said that his grandfather was an archeologist. To my surprise, he seemed different: some of his blonde bangs were sticking up with his red and black tufts, and his eyes seemed different…they were a little redder than before, and they seemed…ancient, filled with authority, as they gazed at the golden altar. Then they flicked back to me, and suddenly he was the Yugi from before, and he grinned shyly.
"Yeah, I solved it," he said, scratching his head sheepishly, "It took me like eight months to figure it out, I had to screw in some to make room for another piece, and yeah I won't give you details."
"That's okay, puzzles make me wanna fall asleep," I said, forcing a laugh. For a second, I had thought Yugi almost looked like that pharaoh on the stone from earlier. Now that I thought about it (and I was a little more awake), there were some similarities. But in that last moment…he looked exactly like the pharaoh.
Well, this was interesting…I had found a mystery of my own in this mystical land of mystery, and I intended to get to the bottom of it.
"So, how was it?" Dad asked as I stepped back into the blinding sun.
"It was really cool…literally," I joked, and he laughed. "But it was fascinating, really."
"Glad you liked it," Dad said happily, "You wanna see the stuff they removed and put on display at the museum?"
"That'd be awesome, but first, I need to ask you something." Dad was all ears. "You know Yugi Muto?"
"Sure, his grandfather's the one who cracked all the tomb codes, and Yugi solved the puzzle recently. Good kid," he added.
"Yeah, I think he's pretty nice too, but did you notice the distinct resemblance between him and the pharaoh?"
Dad was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I did,' he finally said, "It has all of us confused and boggled. Yugi's really confused too, because he has no Egyptian ancestry as far as he knows."
"It's a mystery," I agreed, "But earlier, towards the end of the tour…" I told my father the change I saw in Yugi at that brief moment. When I finished, Dad frowned.
"Hmm…my only guesses are that either you were tired and only thought you saw a difference, or…or there was some remnant of 'magic' in the tomb that caused you to see some illusion of Yugi. Either way, you may have just imagined it."
"Maybe you're right," I admitted, and let it go. I knew that what I had seen was no illusion, but I knew better than to pursue this after my father's verdict.
The Cairo museum was amazing.
I headed straight for the items taken out of the tomb as soon as I paid for admission, to see if I could find any more clues. My first stop was the ka in the stone slabs from tomb room #2, where I immediately found something interesting.
"That monster…it looks just like one in my deck!" I whipped my deck out and began flipping through the cards, until I found a match. Holding it up, I identified it as –
"The Dark Magician," Yugi finished, causing me to jump; I hadn't heard him coming. "I have it, too." He held it up for me to see. The art was different, but it was the same general thing. "This card has gotten me out of more fixes than I can count," he said proudly, stowing it in a card pouch on his belt. "What's your favorite card, Sarana?"
"Well… I've never actually played the game, so I can't say my favorite is the strongest," I admitted, "But I really like this one." I held it up for him.
"Guardian Angel Joan," Yugi read its name, "That's actually a very good card." He looked at up at me. "You've never played? How about I show you how?"
"Oh, you would? That would be awesome! Just lemme finish looking at this stuff, okay?" I suddenly felt excited. To finally learn Duel Monsters…wait. "My dad paid you to do this, didn't he?"
"No, he just asked me very nicely," Yugi winked. "Just let me know when you're done, I'll be hanging around." He walked off to look at some other doohickey.
I continued my examination of the stone slabs, and identified some like Swords of Revealing Light and Polymerization from my deck.
After a while, I was ready to learn, and I tracked Yugi down at the food court area with three other people: two boys, sandy-haired and one with hair focused to a point in front, the same color as very burnt toast, sharing a large pizza with the first boy, and a girl with shoulder length brown hair who watched them with affectionate blue eyes.
"I'm ready, Yugi," I said, with what I hoped was a friendly smile.
"'Oo's this, Yug?" the sandy-haired boy asked in between chews. "'Nother fan o' yours?"
"Fan?"
"It's nothing," Yugi said quickly, "Here, I'll show you how to play here." He sat on a different table than the other boys. "Oh, and these are my good friends Joey," he indicated the sandy-haired boy, "Tristan," the burnt-toast-haired boy, "and Tèa. This is Sarana, guys. Remember, the one Mr. Johnson mentioned?"
"Oh, yeah," Joey said with recognition, "The one that would be staying for a little while, right?"
"No idea how long I'll be staying, but I'm going to school here once summer lets up," I answered, "I think my parents may have switched primary custody."
Tèa's eyes widened, and the look she gave me was full of sympathy and pity, which really irked me. I shrugged. "It's not so bad, having divorced parents," I said, adding a touch of care-less-ness to hide my actual hurt at my parents' separation, "I mean, yeah there's a lot of government and custody and travelling crap, but it's okay, I guess." Tèa didn't look convinced, but she allowed her gaze to avert.
"So, before we begin, I want to have a look at your deck, so that I can help you a bit more," said Yugi, and I gave him my deck to flip through.
"Hmm…" was all Yugi said while he looked at my cards. "Very good balance of cards…interesting possible combos…sky-high attack point potential for this one…" he looked back up at me. "Your father assembled a pretty good deck. In the hands of an expert, it could wreak havoc in tournaments."
I smiled slightly at his compliments…but then my eyes widened.
Standing beside Yugi, also examining my deck, even if he was transparent and shadowy, was the strange older Yugi from before!
His lips were moving, but I couldn't hear anything he said. Yugi looked directly at him, but to the casual viewer he was just reading the tour schedule at the other side of the food court, wondering what time he should go. The other Yugi made eye contact with him, and something was exchanged between them that I couldn't hear.
Then they both looked in my direction, and the other Yugi disappeared quickly. "What, did a fly land in my hair?" Yugi asked with a grin.
"Uh, no," I said, shaking out of my reverie, "just thought I saw something…"
He handed my deck back with a smile, but his eyes watched me a little suspiciously. "So, before I actually teach you how to play, I should teach you about the types of cards there. The first kind is the Monster Card, your basic attack force…"
Half an hour later…
"…And the Field Spell cards alter the rules of the game by granting monster extra Attack or Defense Points or possibly a special ability," I finished, earning an approving nod from Yugi.
"Good, now that you know about the cards, you can learn about how the game is played. To start a turn, you draw one card…"
Another twenty minutes later…
"…and if the monsters' Attack Points are equal, they destroy each other and neither player loses a Life Point," I concluded, ending Yugi's quiz.
"Very good, you're a quick learner," he said approvingly, "Now we can try you out in a real duel…"
"Yugi!"
A really tall, skinny teen walked up to us, wearing black skin-tight pants, shirt, a long white coat that flared behind him, and an intimidating glare. I cringed away slightly.
"I hope you haven't forgotten our rematch tonight," he said in an intimidating voice.
"No, no, I haven't forgotten, Kaiba," Yugi said quickly, "At the Kaiba Dome, right?"
"At eight." Kaiba nodded and started to walk off.
"Wait, Kaiba!" Joey called after him, "You know it's rude to just walk off without introducing yourself to a lady?"
"I don't have time for such courtesies, Wheeler," he answered over his shoulder, but then he stopped and turned around, "Unless said lady is a possible competent duelist," he added, eyeing my deck.
I waved my hands frantically in front of my face, shouting, "No no! No new duelist here, no! At least I don't think so, no!"
Suddenly, Yugi put his hand on my shoulder with a shh. "Sarana's very good, Kaiba. She's the American champion! Possibly better than both of us put together!"
What the heck? What was he thinking?
Kaiba crossed his arms. "Really."
"Really!" Yugi insisted, "She could beat you, no problem!"
"Yugi, what are you doing?" I muttered out of the corner of my mouth.
"Really," Kaiba repeated, and he opened the suitcase he was carrying and pulled out some weird device thing and put it on his arm. "How about she proves it in a duel against me?"
"Sure, no problem," Yugi agreed, and he whipped out a similar device from underneath his chair, took my deck off the table, inserted it into a little slot thingimabobber, and handed it to me. "Monster space, spell and trap space, deck slot, graveyard slot," he whispered, indicating different parts of the thing, "It's a Duel Disk, and it's pretty amazing. Kaiba designed it himself."
"What does it do?" I whispered back, "And why are you shoving me into this?"
"You'll see," he answered, "And I think you can take him, you were learning so quickly." He turned me around by my shoulders and muttered, "Two more rules: Have fun…" his voice abruptly changed into something much deeper, not at all like his younger voice, "…And trust in the heart of the cards."
I turned my head and gasped slightly. It was him!
He winked at me, and he was Yugi again. He took his hands off my shoulders and pushed me slightly. "You can take him!"
I took a deep breath and nodded. "Right. No biggie." I put on the Duel Disk the way I saw Kaiba did, and stood to face him. "You don't look so tough," I taunted, trying to bolster my courage and steady the butterflies in my stomach.
"Look who's talking," he returned with a smirk. "Ladies first."
Looking down at my Disk and saw some red numbers zoom to 4000. Remembering that these were my Life Points, I took another deep breath.
"Right, okay. Drawing a card," I said, pulling one from the deck slot. I studied my hand for a moment, then made my move. "I play Light Effigy in Defense Mode." At once, a hologram of the card appeared, and a life-size hologram of the actual monster! "And I place these two cards face down." Two holograms of face down cards appeared at my feet. "That ends my turn. Your move, Kaiba…"
Outside the duel…
"Yugi, are you sure she can do this?" Joey asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I mean you just taught her how to play, and you put her against Kaiba," Tristan argued, "He's gonna cream her."
Then they really saw Yugi, only instead of him they saw their friend Yami, or the nameless pharaoh. And he was smiling as he watched Sarana duel.
"What's up? You look like you know something we don't…" Joey said cautiously.
"Because I do, Joey," Yami said conspiratorially.
"Are you sure this was such a good idea?" Yugi asked from beside him with their special way of communicating.
"Yes Yugi, I have absolute faith in Sarana," Yami thought back at him, "I'm completely certain that she can do this."
"You know what happens if she can't."
"If she can't, I'll stop the duel," Yami promised.
"Kaiba won't be happy," Yugi remarked.
"Well, he has a rematch with us tonight, so he has nothing to complain about."
Sarana's first duel begins! Will she manage to trust in the heart of the cards? Keep reading! And PLEASE R&R!