Sorry it's been awhile since the last update, I know this one is short but I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Hope there are still people around to read this.
Malik: Also she still doesn't own Yu-gi-oh.
He felt as though the whole world was spinning in circles around him as he tumbled around with it, and to make matters worse his head now seemed to be pounding. The whole feeling was nowhere near pleasant, but only seemed to last for a few minutes.
Finally the rapid feelings seemed to slow down to the point that he could open his eyes, but as he did so he found that things weren't quite the same as he'd left them. Instead of being in his room, where he was sure he'd last been, he seemed to be standing in the middle of the desert. Except that it wasn't like any of the deserts that surrounded the palace. This place had the same open surfaces with lots of dunes and sand, but the sun wasn't near as intense here nor did it give him the uncomfortable feelings he commonly got in deserts. Upon closer inspection the sand didn't even seem to be full sand, it almost looked as though the grains were actually tiny bits of glass. But they weren't sharp like they should be or even…
His thoughts were cut off by a sound that came from behind him, it was muffled at first but he could have almost sworn it sounded like laughter. The crown prince of Egypt turned around and hurriedly scanned the dunes for the sound, hesitantly calling out the only name he could think of. "Yugi?"
There wasn't a response from his cousin, but Atem did manage to catch the sound of playful laughter coming from his left. With another hesitant glance around he turned towards the sound and noticed something sticking up above one of the dunes. It glittered with a silvery white and almost as soon as he noticed it vanished out of sight. "Wait!" He yelled the word as he took off towards the dune and hurriedly climbed it; except instead of stopping at the top like he'd planned he went sliding down whole other side, sending up a large cloud of sand.
He coughed repeatedly as the sand cloud began to dissipate and managed to get a look around as it was clearing completely. The odd part of course was that this side of the sand dune looked exactly like the other side, there was anyone in sight and… He paused, wait a moment, it felt like someone was playing with his hair. Slowly he tipped his head back and his own red eyes met a single pair of blue ones. There appeared to be a girl sitting above him, she looked to be of an age somewhere between Yugi's and his own and was playing with a section of his hair between her fingers.
She had silvery white hair that escaped from underneath her cowboy style hat and dangled down over the right side of her face. She grinned down at him and Atem couldn't help but feel that he'd seen her somewhere before, he wasn't sure where but there was something about her face that he seemed to remember. "Who are you?" He spoke the question to her, but she didn't seem inclined to answer and instead continued to play with the tips of his hair, a gesture that felt familiar on its own. "Excuse me?" She stopped playing with his hair and looked down at him curiously, "Who are you?"
She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "You don't know?" He received a head shake and a look encouraging him to try again. "You can't tell me?" A nodded of positive from this question. Atem nodded thoughtfully, "I see, well could you perhaps show me why I'm here?" He changed his wording from tell to show seeing as the girl hadn't spoken a word to him the entire time.
At first he was afraid that she wouldn't be able to help him, but after a couple of minutes of looking thoughtful she nodded, "You can?" Another nod as she gently pushed him away, it took a couple of minutes for Atem to realize that he had accidently settled on the edge of her dress. He jumped to his feet and bowed apologetically, "Sorry about that." She simply smiled and dusted the sandy glass particles off of her blue and white dress before picking up the silvery white had and placing it firmly on her head. Then she nodded at him once before starting off towards their left.
Atem followed her without a sound, but as they walked along he couldn't help but observe the way she moved with such a fluid grace, it was hypnotizing and once again oddly familiar, though he still couldn't play why. Besides her odd grace there was also a childlike element to her character, she had the same large eyes and childish laughter that he found could associate will with Yugi. In fact the strange girl seemed to have a lot in common with his younger cousin; no doubt if they were to meet they'd be good friends.
His attention was dragged back to the present however as she took his hand and tugged on it, apparently he hadn't been moving fast enough for her liking and now she insisted on tugging on him to pick up the pace. Hurriedly he increased his speed to match hers, but he couldn't help but smile as they broke into a mad run. Her antics reminded him of an old game he used to play with a couple of friends when he was a child, he couldn't remember their faces, or where they even lived, he only ever remembered seeing them when his father would take specially planned trips accompanied by his priests. Now that he thought about it there were many memories from his past that he could really recall very vividly, he wondered to himself if that would be considered unusual. He'd have to ask Yugi about it later.
He was distracted from further thought on the particular topic because very abruptly the girl dragged him off to the side and behind a nearby dune, she signaled several times very sharply as though to tell him to keep his voice down. Cautiously Atem peaked around the edge of the dune, and felt the girls shift upwards as she peered over his head. It was evident as the figures moved closer that they were speaking, and it was only seconds later that Atem could make out what they were saying, or even what they looked like.
"I keep telling you that these are bad signs, when are you going to bother to listen to me!?" That particular speaker was tall well-muscled man who was pacing back and forth repeatedly; he looked very worried and stressed out about something.
However his companion, a young woman, looked rather relaxed and when she finally spoke she did so in a very relaxed manner. "I'll start listening to you when I see it fit to do so, but then I will continue to allow things to operate as I see fit." The odd part of the two wasn't so much their physical appearances, but their hair colors; the woman's hair was a vibrant shade of red, while her companion's a shade of blue; not exactly typical hair colors one would say in Egypt.
"But the prince...!" He man was cut off by the young woman giving him a stern glare.
"Will find a follow his destiny in time I can assure you, but until then I don't want to hear any more on the topic of this conversation. Are we clear?" The man however didn't get a chance to answer before he was they both seemed to freeze and the woman spoke again, "Did you feel that?"
Above him Atem felt the girl freeze as though the strangers might have somehow sensed their presence, with that idea in his head Atem felt his own mind lock up in panic at the prospect, especially with the man's next words. "I did."
He risked another glance out around the corner; the woman was now on her feet and seemed to be scanning for something. She paused facing in the direction opposite from where Atem and his companion were hiding, "It came from that way." She turned back her partner, "We have to go now!" She stressed the last words and almost instantly as her companion nodded and the two vanished in a flash of bright light.
Atem let his body drop and released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. That was probably one of the most thrilling and terrifying moments of his whole life, now all he had to do was deal with the new found worries that were making their way into his mind. He was interrupted when he felt a hand on his arm, he looked over to see the girl wildly gesturing back towards the other side of the dune and mimicking the two figures. "Did I hear them?" She nodded. "Well of course, they were a bit hard to miss."
She blew at the hair strands and gave him a look that seemed to clearly say, elaborate please. "Did I hear what they said?" She nodded at him again, "About the prince?" Further nodding, he remained quiet for a moment as his gaze roamed out across the dunes and his thoughts turned to Yugi, "I heard them."
She cast him a worriedly look as he continued to look out across the dunes, he wasn't sure how willing she'd be to listen, but he had to tell somebody. "I'm worried." He caught the motion of her head turning in his direction as he continued, "I've been having lapses in my memory lately, there are things I can't recall from my childhood that I know I should. I have so many questions that I think they'd answer if I could only reach out and get them." He turned to face her, "Like where I am, or who you are?"
She looked taken aback at his statement as he continued to stare at her, "I recognize your face, and I know that I've seen you somewhere before but I can't remember where."
A forlorn look passed over her face as she let her hand trail through the glass sand pieces and nodded. Atem felt his eyes return to the horizon, "I keep feeling like I should be doing something, but I don't have any idea what it is. It's..." He paused then sighed, "Complicated..." With a solemn nod she stood up and started walking away from him into the desert. He watched her from the corner of his eye but said nothing, because there really wasn't anything to say to her and his mind needed a moment to think.
What he missed were the tear drops that ran down her cheeks as she gently swiped her hand in a motion to the side, and the world seemed to break apart around him.
With a start Atem sat up, his breath coming in gasps as he noticed the morning sun rising on the horizon. So he'd fallen asleep, it had all been a dream. He put his head in his hands, "But it had seemed to so realistic. They all looked so familiar. Was it really just a dream?" He spoke the sentence aloud but no one answered and not another sound broke the silence.
He clenched sections of his hair in his hands; why wasn't he sure that he could tell reality from dreams anymore? Why was everything so patchy and blurry all of a sudden? What was going on?
Releasing another breath he forced himself to his feet; he had to talk to someone about this, and with all the secrets going around he wasn't sure if he could trust anyone anymore. No, there was one person he could trust. Grabbing his cloak he stormed out the door to his room, he was afraid he was beginning to go crazy and he had to talk to Yugi right now.
Let me know if you like it, I really appreciate any review that you could give me.