Disclaimer. Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to me. It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and crew. Some characters will be made up by me. Please ask if you want to use them.
The bandit leader stepped off his horse, the others doing the same. Bakura grunted as he was roughly tossed off the horse. "Get up." Was the simple command. Heaving himself to his feet, Bakura shielded his eyes against the sun, seeing a large silhouette cave opening against the setting star of fire.
The bandit leader strode towards the cave. The man with the spear poked Bakura.
"Follow us."
Bakura frowned at the man, turning away and walking off after the leader. Entering the cave, a cold frigid wind howled past. The bandit members shivered, but the leader showed no sign of being cold. As the white haired prisoner shuffled along, a snap underneath his feet startled him.
Looking down, Bakura spotted a dismembered rotting arm a few feet away from a skeleton. The smell was horrible. One of the bandit members said lowly, "It's still fresh. A bad sign."
However, the bandit leader kept walking, his eyes narrowed and focused. Unsettled, Bakura scurried after the leader, away from the corpse. The wide cave narrowed into a natural stone tunnel. A few rats ran past them, black beady eyes cunning.
Before long, the raiding group was stopped by a pair of blood red ruby doors. Chips and cracks marred the otherwise unscathed doors. The bandit leader drew a long thin sword from his back, that was unnoticeable until now. The blade was a sliver black, and the cloth wrapped hilt was red. The leader turned the sword diagonally and thrust the blade into a large chink in the middle of the doors. A sharp grinding noise sounded, and suddenly, a large rain of needle thin spears rushed towards the group.
"Now!"
Shouted the leader. Everyone dropped their weapons, which were now being dyed red from some unknown power. The rain of spears stopped. All the dropped weapons hovered and shot towards other nicks lining the doors.
Sudden silence.
Then, the ruby doors swung open with no noise. Beyond the doors, laid mounds of treasure. But to Bakura's surprise, no one went foward. In confusion he waited until he saw the mound of treasure shifting and moving. A few forms rose from the treasure, rubies for eyes and gold for bones. They held weapons, and shook them threatingly.
The leader's sword shot from the door into his hands. The other weapons stayed put. The sign was clear. The leader, and only the leader, was meant to tackle this challenge alone. Everyone else stepped aside, and Bakura was pushed with them to stand back, to be an observer.
The bandit leader stared fiercely into the sparkling ruby eyes of his enemies. "My name is Rufio! And I challenge you!"
The golden skeletons rushed fowards, jabbing Rufio. He doged them, cleaving one of the skeleton's head clean off. The dismembered head rattled, but Rufio stabbed it with his sword, stopping it from reforming. Taking out the sword, Rufio leaped over the rest of the undead attackers, gaining an advantage. Swiftly, and silently, he took care of the rest of the skeletons. Then. There was silence. Rufio dropped to one knee, clutching his left rib.
"Ugh. Damn. One of them managed to get me."
Blood seeped through his hand, but Rufio ignored it. He stood up, studying the treasure. Walking fowards, he shot his hand in, not grabbing anything. He was searching for something.
His bandit group watched in tense silence, waiting. Bakura tried edging away but his "guard" so to speak, had an iron grip on him, so he could only watch like everyone else.
Rufio appeared distressed, rapidly throwing treasure away like garbage. "Where is it? Where is it?!" He shouted.
Something tickled Bakura's ear, and he froze, seeing the wisp that hadn't shown up for quite some time. It floated past him, towards Rufio. The bandit leader either couldn't see it or was ignoring it. Shining brightly, the wisp forced a pile of treasure to slide down, revealing a thin but long silver chain. Attached to the chain was a wooden dolphin, with Sapphire for eyes.
Rufio snatched it, staring at it intently. Wrapping the chain around his wrist, Rufio picked up his sword, hooking it to his side. The weapons that were fastened into the door clattered to the ground. The ruby doors started closing, and Rufio managed to escape just as they shut closed. The tunnel trembled, and dust rained down. Rufio made a break for it.
"Go go!" He yelled.
All the others followed him, towing Bakura along. Escaping through the entrance, shards of rock closed the top and the bottom of the cave like teeth. Bakura found himself tied to a horse again, as they mounted up and rode off.
He squirmed, not particularly pleasesd with how tight the ropes were. Finding his voice, he shouted over the din of hooves. "Where are you taking me?"
Rufio rode up beside him, leaning over. "We have no more use for you. You'll live your life as a pitiful slave when I give you to a slave trader."
Bakura gritted his teeth, spitting in Rufio's face.
He leaned back, riding up to the front of the group. The wisp was nowhere to be found. Again. Bakura struggled in his binds, but there was no use. He wasn't getting anywhere. Twisting his head, he glanced forward, seeing that they had made it out of the canyon and into the desert again. Night was fast approaching, so he decided to get a few winks of sleep before they arrived.
The bandit group continued riding. The guard tasked with Bakura rode up to Rufio, causally glancing at the necklace tied around his wrist, the dolphin pendant rapidly moving in the wind.
Rufio noticed this and glared at him. "You got a problem with this?"
The guard quickly looked away. "N-no." He stuttered. They continued traveling, not caring that Bakura was fast asleep. A few hours passed, until a small village could be seen.
Bakura sneezed as dusty sand wafted up his nose. He woke up, seeing that he was now on a strange platform, his arms tied up.
Hundreds of people milled about, dragging young children tied up with them. Glancing to his side, Bakura saw other people just as young as him tied up, obviously being sold for slaves. Tears dangerously threatening to spill, Bakura resigned to his fate, as someone stepped up, looking him over. He paid the man keeping watch over him and tugged the rope, a signal for him to follow the buyer. Bakura stood up, getting a good look at the man.
What he saw shocked him. The man had a firm but gentle face. He was being not too rough on Bakura's ropes. Once they got away from the crowd, the man untied him.
Bakura rubbed his sore arms, confused by the man's actions.
"My name is Jusan. If you want to be free, I will help you. I work in a very big palace, and are very nice to our workers."
He whistled, and a light brown Camel trotted up to them. "There there Mia. He's nice."
Bakura petted Mia's nose, smiling as the camel played with his hair. Jusan hefted up Bakura onto the camel, getting up himself. With a smart tap to Mia's ribs, they set off, away from the poor slave trading village.
For the first time in awhile, Bakura realized that his life wasn't meaningless. The sun finally rose, casting beams of light across the desert. Bakura spread his arms, enjoying the warmth.
"I'm free."