A Yugi/Yami story

Through a Dragon's Eye

Chapter 23- Seventh Floor – 4 Children

Yami raised his fist and smashed the mirror in front of him. It broke as if he had flung a heavy stone at it; it just shattered into a million pieces which fell all around him as if in slow motion. Thousands of mirror shards reflecting his eyes as they fell… eyes that burned with a new fire… a new fire that reflected a new reason to keep fighting.

The shards of the mirror fell around him, glittering like raindrops and hitting the ground with a finality that echoed around the spinning room. Yami felt sick as he collapsed to his knees and tried to find something he could hold onto, besides the ground. Finding nothing, he fell face-forward and struggled to keep himself from being sick.

He curled up into a ball and shut his eyes, praying that it would end.

And it did…

The room stopped spinning and Yami was panting as he rested on the hard floor, trying to get over the shock of what just happened. Not only were cold, blood-red eyes were haunting his mind, there was a terrible pain in his hand, and he just couldn't get his body to move the way he wanted them to.

All of a sudden, he felt a feeble hand grab his wrist and an even weaker voice say, "Yami?"

Only that voice could've gotten Yami to move. Yami's eyes opened immediately and after a few more minutes, he was able to force himself onto all fours and look around him. His eyes were so tired, that he was seeing double… including seeing two weaken forms of Yugi lying only a foot away.

"Yugi?" he said as he dragged himself over to him. "Yugi? Can you hear me?"

Yugi raised his head a few centimeters to look at him, "I—I'll—I'm so—glad that—you're—alright," he said, as if every word hurt him.

"I should be the one saying that," said Yami weakly as sadness began to overtake him. "Look at you. You can hardly move."

Yugi only smiled at him, "But—I'm not—not the one—who's bleeding."

Confused, Yami looked down at him and saw what Yugi was talking about. His hand was leaking blood all over the floor. He stared at it, wondering what had happened… before remembering that he had punched the mirror. This was the pain he was feeling in his hand just a few minutes ago… he must've gotten cut on one of the broken mirrors.

Yami tore off the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it around his hand, trying to stop the flow of blood.

"Are you—going—going to be—ok?" Yugi asked weakly.

"If I were you kid," said that voice that we should all recognize by now. "You should be more worried about yourself."

Yami's father stepped over towards them with an unreadable expression on his face. "How sad," he said looking around them, "It seems that we are the only ones left."

Yami stared around him and realized that it was true… they were all alone.

"But you know?" said his father calmly, "I think that this works out for the best. Now I don't have to share the ultimate prize with anyone."

"Don't you care at all about the men who lost their lives?" screamed Yami as he moved closer to Yugi.

"Please, you can find grunt work anywhere," his father replied. "But once I claim the reward at the top, I won't be needing help anymore. We should be nearing the end very soon…"

He then looked down at the frail Yugi and snapped at him, "If you're awake then get going."

This was almost too much for Yami. Yelling at him was one thing, but yelling at Yugi…

He quickly pulled Yugi towards him and held him tightly, "Can't you see that he's sick!" he yelled at his father. "He can hardly move let alone walk."

His dad sighed irritably before raising his hand and smacking Yami across the cheek so hard that it caused him to fall backwards, away from Yugi. As Yami put his hand on his stinging cheek, he heard Yugi cry out, "STOP IT!"

Yami looked to see that Yugi's weak hand was grasping the edge of his father's coat with trembling hands. Yami couldn't see the look his father was giving Yugi but he could see that Yugi was crying.

"P-please… I w-want to g-go. Lets l-lea-leave before its t-to l-late," Yugi stuttered. If you could hear a little cracking noise… it was the sound of Yami's heart breaking into a million pieces. He was about to get up when his father bent down and scooped up Yugi with one arm and flung him over his shoulder like a rag doll. Yugi made no resistance… though he looked so sick that he probably couldn't muster up the energy to do so. His father looked at Yami and hollered at him to get up or else.

Yami got to his feet. Not because he wanted to, but because he was worried that his dad would do something to Yugi if he didn't. He followed the other two as they began their climb… Yami was feeling light-headed from the sight of his own blood… and the feeling of about to throw-up was coming back in full force.

Onwards and upwards they climbed the stairs, Yami stumbling along the way… struggling to get back onto his feet. Finally, after almost 20 minutes of climbing, Yami's strength had left and he fell on the stairs and stayed there. He couldn't move to save his life and he wished that he could just sleep there for a few hundred years.

"Are you giving up?" his father asked him coolly a little ways ahead of him. "I wouldn't die yet if I were you… after all… the next riddle is appearing."

Hearing that, Yami forced his drained and tired head to look up. His eyes were so exhausted that he had to force himself to read what the words spelled out:

There are four children in this world that were all born together:
The first, eats and is never full
The second child runs and never wearies.
The third child drinks and is ever thirsty,
And the fourth sings a song that's the same as it always been.

Who are they?

His father dropped Yugi, who then rolled down the stairs, almost like a slinky would… and right into Yami. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Yami reached out and stopped Yugi from rolling pass him and pulled him into his arms. He felt the stairs beneath them disappear, and they were laying on some kind of stone floor. He shut his eyes, fearing the worst… thinking that some kind of monster would appear next and kill them…

… but nothing came.

Yami opened his eyes to see darkness. No, not complete darkness… The two of them were lying in some kind of spotlight and were surrounded by the dark. Yami looked above to see a single ray of light fall upon them… but could see nothing else outside the light.

'Now what?' he thought as he sat up, cuddling Yugi close to him while feeling him shake like a leaf. 'What are we supposed to do now?'

"The same as the other floors…" said Yugi in barely more than a whisper. He looked up with worn-out eyes and asked, "Four children in this world that were all born together…"

"I don't have the slightest clue," said Yami. "But if we don't figure it out, we'll be trapped here."

"Ok," said Yugi thinking hard. "Four children? All born together…"

Suddenly they heard something… It was a whooshing sound… like when some swishes a long object through the air?

"What's that?" Yugi asked in a petrified tone.

Yami held him even closer and said, "I'm afraid to find out."

To scared to move, they waited… at first they thought that staying in this light would be a bad thing. What if something was out there trying to kill them? This light would give them away.

But if they stepped out… what would happen in the darkness? So they waited… and prayed that things would turn out ok. "Think fast Yugi," Yami hissed as he looked around him. He strained his eyes to see pass this light, but the sound was getting louder and closer so he couldn't stop shaking.

"Yami?" Yugi said quickly, "I think I figured out the first child from the riddle."

"Already?" Yami said happily.

"Yeah, but I can't think of the other's," Yugi said ashamed.

"Well if you can figure out one then…" but he stopped when he saw a flash of light right in front of him. Yugi looked at where Yami was looking… and they saw them. Knifes, swords, large shards of glass, and every other sharp object you can think of was flying through the air towards them. Yami yelled as he fell right on top of Yugi, trying to protect him as the sharp object came flying towards them.

He felt a shearing pain in his right shoulder as a longsword flew pass, barely missing his face. He could hear Yugi screaming in terror as they came back around for a second time. Yami screwed up his eyes and waited for them to get sliced to pieces when he then heard Yugi scream out, "FIRE!"

Yami could see light appearing from nowhere and he could smell burning metal. His eyes snapped open to see that they were surrounded by a ring of fire and when the shards of metal came flying towards them, the fire melted them into little pools of liquid. Yami brought them both up to a sitting position and stared around as the fire continued to protect them.

"Now there's something you don't see every day," said Yami stunned.

"Like I said," began Yugi clutching Yami with all the strength he had left. "The first eats and is never full… fire eats everything and can keep going…"

Just as they were beginning to relax, the fire started to grow larger and spread farther.

"Ok Yugi," said Yami with his voice shaking, "I really think that we have enough fire…"

"I'm not doing this!" Yugi screamed back.

"But then…" began Yami as his eyes began to water from the smoke.

"I'm guessing that we have to guess the other parts of the riddle…" said Yugi coughing. "The first is fire… the second child runs and never wearies…"

"What runs but never gets tired?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that one," said Yugi gasping for breath. The fire was spreading… coming closer to them… Yami knew that if they didn't figure out the rest of the riddle, they were going to burn to death.

"I think we were better off with the knifes," he croaked, his throat as dry as bone. "Think Yugi! We have to find a way to fight fire with fire!"

Yugi's eyes widened at what Yami just said, "No… we have to fight fire with WATER!"

At that second, the roaring sound of waves came out of nowhere and began to extinguish the flames. Towers of steam flew up, as the water began to flood around them.

"I see now," yelled Yami over the sound of the water. "Water runs and can't get tired. Nice thinking!"

"It's not over yet!" Yugi screamed back as the water was getting rougher. "We have the fire and water… but what's the next part of the riddle?"

"It went something like… The third child drinks and is ever thirsty…"

"Drinks and is never thirsty?" Yugi cried back. "That one's easy! That's EARTH!"

At once, the waves calmed down and began to get sucked into the ground below them. The ground was sucking up the water, but it also began to shake…

"Great," Yami cried, "We're stuck in an earthquake now!"

"How do you stop the ground from shaking?" Yugi cried as the vibrations were starting to make them slide everywhere across the floor. Yami held onto the only thing that he felt was worth holding onto, and shut his eyes as they were being tossed around. It felt like being thrown around and being kicked like an old ball.

'What sings a song that's always the same?' thought Yugi desperately as he felt that he was going to be sick. 'What beats earth? Fire melts metal… water extinguishes fire… earth dries up water… and…'

"Yami?" screamed Yugi as he also shut his eyes, and tried to brace himself against the pain of being thrown around like a kickball.

"What?" Yami screamed back, "I can barely hear you!" The grinding sound of the earth breaking apart and hitting them with stones as sharp as glass; Yugi knew that he was cut and bleeding. "Yami… water, fire, and earth! What's the last element?"

"Wind of course but what does that have to do with…" But as soon as he said the word 'wind' the ground stopped shaking, and a slight breeze began to blow… growing stronger and stronger. However for some reason Yami wasn't being blown around by it.

It was like being able to feel the wind blowing… but not having it touch you. He didn't know how else to describe it.

"Wind moves earth…" whispered Yugi as things settled down. "They are the 4 children…"

Yami looked down at Yugi, and to his horror, he saw that there was blood dripping down from Yugi's mouth. "Yugi!"

Yugi opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out… only more blood. Before Yami could say anything else, the wind then continued to blow… it blew so hard and so strong that they were being carried in an updraft towards the single ray of light and out of this pit of darkness.

(Only one more floor until they finally reach the top!)