Kindred Spirits Chapter Five:
Hopes and Heritage
Shada stared at the creature before him. The dragon was white, slender, and had long wings as well as a tail that it had to curl up just to fit in the soul room. It hissed at him and moved its right hand towards him. The gesture made Shada step back in surprise; however, he maintained his eye contact as he did so.
With a single talon, the dragon pointed at the space on the floor that Shada had just occupied. Shada took it as a demand and did the most sensible thing he could. He bowed to the dragon. When he raised his head he heard a rasping growl; the dragon was clearly amused, but nonetheless, bowed in return.
It pointed at the floor again, and Shada saw the same tail mark on Yusei's right forearm in the center of the floor. It was noticeably larger, and a dull hum came from it. The priest looked to the dragon only to find that it had backed away. It gestured behind him with a flick of its head. Shada turned and saw the same pictures as before littered on the walls. Three of them stood out and he felt the dragon prod him towards them with its snout.
One of the pictures was of the same blond man from earlier. His right sleeve was pulled back, and a red wing-like marking was present. Behind him was a bulky red and black dragon. It had large claws, and three horns protruding from its scalp. The two most side horns curled around the creature's head like the horns of a ram. The dragon was massive and seemed to exude power.
The second was of a young woman with long magenta bangs. Even though she wore black gloves, a claw mark shone through the fabric in red. There was a dragon behind her as well. Its body was ebony, but it also had red flower-like plating that covered its wings and that also served as a mane. This creature had a slim body, short legs a long, thorny tail, and several vines protruding from its back.
The final picture was of a young girl. She had short turquoise hair in pigtails, and a claw mark on her right arm, but this one was in a different shape. Behind her was, surprisingly, another dragon. This one was blue and serpentine. Its wings were like an insect's; translucent oval structures overlapping made up each wing. It had golden plating on its chest and neck.
Shada turned to the dragon and wondered if it would understand him.
"Are these your comrades?"
The dragon nodded slowly and reached for Shada with a clawed talon. It touched his chest where the Millennium Key was, and the room around them warped into an endless blue sky. The priest fell immediately and was at the mercy of the winds. His robes blew left and right and he could barely hold onto the key. There was a loud shriek and then he landed on something that was both smooth and solid. The dragon's back. There were several curved vertebrae along the neck and upper back, and Shada had to position his body away from them. He fell on one side of the creature, so he didn't get impaled by the spines. He supposed he was lucky to have been caught by the dragon at all. They swooped down from the sky with the velocity of a shooting star. A large land mass suddenly appeared below them and rapidly got bigger and bigger. Shada had to grip the dragon's neck as they made their descent.
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A fertile forest awaited the two below. The weather was hot and muggy, but the air was very moist. There were trees that Shada swore could rival some of the lesser pyramids of Egypt in height, and the forest was teeming with life on the tops of the trees alone. Shada hadn't seen so many shades of green before. As the two got lower, the tops of the trees disappeared. There were several animals on the branches and the bodies of trees as well, and the air was thick and moist. The floor of the forest was soft, the soil damp. The amount of life in the forest was staggering to the priest. As an Egyptian he was used to arid landscapes of sand, and he felt rather frightened by the forest in general. The dragon, on the other hand, seemed right at home. It circled the top of the canopy and cawed down to him in its rasping screech. He followed it the best he could, and it would wait for him to catch up before circling above the next area Shada was to go to.
Eventually they ventured into a clearing. There was still a large amount of foliage, but there weren't many trees. The clearing was large, and the dragon joined Shada on the ground as they walked through the tall grass is silence. Ahead of them was a large temple about the size of a large pyramid. It had four equal sides, and sloped upwards, making it very tall. There were many steps on the side visible to the priest, and the top of the structure was flat. The dragon flew the priest to the top of the temple on his request.
At the top of the aged temple, they looked down on the jungle below them. There was a carving around the ground of the temple that Shada thought looked like a serpentine dragon. Its body was made of the marks Shada had seen earlier on Yusei's arm and in the pictures. The only thing unfamiliar to him was the head. The marking below them began to glow with a crimson light, and the sky darkened.
Images of the dragon's life flashed in front of the Egyptian. He saw the dragon along with the three others from the pictures and a slim yellow dragon, battle the Earthbound Gods. Behind the five dragons was the dragon in the carving; a massive serpentine dragon of crimson, the entire body seemed to flow with crimson energy, and yellow flames constantly rippled through the dragon's figure. This Crimson Dragon lit up the night sky. It gave off a raw energy that Shada sensed could rival the Gods of Egypt.
On the ground were five giant creatures. They resembled several animals, a spider, monkey, lizard, hummingbird, and a massive humanoid creature. Each creature had a gray body that had several markings on it . The spider had red markings, the monkey yellow, the lizard's markings were green, the hummingbird's orange, and the giant's were blue.
The crimson dragon roared and the five dragons each shot a ray of energy at one of the Earthbound Gods. Upon impact the forms of the dark creatures began to crumble, and they began to sink into the ground. The spider raised its head and shot a strand of webbing at the serpentine blue dragon above it. As the spider sank, it dragged the blue dragon along with it into the ground. The crimson dragon flew over the battleground where the evil beings had fallen. With a roar, it sealed the gods into the earth; each individual prison was a line drawing of the god it had sealed. The battle was over.
5,000 years later, Shada felt the dragon's joy when it was found by Yusei Fudo. Its later anger as it was stolen by another one of the Signers, Jack Atlas. The dragon was returned, and Shada felt its pride as it battled alongside Yusei against other dragons, Signers, and Earthbound Gods.
The visions faded and Shada found himself back on the temple. The dragon, Stardust Dragon, as he now understood its name, glanced at him with what he now understood was sorrow.
"What do you need me to do?"
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Egypt was known for its obelisks and pyramids, as well as its riches buried with dead rulers when Atem was Pharaoh. This hadn't carried over to the afterworld to Atem's surprise. There were a few obelisks here and there, but most of the building efforts had been for the creation of housing. The people of Egypt spent their entire lives preparing for death and they didn't want to do the same thing when the afterlife didn't meet their expectations. Seto had made buildings a priority; as people were still susceptible to the dangerous climate of the desert they came to occupy. It paid off, to Atem's discovery. Most of the civilians had much better housing than they did in Egypt. The Pharaoh no longer had all the luxuries of the country; Seto had given most of them to the people, with the exception of a palace, and the title. The infrastructure of the city seemed almost Roman to Atem, who was fascinated by the history that Yugi's time had preserved in simple schoolbooks.
Atem was in one of the four towers around the palace. It had three levels and he had to climb to the top to see who he was after. The room was empty except for the carvings on the floor, ceiling, and walls. Each carving was the same shape; they were placed according to their importance, the prominent carvings on the central walls. The particular carving Atem stood before was on such a wall. It depicted a man, clad in pointed armor and holding a staff. The tablet glowed and the figure on the tablet sprang from the wall, growing, and changing color from a gray tint to a vibrant purple. The flat image warped into a roughly humanoid shape as it twisted; unraveling into its true form. Clad in pointed violet armor complete with a helm shaped like a pointy hat, the figure was a good head taller than Atem. Long brown hair stuck out of the facial opening of the headpiece, and its emerald staff was roughly five feet long. The Dark Magician stood proudly as it gazed at its lord.
"Welcome back, Master."
"You know you don't need to call me that."
Mahad knelt before the Pharaoh, a smile gracing his thin lips.
"Yes, Master."
Atem and the Dark Magician exited the tower. The streets were still bathed in the light of the sun, and the two walked at a brisk pace as Atem began to explain his bizarre journey to his friend.
"There was a void?"
"Yes. It was like a white mist on both sides of the desert. I figured I would be safer traveling away from it."
"Was the void still there when you met this 'Yusei' person?"
"…I think so. I remember it wasn't there when we crossed the river in the boat…"
"Interesting. You both crossed a river to get here. The boat is symbolic to our afterlife, but it still doesn't explain how he arrived in this world."
Atem frowned. "So the boat symbolizes us crossing over to the afterlife… If that's the case, where were we before then?"
"I don't know. It could have been a space in time that you occupied while you shed the vestiges of your previous life. Perhaps you visualized Egypt because it was what you expected the afterlife to hold."
"That still doesn't explain how Yusei ended up where I was. I'd like to believe that we were fated to meet, but it just seems like a random occurrence"
Mahado tapped the side of his helmet while he thought. "…You said that Yusei was trapped in another world before you found him?"
"Yes. He technically died, but he told me that his father sent him away when they met, and then he wound up where I was."
"Wound up, my Pharaoh?"
"Forgive me, Mahado. 'Wound up' is an expression from the future. It means… that Yusei ended up where I was. Oh, and by the way, I'm not the Pharaoh anymore."
"I know that. However to me, your eternal servant, you always will be the true Pharaoh."
Atem was silent. He didn't know if he was disturbed by Mahado's comment or not.
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Seto was bored. He hated to admit it, but there wasn't anything interesting to do. Kisara wasn't around, and Atem was nowhere to be found. The Pharaoh paused before rising from the throne. He supposed that the priests would be done inspecting Yusei soon, and he could keep himself sane by questioning the strange man. Seto grabbed the strange gauntlet the guards had taken off Yusei. It was very light for its size, and Seto found that it fit almost exactly like a DiaDhank(1.). He kept the gauntlet on his arm, and opened one of the two boxes that had been found on Yusei's figure. The small boxes contained two stacks of material that was divided into small rectangles. The material felt similar to papyrus, but was much sturdier (2). The images on them had an uncanny resemblance to the stone tablets that were used to call forth Ka—The spirits residing in the stone tablets.
Seto found that the small tablets were divided into four groups. The first group was green, and had several pictures on them that didn't depict a specific creature. The next group was purple, and Seto also failed to see any actual thing he could summon from the purple tablets.
The next group was orange. These were different. They were clearly monsters. The Pharaoh sorted through them, and was troubled that most of them seemed to be completely different creatures than what he had seen in Egypt or in the afterlife. He moved on to the next group.
These tablets were white. On them were several creatures that were obviously powerful in image alone. Seto pulled up the top tablet— a white slender dragon, and had the urge to place it on the gauntlet. When he did, a surge of energy went through him, and he had to remove the tablet to stop his body from shaking. He swore he heard a roar when he tried to play it, and Seto suddenly felt a feeling of rejection-Was it really coming from the card?
The Pharaoh removed the gauntlet after a few seconds, and put it down when he heard shouting. Isis stormed into the room, and took a few deep breaths before turning her head back to Seto.
"Shada is in trouble!"
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An ancient gauntlet that the Pharaoh and his priests used to conjure shadow creatures. It is similar to appearance and function to a duel disk.
A material that the Ancient Egyptians used as paper. I didn't know whether or not the Egyptians had any sort of cards in ancient times, and didn't think Seto would know the specific term for them.
I haven't been able to update for a while now due to a multitude of reasons, and will try to post the next chapter when I can. I figure that if I take my time, the chapters will be better. Anyway, I know how the story will mostly go from here, and just need to fill in all the little gaps of my story.
Hope you are all enjoying this.