Youngbountygirl: I apologize this took so long to get done, but Aqua Girl's been having really bad writer's block, so I decided to do this chapter for her and she can do the next one. Hopefully, it won't be as confusing and she can still do the scene she wanted to do for like forever lol. Anyways, enjoy this one.
Aqua Girl 007: Anyways, here's the next chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it.
Yugi and Tea followed Ryou to the truck. He brought out two bows and tossed one to Yugi and the other to Tea. Tea stared at the bow with two raised eyebrows, wondering what she was supposed to do with it. Ryou got out his own bow, and then several arrow carrier bags with several bows inside of it. He gave one to Yugi and the other one to Tea. Yugi was wondering why Ryou carried two extra bows and arrow carrier bags with arrows, even if he was planning on using them.
"I originally had brought these to go on a hunting trip with Odion and Remu, but seeing that you both need training, it's a good thing I brought these!" Ryou said brightly.
"Wait, we're actually gonna hunt animals?" Tea asked with wide eyes. "I thought we were going to train."
"This is training. First thing, and most important thing, you must learn is to aim. Hunting vampires means learning to aim for the neck. It's their weakest point," Ryou explained. "In fact, that's how vampires kill each other."
"You mean biting off the necks?" Yugi asked before Ryou nodded.
"It should not be hard for you, Yugi. When I first joined in, I knew nothing about vampires. Since you practically... kinda grew up with one, you should be very familiar with how vampires work and different ways to kill them. Can you name them?"
"Besides snapping the head off?" Yugi said, squinting his eyes slightly as if he was deep in thought. "I think preventing them from drinking blood is one. Yami almost died from not drinking any blood after he became a vampire."
"Which is why when you shoot for the neck, you must make sure the head is completely off and all the blood is drained, so we can be sure he won't get back up again."
Tea instantly covered her mouth and turned extremely pale from the thought of what Ryou just said. To kill a vampire meant cutting off its head and draining its blood? It was almost like a rated R movie, only in real life. Yugi seemed very okay with this, since he had seen his brother fight other vampires before and kill them off that way. Though, he was in shock the first time he saw this. He knew Tea would not tolerate this very well, especially since every vampire looked human.
"Not to worry, most likely you won't have to kill a vampire. The werewolves are usually the ones that do the killing," Ryou assured, trying to calm Tea as much as he could, seeing that she was not taking this very well.
"It's still gross!" Tea insisted.
"You should see half the stuff Yami brings home," Yugi muttered. Tea sighed, slowly shaking her head. She really didn't want to know!
"Anyways, we should get going and see if we can find some game. Maybe a deer," Ryou said as he walked into the woods with Yugi and Tea following him, sticking together and staying quiet. "Now, when you shoot with a bow and arrow, make sure you put one leg forward, the opposite leg from the hand you're using to carry the bow. Put the arrow through the hole in the middle. The arm used to carry the bow is straight. Your two front fingers are holding the arrow with the third one curling around the string, then shoot, but whatever you do, make sure your finger isn't touching the arrow or it's gonna hurt worse than a bee sting."
"Okay," Yugi and Tea replied.
The trio entered the forest quietly. Ryou searched around for a place to spawn, so he would be able to let the prey come. He found a place on the branch of a tree that was a few feet up.
"Any of you climb?" Ryou asked.
"I can," Yugi said.
"I-I might need help," Tea admitted nervously. Ryou smiled and nodded.
Ryou climbed up to the branch, finding a good stepping area for his foot, so he could reach to that branch without falling. Yugi followed him, and then reached for Tea to climb after him. Ryou spawned on one branch, while Yugi and Tea spawned on the other, them sitting on their branch like a horse. They found it a little easier for them to be still without their legs growing numb.
"This is training, so aim for the neck, Keep your eyes open, stay very still, and keep quiet," Ryou instructed in a whisper as the two nodded.
Yugi laid back against the tree, relaxing himself, while also looking around to keep a sharp eye for any game. He remembered watching Yami hunt and copied what he did when looking for his prey. Yugi closed his eyes and quietly took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the forest. He could feel the cool breeze, since it was cutting close to Fall. He could hear the sounds of the rustling leaves, and then heard something walking.
Yugi snapped open his eyes and his eyes began darting around. Tea seemed very nervous and bored. It was obvious she had no experience on hunting or even watching someone hunt. Yugi narrowed his eyes at a bird perching at a tree branch at a close distance. It seemed to be going for a worm inside of the hole of the tree. He slowly reached for his bow, putting the arrow through the hole, and then pulled it back, remembering how he was supposed to shoot a bow. He made sure his fingers, holding the bow, didn't touch the arrow, then aimed for the bird. Yugi closed one eye, so he'd have a good aim for the neck before releasing.
The arrow shot right passed the bird and onto the nearby tree head. The bird flew away. Tea had jumped from the arrow being shot, her body pulled away from Yugi's bow with widened eyes. Ryou looked at Yugi and squinted his eyes, while making his index finger and thumb look like they were holding something invisible. Yugi can see Ryou was gesturing that he almost had it or that it was close, but not close enough.
Tea happened to spot a rabbit and began aiming for the rabbit, remembering Ryou's directions of how to use an arrow. She released the arrow and it struck the rabbit near its chest. She pumped her arm before the trio jumped off of the tree to retrieve the rabbit. Ryou examined the rabbit and declared it dead.
"You almost had it, but you must work on aiming it right. You didn't do too bad," Ryou winked.
"Thanks," Tea said.
"At least you did better than me," Yugi said, climbing up the tree to retrieve his arrow.
"True. I'm also glad to see you don't get offended at being beaten by a girl," Tea teased.
"Actually, despite missing his prey, he did better than I expected," Ryou said, turning to Yugi. "I must say, how did you learn to hunt?"
"I didn't. I just see my brother hunt and decided to do what he does," Yugi replied, shrugging.
"Good notion. It's always wise to pay attention to what you see, hear, and feel," Ryou instructed as Yugi and Tea gave a nod.
The trio had continued their hunting for a long while. Yugi began getting better with his hunting and shooting for the necks. The larger animals were easier to shoot. Yugi would let Tea catch the larger animals he would find to give her an easier practice. He would go for the smaller animals, though not rodent small animals. The hunting eventually made Yugi's and Tea's arms hurt and their legs numb from having to crouch low and stay like that for so long. It was no wonder hunters could easily get frostbite during the winter times.
Ryou decided to let his students take a break from hunting. They walked back to Maria's house where Odion stood there between Joey and Serenity, who showed a very bright smile. She wore a very baggy shirt and a pair of stretchy shorts that would seem to be worn for boys. Tea rose two eyebrows, wondering why Serenity was wearing this kind of clothing. Then, it occurred to her that she's probably going to change into wolf form and if Serenity wore regular clothes, they'd tare up. Joey also wore a very similar outfit.
"How are they with aiming?" Odion asked.
"Fairly good," Ryou said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tea still needs practice, but Yugi is getting there. I suppose living with a vampire does help him alot."
"Impressive. It is time you both learned to ride a wolf. This is the easy part, unless you have a weak stomach. This exercise is meant to grow your bodies used to riding a wolf. It took Ryou a good long while to grow used to riding his brother," Odion instructed.
"I know what you mean. I still remember riding on Yami for the first time I'd grow so dizzy I had a major headache the whole day and night," Yugi said.
"Then, you should be very used to a werewolf's speed, or at least enough to where your stomach and eyes can take it. Werewolves, believe it or not, are faster than vampires. They create more endurance due to using four legs instead of two."
"So, let's get started. You can ride on me, Tea. Just tug on me, if you get sick," Serenity said as Tea nodded uneasily. She never really thought about her stomach taking the speeds of wolves.
Joey and Serenity transformed into their wolf forms with their clothes showing. Yugi climbed on Joey while Tea climbed on Serenity. They grabbed a good hold of the clothing before the wolves took off into the woods. Yugi couldn't help but smile as he felt the wind blowing against his face as the trees passed by. He kept laughing and by reflects he'd squeeze Joey's fur, if he wanted Joey to go a curtain direction, almost like riding a horse where the rider showed the horse which direction to take. He never had this much fun in awhile, especially since his brother was gone and he couldn't have rides like these.
Glancing to the side, Yugi noticed that his girlfriend was turning green. She was not used to riding fast speeds yet, especially with the twists and turns. She eventually squeezed both ends of Serenity's fur tightly as both wolves stopped. Tea climbed off of Serenity and leaned against the tree with one hand over her stomach. Yugi ran to Tea's side, seeing her looking very sick.
"Are you okay?" Yugi asked before Tea poured out her lunch from her stomach, followed by some coughs. Yugi helped her pour out more of the contents from her stomach before walking her back to Maria's house.
"Odion sure wasn't kidding about not being used to this," Tea said hoarsely while Joey and Serenity changed back to their human forms.
"Don't worry, after a few days, you'll be able to ride any wolf. In fact, just for fun, we'll take you on a field trip and put you on the craziest rides, just to strengthen up your stomach a bit. The more you grow used to the speeds, twists, and turns, the better you'll become. The main important factor, besides killing vampires, is guiding the wolf. It's important that you know how to do that, because with us werewolves communicating to each other through our telepathic link, it's hard to focus where we're going. It helps to have someone guide us," Serenity instructed.
"Yugi seemed to know what to do in that area! I guess I don't have to tell you how to guide me through the woods," Joey halfly teased as Yugi rolled his eyes.
"Same with Tea," Serenity said. "It was reflex for her."
"Wow! Say, I noticed something!" Joey said randomly.
"What's that?"
"Ryou's starting to have thick back hair like I did several months ago."