Chapter 20

'Ah-cho,' Covo sneezed, before shaking the water from his hair. 'I don't how much more of this I can take.'

'God this place is awful,' Mokuba began rubbing his arms for warmth, 'if I never see another tree again, I'll die happy. I think I've seen about as much nature today as I need for one lifetime.'

'Well at least the rains stopped,' Mai's voice trembled a little towards the edges, 'so we can start looking for Joey and the others again.'

'I don't think so,' Covo shook his head.

'Why not?'

'Because it will start raining again soon.'

'How do you know?'

'How do you think I got this cold?'

'So what, you want to set up camp for the night or something?'

'Sounds like a plan to me,' SK clapped his hands together, 'although we definitely need to find somewhere a little more covered than this if we can.'

'But what about…'

'Mai, even if we found Joey right here, right now, I doubt they'll be anything we can do about finding Jo tonight. We might as well cut our losses and start again tomorrow.'

'I know you're upset Mai, but he does have a good point,' Mokuba shot her a sympathetic look. 'I mean, me and Covo have been fighting our way through a forest for the better part of the day. I'm beat and he's sick; I think we should rest now and start looking again tomorrow.'

'But…' Mai's eyes were wide and tearfully pleading.

'Look, its three against one Mai,' Covo shook his head, 'I understand how you're feeling, but you've got to admit there's very little you can do about it right now.'

'But I don't want to sleep without her. I can't. I just... can't.'

'Then don't sleep,' he shrugged, 'but you'll probably be exhausted tomorrow and that's not going to help you out much either.'

'Fine, if that's how you all feel I'll search for Joey on my own,' Mai turned away from them.

'I don't think so Mai,' SK place a hand on her shoulder. 'I mean, it's wet, it's cold, it'll probably be dark soon and you don't even know where we are, never mind about Joey or any of the others.'

'And what if there's something really dangerous out there?' Covo's face filled with a worried look. 'Face it Mai, you're better off staying here with us and waiting for the morning.'

'I don't want to wait for the morning,' Mai turned on them. 'I want to look for Joey and my daughter and I want to look for them right now.'

'Calm down Mai.'

'Someone's stolen my unborn child, I've been separated from the man I love and I've had just about enough of people telling me to calm down,' she gritted her teeth. 'I don't care if you're tired or scared of a little rain, I'm not. And I will keep searching, all night if I have to, whether any of you men come with me or not.'

'But Mai…'

'No,' she folded her arms stubbornly, 'there's nothing you can say to keep me here.'

'Fine,' SK sighed, 'but you're not going anywhere on your own. I'm coming with you. Covo and Mokuba can follow us tomorrow.'

'Yeah, because that's going to be easy,' Covo rolled his eyes. 'How do you plan for us to follow you exactly?'

'We'll leave a trail.'

'Of what, breadcrumbs?'

'How about sticks? I mean, we are in a forest, aren't we?'

'I'm not sure that'll work either.'

'I know it's not perfect,' he pulled a face, 'but it is worth a try, isn't it?'

As soon as the rain had stopped, Catilin had made her way over to the inscriptions Ahna had pointed out earlier. Her gaze scanned over them several times as she tried to find some hidden meaning or something within them. But with the air around her being as still as it was, all staring at the words did was give her another headache.

'So do you think we're mirrors then?' Ahna's face pulled with a warm but tight smile as she appeared next to her.

'I don't know how a person can be a mirror,' Catilin shook her head, 'not really. But... I don't know... my brain's not making the right kind of sense of it.'

'Right kind of sense?' She frowned.

'My brain thinks the way it thinks because of what the air tells me,' she tilted her head to one side, wording everything as carefully as she could in the hopes Ahna would understand. 'And even when the air doesn't tell me anything or doesn't tell me very much my brain still thinks the way it thinks because it doesn't know anything else. But...'

'It feels like your thoughts are doing something they wouldn't normally,' Ahna pressed her lips together.

'Yeah.'

'I think it's just this place Cat,' her lips pulled into a sympathetic smile, 'it's been doing something similar with me too, remember?'

'Mm,' Catilin smiled back at her, before lifted up her right arm studying the tattoo on the underside of her wrist. 'Hey Ahna, can I see yours?'

'Why?'

'I wanna see if they've been done by the same hand.'

'Same hand?'

'Crovell gave you yours, but I don't think he give me mine, so they might look different.'

'I guess,' Ahna looked sceptical, 'but it's not that difficult to copy a circle and even if it is, it doesn't exactly tell us anything we don't already know.'

'I know, but... I wanna see, please.'

'Okay, I guess I can humour you, it's not like I don't always do that anyway,' she smirked as she pulled off her stretch bandage and held up her right arm. 'Here you go.'

'Um, Ahna,' Catilin frowned, 'yours isn't there.'

'What?' Ahna gave a shocked sounding laugh.

'Look, look,' Catilin pointed, 'it's not there.'

'I... I don't understand,' she slowly shook her head as she examined her own wrist. 'I mean, I know I can't use my powers and I'm around Jay, I should have the exact same mark as you.'

'But you don't, you don't and what if Jay doesn't either?'

'No, that's impossible, now you're just being stupid.'

'No, I'm not, I'm not,' Catilin could feel her brain clicking things into place, even if it wasn't in the order it would have normally. 'What if Jay doesn't have his tattoo and SK has it instead?'

'Why would SK have it?'

'Because Jay keeps licking his lips.'

'I don't understand.'

'Jay keeps licking his lips, that's an SK thing. The tattoo is a Jay thing. What if they traded one for the other? And, and, and what if I traded the things the air tell me for a tattoo too?'

'But... why? Isn't it enough to take our powers away?'

'I... I don't know, but... but I feel... I feel like it's right somehow. That someone else can see the air the way I normally do and I have their tattoo instead.'

'Well the air looks normal to me, so the only person left would be Yugi and why would he be here?'

'I don't know,' Catilin's gaze flicked back towards the inscription, 'but I think... I think it all must be a game. It has to be. Doesn't it feel like a game to you?'

'Maybe, but if this is all some kind of game, then way swap traits over and remove powers? Wouldn't one or the other be a lot easier?'

'Maybe ones not needed for the game and the other is. We don't know what the rules are.'

'And that's exactly what worries me,' Ahna folded her arms, 'we don't know what the rules are, we don't know what the stakes are, we don't even know who's behind all this. If this is all just some kind of game then... then I'm terrified for what it means for my son.'

'I know,' Catilin felt herself become sombre for a moment, 'but it'll be okay Ahna, we'll find a way to save him.'

'I know,' Ahna smiled weakly, 'and I think we should tell Jay your theory when he gets back, see what he thinks about it.'

'So you do think it might be right then?'

'I never said that,' she shook her head, 'I just think it's a start... a little something we can go on and the gods know we need one of those right now.'