Chapter 26

Mai had cried herself to sleep the night before, so the fact she'd woken up feeling drained and strangely absent from herself was no surprise. But with the light of a new day on her she found she wasn't wallowing in her own misery anymore. Her challenge had forced her to confront her own fears and even though she still felt empty and alone, she was also more determined than ever to get her daughter back.

With SK gone she felt it was best to wait for the others to catch up to her. After all, it was safer for all of them to move as a group, especially when none of them knew the rules to this little game.

'You can't sit around here all day you know,' the sound of Piida's voice made her jump.

'I'm waiting for Covo and Mokuba,' she glanced towards the goddess.

'Then you'll be waiting for a very long time,' she folded her arms, 'they're not coming for you. No one is.'

'But…'

'Look, the two you split from yesterday are in the middle of their own challenges right now and it's unlikely that they'll pass.'

'I passed.'

'Yes and that's exactly why my uncle has sent me here to get you moving again,' Piida smirked slightly. 'He's made predictions about who will and who won't pass their challenges and so far he's been right on every count. So I've been sent here to move you on.'

'Sent by who?' Mai frowned. 'Your uncle?'

'No, by the little bit he has watching over the game for him,' Piida tilted her head to one side. 'He needed a completely neutral party to act as Game Master and we all agreed she would be a suitable choice. So far she has more than proved her worth to us, which is why I have no hesitations about following her orders.'

'I see,' Mai found herself studying the goddess. 'You know you're really not acting like someone who wants to win this little game of your uncle's.'

'I want what's best for the children,' she pressed her lips together, 'in our own way we all do. This little game might be a strange way of testing you all, but compared to the real world...'

'Compared to the real world this is a walk in the park,' Mai sighed. 'That's what you were going with, right? Well I've had easier walks I can tell you that right now.'

'I know. Just do me a favour and get moving will you? The others won't be able to find you here and all those who've won their soul cards need to be together in order for the next stage of the game to begin.'

'Okay, I'll get moving, but on one condition,' she sucked a sharp breath in, 'if you're wrong about Covo and Mokuba and they do pass their challenges, tell them I've kept moving, will you?'

'I promise to pass the message on to your former companions,' she nodded, 'now please, move on.'

For a while now there had been complete and utter silence between Catilin and Ahna. Ahna wasn't sure why conversation had dropped between them, but if she had to take an educated guess she'd have said it was something to do with the weight of their situation fully dawning on them. This place was so vast it almost made you feel hopeless and lonely. A part of her couldn't help but wonder if there was something deliberate about that.

'You know, no language at all is almost as bad as language used badly,' without warning a voice sounded all around them, causing them both to stop in their tracks.

'We're not in the mood for you Fray,' Ahna found herself glaring up at the sky.

'Well then you're defiantly not getting rid of me now,' in a swirl of wind the majestic deity appeared before them, 'don't you know I love being around people who are not in the mood for me? Just ask my wife.'

'Your wife's never in the mood for anyone,' Catilin giggled, 'she's always so serious and you're not. Not always anyway, right?'

'What can I say, when you're the God of Creativity it's hard to be serious all the time,' he posed for a moment. 'Unfortunately this is not one of those times I get to be carefree,' he waved an arm in front of himself, causing a glass case to appear, 'because I have a challenge for you.'

'Those are Yugi and Covo's soul cards,' Ahna eyed up the cards in the case, 'does that mean…'

'No,' Fray cut her off, 'I assure you, it does not mean what you think it means. And trust me, as a telepath I know exactly what you're thinking.'

'Then what does it mean?' Catilin pressed her hands against the glass as she peered in at the cards.

'You know I'm almost disappointed none of you've been able to work this out for yourselves so far,' Fray shook his head. 'If I were to say to you it takes a village to raise a child would you understand what I mean and agree with it?'

'Uh-huh,' Catilin nodded before Ahna had a chance to answer, 'this is about Crovell and Jo, isn't it? You want us to prove we're the best people to look after them, right?'

'Interesting, my uncle said that would be your response. He wasn't quite sure why you would be the one to get it, but... somehow he knew it would be you.'

'Are you trying to tell me this really is all some kind of game then?' Ahna studied the god for a moment.

'Yes and one made up of several stages. The first is a challenge with these cards as your prize. If you manage to successfully complete your individual challenges then you will be able to move on to the next stage of the game with all the others who have been successful.'

'Is that what happened to Jay? Did you challenge him too?'

'I challenged your companion,' Fray's choice of words were strangely careful, 'because of the way you've all been dispersed I ended up with three targets whereas my father only ended up with one.'

'So you don't challenge everyone then?'

'Hardly,' he gave an amused half laugh, 'six of us, to twelve of you.'

'What happens if one of us wins and the other doesn't?'

'All spare cards go to my uncle. After all, this is his game.'

'And once we've won our cards we get to move on to the next stage of this game, right?' Ahna continued to study him, although she wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for.

'Yes.'

'And what exactly is this next stage?'

'I'm not allowed to say,' Fray casually turned away from them. 'So will you accept my challenge or not?'

'We will,' Ahna nodded, 'but first you've got to tell us one thing; did Jay win, or lose?'

'He can't have just disappeared,' Duke stared around the wide open space they were in. 'I mean, he's pretty hard to miss and there's nowhere around here to hide.'

'You don't think anything happened to him, do you?' Yugi bit his lip.

'That's what I'm worried about.'

'Maybe we should go back and wake the other two up. If there are more of us it'll be easier to search, don't you think?'

'It sounds like a plan to me,' he nodded in agreement, 'I just wish I knew what drove him out here in the first place.'

The pair of them turned and began heading back towards the pink stone structure, which was almost out of view by this point. They'd barely taken two steps when a rather scared looking Joey appeared, lying on the path in front of them. His right arm was covering his eyes and in his hand he clutched a single duel monsters card.

'Joey?' Yugi stared at him in surprise.

In slow disbelief, his friend lowered his arm and blinked up at them in confusion.

'The pain is gone,' Joey's voice was low as he turned his gaze towards his still bulging stomach, 'I must have passed,' he gave a relieved half laugh. 'I passed and she's okay.'

'Joey, what the hell are you babbling about?' Duke frowned.

'I passed my challenge,' he grinned, 'which means,' he stared down at the duel monsters card he was holding, 'I get to move onto the next stage.'

'Okay…' he cocked an eyebrow, 'I thought I asked you to explain what the hell you were babbling on about, not continue to babble on about it.'

'Mind helping me to my feet?' Joey rolled his eyes as he reached his hands up towards them. 'Only I'm not sure I'm really allowed to explain what I mean.'

'Is that code for you don't want to tell us?'

'That's not it.'

'Then why not just tell us?'

'Because I really don't think I can. Now are you going to help me to my feet or not?'

'Fine,' Duke rolled his eyes, before stretching a hand down towards Joey.

'So where are the lovebirds?' Joey stretched out the word to emphasise his sarcastic use of it as he allowed himself to be pulled up.

'Still asleep,' Duke shrugged, 'we figured we'd catch up to you faster if we didn't have to wake them first.'

'Are you sure it wasn't just because you wanted to save them any embarrassment,' Joey's tone remained distasteful.

'You took off pretty fast for a pregnant guy and we really didn't think we should leave you alone,' Yugi shook his head. 'We genuinely didn't think about waking them first.'

'Whatever, we really should head back there now. How far away are we anyway?'

'Take a look for yourself,' Yugi pointed.

'Oh my gods, you've got to be kidding me,' Joey's draw dropped open.

'Sorry,' he threw him a sympathetic look.

'Its going to take us ages to get back there.'

'I know,' Duke started walking again, 'so we'd better get moving.'