Prompt VIII: Horizon
The thunderstorm had come in suddenly. The clouds had rolled in so abruptly Yugi had startled and almost changed back to his Battle Form when the onslaught of rain the size of acorns hit him. He'd yelped and jerked his head, looking up in bewilderment as the humans giggled and snickered at his surprise. The flash of lightning had made him flinch, startled by the ferocity and brilliance of the blast of white. The laughter had stopped soon after and one of them whispered about whether the God Dragon was okay.
It was a thought Yugi had wondered at for moons.
He'd failed to spot him but for once, when he'd gone hunting and run into his catch. The mangled moose had been laying feet away from the dragon, who'd crouched in the undergrowth with his scales transparent to reflect his surroundings. The dragon had been watching him the entire time he'd been there. He knew that much, even though he'd made sure to rush away as quickly as possible to give him room to return to his meal. As far as he knew, Atem had swallowed it down and fled for the mountain top he so often frequented in rumors.
Yugi hadn't seen him more than the one time, however, and he'd listened to mating cries for moons. Every day there was a new challenger or five or ten. Atem dealt with them and they either turned tail and he got to watch them flee as if the God Dragon might chase, or he knew they'd been struck down. It wasn't hard to imagine Atem had taken their heads for failing to abide by the oath they made upon challenging him. If he accepted their challenge, there were two rules—take their loss with grace and leave, and not use magic.
They only had one chance to pin him. If he pinned them, they were exiled from the territory. If they resisted and continued to try to fight him on the matter, he decapitated them. He'd heard the rules from a Tyrant Dragon moons before, at the usual gathering spot in the Badlands during mating season. He'd confirmed the God Dragon of the East was a Sky Dragon, that he was as powerful as the rumors claimed. He'd said he'd challenged Atem and the Sky Dragon had relayed two rules, then pinned him a heartbeat into the challenge. He'd said Atem had told him outright upon accepting the challenge that should he disobey, he'd kill him.
Yugi still remembered when they were younger and he'd spotted Atem wandering the forest near his den. He'd seemed unusually irate and colder than Yugi had ever seen, and he'd swung his tail into a tree trunk and driven the blades halfway through. When it had not budged further, he'd used his wings to slam into it hard enough to send it toppling into neighboring trees.
He wondered more frequently than he wanted when Atem had been forced to use his tail like that. He wondered who the first dragon was that had gotten their head severed. He wondered why he'd felt the need to, when, and how old he was.
Yugi glanced around to see if he could even spot where the moon sought shelter. The usual patch of clouds had no halo. The sky was too dark, black as soot, and Yugi found his eyes burning as he tried to spot at least something.
Instead a brilliant flash of lightning came again. Yugi blinked when he saw something in the white flash. His eyes grew wide with alarm, then surprise, and finally delight.
Had he truly just seen what he thought he had?
His mouth almost watered with excitement.
Another flash of lightning struck the sky, forking through the air as thunder boomed in his ears. Had he flinched or blinked, he would have missed it.
There he was!
Atem was atop the highest point of the mountain, coiled along its sharpened point, claws glinting like beacons as the lightning crashed about. His teeth were shielded from the way he'd lowered his head, as if he were looking down at something along the side of the mountain. His wings were tucked into his sides, draping over the sheer cliffs like blankets, and his eyes seemed more or less to be closed. Yugi couldn't see with the blinding strikes what color the gem on his forehead was, if it was clouded or darkened or just its usual glittering sky blue.
He wondered if he'd gotten hurt and that was why he'd summoned such an abrupt and terrible storm. But the moment passed.
Another bolt of lightning made him almost shiver. It lingered and stretched as if to strike down upon the trees below, and Yugi almost trembled with excitement.
The God Dragon moved his head enough to raise and turn it, and Yugi saw the smallest glimpse of his eye, glowing like the sun but cold as the moon hidden behind the clouds. He wondered if he'd gotten hurt, if this was his way of recovering, but the moment passed. Abruptly the God Dragon rose, then shrunk in size, a dozen different colors flashing about his frame, and was gone when the next flash of lightning came.
Yugi wondered again if he'd used it to scare away a challenger, or to help heal a wound he'd gotten during a fight earlier that day. He remembered being told Sky and Water Dragons could do that. If they lay beneath the rainfall or dove into the water when they were wounded, they'd heal rapidly. He couldn't imagine someone had gotten their claws into him, however, as Atem was so versatile in battle from what he'd gathered of his many failed embittered suitors.
He spotted Atem again, miles away from the mountain, swooping down toward where Yugi remembered the river looped through the territory. He couldn't help the grin on his face as he watched him disappear, relieved as he settled back against the stone he'd been sitting on.
