The Magicians' Realm Chapter 13: Pole Climbing, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 13, everyone! In which we include an admonition to not try this at home….

In other news, sorry for the delay on this one—we were travelling yesterday and I didn't have Internet access (yes, I'm awful).

Angiembabe, thanks for the review(s)! Yes, Fried Green Tomatoes is a good movie (I'm not sure if it's ever explained fully how she does charm the bees). We shall see….

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Perhaps it'll get easier once we get to adventure-y stuff. Bleh—I'd say stay off your feet, but that doesn't seem to be working, so just keep at it with that Vaseline (if you use enough, you actually can't walk without slipping, so there's an excuse there). I don't know—but I find the idea of a Brooklyn where you are as hilarious as the town named Dublin near where I live. It went something like this: "How far are you willing to travel to line dance?" (addressed to my Mom). Mom: "how far are we talking?" "Dublin." "Ireland!?"

References:

Original characters + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

The poles gradually grew bigger as they approached, until they were at the foot of them and Anzu could see that they were as tall as a two-story building.

They were set up in a straight line, following a flat bit of land that Anzu guessed had once been a road. From this proximity, Anzu could clearly see that these poles had been manmade: the wood was smoothed and aged, and bled tar in spots; near the top, two cross-beams were hammered to the pole, trailing long, thin, black vines down to the ground. Some of the poles had ivy climbing them, but the one they approached was currently bare.

"Well, what do you think?" Yami asked.

"It's…um….What is it?"

"A load of fun," Jonouchi replied, grabbing one of the black vines. He pulled himself up, put his feet against the pole, and began climbing up to the top.

Anzu looked at Yami. "You have got to be kidding me."

Yami shrugged. "Unless you propose another way up. Trust me, it'll be fun."

Jonouchi and Honda were already at the top of the one they were standing in front of, and Kels and Yuki had scrambled up another. Yami took her hand and gently pulled her over to a third one.

"They can fit three, but two is more comfortable," he explained, handing her a vine.

Anzu looked up then back down at him. "I can't do this," she said, shaking her head.

"Of course you can!" Yami exclaimed, a smile on his face. "You've seen how to do it—you go up first, and if you fall, I'll catch you. And remember: don't look down."

Anzu could think of a number of reasons why she couldn't do this: she was afraid of heights, it looked old, the vine wouldn't hold, etc., et al….But Yami looked confident. He exuded it, and Anzu felt herself absorb a little bit of that confidence when she looked at him.

She glanced back up, saw a glint of something, and focused on that. "Don't look down," she muttered to herself. "Yeah, right."

She put her feet on the pole like she had seen Jonouchi do, but decided against it and climbed it like a rope ladder, hand over hand, feet pressed tightly against the vine. After a few minutes, she called back down to Yami.

"How am I doing?"

"You're about three feet up," Yami answered.

Anzu groaned in frustration. Yami chuckled, which made it worse. "Don't worry, you're doing fine. Keep going."

She did, gritting her teeth against the growing sensation of gravity. It was all in her head, she knew, but she couldn't help but be conscious of the fact that she was getting steadily further from the ground.

Finally, she reached the top of the vine and her hand slapped against wood. She gingerly hauled herself up, muscles trembling from being so far above the ground. When she was comfortably situated, she waved triumphantly down at Yami, who laughed and climbed up with ease.

She gave him a pouting glare when he sat down opposite her. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Showoff," she declared, then focused on some strange glass baubles on the beams. "What are these?"

Yami touched one thoughtfully. "You know, I really don't know. I do know what we use this for," he said, tapping his foot against a metal drum attached to the pole. He reached down and popped the lid off, revealing cold soda bottles nestled inside.

"I put a chill charm on the interior to keep the drinks cold," he explained, handing her one. She accepted, then laughed when he put the edge of the cap beneath the bauble and snapped it off.

"I guess that's what it's for, then," Anzu said, carefully mirroring his action, then looking around thoughtfully as she took a sip. She could see part of the Ridge from here, where it narrowed from a huge gash in the ground and thinned out as it continued east. "This is quite a view from up here."

"Why do you think I wanted to show it to you?" Yami asked, a smile on his face. "Sometimes I think this is what these things were put here for."

Anzu looked over to where Jonouchi and Honda were sitting. "Do you know anything about this civilization?"

"Only that it dates back to eons before the Time of the Magicians," Yami said. "I personally bother myself with the past as little as possible—unless they pose something new to learn about magic."

Anzu examined the poles. She could hardly believe that someone built them and put them into the ground, and so straight. "Maybe they made these with magic."

"That would explain a lot."

Anzu was quiet for a while before posing her next question.

"Yami? How do we get back down?"

He gave her a toothy grin. "The same way we came up."

Anzu sighed. "I was afraid of that."

*\*/*

The girls walked over hill and dale back to Delvaire, basking in the setting sun and enjoying the occasional cool breeze heading their way. They passed close to the river and followed the crest of one long hill that separated the river from a wider valley. Down on the river's edge, further upstream, Skulduggery and his son were indeed mucking around in the water, hunting for crabs.

"What do they do if they catch one?" Teana asked, pointing.

Idgy looked—she had insisted she call her that after the third "Mrs. Pleasant." "Mostly run around screaming."

The girls laughed; Skulduggery looked up and waved at them as his son pulled up a stick with a crab grasping the end.

They continued along the ridge. "This dip is a lot bigger than the others," Teana observed.

"Yeah, there used to be a lake here," Idgy said, arms outstretched as though she were balancing on the top of the hill.

"Really?"

"Sure—we used to swim in it and fish in it and everything. But one November this flock of ducks came and landed in it, and the temperature dropped real fast and froze around them. And they didn't have the patience to wait until spring when the ice would melt, so they flew off with the lake."

Teana stopped in her tracks. "You're kidding me."

Idgy looked over her shoulder and smiled broadly, but said nothing.

"Is she telling you about the lake?" Skulduggery called up.

"Yes!" Teana called back down. "Is she for real, or is she pulling my leg?"

Skulduggery smiled broadly and said nothing—and then yelped when his son showed him the crab by holding it in front of his face.

Idgy laughed. "Does it matter which it is?" she asked Teana. "It's a good story—you can leave it at that."

"Some things in life are mysteries?" Teana guessed, hands on her hips.

"Sure are," Idgy said, turning to face her. The twilight air added weight to her next statement. "But that's what makes life so interesting."

Teana considered this, then smiled, and left it at that.