~No Zane's POV~
I woke up when I felt the car stop. I opened my eyes and saw that a new home is a white two story house with a red roof. I looked out the windows and saw a gray wall surrounding our yard, which was grassy and had a few trees.
I looked over at Syrus and saw that he was now leaning against me and was still asleep. I smiled when I saw how peaceful Syrus looked as he slept.
"Zane, can you take Syrus inside?" Mom asked me as she and Dad left the car. I nodded my head as I unbuckled myself and then Syrus. I opened the car door and got out of the car, careful not to wake Syrus up. I then picked up Syrus and carried him towards the house as Dad opened the front door. He held the door open for me as I walked in the house.
As I looked around and saw that the furniture, which Mom and Dad sent ahead, was already here.
I went up the stairs to the second floor. I looked at each of the rooms until I found Syrus' new room. I walked over to his bed and laid him down. I then looked through the boxes until I found a blanket and I covered Syrus up. As I did I remembered how Syrus always used to cover me up when I fell asleep doing my homework. Thankfully I grew out of that habit before Duel Academy.
I was about to leave when I heard Syrus. "Don't go Zane. Please come back." He said in his sleep. His eyes were scrunched, meaning he was having a nightmare.
'He's having a Nightmare about me leaving?' I thought as I saw a few tears coming from Syrus' eyes.
I then sat down on Syrus' bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Syrus. I'll never treat you like that again." I said with a smile. I then ripped away Sy's tears as his face relaxed.
After a few minutes I started to feel sleepy again. And then I fell asleep.
~In the Morning~*No One's POV*
Syrus opened his eyes and saw he was in a room with boxes instead of in the car. 'I guess we're at our new house.' He thought as he sat up.
Once he did Syrus saw Zane was sitting on his bed, asleep.
'Did he stay here for the rest of the night?' Syrus thought before he noticed that Zane was waking up.
Once Zane's eyes were open he looked over at Syrus and saw that his little brother was already awake. "Morning Sy." He said with a small smile. "Morning Zane." Syrus said back. Zane then stood up and Syrus followed. They then left the room and went down stairs. They saw both their parents having breakfast at the dining room table. The two brothers sat down at the table and started eating breakfast with their parents.
The family of four talked about where Syrus would be going to Duel Monster School and how to find a new manager for Zane. Once they were finished Callista told them she was going to take the two brothers' horses to Horseland while Isamu looked for a new Duel Monster school for Syrus and the two brothers started unpacking their stuff.
Once they finished breakfast Callista got dressed in an outfit Alma won't recognize so she won't ruin the surprise and went to take Loba and Senshi to Horseland.
Isamu and Zane worked together to look for a new school for Syrus.
Syrus himself went to his new room and started unpacking. Once he was done Syrus looked around his room. He tried his best to make his new room look as much as his old room as he could, leaving out the color white as much as he could. His eye then landed on his deck, which was on the nightstand next to his bed. He picked up his deck and sat down on his bed.
Syrus flipped through his cards until he found the one he was looking for. "Mage Wolf." He said as he examined the card.
Mage Wolf had 300 ATK and 400 DEF as well as two abilities. The first one prevented Mage Wolf from being destroyed as long as it is in Attack Position. The second one causes a Moonstone Counter to be placed on the monster that attacked Mage Wolf, or a monster Mage Wolf couldn't defeat, that causes half of said attacking monster' ATK to go to Mage Wolf for two turns and if the monster with the Moonstone Counter gets destroyed in anyway Mage Wolf gets a hundred extra ATK. The problem with the second ability is that animal themed monsters, like say Des Koala, are immune to it.
"Finished already Syrus?" Zane asked, startling Syrus a bit. Syrus looked over and saw his older brother leaning against his doorway. "You know me Zane when it comes to stuff like that." Syrus said with a smile. He then went back to staring at Mage Wolf
Zane then went to sit beside Syrus. He then noticed the card his little brother was looking at. "I guess you found Mage Wolf before we left our old house." He said with a small smile. Syrus looked over at his brother before he spoke. "You know this card big bro?" He asked Zane, who looked at him with slightly shocked eyes. "You don't remember?" Zane asked him. Syrus just shook his head no.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You lost him a year before I gave you Power Bond." He said. Syrus stared at his brother with wide eyes. "You mean...Mage Wolf is my card?" He asked. Zane just nodded his head.
"He was your favorite and tended to be your ace card." Zane explained to his little brother. He smiled when he remembered how confident Syrus was when he had Mage Wolf.
Syrus put the rest of his deck back on his nightstand and leaned back until he was lying down on his bed. Mage Wolf was still in his hand. "Want me to tell you more?" Zane asked. "Yeah." He said.
Zane then followed his brother's lead and lay down on his little brother's bed. His arms were behind his head. "Well, to start off, he was a gift to you from Abuela on your sixth birthday." He said with a smile. Since the two brothers had two sets of grandparents, they called their grandparents on their mother's side Abuela and Abuelo so they won't be confused with their grandparents on their Dad's side. "Really?" Syrus asked his older brother, who nodded his head yes.
"You won every duel you were in since getting Mage Wolf. You even used to tell me that Mage Wolf used to talk to you. Like Jaden with Winged Kuriboh." Zane said as he sat up. "Wait, really?!" Syrus asked as he sat up as well. Zane just nodded his head.
Before either of them could say anything else they heard Isamu tell Zane to start unpacking his stuff from downstairs. Zane then stood up. "I better go get to work on my room." Zane said as he ruffled Syrus' hair, which annoyed the younger Truesdale brother. "Zane!" Syrus said as he fixed his hair. Zane chuckled as he left Syrus' room.
Once Syrus had finished fixing his hair, he went back to staring at Mage Wolf. 'Did I really used to have the ability to see Duel Monster Spirits? Like Jaden and Chazz?' Syrus thought.
He then remembered something that happened when he was seven years old.
~Flashback~
A seven year old Syrus was in the middle of a game of Duel Monsters. He had summoned his ace monster, Mage Wolf, a few turns after the duel started. Syrus also had 1000 life points left while his opponent, an eight year old boy that was picking on a six year old girl, only had 500 life points left.
"Sy, it's time to finish this duel." Mage Wolf said to the sky-blue haired boy.
Syrus nodded his head. "I play the spell card Double Attack! By sending Submarinroid from my hand to the graveyard Mage Wolf can now attack twice this turn!"
"But that means..." The bully started to say but Syrus interrupted him. "That's right! This Duel is over!" Mage Wolf then attacked the enemy Goblin Attack Force and defeated said monster. But thanks to a card his opponent played, the older boy still had 100 life points left. Which is why Syrus played Double Attack in the first place. "One more time Mage Wolf. Moonstone Beam!" Syrus said.
The moonstone pendant around Mage Wolf's neck started to glow and then a beam of light shot from it toward the older boy, causing his life point to go down to 0. "We won!" Mage Wolf said as he appeared beside Syrus once the duel was over. The two started smiling and laughing as the older boy left.
~End of Flashback~*Syrus' POV*
I started crying as I remembered everything about Mage Wolf and how close the two of us were.
"I'm sorry I forgot about you Mage Wolf." I said as I ripped away my tears. I sat there for a few minutes until I heard a voice to my left. "It's okay Syrus! I forgive you!" I turned my head and saw Mage Wolf sitting beside me, tail wagging.
"Mage Wolf." I said.
The two of us then hugged each other as best as we could, due to Mage Wolf being a spirit. 'Mage Wolf, I promise I'll never forget you or anyone close to me again.' I thought.
~Meanwhile~*No One's POV*
Alma was at a table outside, looking through a photo album of her family. She stopped when she came to a photo of her and her cousins, Syrus and Zane, the summer before Zane got into Duel Academy. Alma was in a plain white turtleneck gray pants, and boot like the ones she wears now, Zane was in a light blue, white, and black stripped oversized t-shirt, blue jean denin shorts, a white bucket hat, and white converse shoes, and Syrus was in a graphic button up shirt, a black leather jacket, blue skinny jeans, and black nike afs shoes(I forgot to to add this in the prologue). 'Syrus always seemed to be a different person when summer came around.' She thought.
"Hey Alma!" She heard Molly say from behind her. She turned around and saw that Sarah, Chloe, Bailey, and Zoey there with Molly.
The five then sat at the table with Alma. Angora, Shep, and Teeny came up to them as Molly noticed the picture Alma was looking at. "Who are they Alma?" She asked her best friend. "They're my cousins from Japan. The one with the glasses is Syrus and the one in the hat is Zane." Alma said, pointing out who was who.
"You have cousins in Japan?" Zoey said in complete and utter disbelief. Alma nodded her head. As Alma told her friends about her cousins the three animals listened to them. "I didn't know that Alma had cousins in Japan." Angora said.
"Me neither! I can't believe that Alma has cousins in Japan!" Teeny said excitedly before she became confused. "What's Japan?" She asked Shep. "Japan is an island country in East Asia. Anime shows that people watch originated there." Shep explained to her. The black and white pig nodded her head in understanding.
Alma's friends talked about how much they wanted to meet her cousins when Will came up to them. "Okay everyone I have some news." He said, gaining the attention of the six friends. "What is it Will?" Sarah asked him.
"We have two new riders coming later this week. They recently moved from overseas so they're going to get settled into their new home before coming here themselves. But their horses are coming today, along with their gear, so we need to get two stalls ready before they get here." He explained to them. While Chloe and Zoey complained about having to work while Alma, Sarah, Molly, and Bailey went to get the stalls ready.
Angora telling the horses what she heard the riders talk about like the gossip she is.
It took them less than half an hour to get the stalls ready. "Hey Will, what are the two new riders like?" Sarah asked him. "Sorry, but their parents asked me not to say much except that one will be in your house riding class while the other will help teach classes whenever he's available." He replied.
Just then Zoey and Chloe came into the stables. "The new horses are here." Zoey said. The group then left the stables to see the new horses.
Once they were gone the horses, Angora, Shep, and Teeny started talking. "Oh. I wonder what the new horses are like!" Teeny said as she started to bounce around. "Let's just hope that no one jumps to conclusions like you guys did with me." Scarlet said.
"Can we not talk about it? There was too much drama even for me that day." Angora said.
The group of animals started talking about what the new horses might be like when Will and Bailey walked in with two horses, one black stallion and the other a white mare. Bailey put the white horse in the stall next to Calypso while Will put the black horse in the stall next to Scarlet.
As the two cousins left the stables, Button saw a familiar scar on the white horse. "No way. Loba, is that you?" She asked the white mare. "Hi Button! It's been a while." She said.
"Hey! What about me you two?" The black stallion asked the two mares. "Senshi? You're here too?" Button asked him.
"You three know each other?" Calypso asked them.
Button nodded her head before she spoke. "They belong to Alma's cousins. Loba belongs to Syrus and Senshi belongs to Zane." She explained to them.
"Then doesn't that mean they're from Japan?" Angora asked as she jumped on top of a hay bale and lay down. "Hey, that's right. Shouldn't you two be in Japan right now?" Aztec asked the two. Loba was the one to answer him. "Syrus and Zane's parents got a promotion at their job and we had to move." She explained to them. Senshi nodded his head. "So those two new riders that are coming later this week are Alma's cousins." Shep concluded.
"Right." Senshi said as he nod his head. "But Syrus and Zane want to surprise Alma. We were lucky she hadn't seen us since we were foals." Loba said.
As they talked Chili kept looking at Loba and Pepper kept looking at Senshi.
'She's cute. Even with that scar.' Chili thought.
'He's really handsome.' Pepper thought.
Shout out to White Tiger Bumblebee for helping me come up with ideas! Be sure to check them out!
