LOST IN THE WOODS

Yuka and Hugo spent a couple of hours after the duel with Flynn gathering up supplies. The next, closest gym was in Pistris City, and according to a map they'd gotten from the hotel, the fastest way there on foot was to follow a hiking trail through the Verdant Woods. The Verdant Woods was an expanse of forest that separated Equus City and Pistris City by several miles, lined with several forks in the trails. If a hiker lost their way or didn't know the path, there was a good chance they would be lost for a very long time.

Along with the several days of food, water, and hygeine supplies they purchased - or rather, Hugo purchased, at his insistence - they stopped at a card shop, where Hugo bought some cards.

"Check it out," he said as he flashed the cards he just purchased. "I finally got me an Extra Deck."

"I didn't know you didn't have one," Yuka mused.

"Yeah, went without one for a while," Hugo said as he flipped through the eight cards he just bought, consisting of six Link Monsters - two Agave Dragons; Underworld Goddess of the Closed World; Knightmare Phoenix; Knightmare Unicorn; and Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess - and two Xyz Monsters - Number 96: Dark Mist; and Number 39: Utopia. "Why didn't you get any new cards, Yuka?" he asked as he added the cards to his duel pad.

"I can't," Yuka answered as they left the shop. "My deck list is already registered with the League. I can't change it. It doesn't matter how many badges I have; I'll be disqualified if I change my deck list."

"So you can't buy any new cards?"

"No. At least, not without adding them to my deck. No matter how you look at it, it's a no-win situation for me."

"Then again, to be fair, your deck is pretty powerful," Hugo admitted. "I mean, you run freaking Blue-Eyes, for crying out loud."

"Always have, since my dad got me my first cards when I was a little kid," Yuka said. She looked down at the cards in her duel pad. "And I can't explain it, but when I first saw Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I was drawn to it. Anyway, enough about that. We'd better get moving before it gets too late."

"Well, we already checked out of the hotel, so let's hit the trails."

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The Verdant Woods got their name due to the lush green canopy. Even in the winter, the leaves never seemed to lose their vibrant green colors. Some said it was because of the soil, some said it was because of an ancient magician's spell, and still others said that it was because these were a rare kind of tree. Either way, the forest was given its name two hundred years ago because of just how green it was.

How the forest got its name didn't matter to Yuka. What mattered was that the trail she and Hugo were on was going to lead them to Pistris City. As they went, she booted up her duel pad to look up some information on the city's Duel Gym leader.

Her name was Alice Perkins and, if the information she found was accurate and up to date, she used a type of monster called Marincess. The Marincess monsters were all Water-Attribute monsters with a focus on Special Summoning from the hand to swarm the field and allow for multiple Extra Deck summons. The archetype was also notable for having trap cards that could be activated from the hand rather than needing to be played face down on the field first.

Yuka had never actually seen the Marincess monsters in action; only heard about them in passing during her days at the duel shop. It would be interesting to see them with her own eyes. She just wished she could see how good of a duelist Alice was right now.

Who was she kidding? Alice had to be good; otherwise she wouldn't have been a gym leader. Sure, she'd beaten a gym leader already, but Yuka considered that to be just luck; Flynn was getting bad draws. True, she won that duel - and the Drytron Badge - and though she knew she probably shouldn't, she felt confident. If she kept playing like that, she was going to have all eight badges to qualify for the tournament in no time.

As they walked, she removed a card from her deck, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This was the first card she ever owned, gifted to her by her father on her tenth birthday. Something clicked inside her at that moment. Maybe it was seeing them on TV via archival footage of Seto Kaiba using them. Personality of the original owner aside, she loved to see them in action. They were strong, powerful, majestic. It was perfect for someone like Yuka. Untl she left home on this journey, she only ever dueled tabletop at the duel shop, and some of the duelists who came in thought that she couldn't duel very well because she was a girl.

Needless to say, she quickly proved them wrong once she learned some strategies.

She put the card back into the deck and picked up the pace to catch up to Hugo. "So, how long do you think it'll take us to get to Pistris City?"

Hugo pulled the map out of his pocket and unfolded it. "Let's see here. We just got into the Verdant Woods, so if I had to guess it would probably take us about a day to get there, maybe two."

"You guess?" Yuka repeated.

"It can be hard to tell time with a map," Hugo replied. He folded the map back up and put it back into his pocket. "All I can do is guess. I mean, in a perfect world a person can walk for thirty miles in a day, but that's not taking into account needing to stop to rest, eat, or use the bathroom. So we might only get about five miles before night."

"Really? What's the furthest you've ever walked in a day?"

"About twenty miles. And I regretted it, because I wasn't able to move right for the next three days."

They continued walking in silence for the next hour. As they went, Yuka noticed the sky starting to get dark through the canopy. That couldn't be right; it was barely three in the afternoon. It wasn't supposed to get dark for the next several hours.

They stopped walking when they heard the rumble of thunder in the air.

"You know, in hindsight, we probably should have checked the weather before we left," Hugo said.

"Yeah, probably," Yuka agreed. The first raindrops started to fall. "Think we should stop? We did get a tent."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

Twenty minutes later, the small two-person tent was set up. Yuka and Hugo climbed inside, just as the rain started to fall much harder than it was a moment ago. Even in here, a tent big enough for two people, their packs, and their sleeping bags, they could hear just how hard the rain was falling.

"Close call," Hugo breathed.

"Yeah. Good thing we decided to get this thing." She took her duel pad off her arm and set it on the ground. The pad was lightweight, but wearing it since early that morning was making her arm and wrist start to cramp up a bit. "It actually feels good to take that thing off," she muttered as she rubbed her sore wrist.

Hugo lay down, crossing his arms behind his head. "Well, guess we're not going anywhere until this storm passes. Might as well get comfy."

"Hey Hugo? Can I ask you something?"

"What's up?"

"So, I use Blue-Eyes because of my dad. Why do you use dinosaurs? I'm just curious."

"Kind of the same reason as you; birthday gift from the parents when I was a little kid. Kind of fell in love with them. Probably because it's the closest anyone's going to come to seeing real life dinosaurs outside of the movies. I guess it's the same with dragons or whatever other extinct and magical creatures Duel Monsters has."

"Makes sense, I suppose," Yuka said. She lay down on her sleeping bag and closed her eyes, listening to the steady, heavy drum of the rain on the outside of the tent.

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"Yuka. Yuka, wake up."

Yuka slowly opened her eyes. Hugo was kneeling next to her, shaking her shoulder. There was light filtering in through the tent's nylon walls, and from the sound of things the rain had stopped.

And for some reason she was feeling tired.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"About eight in the morning," Hugo answered.

"WHAT!" She quickly sat up and zipped open the door to the tent. The bright morning sun met her, shining down through the damp canopy. She could hear birds singing among the sound of water dripping off the leaves and onto the ground. The ground itself was more dry than she was expecting; sure, it was muddy, but not as much as she would have thought with all the rain they got yesterday.

"What time did I go to sleep?" she asked.

"About four."

"In the morning?"

"No, afternoon."

"I...Just...How?!"

"I guess you were tired," Hugo guessed as he joined Yuka outside the tent. "Come on; let's pack this thing away and get moving."

Twenty minutes later, the tent was packed away, and they were on the move. Maybe it was because it was still relatively early in the morning, maybe it was because of yesterday's sudden rain storm, but the air felt cooler than it did yesterday.

The trail continued on deeper into the woods. Hugo had his map folded open, reading it as they went.

"You want to know the worst part about a physical map?" he asked. "You can't really tell how far you've gone. You just have to guess that part and hope you're right."

"Good thing duel pads come with a map function," Yuka said. She booted up her duel map and activated the map function. "Let's see here...Looks like we've already gone five miles into the woods, and it looks like we might have another ten miles or so before we get to the outskirts of Pistris City. At least, I think so; my map's looking a little fuzzy."

"All these trees are probably blocking the GPS signal," Hugo guessed as he put his map away. "Well, if we keep on this trail, we're bound to get there sooner or later."

The trail continued for another half mile before coming to a stop. The ground had been eroded away, leaving a deep gash in the earth. They stood on the edge of the crevasse; the bottom was nearly thirty feet below, with a rushing river flowing through it. The other side of the crevasse was a hundred feet away from them.

"Phooey," Hugo huffed. "This puts a damper on things."

"Isn't there a bridge?" Yuka asked. "You'd think someone would know about this and put up a bridge."

"Yeah, you'd think. But I couldn't begin to tell you where a bridge would be. We'll just have to find another way. Come on." He turned and started north, Yuka following a second later.

The crevasse seemed to go on forever; it must have split the entirety of the Verdant Woods in half. At some points it widened, at others it closed, but one thing that remained consistent was that it was far too wide for them to cross. The walls of the crevasse looked too weak to support their weight, so climbing down was out of the question, and even if they could, they had no idea how deep the river was.

"Come on," Yuka moaned in annoyance. "You'd think there would be at least one bridge, or maybe - well, I was going to say trees, but I don't a good track record when it comes to crossing trees."

"Yeah, we noticed," Hugo said. "This can't go on forever, though. I'm sure there'll be a crossing, or at the very least a turn, at some point soon."

"Yeah, but that could be anytime between the next five minutes and the next five days," Yuka pointed out.

"Nothing that can be done about that."

They walked on for another half hour before finally coming to a curve in the crevasse. Hugo stopped walking and looked around the area. Something seemed off to him.

"What are you stopping for?" Yuka asked as she walked past him. "We can keep going; we're back on track now."

"It's just that, this place looks tampered with, like someone's been here," Hugo observed.

"Uh, yeah, probably someone camping out," Yuka said.

"I should clarify, it looks like it's been booby-trapped."

"You sure about that?" Yuka asked.

"I've had to set a few; I know what a booby-trapped area looks like," Hugo answered.

Yuka gave a dismissive wave of the hand as she continued walking. "Come on, Hugo. I think you're just being para - WHOA!" She screamed as something latched onto her ankle and lifted her into the air.

Hugo crossed his arms as he looked up at Yuka, who was hanging from a nearby tree by a rope snare tied around her ankle. "I'm being paranoid, huh?" he snarked.

"Okay, I get it, you were right, now get me down from here," Yuka grumbled.

"Yeah, just give me a minute," Hugo said. "I need to see where this rope ends first."

"Hold it right there," a voice said.

Someone stepped out from behind a nearby tree, a petite young girl maybe a year or two younger than Hugo and Yuka, with waist-length blonde hair. She was dressed in a gray t-shirt and jeans, and wore a pair of purple bands on her wrists, along with a black duel pad strapped to her left arm.

"Uh, hi," Hugo said.

The girl just stared at him. "Who are you two? And why are you following me?"