Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Rising ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

In which Yugi has several bad days and discovers something unsettling

 

With a groan, the lump rolled over and scrabbled for the alarm clock that had been smacked face down on the nightstand. One bleary, dark purple eye peeped at it from under the blanket corner. 8:00 a.m. The eye blinked. The lump grumbled something unintelligible. 8:01 a.m. He didn't like Wednesdays. 8:02 a.m. He'd been having such a good dream too. 8:03 a.m. Finally, the lump's brain kicked on with a whirr and turned the lump into an intelligent human being. “After eight?!” he yelped as he shot up out of bed, “I am so going to be late!”

 

The next ten minutes where a blur of dressing, brushing teeth and trying to tame hair, tripping over things and himself looking for socks, then a missing shoe, and scrabbling out the door and nearly forgetting his backpack. “Bye, Grampa, love ya, gotta go!” he said as he rushed by the elderly gentleman who stood staring somewhat blankly and holding a plate of toast. A piece was snagged as he shot by and out the door. The elderly gentleman happened to glance at the clock then shook his head with a sigh. Overslept again.

 

Inevitably, he skidded into his class room just as the bell rang for the last time. He flinched and tried to inconspicuously make his way to his desk. “Mr. Moto,” said the teacher and he froze again, grimacing. “How nice of you to join us. Take your seat and I'll see you after school.”

He sighed as several of his class mates snickered and slouched into his seat.

 

“Eh, tough break, Yug,” said the blonde beside him.

 

“I've never quite liked Wednesdays,” came the replied grumble.

 

The day crawled hideously, tediously by. It came to the point that he was fairly sure somewhat had slowed time seriously down. He was fairly certain that the fly he was watching buzzing around the room, was it larger than the normal fly or was it just him?, was going at a very slow rate of speed for a fly. Then the bell rang. He jumped a mile and his hands turned white knuckled from the grip they had on the desk. He looked around a bit wildly. That bell had been louder than usual. Way louder than usual. He briefly wished to find a nice, quiet, dark cave in a pleasant, quiet swamp and curl up on a nice piled of soft gold. He blinked. Where had that come from?

 

“Hey, Yugi.”

 

“Yah! What?!”

 

“Whoa. Chill, man. Tristan and Tea just wanted me t'tell you that we're meetin' at the arcade whenever you get through with Professor Uppity.”

 

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Thanks, Joey.”

His friend clapped him on the shoulder, “And try to relax a bit, Yug. Ya look like maybe you're seeing ghosts.” The blonde waved as he left.

 

Relax. Right. Okay. He could do that. Happy thoughts.

 

He made it to Professor Uppity's room and sat. A thick packet was placed in front of him full of word problems. “You may leave when you finish this. I'd get started,” said the Professor.

 

Yugi stared. Then he felt his eye twitch. He sighed dejectedly and picked up his pencil. The clocked resumed its ultra slow ticking.

 

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday. He overslept. Time was appallingly slow and things seemed louder than normal. Details were much more noticeable. Friday followed the same pattern, only livened by the very distinct snarl he had voiced to a classmate when they poked fun at his third after-school meeting with the teacher. He hadn't even though about it. It seemed quite natural. It was only five seconds later that he had clapped a hand over his mouth and hidden in the nearest boy's bathroom. Obviously, the week had ended badly. All he wanted to do was go home, get something to eat, and hibernate in his room, which was as close to a nice cave in a pleasant swamp as he was going to get any time soon.

 

“Grampa, I'm home,” he said dully as he walked through the door, dragging his book bag.

 

“Ah, here he is! Hello Yugi,” came the usual, enthusiastic voice he knew well. “We have a guest. Yugi, this is my friend, Alianna. Ali, this is my grandson, Yugi.”

 

Yugi blinked at the young woman sitting at the table with his grandfather. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties and that she would be fairly tall when she stood. She was leanly muscular, the thought popped into his head that her muscle structure was kind of…wolfish, and curved, with long legs and slender hands. Her hair was a pretty coppery or bronze red hue that made the light tan in her skin stand out. Her eyes looked at him, dark forest green orbs framed by thick lashes. Yugi sighed and, feeling uncharacteristically blunt and perhaps a bit less than tactful, said, “Grampa, isn't she a bit young for you?”

 

Alianna laughed, a true laugh that came from her stomach and reached her eyes, as Solomon flushed and sputtered. “Yugi!” he finally managed to exclaim with a reprimanding tone to his voice.

 

It slid off his grandson's shoulders like water on scales as the boy got a glass and poured some orange juice before sitting at the table. “Sorry,” he grumbled.

“No harm done, Solomon,” Alianna said, looking at the man slyly from the corner of her eyes, “You're not really my type anyway.” She got a glare in return before Solomon looked at Yugi, “How was school?”

 

The look on Yugi's face could've peeled the flesh from bones. “How has it been every other day this week,” he said irately. “Today I actually snarled at Brandon.” This last bit was muttered.

 

“Snarled?” Alianna echoed.

 

Yugi drained the orange juice and looked at her, “I swear the sound of an animal came out of my mouth.” His head thunked on the table top, “I'm going crazy.” Since his face was staring at the floor, his missed the significant look Alianna sent to Solomon, who nodded knowingly.

 

“Has anything else seemed…odd, lately?” she asked casually. Too casually. Yugi's ears perked and he slowly looked up, eyes narrowed without him knowing it in suspicion.

 

“Why?”

 

She shrugged, “Just curious.”

 

He stared at her for a moment longer before launching into his reply, “Well, the bells have been obnoxiously loud and my alarm clock has been nearly deafening and I think flies and bees are getting bigger. Oh, and I'm starting to run as fast as some of the track people in class.”

 

This time it was Solomon who looked at Alianna. The young woman glanced at him then pulled a folder from the briefcase by her feet. Yugi blinked. That hadn't been there before…

 

“Yugi,” she said, pulling a sheet of cream colored paper from it and sliding it over to him, “Does that sound familiar?”

 

He looked at her, then at the paper in front of him. There were several blocks of text which he began reading automatically. “What is this supposed to be fo--”

 

I'm wishing on a star

To follow where you are

I'm wishing on a dream

To follow what it means

 

And I wish on all the rainbows that I see

I wish on all the people who really dream…

 

A woman's voice, a white blanket with a smattering of silver stars; he could hear her singing.

 

Yugi jumped up, sending the chair sliding back and backed away from the table, staring at the woman sitting by his grandfather. “What is going on,” he demanded, glaring at her, “Where did you get that song?”

 

She raised an eyebrow, “How do you know it's a song?”

 

“Because I remember it. I can hear it right now.”

 

Why did his grandfather look a bit sad? And why was Alianna looking at him as if for permission? “Perhaps you should tell him. He doesn't even know me,” she said, placing a hand over Solomon's wrinkled one. The old man nodded, sipped his tea, then looked at his grandson, who had a curious look on his face.

 

“Deirdre made that song,” he said, “And she sang it to you as a lullaby when you were a baby.”

 

Yugi blinked again as his grandfather took another sip of tea. Deirdre had been his mother's name.

 

“What does this have to do with Mom? How does she have the song then?”

 

Solomon took a deep breath and slowly let it out, Alianna got up and put on more water to boil. Yugi edged away from her, the hairs on the back of his neck raising. Something wasn't quite right about her.

 

“You're old enough to know the whole truth now,” Solomon continued, staring into his tea mug, “And I guess the best way to tell you is to just come out and say it. Yugi, I know you were told that your mother was killed in a plane that crashed into the sea and that she was never found, but that's not true. You can be angry with the Council for fabricating that story.”

 

He heard Alianna growl softly as she spooned honey into hot water

 

“Council?”

 

“Questions later, Yugi. Let me tell you the truth, first. You're mother was not killed in a plane crash. She was killed in battle.”

 

“What?”

 

Now Alianna turned, “Perhaps I can explain from here, Solomon.” The old man nodded and Alianna took up the tale.

 

“I'm going to be blunt, Yugi Moto. Your mother died in another world called Terran, my home and it became hers as well. She met your father there.”

 

Yugi stared at both of them, thankful that he at least knew that other worlds existed, thanks to the slightly terrifying experiences he and his friends had gone through about a year before. The fact that his father might be from one was a bit harder to accept.

 

“It gets better,” she said, “Your father, Yugi, isn't human.”

 

Now it was getting insane. “Grampa…?”

 

“She's not lying, Yugi. We would have told you sooner, but the Council was watching too closely.”

 

Yugi looked at Alianna, “Then what, exactly, am I?”

 

Alianna grimaced, knowing the boy would not take this well. “Solomon?”

 

“He'll find out eventually.”

 

She exhaled and ran a hand through her hair, “In that case…black dragon demon.”

The answer fell in dead quiet. Yugi blinked. Then he nodded slowly, once, “Oh.”

 

Alianna and Solomon exchanged worried glances. He was…too calm.

“So,” the boy said, “Let's say, hypothetically, I believed you and went along with all this. What does that mean?”

 

“You could travel to Terran.”

 

“And?”

 

“Learn how to control your innate abilities, of course. Your mother was a powerful magician and the dragon in your blood is a tremendous dose of abilities as well.”

 

“Right.”

 

He got up and walked to the door.

 

“Yugi! Where are you going?” Solomon stood hastily.

 

“Out,” his grandson replied, “Away from…” he waved his hand, “Whatever!” Before his grandfather could say anything more, the door was shut firmly and Yugi was gone.

 

The old man looked at Alianna, who sighed. “He doesn't believe us,” he said. “No,” she agreed, “But that won't last long. You can't smell it, but I can. It's only a matter of time before those little differences he's noticed lead to bigger things. His father's blood is waking up, like I thought it would around this age. And his mother's talent is already up and running. I'd say it has been for several weeks know.”

 

“Does that mean…?”

 

“If he gets emotional enough, something will happen? Yes. Which is why he must learn to control it.”

 

“What do you propose we do then?”

 

“What any intelligent being would do. He's part dragon demon. Give him lots and lots of space.”

 

 

******

 

Hello, people! Don't mind me, I'm only adding a few notes to clarify some things and all that good stuff. You may skip this part if you'd like, or read it—reader chooses.

 

I am going to make some disclaimers.

“Wishing on a Star” is the theme song from The 10th Kingdom. I just really liked it and thought it would make a good lullaby and central idea as the predominant memory Yugi has of his mother.

 

 

 

 

So, like I said before, read these if you want, or don't, it's up to you. I'm only putting them here so I don't get nailed by someone for not saying where I found the song or that the characters aren't acting like they should be. Thanks for your time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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