Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Rising ❯ Chapter Eleven ( Chapter 11 )

In which senses awake fully, a face to face encounteroccurs, and Terran beckons our heroes

 

Yugi awoke with the start at the exact same time as Joey, Tristan, and Tea, who were staying the night. Something was wrong.

 

“Did you feel that?” Joey whispered.

 

“The hairs on the back of the neck standing up?” Tea whispered back.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Yeah, I did.”

 

“Hey, Yugi, you okay, man?” Tristan whispered.

 

Yugi blinked and looked at him, “You can't hear it?” Something was terribly wrong. Something smelled off, the air didn't feel right…

 

“Hear what? I don't hear anything.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

The city was utterly and completely still.

 

“There's no cars, no wind, nothing.”

 

The three other teens paused and listened. “He's right,” Tea said, “There's no noise when there should be.” Joey, in spite of the foreboding situation, grinned. “No, man,” Tristan said.

 

“Don't even say it,” Yugi said.

 

“Joey, I will hurt you,” Tea informed him.

 

“It's quiet. Too quiet.”

 

“Oh! You're dead!”

 

Three pillows smacked into the blonde with muffled thumps. “Sorry. I've just always wanted to say that,” Joey said with a smart-ass grin.

 

They jumped when Yugi suddenly let out a rattling hiss and bolted to the window.

 

“Something's here that shouldn't be,” he growled.

 

His friends stared at him. “Yugi? Your eyes are…uhm…glowing,” Tea said. Yugi looked back at them and blinked, “What?” Joey shuddered, “Eh, they're glowing…ya know…like a cat's…and they kinda look like a cat's…”

 

“Dude, your pupils are…vertical. You know…slits.”

 

“Well, that would explain why I can see that gnat on the wall. Tea, have you been strength training more than Drizzt told you to?”

 

“No. Why?”

 

“Holy crap!” Joey and Tristan had looked at her, “You look like someone from the WNBA!”

 

The girl looked at her arms and her mouth dropped open in shock. Her arms were sculpted into streamlined muscles that hadn't been there earlier that day. “This is so weird,” she said. Then she stared at Joey and Tristan, “Hey, you have something on your neck.”

 

They looked at each other. “You didn't have a tattoo earlier today,” they chorused. Yugi tore his uneasy gaze from the window to look at the two Templars and raised an eyebrow. A small tattoo of snaking lines ran up one side of their necks and disappeared under their shirts. “Psionic tattoos,” Yugi muttered, then all four of them froze as they felt a chill run up their spine.

 

“I think…” Joey said slowly, “That we should get dressed really fast.”

 

“Yeah,” Tristan agreed before lunging for his jeans. The other three followed just as quickly and within minutes, all four teens were creeping outside with their jeans or cargo pants and shoes on.

 

Once outside, they saw that the streets were deserted. Totally. Not a single soul was walking about and no cars sped by. Only the street lights were on and they skirted these like they were pools of molten lava. Yugi found them irritatingly bright, his eyes seeing everything in the dark as clearly as if it were a full moon. “I don't like this,” Tristan said apprehensively, “My ears are ringing like there's no tomorrow.” Tea and Joey had similar sensations, varying only in that Tea felt pins and needles in her legs. Yugi's fingertips tingled so badly they nearly buzzed.

 

“I hate unidentified magic,” Joey muttered.

 

They could only agree.

 

They were just entering the park when Tea suddenly brought them up short by holding a hand up and Yugi gagged as a rancid smell assaulted his sensitive nose. “Ugh…something's dead or should be,” he said in a hoarse whisper, holding a hand to his nose. The three others were just beginning to wonder what when the smell of decay hit them. “Oh…putricine…” Tea coughed, “Cadaverine.” The teens, having had vivid lessons of death and all things related from Alianna, knew what those two chemicals meant. Something that had been dead for awhile was nearby. “Let's go,” Yugi said, moving to the front, “And keep down wind, no matter how unpleasant it may be.” They sighed about this but did it anyway.

 

They headed for the pond where, months earlier, Yugi had had his encounter with the siren. When they got there, they stopped short. Tea stifled a gasp as the three young men gaped in shock.

 

The siren of the pond lay on the shore, her legs in the water up to her knees, dead. Her eyes were gone, leaving only gaping, bloody black holes to stare at the sky. Her flesh was in shreds, showing her skeleton in several places on her ribs, legs, and neck. One arm was entirely bone that was gouged deeply and the other was missing completely. One side of her abdomen was ripped open, innards spilling out in a pile that buzzed with flies and oozed with maggots that feasted on them and the silvery green blood of the fey.

 

Yugi felt a tinge of anger rise up his neck and heat his cheeks. True, the siren had once intended to kill him, but she was only doing as was in her nature. To see her dead and cast on the dry ground like an old play-thing was quite…infuriating. What also infuriated him was what crouched next to the corpse, gnawing noisily away on the missing arm.

 

“Oh my God…” Tea breathed, “That's…a ghoul.”

 

The undead thing, with its bony frame covered in sallow, glistening skin, chewed loudly on the arm of the siren, its mouth blood stained. It would occasionally pause and plunge a hand into the body's abdomen and pull out some morsel and squelch it raucously down. The smell of putricine and cadaverine wafted from it like a tide.

 

Near it stood a figure swathed in a dark cloak, watching the ghoul munch away at its macabre meal. “Eat, my pet,” it crooned in a hissing voice, reaching out to stroke the undead's head like a dog's, “Eat and grow strong.”

 

“We can take `em,” Joey said.

 

“Probably, but I think Alianna or Drizzt would be a good idea to have around,” Tea replied.

 

“Maybe even Atem or Mysti,” Joey put in, “Whad'ya think, Yug? Yug?”

 

Yugi was frozen still, staring with wide eyes at the cloaked figure, his breathing fast and shallow. Don't see me…don't see me…his mind repeated over and over for some reason he did not know. Don't see me.

 

The figure suddenly stilled, as if listening. Then, with a soft, malicious chuckle like oil on steel, it turned in the direction of the teens. “Well, well, well,” it said softly, “Look who has come to see me.” A hand, slender and fragile looking, rose from the folds of the cloak and beckoned, “Come out, dragon's son. Come out and see me.”

 

Yugi didn't want to. He knew that and every instinct, both human and non-human, screamed that he shut out that voice and stay right where he was. “Don't be rude. Come out and chat like a good little boy,” the hissing voice purred. Little boy?

 

Yugi growled and stalked out, much to the horror of his three friends. “Yugi!” Joey hissed, “Get back here!”

 

“So good of you to come,” the cloak said, “I was wondering if you would be called from your little bed.”

 

“What in the hells do you want?” Yugi growled, “Get out of this world. Crawl back to wherever it is you came from.”

 

Another malicious chuckle, “Now why would I want to do that?”

 

“It's either that or I throw you out.”

 

“Ooh. So very forceful. Much like your mother!” The head suddenly snapped up, the hood allowing light to shine into a pair of burning, mad eyes. Hands came up, like claws, grasping at Yugi's shirt and burning into his skin. Yugi felt some deep sown fear suddenly rise to the surface, making his breath come in short, shallow bursts. Every fiber of his being told him to get away, not to let this thing near him.

 

“Ah, so you do know me. Good,” said Cloak, with breath like carrion and bearing the metallic, burning sweet smell of corrupted magic, “My curse has served me well.”

 

“You!” Yugi whispered, trying to pull the hands from his shirt and claws from his skin, to no avail.

 

“Yes, me. And now that you are here and unprotected, I can finally have my revenge. I do so hate your blood line.” Only one hand held him now, the other suddenly clutching a black, ceremonial dagger that dripped with the poison that was corrupted magic.

 

A hot sensation started in the hollow of Yugi's neck. Black fire with colorful sparks began gathering around his hands, stabbing at the one holding him up.

 

“Hey, Smelly!” Joey's voice shouted. Cloak's head jerked in surprise and was smashed into by a stone flying at a high velocity. Cloak snarled and dropped Yugi, “So, you brought your little friends? Annoyances. Attack, my pet.”

 

The ghoul suddenly dropped it's meal and leapt up, charging at Joey and Tristan with an unearthly screech, its sharp fingers leading the way.

 

“Think again, ugly!” Tea suddenly ran in and sent the ghoul flying away with a powerful punch to its gut. It screeched as it flew, thudded into a tree, then charged again after it scrabbled back to its feet.

 

“Help Yugi! It's immune to mental attacks!” Tea roared at the two Psions, who promptly spun and ran for Cloak, who was beginning to chant as it lowered its dagger towards Yugi. The hot spot had begun to burn, singeing his shirt and, with it, the hand that held him.

 

Cloak dropped him with a snarl and stared at the red, throbbing point on his hand. “What is this?” it said, voice dripping with disbelief as his veins began to turn black under the skin. “It can't be!”

 

Joey and Tristan skidded to a halt by Yugi and slammed Cloak with a cone of mental energy at the same time, sending him flying back into the pond with a spray of water. “C'mon, man!” Tristan said, hauling Yugi to his feet, “You're the magician here!”

 

Even as Yugi got his feet under him, Joey and Tristan were sent flying with loud yells and crashed into the brush. Cloak shot from the water with a torrent of boiling steam and flew straight for Yugi, the black dagger leading.

 

Yugi scrambled back, mouth forming the words to a spell unconsciously.

 

Several things happened at once. Tea, having torn the ghoul's head off with her bare hands, looked up and shouted an alarm to Yugi. Joey and Tristan, stumbling and cursing, looked up in alarm as a loud, bellowed war cry entered the melee. Yugi threw his hand up to cast his spell and Cloak's attack was suddenly halted as a man darted in front of Yugi, spear shaft stopping his progression forward and the dagger meant for Yugi plunging deep into the man's shoulder.

 

The man roared in pain and in defiance and, with a mighty shove that made even Tea in her Amazonian strength applaud, threw Cloak back. “Not while I'm alive!” the man growled, yanking the dagger out and throwing it to the side. He picked up a large, round shield, studded with bits of polished mirror and held it in front of him, spear poised for a throw. “And not tonight. Stay behind me, lad,” he said, aiming the last comment to Yugi.

 

Yugi blinked, then looked at the hissing Cloak. “Stay out of this, meddler,” he ground out, slowly advancing on the teen's rescuer. “Now, where is the fun in that?” the man asked, “You see, she would be most displeased with me if I let you kill him.”

 

“You will not survive my poison long, human,” hissed Cloak.

 

The man returned this with a jaunty grin, “Good thing I have exceptional immunity to poison then, eh?”

 

Cloak snarled and launched himself at the man in fury. Yugi shoved the man on the back, forcing him forward and threw his other hand out, fingers splayed. There was a loud crack and a burst of black fire with colored sparks slammed into Cloak, eating away at the material and making him scream in pain.

 

The man pulled himself back up into a crouch and grinned again, “Well, obviously I won't be totally alone in kicking your slimy self. Scurry on…unless you want another helping?”

 

Cloak snarled and hissed, hunched over. “This is not over, boy,” it grated out, pointing a trembling finger at Yugi, “You will die.” With that, Cloak vanished with a snap, taking the decapitated ghoul with him.

 

The five stood, tense for many moments before they heard the sounds of nightlife start up. A car sped by on the road. People suddenly were walking. Crickets chirped happily.

 

“Who the fuck was that?” Joey said finally.

 

Tea, looking at Yugi's tight face, sighed. “Who do you think, Joey? He wanted to kill Yugi,” she said, walking to her friend and placing a hand on his shoulder, “You okay?”

 

He looked at her, smiled wanly, and moved away to the body of the siren. His friends and the man followed. “She didn't deserve this,” Yugi said quietly, “Sure, she killed wantonly, but only because that's how she survived.”

 

“There's nothing we can do, Yugi,” Tristan said with sympathy.

 

“Yeah. All we can do is put her back in the pond where she belongs,” Joey said.

 

“It's just…wrong for her to be defiled like this,” Yugi muttered. Tea dropped to her knees by him to hug him round the shoulders.

 

“Well, if that's the big problem, let me help again,” the man said, kneeling by the body.

 

Now that the initial crisis had passed, they saw that he was tall, around six feet, and well built. He wore little, only a leather covering that covered his front and back, giving his powerful legs maximum freedom of movement, sturdy leather sandals and bronze greaves. A long, flowing crimson and gold cape with a black and silver lining was draped over his shoulders, held in place on his left shoulder by an ornate bronze and gold pin. His hair was a vibrant cinnamon blonde that was dominated by the red and dusty brown in it. His eyes, when he looked at them, were a clear blue-gray.

 

He set his spear by his side and thudded his shield at Joey's feet, on its rim, “Hold this for me, lad.” From around his neck, he pulled a small mirror-like medallion on a thin cord. He laid the medallion on the siren's forehead and placed his hand over her heart, ignoring the gore and flies. “Alright, Lady,” he said quietly, “I hardly ever ask for anything, and I might also remind you that I have served you and my Lord faithfully for a long time. Restore this siren.”

 

Nothing happened for a long minute before there was a sound like water falling and the roar of a bonfire. The siren's body began to mend. The gaping hole in her abdomen pulled in what was strewn about and sealed up. Muscle and flesh covered the arm of bone as the gouges smoothed over. Patches of bared bone followed suit, and her eyes reformed. The dismembered arm slithered back into place and was refurbished. In a matter of seconds, she was whole and looked like she was resting peacefully.

 

Then she gasped, a hoarse, choking sound. Her back arched, her chest heaved and her eyes cleared and looked around in alarm. The man snatched the medallion and slung it over his head again and tucked it under the cloak. “Easy, lady,” he said in a quiet voice, propping her up, “We're helping.”

 

“You!” she said, eyes falling on Yugi. He smiled a little thinly and waved. Her eyes narrowed and she looked at all of them suspiciously. “What happened to me? I was dead,” she hissed, slipping away from the man and beginning to crawl backwards into the water. “You were,” the man replied, still in a quiet voice, “And you were food for a ghoul-pet to him, as well, before these young folk here stopped it. Then I asked the Lady to restore you. I guess she decided to restore you totally, as seeing that you're breathing again.”

 

The siren narrowed her eyes suspiciously but paused, eyeing them critically. Her nose wrinkled as she sniffed. “You have my gratitude,” she said finally, slithering back into the water. “I will grant one boon. You may call on me when you wish to collect it.” With that, she disappeared with hardly a ripple.

 

“Does she mean one each or one total?” Tristan asked.

 

“Knowing fey, one total,” Yugi replied dryly. He looked at the man, “So, who are you, who's this Lady and who's the she that would be mad if you let me die?” The man smiled and opened his mouth to reply before he suddenly stiffened and, with a groan, fell to the ground.

 

“Man down!” Joey said in alarm, stooping and rolling him over on his back.

 

The man clutched his bleeding shoulder, the veins in which were turning a sickly purple-black. The blood was a dull red, with little gloss, and the faint smell of corrupt magic came from the wound. “Poisoned blade,” the man said through gritted teeth, “Organic and corrupted magic.”

 

“What do we do?” Yugi asked, “I can't heal that.”

 

“Get me to Alianna.”

 

Yugi nodded, stalling the question of how he knew Alianna in the first place. “Joey, get his spear and shield,” he said as he placed a hand over the man's shoulder. Closing his eyes briefly, he concentrated on setting magic on the wound to slow the poison. Since only pure magic or Shadow could stop or dispel corrupt, and Yugi did not yet have the ability to pull magic in its purest form from anywhere, he spent a few minutes fighting with the stubborn Shadow to set it in the wound. When he was done, he opened his eyes to find the man a bit paler.

 

“Okay, that should slow it down. Can you walk?”

 

The man grinned through his pain, “I'm a Mirran. I will walk.” He started to get up and hissed as his shoulder spasmed. “Here,” Tristan said, crouching by him, “Let me help.” Yugi took his other side and he and Tristan helped the man to his feet. “Tea, could you run ahead and wake Grampa? Tell him to call Alianna and Drizzt,” Yugi said. The Amazon nodded before turning and running off at an easy, ground consuming sprint.

 

“Alright, lean on us,” Tristan said as the man settled on his feet. The stranger protested for the first few steps before he accepted that he would not be able to walk the whole way on his own.

 

By the time they arrived back at Yugi's house, dawn was beginning to lighten the sky and the stranger was ashen with pain and breathing heavily. Joey hurried in front of them to drop off the spear and shield in the house. Tristan opened the door with a few well placed thoughts and they eventually got the man to the living room. They let him rest a moment in front of the door, where he shrugged out of their helpful embrace. “Thank you,” he said in a tight voice.

 

“You sure you can walk on your own?”

 

“No. But I will.”

 

Tristan shot Yugi a look that said “what is with this guy?” before walking in.

 

Alianna jumped up from her chair where she'd been looking through a book on antidotes as soon as the man came in the room, followed closely by Yugi in case he stumbled. The elf approached him quickly and gave him a fierce hug, tangling a hand in his shoulder length hair. “You idiot,” she said. He grinned, winced, and returned the embrace with his uninjured side, “You would have done worse if I had not helped.”

 

“Damn right. Now sit down so Drizzt and I can get that poison out.”

 

The four teens stayed mainly out of the way for the next two hours, only moving to get out of the way whenever one of the elves or Solomon rushed by them to get something or to help one of the adults. Yugi had been set to making more neutralizer while Tristan and Joey were slicing mandrake root thinly for an antidote when Alianna walked from the room at Solomon's call from the kitchen. The man was asleep on the couch, the bleeding of the wound now gone and the scent of corrupt magic dissipating slowly. The veins had begun to fade to their normal pale blue.

 

Tea was cutting more bandages from a sheet of white cloth when Drizzt walked in, cleaning his hands of blood. “So…,” the Amazon looked up, “Who's the `Lady'?” Drizzt slowed in wiping his hands on the towel and eyed them all. Then he sighed tiredly and sat in a chair near Tristan and Joey, who had stopped their slicing. “The Lady is the First goddess, the mother of all things. The full title is the Lady of Mirrors. To answer the other questions coming up, he is a Mirran, a nation of humans that the Lady came to favor when they first became a civilization. The entire tribe is devoted to her, which is why they bare the name Mirran. It derives from `mirror,' although I'm sure you've figured that out. And, to answer why she's called Lady of Mirrors, it's because that is how she works a great deal of her magic. There is magic in mirrors and a mirror is a great instrument that can be used to enhance a spell or even deflect it. To get the full education, you'd have to ask a scholar or a cleric of the religion.”

 

“Okay…so he's one of these Mirrans. Why was he so stubborn about walking and…whatever?” Joey said.

 

“To give the simple explanation, it's their culture. They are hells of a lot like the ancient Greeks of this world, particularly the Spartans. Some of our scholars actually think they are of one kin, and that the Mirrans are a group of Spartans who actually crossed into Terran or vice versa.”

 

“…Cool.”

 

“How does he know Alianna and you?” Tristan asked.

 

Drizzt went deadly still and they could see he was searching for a way to put things. Yugi had already figured it out though, by watching Alianna with the man. She acted a bit different than she did with Drizzt or Solomon. There was a look in her eyes when she spoke to the man, a gentleness in her aura when she brushed hair from his face or when she had cleaned his wound. And the way she had embraced him, holding him tightly against her and tangling a hand in his hair, told a great deal.

 

“They're lovers, aren't they?” Yugi said.

 

Drizzt was quiet, but he nodded after a moment, “Aye, they're lovers. Have been for a good while now. She'd marry him if he asked and he'd follow her on any of her wild travels if she asked. As it is, they're both too alike, really. Stubborn, strong willed. It's quite amusing to watch, actually. Both tribes see them as mates, anyway, though, so I suppose it really doesn't matter.”

 

“It's her fault,” the man said, cracking an eye open and looking at Drizzt, “She is the stubborn one.”

 

The four teens jumped and flushed. “Didn't know he was awake,” Joey muttered, going back to slicing. Drizzt grinned and looked back at the man, “Shouldn't you be asleep?”

 

“Shouldn't you be gutting some orc?”

 

“What's your name?” Tea asked.

 

The man turned his head to look at the Amazon, “What's yours?”

 

“Tea. And that's Tristan, Joey, and Yugi, since I doubt they'll introduce themselves.”

 

“Hey!” came the chorus from Tristan and Joey.

 

Yugi rolled his eyes.

 

The Mirran grinned and closed his eyes again after settling his head back on the pillow it rested on, “Thelonius. The burnt one there,” he jerked his thumb at Drizzt, who stuck his tongue out at him, “And Alianna usually call me Theo. You may do so as well.”

 

There was a comfortable silence after this, filled by the sounds of the teens doing their tasks and the breathing of Theo as he fell asleep.

 

Alianna and Solomon came in later and dressed the wound once more before Drizzt spread an antidote over it. “That should do it,” the drow said, “The corrupt magic will linger for awhile, but Yugi slowed it down enough so we got to it in time. Give it a few days and he'll be back to his normal self. As normal as that is.”

 

“Can he stay here?” Alianna asked, turning to Solomon, “I hate to move him.” The old man chuckled and patted the woman's arm. “Of course he can. Now you go on. He'll be fine.” The two elves bid the teens and Solomon a good sleep and good day, deciding to give them a days rest since their night had been interrupted. Alianna paused to kiss Theo's cheek before being ushered out by Drizzt.

 

“Sleep late, if you want,” Solomon told the four yawning teenagers. “I'll let you know when Atem and Mysti come.”

 

“Thanks, Grampa,” the four chorused before curling up in their blankets and pillows and drifting off into dreamland.

 

As the house became silent with sleeping inhabitants, four of them shifted as their dreams took them to somewhere that was fragrant and green, the warm breeze just crisp enough to remove uncomfortable heat. Faintly, in some strange way it seemed someone was calling them, biding them to come there.

 

To Yugi, it seemed that he heard his mother, singing to him, calling him home.

 

“I'm wishing on a star

To follow where you are

I'm wishing on a dream

To follow what it means…”

 

The image of a raven haired elf girl floated in then, her voice echoing over the mountains of the green place and joining his mother's.

 

“And I wish on all the rainbows that I see

I wish on all the people who really dream

And I'm wishing on tomorrow praying never comes

And I'm wishing on all the loving we've never done…”

 

Now her voice faded, leaving just the sound of Deirdre, singing, pure and sweet.

 

“I never thought I'd see

A time when you would be

So far away from home

So far away from me…”

 

The place began to fade. His mother's voice grew softer as his mind brought him back to the upper realms of sleep. The faint voice still seemed to call to him, beckoning him home with his mother's voice.

 

“I'm wishing on a star

To follow where you are

I'm wishing on a dream

To follow what it means…”

 

 

*******

I know, you're probably sick of me. Just one little thing, I promise.

 

About the Mirrans—Yes, for all of you that have seen the awesome movie 300, I did get my inspiration from that. I saw the movie and thought, “Hmm…the goddess needs a personal guard or something like that…what if I made a culture sort of like the Spartans who were devoted exclusively to her? I could have some fun with that…”

 

So, yes, they are basically like the ancient Spartans, so I'm going to disclaim—I do not own 300, I do not own Spartan culture, etc., etc., etc. The idea for a culture that belongs to the goddess is mine, although credit is given to the producers and people who worked on 300 for putting the crazy idea in my head in the first place.

 

The character Theo is mine, just like Alianna, blah blah blah. Don't sue me. And I think that covers it. If you think of anything I missed, I probably don't own it, haven't thought of it, or whatever. If you think I ought to talk about it or have it brought to my attention, please do inform me via message or review. Thanks for reading!