Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Rising ❯ Chapter Twenty-One ( Chapter 22 )

In which Daystar and Yugi have a heart to heart and so begins the dragon rising

Yugi, in light of the events of a week ago, had been much more wary of things. He accepted the close watch Skot and Skywise set on him; he was watching himself.

It chilled him to his bones that he had, for a few minutes, wanting nothing more than to see Seto Kaiba lying dead and cold in the snow. He really didn't know what had made him feel so, and he was almost one-hundred percent sure that it was not the dragon blood in him.

His uneasiness wasn't easily dismissed, either, seeing as he didn't have his two drow teachers or Alianna to speak to. Alianna had recently taken to staying in her small room in the tree-den or running the forest, speaking to no one and snarling at any who came too close, even Theo.

It seemed the only one he felt he could speak to was Kaiba or Marina. The only issues were that the former had a tendency to find some way to annoy Yugi, and the two would start bickering, and the latter was not seen for more than a few hours every other day or so.

And Yugi would not speak to Bretta of it.

The fact he had heard her voice in his head, spoken of like that and speaking to him in that tone, had shaken him.

He had become leery of her, and was wondering if he should confront her about the supposed attempted seduction of Kaiba.

The log in the hearth split with a crackle and rush of sparks, startling him from his reflections. He looked over from his place to look at his two incapacitated teachers, covered in furs and laying next to each other, hands unconsciously entwined.

Drizzt's wounds were finally, finally beginning to show just the faintest hint of starting to seal. Jade still was gone, her physical body by her lover, herself elsewhere and unfound, despite the best attempts of the shaman and his mate.

The firelight danced through the room, casting a warm glow that flickered over the still dull skin of Drizzt and the now dulling skin of Jade. He sighed heavily and rubbed his arm, his fingertips seeking the dragon shaped mark beneath the linen of his shirt.

Daystar walked in then, fastening the thick hide flap behind her against the winter chill, and set down the bundled satchel of supplies before walking over to him and offering him a steaming bowl.

“Here,” she said, gently placing a hand on his shoulder, “Eat. It will give you strength and warm your bones.”

“What of my soul?” he asked quietly, looking up at her, dark eyes darker with sorrow.

The elf's golden brown eyes softened and she sat opposite him on the hearth, setting the bowl by the fire so the hearty stew would keep warm. “You are weary, dragon-child,” she said softly, taking one of his hands in hers. “What happened with you and Kaiba is not your fault. Something tried to snare your dragon, and it responded in the only way it knew.”

“But I wanted to kill him.”

“Yes, you had that desire. But tell me—can you completely and truthfully tell me that it was yours?”

He stared at the she-elf. “Whose else would it be?”

She smiled and patted his hand. “Think on it. You told me of the voice that told you to look for a pattern. So find it. Two of your teachers are put out of your reach, so you are left vulnerable. You are questioning who you are and where you belong, which also leaves you vulnerable. You fear the girl that you have affections for will not return them and you fear that the half-dragon you think to be your friend might be more than you first thought.”

He opened his mouth to interject, but she silenced him with her free hand gently touching his lips.

“Now, also think of this. Your bloodline is cursed by a treacherous being who wishes your death. This being is not stupid. He knows that there are those around you that will make it difficult for him to have direct access to you. He also knows the power of manipulation and subtly guiding hands like pawns on a chessboard. Would it be below him to use someone, even his enemy, to accomplish something that brings him closer to his own goals?”

Yugi's eyes widened.

“Would it be below him to kill two birds with a single stone and remove one of those threats to him that make it difficult for him to get you, while still managing to wound you?”

Yugi's face had gone pale.

“He's been using me,” the young man whispered.

“Or he is using someone to use you,” the shaman replied.

He stared at her for many moments before his eyes dropped and his shoulders sank. “What good am I? I cannot use my magic, for I cannot accept that evil dwells in me. I cannot prevent my friends from being hurt. I cannot prevent myself from being used—”

Daystar cut him off sharply with a word in the tongue of the wolves.

“You harbor no evil in you, dragon-child, and I will not let you dishonor your parents by thinking so. As for the rest, you can prevent these things, it is simply your own belief that you can't that makes you unable.”

“But the black dragon demon—”

“Rubbish. You are letting a mere word give you ideas. Being part black dragon demon does not make you evil, and neither does being called one make you. Of course, there will be some who are wicked at heart, but you do not come from that stock. You come from the dragon-blooded line, that delights in things dragons love and tricks. Yes, you have a taste for fresh meat and the thought of blood might make your mouth water, but that does not make you evil.”

“How not? To kill and devour the flesh, to drink the blood of something just screams of vileness.”

“When I and my people hunt, and eat the flesh of the deer straight from the carcass, and savor the taste of the blood, does that make us evil?”

Her voice was soft and pointed, a question designed to point out the flaw of his reasoning. He immediately flushed.

“Daystar, I-I didn't mean that you…”

“Being born something doesn't mean you are obligated to follow tradition. You are yourself, it is up to you to decide what you do. You forge your own fate, Yugi, no matter what other religions might say. There is nothing wrong being half dragon demon. It does not make you evil, it does not make you some vile creature. It makes you yourself, gives you a part of your identity. What makes a being wicked and evil is their own choices.”

“But…”

“If you were evil, do you think that the wolves, that my people, would welcome you so? Do you think that if you were evil and wicked, that you would have teachers who would gladly suffer such,” she gestured to the two drow, “So that they may keep living to teach you? Do you think that if you were evil, that you would have friends such as you have? Do you think Atem and Mystique would return for the sake of teaching you?”

He slowly, sullenly, shook his head.

“I will tell you a secret, dragon-child, to ease your mind.”

He looked up again.

“There is good, and there is evil. But there is no such thing as white and black. There is Balance. Without good, there cannot be evil, without evil, there cannot be good. Without law, no chaos, without chaos, there is no law. But there is no such thing as white and black.”

He stared at her blankly.

She took his hands and set them, palms facing the ceiling of the tree-room. Then she reached into the fire and took out two burning embers, holding them in her hands as if they did not burn. “Good,” she said, placing one in his left hand, “Evil.” The other went into his right. “They are two separate things, yes?” He flinched but found they did not burn him, and he wondered why.

“Yes…”

“No.”

She slapped his hands together, reducing the embers to a powdery gray ash. She repeated this process, setting his hands and placing burning embers in his hands that did not heat his flesh. “Law, chaos. Separate, yes?”

“Yes…?”

“No.”

His hands were slapped together, the embers crumbling to ash once more. “What do you have left?” she asked, brushing the ash into her hands and sprinkling it into his cupped ones.

“Ash…?”

“It is…?”

“…Gray.”

Then it dawned on him. There is no such thing as white and black…

“It's gray. Good and evil, law and chaos. It's all gray.”

She smiled, “Yes. It is gray. These ideals are not defined, for they cannot be, even if they are the concepts of mortals to give name to what the ancient gods know and represent. The paladin may hunt demons, but does he stop the burning of an innocent woman at the stake? The devil may take delight in the torture of a human, but does it destroy the town where it finds peace to live?”

The ash began to slowly trickle through his fingers, leaving a fine coating of dust.

“There are those who will try to tell you there is a definition, that there is black and white. But that is not true. Everything is gray until we decide what we do with ourselves and how we act. Then, and only then, can we start separating the gray into its components, to identify what is good, what is evil, what is law, what is chaos. Then, and only then, can we determine if we are truly evil or good.”

She held up a finger, “But, even then, there is still an element of gray. For the evil necromancer may have a flash of mercy, and spare the life of a victim or bring back a slaughtered child. The paladin, having saved a town, may in turn kill a man for not stepping out of his way fast enough.”

The ash had fallen completely from his hands, and she swept it back into the heart. “Do not let others determine what and who you are. That is the obstacle they overcame, just as they will overcome the one that faces them now,” she said, pointing to the two drow. “Now it falls to you. Will you make it worth their while? Or will you continue down the road you are on, and make the gifts others offer you freely moot?”

Yugi looked at his teachers then to the shaman. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A weight lifted from his shoulders. A small smile appeared on his face.

“I'm hungry now,” he said.

Daystar smiled and pressed the bowl into his hands, “Then eat, dragon-child. Eat and grow, so that you may overcome the obstacles of your path.” She placed a hand at the back of his head and kissed his forehead before rising and going back to the satchel to unpack it.

Yugi looked into the crackling flames and the soft, powdery gray ash. Nobility is not defined by birth, but by actions…you decide who you are…no white and black…

He smiled and took a sip of the stew, tasting herbs and thick vegetable broth. The silvery light that had been his mother protecting them from corruption and Kaiba from a curse came to his mind and he felt himself breathe even more freely.

So that is what you were trying to say, Mom. It's gray. Nobility by actions, good intentions. He grinned and was glad that Tea was not present at the moment to smack him upside the head. He knew exactly what his Amazonian friend would say.

Boys are so stupid. It took you this long to figure something that simple out? Give me a break!

He finished off the rest of the stew and set the bowl down on the hearth. Sorry I'm such a dunce, sometimes, Mom. I guess I just need some things spelled out for me. Put in black and white, so to say. I promise, I'll try to be better about this. And I'll start right now.

He rose and headed for the hide door.

“Where do you go, dragon-child?”

He smiled back at the shaman, “I'm going to start making it worth their while.”

She smiled back. “Breathe deep,” she said.

His smile widened and he knew what to say, although he'd only heard the sarcastic voice in his head say it. “Fly high,” he replied before stepping out and fastening the flap behind him.

Kaiba had once again been roped into toting a large basket for Faye. He was still unsure how this seemed to happen so frequently, but he could not say no to the young half-elf's smile, nor the soft look in her eyes when she spoke to him.

“Faye, what, exactly, is in this?”

“Some larger stones. Blackbird asked me to get them so he and Daystar could heat them by the fires and use them to warm the healing-room.”

He blanched, “You mean I'm carrying a basket of rocks?”

She laughed and looked over her shoulder at him, sticking the tip of her tongue out at him playfully. “Of course, silly. What else would be so heavy? You're such a gentleman, carrying them for me.”

He gave her a slightly sarcastic half smile and a “ha ha.”

She laughed again and tapped his nose with a finger. “Oh, do not frown so, Seto. You're much to handsome to cloud your complexion by frowning.”

He flushed a light pink and rolled his eyes.

But really…rocks? There was the typical rhetorical question of “What do you have in this bag? Rocks?” but to actually have it come true…

This world was rather ridiculous sometimes.

Yugi walked by then and paused before starting to walk backwards, keeping pace with Kaiba.

“That looks a little heavy, Faye. What did you put in it, rocks?”

Oh, sweet irony.

“Yes.”

Yugi gave her a strange look and peeked under the cloth that covered them. “Mirror of fire,” he said and looked at Kaiba, who could just see the similar thought about the rhetorical question go through his head.

“This surely proves that deities have senses of humor,” he said to the blue-eyed wizard, who rolled his eyes.

“Then they're all sick bastards who ought to try this sometime.”

Yugi stepped in front of him and set a hand under the basket and a hand on the side, opposite the one where Kaiba had his. “Let me help.”

Kaiba nodded faintly and the load became lighter with the addition of the other young man's strength.

When the cargo had been delivered, the two took a moment to stretch their arms and backs. “Faye, there will be no more rock laden baskets today. Or bags or any sort of receptacle for that matter,” Kaiba said.

The half-elf grinned and kissed his cheek. “Lucky for you, that was the only one needed.”

“For now,” Yugi muttered ominously. Kaiba winced, hoping that it wouldn't be an accurate remark.

“And thank you for helping, Yugi,” Faye added, leaning over to kiss his cheek as well. He grinned, “No problem. Just don't break Kaiba's back. He needs to be able to move on his own, because I refuse to carry him.”

Kaiba glared at him, “Don't you have something better to be doing?”

A devilish grin appeared on Yugi's face and Kaiba realized he'd just opened himself up.

“Not really. Am I interrupting quality time?”

“Don't make me hurt you.”

“What are you going to do, give me frost bite?”

“For starters.”

“I'm surprised you didn't take a low shot. I was fully expecting that.”

“Why say it when you know?”

“Why do you ask stupid questions that you know will expose you to jibes?”

“Will you just go away?”

“Aw, that's disappointing. Faye, you broke him. He used to be really good at this game.”

Kaiba glared again and Faye laughed.

“Yugi, my friend, come here…” Kaiba said in a coolly pleasant voice, starting to take a step towards the other wizard, who was grinning cheekily.

“I like it right here, thank you.”

“Don't tell me you're scared…”

“No. I'm merely being cautious.”

“Yugi!” Bretta's voice cut through the bantering tension.

Faye frowned slightly and Kaiba's eyes turned cold and hard as stone. He glanced at the other half dragon before looking back to Yugi. Then he blinked in surprise at the expression of annoyed anger on Yugi's face.

“Excuse me,” he said politely to Faye and Kaiba before walking swiftly over to Bretta and seizing her by the elbow. “We need to talk,” he informed her.

She blinked rapidly as he released her several yards away.

“What is it?”

“Why did you try to seduce Kaiba?”

She rocked back on her heels, startled by the blunt question and uneasy at how he'd found out. This could go badly…

“I…”

“And don't even think about lying. I will find out, and I hate being lied to.”

She blinked again and took a step back, brow furrowing. Something was different…something had changed in him…

“It didn't work, so what's it matter?”

“What's it matter? It matters because you compromised a good man's honor. Now, why did you try and seduce him?”

“…I thought it would be fun.”

He looked at her for a long time before his eyes narrowed. “You're lying. There's something you're not telling me.”

She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sound of hooves.

Different members of the tribe called out a greeting as Marina slowed her horse to a halt and dismounted gracefully, smiling and waving back as she made her way to Yugi and Bretta.

“Hello, Yugi,” she said warmly before acknowledging Bretta with a courtly and cold nod, “Bretta.”

Bretta scowled at her.

Yugi, however, was beaming as he scooped the elf into a tight hug and spun her around. “It's great to see you again,” he whispered. She grinned and hugged him back, “You too.”

Bretta's eyes narrowed and she felt her lips curl.

The voice drifted through Yugi's head again. She'll never want a filthy half-breed like you…you belong with Bretta…only she can understand you…

Come back to me, my love…then we can be together…no one will keep us apart…we'll destroy them if they try…

The voice fell against iron walls and a fiery spark of anger.

What?

Marina blinked in bewilderment as she felt the young man in her arms suddenly tense and heard him growl low and softly in his throat.

She stepped back to look at him. “Yugi…? What's wrong?”

The young wizard's eyes flashed angrily and he blinked. Her hand covered her mouth in surprise when his pupils suddenly shifted, narrowing and slitting vertically before going back to their normal, dark spheres.

Somewhere deep inside him, Yugi felt something sigh softly and begin to stretch a bit in relief. And he suddenly compared two things, found a match, and saw a small pattern.

“You…” he growled softly, turning slowly…

******

Oooh, I know. You will probably hate me now, won't you? I've finally given you a bit of a cliffhanger, although I am sure that you can guess sort of what is going on and what is about to happen. I have faith in the intelligence of you guys.

Thank you to all who have reviewed so far. Keep sending them, please, and I'll post again as soon as I can!