Binding Circles

Binding Circles

Part: 11

Author: Shamise

~(*)~

The fish quaked in fear, scurrying for their hidey-holes. Sea anemones withdrew into their protective sheaths and the microscopic shrimp hid away into dark crevices. The reed was eerily silent and even the sharks took their hunting grounds elsewhere.

It was never wise to get in the way of a furious C’intal.

Atem stalked along the edge of the reef, following its path into an uncertain future. The ‘signal’ he had received mere moments prior was enough to give him a direction to go to, and he knew that it led straight to the Muer’in capital. His eyes were as hard as the Abyss’s wall and just as dark. His body ached to lash out at the next thing that provided the opportunity.

How dare they! Atem hissed menacingly in his mind, lips forming a snarl. He snapped his teeth at an eel that was too stupid to move out of the way. Just wait till I get my hands on them!

His mind was clouded with anger and pain, which had doubled ten times over during the past few minutes. This couldn’t be happening!

He glanced down at the Kroshi. The once vibrant gold was now dull and lifeless. The fact that it was still there told him that Yuugi was alive, but the connection had been severed. That was something Atem had trouble wrapping his mind around. He hadn’t known that a power existed that could be strong enough to sever a Kroshi bond. There were myths and legends of this kind of thing happening, and they either ending in both bonded dying or reuniting triumphantly.

He really hoped that they wouldn’t die.

Fists clenching until blood ran from his palms, Atem looked ahead. That overwhelming sense of pain and fear that had flooded through the bond just before it was cut could not be a good sign. He did not know how long Yuugi would last at the hands of a Muer’in torturer, and he prayed that he would make it there before anything else happened to his human.

He only wanted to hold Yuugi in his arms again, to feel him against his skin. He wanted to hear him smart off the next time Atem invaded his personal space. He wanted to hold him and never let go!

Please be safe, Yuugi!

~(*)~

Muted color swam before his eyes, the funny pastel colors smearing around his head. His nerves tingled with a sedated energy and his mind was sluggish. He couldn’t bring himself to think, to do anything. There was no need to worry about anything; he could just lay here in peace. He deserved that much.

However, despite the calmness that swirled around him, something didn’t feel right. His head was too shaken up to be feeling calm, and the numbness of his body wasn’t natural. Why couldn’t he think? Why wasn’t his body responding?

Did it even matter? He was alive, he as all right. There was no need to try and fight whatever was affecting him-

Wait a minute! A sudden lance of clarity struck his mind, breaking away some of the fogginess. Something was affecting him?! The mere thought that he didn’t have control over his mind roused some submerged anger and frustration. He hated to be controlled!

A spasm went through his system as those thoughts registered. He did? Why? He tried hard to remember; there was something lurking in the back of his mind, waiting to be let free. He could feel it pressing against solid bars, and, like a siren’s call, he was drawn to it. It glowed golden (in his mind) and it pulsed with welcoming warmth. It felt just like…just like?

Bam! Suddenly, something green and nasty pushed him violently from the golden warmth. He was sent spinning, launching his mind into a whirling vortex. He slammed back into his body, unsure how he had gotten out of it in the first place.

What was that?! He knew that he knew that golden thing from before, but why couldn’t he remember it?! It was like it was being…blocked.

Taking a depth breath, he raised his hand above his head, staring at his almost tan skin. The appendage was almost…foreign to him, as if it didn’t really belong to him. He knew it was his arm, but it felt different. He let his hand come down to trace the curves of his face, becoming frightened when he didn’t immediately recognize the feel of his own skin. At this close range, he could see the transparent webbing that attached each knuckle. The membrane had a distinctly red color and was laced with purple colored veins. He didn’t know why, but the presence of it caused something in his mind to flip-flop.

That was weird. He thought as he ran his hand through his hair, freezing when they came in contact with his ear. His ears felt…rubbery and long, longer that he felt that they should be. He also encountered the same membrane material curving around the shell of his ear and pulled taunt along the top of the ear.

Nothing seemed familiar. He cautiously propped himself up on his elbows and let his eyes wander along the expanse of his skin. His chest seemed all right, it didn’t give off any weird vibes like his hand and ears had done. There was something odd about the slits that he found around the top of his neck, yet they weren’t as unnerving as what his legs looked like. Well, he didn’t know why he thought they were called ‘legs’ but that defiantly wasn’t what they were. Glittering, blackberry scales started to replace his skin close to his waist. A pair of identical spines stretched out from his hipbones and the now familiar membranes attached the spines to the ‘leg’ like a fin. The ‘leg’ was aerodynamically designed all curve to reduce resistance, and it ended in a sturdy fin that looked like it was hinged for extra maneuverability.

The powerful muscles that he knew lay just beneath the blackberry scales were unresponsive when he tried to make them move. What was it about this particular appendage that made his limbs tremble? Why did the sight of it attached to him make him was to scream and through a fit and attack the next thing that came into this room?

Certain questions appeared into his mind, something that he had been able to let pass while he had been inspecting his surroundings. Where was he? Why was he here? Why did he feel as if he was missing something?

Who was he?

He froze when that question came to the forefront of his mind. He knew who he was! He was…he was….His heart stuttered painfully in his chest. What was his name?! His Name?! Why couldn’t he remember?!

His breathing came out in short, uneven gasps and his heart clenched painfully in his chest. He tried to remember other things about himself. What was his favorite color? Who were his parents? Where did he live? His mind drew a blank to each and every one of these questions.

Okay, take a deep breath, he commanded himself. Freaking out wasn’t going to help him in the least. Can I remember anything? He tried to think back to before he woke up, only to fine nothing but green clouding his ‘vision.’ Pain set into his chest when he tried to move past the green, sending little needles that spread out to his arms. Shivering, Yuugi rubbed against his tingling arms. He stopped pressing for the memories the instant the pain became strong.

What should I do? he asked himself desperately. Unable to just lie there and do nothing, he tried to get out of the bed. He flailed, eyes wide as the muscles in his leg did not seem to respond to his commands in the way that they should. What was with this? A loss of memory shouldn’t have done anything to his motor skills! Frustrated tears burned at the corner of his eyes, and he aggressively rubbed them away. He just didn’t understand!

“Hello?”

He squealed in surprise at the sudden voice. Spinning and flailing, he tried to turn around to face the intruder, and only ended up sending himself tumbling off of the bed. The intruder was by his side in a second. He struggled against the intruder’s hold; he didn’t trust this person.

“G-ck! Stop struggling!” the intruder yelled. Quickly, despite how hard he tried not to, he realized that the fighting was useless. Even though the intruder wasn’t as large as he was, the other definitely had better motor control than he did and that made all the difference. He was thrust back upon the bed, where he scrambled with his arms to brace himself against the backboard. He glared defiantly at the intruder, yet the moment the sight registered in his mind, his jaw dropped.

The intruder was a girl.

Short blond hair was pulled up into ponytails on her head. Irritated blue eyes glared at him, obviously affronted at his struggles, and her arms were crossed. She was wearing a simple white shirt that was tied around her waist by a simple rope. Her tail was rather pretty, if he thought about it. It was a blue-green color, and it shone with years of healthy care. It was so different from his own tail, which had two different colors and wasn’t shiny at all.

For several minutes, they glared at each other. He put off worrying about his memories in the light of this potential threat. Her crystal blue eye looked him up and down, and he squirmed uncomfortably. It looked like she had a grudge against him already; for what, he didn’t know.

When it looked like the girl was only going to continue glaring at him, he took it upon himself to say the first thing. There were tones of things he could have said: ‘What are you looking at? What’s your problem? What crawled up your but and died?’ Instead, he bit back his callous comments and asked her nicely.

“Who are you?”

The girl looked really affronted by the question, and simply uncrossed her arms and placed them on her hips. The pose looked strangely familiar to him; did he know this person? She didn’t look familiar.

“My name is Rebecca Hawkins, granddaughter of Arthur Hawkins.” She stated proudly. He assumed that this grandfather of hers was someone important with how she flaunted the surname. At his blank stare, the girl (Rebecca) huffed and glanced off in another direction.

“Where am I?” he’d better ask the important questions first, in order to see what kind of situation he was in. His name and memories could wait a little bit longer. He leaned forward cautiously, bracing his entire weight onto his arms (they seemed to be the only part of his body that responded to his commands). Rebecca’s tail twitched in agitation, and he wondered what her problem was. It’s not he ever did anything to her, did her?

“You’re in the Great Palace, courtesy of the Council’s generosity. So you’d better be grateful!” That last bit was rather forceful, and he flinched with the suddenness of it. A shiver ran up his spine at the word ‘council’, and it wasn’t a pleasant one, yet Rebecca had said it with such reverence that the feeling couldn’t be right.

“Why am I here?” he asked curiously. This, however, seemed to rub her the wrong way, for she instantly lashed out at him with her words.

“You idiot! You should be grateful that the Council saved you from that monster!” She yelled at him, curling her hands into fists. He scrambled back when she began to advance upon him, blind fury etched into her eyes.

“Miss Hawkins, that’s quite enough.” A new, masculine voice suddenly cut through the tension. Instantly, he diverted his attention to the person in the doorway. He knew that voice, and it wasn’t a good feeling that accompanied that knowledge. Flinching, he cowered back into the headboard with only one glance into the other’s differently colored eyes. Rebecca’s reaction was similar to his, except that she seemed more ashamed than afraid.

“I apologize, Mr. Dartz.” she murmured quietly, yet she still stole a glare at him when ‘Dartz’ wasn’t looking her way. He played little attention to her though, he knew who was in charge here. Suspiciously, he sized the newcomer up. The man was taller than he was, and a dark-colored cloak covered most of his body. Pale blue hair cascaded down the man’s shoulders, and the bangs framed his equally pale face. At his first glance, this Dartz guy didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to his surrounding, yet if he looked a little bit harder he could see the calculating glint in those eyes.

“Ah, I see that you’re awake.” he couldn’t help but jump when Dartz addressed him. He tried vainly not to cringe, as Dartz looked him over, a distinct sense of pride sparking in his eyes. And right now, he wanted nothing more than to be anywhere but here. Then suddenly, Dartz’s whole demeanor changed.

“You gave us quite a scare with that stunt you pulled, Ritoceh. You’re lucky to be alive.” He blinked at the sudden concern that peppered Dartz’s voice. What was he talking about? He didn’t feel like he had been critically injured, and his body showed no wounds either. He had to get all this straightened out.

“What is going on?” He interrupted Dartz as the man began to move into a recognizable ‘lecture mode.’ Before Dartz could answer, he asked the one question that plagued his mind and sent his nerves into a panic.

“Who am I?”

~(*)~

Diligently, Ritoceh practiced the basic muscle movements of his tail, eagerly throwing himself into actions that required little thought. He was extremely confused, and he really didn’t want to dwell too much on it. Under the watchful eye of Rebecca, Ritoceh put his body through a variety of stretches and movements, forcing the muscles to remember the skills they had forgotten so thoroughly. However, despite his unwillingness to mull over what he had just learned, he found the recent memories come crawling back in.

Dartz had explained to him that his name was Ritoceh, and that he was ward of the Council’s. His parents had died of sickness several years earlier, and Dartz had taken him in out of the goodness of his heart. However, despite the good feelings that this should have caused in him, Ritoceh could only feel emptiness in his words. Him being an orphan sounded right, but the term Council still gave his the creeps. Dartz had gone on to say that his life was a good one, he worked in the Palace for a reasonable wage and spent his free time exploring the city’s boundaries. It was this habit that Dartz said lead to his dreadful accident.

C’intal. A term that Dartz had spat out with unhidden disgust and loathing. He described the C’intal to be monstrous creatures, mad animals that craved Muer’in flesh and stole away their women, binding their captives with a heathen token that proclaimed to all that they were owned. Ritoceh found himself caught in the terrifying web Dartz wove of these creatures. According to Dartz, he had almost become a victim of a C’intal wanderer. Ritoceh had been roaming about the barrier when the C’intal had attacked, nearly snatching him away from the safety of the Capital. He must have hit his head pretty hard trying to get away, because a few guards had found him unconscious in the C’intal’s grasp, just barely getting him back before the monster could spirit him away. The head wound coupled with the trauma of being attacked so viciously must have caused his memory loss.

“Ouch!” A sudden smack across the back of his head let him know that his practices had slowed too much for Rebecca’s liking. The wiry girl was in charge of his ‘recovery,’ and took this job very seriously. She didn’t seem as mad at him as she had earlier, but there was still some unneeded hostility there.

Silently, he glared at the smirking girl. He tried to lunge for her, yet all he succeeded in doing was drifting off of the bed and making a fool of himself. His motor skills, so he had been told, would have to be relearned since it was unknown if the memory loss was permanent or not. Grimly, Ritoceh wormed his way back onto the bed. One of these days, he would catch Rebecca by surprise, and then she’d be sorry.

He wondered what his life would be like now, as Rebecca glared at him from the corner of her eye and he went through his exercises. Clearly he couldn’t jut go back to life as it was before…could he? He could barely keep himself from floating away, let alone take up his duties as a Palace worker. He remembered nothing of his people’s customs; he could barely even understand the language! He doubted the Rebecca would fancy taking care of him for a prolonged amount of time, that girl was too hot-tempered to sit still for long, and he knew that Dartz wouldn’t keep a lame child under his wing.

I’ll jut have to learn. Ritoceh thought, determined. I’ll have to learn quickly to get back onto my own two…two what? Where on earth was that thought going? …Earth? Ritoceh shook his head as the confusing swirl rose in his head and Rebecca threatened to hit him again when he paused the exercises. He had no idea where these strange analogies came from. Did losing memories also account for gaining weird ones?He tried to convince himself that it didn’t matter. It would probably only cause more trouble if it did, so he would quit thinking about it for now. Right now he had only two goals.

Number one: learn all I can about my people, and number two…. he cast a glance at the smug Rebecca who had just hit him over the head again. Number two: I will learn how to use this thing and swim circles around her!

~(*)~end chapter~(*)~

Author Note: Well, I hoped you like this one. I tried really hard not to leave this one in a cliffhanger, and now you know the dilemma I have produced for Atem. ^^ Review please?