Mate in a Village

ferocity- u think ur on the edge of ur seat now? Yeah right!

Red Dragon of Egypt- the ‘baddies’ get smashed and more later^^ it doesn’t stop at this chapter!

rachi- O.o…well, I don’y think i’m THAT good! my goodness! I’m blushing!

Yana-just wait and see^^

yami nefertira- ^^ thanx!! keep reading!!!

Goth Child of Zyon- ^^ well, I’m not too sure this will clear my name…it might actually soil it further-^^-
And thanx to a new reader!!!!! *does ancient welcoming ceremony* okay..done^^

OKAY…SORRY IT TOOK SOOOOOO LONG GUYS AND GALS!!! BUT, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I’M MAKING THIS UP AS I GO AND I HAD TO THINK OF SOME STUFF…SO…HERE YOU GO!!!!!


Chapter 12: By Memory
Run…

Run…

Run…

That’s all that went through the boy’s mind as he paced and panted and groaned from the sticking pain in his side.
He finally had to stop as his feet and legs could go no further. He slowed and steadied himself with the wall.

‘I…have to…keep…going…’ he thought as he huffed for air.

He felt a quick slide from inside his body. He placed his hand on his swollen abdomen.
‘What am I going to do?...I can’t let him take you. I love you....We have to get away. Anywhere but here…but where? I guess I can go back to Old Man Alshid’s farm.’

He relieved his dependence from the wall and started walking again.
‘Why do I feel like…I’m forgetting something?...or someone? I think there’s someone I can go to but…who? Someone important…someone I…loved? Or maybe hated? Whatever it is, I fell it strongly…but who…?’
**

“NO!”

“Yami, come on. We…”

“No! I refuse to do such a gruesome act!”

Seto sighed.
“I can’t think of another thing we can do to regain his memory of you. Unless you have a better idea?”

Yami looked to be arguing with himself about the decision until,
“Alright! Fine!...I’ll do it.”

“Good. Now the first step is to get him alone. Then, Joey and I’ll try to calm him if he’s a bit hysterical. We’ll grab him while you come in and…”

“No, I change my mind! I want to do something else!” Yami said as he covered his ears.

“Yami! What else do you propose?”

“Well…can’t we just…I don’t know…talk to him?”

“I don’t think talking will do much good…”

“No, actually…that’s not a bad idea,” Joey said while holding his chin.

“What do you mean?” Seto asked, exasperated.

“Well, Dalila knows him really well, right? So does Yami, and you and I know him pretty good, so…”

“We could remind him!” Yami finished.

Joey smiled.

“I don’t know if simple talking will be enough,” Seto countered. He looked into Yami’s pleading, worried eyes and, again, sighed.
“But…I guess it’ll be worth a try.”

Yami looked relieved. “So, how can we find him?”

“Well, we can split up and have some guards help.”

“We can get Isis to look, as well,” Joey offered.

“Good idea,” Yami nodded. “We’ll have the other healers help, as well. Okay. Let’s get to it.”
**

‘The man in my dream…why do I know him? He…he hurt me…but…what of his did I take?’

‘“You take something from me…I take something from you…”’

Yugi got shivers on his spine as he remembered the voice.
**

“So, then. It’s settled. We’ll sneak into the palace tonight. We leave in one hour. Get yourselves ready.”
**

It had been three hours since Yami and the others set out to find and save Yugi from the evil that wrapped itself around him.

‘Three hours!’ Yami scolded himself as he ran down another hall, many of his men right in step. ‘Where the hell else can he be?! We checked every place I can possibly think of…the garden, our room, Seto’s room, the temple, the bathing room…’ then a thought struck him. Something that scared him. ‘He wouldn’t have gone into the town, would he? Back to the farm?! Damn!’

“Pharaoh!”

Yami stopped and looked to where he was being called.
“What is it?”

The man bowed.
“My Pharaoh, one of the guards claims to have seen the young lord pass by. He was near the maids’ quarters.”

‘The maids’ quarters?...Dalila!’
With that, Yami beelined it for the said room. Once there, he threw open the door.
“Dalila!”

“Yes?” he heard a soft, cracked voice speak back.
She turned to see Yami.
“Oh, Pharaoh! Please! You have to help him!”

“He was here? When? Where did he go?!”

Dalila had been, and was still, crying, the fresh tears streaking her face.
“I don’t know but he was all in a fury saying something about someone taking his baby! He said he had to get out! Find help. I told him to wait here but he said that it wasn’t safe and he ran off. I went to go after him but he was nowhere to be seen by the time I looked out of the room! What’s happening to him? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know but I will find him. Guard!”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Tell half of the men to look in the town while the rest stay here and search. Let no rock stay unturned! Understand?”

“Yes, sire.” The guard turned to report the duties to the men.

As Yami turned to leave, Mia stopped him.
“As he left, I heard him say something.”

Yami lifted a brow.

“He said, ‘I took from him, but I swear he won’t take from me. I have to go where all but one soul does not know of.’ I hope it helps.”

‘All but one soul?...one soul…’
He looked to Dalila.
“You saved him from the River Nile.”

She nodded.

“Do you remember the ‘exact’ location?”

“Yes…YES! Yes I do! We never told anyone where it was! We would meet there sometimes!”

“Take me to it! We must hurry be fore he does something drastic!”
**

“Okay, Unat. Are you done with that pile, yet?”

“Just a second, boss. I almost got it.”

Pasis sighed. ‘Taking too bloody long…’
“Hurry it up!”

“Got it!”
Unat swung a fifth tweed, gold filled sack upon his back with a groan.
“This is heavy!”

“Quite your whining! Let’s go!”

They ran out of the third room, everyone with a fair amount of packs on their backs.

“Okay, that’s it. We can go,” Pasis referred to the group. “This way.”
**

Yugi stood on the banks of the Nile River, the moon’s light shimmering off beautifully.

‘This is it. This is where my life began.’

~~*FLASHBACK*~~

A girl was bringing a wicker basket full of corn from a few hour’s work back home to her father for him to trade when something caught her eye. She looked over to the great water source of her country and saw a large clump floating in it’s watery grasp.

“Hey!” she yelled out. “Hey! Are okay?!”
Her hopes of it just being a peasant like herself taking a simple passive swim drowned when the body didn’t answer back.

She threw the basket down, some ears spilling, and ran into the water fully clothed. When she had waded deep enough, she dove underwater making her short journey more submissive. She reached the cadaver, put on of his arms around her shoulder to keep his face above water, and swam back to shore.

“HELP!” she screamed as she was nearing. “Someone help! Go get a healer! Please!”

Some of the other villagers fled to do as the girl asked.

She made it to the bank and lied the boy down on his back. After heaving some herself, she looked over into the young, non-breathing face. He was so young. Her age, give-or-take a year or two.
She crawled to him and shook his cold shoulder.
“Boy…boy, please wake up.”

With no reaction, she gripped both of his shoulders and shook almost violently.
“Wake up!”

The boy started coughing and rolled to his side as spurts of water spewed out be fore he was panting.

“Boy…”

He turned abruptly at the call and had the look of utter fear in his face.
“W-w…who are…you?”

“My name is Dalila. What’s yours?”

He opened his mouth as if to answer but recoiled.
“I…I don’t know. I-AH!”
He screamed as he grabbed the right side of his chest.

She looked at his source of pain and noticed a large gash. Se then saw all the blood on herself and still lingering in the once clear waters. She looked back at the boy to see other open wounds.

“Boy…”

“Yugi.”

Dalila blinked at the whisper. “What?”

“My name…I think is Yugi.”
He passed out.
~~*END*~~

Yugi stroked his long remembered scar on his chest. A sudden sight of someone, rage stricken, coming at him full force, a blade in hand and ready to do damage.

Yugi gasped and stepped back as he put his hands to his ears, trying to block out that vicious snarl.
‘Who is he?!’

“Yugi!”
“Yugi where are you?!”
“You out here?!”
“YUGI!”

He turned around to see four people and several guards out calling his name.

‘What did I do?’
He stepped back.
‘I should go back to the palace. I’ll be safer. I can think up something there but I have to stay away from him.’
He ran.
**

“Yugi!” Seto shouted.

Dalila cupped her hands around her mouth. “Yugi, where are you?!”

“You out here?” Joey chimed in.

“YUGI!” Yami shouted with all his might.
“Damn it!” He kicked up sand. “Where is he?!!”

“Calm down. He has to be somewhere,” Seto said, his eyes still searching.

“PHARAOH!”
Yami turned toward a guard.
“Someone spotted him running back to the palace!”

“Man, why can’t he make up his mind?” Joey sighed.

Yami, in a heart beat, started back.
‘I have to find you!’
**

Yugi was walking through the halls.
‘Where can I go that no one will find me?’

“Over here.”

Yugi stopped at the voice.

“We’ve been going in circles! I’m telling you I’ve seen this damned door twice already!”

“All of you shut it or I’ll shut you!!”

Yugi’s breath caught in his throat. He knew that voice…that malice…like a bad dream…
While in his shocked day dream, the child in him kicked. It startled him so he let out a quick yell…regretting that he ever lived.

“What’s that?!” one of the men yelled.

Yugi was like a deer in headlights as on of the men came around the corner.
“Hey! It’s the pharaoh’s twerp!”

“WHAT?”

Yugi tried to run but he heard a call and one of them caught up to him grabbing him.

“LET ME GO!! OUCH!! THAT HURTS!!”

“Stop your squirming!”
A slap met his delicate face and he stopped resisting.

He looked up to see who had hit him to see a face…a face nesting one blue eye, one green. He knew it.

“My all the gods in heaven…” the man glared at the boy.
“How in all hell did you survive?”

“Survive?” He saw a quick image of someone pushing him into water, his own body too weak to move as he saw the blue water around him turn red, then black.
“You!”

The man glared further.

“It was you! You gave me the scars! You pushed me into the river! You tried to KILL me!”

Another lap sounded as, this time, blood trickled.

“I don’t know how you survived but as long as your alive, you might as well, stay.”

Yugi’s eyes went wide.
“What?”

“Oh, so you don’t remember?” another man chuckled. Yugi recognized him, too.

J…Ju…Je……JEB! His name was Jeb! He looked at the one behind him. Alph!

How he knew these names he didn’t know. He looked back at the man who had slapped him. He shivered as he remembered the name. “Garth…”

“Ah, so you do.”

Images came to him, bits and pieces of his past, none of them fitting together.

Garth came up closer and traced his hand down Yugi’s face.

“You know, I…”

“LET HIM GO!!!!”

They all turned to see the pharaoh and his ‘gang’.

Garth, in a panic, threw Sora off of the boy and grabbed him himself, thrusting a dagger against his throat.

“No…” Yami whispered.

“One move. I dare you…”

Yugi whimpered.

He looked at the man, a crown on his head.

‘Who…who is…’ then he screamed.

“YAMI!”

Yami switch his gaze to his lover’s and saw the love, passion, hate, fear, remembrance all in one body.

“Yami! Help me!”

“Shut it!” Garth hissed as he cut a small inch on the boy’s neck as a warning.

“Now, you and your men will back away, me and my men will leave, unharmed and with the money. As for the boy,” he leaned over and licked Yugi’s cheek, his discolored eyes full of lust, “will return to my possession.”

“Return?” Joey repeated.

Garth laughed.
“Yes. Several years ago, Yugi here, was my little pet. Oh, did we ever have fun.”

Yami snarled deeply.

“Then, he helped some people that we had captured and had planned on torturing a bit, escape. He paid with his life…or so I thought. Seems the little beauty had some real balls afterall.”

“SHUT UP YOU RA-DAMNED BASTARD!” Yami yelled.

Some guards then came from behind and started stabbing the murderous thieves one by one.

“No!” Garth yelled. He was about to turn and run when a sharp pain stung his side. He looked down to see that his own dagger has wedged itself into his belly…by Yami himself.

In a last fit of rage, he threw Yami away, picked Yugi up by his hair, as he was on all fours, and threw him into the wall face first. He jerked the blade from his side and was running at Yugi ready to kill when he was struck dead in the heart, again by Yami. He twisted the spear he used and the man let out a final yell before dropping to the ground.

He was panting from the adrenalin rush. He looked up to see Yugi turn so his back was to the wall, then fall to his knees. Then, with his last small breath and the single sentence that was uttered along with it before his world turned black, made Yami’s heart stop, his blood cold, his brain melt, his color drain, his stomach churn…

“Yami…I can’t feel the baby…”