Wings of Time

Small and Mute

"What should we call you by? Do you know how to write? You can just nod or shake your head. Please, we want to help you."

The girl had flinched horribly when the millennium puzzle had activated, but now she stared at Yami with an intensity Yugi had yet to see. She frowned even more deeply, nearly dissipating her pout.

"Please." said Yami once more, meeting the intensity of her gaze.

Then, to both their surprise, her lips parted and her face softened.

"I.." she croaked. "I don't know."

Both Yami and Yugi leapt in excitement.

"So you can speak!"

"Y-yes?" she looked nearly as surprised as they did.

"Then can you tell us your name? At least your name."

Her voice was soft and as hesitant as all her actions. Yugi had to lean in to hear. "Like I said, I don't know. I don't know..."

A gleam of panic came to her face before she shook herself of it and met Yugi's eye once more.

"W-where am I?"

"Domino City. Do you know where that is?"

The panic in her face fought to return. She clenched her cup and didn't respond as Yugi's grandfather returned with a bowl of soup for both of them. He smiled down warmly at her and her panic seemed to ease slightly.

"I heard a little voice from the kitchen. Was that you?" he asked kindly.

She nodded. His grandfather beamed.

"That's good! Could you possibly tell us where we might take you home, little miss?"

Yugi shook his head. "She can't remember her name. I think there's more to this than we think. It seems like she just now remembered that she could talk."

To this, his grandfather's thick eyebrows lowered dangerously.

"You aren't kidding me?"

Yugi shook his head solemnly. The girl on the couch began to tremble.

"I-I-I'm sorry." She squeaked. "I know I'm suppose to know, you probably need to get rid of me, I'm so sorry—" Hot soup was splashing on her hands. Yugi leaned forward, putting a hand on hers in attempts to calm her before she scalded herself.

"It's fine. We don't mind at all."

"And if you're willing to help out with the shop, you can stay as long as you need to." said his grandfather, his voice warm. Yugi had the sneaky suspicion that his grandfather had become just as taken as he was by her vulnerability.

"Shop? So all those shelves downstairs—you live over a shop?"

Both of them nodded. "And you know our names by now, right?"

She paused, eyebrows narrowed. "Yugi Moto, right? Except..." she turned to his grandfather. "I don't know your name. Everyone just refers to you as grandpa."

"Which is all good and well, seeing as that is what I am. My name is Soloman, but if it's easier for you, just call me grandpa as everyone else does."

She smiled softly, her lips warming to a soft, pink glow from the soup and tea. "Thank you. I...I will do my best."

Yugi thought his heart might burst.

That night, as he laid curled up in his bed, he listened to the thunder rolling outside.

"This storm is very strange," he said out loud. "I mean, the forecast said it was suppose to be clear skies for the rest of the week. They would've noticed a storm this big coming, wouldn't they?"

Yami phased into being besides him, leaning his head back on his arms.

"Indeed. I can't help shake the feeling that it has something to do with that girl."

The girl in question was curled up on a nest of blankets on the couch in the living room. Yugi felt that squirming sensation in his stomach again and turned onto his side, away from Yami.

"Maybe."

"Yugi?"

But Yugi's thoughts were drawn elsewhere, remembering when the girl had shifted her leg at some point and he spied a strange, greenish ring, as though there had once been some cheap jewelry around her uninjured ankle.

ook]Ȝb