Yugioh: Walk With Fate

34: Reunited at Last

Yugi, Tristan, Tea, Joey and even Mai call out to us. We gallop over and Ryou waves happily. As I slide off the horse, I run to hug Yugi first. I hold him as close as I can, probably squeezing the life from him.

Tears spill over my cheeks. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Yugi."

He wraps his arms around me and returns my hug. "It's okay. I understand why you did it."

I pull back. "You do?"

"We all get ya." Joey says.

I take in the faces of each of my friends. We've been through a lot together and I've put them through a lot, but they still support me.

I wipe at my eyes. "Tea, that's your queue for a friendship speech."

Everyone laughs and it lightens up the heavy mood. I turn with a smile back to my lovely horse.

"Um, could someone lend me some assistance please?" Ryou is still up on the horse.

I forgot about him, whoops. "Oh! Ryou, I'm sorry!"

We get him down and we all hug and chat and everyone is thrilled to see Ryou split from Bakura. Ryou and I take turns explaining what's happened so far. I do edit out a couple things though. I go second in filling in my experience here and when I talk about Yami, Yugi lights up.

"You mean you saw him?!" He looks so hopeful.

I talk about having the intruder rudely kidnap me from the palace and ending up in Bakura's camp. I spill out my thoughts that the Marik at their camp is not the same Marik from before we left. Teasingly, at the end of my storytelling, I imitate Ryou's 'blow me' comment. Everyone is dying from laughter, even Ryou.

"You and your British English." Tristan sighs after laughing for minutes straight.

Ryou scratches the back of his head, laughing. "I can see how it may come off as a tad gobby sometimes."

"Stop dat!" Joey laughs. "I can't take it no more!"

"Alright, alright," Mai clears her throat, trying to wipe the grin off her face, "so what's the plan?"

I stroke the horse's neck to keep him calm. All our rambunctious laughing is making him nervous. I'd be nervous if I was with a bunch of loudmouths too.

"We need to get to Yami." Yugi pitches in with helping me calm the horse.

Tea agrees. "If he has the puzzle, and the other Kaiba has the millennium rod, he might have the other items too."

I roll my eyes. "Duh, Tea." My remark is a bit rude because I'm still sensitive about her eyeballing Yami. "The thing is, I only have one horse and the maximum capacity that I would try on this cutie is three."

"Maybe two and a smaller bloke. Poor beastie." Ryou pats the horse on the nose.

"I'm the rider, so who else is coming?" The horse whines softly and I stroke its back.

Joey speaks up. "Yug' should go."

"Thanks, Joey." Yugi beams.

"Great!" Tristan and Joey help him on.

"I plan on staying with Joey." Mai smirks. "He needs someone to make sure he stays out of trouble."

Joey scrunches up his face. "Hapu's da one dat gets into trouble. Not me."

From the corner of my eye I see Ryou looking out beyond the sands at the village. The palace sits just past the village. It's not easily seen from here but it's there, in the distance. As long as it's not a mirage.