How It Began

Long ago, while Egypt was one of the most powerful kingdoms along the Mediterranean Sea, a seven year old girl was skipping along the banks of the Nile. She had green hair with thin white strands within it that fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were a dark intense grey and her skin was a light mocha color. The tunic she wore was light off-white with a spare piece of brown rope tied around the waist, it was slightly torn at some places, but it still suited her. Her name was Akina, which meant 'the mighty sea' in her father's native tongue.

It was a sweltering hot afternoon and the air was heavy with humidity. Luckily, Akina's father had given her permission to wash herself off in the cool shallows of the river.

"Be careful Akina," he had warned. "If you wade to deep into the river, the currents could pull you under or worse..." He did not need to remind his daughter that if she waded out too far the powerful currents could pull her into the territory of the "man-eating crocodiles", who would be more than happy to have a seven year old Egyptian youngster for supper.

Akina found a tall thick grove of reeds. After making sure they hid her all around she took off the tunic, exposing a pure white cover-up that ended about halfway above her knees. She sank into the cool refreshing waters of the river.

After soaking for a while Akina heard a loud shout.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! HE IS DROWNING! HELP PLEASE!!" said a young male voice.

Without hesitation Akina leapt from the water, picked up her tunic, and in a flash was dodging out of the bushes, sprinting to where the voice was coming from. A ways downstream not too far from the palace, she saw two boys standing on the shore pointing at the water and yelling. She rushed over to them.

"What's the problem?" she demanded in a breathless voice, her sides sore from running.

"Our friend is drowning in the river. Please help us!" said the tallest one. He had light brown hair to his shoulders; his face was long and oval and his radiant sapphire eyes were deep set.

"Leave it to me!" Akina said dropping her clothes and running out to the water.

"You're crazy! If he's drowning, you might too." said the other boy.

"Don't care!" was Akina's reply. Without looking back, she dived into the cold waters.

The currents were gentle and slightly chilly at first, but as she swam out further toward the drowning boy the waters became rougher and colder by the minute. When she came up for air, she saw something that made her increase her speed drastically. The boy was drifting closer and closer to the crocodile's territory and they were beginning to gather around him, practically licking their oversized mouths in anticipation.

Luckily, Akina reached him first. She lifted the boy onto her back, just as a crocodile was going to bite him. Fighting the currents with all the strength she possessed, she worked her way towards shore, the crocodiles in hot pursuit. Their hungry jaws were snapping at her feet. She screeched as one of them grazed her right foot painfully.

Suddenly, the boys she had seen on shore were beside her in the water. One was lifting the load off her back, while the other was helping her ashore. The boy helped her lie down so she could catch her breath and went over to the two other boys. While she laid there Akina took a closer look at the three boys.

The one who had helped her out of the water had a dark tan with bright golden hair that stood up on end and shinning purple eyes. His face was somewhat heart shaped and his eyes were a little too big for his head. He wore a soft white tunic like his other two companions. He came back by her, tore off a piece of his tunic, and wrapped up her foot, which was bleeding quite freely by now.

Meanwhile, the brown haired one was kneeling by the unconscious boy she had rescued. He was scrawny, his skin light colored, and he had hair that was black and purple that stood up above his ears which were quite large and stuck out from his head. He also had bright gold bangs . His face was slightly round, his skin was a light tan color, and around his forehead...

"Oh my word..." Akina gasped as she pulled her tunic back on. "I just rescued the crown prince!"

"Gee, what gave it away?" said the boy who had just wrapped her foot, his voice was light and full of laughter as if when ever he spoke he was telling a joke. "His features, his expensive tunic, or perhaps the gold crest with the Eye of Horus around his head... Ouch!"

"You don't need to be rude about it Marik!" chastised the boy with chestnut hair, who had delivered a blow to Marik's head. His voice was deeper and more serious than the boy's he had just hit. He turned to Akina said "I'm Seth, by the way, and the spike-head is Marik, and you are?"

"Akina, it means mighty sea in my father's native tongue," she answered. There was a sputtering sound from the unconscious prince.

"What?" he sputtered, then turning to Seth, "What happened? The last thing I remember is drowning in the Nile." His voice was slightly higher than the other two's and had an air of naiveté when he spoke.

"Well, you were, but then this girl, Akina, heard our shouts and dived in after you." Seth told him.

The prince turned to Akina, his dark violet eyes full of gratitude. "Thank you; I am in your debt."

"I didn't do what any other decent person wouldn't have done." Akina responded, lightly blushing.

"Wow, check out that sunset. We'd better head back home." said Marik.

"Sunset?" Akina exclaimed. "Oh no, Father is going to be so angry with me if I come home late! Sorry, I've got to go." She pulled herself off the ground and made to take off.

"Wait," said the prince, grabbing her arm. "Take this," he handed her a thick silver medallion, as big as her palm, on a thick leather strap. One side there was a winged scarab and an ankh engraving on the flipside.

"Thank you, but I must go." Akina said turning around and leaving. "It was nice meeting you three." she shouted as she sped towards home.

Akina ran as fast as her skinny legs could carry her; however when she reached home she had an unpleasant surprise waiting for her...

It was suddenly hard for her to breathe. Smoke and ash made the air heavy and darker.

"Father..."Akina called, there was no answer. She knelt down to the ground so that she could breathe more easily. "Father," she called again. Once again, she received no answer. She crawled blindly in the direction of her home.

Men were shouting with hoots of laughter; she could just barely make out their words.

"At last, the Animal Enchanter has been slain." proclaimed one shout.

"All we need to do is find his hybrid child and our misfortune will be over!"

"Where is that runt anyway?"

Then Akina was pulled up by the back of her tunic. "Here's the kid." said a gruff voice.

"Wonderful," said another man.

Akina opened her eyes a fraction of the way and squinted at her captors. The smoke and increasing darkness kept her from seeing them clearly, but she could see that they all had dark hair and skin. The next thing she knew she had been thrown to the ground. Suddenly several sharp pointy objects were being forced through her; luckily they missed her vital spots.

"That's enough; she is probably dead by now. And if she isn't she will die from the blood loss." said an ancient voice.

Akina struggled to see who had spoken. It had been an aged old man with long grey hair in grayish robes. He was one of the village elders. His sleeves and hands were seeped in blood and, judging from the smell of it, the blood had belonged to her father. Akina felt her heart harden into solid stone; she knew instantly what had happened. She suddenly hated men with a soul-consuming passion.

The villagers had finally betrayed her and her father. For years, her and Father had to deal with persecution for his ability to converse with animals. The older villagers had seen this as a sign of bad luck and her as an omen of misfortune and turmoil, for she had strange colored hair and shared her father's gift. They had convinced all the other villagers to think as so and they had succeeded. Mothers called in their children at her or Father's approach. She had never had any friends; however, that was not the only reason Father and she had been persecuted, they were also not tolerated because they were Hebrew.

Father had told her that after her mother's death he had migrated with her from the Damaskus to Egypt to escape her mother's angry relatives when Akina was only a small child. For some reason, they blamed Father for her death.

Akina opened her eyes once more and saw that the villagers who had inflicted her wounds and the elder had dispersed. "Aden, Rocsha, come to me," she cried desperately.

Slowly a dust colored donkey and a red-headed falcon came to her. With great difficulty she hoisted herself onto the donkey and the falcon settled itself onto her shoulder.

"Take me to the palace Rocsha," Akina murmured. "We have allies there."

At the palace, the guards were standing watch, as usual; however, they were so lazy that they failed to see a donkey approach with a wounded young girl upon its back. So our little band of travelers was able to get past the guards with ease.

They were able to sneak through the palace easily as well; the servants were so focused on what had to be done that none of them noticed a small girl atop a small donkey slowly making her way to the throne room.

When they reached the throne room the pharaoh was talking with a group of men. The little prince was there as well and they all didn't notice Akina and her animals until they had reached the middle of the room and the group of people moved aside to let her through.

"What's this?" the pharaoh demanded. Akina looked at the pharaoh with eyes full of pain.

"Please... please help me..." she pleaded and she fainted.

When Akina awoke she was lying on her stomach in a bed made of fine linen. All her wounds had been bound in bandages, some had even healed.

Damn, she thought to herself, I had hoped what had happened at the village had just been a nightmare. She raised herself on her elbows and tried to look around the room. The bed was surrounded by translucent linen curtains so she couldn't see much. Suddenly someone put a warm hand through the curtains and on her back gently pushing her back down.

"Relax, you need rest," a calm mysterious voice said. "Your injuries need to finish healing. I must say, it is a miracle you survived. The gods must have an interest in you."

"Where am I? Who are you?" Akina demanded in a cold mistrusting voice.

"You are in a bedroom in the palace. My name is Shadi; I am the pharaoh's best healer. You are in safe hands here." Shadi was a tall and had dark brown skin; his robes were simple, though looked somewhat pricey. His face was slightly square, he had a light colored turban wrapped around his head and his dark eyes. There was also a golden ankh-shaped key hanging around his neck.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked.

"About three days," Shadi answered.

"How is the child?" said a cool calm woman's voice.

"She needs lots of rest and several of her injuries have healed, but the deeper ones will require more time." Shadi answered, bowing to the queen.

"Can I see her?" asked a young male's voice; it was the prince.

"Yes, but don't hassle her too much." Shadi answered. A tan hand reached within the curtains and pulled them back. The prince sat on a stool by her bed and began to question her incessantly.

"What happened? Why are you here? Was your village attacked?"

"I don't want to talk about it, because I am, and no comment," Akina answered shortly.

"You could probably stay here after you're healed." the prince said excitedly.

"She most certainly can not!" said the deep booming voice of the pharaoh. Akina stared at him. So this was the pharaoh, he didn't look too different than anyone else; well, maybe the ornamental beard and the gold jewelry made him stand out. He was very tall. Like his son, his face was long, thin, and angular and had light brown eyes, his still held onto his youth. (A/N: I made this up because I have no idea what Yami's father looks like)

"Why not Dad?" whined the prince.

"I am a commoner Prince; it wouldn't be proper." Akina explained roughly. "Also I am a Hebrew."

"Indeed," the pharaoh, "since you are a Hebrew, if you stay in Egypt you were more than likely to be mistreated because of that. Do you have any idea where you could go?"

"There is a village, in Canaan, where I can go. My father stayed there on his way to Egypt. He told me all about it. Someone there will take me in, no doubt; they don't give a damn, forgive my language, if you're Hebrew or Ethiopian, a prince or peasant, male or female... I could go on forever, but basically they don't care who you are, where you came from, or what your history is, they'll accept you."

"I believe I've heard of this village..." the pharaoh murmured stroking his ornamental beard. "It's called the Rogues' Village, is it not?"

"I believe so," Akina replied.

"Well then when you are well I will order some of my soldiers to escort you there."

"Thank you," then Akina laid down her head and fell into another deep sleep.

Over the next few days Akina's wounds healed quickly. Marik, Seth, and the prince all come to see her everyday. Seth, the eldest of the four at age nine, had even made a habit of calling Akina 'Shrimp' instead of her name. (She was the shortest of the group, after the prince.) She talked very little to them, preferring to listen to what they had to tell her.

One day Marik had noticed her awkward silence and, tried to make her laugh whenever he visited her. Sometimes his tactics worked; however, the rest of the time it didn't or he got in trouble for it. One day he ended up getting in a squabble with Seth... Marik had poured punch all over his older brother's head. (A/N: Yes in this story Seth and Marik are brothers, DEAL WITH IT!!)

"Dad saved you because I told him what had happened by the river, so now we're even." said the prince one day. "Of course he was mad that I nearly drowned, and now we aren't allowed to go to the river without supervision any more."

"I see," Akina said.

Four days later, Shadi removed Akina's bandages and said that she was ready to travel. The pharaoh assigned four soldiers to escort her out of Egypt to the village in Canaan. At first the soldiers didn't take this well and complained profusely.

"We're supposed to travel over one hundred miles away from home all for the sake of this little girl?" stammered one, putting the emphasis on 'little girl'.

"What if something should happen while we are away?" asked another.

"No child could make that trip alone," the pharaoh insisted raising a hand to show he had heard enough objections. "I need you four to go with her to ensure that she makes it to the village. It's not that long of a journey, the Rogue's Village is just inside the land of Canaan. It shouldn't take you more than three or four days to get there and back at the most. So if anything too horrible happens you won't miss it."

"But my pharaoh, couldn't some servants accompany her instead?"

"This child is a Hebrew. She needs protection. Most of the servants wouldn't be able to give her that protection she needs. Now stop your blubbering and GO!" he stormed.

"Yes your majesty," the soldiers mumbled meekly as they bowed to him and exited.

Meanwhile, outside the palace servants loaded food and water onto spare horses and the soldier's horses were prepared for the journey. Akina and the boys were saying goodbye to her beside Rocsha. Suddenly, Marik thrust something into her hand. She stared at it in confusion. He leaned in close and tried to whisper in her ear so the other two hopefully wouldn't hear, but they did anyways.

"It's the Eye of Horus, it'll keep you safe." Marik whispered. The center of the eye was made out of amethyst, while the rest was blue lapis and attached to a centimeter thick strand of pure gold.

"I wish I had something to give you in return." Akina murmured.

"You don't; this is a gift."

"Aw, isn't that sweet? Marik has a crush on the Shrimp." Seth interjected. Marik went beet red.

"Shut-up brother," Marik mumbled; he and Seth were both the high priest's sons.

"Then I'll bring something back for you from Canaan." Akina continued, ignoring Seth.

"It's a deal," Marik concluded still bright red. Both spat on their hands and shook hands, as if they were business men sealing a deal. "And don't you forget it,"

"All right 'little girl' time to go," said one of the soldiers with slight resentment in his gruff voice.

"I'm coming, I'm com-" but before Akina could finish her sentence the boys had nearly flattened her in a many-armed hug. Finally after several minutes of this the queen ordered her servants to pry the boys off of Akina, who was practically suffocating under the weight of her three friends.

When the boys were off of her, Akina mounted Rocsha, placed Marik's gift around her neck, Aden settled on her shoulder, and they were off.