Yu-Gi-Oh! (c) Kazuki Takahashi
Man, I got the idea for this fic like five months before I actually wrote it. And it took a lot of failed tries to get right. This is one of my favorites.
"Hey, I think you guys got a letter from France," Tea said, laughing. She was sifting through the Mutous' mail, getting rid of the kiddy magazines and the advertisements for jewelry. Yugi picked up the letter and looked at the address. He had no idea which French person would have sent him a letter, but it was addressed to Yugi and Atem Mutou.
"I think I got one o' those," Joey said. "Haven't opened it yet, though."
Yugi tore open the envelope and peeked at the letter. "It's an invitation," he said. "To a Duel Monsters tournament in France. Apparently some big game company there is hosting a competition."
"What do you say, Yugi?" Atem asked. "Do you want to go?"
"I don't speak a word of French," Yugi said. "But I guess I could learn the important stuff pretty quickly. What's French for 'let's duel'?"
"Alright! Paris, here we come!" Joey yelled enthusiastically. "I bet that's da same invitation that I got!"
"It says that Atem, Joey, and I will all be riding on the same cruise ship because we all live in the same area," Yugi replied. "I guess that Kaiba isn't coming."
"You know he's been way too busy with Kaiba Land," Tristan said. "He barely participated in his own tournament."
"You two are coming, aren't you?" Atem asked. "I don't believe that we've ever been to a tournament without you guys."
"Of course we're coming!" Tea exclaimed. "Come on, what would you do without us there to cheer you on?"
"The boat's leaving tomorrow at nine. We need to hurry up and get packed," Yugi said.
Everyone scurried off to their houses and packed. Yugi picked up a French phrasebook and studied it diligently. Atem and Joey carefully prepared their decks. By the time they filed onto the ship, they were completely prepared.
Atem and Joey spent the majority of the day dueling each other. Tristan ate almost everything on the boat, and Tea and Yugi were absorbed in the French phrasebook. It grew dark, and the wind began to pick up.
"Looks like it's going to be rough sleeping weather," Tristan noted. The waves were growing larger and larger, and the boat was rocking more and more violently. Tea's face turned green as the ship lurched.
A great wave struck the side of the boat, and everyone grabbed a piece of furniture for stability. Another wave rose up and hit them, but it poured into their cabin and swept them out on deck. They slid off the ship and crashed into the water, where the waves tossed them until they saw nothing but darkness.
Yugi's eyes opened slowly. He was hot and thirsty, and his clothes were covered in seaweed and sand. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Waves crashed at his feet, and the sun beat down on his back. His head ached and throbbed, and he felt weak all over.
Where was he? There was nothing around him but ocean and sand and dense forest. He stood up shakily and walked toward the shade of the trees. It was hot, and Yugi shed his wet and sandy jacket. He looked down and saw that all of his cards were still in the little pouch in his duelist's belt. He sighed. That was a small but very real comfort.
Then an awful thought hit him. What if he was the only one who had survived the shipwreck? What if he was all alone on this island, without escape? Despair enveloped him, and he resolved not to think of those possibilities until they were proven beyond a doubt.
He walked into the woods. Maybe his friends had already ventured deeper into the island. Maybe there was someone living here who could help him. After a few yards, his feet began making squelching sounds. He looked at the ground and grimaced. This entire place was a swamp.
He bent down and took off his shoes and socks. The socks he discarded; the shoes he tied together and held by the laces. Although the feeling of slimy mud between his toes was disgusting, the feeling of walking in wet shoes and socks was much worse.
The trees parted. Yugi came to a wet clearing that was dotted with large boulders. There was something that looked like a small mountain in the distance. But there were no buildings here. Yugi sighed. Anyone who resided in a swamp would probably be living in some sort of diminutive hut. Yugi doubted that they would have a plane or a boat so that he and the others could escape. The fear and hopelessness crept up on him again, but he willed the feelings to go away. He hadn't even started searching yet.
Yugi continued walking. Fog began to hover over the marshes. It was quiet and dark in the shadow of the great distant mountain, so Yugi heard immediately when there were a few more footsteps than his own in the muddy ground.
"Hello?" Yugi asked, spinning around. He saw nothing but mist and swamp. Maybe he had been imagining things. He turned back around and continued to walk, but almost as soon as he set off again the extra set of feet began to follow him. Again, he spun around. "I know that someone's there!" Yugi yelled. He clenched his fists and watched the fog carefully. There was something there, he was certain of it.
Yugi walked backwards slowly. Suddenly, his back bumped into a solid object. Yugi turned around and gasped. A giant, scaly black creature bared its teeth at him, and Yugi stumbled back and fell to the ground. The monster looked almost like a dragon, with dark onyx scales, a long tail with a stinger, and gigantic fangs, but it stood on two wide feet like a human. It crouched down and hissed and spat at him like a snake. Yugi scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could.
His heart pounded in his chest, and his breathing seemed incredibly loud. He could hear the soft, squishy thumps of the creature chasing after him. He ran back to the woods and dove into the foliage. He watched motionlessly as the creature looked around closely. When the creature saw that it had lost its prey, it hissed angrily and stomped off.
Yugi waited a couple of minutes, and then he dared to let out the breath that he had been holding. His ears were filled with a high-pitched whining sound. His body was so tense that when he finally relaxed he felt as though he was melting.
What could that thing have been? That was no Duel Monster. Was it a demon or an alien? Or was it just some horrible predator that this demented island had produced? Could Yugi will himself to venture back into the swamp, even to find his friends?
Yes, Yugi decided. If his friends were in there, then this was all the more reason to find them as quickly as possible. They would stand a much better chance if they were together. Yugi stood on shaking legs. He looked around wildly, and then crept back into the marshes, periodically ducking behind some boulder or spindly tree.
If only that fog wasn't there. The creature must have been using it to hide. Yugi kept his ears trained and his feet quick. That had been the most horrible experience of his life, and he had had a few bad ones. He needed to find his friends and get out of there. Fast.