ANCIENT JOURNEY (A Thief Bakura Story) \Chapter Twenty-Seven\

The ride took much longer than anticipated. At least, you were sure once Bakura had announced you would be reaching the Nile soon he was referring to an hour or so, not till the sun was beginning to dip into the furthest reaches of the sky. Your were sweating profusely by the time the smallest of cities grew closer, and even when a watery shimmer not so far from this village seemed like the vaguest of mirages, the sun had done its damage and your heated skin prickled with burn.
Eyes were almost arched as the horse made its way around the encased village, the run down buildings far from view as Bakura blankly store ahead without much digression towards the lingering place. A small sense of apprehension to lay in a bed and seek refuge within the walls of a home grew distant as the small yet quaint burg was left behind.
'If only we were staying in a room... then I could easily distance myself from him.' Your defeated thoughts led a stifled sigh to leave your chest. 'I'm almost repulsed at myself for being so close for so long.'
Bakura did not take notice to anything you did. As usual, he quite openly ignored your silent protest to his decision and merely arched his neck as the shimmering heat above a large body of water began to ebb its way forward- growing larger with each trot onwards.
'Finally...' You thought bitterly, another sigh leaving your throat, the relief of finally being released from Bakura's presence giving you more relish than the idea of washing. 'Maybe that's why we can't go into the village.' The thought idly made your eye wander downwards, blood and dirt smears covering the front and sleeves of the same shirt that you had been wearing since the beginning.
"About damned time..." Bakura muttered, apparently just as annoyed about the arduous amount of time the simple journey had taken. "Damned horse won't be able to walk another foot till next week."
Ignoring Bakura's care for the horse, which somewhat outshined his regard towards you, your eyes traveled longingly at the approaching river. The quintessence of your anticipation grew to a culminating flurry of relief as the watery depths of the heavy river came into full view. Sand growing firmly dense, the water drank in small easy waves upwards and back at the shoreline, large rocks both smooth and jiggered littering the water's edge. A lone familiarity was identified with the image of the beautiful holidaying location, which you enduringly discarded as memories of the river further south were dug from your mind.
The vastness of the Nile seemed to intrigue more thought than you would have given realization too, as the placid river was but metres away by the time you blinked, large eyes only widening as your body stiffened. Bakura easily slid of the white mare and landed on the sandy ground, staring eagerly towards the water before walking towards the body. You quickly followed suit, the annoying horse trotting uneasily beneath you, as fond towards you as you were Bakura.
'Stupid animal deserves to be shot.' Your temperament flared, bagged eyes giving the dignified creature a resentful glare. 'A creature after his own heart...'
Crossing stinging arms over your chest, your socked feet dwindled in the same stiff foot print Bakura left as your body edged around to give the river another glance. Your eyes trailed over the glistening water, then towards the fearful captor as he rummaged his hands greedily into the shore and brought cupped hands towards his mouth.
'Must be the fresh water side of the river then...' You thought absently, a sudden realization hindering your relief. 'So-there shouldn't be crocodiles, right?'
You had completely forgotten about the scaly beasts of the river.
"You can bathe near the large rocks by the pool." Bakura's voice interrupted your thoughts, again your body lurching into a small jump of surprise. "And don't run off either. There's no where to go from here..."
You blinked, taken aback.
"Have you forgotten?" You started, giving a perpetually shocked look of reproach, "I'm a mentally unstable, suicidal masochist who wishes for her own death by her own means... and you're leaving me alone. By a large river. Secluded. Alone." Seemingly your ties to the world you had come from remained evident in your mannerism of speech. You muttered the words unthinkgly and with a slight rise of one eyebrow, getting a resolute smirk from the white haired man in return.
Not quite what you expected. His grin was accompanied by a malicious glare, eyes dark and an all knowing aura of knowledge of something you didn't understand taunting at the edges of his mind. He merely shook his head, a slight chuckle leaving his throat as he sauntered casually towards the waiting mare and grabbed her reins taut. Without so much as another leering sideward glance, the thief grabbed the reins higher and pulled himself onto the horse, positioning himself atop the creature in a ready posture.
"I'll be back within a few hours. Girl, don't do anything stupid... you'll regret it, one way or another." Bakura grinned all the wider as you gave him a cautious look.
"And what if I drown?" You spoke threateningly, as if implying to deed would be purposeful.
"Well, I guess that the bandits that roam this area get to have fun with your body without your insufferable voice to argue with their incentives...." He paused, taking in the sharp look of horror that formed on your face. "Be sure to conceal yourself well, bandits in these parts tend to prefer girls that don't struggle-" And with a caustic laugh that sent horrifying thoughts down your spine, Bakura puckered the horse in the side hard, his lavender eyes piercing into your wide one's as he gave a hauntingly amused stare down at your form, "-living or dead. A body is a body, all to their own."
And he was off. Hastily dashing away with your shivering body left to wonder whether the potential lull of a watery grave was worth the cost of being taken while in death- while in peace.
"Necrophiliacs..." Your body erupted into waves of repulsive quivers at the words, eyes mooning as you looked towards the enclosed pool Bakura had briefly mentioned. You grunted, looking towards the lone basket Bakura had left, then back towards the rock pool. "Even more disgusting than Bakura himself."
Despite Bakura's parting warning, you were feeling renewed already. Alone with the sensual feeling of calm winds blowing freshly smelling air filled with moisture into your hot face. It soothed your sore skin remedially, the congruous sensation of cool water lingering on your finger tips eliciting a smile to form as your body leaned over the wet sand.
You lingered a long while, quite certain that time wasn't of the essence. Bakura was sure to take his time parting towards the city, indulging in whatever acts of treachery and callous behaviour he saw fit for the occasion of time alone, only to surely spend as much time away from you as he saw possible. His presence gone allowed your guard to lower, your face to relax more than ever, your tiered and worn featured showing through. If you ever did find a way back home, you were sure you'd have already suffered years of aging ahead of your time... the sun damage didn't help.
'I'd really appreciate the invention of sun block about now...' Your mind bitterly contemplated, feet slowly tampering towards the waiting rocks.
The small walk to the pool did not take long. Removing your socks before parting, your worn feet felt the sensation of wet sand move softly beneath the weight of every step. It left the tingling of wet to tarry as the water droplets sunk into every pore. As you reached the rocks and climbed the treacherous peaks, you looked calmly down at the clear pool beneath, almost grinning like a child at the sight.
"Perfect!" You exclaimed loudly, not bothering to care for testing the water temperature, nor to fend off the eels that gave you a fright as you jumped knee deep into the pool. Standing up to your shorts in the water, you moved through the placid pool, creating ripples as you walked to the end side of the rocky edges and pulled yourself up onto your knees on a sandy rock. "Just like the beach, I suppose..."
And with that said, your clothes were removed and your discoloured body sunk back towards the fresh water. The sojourn of standing in underwear knee length in water, just to be sure no onlookers took too much in, your body sunk into the cool reaches of the shallow depths and for those minutes of bliss, your entire body was finally lax.
'I'm supposed to clean up...' You thought as your eyes slowly peaked open, an annoyed grunt exiting your throat as your eyes narrowed at the thought. 'Wouldn't have to if that bloody thief didn't get off hurting people. Or piss me off. Or exist for that matter!'
After a prolonged anger spat at the man who sought so hard to making your life a living hell, you reached grudgingly over and began to work with your clothes in the water. Most of the grime and dried blood scrapped off with blunt nails easily. Sadly, there were still stains. Your black shorts remained smelling of sour milk, for reasons you couldn't even quite understand, but were sure that the smell was coming from a defined patch of growing mould that somehow grew in the depths of a dirty pocket. You scrubbed the mess off with a rock and threw the sopping clothes to a hot rock to steam dry, if you will.
"Better be dry by the time he gets back..." You muttered loudly, hand holding chin up as your elbow propped against a bent knee. "Indecency is the last thing I need to come to terms with on the growing list of embarrassing situations I seem to attract."
You sat in the dulling sun contently, spitefully a little wary as the sun began to descend, but more content with the ample fact that your clothes had been washed and your wounds cleaned out. Despite the pain, an alarmingly deep cut with greenish puss developing around the wound forced gritted teeth to bare as you scratched away the mucous and used a piece of ripped cloth to clean out the wound. Painful and still remaining to sting, the cuts from around your body had been seen too, and the throbbing of red skin around the lacerations were starting to ping with every movement.
Relaxed you had been, but still quite obviously beaten up more than you had previously thought.
You sighed at the situation, eyes closing shut as a sandy gust stung against your skin. "Pitiful. I get so injured over the slightest of falls and the smallest struggles, and yet that bastard can have an arrow impaled into his arm and still use the damned limb days afterwards." You mulled upon his inhuman strength and possession of demonic powers, contemplating the origin of his seemingly endless energy. Clearly he was something else; unlike any other human you had ever met. "He mustn't be human... no, wait, he has mentioned his home village before back at his hideout- or was that his village? Twice he spoken of the place, I'm sure of it. Maybe I should actually pay attention to his sob stories. But then again, he doesn't even offer a shrug to mine, so I guess all is fair."
Not really caring to think over Bakura's sullen past, only too bitter to think he could be greedy enough to bestow a fate so similar upon your own, you again grew resentful with the way that white devil slinked into every train of thought. He was infectious, and it annoyed you to no ends.
"Why does that bastard always get into my head so bad?" You yelled in annoyance, slamming balled fists to the rocks as your eyes glared at nothing. Your frown deepened as your arms crossed, back leaning against a rock as you fumed. "And to think, everything I do and say just bounds off him like he's fucking invincible. I don't think I've even seen him hurt more than once! His head must be so think it's impenetrable... too focused on his own selfish goals too even care about the well being of a mere girl lost in a foreign place."
Your throat grew taut as eyes welled up.
"I told myself I would be strong, and I failed. I told myself that everything had changed, and it's always the same..." It was at that moment you looked downward and noticed a redness with no cause, a defined itching feeling originating from the scaly rash. Your mid ignited, did you muscles hurt? Of course.... and you felt tiered, worn, your joints hurting with every movement, your gums seemed quite sore too. "Yeah, great.... getting scurvy now too. This is fucking brilliant! Before the beast can kill the beauty, a fucking dietary disease will!"
The irony was killing you.
Without thinking of much more than something as mundane and forgotten as a simply vitamin C deficiency, a smile grew bold and bright on your face, tears seeping from your eyes as your chest heaved. You began laughing, unable to stop as wheezes and pants came from your mouth, your stomach clenching so hard that your laughs came out in large cries of delight, giggles and grunts of pain combining to create a fit of laughter more fierce than any cry of detest could. The sound somehow brought a new found invigoration to you, enveloping your mind and allowing this macabre humour to enlighten your perception. Maybe, just maybe, Bakura would get what was coming sooner than you think...
"Wonder how I'm going to pop the news to him?" You slyly smirked as he would, a callous laugh coming from your chest as your arms gripped onto knees. "Bet he wouldn't be too pleased to hear I'll probably be dead within a few days lest I eat some fruit soon."
Your giggling at serious issues concerning your health died down quickly, and as you tested your clothes to be dry, you threw the baggy shirt and shorts back on. Not bothering to do anything else around the darkening pool, you climbed over the rocks and looked towards the lone basket that Bakura had left. With nothing more than the impulse to stay on the better half of Bakura's temper, you slowly walked towards the place Bakura had left, intent on setting a camping fire before the relinquishment of light gave way to dark. Of the few things Bakura had taught you through intimidation, obedience was beginning to become one of them.
'Another cold, lonesome night I suppose.' You thought upon reaching the basket, an armful of large stones toppling to the ground as you leaned to place them in a circle. 'And there doesn't seem like there's much to burn... I did see some drift wood and floating palm branches back at the pool...'
You looked over at the now shadowed area, no longer settled with the idea of trespassing into such secluded, unlit ground. A frown encased your lips as the shadowed water gave off a hauntish feel, eyes lingering over moving blackness off the shore of the rocky pool.
And as the wind cooled, the night began to dawn. Your arms wrapped around your waist as you sat patiently on the dirty ground, weary eyes glistening at every noise, flickering to all direction in warning. Was it possible that bandits really did patrol these areas? And if so, what would you do if any of them came? You had no weapon, you had nothing to defend yourself with, nor anything to trade or offer as a bribe. You were a woman, a small one at that, and being female only gave the relenting idea that men could easily have their way with you... Self defense was something you knew little of, and you weren't powerful in the slightest, only resourceful at certain times.
You gulped nervously, your breath quickening as something astounding ran through your mind. Like a revelation of Satanism, the thought remained cold and stirring in your head as the finial peaks of the sun settled behind the horizon. You were terrified and feeling vulnerable.
The realization of this impending dependency was far more discerning than anything else on your mind, yet your arms curled around your body tighter and the threatening darkness that enveloped you sent shivers down your spine.
For the first time, in some morbid fashion, you wished pleadingly that Bakura was there by your side to protect you.

Clickie --->
Um. Not much interaction here, but I focused more on personal development and feelings! xD
Dependence issues much?
So, here's a distraction:

AND
Please, everyone, thank you very much for you messages and being lovelies and rating my stories. =D You're all made of awesome! You have no idea how much I appreciate your constant support, and it's always a pleasure to be writing for people who are so kind.
Thanks again, and everyone I hope you had a Merry Christmas [at least better than mine] and a happy New Year!
Have another pictures, he he: