"Kind friends and companions, come join me in rhyme
Come lift up your voices in chorus with mine
Come lift up your voices, all grief to refrain
For we may or might never all meet here again"

You sang as you walked a little ahead of your group. It was a nice song you'd heard on the celebration night. Back then it was accompanied with lute and knocking of beer cups.

The village's cottage roofs were slowly fading in the distance as another road laid before you. You were leaving Gramam Village after another week of resting. You trained every day to improve your skills. You wished you could stay for longer, not only to practice, but also to get to know the villagers more. They were working hard, yet were so merry and welcoming, that it amazed you. You thought if you ever wanted to settle somewhere, that this village would be your first option.

Leaving the village you all got one big hug from the chief, he practically lifted you in the air. It was such a nice feeling. The shaman equipped you with lots of different herbs and also added bandages, just in case, as she said. From the chief's wife you've got some meat and of course her delicious pie.

"Your song sounds different," pointed Yugi scratching his chin.

"It's a song I've heard on the celebration, perhaps that's why."

"No, I mean - how to say it, like..." the boy frowned looking for the right word.

"I think he means like from within," commented Atem. Yugi nodded agreeing with his twin.

"From within?"

"Yeah. It's hard to explain, but usually when you sang we just heard it like everyone else, now it's like you're singing directly into us."

You hummed trying to understand what the brothers meant. How was it different from your usual singing? You haven't felt much difference yourself. You sang songs you remembered from books or those you made up, now you started singing those you heard from the villagers.

"I don't see -" you started.

"You've heard that song only once, right?" Laegil inquired interrupting you.

"Oh, well yes. I guess I just have a good memory," you laughed. Over time you developed the ability to memorize things you heard quickly. It was quite useful with songs but with other information too. For example remembering usage of herbs.

***

You opened your eyes and saw a beautiful meadow, all covered with flowers. Yellows, reds and greens merged together creating a colorful, flowing mass. The smell filled your nostrils. You walked collecting flowers while the wind blew around you. You hummed the familiar song stepping barefoot on dewy grass.

You saw a silhouette on the edge of the meadow. The shadow turned to you and in the blink of your eye you were no longer on a sunny landscape. Darkness embraced you and chilly air made you shiver .Your feet touched cold stone. You recognized that atmosphere as the light slowly crept into your vision. A bluish glimmer emerged from the ceiling and you saw a familiar hole.

"No..." you whispered when you looked around the same cave you spent seven years in. Even if half of it was collapsed you still easily recognized the place. The same silhouette stood just before rocks covering the entrance. Now, even in the blurry light, the shadow looked like a human.

It's a man, you decided. His face was expressionless as a cloth around his head shadowed his blue eyes. They glowed in the dark piercing your soul. The black man took a step towards you and in a blink of an eye he stood before you.

"Sing," he said. His voice was commanding, yet soothing as morning breeze.

Now you stood on a clean, mirror like surface. You could see your reflection beneath. When you moved, the girl beneath did the same.

So you sang, sang and sang till the surface started to break. Even then you continued to sing, falling down into darkness surrounded by spectrum of shining pieces of glass. You felt fear tangled with some strange sense of calmness.

You felt something blowing into your face, as your eyes were closed, you thought that you transferred into another place, where the wind blew...

...You opened your eyes and saw a pair of brown eyes gaping at you. They blinked and the creature sniffed you.

"Gyah!" you shrieked and bounced backwards. You head hit a rock and you winced. "Ow!"

You slowly rose on your knees and looked over the creature. It didn't move from its position. It looked like a dog, big brown and blonde haired dog. The pony-sized creature sat down peered curiously at you.

"Good dog..." you said and prepared to blow him away with a wind spell, just in case. You looked around to see if any of your companions were awake. To you relief you saw Yugi and Atem slowly rising to their feet looking for a cause of the noise. They looked towards your form and the dog, and they eyes flickered with recognition.

"Jonouchi!" the dog run to them and playfully wiggled his tail.

"That's one of a kind course of events," Laegil said standing beside you. You wondered where did you hear that name before. It surely sounded familiar. Right, that Gwyllgi friend, you thought.

The dog creature morphed on your eyes into a normal, human man.

"Long time no see you, guys," he said laughing with the brothers.

"It was, Jonouchi," Yugi agreed greeting the blond haired boy.

You looked between the three as they happily exchaned greetings. So it confirmed what Atem told you, he really was friends with Gwyllgi.

"Ah, sorry for startling you," said the blonde turning to you with goofy smile. "I'm Jonouchi Katsuya, the best swordsman out there."

"Don't worry about it... I guess?" you said shaking his hand. "I'm ______," you wondered for a while after hearing his introduction and out of few different titles you choose, "the herbalist."

"I'm Laegil. Well, we did hear a scream," she said with raised brow. Right, you screamed because you saw his form hovering over you.

"Wait, why did you sniff me in the first place!?" you jumped away from the boy.

The boy laughed crossing his arms behind his head once again showing you his goofy smile again.

"You didn't smell like dragon. You smell like... - " he began.

"No!" you interrupted waving your hands in the air before him. "Somehow, I don't want to know."

He laughed again.

"You had such funny expression, " he and tried to imitate you." Like a person who wants to chase away a annoying fly."

You pursed your lips.

"And then," Jonouchi continued. "You jumped as if you saw a ghost! Bwahaha!" You looked at him irritated and huffed as he didn't seem to stop.

"And what was with those gesture?" he asked mimicking your previous motions.

You looked at him and smiled as brightly as you could.

"I was only preparing to blow you away," you said in the sweetest voice you could muster as the wind flew around you with a slight whoosh. "I haven't tried that one spell, would you be so kind and let me use you as a target?"

The blonde shivered and hid behind Yugi.

"There, there," Atem said putting his hand on you shoulder. You huffed for the last time and let go of the wind. "Say, Jonouchi what brings you here?"

"Oh, right!" the Gwyllgi put his fist on his opened hand. "It's like on the borders there's a bloody mess. Listen, I was travelling with my sis and her husband and nearby villages are constantly attacked by Moratu Kingdom's groups."

"Doesn't it count as a declaration of war?" Laegil asked. You five settled down on your campsite and decided to eat breakfast. Jonouchi in meantime spoke.

"They can't prove them anything since nobody was caught and most of them are just mercenaries without emblems."

"And the king's doing nothing?" Atem wondered.

"People say that he gathers an army to take down dragons."

For a moment nobody made a sound. To your ears it sounded ridiculous. How humans could take down the dragons? Laegil must have felt the same, because you heard her laughter.

"The hell? That's hilarious, the brat's gonna get burned quicker than he could command the attack! Haha!"

"Hey! That's what people say, I'm just repeating, geez."

"It's not like we can do anything now, right?" Yugi spoke and briefly looked towards his brother. Atem nodded in agreement and stood up. The news were surely unnerving. You thought that it was unfair that some people were losing their homes because of the reckless behavior of Moratu Kingdom.

"Right. Whatever is happening our priority is to reach Lord Pegasus mansion," he said.

"Wait a moment, have you forgotten that we have a little duel to settle?" Jonouchi said patting hilt of his sword. You looked between them frowning and blinking. Atem looked smugly at his friend and smirked.

"Indeed we have one," he said and drew his sword.

You looked at them incredulously. You heard Yugi sigh softly as he sat down on a grass again. Laegil did the same with straight face. Were you the only one who thought that the fight wasn't the best idea?

"Seriously!?" you asked and threw your hands exasperatedly. But they weren't listening to you at all. "Guys?...Priorities, huh?"

You gave up and sat next to Yugi. He never backs down from a challenge, you thought. Swords clashed in a blink of an eye. While they exchanged blows they looked like they were enjoying themselves. Sometimes they looked like a blur of colors. You decided that their skills were more or less equal, in opposition to the village chief's son, for instance. While watching them fight you let your mind wander.

It was already one day since you left the village. After a full day of travel you settled for a night on a small clearing in the woods. Now, the sun was already peeking through the rustling leaves. Here and there you could see some clouds on the sky, but as the days proceeded there were fewer and fewer of them. For a full month there wasn't a single drop of rain. You recalled the villagers worrying about an actual drought in the future. You wondered if this possibility was more true than most thought.

While you were lost in your thoughts final blow echoed on the clearing, causing birds take off to the sky. You blinked and saw victorious Atem standing over disarmed Jonouchi with a sword pointed to his neck. The same motion he did while fighting the chief's son.

You noticed a few bruises and bleeding cuts on both of them and wondered if you should check their wounds. It was kind of an pointless fight, just for sake of revenge. After seeing Yugi reaction you were pretty sure that they had their duels on-going for a quite a lot of time.

You were in foul mood this morning. You wondered if it was because of your kind of unsettling dream, the dog sniffing you, not really good news or that fight. Perhaps mix of everything. And growing headache surely had something to do with it.

"Heh, your win, Atem," Jonouchi said accepting the half-dragon's hand.

"It was a good fight, Jonouchi."

"Yeah, next time I'll beat you!"

"We'll see next time," Atem laughed. You walked towards them. You stood before the half-dragon and reached for his cheeks. You turned his head in various directions examining injures. You noticed that his blood wasn't red. The liquid was bluish, azure like. It must be dragon blood, you mused.

"It'll heal," you declared.

"Good, I guess?" he looked away, pink dusting his cheeks. He put his sword in its sheath. "Are you angry?"

"Nope."

"I can see."

"You're wrong."

"..."

~~*~~
SONG:
(just a little more... merry, like, with a little bit more speed if you know what I mean)
Hello there~! And here we meet Jonouchi (Joey, I'll be usung japanese names). Gwyllgi is dog from Wales mythology, he basically scares people on the roades, from what I've gathered.