Chapter Text
“Hey!”
Yugi waits.
“Hey!”
Still nothing.
Yugi takes a deep breath.
“HeyheyheyheyheyHEY!”
Finally, his human man person takes notice of him. Yugi’s human says something in his gibberish language to the Veggie Lady he’s been talking to and then squats down to be at Yugi’s level. He speaks directly to Yugi in what Yugi has come to recognize as his affectionate voice (given everything Yugi’s human says is gibberish, Yugi has learned to take meaning from his tones of voice. His human has an affectionate voice, a silly voice, a sleepy voice, and a Very Tired voice, which is the worst of them all. His affectionate voice being one of the Good Ones, Yugi isn’t worried).
Yugi’s human pets him between his ears. Yugi purrs happily at the attention. Then, his human person stands and starts talking to the Veggie Lady again. Yugi growls. He swipes at a nearby pebble with his paw. It goes bouncing off.
Yugi’s attention is immediately entirely on the pebble. He chases after it. Swipes at it to send it bouncing a second time. Then a third time. A fourth. A fifth—
He’s yanked back by his Worst Enemy. Yugi growls. Squirms until he can get his teeth around his Worst Enemy and Chomp Viciously on it. Though his Worst Enemy has been somewhat worn down by Yugi’s many, many chompings, the long tether between his human person and the harness his human person makes him wear doesn’t give in.
Yugi’s human person takes notice of him again. He comes over, lifts Yugi into his arms, and takes him back to Veggie Lady with him.
Yugi pouts. Wiggles around until he can see the paper bag of veggies his human person and Veggie Lady are talking about. Rests his head on his human person’s arm. Licks his chops. At the very top of the veggies is a shiny, red one. Those are fun to play with.
Yugi lunges.
His claws almost close around the shiny, red veggie.
He feels his human person’s firm grasp around his body.
He’s placed on the ground.
Yugi’s human person squats down beside him. This time, his gibberish words are A Little Tired, which isn’t good but they aren’t Fully Tired, so it’s not The Worst. Yugi’s human person pats him once, and then returns to whatever he was saying to Veggie Lady yet again.
Yugi huffs. He knows his human person wants him to sit still (this has happened before and that’s always what this particular series of actions means), but sitting still is so boring.
He tries it. Yugi stares intently at his human person as he gestures over the veggies with his arms. Watches as Veggie Lady gestures something back. Yugi already knows how this will end. His human person will give Veggie Lady some shiny, gold bits and then Veggie Lady will let them take the bag of veggies home. Yugi doesn’t get why they have to take so much time to do what they’ve always done. He and his human person have almost been here for five whole minutes!
Movement out of the corner of his eye catches Yugi’s attention. He turns his head. There’s a big creature—four-legged with a mane and tail—attached to a Very Big cart. Two human people are carrying crates of veggies to the cart and loading them in.
Atop the pile of veggies in one of the crates waiting to be loaded into the cart is a shiny, red one.
Yugi crouches. He ever so slowly prowls forward. He’s not very good at Stalking Prey yet, but he hasn’t had a lot of practice since he met his human person (it’s not his human person’s fault he can’t teach Yugi proper hunting technique, he’s not a sphinx). Yugi waits until one of the human people loading the crates puts one down and leaves to get another.
Yugi pounces.
His claws dig into the flesh of the shiny, red veggie.
Yugi grins.
Then he feels himself start to sink down.
He yelps as he hits the bottom of the crate. Feels his Worst Enemy go taut and then suddenly relax.
It takes a moment for Yugi to adjust to being buried under a bunch of veggies in a crate. Then the whole world starts to move.
Yugi’s heart pounds.
The world stops moving.
Yugi can hear himself breathing.
The world starts moving again.
This time Yugi recognizes the familiar bump-bump-bump rhythm of cart wheels turning under him. His crate has been loaded into the cart. The cart is moving, going somewhere.
And that’s Very Scary.
Yugi has never been away from his human person in the World. He’s never wanted to be. The World is massive and bright and terrifying. His human person knows how things works and teaches him stuff and…
Yugi doesn’t like being on his own.
It takes a while for Yugi to do anything but listen to his heart beat. After a while of quiet and nothing new or scary happening, Yugi’s breathing slows. He shifts positions. Climbs up through the veggies. Pokes his head out the top.
Where he is is very dark and kind of cold. Not as cold as home when there’s no fire around, but similar. Yugi is fairly certain where he is isn’t a tomb, cause as a sphinx, he’d recognize a tomb. He’s not entirely sure how but it’s where he’s from so he Would Know.
“You’d think they’d be over their fear by now,” a voice rumbles from above.
Yugi ducks back down among the veggies.
“The entire point of a delivery service is to deliver. Not leave it at the yard’s furthest perimeter for me to retrieve myself.” A sigh gusts over Yugi’s head, rustling his fur. “I suppose I should not expect more from such short-lived creatures,” the voice continues. “Pity.”
There’s movement in the darkness. A great form shifting positions. Yugi peers up at it. He sees a bright, red, glowing orb. Much like the veggies he’s hunted but. So. Much. Better.
Yugi pounces.
Or rather Yugi leaps, realizes there’s A Lot More Distance between himself and the bright, red, glowing orb than he thought, and starts to fall. He yelps. Kicks out his legs in all directions. Lands with an oof on the ground.
“What under the earth’s surface?” The great form draws nearer.
Suddenly, a fiery orange eye as big as Yugi’s whole body is right beside him. He responds appropriately.
“RRRAaaraaRRraaaRAOORRHHHH!!!!!!”
Yugi takes a break from Roaring Ferociously to catch his breath and wipe spittle from his lips with his paw. He inhales deeply and loudly. Then:
“RAaaARROooAarrRRRAAAHHHRooooAAHHH!!!!!”
Another break.
Before Yugi can start again:
“Are you quite finished, little one?”
Yugi blinks. His next Ferocious Roar dies in his throat. “You don’t speak gibberish,” he says.
“That is not a language I am familiar with, no.” The great form chuckles. “And I know many.”
“But all the people here speak gibberish. And don’t know what I’m saying. And it’s stupid and I don’t like it and…” Yugi cocks his head curiously at the great form. “Why don’t you speak gibberish?”
“Have you considered,” the great form asks him back, “that you don’t understand what they’re saying?”
Yugi has not. “Yes,” he says.
“Lying doesn’t suit you, little one.” The great form’s eye moves away from Yugi as the great form shifts positions. One massive foot with claws twice as long as Yugi’s whole body opens itself up in front of him. “Come. I am am intrigued as to why you were in my weekly groceries, but this is no place to talk.”
“Why not?” Yugi examines the foot, not entirely sure he should walk into the great form’s grasp.
“I take pride in my garden, but my plants need peace and quiet to thrive. They’ve been disturbed enough by those fools not bringing the delivery to my door.”
“Your garden?” Yugi looks right, then left. He doesn’t see anything in the darkness.
There’s a moment of silence. Then, a short sigh. “A little more disturbance shouldn’t do much harm. Feel fortunate I am showing you this, little one. It is not a sight I share with merely anyone.”
“Wha—woooaahh…”
Yugi stares. At first there was nothing in the darkness, but then the first lights illuminate. Mushrooms glowing in every possible place they can. All different colors and sizes and shapes. Sprouting up between them, vines of fuzzy, heart-shaped leaves with glimmering veins. Flowers with almost crystalline petals bounce the light of their companions back at them.
Over the garden, in an extremely careful movement, sweeps the great form’s tail. As it breezes over the flora, the air disturbance causes more and more of the garden to light up.
The light reveals the full body of the great form to Yugi. A massive dragon with metallic, black scales. Large, red orbs—one of which Yugi tried to valiantly pounce on not five minutes ago—line his body. The dragon is, Yugi notes, also very sharp and pointy.
Yugi stares up at the dragon. “You are very big,” he says.
“And you’re very small,” the dragon says back.
He holds out what Yugi is realizing is more a hand than a foot, at least in terms of general shape, for Yugi to climb on again. Yugi hesitates a second, but ultimately jumps up on the dragon’s hand. The dragon lifts Yugi to his eye level to inspect him.
“You are indeed a sphinx cub,” the dragon states. “I wasn’t aware a sphinx family had settled in the Under Market.”
“I came with my human man person!” Yugi tells him helpfully. “He…” his face falls. Yugi doesn’t like thinking of home anymore. His parents not responding no matter how much he prodded them. The darkness and the cold all around him. The growing hunger in his belly…
But then his human man person had come! He’d had a very fun light Yugi had played with! He’d taken Yugi away from home to someplace warm where he’d given Yugi lots of yummy food and taken care of Yugi and Yugi was safe and also named Yugi now and…
“Enough,” the dragon cuts off Yugi’s rambling. He pauses. “Does ‘human man person’ have a name?”
“No, he’s just ‘human man person’.”
“Right.” The dragon huffs. A small smoke puff escapes his nostrils. “Can you describe him for me?”
Yugi thinks. “He’s big. Like really big.” He pauses. “But I’m small so everyone is really big.” Yugi thinks about it some more. “He’s probably a normal amount of big for a human person.” Another pause. “But not as big as you.” Yugi cocks his head to the side. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as big as you. How did you get so big?”
“I am very old,” the dragon says.
“Do you think I could get as big as you one day?”
“Probably not.”
“Why not?”
“Sphinxes don’t live for thousands of years as far as I know.”
“You’re thousands of years old?” Yugi gasps.
“Yes.” The dragon sighs. He starts walking, his stride a little disjointed due to the fact he’s carrying Yugi.
“Where are we going?”
“To my abode,” the dragon answers. “There I have the resources to find out where you came from and where I can return you to.”
“Oh! That’s easy! Just take me back to human man person!”
The dragon stops. Yugi can see him restrain himself from an exhale that might actually be a fiery breath. “Do you know how many humans live in the Under Market?” The dragon asks.
“Twenty five,” Yugi guesses confidently.
The dragon laughs. A thunderous sound that vibrates his whole being and makes nearby crystal clusters vibrate. “Why, please enlighten me, do you think there are only twenty five humans in the market? Surely you have seen more?”
“It’s a Big Number.” Yugi pouts. “And I know there are lots of people here. Lots and lots.”
“Ask a child a question and receive an answer of child’s logic,” the dragon mutters to himself.
“What’s that mean?” Yugi stomps one of his front paws, which doesn’t really have any affect since he’s effectively tapping the dragon lightly.
“It means there are more than twenty five humans in the market.” The dragon pauses. “And bigger numbers, too.”
“Like what?”
The dragon hums. “Five thousand.”
“That’s not very big!” Yugi protests. “It’s only five of a thousand.”
“Just a minute ago you were amazed I’m thousands of years old.”
“That’s different.”
“How so?” asks a voice that sounds like it will regret asking.
Yugi thinks it over. “It just is.”
The dragon almost says something, but doesn’t. He stops walking. Lowers Yugi to the ground. “Stay put. I must shapeshift to fit inside. If you wander off and I have to hunt for you, I will be very upset.”
“Okay, Mr. Dragon Person.”
“Don’t call me ‘Mr. Dragon Person’,” says a sigh.
Yugi stares up at the dragon. “But you’re a dragon person.”
There’s a pause of consideration, then the dragon says, “My name is Gandora.”
“Gaahn-dur-ra?”
“No, Gandora.”
“Gaaan-dooor-ra?”
“No, Gandora.”
“Gan-do-do-ra?”
Gandora huffs a puff of smoke. “Stop. I know you’re doing it on purpose.”
Yugi giggles. He waits both patiently and politely while Gandora shapeshifts into a human form.
And then immediately leaps on him because that’s how you play and Gandora is now playmate-sized and why wouldn’t he want to play with Yugi? He’s been very friendly so far!