Post by Bakura on Aug 10, 2006 15:31:14 GMT -5
oey stopped the door behind Yugi and looked down upon him before speaking.
“So this is my house puppy, if you need—“
RIIIING! RIIIING!
Yugi yelped and jumped from his place on the floor shrinking behind Joey’s legs for comfort.
Joey looked down and flashed the worried Yugi a warm smile “It’s only the phone pu—wait...why am I even talking to you…” Patting Yugi on his head he walked off into the other room to answer the phone.
Yugi huffed in complaint. ‘I knew it was the phone…it just startled me; that’s all!’ He considered following Joey and finding out what the phone call was all about but then decided against it after the nifty thought of touring the house sounded in his head. He peered around. He was in the main entrance.
He noted that the house itself was lit brilliantly and the white stones below his paws were smooth with a nice glossy finish. He wondered briefly if he would skid on them if he were to start running.
Turning his head to the left his eyes lit up as he saw another room not too far away from were he stood. Stepping closer, he saw that this room had blue carpeting, white wooden walls but was also considerably small.
There was a long wooden desk in the upper left corner of the room supplied with a flat screened computer, a chair, speakers, many CD’s and a black notebook.
A black floor lamp that ran up half the wall stood erect, spilling light onto the desk.
Next to the lamp a comfy looking couch was seated, covering the rest of the perimeter of the wall. On the other side of the room two large bookcases stood next to each other holding countless books and comics. ‘This has to be the den…’ Yugi thought.
Padding over to one of the bookcases Yugi looked up and observed a Bible that was placed on the second shelf up. ‘So that makes two of us...’
Yugi looked away from the shelf when he heard his so-called name being called.
“Hey puppy…listen, I'm going out so you need to stay here. Ok? Don’t do anything bad.” Joey said, bending down to pat his head one last time.
‘Hey,’ Yugi thought bending his head up towards Joey’s hand, a smile gracing his lips. ‘that feels kinda nice...’ but the feeling was soon replaced with cold air as Joey stood back up, got his coat off a nearby rack, and strolled towards the closed door. A tickling sensation prodded at the back of Yugi’s neck as Joey opened the door.
Yugi yelped in distress. Thoughts clouded his mind. ‘What? We’re you going?’ Yugi ran as fast as he could towards the door as it began to shut. ‘You shouldn’t leave me here alone!’ Jumping up on his hind legs so he could reach the door knob he began to wine and scratch, but his pleas were quickly cut off by locking of the door. Joey was gone. ‘Hey…what do I do if I need to go to the bathroom?’ Sitting down slowly he allowed his eyes to look up at the door as he whimpered
“Why are you crying?” Startled Yugi yelped, leaped up and faced the voice behind him. A small white cat sat there, looking up at him with unblinking blue eyes.
“I'm not crying!” Yugi snapped at the confused cat. The cat slowly made its way over to Yugi and looked him up and down. Suddenly it meowed happily and began to ask fast questions.
“Joey got a new pet? What type of dog are you? How old are you? Do you have a name? Do you have fleas? I hate fleas! Do you hate them? You must, considering dogs are the one’s that live with them. You never see any flea colors on us cats do you? Well? Do you?”
The cat (who Yugi figured by the voice was a she) was excited by the new guest and her white fur had fluffed out in all different directions as she bounded around Yugi in circles.
“I'm NOT Joey’s pet first of all! I'm a friend of his; I got turned into a dog you see…I don’t think he knows that I'm here with him though…I also don’t know what type of dog I am. I'm 16 in human years; and yes I hate fleas….but I don’t think I have any.”
The cat stopped its circling and stared at Yugi with wide eyes.
“How can you not know what type of dog you are!”
Yugi shrugged.
“I guess I'm a mix or something…need to look in a mirror.”
The cat smiled sweetly, walking over to the stairs that led up to the next level.
“Well then, come with me. There’s a mirror in the bathroom that you can look at.”
However, as the cat led him upstairs he noted that she continued to mutter under her breath about how stupid mutts were.
‘Is that what I am?’ Yugi thought frightened as the cat got up the final step and started leading him left, down a carpeted hallway.
‘A mutt?’ For as long as he could remember he had hated mutts. Well, not hated but had very much disliked. He never thought they looked very nice and there attitudes were boring.
The ashen cat stopped suddenly at a large wooden door. Kneeling down she jumped high in the air trying to fix her paws around the shiny knob of the door. Latching one paw around the knob she scratched furiously at the door but soon slipped and landed on her tail with a high pitched squeal.
“Here, let me help.” Yugi said, walking over to the distraught cat. Yugi was small, but not as small as the cat. He easily jumped up and latched a paw around the knob. His body off the ground, he twisted the knob until he heard a satisfying ‘click’ and the door swung open making him fall ungracefully to the floor. ‘Ow’
“Thanks.” The cat replied as she passed Yugi and strode into the bathroom looking around thoughtfully.
“Now, if you want my advice you should first go to the toilet, jump up on it and then jump from that to the white shiny thing across from it. But be careful, you might slip. Once you get there; if you get there; you can look at yourself from the mirror on the wall.” Throughout the lecture the cat pointed with her front paw to the areas that Yugi needed to go.
“When you say ‘that white shiny thing,’ do you mean the sink?”
The cat placed her paw back on the tiles and looked at him with questioning eyes.
“Sink? Is that what that thing is called? I thought that’s what happens when you drown…”
“It is; except, ‘the white shiny thing’…” Yugi pointed his paw at the sink “…is also called a sink.”
“Why would they name two absolutely different things with the exact same name?”
Yugi thought for awhile trying to figure out a way to answer the cat’s question. “Ummm…that’s just how it goes these days.” Yugi knew that he now sounded stupid, looking at the cat with unexplainable eyes.
Strong silence filled the air. With the cat looking at Yugi and Yugi looking at the cat the atmosphere felt tight. Suddenly the cat snarled in frustration. Yugi backed up half expected her to attack him.
“Are you going or not!”
“Ummm, sure…?”
Her blue eyes narrowed in anger.
“SURE? Can’t dogs these days just say yes or no!”
“Yes!”
“YES? Yes you can, or yes I’m going now?”
“Both...”
“THEN GO!”
Yugi yelped and ran into the bathroom towards the toilet. He scrambled up on it as the cat watched him with narrowed eyes. Seconds later he turned around on the smooth seat and balanced himself, getting ready to jump for the counter.
“Hurry up! We don’t have all day!”
‘Man, this cat has anger management problems…’
“WHAT! I just did that in like--what five seconds? Why are you so mad at me?”
“Stop with the questions, and get onto that so-called ‘sink’! NOW!”
Afraid of the cats harsh screaming he jumped shakily from the seat towards the counter. His front paws landed on the smooth finishing but his back paws were ahead of them as they crashed into the wall causing Yugi to slip half way off the sink.
“Get back on!” screeched the cat eyes wide. If Yugi fell he wouldn’t be injured; she just didn’t want to see him fail in this simple task.
Breathless, he weakly scratched his back paws against the side of the sink trying to find something to support him up on the sink, but all his paws felt was the firm wood. He used all the force he could muster to get the rest of his body up onto the sink. He did; but not before he fell head first into the basin. The cat giggled enthusiastically and jumped from her spot outside the bathroom and headed towards Yugi. Looking up, she called his name.
“Puppy! Hey! Get over here!”
Yugi quickly got out of the basin and headed towards the side of the counter looking down upon the cat. He looked pretty flushed.
“Hi…”
“Well? What are you?”
Yugi looked back up and twisted towards the mirror seeing his reflection for the first time. He was shocked to see that he was undersized; with small paws and little black nails. He had large violet eyes and a small black nose. He was sheltered in long black and white fur that was a mess at the time. His furry ears stuck up high. He smiled goofily at the mirror. He loved those ears! He looked back down at the cat.
“I'm a Papillon…umm, what’s your name?”
“I'm Casie.”
Yugi bounced off the counter ‘Getting off the counter was so much easer than getting on it’ he thought as he looked at Casie.
“Well, why did you get so mad at me?”
Casie looked down at her paws and muttered so low that Yugi had to strain his large ears to hear her.
“I'm sorry about that, but suspense kills me and I usually take my anger out on what’s causing it. But hey…at least it got you going!”
“Ya—ummm, that’s a bit strange don’t you think?”
“No.”
‘Ok…wrong thing to say Yugi’
“Sorry…I didn’t mean to—“The cats eyes lit up again and she cut him off before he could finish.
“OH! No, it’s ok. It’s my own problem.”
Seeing that the Casie was happy again Yugi smiled strangely at her before blinking it off. She looked beyond him and frowned. Yugi looked around and saw what she was frowning at. His eyes clouded over with grief. On the side of the counter that he had tried so hard to get onto were long but thin scratch marks from were his claws had been trying to dig into the wood. And there weren’t just five or seven—there were hundreds.
‘What am I going to do about this! What will Joey think? Oh god! He’ll probably kick me out for being so destructive! What will I do out on the streets? How will I live? More important--Will I live? I bet I’ll be picked up by strange people and be carried away in a little box ‘just-my-size’ straight to my death!’
Casie saw his worried expression and slowly padded over to him nudging her head under his chin mewing contently. However, Yugi shrugged it off. He just wanted to think of the new life he would have to live; and that was it. He continued his draining thoughts not seeing Casie’s hurt eyes.
‘And besides that--what will he say when he figures out that I'm really Yugi? Oh man, I can hear him now…“Yugi! I can’t believe you! I let you into my home and the first thing you do as a dog is scratch up the furniture!” “But Joey— No! He won’t let me call him Joey anymore! I’ll have to call him…him…master! No he wouldn’t make me do that! But I wouldn’t be his friend anymore…But man; it’s just one piece of furniture! I shouldn’t get blamed for this! Not this!’
“You know…I don’t think you should take this so bad uhhhh, what’s your name again?”
“Yu-Yugi. And this is the first time I told you.”
‘Oh God! He couldn’t even say his name straight! What was becoming of him?’
“Ok Yugi, if you’re thinking that he’ll kick you out as soon as he gets here then your wrong. Besides, I’ve done many bad things in the past and he never kicked me out. He got angry; but he never kicked me out. Sooo…brighten up; and let’s do something else…like explore a bit more! How’s that sound?”
“Sure, but I don’t think that how it’s going to be with me...”
Whipping around fiercely, her pupils blazed blue flames as she locked her eyes with his and advanced on him. The she-cat stuck her muzzle up to his and spat sternly in his face.
“Listen up pup! You shouldn’t be the one to talk! He’s not the type who just throws little dogs, or cats out onto the street! Besides, I should know…he picked me up from the street—literally; when I was just a shrimp of a kit and gave me this home for free!”
Her fur had fluffed up at this point and her claws had come out making Yugi more than a little worried for his safety. Shrinking back from her face Yugi fell to the floor, showing his submission to her as she continued her rant.
“My mother had abandoned me the minute I had stopped nursing and my father was some “city cat” that my mother never talked of….so, I don’t know my mom, I don’t know my dad, I don’t know my heritage and I certainly don’t know what your issues are!”
Standing back up, Yugi slowly padded over to Casie and put his head on her shoulder; his big ears drooping a bit with sadness.
“I'm-I'm sorry Casie…I didn’t know.”
Casie blinked back tears of; not sadness, but anger that no one seemed to understand her.
“It’s fine; just promise me that when you return to your regular self; Yugi…that you’ll always remember me?”
“Of course.”
Sighing her frustration away, Casie turned her back to him and walked back towards the stairs.
“WAIT!” Yugi yelped, running after her “I’ve already been left once, please don’t go! Besides you promised me an adventure…”
Smiling, Casie’s eyes beamed and she purred heavily.
“Of course! I just thought that you wanted me to leave. I’ve shouted at you a lot today, and I don’t like seeing you like that.”
“I don’t want you to go Casie; you’re a fine cat and maybe even a friend; if that’s what you want I mean…”
Casie’s eyes lit up in great sparkles and Yugi thought her purring couldn’t get any heaver.
“I’d love to be your friend Yugi! You’re so sweet and understanding! But...you’re going to have to get used to these fits if you want me as your friend.”
“Everyone has anger Casie and yours are no different.” Yugi pointed out still beside her by the top of the stairs. “I think I can get used to them…” ‘But I’ll also always make sure I understand why your mad’ Yugithought to himself privately.
“Great Yugi! Then let’s go and do something…adventurous!”
‘GREAT! Maybe I can see the rest of the house with her.’
Yugi considered as he watched Casie plummet eagerly down the
stairs and head left towards the small room that Yugi had been in earlier.
‘Wow, she can really have fast mood swings…’ Yugi sighed before diving down the stairs after her.
Chapter Two: The Adventure: Part one
Out of breath, Yugi turned the corner of the hall and ran back in the room of which Casie had flown into. However when he looked around he didn’t see Casie at all.
‘Oh boy…’ He thought as he began sniffing around trying desperately to find her scent. Yet; because Casie had lived here for so long (as he had presumed) her new scent had mixed in with the older scents; and man, were there a lot of them! More than once, he caught himself incessantly turning around in circles and tripping over his own paws while is snout was pressed to the ground, vainly sniffing each part of the carpet. Suddenly his nose picked up a stronger scent. He followed it realizing it led behind him. He continued to track it until he lost it at the foot of the bookcase he had looked at earlier.
‘Well, that’s not fair at all...’ He lifted his head and pointedly saw Casie at the very crest of the bookcase looking like she was trying to hold back a fit of laughs.
“What are you doing up there!”
Casie stopped her small fits and bowed her neck to look down upon him with her eyes.
“I'm examining; but if you were here you’d be taken aback by how much dust there is! It’s like a zoo up here!”
Yugi’s nose twitched with the mention of dust causing him to duck his head to stop the oncoming sneeze. He didn’t allow the small tingle take over. He blinked a couple times and looked back at Casie with pleading eyes.
“Oh come on! You have to come down! What about the adventure?”
“Isn’t this a good adventure? You are trying to get up here, aren’t you?”
‘Is she mad!’ Yugi thought with bother in his mind. ‘Does she actually expect me to get up there? And if so; Heaven forbid. Just how does she expect me too?’
“No! I'm not a butterfly. I honestly can’t just flutter my way past each and every one of those shelves and land next to you as happy as a smiley face you know...”
“True…” Casie looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking up again. “Tell you what; I’ll come down if you’ll do a surprise for me.”
Yugi pondered that statement for a second. ‘What would I have to do for her? Hopefully nothing that’ll break my back! I don’t think she’d do that—but then again, I don’t really know her that well…”
“Hey Casie? Tell me what I have to do before I agree.”
“But Yugi! Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!” Don’t you call for a little suspense in your life?”
“WHAT!” Yugi rose up in anger. “Weren’t you the one that got angry at suspense! Weren’t you the one that said I hurt the things that have suspense?” Casie gazed at him a shook her small head at Yugi.
“Yugi, I said I get angry at things that give me suspense. However; in your case you are the one with the suspense. You’re hopefully not giving any to me, are you?”
Sighing, Yugi sat lamely back down figuring he couldn’t win this conversation when he was already losing it. “No…I think not Casie; I can wait.”
“FINE! Yugi, I’ll come down and inform you of what you have to do!” Complaining noisily, Casie stood up and leapt down from the high bookcase. Surprised, Yugi yelped and moved out of the way so she could land. With no sound, Casie landed on her feet and surprisingly didn’t buckle her legs. Dust was stuck at her paws and around the tip of her tail, but she brushed it off with little hesitation.
“Alright…come with me.” She huffed looking a bit ticked at having to come down from her nest of dust.
Following close behind, Yugi noted that Casie led him straight into a tiled room. The walls in this room were smoothed with white paint, and --Yugi looked up-- counters with glass doors were placed on the sides of the room, holding diverse types of dinning objects. The kitchen came complete with a stove, sink, dishwasher, fridge (in which the freezer was on the bottom) and an island. In the far back of the kitchen a table was held with paintings and drawings around the walls. ‘Joey’s kitchen looks better than mine…’ Casie had jumped up on the island and was impatiently waiting for Yugi to do the same. Yugi walked over to the bottom of the island and sat down.
“What are you waiting for Yugi, get up here!”
“I'm not a jumping dog Casie. I don’t jump.”
Pouting, Casie once again stood up and jumped off the island to sit next to Yugi.
“You make life difficult for cats Yugi.”
“Sorry…”
Casie looked around for a few minutes and eventually let her eyes fall on a picture in the far back room. Yugi sneaked a peek at the picture and saw that the image was of a small white kitten huddled in a warm light blue blanket looking with wide eyes at the camera.
“Is that you?”
“No. It’s the neighbor’s cat. See it has brown eyes; not blue.”
“Oh…”
Hardly any seconds passed by before Casie’s jerked her head up to look at Yugi with excited eyes.
“I figured out what I want you to do Yugi!”
Smiling nervously, Yugi got up and followed Casie to the back door that was shut. Casie looked the door up and down before looking back at Yugi.
“You can open this, right?”
“Ummm, is it locked?”
‘I would think that any door that led to the outside would be locked…unless Joey’s stupid’
“Try it. But this isn’t what I want you to do”
Yugi walked beside Casie and jumped up to the knob, doing the same thing that he did with the bathroom door. However, this time he didn’t hear any ‘click’ and dropped down to the ground again.
“It’s locked Cas-“Yugi looked around but couldn’t see Casie anywhere. “Casie?” He called, getting slightly upset. ‘This stinks…I hate being abandoned’
“Yugi over here! I found a way out!”
Yugi bounded over to the sink and saw Casie near an open window on a ledge behind the sink.
Grousing, Yugi looked frantically around for something to help him get up to the window sill.
‘There’s nothing I can get up onto that’s low enough for me to jump up there.’
“Yugi! Get that chair and push it over here to help you get up!” Casie called, pointing a paw at a wooden chair near the far wall.
“Ok!”
Yugi sprinted over to the wooden chair and bit the rear leg of it with his teeth, making sure it was firmly in his mouth before he began dragging it over to the sink.
‘Joey’s going to kill me for these bite marks…’
A few minutes later he was able to get the chair to the side of the counter were the sink was held. He let go and rushed up to the front of it. He jumped on it and then jumped to the window sill that Casie was waiting for him at.
“About time.” Casie replied still pre-occupied with the outside.
“Oh? Well…now what?” Yugi replied, letting her comment slide.
“Come with me.” Casie said taking a leap out of the window and onto the soft grass of the backyard. Yugi climbed onto the windowsill himself and looked down to where Casie was already sprinting off.
“Wait!” Yugi cried, “What about Joey! We have to stay here!”
“Forget it Yugi!” She called still running ahead.
‘Fine!’ He thought. “I'm coming!” He called. Getting his footing steady he jumped awkwardly out of the window. Scrambling up as fast as he could Yugi raced off, trying vainly to keep Casie in his sight. At this point Casie was a good two yards in the lead.
‘Please wait…or at least SLOW DOWN!’
There were no fences in the backyard, so Casie never stopped for him, alternatively she ran for a couple of outsized bushes that blocked the outlook of a street.
Panting like mad, Yugi strained himself to run faster until he laid eyes on Casie again. His muscles throbbed and he swore that he had busted at least two nails with trying to keep up with her. Luckily--for Yugi--Casie did ultimately stop (on the other side of the street) for him.
Yugi stopped at the street and checked for any cars before racing ahead. Collapsing next to Casie he let out a soft moan and closed his eyes.
“Heh, you need to work out Yugi.”
“It’s not that. I'm just not used to this body yet…that’s all.” Yugi replied, looking up at the sound of a car coming.
“Come on; let’s go somewhere we can rest without becoming road kill, hmm? Casie said nudging his belly until he got up and followed her slowly over to a couple of large bushes.
Yugi rested in the shade while he watched Casie lick herself clean.
‘If you ask me, I think you look exactly the same way you did before you climbed out of the window.’ Yugi thought resting his head back down and closing his eyes for a nap. The nap; however good it felt; didn’t last long for Casie soon came up to him and started poking at his sides.
“Hey Yugi, lets get going.”
“Whaaaa?” Yugi opened his eyes again and yawned loudly. “Why?”
Casie walked away from him calling out loudly. “Because we’re on an adventure, Remember?”
‘d**n…’
Yugi sprung up, not wanting to be left again and gradually followed in her footsteps.
Casie led him to the top of a hill were they could see many shops and houses. She turned around and asked Yugi what he wanted to do.
“Umm…Let’s go and just walk for a bit?” He suggested lamely, nothing better coming to his mind at the moment.
“Alright…come on, and stop walking like that! You look like a lame horse.”
Sighing needlessly, Yugi straightened his back and hurried to walk besides her. They soon got down the grassy hill and entered into the city.
Casie glanced at Yugi while they walked across the street and onto the sidewalk. They got curious stares from the people that shared the walk but nobody touched them.
“Sooo…” Casie dragged out slowly trying to make a conversation with the small dog beside her. “What’s up?”
“Not much…just walking next to you on the hottest d**n day of the year, getting many odd stares, and trying to think of my past life. What about you?”
“Oh? Nothing much…” Casie replied looking down.
‘Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Yugi doesn’t seem to be having much fun…’
“So, how was your past life?” Casie asked, suddenly interested. “I mean what did you do as a human?”
“Well…I was a freshman at Domino High School, and I used to get bullied a lot; but not as much anymore. I duel—wait…You know what that is, right?”
“I’ve heard of it…a card game right? I think Joey has a deck or something like that…”
“Ya…and you know that Joey’s my friend right? Well isn’t it strange to be the cat of an owner whose best friend is a human—but not really—who’s right next to you?”
“Ummm, are we getting off topic? Because I'm not sure.”
Yugi chucked and soon began to tell Casie what the game Duel Monsters was and of all the different places he went to and of all the different people (good and bad) that he met along the way. He told her of the challenges that he had faced and how he got out of them with his friends help. He told her of the millennium puzzle and of Yami (the good and bad of him). He also told her that if his friends hadn’t been there--especially Joey; then he probably wouldn’t be here today.”
“So this is my house puppy, if you need—“
RIIIING! RIIIING!
Yugi yelped and jumped from his place on the floor shrinking behind Joey’s legs for comfort.
Joey looked down and flashed the worried Yugi a warm smile “It’s only the phone pu—wait...why am I even talking to you…” Patting Yugi on his head he walked off into the other room to answer the phone.
Yugi huffed in complaint. ‘I knew it was the phone…it just startled me; that’s all!’ He considered following Joey and finding out what the phone call was all about but then decided against it after the nifty thought of touring the house sounded in his head. He peered around. He was in the main entrance.
He noted that the house itself was lit brilliantly and the white stones below his paws were smooth with a nice glossy finish. He wondered briefly if he would skid on them if he were to start running.
Turning his head to the left his eyes lit up as he saw another room not too far away from were he stood. Stepping closer, he saw that this room had blue carpeting, white wooden walls but was also considerably small.
There was a long wooden desk in the upper left corner of the room supplied with a flat screened computer, a chair, speakers, many CD’s and a black notebook.
A black floor lamp that ran up half the wall stood erect, spilling light onto the desk.
Next to the lamp a comfy looking couch was seated, covering the rest of the perimeter of the wall. On the other side of the room two large bookcases stood next to each other holding countless books and comics. ‘This has to be the den…’ Yugi thought.
Padding over to one of the bookcases Yugi looked up and observed a Bible that was placed on the second shelf up. ‘So that makes two of us...’
Yugi looked away from the shelf when he heard his so-called name being called.
“Hey puppy…listen, I'm going out so you need to stay here. Ok? Don’t do anything bad.” Joey said, bending down to pat his head one last time.
‘Hey,’ Yugi thought bending his head up towards Joey’s hand, a smile gracing his lips. ‘that feels kinda nice...’ but the feeling was soon replaced with cold air as Joey stood back up, got his coat off a nearby rack, and strolled towards the closed door. A tickling sensation prodded at the back of Yugi’s neck as Joey opened the door.
Yugi yelped in distress. Thoughts clouded his mind. ‘What? We’re you going?’ Yugi ran as fast as he could towards the door as it began to shut. ‘You shouldn’t leave me here alone!’ Jumping up on his hind legs so he could reach the door knob he began to wine and scratch, but his pleas were quickly cut off by locking of the door. Joey was gone. ‘Hey…what do I do if I need to go to the bathroom?’ Sitting down slowly he allowed his eyes to look up at the door as he whimpered
“Why are you crying?” Startled Yugi yelped, leaped up and faced the voice behind him. A small white cat sat there, looking up at him with unblinking blue eyes.
“I'm not crying!” Yugi snapped at the confused cat. The cat slowly made its way over to Yugi and looked him up and down. Suddenly it meowed happily and began to ask fast questions.
“Joey got a new pet? What type of dog are you? How old are you? Do you have a name? Do you have fleas? I hate fleas! Do you hate them? You must, considering dogs are the one’s that live with them. You never see any flea colors on us cats do you? Well? Do you?”
The cat (who Yugi figured by the voice was a she) was excited by the new guest and her white fur had fluffed out in all different directions as she bounded around Yugi in circles.
“I'm NOT Joey’s pet first of all! I'm a friend of his; I got turned into a dog you see…I don’t think he knows that I'm here with him though…I also don’t know what type of dog I am. I'm 16 in human years; and yes I hate fleas….but I don’t think I have any.”
The cat stopped its circling and stared at Yugi with wide eyes.
“How can you not know what type of dog you are!”
Yugi shrugged.
“I guess I'm a mix or something…need to look in a mirror.”
The cat smiled sweetly, walking over to the stairs that led up to the next level.
“Well then, come with me. There’s a mirror in the bathroom that you can look at.”
However, as the cat led him upstairs he noted that she continued to mutter under her breath about how stupid mutts were.
‘Is that what I am?’ Yugi thought frightened as the cat got up the final step and started leading him left, down a carpeted hallway.
‘A mutt?’ For as long as he could remember he had hated mutts. Well, not hated but had very much disliked. He never thought they looked very nice and there attitudes were boring.
The ashen cat stopped suddenly at a large wooden door. Kneeling down she jumped high in the air trying to fix her paws around the shiny knob of the door. Latching one paw around the knob she scratched furiously at the door but soon slipped and landed on her tail with a high pitched squeal.
“Here, let me help.” Yugi said, walking over to the distraught cat. Yugi was small, but not as small as the cat. He easily jumped up and latched a paw around the knob. His body off the ground, he twisted the knob until he heard a satisfying ‘click’ and the door swung open making him fall ungracefully to the floor. ‘Ow’
“Thanks.” The cat replied as she passed Yugi and strode into the bathroom looking around thoughtfully.
“Now, if you want my advice you should first go to the toilet, jump up on it and then jump from that to the white shiny thing across from it. But be careful, you might slip. Once you get there; if you get there; you can look at yourself from the mirror on the wall.” Throughout the lecture the cat pointed with her front paw to the areas that Yugi needed to go.
“When you say ‘that white shiny thing,’ do you mean the sink?”
The cat placed her paw back on the tiles and looked at him with questioning eyes.
“Sink? Is that what that thing is called? I thought that’s what happens when you drown…”
“It is; except, ‘the white shiny thing’…” Yugi pointed his paw at the sink “…is also called a sink.”
“Why would they name two absolutely different things with the exact same name?”
Yugi thought for awhile trying to figure out a way to answer the cat’s question. “Ummm…that’s just how it goes these days.” Yugi knew that he now sounded stupid, looking at the cat with unexplainable eyes.
Strong silence filled the air. With the cat looking at Yugi and Yugi looking at the cat the atmosphere felt tight. Suddenly the cat snarled in frustration. Yugi backed up half expected her to attack him.
“Are you going or not!”
“Ummm, sure…?”
Her blue eyes narrowed in anger.
“SURE? Can’t dogs these days just say yes or no!”
“Yes!”
“YES? Yes you can, or yes I’m going now?”
“Both...”
“THEN GO!”
Yugi yelped and ran into the bathroom towards the toilet. He scrambled up on it as the cat watched him with narrowed eyes. Seconds later he turned around on the smooth seat and balanced himself, getting ready to jump for the counter.
“Hurry up! We don’t have all day!”
‘Man, this cat has anger management problems…’
“WHAT! I just did that in like--what five seconds? Why are you so mad at me?”
“Stop with the questions, and get onto that so-called ‘sink’! NOW!”
Afraid of the cats harsh screaming he jumped shakily from the seat towards the counter. His front paws landed on the smooth finishing but his back paws were ahead of them as they crashed into the wall causing Yugi to slip half way off the sink.
“Get back on!” screeched the cat eyes wide. If Yugi fell he wouldn’t be injured; she just didn’t want to see him fail in this simple task.
Breathless, he weakly scratched his back paws against the side of the sink trying to find something to support him up on the sink, but all his paws felt was the firm wood. He used all the force he could muster to get the rest of his body up onto the sink. He did; but not before he fell head first into the basin. The cat giggled enthusiastically and jumped from her spot outside the bathroom and headed towards Yugi. Looking up, she called his name.
“Puppy! Hey! Get over here!”
Yugi quickly got out of the basin and headed towards the side of the counter looking down upon the cat. He looked pretty flushed.
“Hi…”
“Well? What are you?”
Yugi looked back up and twisted towards the mirror seeing his reflection for the first time. He was shocked to see that he was undersized; with small paws and little black nails. He had large violet eyes and a small black nose. He was sheltered in long black and white fur that was a mess at the time. His furry ears stuck up high. He smiled goofily at the mirror. He loved those ears! He looked back down at the cat.
“I'm a Papillon…umm, what’s your name?”
“I'm Casie.”
Yugi bounced off the counter ‘Getting off the counter was so much easer than getting on it’ he thought as he looked at Casie.
“Well, why did you get so mad at me?”
Casie looked down at her paws and muttered so low that Yugi had to strain his large ears to hear her.
“I'm sorry about that, but suspense kills me and I usually take my anger out on what’s causing it. But hey…at least it got you going!”
“Ya—ummm, that’s a bit strange don’t you think?”
“No.”
‘Ok…wrong thing to say Yugi’
“Sorry…I didn’t mean to—“The cats eyes lit up again and she cut him off before he could finish.
“OH! No, it’s ok. It’s my own problem.”
Seeing that the Casie was happy again Yugi smiled strangely at her before blinking it off. She looked beyond him and frowned. Yugi looked around and saw what she was frowning at. His eyes clouded over with grief. On the side of the counter that he had tried so hard to get onto were long but thin scratch marks from were his claws had been trying to dig into the wood. And there weren’t just five or seven—there were hundreds.
‘What am I going to do about this! What will Joey think? Oh god! He’ll probably kick me out for being so destructive! What will I do out on the streets? How will I live? More important--Will I live? I bet I’ll be picked up by strange people and be carried away in a little box ‘just-my-size’ straight to my death!’
Casie saw his worried expression and slowly padded over to him nudging her head under his chin mewing contently. However, Yugi shrugged it off. He just wanted to think of the new life he would have to live; and that was it. He continued his draining thoughts not seeing Casie’s hurt eyes.
‘And besides that--what will he say when he figures out that I'm really Yugi? Oh man, I can hear him now…“Yugi! I can’t believe you! I let you into my home and the first thing you do as a dog is scratch up the furniture!” “But Joey— No! He won’t let me call him Joey anymore! I’ll have to call him…him…master! No he wouldn’t make me do that! But I wouldn’t be his friend anymore…But man; it’s just one piece of furniture! I shouldn’t get blamed for this! Not this!’
“You know…I don’t think you should take this so bad uhhhh, what’s your name again?”
“Yu-Yugi. And this is the first time I told you.”
‘Oh God! He couldn’t even say his name straight! What was becoming of him?’
“Ok Yugi, if you’re thinking that he’ll kick you out as soon as he gets here then your wrong. Besides, I’ve done many bad things in the past and he never kicked me out. He got angry; but he never kicked me out. Sooo…brighten up; and let’s do something else…like explore a bit more! How’s that sound?”
“Sure, but I don’t think that how it’s going to be with me...”
Whipping around fiercely, her pupils blazed blue flames as she locked her eyes with his and advanced on him. The she-cat stuck her muzzle up to his and spat sternly in his face.
“Listen up pup! You shouldn’t be the one to talk! He’s not the type who just throws little dogs, or cats out onto the street! Besides, I should know…he picked me up from the street—literally; when I was just a shrimp of a kit and gave me this home for free!”
Her fur had fluffed up at this point and her claws had come out making Yugi more than a little worried for his safety. Shrinking back from her face Yugi fell to the floor, showing his submission to her as she continued her rant.
“My mother had abandoned me the minute I had stopped nursing and my father was some “city cat” that my mother never talked of….so, I don’t know my mom, I don’t know my dad, I don’t know my heritage and I certainly don’t know what your issues are!”
Standing back up, Yugi slowly padded over to Casie and put his head on her shoulder; his big ears drooping a bit with sadness.
“I'm-I'm sorry Casie…I didn’t know.”
Casie blinked back tears of; not sadness, but anger that no one seemed to understand her.
“It’s fine; just promise me that when you return to your regular self; Yugi…that you’ll always remember me?”
“Of course.”
Sighing her frustration away, Casie turned her back to him and walked back towards the stairs.
“WAIT!” Yugi yelped, running after her “I’ve already been left once, please don’t go! Besides you promised me an adventure…”
Smiling, Casie’s eyes beamed and she purred heavily.
“Of course! I just thought that you wanted me to leave. I’ve shouted at you a lot today, and I don’t like seeing you like that.”
“I don’t want you to go Casie; you’re a fine cat and maybe even a friend; if that’s what you want I mean…”
Casie’s eyes lit up in great sparkles and Yugi thought her purring couldn’t get any heaver.
“I’d love to be your friend Yugi! You’re so sweet and understanding! But...you’re going to have to get used to these fits if you want me as your friend.”
“Everyone has anger Casie and yours are no different.” Yugi pointed out still beside her by the top of the stairs. “I think I can get used to them…” ‘But I’ll also always make sure I understand why your mad’ Yugithought to himself privately.
“Great Yugi! Then let’s go and do something…adventurous!”
‘GREAT! Maybe I can see the rest of the house with her.’
Yugi considered as he watched Casie plummet eagerly down the
stairs and head left towards the small room that Yugi had been in earlier.
‘Wow, she can really have fast mood swings…’ Yugi sighed before diving down the stairs after her.
Chapter Two: The Adventure: Part one
Out of breath, Yugi turned the corner of the hall and ran back in the room of which Casie had flown into. However when he looked around he didn’t see Casie at all.
‘Oh boy…’ He thought as he began sniffing around trying desperately to find her scent. Yet; because Casie had lived here for so long (as he had presumed) her new scent had mixed in with the older scents; and man, were there a lot of them! More than once, he caught himself incessantly turning around in circles and tripping over his own paws while is snout was pressed to the ground, vainly sniffing each part of the carpet. Suddenly his nose picked up a stronger scent. He followed it realizing it led behind him. He continued to track it until he lost it at the foot of the bookcase he had looked at earlier.
‘Well, that’s not fair at all...’ He lifted his head and pointedly saw Casie at the very crest of the bookcase looking like she was trying to hold back a fit of laughs.
“What are you doing up there!”
Casie stopped her small fits and bowed her neck to look down upon him with her eyes.
“I'm examining; but if you were here you’d be taken aback by how much dust there is! It’s like a zoo up here!”
Yugi’s nose twitched with the mention of dust causing him to duck his head to stop the oncoming sneeze. He didn’t allow the small tingle take over. He blinked a couple times and looked back at Casie with pleading eyes.
“Oh come on! You have to come down! What about the adventure?”
“Isn’t this a good adventure? You are trying to get up here, aren’t you?”
‘Is she mad!’ Yugi thought with bother in his mind. ‘Does she actually expect me to get up there? And if so; Heaven forbid. Just how does she expect me too?’
“No! I'm not a butterfly. I honestly can’t just flutter my way past each and every one of those shelves and land next to you as happy as a smiley face you know...”
“True…” Casie looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking up again. “Tell you what; I’ll come down if you’ll do a surprise for me.”
Yugi pondered that statement for a second. ‘What would I have to do for her? Hopefully nothing that’ll break my back! I don’t think she’d do that—but then again, I don’t really know her that well…”
“Hey Casie? Tell me what I have to do before I agree.”
“But Yugi! Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!” Don’t you call for a little suspense in your life?”
“WHAT!” Yugi rose up in anger. “Weren’t you the one that got angry at suspense! Weren’t you the one that said I hurt the things that have suspense?” Casie gazed at him a shook her small head at Yugi.
“Yugi, I said I get angry at things that give me suspense. However; in your case you are the one with the suspense. You’re hopefully not giving any to me, are you?”
Sighing, Yugi sat lamely back down figuring he couldn’t win this conversation when he was already losing it. “No…I think not Casie; I can wait.”
“FINE! Yugi, I’ll come down and inform you of what you have to do!” Complaining noisily, Casie stood up and leapt down from the high bookcase. Surprised, Yugi yelped and moved out of the way so she could land. With no sound, Casie landed on her feet and surprisingly didn’t buckle her legs. Dust was stuck at her paws and around the tip of her tail, but she brushed it off with little hesitation.
“Alright…come with me.” She huffed looking a bit ticked at having to come down from her nest of dust.
Following close behind, Yugi noted that Casie led him straight into a tiled room. The walls in this room were smoothed with white paint, and --Yugi looked up-- counters with glass doors were placed on the sides of the room, holding diverse types of dinning objects. The kitchen came complete with a stove, sink, dishwasher, fridge (in which the freezer was on the bottom) and an island. In the far back of the kitchen a table was held with paintings and drawings around the walls. ‘Joey’s kitchen looks better than mine…’ Casie had jumped up on the island and was impatiently waiting for Yugi to do the same. Yugi walked over to the bottom of the island and sat down.
“What are you waiting for Yugi, get up here!”
“I'm not a jumping dog Casie. I don’t jump.”
Pouting, Casie once again stood up and jumped off the island to sit next to Yugi.
“You make life difficult for cats Yugi.”
“Sorry…”
Casie looked around for a few minutes and eventually let her eyes fall on a picture in the far back room. Yugi sneaked a peek at the picture and saw that the image was of a small white kitten huddled in a warm light blue blanket looking with wide eyes at the camera.
“Is that you?”
“No. It’s the neighbor’s cat. See it has brown eyes; not blue.”
“Oh…”
Hardly any seconds passed by before Casie’s jerked her head up to look at Yugi with excited eyes.
“I figured out what I want you to do Yugi!”
Smiling nervously, Yugi got up and followed Casie to the back door that was shut. Casie looked the door up and down before looking back at Yugi.
“You can open this, right?”
“Ummm, is it locked?”
‘I would think that any door that led to the outside would be locked…unless Joey’s stupid’
“Try it. But this isn’t what I want you to do”
Yugi walked beside Casie and jumped up to the knob, doing the same thing that he did with the bathroom door. However, this time he didn’t hear any ‘click’ and dropped down to the ground again.
“It’s locked Cas-“Yugi looked around but couldn’t see Casie anywhere. “Casie?” He called, getting slightly upset. ‘This stinks…I hate being abandoned’
“Yugi over here! I found a way out!”
Yugi bounded over to the sink and saw Casie near an open window on a ledge behind the sink.
Grousing, Yugi looked frantically around for something to help him get up to the window sill.
‘There’s nothing I can get up onto that’s low enough for me to jump up there.’
“Yugi! Get that chair and push it over here to help you get up!” Casie called, pointing a paw at a wooden chair near the far wall.
“Ok!”
Yugi sprinted over to the wooden chair and bit the rear leg of it with his teeth, making sure it was firmly in his mouth before he began dragging it over to the sink.
‘Joey’s going to kill me for these bite marks…’
A few minutes later he was able to get the chair to the side of the counter were the sink was held. He let go and rushed up to the front of it. He jumped on it and then jumped to the window sill that Casie was waiting for him at.
“About time.” Casie replied still pre-occupied with the outside.
“Oh? Well…now what?” Yugi replied, letting her comment slide.
“Come with me.” Casie said taking a leap out of the window and onto the soft grass of the backyard. Yugi climbed onto the windowsill himself and looked down to where Casie was already sprinting off.
“Wait!” Yugi cried, “What about Joey! We have to stay here!”
“Forget it Yugi!” She called still running ahead.
‘Fine!’ He thought. “I'm coming!” He called. Getting his footing steady he jumped awkwardly out of the window. Scrambling up as fast as he could Yugi raced off, trying vainly to keep Casie in his sight. At this point Casie was a good two yards in the lead.
‘Please wait…or at least SLOW DOWN!’
There were no fences in the backyard, so Casie never stopped for him, alternatively she ran for a couple of outsized bushes that blocked the outlook of a street.
Panting like mad, Yugi strained himself to run faster until he laid eyes on Casie again. His muscles throbbed and he swore that he had busted at least two nails with trying to keep up with her. Luckily--for Yugi--Casie did ultimately stop (on the other side of the street) for him.
Yugi stopped at the street and checked for any cars before racing ahead. Collapsing next to Casie he let out a soft moan and closed his eyes.
“Heh, you need to work out Yugi.”
“It’s not that. I'm just not used to this body yet…that’s all.” Yugi replied, looking up at the sound of a car coming.
“Come on; let’s go somewhere we can rest without becoming road kill, hmm? Casie said nudging his belly until he got up and followed her slowly over to a couple of large bushes.
Yugi rested in the shade while he watched Casie lick herself clean.
‘If you ask me, I think you look exactly the same way you did before you climbed out of the window.’ Yugi thought resting his head back down and closing his eyes for a nap. The nap; however good it felt; didn’t last long for Casie soon came up to him and started poking at his sides.
“Hey Yugi, lets get going.”
“Whaaaa?” Yugi opened his eyes again and yawned loudly. “Why?”
Casie walked away from him calling out loudly. “Because we’re on an adventure, Remember?”
‘d**n…’
Yugi sprung up, not wanting to be left again and gradually followed in her footsteps.
Casie led him to the top of a hill were they could see many shops and houses. She turned around and asked Yugi what he wanted to do.
“Umm…Let’s go and just walk for a bit?” He suggested lamely, nothing better coming to his mind at the moment.
“Alright…come on, and stop walking like that! You look like a lame horse.”
Sighing needlessly, Yugi straightened his back and hurried to walk besides her. They soon got down the grassy hill and entered into the city.
Casie glanced at Yugi while they walked across the street and onto the sidewalk. They got curious stares from the people that shared the walk but nobody touched them.
“Sooo…” Casie dragged out slowly trying to make a conversation with the small dog beside her. “What’s up?”
“Not much…just walking next to you on the hottest d**n day of the year, getting many odd stares, and trying to think of my past life. What about you?”
“Oh? Nothing much…” Casie replied looking down.
‘Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Yugi doesn’t seem to be having much fun…’
“So, how was your past life?” Casie asked, suddenly interested. “I mean what did you do as a human?”
“Well…I was a freshman at Domino High School, and I used to get bullied a lot; but not as much anymore. I duel—wait…You know what that is, right?”
“I’ve heard of it…a card game right? I think Joey has a deck or something like that…”
“Ya…and you know that Joey’s my friend right? Well isn’t it strange to be the cat of an owner whose best friend is a human—but not really—who’s right next to you?”
“Ummm, are we getting off topic? Because I'm not sure.”
Yugi chucked and soon began to tell Casie what the game Duel Monsters was and of all the different places he went to and of all the different people (good and bad) that he met along the way. He told her of the challenges that he had faced and how he got out of them with his friends help. He told her of the millennium puzzle and of Yami (the good and bad of him). He also told her that if his friends hadn’t been there--especially Joey; then he probably wouldn’t be here today.”