Whispers in the Dark-Chp6

Seto flew to the gathering spot where everyone had to meet up before entering in the Realm of Night. His keen sense of smell found that his best friend was already there and was waiting for others to arrive. He slowly landed onto a tree branch before climbing down to meet up with him.

“Blessed be, brother,” Seto greeted as he came up to him. Yami turned to his directions and greeted the same. Technically they weren’t real brothers. Yami and Seth were cousins, which made Seto part of the family as well, as Seth and Seto were twin brothers by a difference of 5 minutes. With his sun-kissed tan skin, tall and slightly muscular graceful built, his dark and rich amethyst eyes and spiky tri-coloured hair, he was the darling of the Whisperers and one of the most handsome of his fellow Whisperers. If the females were alive today, they would not hesitate to offer themselves to mate with them, but unfortunately, it was wishful thinking.

Even though not every Whisperer was blood-related to each other except family, it had always been their custom to address someone as a brother ever since their clan came to being, and addressing ‘Lord’ to their Head of the Clan, and it didn’t seem like it would change any time soon. If you were to listen to a Whisperer’s conversation, you can only hear them whisper to each other, and it wasn’t just one whisper to another, it was a torrent of whispers to another torrent that overlapped on top of each other until you cannot tell which was the beginning of the conversation and which was the end except them alone, and to top it up, they spoke in their own Whisperer language which sounded like a mesh between Egyptian and Arabic. Despite the fact that they can understand Human Tongue audibly, they were so used to speaking their own language that they never really took the time to learn it verbally, thus the lack of syllables in their Human Tongue. So far only the Head of the Clan Seth and his middle men was able to speak Human Tongue fluently.

“How goes your mating, brother?” Yami asked as he approached Seto to give him a brotherly hug. No one really knew why Yami was named after the forests, but rumour has it that when he was born, his mother was at the forest with his father, the Head of Clan back then, gathering berries and nuts for dinner and it was his father who personally helped her with the birth. Unfortunately, due to the Duelist Plague, she died instantaneously and his father left the clan out of depression and no one knew whether he was dead or alive. Seth took over the leadership because Yami was not of age that time, and when he was finally of age, Yami thought Seth had done a better job being a ruler than he would ever be and had forsaken his right as leader to him. Now he was no different than any other royal-blooded Whisperer among his fellow royal friends, being Royal Advisor, second-in-command and best friend alongside Seth and Seto.

“It was satisfying. My Puppy said he enjoyed every moment of it, although I can see that he had a lot of pent-up emotions within his heart,” Seto replied regretfully. Unlike his brother, whom they both share the same chocolate-brown hair and ice-blue eyes, he was a Light-Skinned, which means he had inherited the rare trait of being fair instead of tan. Such trait was only reserved for people of higher ranks and royal lineage, and many people thought of him being the better leader in appearance than his brother, but despite being twins and equally intelligent, Seto was cold, brash and acted upon whim and anger, and would sometimes pass judgments based on emotion and not reason. He was too proud and arrogant and always wanted things his way, and it was obvious he wasn’t much of a leader, although when the situation really needed it, he could sometimes work under pressure and pass judgments and give ideas that are phenomenal, sometimes crazy, but works just as effectively, thus earn his title as Royal Advisor along with Yami.

“Puppy? Since when do you give your mate names?”

Yami and Seto turned to see Marik coming towards them. They couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of him, even though they’ve been friends for centuries, and were the only ones able to tolerate him. With dark grayish-silver hair and purplish-blood red eyes, he was the most feared Dark-Skinned among his fellow friends as he was the Royal Executioner for Maximillion Pegasus. Any Bad Seed or those committing serious crimes under the Ethereal Law would be at the mercy of his execution games, and he would spare at nothing to punish those who dare to even think of doing the clan wrong. He was nicknamed ‘Deathly Game Keeper’ for his way of executing his convicts were cruel, malicious and dark, with no means of cheating or escaping, and no means of winning, and the person in his games often suffer the wrath of a slow, painful death. If it hadn’t been the war when the Duelist Phantoms terrorized the world that sent his beloved sister Isis and brother Odion to their early graves, he wouldn’t have become as sadistic as he was today. He may be almost humane, if not cynical and sarcastic on his normal days, but when he goes to executioner mode, you’d go as far as wish you weren’t alive.

“What I do with my mate is of my business, thank you very much,” Seto said as he tried to maintain his cool amidst the deathly aura given by Marik. Marik grinned and laughed maniacally.

“You have always acted a lot upon your emotions instead of your head. No wonder you’re only Royal Advisor and not second-in-command.”

“Bite your tongue, brother!” Yami growled. “Seto is just as good an advisor as you are in your crazy little executions.”

“Really? It seems as if someone else is more of the brains of the outfit than he would ever be.”

“Blessed be, brothers. Can you not get along just for one minute without having to strangle each other’s throat?”

Marik growled at the sight of Bakura as he made his way through the group. A Light-Skinned like Seto, he stood out with his mischievous, almost evil, dark chocolate eyes and silver hair. He, being a minor kleptomaniac, was assigned as one of the finest infiltrators and retrievers of the Royal Army. Nothing escaped his hands and eyes once he set a target to it. Any quest given to him to retrieve or steal, he would do it and provide the most satisfying results. He was so good at what he did to the point where if Seth asked him to go steal any of Maximillion Pegasus’ prized possessions, he might just do it, if he did not fear the wrath of Marik’s murderous execution games. So far, Bakura was the only person Marik would even give a damn to listen to because of their almost similar evil minds of mischief, naughtiness and thirst for danger.

“So how did your ritual go? Was your mate beautiful?” Yami asked. Of all the people he could tolerate, Bakura was the lesser evil.

“Beautiful? Good Gods of Ethereal, he’s almost like a little princess waiting to be rescued by a prince charming like those ridiculous fairy tales those human pups love to read!” Bakura exclaimed as he sat on a nearby rock, stretching himself. “I almost thought that the humans finally decided to try their luck in giving us real females to mate with. To be honest, I have never felt even more aroused than I was just now. And the most unbelievable thing was he looks almost exactly like me, only more innocent and feminine!”

“Who looks exactly like whom?”

“Welcome back, Brother Duke Devlin.”

Duke slowly descended from the tree he landed on and joined his friends. Unlike his fellow Whisperers, he wasn’t considered a Light-Skinned or Dark-Skinned. He was a Halfling—the first Halfling of the clan, actually—and the youngest of the five, and the slightly fair skin he had was entirely inherited from his human ‘mother’. He even received his surname ‘Devlin’ from his human ‘mother’, something to remind him of his other half heritage. He was born during almost the end of the Middle Ages and joined the Whisperer clan after being determined by Seth as Whisperer-dominant. With his long dark hair tied into a high pony tail and his bangs dangling lazily over his green eyes, he stood out the most of the five not because of his looks (although he was considerably handsome), but because of his skin and his wings which were about half the size of a normal Whisperer. If a Whisperer’s wings expanded to be the size of a big blanket, his wings was just enough to be an average-sized cloak. Due to his nature of being, he was an important asset in being one of the middle men between Seth and the human world, conversing very fluently in Human Tongue with the middle men from the human side and providing information about any affairs regarding the ritual with them. Like his fellow colleagues, he had a tattoo shaped like an upside-down triangle on the underside of his left eye to let everyone know of his job, and people respected him reasonably because of them.

“We were discussing about Bakura’s narcissism fetish and his obsession with loving himself,” Marik replied, sporting an evil grin at Bakura, who in turn shot him a venomous look.

“I am not fooling around, Marik! And I don’t love myself that much!” Bakura replied indignantly, then turned to Duke and continued, “He looks almost exactly like me, mine mate, but he looks as if he’s a…gentler side of me, a nicer and calmer, a more beautiful side of me. He gave me the most exhilarating time of my life. I swear I cannot get enough of him. I think I’ve ravished him about three times before my lust was finally satiated.”

“Three times?!” Duke widened his eyes in surprise. “Are you trying to kill him? You know we are very potent and tend to sire multiples. One time is enough! What were you thinking?!”

“Narcissist,” Marik muttered. “You better be care of heart that it is not your descendant that you sired a child with. Who knows how many offspring our grandfathers and fathers have sired before moving on to the White Horizon.”

Bakura’s face paled. He remembered that back then after the Duelist War and the coming of the Duelist Plague, all the females died and left behind many Whisperer pups that have yet come to maturity. A Whisperer’s maturity age is between 200 and 250 years old, and humans, being mortal, simply cannot wait for them to grow up to sire children, so they will have to make do with the next best thing: relying on their forefathers who were able-bodied to start off the deal. It was not until nearing the 19th Century that the pups, Yami and his friends included, had finally matured and were allowed to take over the job that their forefathers used to do. People of the Ethereal Clan, reaching at a certain old age in their immortal lives, would become an entity of celestial proportions and would have to take the long journey to the White Horizon to live alongside with their fellow celestials till the end of time. It was no secret that there is possibility that some of the residents of Domino Island were descended from Halflings which, in time, become more human than Halfling, and could be related to the five.

“Well, what about you?” Bakura challenged, snapping out of his reverie. “I saw you coming out of your mate’s window. I noticed that your mate is also slightly identical to you!”

“That’s a lie!” Marik growled as he grabbed Bakura’s throat, threatening to break it.

“I’m not. Look at you, you’re blushing!”

“Brothers, brothers, it is not wise to fight amongst ourselves,” Yami said as he broke the two up. “First of all, can you smell their scent?”

“Yes, of course,” Bakura replied, massaging his throat. “As a matter of fact, he smelt like honey-milk.”

“And you, Marik? Can you smell your mate’s scent?”

Marik hesitated for a moment before replying, “He smells of blood and dark chocolate mixed together.”

“Then it should not be a problem,” Yami replied. “If they smell of nothing, they are definitely much related to you. It is possible that your mates are part of a very long string and a very tiny branch of the family tree that they no longer carry the blood of their Halfling ancestors, thus the smell. There have been known cases even among the human worlds that at least once in several generations, a descendant would inherit the exact looks of his/her ancestor.”

“Well then, Deathly Game Keeper,” Seto said, folding his arms across his chest and smirked. “Looks like you have met your match. Do tell of your mate, brother. Is he as sadistic and maniacal as you are?”

“My Dark Chocolate needs not to be bothered by your petty questions,” Marik grumbled to himself, almost little too loudly for everyone to hear. “He’s much more vulnerable than you can ever imagine.”

“Now who’s the one who gives their mate names?”

Marik growled at Seto, daring him to say it again. If it weren’t for Yami holding Seto back and Bakura holding Marik, another blood fight would’ve ensued. As long as Marik is around, there would never be a day where there were no arguments between them.

“Now that you’ve mentioned of your mates’ likeness, I, too, have something to confess,” Yami said, scratching his chin rather sheepishly. “My mate has a very big resemblance to me. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that he’s actually a tiny branch of part of the old sorcerer Gozaburo’s family tree, whom possibly my grandfather had sired one of Gozaburo’s nephews, many times removed, thus the resemblance between us.”

“What?” Duke was surprised. “Now that’s what I call ‘narcissism’. Was he in love with himself as well?”

“No one calls my Light that way. You cannot imagine how incredible he was during the mating. I almost want to take him home with me and ravage him some more.”

“Ugh, discussing your sex life is never a pleasant matter. You have more drive than Marik gets from his sadistic executions.”

“What about you, brothers?” Bakura asked Seto and Duke, as a few more Whisperers flew down to join them, chattering amongst themselves. “How were your mates? Were they like you in appearance?”

“No,” Seto replied briefly. “My Puppy is his own person.”

“So is mine,” Duke replied sheepishly. “Although I have to admit, he is really one wild Soldier. He almost gave me a black eye.”

“So that’s your pet name for him?” Marik raised an eyebrow. “It seems that you all have taken much liking towards your mate to be given pet names. What have Lord Seth spoke of Whisperers succumbing to emotion?”

“And you haven’t?” Seto glared at him coldly. “You seem to enjoy your Dark Chocolate very much.”

“Brothers, please,” Yami persuaded.

Soon, the sun began to slowly creep out of the horizon. Though Whisperers can withstand daylight, they were more of a night creature and the heat of the sun can sometimes prove too much of a strain to their body and eyes. Yami made sure that everyone was present and accounted for before gesturing them to line behind him.

“We shall speak of our mates another time, brothers. For now, let’s return home. Seto, if you please.”

Seto nodded and materialized the Millennium Rod given by Seth before he set into the human world. With a few magic verses, the Rod tore open a portal within Yami Forests, revealing the Sky City of Whisperers among the many cities of the Realm of Night. One by one, they went into the portal, spread their wings and flew towards their respective homes.

By the last ray of sun illuminating the island, everyone had gone, leaving no trace of evidence that the Whisperers were ever there.