Hi, um, I'm not exactly that good at writing, nor do I boast in my story
ideas, but I hope you can spare me a few minutes of your time and read what
I've written. This is still in the works, and it's a rather long chapter so
bare with me, k? Um, I'm grateful to anyone who reads this and reviews it.
Thank you! ^_^
***
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Boy
Sakura Kinomoto didn't hesitate to grown. She laid her elbows on the table and muttered a string of obscenities as she watched the circle of nonchalant dancers meandering in and out across the marble floors. She had been blessed with her fourteenth year on the earth. It was a schedule of birthday repetition; classical music, ballroom dancing, cream and golden streamers, gleaming cutlery and ice sculptures, delectable food and rich wines.
She raised her forest green eyes to the ceiling out of excessive boredom. This year's party had surprisingly taken a slightly different turn of events and was being held on a ferry deemed 'The Lady'. She didn't exactly know where it was traveling. Her mother and father had beamed and said 'It's a surprise'. But she didn't like surprises - they were always in relation with money and/or beauty. One year she had received a thousand- dollar raise in her allowance, which didn't thrill her in the least, and another time she had gotten a diamond-encrusted parasol, that was far too heavy to lift, and if she could have, her parents wouldn't even let her touch it anyway. It resided in the ends of her chambers, collecting dust, confined within a glass display box.
'Care for a dance, fair lady.'
Sakura smiled. It was Eriol Hiirigazawa, her closest friend. She had met him in her second year at a private college. They had never gotten much closer than friends, and their feelings for each other were purely platonic.
A pretty, pale girl clasped his arm. Tomoyo Daidouji, Sakura's second cousin, stared at her impassively, her lips full and pouted. Truth be told, the two girls never got along. Tomoyo was happy with their wealth, unlike Sakura who simply detested it. Eriol was the only existing asset between the two girls; without him there, they would be at each other's throats.
'I see you're enjoying yourself,' Sakura said, orchestrating her hand. 'Sorry Eriol, but I'm turning down your invitation. I really can't handle much more of this music.' She slid from her seat and walked daintily around them, holding up the front of her dress. 'If mother asks where I am, tell her I'm doing something that requires less snoring.'
And with that she walked out the main doors, no one taking notice.
She wandered around the boat until she found the stairs that lead to the upper deck, a vast landing of freshly polished pinewood where usually oldies would be playing deck bowling. A strong scent of salt clung to the air. No one was there. She smiled to herself as she removed her dressy black shoes and threw them under a deckchair with two heavy clunks. She lifted the ends of her dress and, feeling cheeky, tucked them into the elastics of her undergarment. The air rushed between her legs and she smiled.
Faint squeals and clicks traveled on the wind up onto the deck. Sakura ran to the side and leaned over. She marveled at the shimmering ocean water, and the beautiful white froth that was created as the ship streamlined, splitting through the surface. Grey blurs followed beneath the surface like oddly placed shadows. Sakura squinted her eyes and leaned closer. They weren't grey shadows but dolphins. The most majestic creatures in the entire ocean! She rung her hands on the cold railing as she hung her body over the side, her light brown hair a flurry as the boat traveled swiftly across the waters, the wind blowing around her face, around her body, making her dress loosen from being tucking and billowing out like a wavering umbrella. This was what she wanted - a birthday without manners, candlelight and orchestral melodies. She laughed with delight. She raised a barefoot to the lower railing and lifted herself higher. Her dressed snagged on her foot and she slipped, rotating over the side and she fell.shooting through the surface.down into the deep, cold depths.
*
An experience of a thousand ice-cold daggers stabbing overwhelmed her as she plunged beneath the lapping blue waves. She flailed her arms and pumped her legs with all her strength, struggling against the impossible tangles of her dress that weighed her down. After much exhausting straining of her limbs, she managed to rise up through a storm of bubbles, and broke the surface with a gasp. She turned her head round to see the large shifting white side of The Lady. It formed large lapping waves that heaved themselves over Sakura's head causing her to go under again.
She gazed up at the emerald surface that speckled with flecks of yellow light, beaming from the sun above. She started up again but something seemed to be dragging her down. She grabbed the meandering mess of her dress, but it wasn't that. She looked up again. An ominous shadow swept over her; the shadow of the ferry, as she sunk deeper and deeper.
Sakura tried to scream, but only a muffled trill and a string of bubbles flowed from her mouth. Feeling very dazed, she looked toward her feet and saw a glint of silver. Her eye's widened. The propellers were pulling her under! She flailed her arms again, her hands cupped, trying to force herself into a doggy paddle, struggling against the great underwater vacuum. But the insidious 'voomph's' of the giant propeller grew louder, echoing through the waters, thundering emptily in her eardrums. She shut her eyes tightly, praying a mile a minute. Sakura felt something warm clamp the wrist of her right arm. Then she felt herself being tugged, feeling much like a rope tied on either end of two trucks driving away from each other. She opened her eyes and turned toward the propeller that grew smaller and slowly disappeared in the watery shadows. She wasn't dead! Her heart pumping blood at a speed a thousand times faster than it should, and her arms feeling like she had just climbed the height of Mount Everest, Sakura turned her head around and squinted against the salt in the water and the thick streamers of her hair spreading over her face. She saw a mop of misty dark brown hair and she felt a warm hand grab her left shoulder. Her head rested on a warmth-radiating shoulder, repelling the cold of the water. She felt safe and comforted. Her breath failing her, exhaustion overtaking her, she closed her eyes.
*
He panicked when her eyes shut. He swam faster, holding the girl close to his chest. With a final push he had made it to shallower waters, feeling the slight grazing of sand on his free traveling hand. He sighed with relief as he finally made it to the bank, where the sand was damp and dark brown. He lifted the girl carefully from his shoulder and laid her on the ground before him. He leant over and held his ear above her mouth. She wasn't breathing.
He stared hard at her face; it held no expression and she looked peaceful.
Without a second thought, he pinched her nose with his thumb and index finger and leant forward, placing his mouth over hers. He breathed deeply, forcing air to flow through her mouth and into her lungs.
Her chest started to rise and fall. She was breathing!
He withdrew his head and observed her. Her face was a light olive, her eyelashes were long and dark, and her auburn hair and eyebrows were freckled with grains of dried salt and sand. He felt at liberty to brush them away. His eyes wandered down from her eyes to her tiny round nose, and then her thin, pink chapped lips. They looked so dry, and seemed an awful flaw to adorn on such an angelic featured face.
He felt himself drawn to them. He lowered his head once more, and covered her cold lips with his warm ones. Her lips became moist and warm.
He withdrew his face again. Her eyelids started to flicker, revealing liquid green eyes. She stared at him in surprise, lifted her head slowly, and then sat up. 'Who're you?' she asked. She raised a hand to brush the hair out of her eyes, but stopped midway. She realized the golden beach on which they sat, and the lukewarm waves that washed up to her sandy toes.
'You fell,' he answered, looking at her with gentle eyes. 'But you're safe now.'
'Huh?' she asked. She turned back to him again and found that he was gone. She immediately stood up, looking out over the ocean. 'Where'd you go?'
*
Sakura spend the afternoon running along the beach, not caring when she cut her feet on shells or when she tripped and stumbled on rocks, she kept searching until the sky started to turn tones of red and pink.
'Sakura! Sakura!'
She turned to the cries of her name. Her mother and father, Eriol with Tomoyo in tow - everyone came running, still in all their formal attire. Sakura regarded the tears running down Tomoyo's face. Her mother was in the most tears.
'Oh Sakura! When you went missing we wondered what happened!' her father said anxiously.
'I'm so sorry, I should have gone with you,' Eriol said regretfully, comforting a sniveling Tomoyo. It looked like she had rubbed onion into her eyes, her mascara streaking down her cheeks.
'Hey, have you seen a guy around here when you walked down from the dock?' Sakura asked curiously.
Everyone stared at her as if she had gone quite insane. Hadn't she just fallen over the side of the ferry into the freezing ocean and had been washed up on the beach?
Her mother shrieked and fainted at the sight of her bleeding toes.
They eventually convinced her to leave her searching expedition and return to the holiday house to calm down.
*
On top of a rock that sat five hundred meters from the beach's edge was a boy, leaning his chest over the side, leering out into the distance. The wind tossed his messy brunette hair as he remained that way, as still as a statue. He watched the small party of humans walk up the coast and disappear over the horizon. 'I hope to see you again,' he said, his eyes lowering to his hands. Behind him swished a long, deep blue tail, as blue as the ocean reflecting the sky. Scales as no larger than fingernails glistened with beads of water lodged between them.
*
Sakura stood in the twilight darkness, her skin illuminated, looking a sickly milky white. She stared at her ghostly form reflected in her body length bedroom mirror. Her eyes widened. Still staring at herself, she slowly raised a hand and touched her lips with her fingertips. They felt unusually warm for a night as cold and dark as this.
A pair of amber eyes flashed in her mind. Sakura removed her hand and turned away from the mirror, as if it reflected Medusa, and she would instantly be cast to stone.
'The boy,' she muttered, gazing over to the far ends of her room to her king-sized bed, laden with satin sheets.
She walked over to the foot of her bed and ran a hand along the smooth ebony base. She felt the piercing cold of the wood and took her hand away. She withdrew it back into her long warm sleeve and shivered in her night robe. It was then that she was reminded of the near-death she had experienced only a week ago. How close had she come to being severed by diamond-sharp bladed propellers?
That boy.she didn't know how.but he had saved her.
She spun around in thought, staring up at the black ceiling. If she couldn't find him again, how would she ever thank him? With a groan and a cuss, she dropped onto her knees and hugged herself.
In the water, he had been so warm. So warm, that it didn't seem real.it was more than a cushy self-heating pillow.it was.She didn't know. Sakura shuddered as a tear strayed from her eye. She didn't understand, why did she feel so empty?
***
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Boy
Sakura Kinomoto didn't hesitate to grown. She laid her elbows on the table and muttered a string of obscenities as she watched the circle of nonchalant dancers meandering in and out across the marble floors. She had been blessed with her fourteenth year on the earth. It was a schedule of birthday repetition; classical music, ballroom dancing, cream and golden streamers, gleaming cutlery and ice sculptures, delectable food and rich wines.
She raised her forest green eyes to the ceiling out of excessive boredom. This year's party had surprisingly taken a slightly different turn of events and was being held on a ferry deemed 'The Lady'. She didn't exactly know where it was traveling. Her mother and father had beamed and said 'It's a surprise'. But she didn't like surprises - they were always in relation with money and/or beauty. One year she had received a thousand- dollar raise in her allowance, which didn't thrill her in the least, and another time she had gotten a diamond-encrusted parasol, that was far too heavy to lift, and if she could have, her parents wouldn't even let her touch it anyway. It resided in the ends of her chambers, collecting dust, confined within a glass display box.
'Care for a dance, fair lady.'
Sakura smiled. It was Eriol Hiirigazawa, her closest friend. She had met him in her second year at a private college. They had never gotten much closer than friends, and their feelings for each other were purely platonic.
A pretty, pale girl clasped his arm. Tomoyo Daidouji, Sakura's second cousin, stared at her impassively, her lips full and pouted. Truth be told, the two girls never got along. Tomoyo was happy with their wealth, unlike Sakura who simply detested it. Eriol was the only existing asset between the two girls; without him there, they would be at each other's throats.
'I see you're enjoying yourself,' Sakura said, orchestrating her hand. 'Sorry Eriol, but I'm turning down your invitation. I really can't handle much more of this music.' She slid from her seat and walked daintily around them, holding up the front of her dress. 'If mother asks where I am, tell her I'm doing something that requires less snoring.'
And with that she walked out the main doors, no one taking notice.
She wandered around the boat until she found the stairs that lead to the upper deck, a vast landing of freshly polished pinewood where usually oldies would be playing deck bowling. A strong scent of salt clung to the air. No one was there. She smiled to herself as she removed her dressy black shoes and threw them under a deckchair with two heavy clunks. She lifted the ends of her dress and, feeling cheeky, tucked them into the elastics of her undergarment. The air rushed between her legs and she smiled.
Faint squeals and clicks traveled on the wind up onto the deck. Sakura ran to the side and leaned over. She marveled at the shimmering ocean water, and the beautiful white froth that was created as the ship streamlined, splitting through the surface. Grey blurs followed beneath the surface like oddly placed shadows. Sakura squinted her eyes and leaned closer. They weren't grey shadows but dolphins. The most majestic creatures in the entire ocean! She rung her hands on the cold railing as she hung her body over the side, her light brown hair a flurry as the boat traveled swiftly across the waters, the wind blowing around her face, around her body, making her dress loosen from being tucking and billowing out like a wavering umbrella. This was what she wanted - a birthday without manners, candlelight and orchestral melodies. She laughed with delight. She raised a barefoot to the lower railing and lifted herself higher. Her dressed snagged on her foot and she slipped, rotating over the side and she fell.shooting through the surface.down into the deep, cold depths.
*
An experience of a thousand ice-cold daggers stabbing overwhelmed her as she plunged beneath the lapping blue waves. She flailed her arms and pumped her legs with all her strength, struggling against the impossible tangles of her dress that weighed her down. After much exhausting straining of her limbs, she managed to rise up through a storm of bubbles, and broke the surface with a gasp. She turned her head round to see the large shifting white side of The Lady. It formed large lapping waves that heaved themselves over Sakura's head causing her to go under again.
She gazed up at the emerald surface that speckled with flecks of yellow light, beaming from the sun above. She started up again but something seemed to be dragging her down. She grabbed the meandering mess of her dress, but it wasn't that. She looked up again. An ominous shadow swept over her; the shadow of the ferry, as she sunk deeper and deeper.
Sakura tried to scream, but only a muffled trill and a string of bubbles flowed from her mouth. Feeling very dazed, she looked toward her feet and saw a glint of silver. Her eye's widened. The propellers were pulling her under! She flailed her arms again, her hands cupped, trying to force herself into a doggy paddle, struggling against the great underwater vacuum. But the insidious 'voomph's' of the giant propeller grew louder, echoing through the waters, thundering emptily in her eardrums. She shut her eyes tightly, praying a mile a minute. Sakura felt something warm clamp the wrist of her right arm. Then she felt herself being tugged, feeling much like a rope tied on either end of two trucks driving away from each other. She opened her eyes and turned toward the propeller that grew smaller and slowly disappeared in the watery shadows. She wasn't dead! Her heart pumping blood at a speed a thousand times faster than it should, and her arms feeling like she had just climbed the height of Mount Everest, Sakura turned her head around and squinted against the salt in the water and the thick streamers of her hair spreading over her face. She saw a mop of misty dark brown hair and she felt a warm hand grab her left shoulder. Her head rested on a warmth-radiating shoulder, repelling the cold of the water. She felt safe and comforted. Her breath failing her, exhaustion overtaking her, she closed her eyes.
*
He panicked when her eyes shut. He swam faster, holding the girl close to his chest. With a final push he had made it to shallower waters, feeling the slight grazing of sand on his free traveling hand. He sighed with relief as he finally made it to the bank, where the sand was damp and dark brown. He lifted the girl carefully from his shoulder and laid her on the ground before him. He leant over and held his ear above her mouth. She wasn't breathing.
He stared hard at her face; it held no expression and she looked peaceful.
Without a second thought, he pinched her nose with his thumb and index finger and leant forward, placing his mouth over hers. He breathed deeply, forcing air to flow through her mouth and into her lungs.
Her chest started to rise and fall. She was breathing!
He withdrew his head and observed her. Her face was a light olive, her eyelashes were long and dark, and her auburn hair and eyebrows were freckled with grains of dried salt and sand. He felt at liberty to brush them away. His eyes wandered down from her eyes to her tiny round nose, and then her thin, pink chapped lips. They looked so dry, and seemed an awful flaw to adorn on such an angelic featured face.
He felt himself drawn to them. He lowered his head once more, and covered her cold lips with his warm ones. Her lips became moist and warm.
He withdrew his face again. Her eyelids started to flicker, revealing liquid green eyes. She stared at him in surprise, lifted her head slowly, and then sat up. 'Who're you?' she asked. She raised a hand to brush the hair out of her eyes, but stopped midway. She realized the golden beach on which they sat, and the lukewarm waves that washed up to her sandy toes.
'You fell,' he answered, looking at her with gentle eyes. 'But you're safe now.'
'Huh?' she asked. She turned back to him again and found that he was gone. She immediately stood up, looking out over the ocean. 'Where'd you go?'
*
Sakura spend the afternoon running along the beach, not caring when she cut her feet on shells or when she tripped and stumbled on rocks, she kept searching until the sky started to turn tones of red and pink.
'Sakura! Sakura!'
She turned to the cries of her name. Her mother and father, Eriol with Tomoyo in tow - everyone came running, still in all their formal attire. Sakura regarded the tears running down Tomoyo's face. Her mother was in the most tears.
'Oh Sakura! When you went missing we wondered what happened!' her father said anxiously.
'I'm so sorry, I should have gone with you,' Eriol said regretfully, comforting a sniveling Tomoyo. It looked like she had rubbed onion into her eyes, her mascara streaking down her cheeks.
'Hey, have you seen a guy around here when you walked down from the dock?' Sakura asked curiously.
Everyone stared at her as if she had gone quite insane. Hadn't she just fallen over the side of the ferry into the freezing ocean and had been washed up on the beach?
Her mother shrieked and fainted at the sight of her bleeding toes.
They eventually convinced her to leave her searching expedition and return to the holiday house to calm down.
*
On top of a rock that sat five hundred meters from the beach's edge was a boy, leaning his chest over the side, leering out into the distance. The wind tossed his messy brunette hair as he remained that way, as still as a statue. He watched the small party of humans walk up the coast and disappear over the horizon. 'I hope to see you again,' he said, his eyes lowering to his hands. Behind him swished a long, deep blue tail, as blue as the ocean reflecting the sky. Scales as no larger than fingernails glistened with beads of water lodged between them.
*
Sakura stood in the twilight darkness, her skin illuminated, looking a sickly milky white. She stared at her ghostly form reflected in her body length bedroom mirror. Her eyes widened. Still staring at herself, she slowly raised a hand and touched her lips with her fingertips. They felt unusually warm for a night as cold and dark as this.
A pair of amber eyes flashed in her mind. Sakura removed her hand and turned away from the mirror, as if it reflected Medusa, and she would instantly be cast to stone.
'The boy,' she muttered, gazing over to the far ends of her room to her king-sized bed, laden with satin sheets.
She walked over to the foot of her bed and ran a hand along the smooth ebony base. She felt the piercing cold of the wood and took her hand away. She withdrew it back into her long warm sleeve and shivered in her night robe. It was then that she was reminded of the near-death she had experienced only a week ago. How close had she come to being severed by diamond-sharp bladed propellers?
That boy.she didn't know how.but he had saved her.
She spun around in thought, staring up at the black ceiling. If she couldn't find him again, how would she ever thank him? With a groan and a cuss, she dropped onto her knees and hugged herself.
In the water, he had been so warm. So warm, that it didn't seem real.it was more than a cushy self-heating pillow.it was.She didn't know. Sakura shuddered as a tear strayed from her eye. She didn't understand, why did she feel so empty?
