Dragon Frost by Miracle-chan
Rating: PG-13
In Short: Syaoran & Sakura's fateful child has the power to destroy dark magic forever... but this prophesy comes at a cost; ever since he was concieved evil has been trying to destroy him and they thought they had succeeded when they killed his parents. Thus Ryushi, the little dragon, grew up without ever knowing his heritage of being heir to the Li clan or the powerful magic blood he possessed; However, chance has its ways of brining the past back and he has a fateful encounter with the bold and beautiful daughter of Eriol and Tomoyo, Emiko. The pair's adventures are lessons of live and love...and above all, fate is something that cannot be escaped
CCS is © of CLAMP
|Prologue: Hope|
" 'Hope' is the thing with feathers-- That perches in the soul-- And sings the tune without the words-- And never stops at all" -- Emily Dickenson
-China-
Arrows were spilling down from the sky like rain. A young girl sprang out of the way just as one arrow sank completely into the trunk of an old pine tree where she had been standing just seconds before. "Fly!" She cried as she leapt in mid air and a brilliant pink light sparkled and engulfed her. A few moments later the light faded and a magnificent pair of feathery-white angelwings graced her back. She twirled the pink star wand in her hands and took flight as another shower of deadly arrows began to rain down.
"Sakura! Get higher up so the arrows won't hit you!" Yue shouted to her as he formed a beam of energy in his palm. Sharp crystals formed in his hand and shot up at the trees off many of the branches.
A mass of figures dressed in black with black scarves obscuring their faces dropped their bows and arrows and jumped away from the collapsing trees. Sakura's struggled to catch her breath as she she tightened her wings and spiraled upward out of the forest. She looked down to see her two guardian creatures fighting desperately for her. Keroberos was in full form, golden and powerful. His sharp jaw closed around the body of one of the dark figures and crushed his bones and he turned around and let out a rumbling roar.
Sakura shut her eyes, "Wood!" She summoned flipping out the star card in two fingers and tossing it into mid air. The powerful element spirit released from the card and enveloped in the forest trees below. The roots and branches of the trees seem to come alive as they grew rapidly to surround the dark soldiers and bind their hands and feet.
"Ahhhh!" Sakura suddenly screamed and nearly doubled over in mid air. She pressed a hand to her budging belly. The child....
"Sakura!" Keroberos shot up into the air closely followed by Yue.
"I-" Sakura gasped feeling dizzy and light headed, "I... The child...I feel-" Sakura struggled to keep aloft but her wings felt dangerously weak and she kept swaying shakily in the air like a bird who'd been shot in the wings.
"Quick, we must get her to the ground." Keroberos commanded.
Yue slipped his arms around her and picked her up, "We must find a place to hide before they catch up to us." Yue said looking down at the dark warriors regrouping on the ground below.
As they flew Sakura felt cold sweat pouring down her face. The child was kicking... A strong wind breezed through Sakura's long auburn hair, Yue and Keroberos had picked up speed. She shut her emerald green eyes....
"There's a cave down there." Keroberos spotted through the trees.
"Go check the inside first." Yue suggested cautiously. Keroberos flew off and returned a few moments later.
"Take her inside, it looked secure enough."
Yue quickly brought Sakura down to the ground and someways inside the cave and set her gently down on a clean spot of the ground. "Sakura," He asked softly, "How are you feeling?"
Sakura took a shaky breath, she felt clammy all over.... but she said instead, "I...I'm ok. I think I just got too worried for a moment. I was up in the air...looking down and.." She let out a faint laugh, "Its funny, I've never had a fear of heights before... I'll be ok in a few moments."
"You should get a little sleep then." Keroberos deep voice rumbled in the cave. Keroberos looked over her with his great golden head covered with armor and it suddenly made Sakura feel a pang of sadness as she looked up at her two loyal guardians. They weren't just her subjects...they were her friends...her family... and the only life she had left... other than the one she carried within her...
Keroberos use to look so handsome, she thought, in his splendid, soft, golden coat and glistening bejeweled armor... and now he looked more like a gruff wild beast. All the battles they've been through these past 7 years... His armor had gone all dusty and more often than not, his paws were matted with blood.
Yue had changed too. He didn't look a day older but his glistening silver hair was now thrown back in a messy ponytail to keep out of the way in their numerous combats. He no longer held a stance of cool indifference but rather an even icier "cold-killer" sort of aura. But at the same time, he had gotten closer to Sakura and she knew he had fully accepted her as his mistress and guarded her with his life.
Sakura shut her eyes to get some rest. They would have to be on the move again if they didn't want to engage in another battle with the dark soldiers... They had come in so much force today that Sakura had a bad, foreboding sort of feeling.... she sensed something.......concluding about the day that was still to come. But for the moment being she just wanted to rest.
Probably without knowing it, she had changed herself. She was still beautiful, though she had no time to think about beauty these years she'd been running through the backlands of China for her life. She was still gorgeous, if not even more so than when she was young, and she took on more and more of her mother as the days went by. Her captivating green eyes were charming and greener than green as always, and her shiny auburn hair had grown out and always seem to trail in the wind in the most graceful manner. Her figure was trim, despite her protruding belly, and even though the battles she'd been though made her feel about 50 years older, she was still a magical looking 19-year old.
Suddenly Sakura sat up. The baby was kicking again, but the pain was gone. She was feeling something....almost urgent from the child. "Yue-" She began to gasp just as she saw from the mouth of the cave a dark shadow loom.
Yue and Keroberos sprang up before her. Their eyes widened.
Yue cursed angrily, "They've snuck up on us! How could i not have known?! How could I not have sensed them?!"
"There's no time for this!!!" Keroberos growled, "We're trapped! How are we going to get Sakura out?"
"Sakura," Yue looked over at Sakura who was climbing to her feet, "I sense this cave does not end dead. It leads somewhere. Jsut follow this tunnel and keep going. Just try to keep out of sight."
"Then let's go!" Sakura grabbed Yue's hand and started to run but he pulled back.
"No Sakura, you go first. Keroberos and I will stay here to keep them back." Yue told her solemnly.
"What are you talking about?! There's so many of them out there, you couldn't possibly-" Sakura was caught off with the clang of an arrow hitting a rock just a few feet from her. The dark figures began to pour into the cave like a little army.
"Go now!" Keroberos cried urgently to her, "Go and we'll catch up!"
Sakura swallowed. She didn't want to leave them. She knew. She knew if she left them that they would probably never see each other again..... Has it really come to this?
Sakura shut her eyes. The baby inside was kicking so intensely it was like a battle was raging within her. Tears streamed down her face and sparkled in her emerald eyes as she turned her back on her guardians and ran down the tunnel in the cave. As she ran with tears blurring her vision she could hear Kerobero's battle roar and the sparks of Yue's magic dimly lit up the tunnel before her like sparks of lightning. She heard the cries of some dark warrior falling.... She heard weapons clashing.....
She kept running blindly in the darkness before her with only her magic sense to guide her from running into anything.
She didn't no how long she had been running before she heard footsteps beating from behind her.
They were after her.
Keroberos and Yue hadn't been able to hold them after all....
She tried to run faster but she felt so heavy and tired and distressed her feet couldn't seem to drag any quicker.
They were getting closer.
She had to use it...even though she knew when she use magic that the baby- "Dash!" She cried, knowing she had no more options left. She felt the magic energy of the star card envelop her and energy come to her legs. Immediately the cave around her became a blur as she ran faster than the blink of an eye through the cave.
But the pain came again. She felt the pain in her belly and this time it was much worse than the first.
The magic from the dash card seemed to rip laterally away from her and she was unable to control her movement. She tripped clumsily over a stone and fell to the ground, landing on her side, her whole body quaking with pain. She covered her belly with her hand and let out a whimper of pain. She almost blacked out...but she forced herself to stay conscious..... She took rapid breaths trying to get up but couldn't.... they were coming.
The darkly dressed figures emerged a few moments later and surrounded her.... and then one figure came before them all and they parted to let him through. The man looked down at her for a few moments and let out a merciless laugh. "Is this the great Sakura Kinomoto? The Mistress of the Star cards? Successor to Clow Reed himself?" He laughed.
Sakura crouched on the ground and looked up at him with daggers in her brilliant green eyes, not saying a word. Her teeth were clenched and her beautiful long hair had fallen around her face and obscured half her features from him.
The man squatted down beside her and lift her chin so he could look into her eyes. He took in a sharp breath, "Your beauty isn't just legend Sakura... what they all say is true." He held a torch light close to her face. After a few moments of silence he turned to his minions and dismissed them with a subtle movement of his eyes. "No one can save you now," He said after they had gone, "We've finally got you in your clutch." He laughed gruffly again. "Do you know who I am Sakura?"
"You're all the same. Dark soldiers." Sakura growled clenching a fist and her green eyes shone angrily.
The man threw his head back and laughed. He then grabbed Sakura roughly on the arm and dragged her to her feet. Sakura couldn't help but let a scream of pain escape. The man forced her to her feet and with another hand ripped off the black cloth that covered his features. "I am a dark soldier." He said proudly, "But I'm also the one who killed Syaoran Li."
Sakura's eyes widened. She looked at him with shocked hatred.
"That's right." The dark warrior hissed in her face, "I killed your beloved wolf.... the Li clan leader. The father of your unborn child." The man laughed a roaring, terrible laugh and looked at her with a prideful gleam in his eyes, "It has what made me the leader of leaders in the dark clan. Its what got me title and power. And now, I'll be famed even more for being the one to kill Sakura Kinomoto...and her child." His crazed laugh echoed in the cave. And then he stopped laughing. He caught the expression on Sakura's face. He stopped to stare, shocked.
She was smiling. And the smile scared him. "What are you smiling for?" He demanded, "Your death day has come. Do you find your own demise amusing? You have lost! Darkness has won!"
Sakura smiled without a single hint of fear in her eyes, "You're the one that should be scared." She said quietly, "In fact, I think you are scared."
"What are you talking about?" The dark warrior narrowed his eyes dangerously, his face just inches from hers.
"You're scared because you know the prophesy. Your scared because you know fates can never be tampered with. And you know, that my child will destroy you all." She looked straight into his eyes, "He'll be your end."
The dark warrior seemed to waver for a moment but in the next second his uncertainty vanished. "Me? Scared? HA! I'm the strongest of dark clan leaders and I fear no one. Certainly not a helpless unborn child!" he paused for a moment and the continued, "Now, don't try to intimidate me anymore Sakura Kinomoto. Your end has come." He drew back a little and unsheathed a small dagger from his belt.
Sakura backed away from him.
"Its such a pity I have to kill you. I would have kept a pretty girl like you for myself if you weren't carrying that bloody child. I'm not scared, as you say for I fear no one. But I know enough magic that I know I must take precautions." The man grinned evilly and the knife gleamed in the torch light. "You can't get away pretty Sakura." He backed her into the cave wall.
Sakura's big green eyes stared at him with a look that took him aback. She didn't look scared.... she didn't look sacred at all! But how could this be?! That same look.... it had haunted him... He recognized that look. Syaoran Li had give him that same look before he had killed him. They had that same, confident, strong look shinning in their eyes. And that look made his very soul shiver. Like he was missing something.... "You..." He hissed, "You say I'm scared?!" He cried angrily, "Well we'll see about that..." He forced a harsh laugh, "That child you're carrying.... you say he'll be my end? Well how can he be my end, when he's dead?"
The dagger glistened for a moment in the light and then he plunged it with all his strength forward at her belly.
The moment seemed unreal to Sakura.... almost in slow motion. In that moment everything seem to become blurry.
No, her thoughts echoed in her head as she watched the deadly blade come toward her, This can't be the end.
And then she felt a warm energy rise from her belly...... the child. She could feel magic. The child's magic. It felt warm and powerful.
And then in the next moment, she was no longer in the cave.
The dark warrior stared. He was stunned by what had happened. His hand had hit mid air. His blade was gone. There had been a blinding flash of light. He blinked. She was gone. "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" He screamed in a terrible rage that shook the very depths of the cave.
-100 miles away in a rural village-
The mountain backland villages of china didn't see many unusual things. Once in a while they might spot a panda or two, or maybe a bangle tiger in the forest, but certainly never anything...supernatural.
A group of children were playing ball outside their rickety grass huts and wooden homes that were built in long rectangular rows. Their parents were working in the fields. It was a day like any other.
"Hey Chong! Get the ball!" His friends were shouting to him.
The little boy ran down the dirt path after the colorful rubber ball. "I got it!" he shouted to his friends. Just as he set his hand on the ball a great, sparkling flash of white and pale pink light blazed before him. He stumbled backwards and fell down, shielding his eyes with his arm and staring in awe at the sparkling energy before him. And then the light faded and the dust cleared.
The little boy coughed and stared. There was a young girl doubled up on the ground where the light had been. She looked deathly pale and seemed to be in great pain. He rubbed his eyes.... was he seeing things?!
"Hey Chong what are you-" his friends came running and paused when they saw the pretty girl, "Whose that Chong?" they asked.
"I- She-...I" Chong couldn't find the words to describe what had just happened, he just stared in awe.
"Hey lady, are you alright?" one child ventured forward and peeked cautiously over the shoulder of the girl laying motionless on the ground. Another child bravely reached out to gingerly shake her shoulder.
The girl took in a sharp breath and flipped herself over. All the children gasped. Some screamed and covered their eyes. She was bleeding. She had a dagger stabbed deeply in her stomach right above her budging belly.
"Go get mother and father!" Some older kids who got to their senses and ordered some other children running off to the fields to find an adult. Soon some came running in from the field.
"Give her room!" One lady called and another ushered the younger kids into the house.
"Doctor Tai, take a look at her will you?" One man called as another hurried forward. A small circle of people begin to form around the girl. She was deathly pale and covering the puncture with one hand and her breath was coming shakier and shakier. The blood was beginning to spill over...
"Miss can you hear me?" The doctor asked bending over the girl and checking her eyes to make sure she was conscious, "Miss?"
The girl swallowed with great difficulty, "Please..." She whispered in a barely audible voice, "Please...save my child..." She coughed up some blood and reached out and grabbed the doctor's hand.
The doctor stared and then slipped a hand over her belly. His eyes widened. "We've got to get this girl inside! She's going into labor!"
The girl looked like she was coming in and out of consciousness now..... she felt her baby kicking...fighting to be born...to live.... She whispered sadly, "I'm sorry my child...i won't be able to take care of you..... but i still love you and perhaps some ay we'll meet again...." She felt her breath leaving her body slower and slower. She could barely make out what was happening around her.......
She made the greatest effort, all her last energy to pull out her last words, "Hope," She said in a hushed voice, "never dies. Syaoran...... I'm coming to be with you." her lips formed a smile.
And then her spirit left her body and drifted up into the heavens to join her beloved in the stars.
|Owari prologue|
Author's note: Wow...that sounds more like an ending than a beginning doesn't it? ^^;; but it doesn't end there! Its just the beginning! As you can probably tell now this story isn't going to be all fluff and bubbles. It sounds a little semi-dark/angst at the moment, but that's not where the entire plot is going to be headed. I'm hoping to add lots of twists and turns into the story so stayed tuned.
So... how can the story continue when our heros Sakura and Syaoran are dead..? Well there'll be a new generation of magicians of course! ^^ Keep reading to find out....
Comments and suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks ^^
~Miracle-chan