Guardian of Clow
Chapter One: A Dream
by IsabelleRose
It was a beautiful spring morning. The cherry trees were frothy with blossoms and the grass swayed gently in the breeze. Sakura Kinomoto gazed longingly out the window of her dormitory, lost within the deep recesses of her troubled mind.
"Sakura!" a serene voice called from behind her. Sakura turned to face her friend, a sad smile playing across her lips. Tomoyo frowned in response. "Sakura, that look simply will not do!" she insisted.
"I'm sorry, Tomoyo," she replaced the sad smile with a cheerful one. Tomoyo clasped her friend's hand and tugged her away from the window, unconvinced.
"Did you have the dream again?" Tomoyo asked. Sakura looked around, a little embarassed about her nightmare. The dormitory was empty since breakfast was still being served in the dining hall. She nodded in response to the question and sighed.
A booming voice permeated the darkness. There was no way to decipher the words, but the darkness became more pressing as they were spoken.
A chill ran down Sakura's back at the thought. She lifted her eyes to meet Tomoyo's and forced down every tear that threatened to spill forth.
"I don't understand the language he's speaking," Sakura explained dismally, "But I know that he's telling me something important." She shook her head. How could she dream up a language foreign to herself? Footsteps in the doorway hindered further discussion. The other girls were returning from breakfast and would soon be chattering up a storm as they prepared for the day's activities.
The students of Yujiro Academy were a mixed group of students, coming from many different countries. Sakura had been a student there for three years. She and Tomoyo had been assigned bunkmates her first semester and became immediately inseperable. Tomoyo, the heir to a wealthy corporation run by her mother, had been enrolled in The Academy in order to broaden her cross-cultural understandings. Sakura, on the other hand, had no family. She had been sent to the boarding school by her distant grandparents who were too ill to take care of her themselves.
The Academy housed both male and female students. Their dormitories existed in the two separate towers that rose an additional seven stories from the main building. Each grade, 6-12, had their own floor in their tower. Sakura's dormitory was on the top floor of the girl's tower, despite being in her eleventh year of school and a sixth year student by the Academy classification.
Each dormitory consisted of a carpeted commons with a fireplace, large windows, tables for school work, and couches for comfort. Rich tapestries hung on the walls, each representing an important portion of Yujiro Academy history. Past the commons were the washrooms, showers to the left, toilets to the right. Ignoring the washroom doors, one could follow the hallway straight to the large wooden door that opened into the bunks. The large rectangular room housed ten bunkbeds in rows of five, lining the two walls. Dark wood floors gleamed brightly beneath the windows framed in rich drapes. A bureau stood at the end of each bunk, and two chests slid beneath the bottom bunk. Small, worn rugs were situated next to the bunks, but the main floor was completely bare. Large, ugly chandeliers ran down the center of the room. The students were responsible for cleaning their space every Saturday and the chandeliers were by far the most cumbersome to clean.
Tomoyo and Sakura's bunk was nearest to the door on the left side of the room. It made it more difficult to sleep at night because of the constant coming and going of the other girls for the restroom or a late night snack. The thick curtains that encased the beds did nothing to damper the noise, especially for Sakura who was a light sleeper. This was a minor drawback, the most part, she loved her life at the Academy, where she was surrounded by friends.
"Good morning, Sakura, Tomoyo!" Rika called as she came dashing into the room. "You left breakfast rather suddenly, is something wrong?"
Sakura smiled happily at her concerned friend, shaking her head.
"No, I just wanted to get a head start on our chores," she explained, holding aloft the polishing rag that she used for the bunk. Rika smiled widely in return.
"I was worried that you weren't your cheerful self! I'm glad everything's alright." She left them quickly to retrieve more cleaning supplies from the closet. Sakura suppressed a sigh as she began polishing the posts of their bed.
The first task was to dust and polish the chandeliers so that the floor wouldn't be dirtied again by the falling debris. Two girls, Marie and Yin, climbed the ladder to lower the chandeliers to the floor for proper cleaning. Many of the other girls immediately set upon the lowered chandeliers with rags and soapy water. The others turned toward the dormitory windows or polishing the bunks.
When the chandeliers had been raised again, Tomoyo helped Chiharu in sweeping the floor. Everyone pulled their trunks out and placed them on the bottom bunks so the two could sweep beneath the beds. They opened the windows and draped the rugs over the window sills. After the floors had been thoroughly swept, the vacuum was brought out to cover the area again. Next came the mops and scrub brushes as one of the girls volunteered to take the rugs into the commons to vacuum.
"A song!" cried Annabel as she washed a window. There were a few giggles at her enthusiasm, but Tomoyo obliged her in beginning one of their acappella choir tunes.
"Oh, my love's like a red, red rose..." she sang, as the song continued, the other girls joined her with their melody and harmony parts. Sakura felt a tangible difference in the atmosphere as music filled the room. She smiled, putting the dream out of her mind completely.
Next, the girls tackled the washrooms, giggling at the way their voices echoed when they sang in the tiled rooms. Finally, they made their way to the commons, and finished up their cleaning there.
"Who's ready to tackle the main building?" Annabel asked with a wicked grin. The girls groaned unanimously.
"Alright," Naoko agreed bravely. "What's our assignment this week?"
Annabel produced a paper from her pocket with a flourish. She uncreased it carefully, making the most of her temporary spotlight. Sakura and Tomoyo exchanged a glance, giggling. Annabel winked at them but Chiharu rolled her eyes.
"Girls, Year Six, Saturday, March 10th," Annabel read slowly. "Stairs, Front Hall, First Floor Bathroom."
"Stairs?" Yin exclaimed. "We had the stairs last week!"
"It's easiest for us because we're on the top floor," Tomoyo reasoned. Yin hung her head in defeat.
"Let's get started," Sakura encouraged cheerfully. "Hayaku!"
The girls gathered their supplies and stepped out onto the landing, the long, carpeted staircase stretching out before them. Annabel divied up the work, assigning some girls to the banister, some to the stairs themselves. Sakura polished the railing ferverently, glad that the rails at the top of the stairs weren't as ornate as the ones at the bottom. As she reached the landing of the seventh floor, the fifth year girls came pouring out.
"Good morning!" Sakura called. One of the girls turned to smile at her.
"Good morning, Sakura," replied the brunette, Alice. "You've got the stairs again this week?"
"Mhmm," Sakura nodded. "You?"
"We have the Great Hall," Alice revealed with a sigh. Great Hall was the largest room in the Academy, the place where everyone dined and the location of all school-wide gatherings.
"Ah, but it's almost lunch time!" Sakura cried, glancing at her watch. Alice nodded.
"We're going to start with the parlor," Alice explained.
"Do your best!" Sakura cheered. She returned to polishing the rails of the bannister. The fifth year girls went clattering down the stairs, eager to get their chores out of the way.
Everyone was glad when the lunch bell rang mercifully from the bell tower. The stairs were crowded with students that were all talking and laughing. Tomoyo caught Sakura's hand as she began her descent from the fifth floor.
"How is the polishing going, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked cheerily. Sakura couldn't help smiling in return.
"I've made it to the fifth floor with Rika, Marie, and Yin. How are the others doing?"
"We borrowed vaccuums from the other dormitories, so the stairs should be done soon. The other polishers made it up to the third floor. After lunch you just have the fouth floor to polish, then we can move on to the Front Hall."
"I'm glad. I'm starving from all this polishing!" Tomoyo nodded in agreement and they smiled at one another.
"What are your plans for after dinner," Tomoyo asked Sakura.
"I still have some studying to do for Terada-sensei's class," Sakura confessed. Marie appeared next to them.
"Mr. Terada's class? Me too. Do you want to meet in the library to study, then?" she offered.
"Sure! Tomoyo?"
"I'll come, too," Tomoyo agreed.
"Later, then!" Marie called, bolting down the stairs ahead of them.
"Jaa!" Sakura called. Tomoyo giggled.
"Sakura-chan, your english is very good," she pointed out. "But you still speak in Japanese a lot."
"I can't help it," Sakura grinned. It had been three years since she'd seen Japan, but she couldn't forget her homeland or the life that she'd lived before attending Yujiro Academy.
"Despite being a school in England, Yujiro Academy has a high concentration of Japanese students because its founder was Japanese," Tomoyo mused. "So it was much easier for you and I to adapt to the environment here and learn English. Now English isn't a problem at all, but it's nice to have friends who still speak Japanese."
"Mhmm," Sakura agreed. They reached the marble floor of the First Hall and all thoughts turned to lunch.
The library was quiet when the three girls met up after a filling dinner, many hours later- their tiring chores complete. Sakura lead the way through the towering bookshelves towards a comfortable seating area.
"Let's start with the first section we learned," Marie suggested, opening her math textbook to the beginning of the chapter they were studying. Together, they carefully plodded through the equations and concepts that were troubling them. Their work was productive until Marie's eyes glazed over, as if hypnotized.
"Marie-san," Tomoyo called, interupting their classmate from her daydream. Marie blushed.
"S-sorry," she mumbled. Sakura leaned forward knowingly to see who Marie had been fantasizing about.
"Ahh, Colin-kun," Sakura teased. "Perhaps he can help us with this problem."
"No, no!" Marie protested, blushing furiously. "Don't call him over!"
Colin, noticing the ruckus that the girls were causing, glanced at them. He smiled and waved his hand good-naturedly when he observed them looking his way. Marie was paralyzed, but Sakura waved back cheerily. Colin took it as an invitation to join them, so he picked up his books and moved to their table.
"Hi!" he greeted. Tomoyo and Sakura smiled welcomingly at him, but Marie just gawked. "What's up?" he asked.
"We're studying for Terada-sensei's test," Sakura explained. Colin looked slightly puzzled.
"Sensei?" he questioned. "I know I've heard it a few times, but...."
"Oh, sorry! It means teacher," Sakura corrected with a laugh, scratching the back of her head in embarassment.
"Gotcha," Colin understood.
"You're from America, right?" Tomoyo asked. "You're fairly new, aren't you?"
"Yeah, this was my first semester. This school is really cool, though."
"Would you like to study with us?" Tomoyo offered, always welcoming. Colin nodded and sat down next to Marie. Tomoyo and Sakura exchanged a mischevious look.
"What are you working on?" Colin asked. Tomoyo nudged Marie under the table. Marie jumped.
"Uh, um, this one!" she told him, pointing vigorously at the problem they had been working on in the book. Colin leaned closer to her to better see it.
"Sakura, didn't you want to check out a new book?" Tomoyo suddenly inquired.
"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Sakura said, catching on. "We'll be right back!"
The two friends stood, hurrying away from the flustered Marie before she could manage any protests. They made a sharp left into the reference section, disappearing from sight.
"Aren't those reference books?" Colin wondered aloud.
"Um, maybe they're taking a short cut to the how-to section?" Marie offered, desperately trying to cover their obvious motive. Colin seemed to accept that answer as he turned back towards his classmate.
"We have a few classes together, don't we?"
"A few, yes," Marie agreed, trying not to meet his eyes.
"It's too bad we hadn't really talked before now," he lamented.
"Why's that?" she asked, taken aback. He smiled at her disarmingly.
"You're very pretty."
"I-I don't think so," Marie blushed.
"Hmm," he mused, smiling at her shyness. "Can I help you with this problem?"
Sakura and Tomoyo peered between the shelves at the scene unfolding. Tomoyo gave a small cheer. They turned to congratulate one another.
"Tomoyo, you're so good at matchmaking!" Sakura praised in a whisper.
"It helps that your cheerfulness lightens the situation."
"Mhmm, but you're so kind, Tomoyo. You're always watching out for everybody else."
They turned back to look between the books at the developing romance.
"Then you multiply here," Colin explained, carefully. Marie was listening with all of her power. Colin kept smiling at Marie and she kept blushing. Tomoyo and Sakura watched excitedly as the two worked through a few math problems. Colin smoothly transitioned into small talk, turning away from the book.
"How long have you been here, Marie?"
"Two years. Do you like it here?"
"I love it. It's incredible. Except Saturdays. Why do we have to clean the school?"
"It's part of the discipline."
Something caught Sakura's attention and she tore her eyes from the scene to investigate. A book? she thought, bewildered. How did a single book catch my eye? She pulled the book in question from the shelf, gaining Tomoyo's attention. The book had no title and no distinctive qualities. It was a plain book with a red leather cover, apparently quite old, too.
"Is that a reference book?" Tomoyo asked. Sakura wondered the same thing as she turned the small object over in her hands. She was still trying to figure out how the book had managed to grab her attention from where it had been wedged on the shelf. Finally, she opened it. As the cover folded back, a blast of bone-seeping cold assaulted her. She snapped her eyes shut in complete shock. As the wave of numbing air enveloped her, she pried her eyes open again. The library was gone. Sakura stood in complete darkness, unable to see anything at all. She gasped for breath but her lungs couldn't expand. In a panic, she tried to scream, but no sound came forth. Trapped in a vacuum, helpless.
'Why have you come?' The darkness rippled at the sound.
'Why have you come?' the voice boomed ominously. Sakura recognized that voice immediately. It was the voice from her dream, although not in the foreign language. She struggled for an answer, but couldn't make a sound, couldn't even part her lips.
'You don't know?' the voice answered for her. Sakura concentrated all of her effort on the muscles that controlled her neck, sweat beading on her brow from the effort, despite the cold. She was able to move her head in the slightest nod.
'Then go,' the voice dismissed sneeringly.
Sakura gasped in breath as the library jumped back into place. Tomoyo stood staring at her in a panic, trying to tear the book from Sakura's hands. They blinked at one another in surprise before the book went flying out of Sakura's hands and the two of them fell on their bottoms quite painfully.
"Tomoyo!" Sakura exclaimed. She moved quickly to her friend's side before the book could take her, too. Tomoyo glanced down at the open pages in confusion, but nothing happened.
"Sakura, what language is this?" She offered the book back to Sakura. Sakura took an involuntary step backwards, not wanting to get sucked back in. "Sakura?"
"To-Tomoyo, are you alright?"
"Yes, of course I'm alright! What's the matter? What just happened?" Sakura stared at her friend, unable to find words. Had she imagined it? Had she fainted?
"Is something wrong?" Ms. Meric, the librarian, asked accusingly. The two girls whirled about in surprise. "Why are you making so much noise?"
"Gomenasai!" Sakura exclaimed, bowing low in apology. The English librarian raised an eyebrow. "I was feeling suddenly faint and my friend was concerned about me. I'm fine now, we're fine!"
"You should go to the infirmary if you're ill," Ms. Meric advised, softening a little.
"Thank you, I will, we will. Come on, Tomoyo, let's get our stuff," Sakura blathered nervously. She bolted over to the table where Colin and Marie still sat socializing. "I have to go, I just remembered, a phone call, see you!" She gathered all of her books into her arms and sprinted out of the library.
"Don't run!" Ms. Meric called after her, but she was already gone. Tomoyo chased after her friend, leaving the red book on the floor, forgotten.
"Sorry, Sakura wasn't feeling well," Tomoyo explained hurriedly to Colin and Marie, shuffling her books into her bag as quickly as she could and following the path her friend had taken.
"I thought she said she had to make a phone call," Colin said to Marie, who was just as confused as he was.
Sakura had made it up two flights of stairs by the time Tomoyo emerged from the library.
"Sakura, wait up!" Tomoyo called. Sakura halted abruptly. For a moment, she waited for her friend, but her heart was pounding frantically and she couldn't stand still. Instead, she turned and raced back down the stairs towards her best friend, determined to drag her quickly back up.
"I'm sorry, Tomoyo, I didn't mean to worry you."
"Are you alright?"
"Mhmm," Sakura nodded, taking Tomoyo's hand and leading her up the staircase rapidly. "I just need to visit the infirmary."
"So you really were just faint?" Tomoyo asked, trying to slow her friend down. Sakura just nodded as they continued their ascent.
The infirmary was located on the third floor. It was the only area of the school that the students were not responsible for cleaning. Yujiro Academy staffed four nurses. In special cases, a doctor was called in from town, but under normal circumstances the four nurses were sufficient. Sakura burst through the doors of the infirmary, dragging Tomoyo behind her.
"Sa-Sakura!" Tomoyo gasped, clasping a hand to her chest and trying to catch her breath. The nurse on duty turned his head.
"Touya!" Sakura exclaimed happily.
"Sakura," Touya answered cooly. "What brings you here on a Saturday? Did you pull a muscle scrubbing too hard?"
Sakura's face contorted in anger, and Tomoyo snickered quietly. The bickering was about to begin.
"It's nothing like that!" Sakura defended, stomping her foot.
"Did you eat too much dinner and give yourself a stomach ache, monster?"
"I'm not a monster! You're supposed to be a nurse!"
Touya laughed and ruffled Sakura's shoulder-length hair. She shook him off irritably. Tomoyo giggled, causing Touya to regard her and Sakura to glare at her.
"Sorry," she apologized, "You two act just like a sister and brother would."
"I'd never want to be related to a jerk like him," Sakura growled. "Why isn't Yukito on duty?"
"He must have known we'd have a monster for a patient today," Touya shrugged. Sakura's face reddened. "You act like a ten-year-old sometimes, monster."
"I'm seventeen in less than a month!" she fumed, raising her fist.
"Sakura..." Tomoyo interupted gently. "Are you going to tell him why we came here?"
"Oh, yeah," she recalled, suddenly exhausted. She slumped down into a chair and closed her eyes for a moment, recalling the incident vividly. Why hadn't she been able to breathe? What had really happened? Was it just her dream, again? That voice...
"Well?"
"When we were in the library," Sakura began tiredly, "Everything went black and I couldn't breathe."
Touya was at her side immediately, his mocking expression a stone mask. He checked her pulse, took her blood pressure, and looked for signs of fever. She sat patiently as he shined a small flashlight in her eyes, looked in her ears, and examined her throat.
"Nothing looks abnormal," he said. "Except that your eyes are a little blood shot. Have you been sleeping?"
"She's been having nightmares," Tomoyo spoke up, knowing Sakura would be too embarassed to admit it. Touya didn't say anything for a few moments. He stared thoughtfully at Tomoyo for a little while, turning thoughts over in his head, then he returned his intense gaze to Sakura.
"Get some rest. Those symptoms were probably from exhaustion. If this happens again, come tell me immediately. In the meantime, I'm ordering you straight to bed!" He crossed his arms to indicate that his decision was final.
"It's only 8 o'clock!" Sakura protested. Tomoyo gently tugged her friend towards the door before she got too worked up.
"I'll take care of her!" Tomoyo promised, shoving Sakura out onto the landing and waving goodbye over her shoulder. Touya made a face at Sakura as she looked back at him furiously. He could hear her venting as Tomoyo dragged her up the stairs dutifully.
"Sakura, he knows best, lets just go to bed!"
"He called me a monster! And he made a face at me when he left! You didn't see!"
"He's just being brotherly."
"If this is what having a brother is like, I'm glad I'm an only child!"
Touya sat down on the sofa, smiling to himself at the girl's anger. His smile quickly dissolved as he thought back to Sakura's story. He wasn't truly convinced that she suffered from exhaustion. She had plenty of energy. Something else had caused the sudden illness, if it was illness at all.
"Touya?"
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt. He looked up to find Yukito standing in front of him, their dinners in his hands.
"Oh, you're back already," Touya mumbled, taking the tray from his colleague's hands. "Thanks."
"I saw Sakura and her friend leaving here a little while back, is everything okay?" Yukito asked, taking a seat next to Touya. Touya met his level gaze and sighed. Leave it to Yuki to be right on target.
"She had a fainting spell today," Touya explained.
"A fainting spell?"
"It seems that way.... She said she was in the library and suddenly lost her vision and couldn't breathe. She told me it only lasted for a moment, but it's still a disconcerting occurance."
"What did you tell her?"
"I said it was exhaustion and sent her straight to bed." Yukito nodded knowingly.
"But you're not sure, so you're still worried," he finished for his friend.
"I'm not worried about the little monster, I'm interested from a professional standpoint," Touya defended.
"Itadakimasu!" Yukito smiled and dug into his meal. Touya sighed and began eating, too.
"You're very protective of her," Yukito noted while Touya's mouth was full. He scowled. "Do you think of her like a sister?" Touya chose to ignore the question. They finished their meal in silence, Touya brooding, Yukito smiling.
Sakura lay in her bed on the top bunk with the curtains drawn tightly closed. Tomoyo had told everyone that she wasn't feeling well and not to disturb her, so they'd obliged and kept mostly to the commons. The dormitory was eeriely quiet, with the occasional sound of somebody coming or going.
"Sakura, are you awake?" Tomoyo's voice asked from below. Sakura just stared at the inky ceiling of her bunk, ignoring her friend. She soon heard Tomoyo's retreating footsteps. When the door had closed again, Sakura turned over on her side.
I can't sleep, she thought desperately. I've got too much on my mind. Besides, if I go to sleep I'll just have that dream again.
She sighed softly and rolled over again. Closing her eyes, she imagined the things she would do to Touya if she could get her hands on the bossy nurse right then. She pictured herself pushing him down the staircase from the tenth floor landing and a smile crept up. She imagined sneaking into his apartment and replacing his shampoo with toothpaste and his toothpaste with tabasco sauce. Plot after plot evolved in her head and before she knew it, she was fast asleep....
A creeping darkness enveloped her, catching hold of her limbs and paralyzing her. She fought for air, but nothing came. The darkness tore at her chest, seeking something within her but unable to gain entry.
"Why have you come?" the familiar voice boomed. Sakura strained her neck, trying to see the source of the voice. The darkness pressed in closer. Sakura's eyes widened in fear. A ball of electricity materialized before her, sparking and sizzling. "ANSWER ME!" the voice demanded.
She felt the sound rising in her throat, but her lips refused to part. Her limbs strained against the confines of darkness, but gained no ground. Sakura sensed that the threat in the voice was a very real one, and that whoever was asking her these questions intended to hurt her. Anger boiled up inside of her at the injustice. She'd been trapped here against her will, she had no idea what was going on, and she'd done absolutely nothing wrong. Why was she being punished? The fury pounded inside her head, growing with each moments time, with every outraged thought.
"ANSWER ME!"
"I don't know!" Sakura's voice erupted from her mouth, allowing air into her lungs as it did. A bolt of electricity jumped foward, striking her suddenly. The painful volt left a burn on her forearm. Her entire body ached.
"If you won't use it, I won't let it go to waste," the voice decided. The darkness tightened its hold on her as the ball of electricity moved closer. Sakura struggled with all her might, but couldn't free herself from the troubling grip. "It does no good to resist. It won't hurt for me to take it, so lets make this easy."
"Take what? What are you talking about?" Sakura demanded. The voice didn't answer and the electricity struck her again. She screamed. In the haze of the dream, Sakura realized that whatever this voice intended to take was hers. It belonged to her and he had no right to it. She renewed her efforts to break away from the tangible darkness that bound her.
"Hold still," the voice hissed. Another bolt struck her, but this time it only made her angry.
"Go away!" she cried out. "It's mine. I won't let you have it!"
"You can't use it. It'll go to waste," the voice insisted. Tears sprung to Sakura's eyes as she felt her defenses weakening.
"Daijoubu? Daijoubu, Sakura?"a new voice called distantly. Tomoyo? Tomoyo is worried about me, Sakura thought. She wondered if she would be trapped here permenantly once the voice had claimed whatever it was trying to steal. She didn't want Tomoyo to worry, or for anybody to worry. "Daijoubu," she wanted to tell Tomoyo. "Zettai daijoubu da yo." Suddenly, as the words echoed in her head, they gave her a new determination. Her eyes blazed as she lifted her head.
"It's MINE!" Sakura screamed, lunging in the direction of the demanding voice. A bright light filled the space, banishing the darkness completely. The ball of electricity flickered and shorted out. Sakura suddenly stood freely, her breath coming easily.
"Well played," the voice conceded, suddenly kind. "If it won't be wasted, then I won't try to take it."
"What do you mean? Who are you? What's going on?"
"Good luck. We'll meet again."
A swirl of light and darkness blurred her vision. The presence behind the voice was gone and Sakura was spinning away.
"Sakura! Daijoubu?" Tomoyo was shaking her friend in panic. Sakura opened her eyes and stared up at her friend.
"Tomoyo?" Her friend hugged her tightly, tears soaking Sakura's hair. "Tomoyo, what's wrong?"
"You wouldn't wake up! I came in to check on you and you wouldn't wake up!"
Sakura looked around and realized that they were sitting in the center of the room. She gently pried Tomoyo off of her and rubbed her eyes. Was that a dream?
"Tomoyo, how did I get down here?" Sakura asked, standing shakily and brushing off her nightgown. Tomoyo shook her head.
"I don't know." Tomoyo grasped Sakura's arm and Sakura flinched. "What's wrong?"
Sakura rolled up her sleeve to examine the sensitive area. A large blistering welt had formed. She and Tomoyo both gasped.
"It wasn't a dream!" Sakura realized. "Tomoyo, do you have that book?"
"What book?"
"The book from the library!"
"No, I left it there," Tomoyo answered in confusion. Sakura was running out the door before Tomoyo could speak another word. Once again, Tomoyo was chasing her friend for unknown reasons. As Sakura burst into the commons, the other girls looked up, alarmed.
"Sakura, are you feeling better?"
"Sakura! You're up!"
"Sakura?"
She was already on the landing, dashing down towards the library on the first floor. Their heads turned towards Tomoyo, who came moments later.
"What's going on, Tomoyo?"
"I don't know. Please don't worry," Tomoyo said with a smile before she, too, disappeared. Tomoyo followed Sakura down the long staircase.
"Sakura, the library is closed! It's 11 o'clock on a Saturday night," Tomoyo called. Sakura didn't stop but she slowed her pace enough for Tomoyo to catch up.
"Something is wrong," Sakura told her quietly. "I have to get that book."
When they reached the first floor, Sakura slowed to a near halt. Tomoyo glanced at her uncertainly.
"Why are we stopping?" she asked softly. Sakura put a finger to her lips. It wasn't that they had a curfew, but it was generally expected by the teachers that they would be on their floor at this hour. Sakura was not about to be caught snooping around.
They padded over to the library as softly as possible. Ms. Meric was nowhere in sight, nor was any other adult. Sakura reached for the door with a trembling hand. The handle didn't budge.
"It's locked," she whispered. Tomoyo looked at her desperately.
"You said you had to get the book," Tomoyo reminded Sakura uncertainly.
"I know...." She peered through the windows that framed the doorway, wondering what other method she could use to enter the temple of literature. A few sheets of paper skitted across the floor, but the room was otherwise still. Nobody was there. She watched as one of the papers wrapped around the leg of a chair and fluttered there, momentarily caught. "The windows!"
"What?"
"Those papers! There must be an open window. Come on!"
"Outside?" Tomoyo asked nervously. This part of their adventure was against the rules. The students were not allowed outside the building after dark under any circumstances. Sakura nodded grimly.
"You can stay here," Sakura whispered, clasping her friends hand.
"No, you can't go alone."
They made their way to the nearest side door, avoiding the visibility of the grande entrance doors. Like shadows, they slipped outside and crept through the grass towards the library, barely breathing. Sakura quickly found the open window and hefted herself onto the windowsill. She pushed the window open further and dropped inside. Tomoyo followed somewhat more slowly, being less agile. Sakura waited for her friend to right herself before moving over to the shelf where they had originally found the book. It wasn't there.
"Darn," Sakura muttered, searching the shelves carefully. "She moved it."
"How are we going to find it now?" Tomoyo whispered. Sakura straightened.
"I'm not sure.... It had no title and no author on the outside, so I can't imagine where she'd shelve it."
"What was on the inside?"
"I never saw," Sakura admitted with an uneasy chuckle. She reached back and scratched the back of her head, a nervous habit.
"What should we do?"
"I have to get that book," Sakura reaffirmed. "If I were a librarian, where would I put a book like that?"
"The book cart?" Tomoyo suggested. Sakura nodded, so they moved their search to the circulation desk to shuffle through unshelved books. After a few minutes, Tomoyo looked hopelessly at Sakura.
"It's not here."
"Let me think," Sakura said, closing her eyes and concentrating on all that she could remember of the book. Suddenly, an image sprang into her head of the book in question wedged between The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks in the folktale section.
"Where are the folktales?" Sakura asked.
"Over here," Tomoyo answered, leading Sakura towards the front of the library. They treaded as softly as they could. "Why would the book be here?"
"I just have a feeling," Sakura answered. She wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell Tomoyo. She hoped that finding the book would provide her with some of the answers she needed. She scanned the shelves with anticipation. Her eyes caught on a nondescript blue book.
"Got it!" she exclaimed, extracting it from its new location. The book seemed to glow faintly beneath her fingertips. "Let's go!" she urged, tucking the book under her arm and racing for the window. Tomoyo followed closely. They were almost there when the lights flickered on. The two girls froze, ducking low behind the shelves.
"I don't see anything," a voice carried across to them.
"I heard something," a second voice insisted.
"Shall we investigate?" the first voice asked.
"Might as well," the second agreed.
"Isn't that Touya and Yukito?" Tomoyo whispered to Sakura. Sakura suppressed a groan, but nodded. It sounded a lot like them. If Touya caught her out of bed at this time of night, he'd give her more than an earful.
"We have to get out of here," Sakura whispered back. Tomoyo nodded. Sakura listened carefully to their muffled footsteps. It worked in their favor that the library was very large. She motioned for Tomoyo to follow her, then inched carefully towards the window, her heart pounding in her ears.
"Do you see anything?" came the voice that sounded like Yukito. Touya's voice only grunted in response."Maybe all you heard was the wind."
Sakura cursed Yukito's observational skills. He'd obviously noticed the open window, meaning that using it to leave would end in discovery. She tugged Tomoyo's hand and motioned back towards the circulation desk. She was sure that it had already been searched. Tomoyo squeezed her hand trustingly in return. They edged their way towards the desk. Sakura strained her ears to hear where the search was taking place. They managed to get to the edge of the shelves without detection, but in order to reach the safety of the circulation desk, they had to cross an eight foot gap with no cover.
Sakura looked back at Tomoyo, gauging her friend's courage. Tomoyo nodded, indicating that she was up to the challenge. Sakura straightened, peering between the books to catch a glimpse of the nurses' positions. The silence stretched on, finally satisfied, she tugged Tomoyo's hand and they made a dash for the desk. The friends nearly collapsed when they'd reached it. Dropping instantly back to their knees, they crawled underneath the counter, completely out of sight. They hardly dared to breathe, wondering if they'd been sighted by some unhappy chance.
The minutes passed with agonizing leisure. Finally, Yukito's voice broke the silence again.
"I don't see anything, Touya. Let's head back. It's getting really late."
"Alright."
Their footsteps retreated in the direction of the door. The lights went out again. Tomoyo and Sakura huddled beneath the desk, their eyes adjusting to the sudden darkness. The door clicked shut. Still, they didn't move. Minutes passed.
"I'm sorry, Tomoyo," Sakura sighed, finally. Her eyes became teary. "I could have gotten us into a lot of trouble."
"It's alright, Sakura," Tomoyo assured. "I knew it would be alright because I was with you."
Sakura laughed, the tension broken. Tomoyo always said such embarassing things. They crawled out from under the desk and went straight to the window. They slipped back outside as quickly as they could and ran to the door that they had left unlocked. Once inside, they resecured the bolt and sighed in relief.
The hall was dim, but they were still careful as they crossed to the grande staircase. They didn't run into anyone on their way back to the dormitory. As soon as they were safely inside the now empty commons, Tomoyo turned to Sakura.
"Why did you need this book?"
"I'm not sure," Sakura answered. She held it out in front of them, wondering if she'd be pulled back into darkness as soon as the opened it. Taking a deep breath, she folded back the cover, prepared for the worst. She screwed her eyes shut, but nothing happened. She opened one eye. Tomoyo was looking at her curiously. She opened her other eye and looked down at the book.
"It's empty," Tomoyo said. Sakura looked up at her in surprise.
"No, it's not," Sakura corrected, examining the fine, spindly writing that traced across the page. The lettering was clear enough to see, if a little difficult to read. The two friends looked at one another in confusion.
"What do you see?" Tomoyo asked.
"There's writing here, lots of it," Sakura explained, trying to decipher the first line of the text. "What do you see?"
"Nothing."
"That explains why it went from being in the reference section to the folktale section," Sakura mused. "Maybe everyone sees something different within the pages." Tomoyo clapped her hands excitedly.
"Sakura-chan, if you can see the writing, that means this book was made for your eyes!"
"Tomoyo-chan, I'm not sure that's the case...." Sakura attempted in embarassment. Tomoyo was too delighted to listen. Sakura peered more closely at the writing.
"What does it say?"
"May the powers..." Sakura began with effort,"that govern... this world... accept... their servant... who vows to... protect."
No sooner had the words had been spoken than a golden light burst from the pages of the book and enveloped her. The book rose from her hands, its pages turning frantically in a nonexistant wind. A voice, unlike any that Sakura had ever heard, spoke to her from inside her own head.
'You vow to protect, Chosen One?' the voice asked. Sakura nodded dumbly, unsure of what she was protecting. 'So be it. You are now the official Guardian of Clow.' The light faded away and the levitating book dropped slowly back into the palms of Sakura's hands. Tomoyo stared at her in shock.
"Sakura, what just happened?"
"I was named the Guardian of Clow." Sakura carefully closed the book. A gold emblem had now appeared on the cover. "Can you see this?" she asked Tomoyo, indicating the symbol.
"Yes, that appeared on the floor just now, when you lit up," Tomoyo explained.
"What does this all mean?" Sakura wondered aloud.
"It means I've got a LOT to teach you," the book sighed.
Okay, so this is my very first Cardcaptor Sakura story! I'm very eager to continue it because I have a great many ideas for it. Please review and let me know that you think of the beginning. Did I do alright with Tomoyo and Sakura's characters? What about Yuki and Touya? I'd love to hear your questions, predictions, and/or complaints!
later!
)Izzy(