A/N :This story has a similarity with CCS or Card Captor Sakura. The Chara and storyline would be slightly different, the similarities that are taken are : the using of Clow Reed's and some other name and the Cards. Oh and I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura, just hoping to.
And I'm a newbie in this so please bear with my horrible grammar, Reviews are always welcome !
CHAPTER 1: THE BOOK OF CARDS
The birds were chirping happily, the sun shone brightly, and the sky was clear blue as I woke up. I yawned and stretched my hands up,'What a great day', I thought. I shall introduce myself. My name is Igarashi Kiriiga, I have my father, one elder brother, and one nanny who takes care of me. My mother passed away when I was three, so father appointed a nanny to take care of me when he's working. Today and the rest of the month's going to be summer holiday and we all have decide to visit our summer house outside of town, we reached here just yesterday and we're going to spend a week here, it's going to be another summer to remember.
I got out of bed and heads towards my bathroom, I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then went to change my clothes. Soon my brother Hibari knocked on my door, "Oi ! Breakfast's ready!" He shouted.
"Coming !" I replied and rushed out of the room and down to the dining room. My father is already seated and brother sat opposite him, "Good morning father, nii-chan" I said before taking my seat beside my brother. The breakfast is already laid on the table then my nanny who-accompanied us in this trip-came in bringing 3 glasses of orange juice and placed each beside our plates and excused herself. We all started to eat after saying "Itadakimasu".
I started on the toast and spread the jam on the top when my father asked, "Did you have a nice sleep last night Kiriiga-chan ? Hibari-kun ?". We both nodded and he continued, "What are you planning to do this afternoon?". "I'm going to the river to catch some fish." Hibari said after some thought. Realizing it was my turn I said, "I'm just going to take a walk around the forest, then if nii-chan is still fishing, I might join." My father nodded as Hibari choked on his toast, he immediately reached for his juice and gulped down a few mouthful and turned to me. "You're going to join me ?" he asked with a frown. I nodded and he continued, "Are you sure ? You might fall into the river and chase away all the fish than helping me catch any." he said with his annoying little tone.
"Wha- ? I wouldn't fall into the river !" I argued.
"Yeah, that's what you said last summer too. And guess what ? You did fall in the river."
"That was because I tripped !"
"And you might trip again."
"Will not!"
"Will to."
"Will not!"
"Will to."
Then father interrupted. "Alright you two. Hibari, let Kiriiga join you, she will definitely watch her step this time. Won't you ?" he asked turning to me. I nodded in approval, and my brother let it go.
After breakfast, father went to his room to finish some work, he has brought along with him. Father is the Director of the Igarashi Company that has been passed down from generation to generation. Our company runs in the education and business trait which is doing very well. Brother went to prepare his fishing gear that is kept in the store room, and I went to the back garden to pick some flowers. Mother used to love flowers and that's why the back garden is filled with all kinds of flower; gardenia, tulip, rose, hyacinth, and many more. After a while, I heard my brother's footstep on the porch, "I'll be going now." He said. Then he walked to where I was and said, "Be careful in the woods." in a very soft tone. I nodded and he went back to his road. Looking at the flowers I picked, I think it's enough for now and went in.
I searched for a small vase that would hold my flowers and place it beside my mother's picture. I stared at the picture for a few long while. My mother had long curly black hair, the same as Hibari's and I have my father's light brown almost blonde hair but I had my mother's green eyes and face. Then I lifted my gaze from the photo to the outside and it seemed like the sun had let down bit on it's heat, I skipped to my room, grabed my hat and skipped to my father's room. "Father, I'll be going on my walk now." I informed him, he looked up from his papers and gave me a smile, "Okay, don't wonder off too far and be careful." he said. I gave him my smile and closed the door to his bedroom and skipped downstairs. I informed my nanny (her name's Makashita Nanami by the way) and started my walk.
The suns heat was penetrated by the thick leaves of the great big trees, giving a cooling effect from the shadows. As I step through the forest, I can hear birds singing their song happily, winds blowing on the branches and leaves making a soft rustle sound, I feel complete peace in here. I kept walking and walking when I came across a footpath, 'I don't remember having a footpath here. Strange...' I thought.
Curious I followed the path, at the end it leads towards a clearing, in the clearing stood an old shed, I waited for sounds , but I heard nothing other than bird songs and leaves rustling. I walked towards the door of the shed and slowly turned the doorknob. To my surprise it opened, the door revealed the inside and I saw vases, paintings, scrolls and other stuff I don't recognize, they were all covered in dust and spiderwebs. I stepped in and took a more detailed look, these are all old, very old, I wonder who left them here. Suddenly I heard a meow from between the vases, I jumped and gasped in surprise. Then a black tabby cat walked out from between the vases, from the looks of it, it's probably a young adult, from it's well combed fur, it doesn't seem stray and there's a collar on it's neck. I cooed for it to come and when it did, I rubbed behind it's ears and picked it up, seemed liked it's a male. "Hello there, why are you here ? Are you lost?" I asked as I Kept on rubbing, he purred in delight in my touch. I thought he might stay long that way, but he didn't. Like being struck by lightning, he jerked up from my arms and hopped down to the floor and walked to the stairs blocked by a stack of card boards that looked heavy.
I was hesitant to continue, but the cat kept staring at me, as if encouraging me to go on, so I took a gulp and followed the cat as it ascended the stairs. The cat led me to the attic as we climbed a few stack of stairs, I stared around at the almost empty attic except the wooden table with something on top of it, 'A book ?' I thought. A strong gust of wind suddenly blew in from the open window, I covered my face with both my hands from the wind and when I placed down my hands I saw that the wind had blown open the book and scattered cards into the air. "Wait, cards ? Where did they come from?" I asked myself. The cards that were floating slowly floats down, one landed near my feet and I picked it up, the side I saw was a picture of the moon, sun, and star in a unique pattern, I flipped the card and this side shows a painting of a woman with long hair that separates to the front, her face was peaceful with both her eyes closed and something crown like in the form of wings, her hands were crossed above crowning her face and wings like of moth covers her body from shoulder to toe, below the picture were two words, "THE WINDY". I said the words in a small whisper, when suddenly I heard somebody said, "Yes" very softly right beside my ears. I shook my head and went on to pick the next fallen card, the front was the same pattern I saw but the picture this time was different. It's another women also with long hair, but she was wearing some kind of a hat covering her head till her eyes, the hat bears a rock I guess as an emerald, the woman also wears earrings, some sort of camisole, and a dress that wraps her figure perfectly, below the picture are also words, "THE DREAM", I don't know why I did it but I said the words again and this time I heard someone said "My mistress called" in a somewhat excited tone. I snapped and swing my head left and right hoping to find somebody playing pranks with me, but still nobody. My heart was pumping crazily, 'What's all this about?' I thought.
I know I should have just stop and forget about the cards and get out of there immediately, but something or someone inside of me managed to hold my intentions and kept me going on. So I braced myself and went towards the third card. This time the card showed the picture first. It shows a boy who has flame as hair and his ears were long and pointy lie an elf's, he wore a crown of ruby and had a pair of wings, by every tip of the feathers were flame and the wings were placed covering his body. Below were written the words "THE FIREY". I spoke the words with trembling lips, this time I did not hear anything but felt something, it was heat, heat by my palms and my entire body but it didn't burn. It was just there. Feeling obvious of the other side, I moved on. It took a few steps to reach it, closing the space among me and the table without me realizing. The card's picture was faced down and I turned it over, this time I was sweating.
The picture was a sword. A SWORD. The sword was strangled in chains, holding it in place, the handle was of a french sword and the hilt has a red shining ruby engraved in it, a small pair of wings was the form of the hilt. Heck ! When I said "THE FIREY" I felt heat, what the heck would happen if I said "THE SWORD"? I was obviously sure that my heart and body would understand what my mind wanted, but no. They didn't understand and made me say the words, I waited for pain to engulf me and closed my eyes, but nothing. So I opened my eyes and saw the sword in front of me, it was almost transparent but it was surely the sword, between seconds, the sword vanish with a whoosh. I stood there dumbfounded. Too many things had happened in a short time, and my brain was not cooperating with the speed of it. My breath was unstable and my heart was pumping like after being shot with a syringe of 10ml of adrenaline, I heaved and puffed for a few times to calm both my breathing and my heart. When it slowed to a pace I think enough, I JUST have to see the book on the table and froze.
The book is now opened because of the wind, but that wasn't the reason why I froze, it was the content. The first part of the book were pages like any other NORMAL books, but this book is not normal when you see the second part of the book. It was a slot, there was a space inside the book, and in the slot were cards. The exact same pattern of cards with the ones I was holding.
'It must be the rest of the deck.' I thought, and slid the cards I was holding, in the slot.
'Huh, perfect fit.' I thought again.
Then I wondered, would my heart and body make me read all of them here ? Who knows what kind of other cards there are in there. But to heaven's will a lightning rumbled in the sky, breaking the silence. I looked up from the book to the window, dark clouds were closing in a quick pace, 'Rain' I thought. 'A nasty huge rain' I decided.
I was preparing to speed straight home when I thought of the book, the shed I'm in looks pretty strong from the outside, but it sure was creaking when I stepped in. And the roof too, I swear I saw some cracks... Then the thought JUST have to come to my mind. "No way I'm taking it with me. No way." I muttered to myself. Then the lightning rumbled again, and I had no choice, it's not like I have a grudge with the book till I'm willing to leave it in a broken shed and let it rained on, no, al least not YET. It did almost scared the wits out of me. But still, I had absolutely NO choice. As small rain drops started to fall on the roof, I immediately closed the book and shove it to my arms and ran downstairs towards the door. When I reached it was raining heavier, and I don't want to risk the book wet, and I had no idea why I don't. Luckily, I remembered my parka that I had tied to my waist before I got out, I untied it and shoved my arms in the sleeves, and pulled up the zipper half way and put the book in and lastly lifted my hood. I took one long breath and ran into the rain.
The path to my home was not muddy yet and I had an almost smooth run, ignoring the fact I tripped and almost fell a few times. I got to my porch just as the rain started to pour it's mighty content. I wiped some wetness away from my parka-which was useless, because it was totally soaked- and went in the house, I left my shoes by the front deck, as it is dirty and soon after Nanami's rushed footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, I waited for her figure and lecture about getting-sick-by-rain to pop up. It didn't take long at all. As soon as she saw my wet self, the lecture began at once and didn't pause even as she went to fetch a dry towel, I slid off my parka's hood and waited, my hair was slightly wet but the middle part of my body was dry, including the book. Nanami came back a second later and began to wipe my hair, still continuing her lecture. "Take off your parka." she commanded suddenly. I looked up at her and remembered the book, 'How am I gonna explain to her about the book?'. I hesitated and Nanami repeated, "Come on, take off your parka. You'll catch a cold if you wear wet clothes." She said reaching my zipper, but I declined her hand.
"Umm, it's alright, I'll take it off in my room, then I'll bring it down for you."
"No need, just-...Hey !"
Without waiting for her to say more, I ran up the stairs and slipped into my room, I opened the zipper halfway down and took the book out slowly, I held it in my hands. The book was of an eternal antique, though the covers were slightly faded, but the book is morely fine on the outside. The front cover had a rectangular shape with no pictures, and below the rectangular were words, "THE CLOW CARD" it said. Suddenly she heard a knock from her window and she saw the black cat just now from the shed. She plopped the book on her table and walked over to the window and opened the window, the cat jumped in the room and I closed the window. The cat meowed towards me as a thanks and began liking itself on my bed. "Hey, you're not wet." I said realizing that the cat was perfectly dry, I was glad because that means my bed's not going to be dirty, and also surprised. I looked out of the window, it was still raining, heavily now, how come the cat's not wet ? Then a knock came but this time it came from the door, I panicked and beginning to plunder. First I hid the book under my pillow and secured it, but before I managed to do the second thing on my mind -which is making an excuse about the cat- the door opened, and then Nanami appeared. She saw the cat, she gasped and had her hand cover her mouth. "Where did it come from ?"
"I...that...umm..." I strained to find an excuse, and got one. "I found him when I was taking my walk, an then the sky started to rumble...and...I picked him up and ran back home..." I stole a glance at Nanami who was now walking slowly towards the cat, as she got closer, the cat looked up at Nanami and meowed. "Aww...it's soo cute...it was right of you to protect the lil' pussy from the rain." she said as she picked the cat and rubbed behind it's ears. I hid my sigh of relief with a nod, it's lucky that Nanami adore cats. "There's a collar Kiriiga, maybe it's lost...strange, there's nothing attached to the collar, how are we going to find it's owner." Nanami realized.
'The word 'strange' I've definitely encountered this word a lot of time today.' I thought, then Nanami said again, "Let's bring it down for a drink, and let's get you something warm. But first change out of your wet clothes, please." And I realized, the shirt I was wearing might not be too wet, but my trousers were obviously soaked. So I went to the closet and picked out my favorite green turtleneck shirt and a brown khaki pants and went to change. When I finished, Nanami with the cat and I went downstairs, not forgetting my wet parka though. As I settled down in one of the chairs with a cup of hot chocolate and the cat with warm milk, the front door opened and closed, Hibari had just came back and totally soaked from head to toe. He was muttering and grumbling to himself while wiping away water from his face, then he saw me, "Guess someone's lucky and away from the rain huh?" he said to me. "I wasn't all that lucky, I also got wet fro the rain but I reached here earlier than you did." I said and sipped my drink, he shrugged and said again, "Mind getting me a towel or you want me to freeze here ?" This time I shrugged and stood up and went to the laundry room, I found a new dry towel and I grabbed it then went over to the front door and draped it on my brother's head as he bent down, just then Nanami came down with a bunch of clothes she managed to save before the rain. She gasped and almost dropped the laundry basket, "Oh my gosh Hibari-kun ! You're all wet !" she exclaimed. Hibari could only sigh and whispered to me, "I'm gonna get the long version of her getting-sick-by-rain lecture, aren't I ?" I nodded as I hid a smile. Then, may the lecture begin...