Disclaimer – I don't own CardCaptors, but the names of the children are my own idea ;D
A/N – Thanks for reading this story
Chapter 2 – The first card
As Rei climbed into bed, she felt her fingers tracing the necklace inside the book that she wearing under her pyjamas. Her eyes were tired and heavy to the point where she couldn't have told you if she had fallen asleep before she suddenly noticed a rumbling noise that was coming from inside of the bedside table.
From the drawer of the table which she had left the pink book in.
With a cold hand, Rei reached out and prodded her brother awake. "Danny…Danny!" she whispered abruptly.
"What?" came his groggy response.
"There's something in the drawer…"
Danny groaned loudly, rolling over to go back to sleep. "Yeah- that pink book."
"Can you please open the drawer? Just to check… What if it's a mouse?" Rei's fingers knotted themselves around her duvet.
"You open it, scaredy cat."
"Please Danny," she pleaded.
With and agitated growl, Danny threw back the covers of his bed and stood up slowly. Rei watched the shadow of her twin open the drawer quickly. She jumped even though nothing happened at first. Then this glowing blue cloud leapt out of the drawer towards her brother, engulfing him in an iced shard.
Rei bite on the side of her pointer finger to stop herself from making any loud noises that might wake up Mika. Her other hand fumbled to switch on the bedside lamp. "Danny?" she whispered once she had calmed down- despite the pounding of her heart. Beneath the frozen ice, she could see that his eyes were shut tight.
"Get back here, Freeze!" a voice snapped. A voice that belonged to a small toy lion with wings who flew out of the drawer. "What? Two kids?"
"What!" Rei squeaked, picking up the book from the drawer and attempting to swat the toy lion that was flying around her frozen twin. "Go away, shoo!"
The lion landed on the table and braced himself against the book that was being swung at him. "Hey- I'll have you know that I am the trainee guardian of the seal, the name's Leo.
"Sssshh! You're a… Talking toy… A talking toy lion…" Rei's eyes narrowed at the little lion. "What did you do to my brother 'Leo'?"
"Well it's simple really." Leo flew towards Danny and knocked on the iced face. "The Freeze card has trapped your brother, but because your brother caught the Freeze, they were both frozen. Quite funny really."
Rei folded her arms. "I'm not seeing the funny side," she whispered quietly. "But what is the Freeze? You called it the Freeze card, what's that?"
Leo was too busy inspecting the frozen Danny, but when he realised what Rei said, he turned to face her, flying closer. "Wait, are you saying that you don't know about the star cards? But you're a Descendant of the Star Cards!" he squeaked in disbelief.
"Well no, this book and the necklace are now mine, but that doesn't make me your descendant…" She pulled out the necklace from under her shirt to show him.
"That's the key of the star cards! Oh man, you're saving my bacon – you just need to..." Leo stopped. "Where are all the other cards? Oh man, Cerberus is going to hunt me down if I don't find them all."
"So are you saying that this key is going to help me save my brother?" Rei asked quietly. "How?"
"Oh it's simple really, you just repeat this incantation." Leo cleared his throat a little. "Key of the star, with powers burning bright, reveal the staff and shine your light. Release… Go on, give it a try … erm, what is your name anyway Descendant?" Leo raised his little eyebrows at Rei.
"Well I'm Rei… Reiko." She smiled weakly.
Leo nodded, urging her to repeat the incantation he had said not moments ago. He watched as Rei repeated the words hesitantly. The key expanded the staff and the wings by the star grew, opening out. The wand floated in front of Rei.
Leo held his hand out with closed eyes. "Key of the seal. This girl will carry out the sacred promise. Her name… is Reiko. I command you to bestow her with your magical powers. Rei, you may take the staff now." He waited for Rei to take hold of the staff before continuing. "I, Leo, apprentice of the seal name Rei a cardcaptor."
The room was filled with an eerie silence, of which Rei was keen not to break.
"What happens now?" Rei asked quietly.
Leo folded his arms. "I can't help you anymore… If you really are meant to be the next cardcaptor, you will need to capture the cards. You have to show me and the cards that you have what it takes to be a cardcaptor."
Rei's mouth dropped open, and she spent at least ten minutes trying to work out what to do. Everything that had just happened in the last twenty minutes or so was something that Rei couldn't understand – none of it made sense. Her mind ran crazy with all these thoughts, none of which were helping her. She held onto the staff tightly in her hands, twisting it a little like she was giving it a Chinese burn.
"Come on Rei," Leo said, prompting her to do something. "There's not much time."
Rei shook her head. "I can't do it- I don't know what to do. I know that I can't just leave Danny like this. Mum and Dad will kill me, and then-"
The little lion started shaking angrily. "Rei, Rei, Rei!" Leo snapped, trying to encourage her to make a decision and physically do something. He could see that the whole palaver wasn't going to solve itself, because the young cardcaptor wasn't used to the process having been thrown into the deep end. "Just seal the card- tell it to get back into its card form."
"But I don't even know what it's called!" Rei squeaked quietly, before stopping to think. Then she remembered what Leo said the first time she saw him.
Get back here, Freeze!
Unsure what to say, she said the first thing that came to mind. "Freeze, I command you to return to your prior form, Freeze card!"
Leo shrugged his shoulders. "Close enough…"
A holographic silhouette appeared at the tip of the staff once Rei stopped twirling it. It took form of a thin rectangle as a stream of dark blue ribbons wafted towards it. Rei held the staff firmly where it was, frozen in awe at what was happening.
The card slowly dropped from its place and Rei lurched to catch it in one hand whilst keeping a hand on the staff. Holding it between her thumb and forefinger, she studied the card closely. The card was a pale pink shade with what looked like a fish that was made of glass. On the top of its head, it had a bright red gem.
"The Freeze…" Rei mumbled, before going to put the card back in the open book that it had come from.
Leo went into a frenzy and flew in front of the book. "Rei, no! Do not put that card back in the book."
Rei awkwardly tilted her head, a blank expression plastered over her face. "Why?"
"You must sign the card with your name." Leo folded his little arms. "Be-cause if you don't, then that card might be released into the world again."
"Oh… I knew that…" Rei rifled in the drawer for a pen and found one to sign 'Reiko' at the bottom. "There, now… Can I put this back in the book?"
There was a loud gasp as Danny's body relaxed from being frozen and he collapsed on the bed in a seemingly deep slumber.
"Danny- are you o-" Rei went to touch his shoulder.
His eyes fluttered little and he mumbled, "What happened, Rei?" Then his gaze caught Leo, and his mouth dropped open. "Who- oh, what a crazy dream…"
"I'll explain in the morning…" Rei lurched and grabbed Leo in her hands before stuffing the necklace back around her neck. "It's nothing."
"You're so weird."
"Knock it off Danny… It's nothing. This here is…"
Leo wriggled free from Rei and flew into Danny's face. "I'm Leo, apprentice to the guardian of the seal." The lion ran a paw through his mane. "No autographs kid." He landed on the bedside table. "And Rei just saved you from-" Leo looked at Rei. "Can we trust him?"
Rei wasn't sure, but to speed things up, she nodded.
"Your sister just saved you from becoming ice cream."
Danny rubbed his eyes. "This is some messed up dream…"
There was a knock on the door. Mika told the twins to be quiet before going back to her own room, unaware and not wanting to know what was going on in her sibling's room.
"Who was that?" Leo whispered, leaning back on the lamp.
"That's our older sister Mika, she's a pain sometimes though…" Rei replied, placing the Freeze card back in the book before closing the drawer and rolling into a cold bed. "Night Danny…"
"Sure…" Danny paused. "And Rei…"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for-" Danny didn't even finish his sentence, before he apparently fell asleep.
Even with the light off, Leo sat on the bedside table and waited. He sensed that something still wasn't right. That there were greater forces about. With a lack of Star Cards in the book, he knew that Rei was in for a test of great mental and physical strength.
Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = So Rei has captured here first card and I wonder what she's going to do next?
