See Chapter 1 for Spoiler Warning and General Warning.Spoiler Warning: This is a story taking place about a couple of centuries prior to the manga, "Cardcaptor Sakura". Although it is about existing characters' past lives, it will likely draw information from all parts of the manga, so be careful if you have not finished reading the series.
Author's note: This story is incomplete. There will be (I hope?) three parts total: "Yue", "Cereberus", and "Clow".
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Today I flew. It felt glorious.
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By the afternoon of the next day Clow was feeling well enough to take Yue outside to watch him fly for the first time outdoors. He had given his Moon Guardian the ability to float slightly off the ground when he wished, and he found not too much to his surprise that Yue preferred this over standing and indeed tended to drift with aid of his wings even through the hallways and open spaces in the house. Who, after all, would choose to walk when he could fly? Clow did worry a bit however about the expenditure of energy. Yue took due note but assured his master that he felt fine.
It was the second day of his Guardian's new life, and there was no point in being so strict on the day before the full moon. His creation had experienced no physical difficulties up to now and Clow was feeling confident.
"Would you like to fly outside?" he'd asked Yue after waking him from his first night's sleep.
"All right," Yue had replied with barely a nod.
His customary lack of facial expressions had worried Clow at first but he had soon discovered that they indicated not a lack of emotion but only a calm and stoic personality, fitting with the sensitive warrior he had wished for.
And so Clow found himself this sunny day comfortably seated in his back garden next to an old peach tree that bore excellent fruit each year, watching his new creation soar the heavens. The silvery shape cut quite a lovely image over the wildflower fields that spread between Clow's house and the forest behind.
"Don't fly too high," Clow warned, Throwing out his voice to his Moon Guardian. He was reminded uncomfortably by his own words of the story of the unfortunate Icarus. Although Yue's wings would certainly not melt off his back, the air was thinner and harder to breathe up high and Clow didn't want Yue to get dizzy and harm himself. If anything adverse were to happen, however, it would be Clow's hubris that would be the cause and not Yue's, for Yue was as loyal as his creator had wished and was much more obedient than Icarus ever was to poor Daedalus.
"Yes, Master Clow," Yue returned, immediately beginning a downward spiral. "Shall I come back down now?"
Clow smiled. "Do you wish to?"
"It is pleasant here, but I don't want to leave you alone, Master Clow."
"As you will." He wondered if maybe he had overdone the protective sense he'd installed in his Guardian's basic instincts, but Yue had shown that he had his own mind so it should not prove a problem.
As Yue descended toward him, Clow couldn't help but admire his creation yet again. Powerful as a hawk yet graceful as a swallow. Wings that could block both physical and magical attacks yet were more pliable and softer than any avian ones. Perfect physical beauty in the fine limbs and strong torso and the so-carefully-sculpted face. The hair was a good touch, Clow reaffirmed in satisfaction. He congratulated himself on the style in which he'd tied the silky light locks this morning. They were just enough out of the way for Yue to move with ease and just loose enough to give him a dramatic flair. Especially while flying, where hair and robes and wings were free to fling out in the most pleasing instances of ephemeral art.
When Clow had first imagined what came to be his Moon Guardian it had been as a young boy listening to a Chinese tale that his mother had told him. The story was about ChangE, a beautiful young woman who had taken an overdose of the medicine of immortality and become so light that she had floated to the moon. In his mind, he had created a creature like her that would protect and accompany him, a creature ethereal but with a strong character.
In one version of the story, ChangE had taken the medicine to prevent her evil husband from partaking of its immortality and conquering the world. In a different version, ChangE had simply been a foolish and greedy girl who had yearned to remain young and beautiful forever. Although the first version may seem to present the heroine in a better light, Clow had liked both equally. Imperfections appealed to him. He who had been strong in magic from birth understood all too well how a mix of arrogance and innocent longing could lead to less than perfect results. And he who had discovered at a young age an innate ability to See into the future had learned to savor peculiarities in human character that led to events unexpected.
In any case, this image of a humonoid magical companion, graceful, powerful, and loyal, had changed and shifted in his mind as he'd acquired new abilities himself and new ideas. However, it had never entirely left him so that when he had decided not quite a century ago to create a magical "family" for himself, it had been easy to choose what his Moon Guardian would be. He had give this creature the name, 'Yue', Chinese for the moon that he symbolized.
Unlike the heroine of the old story, however, Clow's Guardian had to be male. Even as a child he had been quite firm in that respect. He supposed this was for two reasons. The first reason was simply a practical one. While it was easy to use himself as a model for creating Yue's body, he doubted he could find a woman willing to let him study her nude form in minute detail.
Secondly, Clow had always had a romantic turn of mind. He had grown up with not only Chinese tales of mysticism and intrigue, but also his English father's tales of heroes and adventure and chivalry. And even though his decidedly untraditional, strong-willed mother would very well slap him for thinking this, he was quite enamored with the idea of gallant men protecting their beautiful damsels. So of course, his two Guardians had to be male, and his Cards female. It made sense. It felt right. These were his creations after all, and he certainly had the right to do as he pleased.
There was one more thing: In the tale of ChangE, a rabbit had felt sorry for the girl and, by hanging onto her skirt, had followed her to the moon to keep her company. As a boy with few friends, Clow had always liked that part of the story.
He would work in the rabbit some day, he figured.
After all, looking at the glorious creature flying above his head now, was it not quite easy to believe that he could do anything he wished?
The somewhat smug content that Clow felt as he studied his currently airborne creation wavered as he realized that something was... not quite right.
Yue's expression was set in grim concentration and he spread his arms as if for balance as he hurtled - yes, that was the problem, too fast - towards the ground.
"Yue!" Clow cried, springing to his feet, raising his arms, thinking of a spell to cast - too late- as Yue spread his wings to the fullest, wobbled in the air, twisted around, and tucked his legs under him just in time to hit the ground in a heavy roll that threw flowers and soil and grass in the air behind him, along with a few shining white feathers that for once Clow had utterly no time to admire. And it was only then that Clow managed to throw out his power in the form of pure force, pushing against the direction of Yue's tumbling form, slowing him down and finally stopping him before he could reach the first stand of unforgivingly sturdy oak trees.
"Yue!" Clow called again, but with less urgency this time as, thank goodness, he saw Yue sit up and push himself to his feet with an irritated expression. For the first time in years, Clow found himself running and he approached Yue just as the latter was brushing off the dirt on his robes.
"I've torn the pants leg here," the Moon Guardian proclaimed, looking equal parts sorrowful and disgusted, fingering the offended piece of garment.
"Never mind that," Clow chastised. "Are you hurt?" He looked his Guardian up and down, noting the torn clothes and the scratches on his pale hands and his right knee scraped raw. Yue had had the sense to wrap his protective wings around him as he'd rolled, so, Clow noted with relief, he had no serious injuries. Yue's innate magic should heal his body in less than an hour.
"I'm all right," Yue answered. He frowned and brushed his knee with long fingers. "It... hurts here," he added, hesitant, understandably confused since he had never felt pain before in his as yet short life.
"It will heal," Clow told him. "It's only your body's way of telling you something's wrong and to be careful with it." It made sense, of course. That's exactly what human pain responses were for, and why he had created Yue to have them as well. There would be no point in creating a creature to guard you that would ignore its own wounds until it had engendered its own demise. But at the moment a part of Clow's mind was bitterly regretting that he had created Yue with the ability to hurt. If Yue had not reacted as quickly as he had, he would surely be in more serious condition than this.
And more so, how could Clow have been so self-centered mere moments ago as to look at Yue and see nothing but his own lofty achievement. Hadn't he been thinking not two minutes ago of hubris? How could he have forgotten for even a moment the most important aspect of his magical creation?
"Thank God you're alive," he whispered, taking the startled Yue's hands and pressing them between both his own.
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I made a miscalculation on the descent and tore my clothes and injured my body. Pain is a new sensation. It is not one I wish to repeat.
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Despite Yue's magical abilities, Clow found it comforting to personally clean and bandage his knee injury. Besides his Guardian's clothes had no such regenerative abilities. After mending the tear on the right knee of the pants, he helped Yue into them, though he knew Yue to be perfectly capable of dressing himself. His fingers lingered just slightly on the area where Yue's knee had been injured most severely, the soft silk above it having been torn in ragged strips that could only be mended by magical reconstruction.
He stepped back and noticed the Moon Guardian's questioning gaze.
"It's healed now, Master Clow." Indeed his self-healing magic was quite efficient.
"Yes, I know."
"Yet you are still worried. It will not reopen, will it?"
"No."
"Will the injury permanently weaken me?"
"No."
The confused violet eyes widened a fraction in self-thought understanding. "In healing myself, I am drawing too much power from you! You are still so weak-"
"No, of course not," Clow hastened to assure him. "It was only a minor injury."
"Then... you are upset at my earlier clumsiness." This was said with some asperity.
"No, of course not," Clow had returned, a corner of his mouth fluttering upward at the injured pride in his Guardian's manner. "That wasn't your fault," he had added, just to make sure Yue understood that point. "I am only angry at myself." And he swiftly changed the topic before Yue could persue that further.
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Despite the chance of pain and the upset I have caused Master Clow, I would like to fly again. I suppose I shall just have to be careful next time.
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That afternoon, Clow showed Yue the library, reading being an exciting but quieter and far safer activity. Just as he had foreseen, it had been easy to while away the rest of the day there. Yue was a avid reader. Clow looked forward to spending many future nights with Yue as companion in the library.
Human, living companion, he reminded himself. Yue was no toy or pet or mere servant. And he was no doll either for pure aesthetic pleasure, Clow chided himself later that night as he put Yue into his new nightshirt and fitted the matching nightcap over his silver-white hair. As the manner in which his Guardian 'slept' certainly didn't require nightclothes, he supposed he had made them for Yue only out of vanity. But perhaps he could allow himself that much. There was no harm in a bit of dramatic flair, he comforted himself.
Giving the nightcap one last tug, he straightened. "Good night," he said.
"Good night," Yue returned, signalling his readiness.
And Clow summoned the silent command to put his Moon Guardian to rest for the night.
Yue's eyes closed, and his form shimmered, then shrank, then changed until Clow cupped within the palms of his hands a delicate floating sickle moon with feathery wings. He held it up to his face, closing his own eyes and allowing the warmth of its glow to reach through his eyelids and to wrap around his cheeks. Then he sent his sleeping Guardian with quiet care to the hand-made book lying on his dresser, where it sank into the red leather cover and became part of it.
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My first day has been an exciting one.
u n u n u n u
u n u n u n u
(To Be Continued...)
