A Forbidden Love

Chapter III: An Early Meeting

Sakura ran down the darkly lit hallway as fast as she could without making a large amount of racket. She didn't have much time however, and being quiet while running was a very challenging skill to accomplish in a short amount of time. She rounded a corner and came to fork in the strange corridor. She thought back to the instruction she had been given and took a left, going down an even darker hallway. This place had lighting problems apparently. She really wished there were some open windows or something where she could get some fresh air, but she knew she wouldn't have had time to stop anyway.

She ran into yet another fork and this time took the right. Time seemed to be speeding up just to make her look slower, and she despised the feeling immensely. She looked at all the doors carefully, taking in every detail, but her mind was in a frenzy-like panic mode.

"Golden doorknob…golden doorknob…golden doorknob…where the hell is it?!"

She faintly wondered if she had accidentally taken a wrong turn or if the instructions were perhaps wrong, but then she decided both of those theories were wrong. There was no way she would have taken a wrong turn, not on something that was so desperate and important to her, and Yukito-san had been the one who gave her the instructions; he was never wrong.

Her time was running out quickly, and she knew it. She was about to cry, to let all the pain escape through her salty tears, but she then heard his voice, recorded carefully in her mind.

"Don't cry Sakura. Crying won't help when there is something you must do."

Sakura swallowed her tears and walked forward, a new light shining in her eyes.

"You're right. Don't worry, I'm coming!

"SAKURA!!!" Sakura jumped, managing to fall out of bed and land heavily on the carpeted floor beneath her. She rubbed her head and stood up dizzily, looking confusedly at the door. That sounded almost like Tomoyo… There was more loud pounding from the door, and faintly Sakura thought she heard a few low muttered curses.

"Sakura, GET UP! It's already ten, and the king of the Li kingdom and his assistant are going to be here in three hours!"

"HOE!!!" Sakura jumped up, surprised. She had forgotten that they were coming and had slept in, which was becoming a bad habit of hers. She quickly ran to the door and let a frantic Tomoyo in. Tomoyo sat down on Sakura's desk chair and tossed her the brown bag she had been caring. Sakura could easily guess what was inside of it.

"One of your new designs Tomoyo?" Besides working at the palace for Sakura, Tomoyo was also a very famous fashion designer, and she often used Sakura as her model and guinea-pig for new designs. Sakura couldn't complain; Tomoyo made beautiful outfits. She had created most of Sakura's wardrobe.

"Hai, when you wear it you're going to look ultra-cute Sakura-chan; so much that the king himself will have to fall for you!" Tomoyo's eyes were sparkling with joy and pleasure. Sakura sighed and took it out of the bag. It was a beautiful dress, and once again she admired Tomoyo's designing skills. It was a light-blue with long, draping sleeves; medieval styled. It really had the appearance of a princess dress!

"Arigatou Tomoyo! I'll go put it on right now!"

Sakura couldn't help but sigh as she warily walked into her bathroom. It wasn't the outfit, no, the dress was absolutely stunning. It was the comment Tomoyo had made. Since her sixteenth birthday, Tomoyo had been trying to get Sakura to get a boyfriend…and Tomoyo wasn't one for giving up. There were several reasons why Sakura didn't want to have one however. For one, there was Touya who'd probably have the unlucky boy thrown out of the kingdom. The other reason was that she had just never felt anything while around boys. Maybe she just didn't like any she had met…or maybe she didn't have any of those hormones yet. It didn't bother her much; she couldn't see what she was missing out on.

Sakura walked out of the room and found Tomoyo in awe. This was the normal response from Tomoyo when Sakura modeled for her.

"Sakura-chan, you look so stunning and beautiful in the outfit! I'm honored to have you wear it!" Suddenly there was a knock at her door.

"Princess Sakura, permission to enter."

"Hai,"

In walked one of the castle guards looking slightly perplexed. He was wringing his hands, and his eyes darted from the door to Sakura nervously.

"Um…well, you Majesty, as you know, the king and his assistant had to go lead a mass at the Church of Cerberus due to the high priests illness. Well…um, the kingdom of Li's king and assistant just arrived. I think it would be best if you spoke to them."

Sakura stared at him for a second, and then realized what the man had said.

"HOE!!!"

Syaoran Li looked around the room in apparent interest. Sitting next to him on one of the couches, Eriol seemed to be focused on the stairway, as if expecting someone to appear on it at any second. The castle seemed well kept, and there was a friendly atmosphere about it. Just as Li started to wonder what the rest of it looked like, Eriol nudged him in the ribs with his elbow. Syaoran, surprised, looked at Eriol questioningly. His cousin pointed to the stairs.

Syaoran could not take his eyes off the young woman walking down the staircase towards them. Gracefully she strolled over to them, and they rose in respect, and as hard as he tried, he still could not remove his eyes, especially when they met her emerald ones. His heart beat quickened considerably. What was going on with him? Who was she?

"Welcome to Zentra Castle! I'm Princess Sakura Kinomoto."

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Yeah, it seems pretty short. Luckily there are going to be a lot of chapters though. Enjoy and don't forget to review! Thanks to DemonFromThePast, xxxemiko.itooshixxx, and ffgirl-07 for review chapter II