Chapter 4:

Sparks Fly

Sakura's eyes stayed hooked on the magnificent amber eyes staring back at her. She was so caught by their deep waves of curiosity that she didn't even notice the 98 eyes watching her. Tomoyo nudged Sakura, warning her about all the people's stares.

"Ahem," A male voice started. Sakura suddenly jolted back into reality and drew her eyes away from where they were destined to stay forever.

"Queen Yelan, let me introduce you to my daughter, Kinomoto Sakura and her accompanying friend, Daidouji Tomoyo."

Sakura looked at her father, whose eyes showed they were glad that she had made it in time yet worried at her first appearance. He nodded his head motioning for her to formally introduce herself and Sakura did as she was expected to.

"Hello, I am Kinomoto Sakura, thank you for inviting me to dinner tonight. I hope all goes well." A few giggles from the other princesses followed her words. Sakura looked at them, disgust forming in her eyes yet she didn't want that to show for her father wouldn't agree to it at all. The girls had tons of eye shadow the colour of their dresses on them and dark red lipstick. 'Probably the skimpy ones that git of a prince will be interested in,' she thought to herself.

Her speech, if you could call it that, was brief, like Sakura had always been, yet what could she say? It had taken her a moment or two to compose herself and figure out what everyone expected. Now, Sakura could only wait for a look of approval or the look of revulsion she expected from the Queen.

To Sakura's surprise, Queen Yelan, dressed in sweeping robes of a deep navy colour, smiled at her. Sakura's eyes then moved onto the four elders also sitting in chairs that showed them to have great power amongst the people of the Li kingdom. Unlike the queen, it looked as if the elders found it hard to smile altogether. The looks on their faces clearly showed that Sakura did not impress them at all.

Queen Yelan gestured towards two empty chairs, where Sakura and Tomoyo were to sit then she stood up to make the introduction for all.

"To the Li kingdom, I welcome all other royal families. We hope all the princesses enjoy their stays here."

'"Enjoy their stays here"?' What was the queen talking about? Weren't they just here for dinner and then that cotton-headed prince would announce that he wanted to marry the most irritating one of them all?'

Sakura looked towards her father, who had his eyes set on the Queen making her speech, in a respectful way. It seemed he expected it all. He wasn't surprised and unwilling to let his daughter stay at a palace in which she wasn't accustomed to, as she had hoped he would be.

Sakura's stomach grumbled. Sakura's eyes widened in shock and she placed her right hand on her stomach. "Shit," she whispered growing frantic.

"What is it?" Tomoyo asked. Sakura's stomach grumbled as if to answer Tomoyo. Tomoyo's eyes widened too.

"I- I- it's my stomach. It's growling," she whispered.

"I can tell. It's loud!"

"Dammit! I knew I should have eaten lunch."

"You Baka! You didn't eat lunch? You must be starving- "

Sakura's stomach grumbled, really loud.

"Oh shit shit shit shit shit!" She whispered in a panicky voice. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"

While Sakura was growing redder and redder the Queen was still making her welcome speech.

"Now let me introduce you all to my son, prince Li."

She held out her left hand pointing gracefully to where prince Li was seated. Sakura's eyes along with everyone else's followed the direction Queen Yelan was pointing in and suddenly Sakura's eyes grew rounder in surprise.

The amber-eyed man had stood up and bowed.

Prince Li started to recite his speech, "Hello all, as you now know, I am Prince Li and I welcome all the princ- "

Sakura's stomach groaned even louder and she abruptly stood up in front of everyone. Clutching her stomach, her face red, she ran out of the hall and away from everyone's penetrating stares. She fled not being able to hold her hunger much longer. She needed to find something to eat and fast! Then maybe her stomach would calm down.

Everyone's eyes clung to the run away princess and Fujitaka blushed with embarrassment.

Syaoran cleared his throat and started to continue on with his speech after he had composed himself.

"Well, as I was saying. I welcome all fifty princesses here and I hope you all enjoy the 2 weeks you will remain here. Your rooms will be assigned to you, three in each. And do not fret ladies, each room is indeed large."

'Whoa!' Tomoyo thought, doing the math in her head quickly. 'Fifty plus myself is fifty-one. Ummm. Three in each room, that makes, 17 rooms!'

"The rooms have already been assigned and numbered. You will find all of this information on the large board at the back of the hall."

In unison, every princess and chaperone turned their heads around to the back of the hall. There they saw the board as well as fifty small red sacks with gold ribbons tying them sitting on a large table with a shimmering red table cloth on it.

"There are fifty bags there for every princess. Inside is the key to your room and a puzzle. The puzzle is a clue, which you must find the answer to as you explore the Li grounds. Now since this is a royal palace there are places in which you are not permitted to enter, which is why there is a map in the bag as well.

"Now princesses, I would like you all to follow me into the Li Training Hall in which you will have your first test."

Prince Li bowed his head and swiftly walked toward the great doors to lead the princesses to the Li Training Hall.

A burst of murmuring filled the hall. All of which were young female voices. Each princess had one parent there and all of them were not saying a word, just looking as if they expected it all.

When Syaoran noticed that the princesses were still seated he blushed and turned around to face them.

"Follow me," he said.

The girls all started standing up and so did Tomoyo, she was hoping to go look for Sakura when the other princesses went to do their 'tests.'

Eriol, who was standing at the door knew what the amethyst-eyed girl was thinking and spoke softly to her when she passed by him.

"Do not worry Miss, you can head to the Training Hall and wait for Princess Kinomoto there. I know you are just accompanying her but you may watch. I will go find her for you. Oh by the way, here is your key."

Eriol gazed at Tomoyo's face while speaking to her, he was thrilled that she was not here to try and win the heart of the prince.

Tomoyo, enthralled by Eriol's good looks and matureness looked at the key in his hand.

"For the room?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Thank you for going to look for Sakura," Tomoyo said and then looked away from his eyes to the hallway.

"No problem," Eriol said, a smile playing across his face.

'Man that girl is totally gorgeous!' Eriol thought, smiling widely now. He was walking down the hallways to find Sakura but he had no idea where she could be.

'Damn! Why is this castle so huge!?' He thought exasperatedly.

He turned the corner and suddenly smashed into someone. Eriol closed his eyes although he knew that the impact wasn't so much that he would fall down.

"Gomen nasai!" He heard suddenly.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a head of auburn hair in front of his face. When the girl looked up he realised that it was the princess that arrived late to the hall.

"Hey you're Princess Ki- " Eriol started but was cut off by Sakura's rash explanations.

"I-I-I was really, really hungry so I just had to leave the hall because my stomach was just grumbling sooo much! I walked on and on and ended up being lost! Then I found your butler Wei and he led me to the kitchen and the people cooking there are all really, really nice and they gave me some cake to eat! I am really really re- "

Eriol suddenly started laughing. He was laughing so hard that tears had started to come out of the corners of his eyes.

Sakura pouted when she realised that this guy wasn't here to punish her. "Hey, why are you laughing?"

"Well cuz you are just 'really, really' funny!" Eriol said between chuckles.

Sakura eyebrows shot up. "Hey! I got really scared!"

"No need to have. Ok," Eriol let out some breath. "I've calmed down now. You don't have to worry. My name is Hiiragizawa Eriol, Prince Li's friend."

Sakura shook Eriol's outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you Hiiragizawa-kun, my name is Kinomoto Sakura," Sakura said politely.

"Yes, I know that already. Listen we have to get to the Li Training Hall."

"What? Why?"

"I will explain everything that Prince Li is explaining there to you while we walk, ok?"

"Sure," Sakura said interested in what she was to do in the 'Training Hall.'

"Alright, so this is basically to test your strength. All of the princesses will be standing spread out in the hall with strong low tables in front of them. There will be a large piece wood placed on each table. You will also receive a sword. Now your goal is to cut the piece of wood with the sword. I know, obvious enough and simple enough, yet there is a twist, like there is to every test.

"With each passing second, the sword will gain extra weight making it more and more difficult to hold up and even more difficult to cut wood with. I told Prince Li that it might be too much for princesses but he said that the starting weight wouldn't be much so you should be able to manage"

"Wow, what magic," Sakura said.

By now, they had arrived at the Li Training Hall and were standing in front of its grand doors.

"Well, good luck princess Kinomoto," Eriol said, reaching out to open the door.

"You can call me Sakura and thanks."

Eriol opened the doors and Sakura was met with forty-nine princesses with tables in front of them all struggling to hold up their swords. Then Sakura realised - they had started with out her!

"Sakura!" Tomoyo said running up to her. "Do you know what to do??"

"Yes I do Tomoyo, don't worry. But where is my place??"

"There!" Eriol said pointing to one at the back corner.

"Ok, ja guys!" Sakura yelled and picked up the hem of her dress and started to run to her spot.

"Looks like you found her," Syaoran said walking up to Eriol and Tomoyo.

"Yes but why didn't you wait for her?" Eriol said slightly angry.

Syaoran threw up his hands in defence. "It's not as if it would help. They are all not going to do it!"

Tomoyo glared at him. "I wouldn't be so sure if I was you."

Sakura ran to her spot and looked at her sword and large piece of wood.

'Alright,' Sakura thought to herself. 'As Eriol said, it will gain weight every second so I must do it fast,' Sakura thought looking at the princesses around her who were wasting their time and thus making their swords painfully heavy. 'The key is to do it fast!'

Sakura having special training herself flexed her arms. 'I should be able to do this,' she thought. 'I am the card captor mistress after all!'

Sakura took her shawl and tied it tightly around her waist, then she breathed in and plunged for her sword.

Holding it tightly by the handle, she brought it up. 'What the hell did he mean by the starting weight not being that heavy?!?' Sakura groaned. Maybe the sword had started to gain weight while she was still making her way through the castle to the test.

Because it was heavy to begin with, it took her longer than she wanted to pick it up totally. Magically, weight added to the sword and Sakura staggered a bit.

Ignoring the beads of sweat she felt trailing down her forehead, Sakura yelled out,

"KYYYYAAAA!!!"

She brought the sword down and swiftly cut through the bulky piece of wood. The symmetrical pieces fell on the table with a clang. The sword stuck in the middle of the table.

Sakura gasped for air and wiped her forehead. She smiled in satisfaction and looked towards Eriol and Tomoyo. They both clapped and cheered. Tomoyo's face was full of happiness and Eriol's was full of surprise.

Sakura then turned her gaze towards the man standing beside Eriol.

Prince Li had on the most priceless expression of shock and terror, which only made Sakura smile wider with triumph and mischief.

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

-~Immortal Wishes~-