War for Peace

Chapter 4: A Falling Out Among Siblings

Kaya and the four preteens walked through the forest, Meiling striding ahead while Kaya pulled Syaoran back so they could have a private conversation. "OK, would you mind explaining why Meiling called you her boyfriend?"

"You really need to know?" he asked. Kaya just raised her eyebrows at him. "Alright," he sighed, "She's my cousin. Several years ago her pet bird flew away and I went out in the pouring rain to find it."

It was obvious to Kaya how this was going to end but she let him finish all the same.

"I found and returned her bird and well…" he trailed off but Kaya wanted him to say it out loud.

"Go on," she urged.

"She was so grateful that since then she's been infatuated with me," he finished.

"And you haven't found time to tell her about you and Sakura?"

"Well it's difficult, I love Meiling like I love my sisters and I know this will hurt her. I want to tell her in the gentlest way I can."

"How long does that take?" Kaya muttered sarcastically.

This clearly annoyed Syaoran. Kaya seemed less patient than she had the last time they met. Then again, he possibly owed this to the fact that he'd sent her crashing into a tree. "It's only been three days," he pointed out.

Kaya raised her eyebrows again. "Three days? Time travel makes things complicated; here it's been three months."

"Well that explains why Cargo's back in Iron Town," Syaoran muttered. He looked at Kaya whilst frowning. "Did I hurt you badly when I hit you before?"

"I've healed my injuries with my emerald."

"But you look pale."

"I didn't eat much yesterday," she muttered without looking at him, "I haven't slept well for the past two nights, so I wasn't in the mood to eat."

"I bet you were in the mood for a drink," Syaoran smirked. He'd meant it as a joke but Kaya seemed to take it very seriously.

"I haven't…" She began loudly, but then closed her eyes and started again more calmly. "I haven't been drinking since the dance."

Syaoran watched Kaya for a few more seconds before looking away. He remembered Sakura saying that Kaya didn't need 'artificial stuff' to look good. He wasn't sure if this would still be the opinion. As stated above, the young princess was pale and her lack of sleep showed.

"So Sakura," said Tomoyo, in a way that made Sakura uneasy, "why did you really pick that costume?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura confused, "I told you, I picked it because the colours will help me hide."

"Really?" smirked Tomoyo, "Are you sure it's not because you wanted to show Syaoran your waist?"

"Oh Tomoyo!" scowled Sakura, turning red, "Would you just drop it. Syaoran and I don't like each other."

"I know, that's because the two of you are in love," Tomoyo smiled, stretching out the last word teasingly.

Sakura anime-style mushroom sighed. She didn't want to tell her friend the truth but she didn't want to lie to her either. "Syaoran already has a girlfriend," Sakura blurted out. 'And that's technically not a lie,' she thought.

This clearly wasn't what Tomoyo was expecting. "R… Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, he just doesn't want anyone to know until he's thought of a way to tell Meiling."

Looking at her friend closely, Tomoyo asked, "And you really don't mind at all?"

"No, why would I," said Sakura cheerfully. 'After all, I'm that girlfriend,' she thought with a smile on her face.

'Wow, I can't believe I had it wrong. I really thought those two had feelings for each other,' Tomoyo thought. Maybe she was too unsuspecting of her friends. An idea might have been to have asked, 'So why did he tell you of all people about his girlfriend.' But of course, this didn't occur to her.

"You might want to warn Meiling and Tomoyo about the wolves," suggested Syaoran, as the small group arrived at the den.

"I might," Kaya muttered, "but I don't."

It was a surprise to Syaoran how uncaring Kaya sounded, although she either hadn't had the hindsight, or just couldn't be bothered, to mention the wolves to him and Sakura.

As Syaoran expected, Meiling immediately became scared, but pretended otherwise, upon seeing Oro and Oko emerge from the den. Tomoyo remained calm as Sakura seemed unaffected by the newcomers. They were followed by Ashitaka. Meiling turned and shouted angrily at Kaya, "was this a trick so you could feed us to these wolves?"

"It's alright Meiling, they won't hurt you," said Syaoran reassuringly.

"What?" exclaimed Meiling.

Ignoring her, Kaya walked up to the wolves and her brother. Speaking to Oro and Oko she said, "I'll take the children to Iron Town's camp for the night; I just want them here for now so I can keep them safe. Is that OK?"

The wolves nodded. She then turned to Ashitaka and angrily tossed the basket of herbs at him. He caught it with ease but was clearly taken aback by her irritation. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I just brought you the herbs you wanted for your precious princess," Kaya muttered.

"My question again: are you alright?" said Ashitaka calmly, watching the anger starting to grow in his sister's eyes.

Feeling her anger rising, Kaya desperately attempted to quell it. "No. I'm annoyed that I was sent out barely after sunrise to fetch something for poor, sick San," she scoffed, finishing in a taunting tone.

Now it was Ashitaka who had to make an effort not to show his aggravation. "Kaya," he began, "firstly, I only sent you out so early because you, for some stupid reason, seemed determined to stay up all night. Secondly, when I asked you, you said you didn't mind collecting the herbs. And finally, you could show some respect for San, she's not well and…"

"She vomited Ashitaka; it happens to people sometimes, no need to make a big deal about it. But, of course, with San recently, it's just whine, whine, and whine. I wouldn't mind but you know full well I quit drinking."

"I don't whine," said San as she came out from the den. She tried to sound annoyed but the smile on her face made it clear she found it amusing.

So he could avoid snapping at his sister, Ashitaka took a moment to respond. "This is no time for jokes. Toki and Kohroku delivered a message while you were gone. They said…"

"Was it to say that Kohroku is incapable of delivering a message by himself?" Kaya butted in. San laughed which irritated Ashitaka further.

"They said," Ashitaka began again, "that Eboshi's corpse was found at the edge of their camp and that they wouldn't have been able to recognise…" he trailed off but Kaya understood. Lady Eboshi's corpse had been so disarranged that they only knew it was her because there was no one else it could have been.

'I'll kill that rotten bastard,' Kaya shouted inside her head. "Was that all they came to tell you?" she said, somehow managing to sound calm.

"They said Miho's gone missing, but she's too short to have been the corpse. And Gonza has asked us to come up with some battle strategies the forest gods and Iron Town can use to defeat Cargo," Ashitaka told his sister. His annoyance was pushed further when he noticed that she didn't seem to be paying him much attention despite having asked for the information. He might have been more understanding if he'd known she was worried about Miho. "Kaya!" he said sharply.

"What?" Kaya loudly replied.

Seeing the tension rising between the two siblings, San decided to interrupt. "Perhaps we should start the planning immediately," she suggested.

"Fine," Ashitaka and Kaya said in unison.

"Hey, what about the food you promised us?" Meiling shouted impatiently.

"Shut up and eat your vegetables," Kaya muttered sarcastically. She snapped her fingers and four bowls of rice and vegetable curry instantly appeared in front of the twelve year olds. "Now that gives new meaning to the phrase fast food." San laughed at this, causing Ashitaka to roll his eyes.

He, along with San and the wolves, turned and headed back to the den entrance. "Do you actually find that funny?" he sighed.

"Yes. Is it strange that I can laugh at jokes?" San frowned.

"When they're my sister's jokes, yes," Ashitaka replied.

"So now you don't even want other people to acknowledge me as a good comedian," Kaya grumbled, as she followed them into the den.

The four preteens ate what they could of the curry. It may have been conjured up by Kaya but it certainly hadn't been cooked by her. She still needed some practise with her magic, the food was almost tasteless. "This is disgusting," Meiling moaned, pushing her plate aside after only a few mouthfuls.

"It's better than your cooking," Sakura muttered, even though it wasn't.

"What?"

"Nothing."

They chatted for a little while, but Tomoyo kept attempting to steer the conversation towards the identity of Syaoran's girlfriend. This resulted in Sakura suggesting to Meiling that they practised some gymnastic technics in order to avert the discussion. Meiling, of course, jumped at the chance to show off in front of Syaoran, and Tomoyo offered to film the performance. Not at all surprisingly, she'd had her camera on her when they were brought back in time.

It was at this point that raised voices could be heard from the den. This quickly escalated to shouting. It sounded to Syaoran as if only Kaya and Ashitaka were arguing which was soon proven correct as San, Oko and Oro came out of the den but the shouting did not subside in the slightest. "Let them shout their throats dry," San muttered, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. She walked over to a tree and slumped against the base. 'I don't normally let fevers get me down but why does this one make me feel so tired?'

Sakura and Meiling, along with Tomoyo, attempted to ignore the commotion and focused their attention on the gymnastic duel they'd decided to have. San, Syaoran and the wolves listened to the ongoing argument, being partially amused by it.

From what could be made out, Ashitaka wanted to wait several days before they attempted to retake Iron Town, in order to give them time to plan the perfect strategy to allow as few deaths as possible. Kaya, on the other hand, had no wish to delay the battle longer than was necessary, arguing that the longer they waited the more time Cargo had to plan his counter attack and could kidnap more people to take hostage.

"If we attack now we get it over and done with!" Kaya shouted.

"If we attack now we could all be killed!" Ashitaka shouted back.

"If we don't attack now we could all be killed!"

"Kaya, if you rush into something, you're most likely going to end up in a situation you'll regret!"

"A lot of men would say that about their marriage proposals!"

"Are you implying something?"

"Yes!"

Caught up in his anger, Ashitaka tried to grab Kaya but she was too quick for him. "Attacking without any real plan is completely irrational," he said, trying to calm himself.

Moving so they were face to face, Kaya replied, "Do you want to know what I do when I'm irrational?"

"No, but I'm sure you're about to tell me." To the other listeners this sentence appeared to be followed by silence. Kaya was actually talking in a low voice to avoid anyone else hearing. Once she'd finished, she marched out of the den, her eyes closed and her head bowed. Ashitaka came out watching her open mouthed.

While Kaya sat down on a rock near Syaoran, who pretended to have been watching Meiling and Sakura preform gymnastic stunts, Ashitaka joined San.

"What did she tell you?" San asked intrigued.

"I'd rather not say," Ashitaka muttered. It was clear he didn't want to talk about it so San did not ask any more questions.

"You're letting him win you know."

"What?"

"You're angry because you feel you abandoned Eboshi and you're taking it out on your sister. The people of Iron Town are suffering from the loss of their leader. Cargo kills one person and he manages to weaken everyone. If we turn on each other he gets what he wants. Yesterday you chose to go with Kaya rather than stay with Eboshi, do the same now, for me."

Ashitaka smiled at the girl he loved, "Alright," he said, before they indulged in a passionate kiss.

Kaya momentarily watched them with anger but this soon became a look of misery.

To Be Continued…