Chapter 7: Ancient China

Hiiiiii all! I know, I know. This took agesssss. But hey! I didn't have internet connection! And my laptop for a while too. And I was busy buying stuff for Chinese new year. So yeah. Enough with my excuses, the story.

"Character talking"

Character thinking

(me talking)

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(My birthday tomorrow! Yay!!)

Sakura clipped on her seatbelt and stared excitedly out the window.

"We're moving!"

Sakura had gotten the seat by the window, which meant there was probably going to be non-stop chattering coming from her. Syaoran sat in the middle, looking extremely bored, and Tomoyo was in the seat by the aisle, smiling at Sakura. A few rows back was someone making dolphin noises, face in a comic book.

"How long's this flight going to be?" Sakura turned to Syaoran.

"Huh? Oh, about two hours."

"Wow! Only two hours? I thought it took longer last time…"

"Well, China is pretty close to Japan." Tomoyo commented.

Meanwhile, down in the bottom of the plane, near a very full, very pink, very frangipani decorated suitcase, there was a flash of blue light. Soon, the Creator came in view. She sat on the suitcase, eyes blank, a Card held between her delicate fingers.

(back in the plane)

An announcement was being said.

"Ladies and gentlemen. We are experiencing some slight turbulence. Please stay in your seats, securely fasten your seatbelts and avoid using the bathroom. Thank you."

When seatbelt sign flashed on, Syaoran suddenly stood up in his seat.

This…this is…the Creator…

As he was looking around wildly, trying to spot something blue or unusual, he was approached by an air hostess walking past.

"Sir, please sit down and fasten your seatbelt." She smiled kindly at him. "And try hold it until the seatbelt sign has been turned off."

Syaoran blinked at her. "What? Hold what-OH! I, um I-I uh don't need to uh-" stuttering, he sat down, face red with embarrassment.

Tomoyo was giggling beside him and he realised that Sakura wasn't making a sound. When he turned to look at her, he saw she had her eyes closed. Her emerald eyes had hint of annoyance mixed with disappointment in them when they reopened.

In a voice that was barely a whisper, she said, mainly to herself, "And I was hoping this would be a peaceful, normal holiday."

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Sakura yawned as she walked into the airport. She was already back to her normal cheerful self after spotting a cloud that somehow resembled a donkey.

"Wow! This is a big-"

Before she could finish she was knocked to the ground with Syaoran next to her by a flurry of black pigtails and red ribbons.

"What the-!" Sakura and Syaoran complained.

"Gaaaahhhh! Syaoran! Sakura! Tomoyo! I missed you guys so much! Even that stuffed animal!"

From inside Sakura's small white bag came a muffled, "Hey!"

Sakura recognised the voice.

"Meiling-chan?!"

Meiling got off them and helped Sakura to her feet. Once standing again, Sakura noticed she had to tilt her head a little to look Meiling in the eye.

"Meiling-chan! You're so tall now! And your hair's so long!"

"Really? Hehehe." Meiling looked pleased.

After greeting Tomoyo with a hug and asking who the hell was making dolphin noises Meiling led them to a car waiting outside. Syaoran's face lit up as soon as he saw who was driving it.

"Wei! You're back! How was Beijing?"

"Long time no see Young Master Syaoran. It was very nice thank you." He saw who else had gotten on and greeted Sakura, Tomoyo and her cousin, who all replied with smiles. Even Tomoyo's cousin left his comic book for three seconds to say hi, which, from Sakura's observations, was a record. Since she had seen him take it to the toilet, read while going down the stairs, while eating and while apologising to the old lady he ran the luggage cart into. Of course, after that, Syaoran decided it would be better for him to push the cart.

"So Meiling, how did you know that we were coming?"

"Haha. Of course Tomoyo called me! How else? Since I'm on holidays now, I'm spending this two week vacation with you guys! If you don't mind that is."

Sakura smiled. "Of course not!"

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Sakura's head was spinning from trying to read all the Chinese characters on the streets. She decided to give up. Suddenly, Meiling called out.

"Wei! Do you mind dropping us off here? It's not far from Syaoran's house and the hotel, we'll walk back later."

"Of course." His mouth crinkling into the kindly smile the old butler always wore.

"Uh, I'm sure your cousin wouldn't mind not coming with us." Meiling said to Tomoyo and glanced at him in the back row.

"And Wei, send Tomoyo's cousin to the hotel please."

The cold air hit her as soon as Sakura got out of the car. Why the hell am I wearing a skirt?

"Hey guys! Come on! We have so much to catch up on. And I really want to show you this cute shop I found last week. Though," she glanced at Syaoran, "it's more a girls' shop."

Something yellow with wings suddenly burst out of Sakura's bag flew into the sky.

"AIR!!!!!" it screamed.

Sakura jumped up, caught it and stuffed it back in her bag. "KERO!!"She noticed everyone on the street was looking at her.

"Uhhh-" She sweatdropped.

"It's nothing! NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL!" Meiling yelled in Chinese. Everyone gave both of them a look that meant 'a yellow thing just flew into the sky and two people who belong to the mental hospital are yelling at me or I'm seeing and hearing things' before turning away.

Sakura saw Meiling had continued heading towards a shop with pink roses decorating the door frame. She was about to follow when her vision suddenly became blurry. As it slowly recovered a bit she saw Syaoran had also stopped beside her. It gradually became more blurry than before again. Images were swimming around in her head. This is...a Card…?

"Meiling! Tomoyo!" Sakura realised it was Syaoran calling.

Sakura felt someone hold her arms. As her vision cleared a bit and she saw it was Tomoyo, looking concerned. Meiling was next to her, supporting Syaoran. Suddenly the four of them were surrounded by darkness. Wind started swirling around them, beating them down. Sakura couldn't breathe. She could hear Tomoyo and Meiling screaming but couldn't make a sound herself. She fell down on her hands and knees with Tomoyo still clutching her. She looked around and faintly saw the outline of Syaoran and Meiling, not far from them. Sakura clutched her bag. Stay with us, Kero-chan.

She barely heard someone yell "Stay together!" before she was completely enveloped by darkness and collapsed.

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Sakura blinked and opened her eyes. The sun shining brightly made her blink and squeeze them shut again.

It's so warm. Too warm. It feels like…spring. She suddenly remembered the events before she fainted and sat up groggily.

Syaoran was already sitting up opposite her. Tomoyo and Meiling were still unconscious beside them.

Sakura crawled over to Tomoyo and shook her. Tomoyo, looking confused, sat up with the help of Sakura and blinked. Syaoran was doing the same with Meiling.

"Meiling. Meiling!" He shook her.

"Mmmm," she rolled over and pulled an imaginary blanket over her head, "let me sleep for a while-GAAAAAAHHHH!" Syaoran was so surprised he jumped back, tripped and fell.

Meiling immediately jumped up.

"What happened?! Where are we!? Who attacked me just then" She was standing in an attack position.

Syaoran got up and rubbed a bump on the back of his head.

"What the hell!"

Meiling giggled. "Uh, whoops. Where are we though?"

They were in the middle of a dark alley. The walls surrounding them had cracks that ran from the tiles piled together in a shape that resembled the rooves in ancient China to the grass on the ground.

They could hear shouting and laughing, arguing and chattering, animal noises and sounds that were usually heard in a very busy street or market.

"Syaoran-kun, your clothes…" Tomoyo stated.

Syaoran was wearing a dark pine green Chinese style shirt with pale blue patterns on the sleeves and collar. He was also wearing matching pants and shoes of the same colour. His sword was strapped on his back.

"You're all not looking any different." He gestured to the girls.

Sakura looked down and saw he was right. She was wearing practically the same thing as Syaoran, only made in a more feminine style. Her main colour was a light rose pink. Sakura noticed Tomoyo and Meiling were both wearing the same, Tomoyo's in lavender, Meiling's in a deep wine red.

Slowly, they made their out of the alley and onto the street. There were shopkeepers promoting their goods, people bustling around, bargaining, buying food, walking in and out of the inns, all wearing the same type of clothes as Sakura, Tomoyo, Meiling and Syaoran. Some were more elegant, some more simple, all in different colours. The only difference was that everyone, including the guys, had long and straight black hair, (I know this is weird for those of you who didn't know, but yeah, they didn't really cut their hair in ancient times. You get used to it if you watch a lot of ancient Chinese TV series with a lot of martial art fighting like me. XD) tied in different styles. The women had delicate hair ornaments; the men had pieces of cloth or decorated head pieces. It was very easy to tell who was richer or poorer from their clothes and hair ornaments.

Sakura and Tomoyo looked, wide-eyed.

Meiling gasped.

Syaoran suddenly realised it . "We're in…"

Kero-chan popped out of Sakura's bag, which had turned into a simple one made of weaved hemp. He finished, "…ancient China."

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Hey, I know, this chapter didn't have as much funny bits as the last few (if they were even funny at all). The next few might not be too. It'll have more, maybe, story telling and explaining. And not exactly much speech and uh, funny bits.

But anyway, if you're reading this, thanks for getting so far. So please go all the way and review!! Please!! XD

Thanks to AngelEmCuti, Madmanalpha ad xXSakuraBlossomsXx for supporting this story since the first chapter came out.

And also Purelaine for giving great advice. You weren't signed in so I couldn't reply your review! But thanks! I will try to add more in! Yue will most likely come later, but at least Meiling's here now, lol.

Happy Chinese New Year! (soon)

xoxo

SakuraandSyaoran4eva