4-2: Prelude to Adventure

A small, chartered shuttle-bus idled its way into the small clearing of trees, stopping just short of allowing its passengers to see through the edge of the treeline on the far side of the gravel-covered clearing and into what lay beyond. The female driver, outfitted with sunglasses and a sharp, three-piece suit, pushed the handle beside her to open the door. Through it her passengers finally depart for their weekend getaway.

"We'll see you at four o'clock, tomorrow afternoon, then. Thank you for your help today," Tomoyo told her bodyguard-turned-driver, receiving back an affirming nod as she hefted her stuffed schoolbag and stepped onto the ground below the shuttle's door step. As the last to depart, Tomoyo was forced to pick up her pace in order to catch up with the rest of the group.

As she approached the rear side of the procession, she noted on how well Reios was managing to work his way into the circle of friends that she and Sakura had enjoyed for pretty much the last six years. Already he had befriended Naoko to a strong degree, for the two had not stopped talking about all manner of novels and stories ever since they had left the city. Only now, after departing from the bus, were the two just deciding to take a break from it all. Both Naoko and Tomoyo now found themselves idly listening in on him talking to Takashi about differing tactics for beating some kind of video game. It was surprising, as Tomoyo hadn't figured Reios to be a bookworm type of person, to say nothing of being a video gamer, but there it was.

"Amazing!" Sakura called out from the front, breaking into a slow jog so as to more quickly close the gap on their destination. Everyone else followed her lead, rounding the corner of a thick patch of trees to follow along a small, sloping dirt path. At the far end of the path that was walled off on both sides by smoothed rock, stretching for nearly a full a kilometer down to their right, was set a relatively isolated ocean-side beach, hidden away from the world behind them by a thick stretch of trees set onto the ridge line of rock walls that spanned the entire length. A grove of yet more trees was set upon a taller rocky rise, down at the far end of their portion of the pristine-white stretch of sand, fencing off the area from the rest of the east-facing coastline. To their left, serving in the same manner as that far-off grove, rose a daunting cliff face about fifteen or twenty meters in height. Another plot of trees could be seen covering the cliff's plateau above them.

As for the beach itself, it had already been dotted with various signs of civilization, all likely due to the efforts of the Daidouji family employees. Straight ahead of them was planted a wide volleyball net, come complete with neighboring picnic tables pitched into the sand for holding any drinks or other belongings. Then, down the beach a ways sat three separate cabins set up along the cliff-risen treeline. Tomoyo made to point out that hiding behind those cabins, buried a small ways into the trees, was a shaded, open-air gazebo that held a pair of picnic tables. Perfect for any sudden rainstorms.

They had all been to beaches and various other getaways before, at one time or another in their lives, but today represented the first time that they would all be on their own for such an excursion. With only themselves to rely on, and with the peace and serenity in their new and isolated world blocking away their former lives for only a single, fleeting weekend, the excitement that hung in the air was quite tangible. To them, their new and diminutive world seemed like a true paradise.

Reios walked up to the front of the line, standing alongside Sakura and Syaoran as they themselves gazed across the beach before them. He stretched slightly, reaching back to adjust the staff attached to the rear of his belt, and commented, "This is quite the piece of land your family acquired, Tomoyo. I appreciate you inviting me here." Those behind him quickly sounded their equal appreciation.

"Well, it has been a long while since the eight of us have been able to all get together at the same time. It also seemed like a good opportunity to introduce a new friend," Tomoyo added before setting off into the white sand before them, "And what better an opportunity than a camp-out at a private beach?"

The group started to follow her, their direction leading them towards the group of cabins that sat further down the beach. Meanwhile, Syaoran hefted one of the three larger duffel bags that the males of the group were carrying (with Takashi and Eriol being required to share the burden on the heaviest one), and fell into step with Reios. With a pointing nod of his head, he indicated the staff that was strapped to the foreigner's belt, and in a low voice, he asked, "Do you ever take that thing off?"

Reios raised an eyebrow to the query, then looked out into the ocean thoughtfully, "Asking me to set this aside would be like asking the seas to give up their salt. It was a part of the oath I took, that this sword never leave my side when not necessary. My teacher was a bit of an eccentric, you see."

Syaoran merely shrugged in reply, since in the end he could say nothing against the man. He knew full well that he held the same attitude with his own weapon, even as he dug his left hand into his pocket – the one where his sword charm lay in wait – without even realizing it. But at least his own wasn't something that was so obvious.

When all was said and done, with their belongings organized and beds arranged, two of the three cabins had been taken. They were split between the two genders, of course. The third cabin, which was considerably smaller than the others, thus made itself useful in the way of equipment storage. As he was setting his own bags away within that third cabin, Syaoran noted with a slight interest that Reios had decided to put aside his staff-like katana for the time being, and was tucking it into an undisturbed corner of the cabin. When questioned, Reios replied with a rather contradictory statement, "What point is there for a weapon if no danger is present? Besides, it'll just get in the way of our volleyball game."

As Reios departed the cabin with an overly-anxious Takashi (who had supposedly already picked a side of the volleyball net for his team, not to mention the team itself), Syaoran removed from his own schoolbag a fist-sized, blue velvet, two-piece box. The edges of the box's lid were set with a glittering, silver lining. He stared at it for the longest time, knowing full well of what it symbolized. He knew full well what it would, in the end, do to the rest of his life, and his decision to finally bring it into the light of the world had been a long and agonizing time in coming. He had even been indecisive about it, almost, as he had worried severely for the longest time about having to do this, but it was too late for second thoughts now. Having heard that they were coming to an oceanfront beach, he had come up with the idea to bring it along and make use of the opportunity that such a locale could potentially offer. The opportunity that would be afforded to him at just before–

"What is it?"

Syaoran's heart nearly exploded from his chest, the shock of suddenly hearing Sakura's voice scaring him witless. He spun about on her, doing his best to hide the box behind him, "Err, just checking to make sure I, uh... didn't forget the, err... sunscreen! Yeah!"

He feared that his nervous reaction would give him away, what with Sakura's concerned expression about his sudden outburst suggesting that she was suspecting something to be wrong. Normally, she would have believed his excuse, smiled warmly for him, and left it well enough alone, so he must really have looked out of sorts just then for her to be wondering about him. If she were to ask him about what he was really doing, Syaoran knew that he wouldn't be able to lie to her. His whole plan would be ruined, and he wasn't sure if it would work properly if his plan didn't go exactly as he needed it to. He needed his plan to work properly, or else... or else the consequences could end up being too great for him to bear. His mind began to spin wildly, looking for any way that he could possibly use to get out of this mess before she attempted to say anything. Though with the scare that she had given him, he had a hard enough time just focusing on not outright panicking.

Fortunately, any possible questions for him were interrupted by a familiar, red-headed girl as Rika popped her head around the doorway, "Sakura, have you found the ball yet?"

"Oh, right!" she exclaimed, darting past a frozen-stiff Syaoran to where Tomoyo's portion of their belongings had been stationed. She dug through them for a moment before pulling out a white volleyball from the large duffel bag, then darted back to the door to hand it to Rika, who in turn left the cabin to bring it to the others. Before Sakura herself left, she turned back to Syaoran, "Come on, my team needs a fourth player, since Tomoyo's going to be recording the game. This is going to be fun!"

And before he could react to the sudden spike in his good luck, she was gone, and for a long, breathless moment, he just stood there. He was overjoyed like nothing else that he had been able to keep his secret, but his overwhelming relief at that same result kept him from being able to express it as such. He turned his back to the door and eyed the blue box in his hands once again. A confident grin crept onto his face as he placed the box into a darkened corner of the room, a place where it was unlikely that anyone would see it. He couldn't afford for it to be discovered, not until the proper time presented itself. He had been praying to the spirits of his family for that time to come ever since Tomoyo had invited him to this weekend getaway.

His name being called from outside the cabin finally brought him out of his personal thoughts. Grabbing the bottle of sunscreen out from his schoolbag, he made his way to the volleyball net that was near the cliff.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

It had been an early lunch by Syaoran's watch, reading at just a little under an hour before noon when they had seated themselves into the shaded gazebo behind the cabins. It was a good meal, regardless, with everyone partaking of some of the best sandwiches and prepared sushi they had had to date. All provided by Tomoyo and Rika, respectively, so such results came as no surprise to any of them, really. The two had noted that it was their way of making up for missing Sakura's birthday gathering. Regardless of the reason, however, it was apparent to everyone that they had put some of their best effort into the work, as the food all disappeared from the multiple carrying baskets well within five minutes of starting.

Syaoran downed the last of his sandwich – a rather flavorful tuna sandwich at that – with a shot of the orange juice that had also been provided, before speaking, "Thank you for the meal, it was great. You two really outdid yourselves."

Rika shook her head slightly, "Not really. To be honest, I asked my father to help with my half since I wanted to spend some time with him before he headed back overseas. Tomoyo's sandwiches, though, really were wonderful. And she did the work all on her own too!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if Tomoyo was capable of making anything!" Sakura added. Such commenting was prone to forcing out a slight blush of embarrassment from the topic of interest.

"Ah ah! Before you go saying that it wasn't that big of a deal," Reios put in, cutting off Tomoyo's attempt at a denying reply with a slightly roguish grin , "they're right. These sandwiches were amazingly good. It all was."

"And this beach is really cool, too!" Chiharu chimed in, "I'm surprised that your mother was able to find one so isolated, and especially in such a wonderful location."

Naoko bobbed her head enthusiastically, "Yeah, this nearby shade is nice, and the sand is really soft and white! Any whiter and it could probably pass off for snow!"

"That reminds me," Takashi took up, "about the story of how the first beaches were made."

Chiharu's eyebrow twitched, but it went unnoticed while Takashi continued, "A long time ago, beaches in Japan and the surrounding islands nearby didn't even exist, and were instead long fields of grass and washed-up sea weed along the entire length of the island's shorelines. Then one day, a traveling group of aliens found this planet, and decided to terra-form some of the landscape. It's said that using their spaceships, they transported massive quantities of sand from areas such as Africa or Egypt, and covered the entire coastline in sand. And not just here in Japan either – they supposedly went and created brand new beaches all over the world."

Eriol, who had remained relatively quiet up until that point, jumped into the story, "That's right, and it was all for the sole purpose of preventing homesickness. For, you see, most aliens that visited our Earth came from planets that had scenery much like the beaches we have today."

Takashi took over again, "In fact, there is supporting evidence that these alien worlds are all made up of oceans and beaches and nothing else. Evidence all in the form of pictures taken from telescopes both in orbit and on the ground. Unfortunately, they're all being suppressed by our world's governments in order to keep the knowledge of extraterrestrial existence down to a minimum."

"It is also interesting to note," Eriol put in, "that a small number of spaceships that the aliens had come in were also shown to have the power to temporarily alter a planet's orbit without affecting its ecosystems or gravity. This allowed them to witness an everlasting sunrise or sunset, depending on the coastline that they were currently inhabiting. In some locations, when the sands met up with the crimson-colored waters, it would seem like one were afloat in the middle of a giant ocean. The rays of the morning or evening sun would throw the entire landscape into a beautiful red glow."

"Wow, aliens could do that?" Sakura asked incredulously, "I hope I get up in time tomorrow to see it!"

Reios, on the other hand, was staring back and forth between the two flatly, "You're kidding me, right?"

Chiharu, who was sitting at the far end of the table with Rika and Naoko, and subsequently was out of reach of the two story-tellers, muttered openly to herself, "It's been almost four years since those two have seen each other, and yet they manage to throw in some crazy tall tale on their very first day back together. And without so much as a pause, even."

Rika leaned in closer to Chiharu, "Maybe they've been practicing through letters or e-mail?" Chiharu could only shake her head despondently.

Instead of also contemplating such potential methods of practice, Naoko rather forged ahead with their day plans, "So, what should we do next? I think that maybe we should find a place to camp out for the night. The weather forecast said that it would be clear skies straight up into Monday, and it would be a shame if we wasted all that time indoors."

Sakura was the first to jump onto the idea, "That sound's great! Are there any clearings nearby we can set up in for the night?"

Tomoyo worked her thoughts for a moment, trying to remember what her mother had told her of the nearby landscape, "I think that Mother had mentioned something about a clearing on top of the plateau. It supposedly has a full view of the night stars through the small grove of trees that are on top of it. To get to it, though, you have to go through a cave that's about a quarter of a kilometer further up the coastline, but its only accessible during a low tide."

"Well, it just so happens to be low tide now," Eriol noted, "and the waters shouldn't climb too much higher until well into the night. Do you have a mapping of the caverns?"

To everyone's regret, she shook her head, "No, I am afraid not. Mother has yet to have those caverns explored, and only knew about the plateau through aerial photographs and third-party accounts."

Reios grinned at the thought of an adventure, "Well, that sounds like we get to do some exploring then."

They were all in agreement, and within a half an hour they had collected all the supplies that they would need for a night of camping in the out of doors. But as they gathered everything at the base of the cliff, they soon realized that it would be too much for them to carry every single thing through unexplored caverns. Even if all of them were to take a portion of the load, it would still end up being too much for some of them. And as yet, they had not even collected any firewood for making a campfire to sit around.

Which was when Tomoyo pointed out a stretch of metal jutting out of the cliff's edge high above them, positioned just before the water's reach, "See that there? I think that's some kind of pulley. Maybe whomever owned this beach from before had it placed there to move stuff up more easily?"

Takashi crossed his arms in thought, "Maybe, if we sent a scouting party through to the plateau, and sent with them enough rope to pull everything to the top, we could avoid having to carry everything. It would also be safer if we only sent in a few people, anyway, in case something happens and we need to call for help. And then we wouldn't all have to go, since the rest of us could just get hauled up after all the camping gear."

Syaoran looked around to each of them, "Yeah, there's a good idea. But then, do we have any rope?"

It immediately dawned upon everyone that the events for the weekend hadn't called for any use of rope, and their hearts began to sink with the realization that it wasn't going to work out. A flash of pink broke onto the scene, however, as Tomoyo pulled a small cell phone from her pocket in an attempt to resolve the situation, "I could call our driver, who is stationed at a nearby town, and tell her to bring in the supplies we'll need to haul everything to the top. A one-hundred-foot length of rope and some kind of basin for carrying stuff would probably do it. She could buy those for us and probably be able to arrive here in the time it would take the scouting group to find their way, if they go now. We could turn the rope into a kind of grappling hook to get it up to the plateau, after that."

With their minds set back at ease, Eriol brought forth the biggest question, "All right, then that leaves who will be sent up through the caves. Personally, I'd like to remain behind and assist with whatever chores are left."

"I'll remain behind, too," Takashi said, "I can be of more use helping to gather up all the supplies that we'll need."

"Well, we know for sure that Tomoyo should be the one to lead the exploration group," Chiharu noted, "After all, it's her family's beach. Not only that, but they say that the first person to discover a new territory has the rights to naming it!"

Of course, with Tomoyo decided as the leader for the scouting party, it was easy to tell that Sakura was going to be nominated as a participant in the exploration. And what was an exploration team without some form of protection and physical assistance? With this in mind, it wasn't long before Syaoran, Reios, Sakura, and Tomoyo all stood at the shoreline before the cliff's edge, bidding farewell to those who were to remain behind.

"You four be careful," Rika demanded, "and make sure to call us if there are any problems."

"I'll keep this with me at all times," Takashi told them, noting Sakura's own copy of the pink-colored cell phone in his hand, "so keep in touch."

"We will," Tomoyo said simply, then turned to her traveling group, "Ready?"

Three nods replied to her, and with that they walked to and around the corner of the cliff while picking their way carefully along the various, washed-up and smoothed-over rocks embedded into the sand. A small ways up the coastline, just as Tomoyo had told them there would be, sat a small opening in the rock face. It was just about twice as tall as any of them, though just barely wide enough to support two of them shoulder to shoulder. Approaching the opening, glances into it revealed nothing beyond the pitch black of darkness that laid deep within it.

Sakura turned momentarily to stare out into the ocean, and she suddenly found herself wondering at how far out she would be able to see from the plateau, as opposed to her limited vantage point here at sea level. The thought of looking out across an endless field of water excited her greatly, to say the least. For that reason alone, she felt that the faster that they found their way through these caverns, the better.

Clicking on the flashlight held within her left hand, Sakura took point for the four-person exploration team. Stepping her way carefully along the damp and slippery rock ground, they began their journey into the dark caverns ahead.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=