"Something weird is going on…" Meilin said in a very quiet voice.
Sakura noticed as well because she had her eyes closed throughout the whole thing, but when
she reopened them, she found herself standing knee deep in water. She looked around to
see if everyone was here. They all were standing in the water, with the same look of
surprise. Sakura saw land, so she raced towards it. Just then she heard Tomoyo scream.
She turned around to see what happened.
"Something just slithered past my leg!" the terrified Tomoyo said.
"Don't move!" yelled Korman
"What do you meen don't move? That's exactly what I want to do…!" something made a slap
and a splash behind her. Tomoyo slowly turned her head around, to come face to face with
something. She gave a scream and ran as fast as she could.
"I told you don't move!" yelled Korman
Everyone turned to see what came up out of the water. Nothing was there.
"What ever it was, it's gone now." Syaoran said with a shrug
"No it's not…" Korman said, looking out at the water. He gave an order "No one move…" he
yelled
"Are you crazy! That thing looked like it could of eaten me!" shouted Tomoyo
"Well it's gonna do a lot more than eat you if you don't stop moving and concentrate on
where it's at." Korman was still telling orders.
"Like what?" Meilin piped up
"Oh nothing really. Just kill you or decapitate you and have you for dinner with a few
other stuff, that's all." Korman said with a half-sarcastic and half-serious voice.
That shut everyone up at the time. Sakura had learned to trust Korman when he pinpointed
the Death Card with out a lesion board.
Then another splash and a small scream came from Tomoyo.
"Tomoyo?" shouted Sakura but there was no answer.
Then, Tomoyo came up from under the water. She was choking and sputtering, and she was
bound to something. Sakura creened her neck a little closer to see what it was. It looked
like a snake's tail. Then she heard a loud rattle and hissing. She turned around to see
a massive mouth opened in front of her. But it slithered right past her.
She thought she heard both Syaoran and Korman mutter "Basilisk's…" at the same time, but
then she thought she heard wrong. A basilisk was a myth, and so was taming the elements
and the power of nature into cards. Sakura had to learn 'Expect the unexpected.' From
Kero-chan.
"Sakura, do you know what those are?" she heard Kero-chan whisper to her.
"Um… basilisk's?" she pretended to guess
"Yes. If they see anything move, they will go after it because they're blind. Plus their
fangs have deadly poison like rattle snakes and cobras do."
"Oh man… I was hoping they were wrong." Sakura said to no one.
"Say what?" Kero-chan whispered furiously
"Nothing…"
Sakura tried to walk over to the boys without making a sound. But the ripples that came
for her movements traveled through the water and reached the pair of Basilisks. They moved,
sensing the ripples, and dropped Tomoyo back into the water. They didn't bother getting
her again because they went straight for Sakura.
Both Korman and Syaoran saw this and both went for their own basilisk. Syaoran withdrew
his sword and jabbed the huge snake right where the skull met the neck. And with a quick
thrust with his sword, the Basilisk's head was cut off, and the lifeless body fell to
the ground. Korman kind of did the same thing but instead, he sliced his in half.
"Now we run!" shouted Korman
He took Meilin and brought her up on her feet and then ran from the corpses. Where blood
was suppose to to come out of the bodies of the basilisk's, there was a green and purple
poisonus color coming out. When they reached dry land, more basilisks came out of the
water and began feasting on the dead.
"Okay… that was just weird." Sakura said panting
"I thought… basilisks were… just myth…" Meilins said, lying down on the sandy beach.
"Obviously they haven't heard of myth's here." Said Syaoran.
Korman was taking care of Tomoyo and asking her if she was okay.
"I think someone has a girl friend…" Kero-chan whispered to the others.
Sakura and Meilin choked back laughter, and only smiled. Syaoran frowned.
"Well if the two love birds hurry up, maybe we'll figure out where we are." Syaoran said,
without lowering his voice.
He was right, they looked no where near where they lived. Tall tropical trees covered the
shoreline next to the beach, and even taller ones were on the mainland. A tall mountain
was in the center of the island. Whatever roamed in the darkness of the trees, would remain
a mystery until they went into them.
Korman and Tomoyo came walking over to the others, and just as wet as them too. They all
sat down on the beach to talk.
"Do you think this is another Nemesis Card?" Sakura asked Korman
"I dunno, nothing like this has ever happened to me when I caught all of them." He said
with a shrug
Syaoran bolted upward and pulled out his lesion board. "If it is a card, then the lesion
board should detect it, right?" he said to no one in particular.
"Not necessarily…" Korman said but Syaoran was already chanting the words.
"Source of light, with ancient spin. Send fourth the magic power within. Oracles of gold,
wood, water, fire, earth, clouds, rain, and electricity! Force, know my plight! Release
the light!"
Syaoran waited for something to happen, but nothing did. He just stood there with the
board in his hand, looking dumbstruck.
"I hate to say I told yah so, but…" Korman said looking up at Syaoran "I told yah so! The
cards we're dealing with now are stronger than the Clow Cards. They can cloak their
identities so that nothing magical can find them!" Korman was now on his feet.
Both Syaoran and Korman looked like they were going to go into a fistfight. When they
started to move towards one another, Sakura and Tomoyo rushed over to them to hold them
off.
"We can't be fighting one another. We've got to stick together to figure out how to get
off this stupid island!" yelled Meilin
Everyone stopped and looked at Meilin. Meilin covered her mouth and went red.
"Where did you learn that from?" Kero-chan asked
"I… um saw it on a TV show. You know the one where a little group of people are all stuck
in the wilderness somewhere and they have to survive off of the land. And they get voted
off." Meilin said
"You watch that?" Syaoran said looking more dumbstruck
"I'm not living off of rats and bugs the whole time we're here." Sakura, Korman, and
Tomoyo said in unison.
"Fine then. I'm going into that jungle alone." Meilin walked into the jungle.
The others just stood there, the way they were for the past fifteen minutes.
"Well, let's follow her and hope we don't run into trouble." Tomoyo said with a shrug
"I'm with you." Sakura said following Tomoyo
Both Syaoran and Korman looked at each other and glared. They stomped off into the jungle,
tying to ignore each other. Kero-chan was the last one to follow.
"Roasted cockroaches with a side of fresh rat tails, yum yummy." Kero-chan said to no one,
sarcastically. Then he flew off towards the others.
When they went into the jungle to find Meilin, they didn't have to look long. She was
waiting for them. She was sitting on a rock. But when the others came close to her, the
rock moved, sprouted crab like legs, and walked off. Meilin jumped off when it started
to move.
"I should not be surprised." She mumbled as she looked at the moving rock.
As they walked deeper into the jungle, no one said a word. They were all watching for
unsuspected surprises to come out and attack. It was getting dark, so Sakura put her foot
down and told everyone what she was thinking.
"We need to make camp or something because if we continue moving, who knows what we'll run
into."
Everyone stopped, except Syaoran. He just turned around and was walking backwards, while
holding out his hands as if saying so what.
"So… I've got a good sense of direction, I know where I'm go…"
The others heard a splash and the frantic sounds of Syaoran trying to get out of something.
The others ran ahead to see what happened.
"Why shouldn't I be surprised?" Korman muttered under his breath.
Syaoran was chest deep in quicksand, a common trap in jungles. The liquid like sand was
quickly sucking him in as he tried to get out.
"Don't move Syaoran!" shouted Meilin. Syaoran promptly stopped moving and stood there,
as still as he could.
Sakura was thinking as fast as she could on what to do. She was going between the Clow
Cards or a vine on a tree. She decided Clow Cards.
"O key of Clow, power of magic, power of light. Surrender the wand, the force ignight.
Release! Fly Card! Release and dispel, Fly!" Sakura's wand grew wings, and she straddled
it.
"Quick give me a vine or something that Syaoran can grab onto." Tomoyo ran over with a long
vine. Sakura took it and began to fly.
She couldn't fly to high or she would hit the canopy of the trees. But then she couldn't
get to low, or she might get caught in the quick sand too. Sakura had to get it right the
first time or there wouldn't be another chance and Syaoran would be dead. She pulled her
wand into a hover mode type of way, just above Syaoran. She dropped the vine, trying to
balance the weight from the vine and herself.
"Grab on!" she yelled to Syaoran.
Syaoran, trying to walk, could barely move. The thick, murky, sank was acting like a
suction cup and kept on sucking him back in. Once Syaoran finally got to the vine he
grabbed on. Now all Sakura had to do was pull him out, but how, she didn't know. The only
way was up, so that was where she was going to go, trees or no trees. She pulled and
controlled her wand at the same time. Syaoran was helpless at the time so he couldn't
do anything. That's when Sakura was coming closer to the trees. 'Now what are we going to
do?' she thought. Syaoran was half way up, out of the quicksand. Sakura saw Tomoyo holding
something again, but she couldn't see. Then, when Tomoyo threw it to Syaoran, she saw it
was another vine. They were going to try to direct him to land. She saw something yellow
start to fly towards her, which was Kero-chan.
"Listen kid, you need to fly towards the others. We need to drag Syaoran in or he's a
goner." Kero-chan pointed to the others as he spoke.
Sakura nodded and started to fly towards them, still balancing the weight of her and
Syaoran. Once Syaoran could reach his foot to the land, he tried to move his leg. Sakura
swore she saw Syaoran's veins in his neck almost pop out, because of all the effort he
was putting in to moving. She also thought she saw something red on his leg that he was
lifting. Sakura flew even closer to them, and then landing.
"We're going to pull him in, okay?" she shouted to the others.
They didn't reply, but they did grab onto the vine, showing that they were understanding.
The pulled with all of their might, trying not to loose their footing on the soft ground.
What felt like hours, they were still pulling. Syaoran finally got him foot on the
ground, and he started lifting his weight. Then he fell back on the ground, his leg
failing under his weight.
"Come on, pull harder!" Sakura yelled, even though she was pulling her hardest. Everyone
looked like they were going to pass out, and Syaoran couldn't do anything. Then with one
mighty heave, they pulled him out, then they all fell onto the ground, panting.
No one spoke, and no one looked at eachother. But Sakura did look up to see why Syaoran
fell on his own weight. She gasped at what she saw, and ran over to him with the rest of
her strength.
"Syaoran…" she gasped as she fell on the ground beside him. He was lying on his side, half
covered in sand and his own blood, and half not.
"I'm… okay…" he groaned. He tried turning over to see her face, then he tried getting up
on his feet, but he fell back down. But before he hit the ground Sakura ran to catch him.
"Yeah, and you lie… pretty bad." Sakura said with some affection in her voice, though she
didn't hear it.
A few meters away Kero-chan was whispering to Meilin. "Now we've got two more paired up…"
"Oh can it will yah." Meilin said as she tried to swat Kero-chan. She looked at Sakura
with jealousy.
Back with Sakura and Syaoran, Syaoran was trying to stand. Sakura every once in a while
rushed forward to stop him from falling but Syaoran did well, for having a beaten up leg.
"Are you sure you want to walk on that leg?" Sakura said to Syaoran, after he started to
lean on a tree. She was glancing at his leg, which started to bleed again.
"I said I was fine." He tried shifting his weight but he flinched at the pain and went
back to standing on his good leg. "But anyhow, that's twice I owe you," Sakura looked
up in confusion at his words "First with the Death Card, now this. I think it's starting
to build up to three." He said the last sentence, looking at his bad leg.
Sakura shook her head "You don't owe me anything. Come on let's try to get over to the
others." She held out her hand, but Syaoran refused to take it. When he tried to walk,
he stumbled backwards, and Sakura rushed up. He leaned on her and she took his weight.
'Hey, this seems familiar.' Sakura thought, smiling to herself. She had remembered the
dream. His body heat was starting to cover her. She also remembered the feeling of the
touch from his hand… Sakura shook her head, waking up from her daydream. She walked slowly,
so Syaoran couldn't fall. Once they were with the others, the question Syaoran was waiting
for popped up.
"What the heck happened to you 'Mr. I Know Where I'm Going'?" Korman sneered, seeing the
blood
"Shut up 'Mr. I Know Everything About This type of Stuff'." Syaoran shot back. If he
weren't so injured, he would have fought more with him, like, pushing his fist into his
face. He continued to lean on Sakura, who didn't seem to falter at his weight.
"Hey Tomoyo…" Tomoyo turned her head "Can you tell what bones Syaoran broke or if he did
more than break his bones."
"I'll try." She said walking over to them.
Syaoran didn't bother to argue, he was really tired and sore. Sakura helped him over to a
large rock (they checked if it wasn't going to walk off or was alive in any way.) Once he
was sitting down, Tomoyo looked at his leg.
"We need to clean the blood away, or at least stop the bleeding. He's going to pass out or
worse if we don't." she said, after bending down and looking at it.
"Syaoran we're going to go find water and ecetera. Kero-chan will stay with you, just to
make sure you stay put. We'll be back soon." Sakura said, as if taking the whole thing in
her hands.
Sakura dashed off with Tomoyo trailing behind. 'Jeeze! I've never seen Sakura like this
before. She's never been this concerned about Syaoran or him about her.' Tomoyo thought
to herself. It was getting dark so they had to hurry. Once the others were all gone,
Kero-chan came floating over, giving off a small yellow glow.
"Hey kid, you okay?" he asked. Syaoran looked at him as if to say 'What do you think?'
Kero-chan saw this and murmured "Okay, okay, I just asked…" he floated a few feet away
and floated there.
'Great, just great!' Syaoran wanted to yell, but kept it to himself. 'I get hurt, really
bad' he gave his leg a quick glance then looked at a rock just inches away 'Then, I have
to be helped by a girl! How bad can bad get?! Well, it wasn't so bad… What am I saying?!'
he hit his forehead with the palm of his hand 'I don't like her, I don't even trust her!
Well, then again… I kinda do. Oh, I give up. I'm just gona… fall asleep until… they get…
back.' He fell back on the rock and made himself comfortable as possible. 'Heck… maybe
Sakura… isn't so bad… maybe I… do… care… for… her.' With that final thought he fell asleep.
Sakura and the rest of the group were having their own troubles. They were following the
Glow Card, who was supposed to be leading them to water. Instead, the card wanted to play
and it kept leading them deeper and deeper into the jungle. Finally they found water, and
headed back. Once or twice they ran into giant lizard like creatures. They passed them
with little ease but they did get pass them alive. Once they returned, the moon was
straight above their heads.
"What took yah so long?" Kero-chan yawned.
"We ran into a few problems along the way." Meilin admitted
Sakura walked to Syaoran with the water, who was still asleep. Tomoyo put her hand on her
shoulder.
"We should wait till morning." She whispered "He looked really tired, so let him sleep.
The blood stopped flowing, don't worry."
Sakura glanced at Syaoran and sighed. "You're right… come on let's set up some kind of
fire."
Sakura and Tomoyo left towards the others, only two meters away from Syaoran. There they
started a fire, which warmed them a little. No one really wanted to sleep, especially
Sakura. She kept glancing back at Syaoran, with a worried look on her face. Korman was
talking to Tomoyo in hushed voices, while Meilin was sitting curled up, looking at the
fire. Kero-chan was watching them all, just to make sure they would fall asleep. As time
passed, the fire went down. The rest did fall asleep adventually; the last one was Sakura.
She checked to see if everyone was asleep, not just faking it. Once she made sure, she
went over to Syaoran, who was in a really deep sleep.
She just stood there for a few moments, looking at him. They way his chest rose and fell
with each breath, the way his face looked while he was asleep. She had only seen him once
before like this, and he was awake. It was in the dream she had about the Death Card. The
way his soft brown eyes looked at her with loving affection. She also remembered the touch
of his hand, the same warm hand that she felt on her shoulder today, that he placed on her
chin, the touch of his lips on hers… Sakura smiled. That dream she had was a fantasy dream
and a nightmare at the same time. She liked that dream even if it was part nightmare.
Sakura walked over to the rock Syaoran was resting on. She bent down and rested her head
against the rock.
'I wish… I just… wish' she thought before she fell into a deep sleep.
Sakura woke with a start. She looked around. When she did she jumped up with a start, she
had fallen asleep next to Syaoran. 'Oh man, what was I thinking?' she thought. The moon
was just starting to sink in the sky, and the sun's rays were just showing over the trees.
But that wasn't what had awoken her. She heard noises coming from the trees. Sakura walked
over to them, shaking a little from the cold morning dew. She saw something flash between
the branches.
"What the heck?" Sakura continued to walk, but something slowly came out of the trees,
which made her stop.
What came out was a child, a female child only five or four. Her face and a curious look
on it and she had the tip of her right pointer finger in her mouth. She had hair that went
down to her waist, and was in a low ponytail. Little tendrils fell down in front of her
ears, and only came up to her cheek. Her hair was a light blue, the same color of a clear
sky; her eyes were the same color. What she was wearing looked like a torn t-shirt and a
little skirt that only came up to her knees. They were the same sky blue color. The girl
looked at Sakura in a confused way, but then she smiled, with her finger still in her
mouth.
"Um… are you lost?" Sakura asked
The little girl didn't seem to know what Sakura was saying, because she tilted her head to
one side, then upright again.
"Um…" was all Sakura could say. She wasn't used to talking to little kids like this. She'd
had little experience, and that little she had was talking with younger relatives.
Then, to Sakura's surprise, the girl giggled. She shook her head no and then took her
finger out of her mouth.
"Oh… I see!" Sakura said "You want to play a guessing game!" she said smiling
"Play guess!" the little girl said happily, and smiling at the same time. Her voice was
high, childish and playful sounding.
"Can you come over here so we can sit?" Sakura asked, pointing to a small clearing, not
far from the others.
The girl looked over to Sakura's pointing finger, and then followed where the finger was
pointing. She smiled again and ran over to Sakura, took her hand, and ran to the clearing
with her. Once there, Sakura and the young child laughed. They were having a good time so
far. Once they stopped, Sakura sat down, and the girl still stood.
"Would you like to sit on my lap?" Sakura asked, remembering what her younger cousin always
wanted to do.
The girl smiled and went over to Sakura, and sat down.
"First, I need to know your name…" Sakura said
"Know name?" The young girl imitated, looking confused and putting her finger back into her
mouth.
"Well, I should tell you my name first. My name is Sakura. Can you say that? Sa-kur-a." she
sounded it out for her.
"Sah-ker-wah" she tried saying Sakura's name
"Very good! Now, can you tell me what your name is?"
The little girl looked away for a few moments, as if thinking. Then she turned her face
back to Sakura.
"Yashi-mo" she said, almost without sounding it out.
"*Yashimo? Is that your name?" Sakura asked, just to make sure.
"*Yashi" Yashimo said, with a satisfied look on her face.
'Her real name is Yashimo, but her nickname Yashi…' Sakura thought, putting the pieces
together.
"Yashi, Yashi, Yashi…" Yashimo babbled and sang while slightly rocking back and fourth.
"Well Yashi, how old are you?"
Yashi stopped her singing and looked at Sakura. She held up all five fingers on her left
hand and showed them to Sakura.
"You're five years old?"
"Yashi five years old. Yashi, Yashi, Yashi! Five, Five, Five!" she wriggled her left hand
back and fourth with all five fingers up.
Sakura giggled, and Yashi joined in.
"So where's your mommy and daddy? Or…" Sakura asked a question that she wasn't sure if
Yashimo could answer.
Yashi looked confused once more. "Mommy…? Daddy…?" it was like she never heard of the
words before.
"Never mind…" Sakura said just realizing something.
"Yashi never mind… Sahker-wah." Yashi went back to swaying
So, Yashi was a five year old girl and who has never heard of a mom and dad. 'I wonder…'
Sakura thought. Sakura heard rustling in the clearing, some of her friends were up.
"Hey Yashi, would you like to meet some of my friends?" Sakura asked with a smile
"Yashi meet Sahkerwah friends!" Yashimo bolted up out of Sakura's lap, and waited for her.
"Okay, okay!" Sakura walked with Yashi to the place where he friends were sleeping. Once
they got there everyone turned their attention to Sakura.
"Where have you been?" Meilin snapped
"Who's your little friend, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked cheerfully
Korman and Kero-chan looked up to see what Tomoyo meant by Sakura's 'Little friend'.
Yashi stuck her finger back into her mouth and went closer to Sakura.
"Everyone, meet Yashimo, but she likes to be called Yashi." Said Sakura to the others.
Yashi seemed to come out a little after her name was called. She smiled.
"Hi Yashi, I'm Tomoyo." Tomoyo did a little wave to show Yashi where she was at.
"Hi…Mady-son." Said Yashi, giving a little curtsy to her.
"Wow, I never knew she could do that." Sakura said in surprise at Yashi's curtsy.
Yashi then looked at the others, as if asking for their names. Then she saw Kero-chan,
and said the one thing Kero-chan hated most.
"Teddy?" Yashi looked at Kero-chan
"I'm not a teddy!" Kero-chan almost snapped "My name is Kero-chan…"
"Kerwo" Yashi said giving a little curtsy to him too.
"She's got more respect towards me than you others! I'm beginning to like her…" said
Kero-chan beaming
"Hello, I'm Korman." Korman said in a way that seemed to say 'Give me a break'
Yashi did a curtsy to him too "Hi Kowr-men." She said
Korman rolled his eyes and muttered something that no one could hear.
Meilin raised up her hand slowly "I'm… Meilin… um… hi Yashi…" she never had been around
kids younger than her, especially ones that were five years old
Yashi looked at Meilin in surprise, then she smiled "Hi Meilin." She said Meilin's name
perfectly without sounding it out. Then she gave her a curtsy
"There's one more I want you to meet Yashi." Sakura said to her. She led Yashi to where
Li was sitting. He obviously just got up, because he was rubbing the sleep away from his
eyes.
"Li…" said Sakura softly "Meet Yashi. Yashi this is Syaoran."
Syaoran looked at Yashi and Yashi looked at Syaoran. Yashi smiled and said hi. Syaoran
didn't know what to say he looked up and stared at Sakura blankly. Yashi saw this and
looked at Syaoran, wondering why he wasn't responding. Sakura looked at Syaoran, trying
to send him a message that said 'Come on, say something' on her face. But Syaoran's
face stayed the same, he didn't even bother.
"Come on Yashi, Syaoran doesn't want to talk." Sakura took Yashi's hand and walked out
of the clearing. Yashi looked a little sad that she couldn't get Syaoran to talk to her.
They were walking through the path that led to where the others were, and Yashi let go of
Sakura's hand.
Sakura turned and looked at Yashi "Oh, you wana walk by yourself, that's fine." Sakura
started walking again. Then she stopped and turned around, she didn't hear Yashi walking
anymore. When she did turn around, no one was there.
"Yashi?" called out Sakura but there was no answer. She called out her name again, and
still no answer. Sakura started to worry. She raced back to Syaoran, just to think that
she left to go get Syaoran to talk to her. But when she got there Syaoran looked at her.
"What do you want?" he snapped
"Have you seen Yashi, she's gone somewhere and I think she came back here." Said Sakura
"No, I haven't seen the girl. Now leave me alone…" snapped Syaoran again
Sakura left to go ask the others. But when she did, they all said no. Tomoyo and Meilin
looked really worried, and Kero-chan looked like he had lost one of his own arms. Korman
didn't give, but he volunteered to go help look.
Sakura showed them the place where she last saw Yashi, right where there was a huge tree.
The tree was about a hundred feet wide, and its top couldn't be seen. Right below it was
where they all were standing.
"Are you sure this was the last place?" Meilin asked
"Yes, it was…" Sakura said
Tomoyo, Kero-chan and Korman were looking at the tree and around it.
"You don't suppose the tree ate her, do you?" Kero-chan asked, being sarcastic.
But Korman didn't see the sarcasm.
"Don't be a stupid git, tree's don't eat people." Korman snapped
"Well, basilisks and rocks that walk away when you sit on them, aren't suppose to exist.
I think it might be possible… but not likely." Said Tomoyo, in her mater-of-fact voice.
"Hey… what's that on that bolder over there?" Kero-chan pointed to the bolder behind the
tree. He flew over to it.
"Hey everyone, I think I found something." He shouted
Everyone came rushing over to see what the big commotion was about. Kero-chan found
something all right, and it looked like a kids drawing. It had two points that were connected
together, then it dropped down to a point that was pointing downwards. Then it had the
same two connected points on the other side. In the center was the two letters F and E,
which were surrounded by a circle. A straight line, measured up exactly with the lower
point, kept the two letters apart. On one side of a double sided point had the letter W,
and on the other, another W. All around the whole picture were strange markings.
"Um… anyone who knows what this is can tell me now." Meilin said.
Sakura traced the lines with her finger while the others behind her were talking.
"It's a riddle, all of this adds up to something that we must have to know to get off of
this island." Korman said.
"Looks like someone had fun…" Kero-chan joked
Korman scowled and rolled his eyes.
"The two letters in the center add up to something, or… they could meen two words." Said
Sakura to the others. "But what it is… I dunno…"
"Fe is a name…" Tomoyo said
"Fun and excitement…?" Kero-chan guessed
"Fun experiments…" said Korman. Then he looked at the two w's "With words…?"
"Flowers and eggs?" Meilin's guess was just as bad as the others.
"Fire and… Earth?" Sakura added on her guess. "We need to get Syaoran… he knows about this
kind of stuff."
"Syaoran? You meen Mr. I Know Where…" Korman was cut off
"Listen, what is with you and Syaoran?! Ever since you two have met, you've been like two
tom cats fighting over a girl." Yelled Meilin
Her words silenced him for a little, until they went to get Syaoran. Once they were there,
he started talking to Tomoyo, and kept glancing over to Sakura. Sakura ignored him and
went to go get Syaoran.
"Syaoran, since you're the only one who knows how to solve impossible things, we… um… need
your help." Said Sakura with a sigh.
"What for, I can't go anywhere with a busted leg." He pointed to his leg which was bandaged
up (Tomoyo had done it) "Besides that, what do you need my help for? You've got Korman…"
His words went through her like a knife 'God… why did I say that?' he thought, seeing tears
swell up in her eyes. Sakura tried wiping the tears away, but hey kept coming back.
"Listen, I'm sorry. Korman is right now on my… um… 'To kill list'. Ever since he came, he
just has looked suspicious, that's all. Anyway, we're a team, with or without my busted
leg, I'm in." he smiled hoping it will make her feel better.
"You… meen it?" Sakura sniffed
"Yep, even if I have to kill something I'll do it."
To Syaoran's surprise, Sakura raced over to him and threw her arms around his neck and had
a complete breakdown.
"Oh Syaoran!" she cried "I dragged you into this, it was me! With the Death Card and all.
I almost got you killed, or maybe worse. Oh thank you, thank you!" Sakura released Syaoran,
who looked too surprised to move.
"Um… okay…" Syaoran stammered, but he was happy to see a smile on her face again. "Can you…
er… help me up?"
"Oh!" cried Sakura "I almost forgot." She smiled and helped Syaoran up. He supported his
weight on her, who took it easily.
The group walked to the weird picture and Syaoran started to study it. He found a stick on
the ground, got it, and re-drew the picture in the sand.
"Sakura, if I think what this means than what I'm going to tell you to do will work, or it
will make it more understandable."
Sakura came to full attention, and the others looked forward to see what was going to
happen.
"Take out all of your element cards." Syaoran ordered Sakura
Sakura did as Syaoran said to. She stood there holding the Windy, Watery, and Firey cards
in her hand, waiting for the next order.
"Now, place Windy on the right sided w. Watery on the other w, and Firey on the f."
Sakura did as she was told. When she stepped back, the picture began to glow. As if a giant
hand was drawing, three colors, red, yellow, and blue covered the picture. It looked like
a map. Some of it wasn't colored in though.
"Okay, I'm still confused." Meilin said as she put her hands on her hips.
Syaoran looked at the picture on the ground, and the picture on the rock. "It's a mixture
of a riddle and a map. This just made it a little easier. The two sides here" he pointed to the double points on both sides "are the mountains over there." He pointed to the twin peeks on both sides of the island. "And these two colors here" he pointed to the blue and yellow. "represent wind and water."
"What do they have to do with this?" Tomoyo asked
"Haven't you noticed? When we got here, there was a small breeze blowing, and if I'm correct
, you all had to go to the ocean runoff to get water."
Everyone nodded.
"Well, if you don't notice now, there is no breeze, not even a small one. And no water can
be seen in miles, except the ocean. The twin peeks on both sides, block the wind and water
from coming into this place."
The others looked around, kind of understanding.
"And these" Syaoran was pointing to the f and e now. "Represent fire and earth, this means
that this is where both Fire and Earth elements come together."
"Just like a volcano?" asked Tomoyo
"Just like a volcano." Said Syaoran, nodding. "And if I'm not mistaken, that big mountain
over there" he pointed to the mountain that dwarfed the others, and the only one dead
center of the island "is a dormant volcano."
Everyone stopped moving and looked at him.
"A what?" Meilin practically shouted.
"You know, a volcano. Something that holds magma and erupts at anytime, anyplace, anywhere."
Syaoran was making little gestures with his hands.
"I know what it is…" Meilin said rolling her eyes
"And if I'm correct, that's where the Clow Card is, or whatever the new set is…"
"Nemesis Cards." Said both Sakura and Korman together.
"Whatever. Well, if we want to get off of this weird island, we need to get there. So, if
anyone has any idea's, hand them over now." Syaoran looked at everyone.
"Well, the Nemesis Card that is in there is got to be at least a B class card, by the way
its done all of this." Sakura said with a shrug.
Korman and Kero-chan were the only ones that did know what Sakura meant by the B class. The
Nemesis Cards were all in class order, according to their power. Sakura had one chance at
another B class card, and that was the Death Card. And she then figured out why they were
all put into classes with power.
"Sakura's right, that card was able to trap us here with some pretty hefty magic, so my bet
is that it is a B class. But if we haven't seen its true power, then it might be a A
class." Korman said, while leaning on a tree.
"Okay, I don't know what you all are talking about but that's okay." Said Tomoyo. Meilin
looked just as confused
"It takes a long time to explain." Said Kero-chan
"Judging by the distance from here to there, it should take us a few hours to get there,
that is without any obstacles." Syaoran said, looking at the mountain.
"Well, lets get going then…" Sakura said with a sigh
Korman didn't move with the others.
"Are you coming or shall we wait till you're eaten by a pterodactyl, or something." Meilin
shouted
Korman smiled his mysterious smile. "Oh don't worry…" he rustled around in his cape for
something "I've got my own ways of travel." He took out a small capsule and smiled at the
others. "See you there!" he threw the capsule down. A huge puff of smoke rose up into the
air. The others closed their eyes so that they wouldn't get smoke in them. Once they
reopened them, Korman wasn't there.
"Well, he could of left some of those for us." Whined Kero-chan
"Nah, he's probably now lost in the jungle, some fifty miles away from the destination." Said
Syaoran not caring where Korman was.
Syaoran was correct. On the other side of the island, was Korman. He was lost and was
looking confused.
"Wait a sec.! Those usually work!" he shouted to no one.
Now back with the others. They were starting the long trek to the volcano. Syaoran was
having the most difficulty, because of his leg. Sakura was holding his weight well, but
faltered a couple of times.
"I really hope we don't run into anything!" yelled Tomoyo
That was probably the last thing anyone said on the trip. They were all either
concentrating, tired of walking, or wondering how long until they got to there
destination. They were passing trees, rocks, some monsters, more trees, more rocks, and
even some more monsters. A lot of the monsters had some kind of spell that either poisoned,
froze, burned, or shocked their opponents. A lot of the monsters were either basilisks
(Kero-chan put them into groups under poison, fire, ice, or thunder basilisks.), giant
dinosaur like creatures, spinx's, and a giant rock crab (the one's that they first saw we
babies, this one was huge.). Around the fifteenth basilisk, Sakura finally spoke up.
"I'm beginning to give up on this!" she yelled.
"No kidden, I've got scratches everywhere." Said Tomoyo
"You and me both." Meilin said, looking at her arms and legs.
"We need to keep going of we're going to get off of this island." Said Syaoran, who was
panting and gasping for air.
"So we should get going." Kero-chan started to fly away from the others then he stopped.
"Hello! Are you all coming or not?" he shouted.
"We're comin' we're comin'" said Sakura.
The others just looked at her like she lost her mind. Syaoran had to follow because she
was the one helping him walk. Meilin and Tomoyo looked at each other, shrugged, and f
ollowed. They were half way up the mountain anyway so they had to continue. They trekked
further and further up the side, knowing that the volcano they were on could erupt any
minute. But still, they wanted to go back home, and Sakura wanted to find Yashi.
Finally, they were at some kind of entrance. It looked like any kind of cave, but Syaoran
said that it was the way to the Nemesis Card. That's when Sakura felt it. A strong surge of
power was going through the cave, so strong that it almost gave Sakura a headache.
"Oh man…" Sakura groaned, holding her temples.
"What?" asked Syaoran
"You meen, you can't feel that, that strong surge of power?" Sakura looked pale.
"Um, maybe we should sit down for a little while." Said Tomoyo in a concerned voice.
"No. We can't. We need to get back home, and we need to find…" Sakura stopped abruptly
"We need to find what?" asked Meilin, looking at Sakura like she was hiding something
"Nothing…" Sakura mumbled "Let's just get going."
Everyone looked at Sakura with concerned looks. Then they started to move again. The cave
was getting darker and darker, until it was so dark that they couldn't even see their own
hands infront of their faces. Sakura started to call out the Glow Card again, but
something happened. Fire magically appeared in the torches lining the walls. The room they
were in was circular, with a cliff like structure on the far side of the cavern. And lying
down in the center was Korman. He looked a mess; there were scratches all over his arms.
They weren't the kind you usually receive when you get paper cuts, no, these were cuts that
looked like a mountain lion used you as a scratching post. He was slowly moving over and
groaning.
"Oh my… Korman!" Tomoyo tried running over to him, but Sakura grabbed her on her shoulder.
"Don't, something is watching us and I don't like it." Sakura said as she glanced around.
Sakura was right. In the distance they could hear the sound of claws on stone. Large, ebony,
claws that could tear flesh in seconds.
"Wha- What's that noise?" Meilin asked shakily.
"No clue but we should try getting out of here…" said Syaoran
"No… we have to wait." Sakura said holding out her hand grasping the air.
"Say what?! Those things and what ever they are, are probably the ones that attacked
Korman!" shouted Kero-chan
"I've just got the feeling we should wait." Said Sakura taking a few steps forward.
They waited what seemed like hours, and the claw sounds kept getting closer and closer.
"I'm going to leave really soon you know…" Syaoran said trying to back up.
But before he could do anything, the claw noises stopped. They all looked around to see
what had made them. Then bursting out into full view were giant creatures. The firelight
flickered on the bodies so they couldn't really see what they were.
"Not more dragons…" moaned Sakura
But she was far off. The firelight lit up the ice blue eyes, the color that sends chills
up your spine. Large clawed talons gripped and un-gripped the stone floor. The heads were
of an eagle with the sharp beak and the sharp looking eyes. The bodies were of a giant
cant, either lion, tiger, jaguar or a mountain lion. Their front legs were the legs of an
eagle, powerful in gripping and slashing, while the back were the legs of the giant cat,
good for pouncing and full of strong mussels. Long tails of a cat that swiped the ground.
The necks of the beasts had a feathery mane. Right above the front shoulders were wings,
some that looked like a dragons, some of them looked like an eagles. They growled and held
their heads up high.
"Not dragons…" said Meilin
"But… gryphons!" said Syaoran with his eyes bulging.
The gryphons were mighty looking creatures, the smallest standing at six feet tall to the
tallest at twenty feet. There were only five of them; three of them little ones, while two
of them were full-grown.
"Hi Sakurwah!"
Sakura looked up. On the back of one of the smaller gryphons, sitting side saddled right
infront of the wing joint, was none other than Yashi. She was smiling down on them, like
a kid getting off of a pony ride.
"Yashimo, what are you doing here?" Meilin asked with a gasp
Yashi frowned "Yashi, I like Yashi." She said
"Sorry, Yashi, what are you doing here?" Meilin asked again.
Yashi smiled, giggled, and pointed down to them "Found Yashi, game over."
Meilin looked at Tomoyo, who shrugged, then looked at Syaoran, who did the same thing, and
then looked at Sakura.
"She was playing a game! Like hide and go seek, we were suppose to find her, and we just
did." Sakura looked at Yashi at talked to her "Hey Yashi why don't you come down."
Yashi patted the gryphon's head and the gryphon growled in thanks "Yashi stay with friends.
Would you like to meet?"
"Um…" said Sakura
Syaoran bent down to talk to the others "We have to find the card, 'cause this is getting
way out of hand." Then he looked at Korman who was slowly turning over and groaning "And
we need to get him out of here before he dies or something." There was a spark of joy when
Syaoran said this.
"Still, maybe we should follow her or something because she might lead us to the card."
Said Sakura
"But there could still be trouble or something…" said Meilin
"Well it's not every day you get to meet a gryphon…" Tomoyo said from behind them.
"Fine it's settled" Sakura said. She turned to Yashi "Sure, we'd like to meet your
friends."
Yashi giggled with glee and jumped off, landing perfectly. Syaoran moved over to the stone
wall to watch what else would happen. Yashi raced over to Sakura and took her hand and
raced back to the gryphon's, with the others behind her. Yashi stopped infront of the
biggest gryphons, which was lying down. Yashi pointed to it.
"This *Yoguro." The big gryphon wheeled its head around to look at Yashi. She giggled, and
Sakura just stood still. Tomoyo had gotten Korman, who still looked dazed. His cuts looked
dry and they were starting to heal. Tomoyo was now with one of the smaller gryphons while
Korman was resting.
"They are really playful Sakura, try petting it or something." She shouted. Sakura looked
at her like she lost her mind, then she tried it. She slowly reached out her hand to touch
Yoguro's beak.
'I really hope my hand doesn't get bitten off.' She thought as she closed her eyes at the
thought. Then she felt the cool feel of Yoguro's beak. She opened her eyes to look at her
hand. Then she heard a purring noise. Yashi doubled over in the giggles.
"Yoguro say's he likes you Sakurwah."
Sakura smiled and couldn't believe she was doing this. Yashi took them around to meet the
other gryphon's named *Yagil (Yoguro's mate), *Kuijo, *Dodaro, and *Sharn. They all looked
nice like a big happy family. Then a horn blared deeper into the cave.
"Yashi and friends must go." Yashi jumped on a gryphon again and the whole group began to
move. "Sakurwah come?" Yashi looked egar.
Sakura looked at the others. "Yep, we're coming." At her words, the gryphon Kuijo bent
down to let her on. Sakura looked at the other's and Syaoran came hobbling over.
"I'm going with you no matter what." He got on behind Sakura and Kero-chan flew over.
"Mind if I join yah?" he said as he sat infront of Sakura. Sakura smiled. Then she jolted
as Kuijo got up.
"This feels like your riding a horse!" Syaoran exclaimed.
The others got on Dodaro, and they all followed Sharn, who Yashi was riding.
"Follow Yashi!" Yashi turned around and gripped Sharn's feathery mane. Then Sharn bolted
in front of Yagil and Yaguro, who didn't bother to stop the young gryphon. Both Kuijo and
Dodaro followed, while the others held on for life.
"A really fast horse at that!" yelled Syaoran
Everyone was closing their eyes that they didn't know that they were up in the air. The
gryphons swiped their wings and were up in the sky. Sakura opened her eyes and noticed
this. They were miles up in the air. Everything below them looked so little, and the
tallest of trees looked like saplings. The wind was rustling through her hair.
"It's like your flying in an airplane!" yelled Sakura
"What?!" Syaoran yelled back
"I said…!" Sakura almost had laughed
"I still can't hear you!" yelled Syaoran from behind her.
The sun was coming up. Everyone was watching at how beautiful it looked. Mixtures of
yellow, orange, red, purple, and some blue. It was just coming over the trees so it wasn't
that high yet. Then everything stopped moving and they were jolted forward.
"Houston, the Eagle has landed!" Korman yelled with a huge smile on his face.
"You meen the gryphon has landed!" Kero-chan yelled, flying off.
The gryphons let their passengers off. Then they headed into the larger cave they landed
in front of.
"Should we follow?" asked Tomoyo
"Yeah… I think." Said Sakura
They followed the gryphons, which Yashi didn't get off of hers. She was really quiet as
she rode, as if thinking. Then they reached a huge door. The door looked lock and rusted.
But Yoguro used his head to push it open. It opened with a creak then once they were in
and the door was shut, the gasped at what they saw.
"Wow! It's beautiful!" Meilin gasped
Beautiful just about summoned the cavern up. Crystals of every size lined the walls,
ceiling, and even making a neat little path in the floor. The colors were blue and white,
and in the core of the crystals were either red or dark pink. They were glowing
iridescent, even without the sunlight. But behind the crystals were rivers of magma.
Spewing hot molten lava.
"Syaoran look at your leg! Your standing on it and the gash is gone!" Sakura said
Syaoran looked down at his leg. Sakura was right, nothing was wrong with it. The bandage
was even gone. Syaoran's face lifted up to Sakura and he smiled.
"Korman, look at your arms as well. They're healed!" Tomoyo yelled happily
Korman turned him arms over and over again and his face lit up with a smile.
Then a voice came out of no where.
"Guardians of the cards, welcome. Reach your destination by following the path." The voice
stopped speaking. No one could tell if it was a female voice or male, they just looked
confused.
"Shall we take the path like they said?" Korman whispered.
"Or shall we stay here?" Meilin said just as low
"And where did Yashi and the gryphons go?" Sakura said in a loud voice.
Everyone whipped their heads up to find Sakura looking everywhere for them.
"They probably followed the path so they could get out of here." Syaoran said with a shrug
That calmed Sakura down for a few moments as she started to walk the path. The others
followed, not wanting to find out what else lived on the island. The path twisted and
turned every way. A few times they ran into dead ends, that's when they back tracked.
Then when they reached a certain path the voice came back.
"You are almost to the finish, hurry down the path to reach your goal." The voice
disappeared again.
Everyone stopped moving and smiled. Some of them whispered 'yes!' to themselves as they
continued onward. Finally they reached a larger cavern with the same crystals with the
magma behind them. Sitting on one side of the room was the group of gryphons, asleep. On
the far wall opposite of them, was Yashi with someone.
That someone was a female wearing all light blue, even her skin was a light blue, just
lighter than the rest. She had long hair just like Yashi and her face looked the same as
hers as well. She was wearing what looked like a wizard robe. On her arms were a straight
line of crystals, embedded into her skin. She had a crown, a small tiara that was barely
visible. She had a kind look on her face and was running her fingers through Yashi's hair.
Yashi was asleep on a small step. She was resting her head on the person's lap.
"Um… Hello?" Sakura said. 'She's definitely the Nemesis Card.' She added as a side note to
herself.
The person looked up and stared at them. Then she smiled. "Hello" she said. Her voice
sounded smooth like water and as pure as light.
"Are you the Nemesis Card?" Syaoran blurted out.
She smiled again and started running her fingers through Yashi's hair again. "Yes, I am.
I brought you here to see if you are really the chosen one's of the Nemesis Cards."
"Which card are you?" Kero-chan said pointing at her.
"I am called the Game Card." She said
There was a pause between the group and the Game Card. Then the master question came up.
"Why did you bring us here?" Korman asked
"I brought you here because I needed proof. I have heard of you from others. This was a
test to see if you held the Clow Cards and the Book of the Nemesis Gods. You have proved
you do and you are the masters."
"Why is Yashi here?" Sakura asked taking a step towards the card.
The Game Card smiled at Sakura and then looked at Yashi. "Yashi is here because she wanted
to. Before I made my move, I was injured severely. I was also smaller and less noticeable.
Yashi found me and took care of me. She had no family, so she survived any way she could.
She stole and she found. Over the weeks, I became stronger. I had heard stories form my
other brothers and sisters of humans who had the power to control the elements. And after
I saw you" she nodded at Sakura, Syaoran, Kero-chan, and Tomoyo. "capture many of the Clow
Cards, I had to find out. Once I made this place" she waved her hands around at the cavern "
I created the games that you went through over the few days. The Game of Friendship, The
Game of Curage, The Game of Skill, and The Game of Danger, all of them involved me in them."
Everyone was silent.
'So the card is basically Yashi's… mother…' Sakura thought.
"So what do we have to do to go home?" Korman snapped
"Nothing, I will go easy on you this time, but the others won't." The Game Card gently
placed Yashi's head on the ground as she started to stand up.
Kero-chan looked at Sakura "Say the magic words kid and we're going home."
"Hold on!" Sakura whispered back to him. Then she turned her attention to the Game Card
"Just a few things, and I'm going to put them into one so keep your ears open. Why did
Syaoran get hurt when he was caught in that sand trap? And what is going to happen to
Yashi?"
Game was up now and walking down towards them when she answered. "Syaoran was hurt because
his leg went too far down in the sand. At the bottom there were sand grimers, little
monsters that live at the bottom and suck who ever falls into their domain, down towards
them." She sighed and looked back at Yashi, who was still asleep. "As for Yashi…" she
paused looking at the others "She will forget everything about the island and me." She
sounded sad "If you will, please take her back to the human world, and let her stay with
your family." Game looked at Sakura, as did everyone else. "Your father and brother, and
everyone else but those here, will not know that she isn't from the family. It will seem
like she had been there forever." Then she smiled "I hope you take good care of her."
The Game Card was now on the floor, waiting to be resealed back in her card.
"If you want to…" Sakura sighed, but she was happy she was finally getting off of the
island. She called out her wand and chanted the magic words to seal the cards. "Oh Gods
of Nemesis, seal the warrior of Games!" everyone looked at her.
"She's saying the wrong words!" Meilin hissed
"What was done, is now undone. Seal the warrior now!" Sakura finished.
In a flash of light, three green lightning bolts bolted down and surrounded the Game Card.
Then in a hiss of smoke, the thunder cleared. Floating in the middle of the air was the
Game Card, with her eyes closed in the picture she was facing forward in her robes.
Sakura promptly dropped her wand as the card came down to her. She landed on her knees and
took the card and looked at it.
"You said the wrong words, but that was a cool capture! Too bad I didn't get it on tape…"
Tomoyo said
Sakura felt dazed 'Wrong words? They seemed right to me…' she thought.
Then a rumble came from deep in the cave. Cracks on the floor appeared and lava could be
seen through them. The gryphons were gone, nowhere to be seen.
"The island is disappearing, we need to leave now!" yelled Korman
Sakura got up and re listened to the words of the Game Card.
_ "If you will, please take her back to the human world."_
'Take Yashi back' Sakura kept thinking to herself as she ran to get Yashi. When she got to
her, she was still asleep. 'The Game Card put a spell on her!' she thought as she carried
her in her arms. Once she rejoined the group, a white light flashed and they were off the
island.
"That was some trip." Syaoran moaned.
Once they returned, they fell onto the ground from out of the sky. When they landed, they
landed in the same area that they started at.
"Anyone know where Yashi went to?" Sakura said looking around
"Dunno, last time I saw her she was with…" Meilin started to say.
"Hi Sakurwah!" came a voice
Everyone turned to see Yashi with Sakura's father. He had his hand on her head and his face
was beaming.
"Well hello kids! Nice day isn't it?" he said with a smile
"Hello Mr. Kinomoto!" said everyone together.
"Yashi thinks so don't you." He said looking at Yashi.
"Yashi say pretty day!"
Tomoyo whispered something in Sakura's ear.
"The Game Card wasn't kidding that he'd think she was part of the family." She said with a
slight giggle.
"Everyone come on in! I made chocolate chip cookies if anyone wants some!" Mr.Kinomoto
marched back to the house with Yashi right behind him. Everyone stared walking towards
Sakura's house.
"No kidding, Yashi is just going fit right in with the family." Sakura said with a smile.
The group of kids laughed like they didn't go to some deserted island and had to work some
magic. They just acted like nothing happened.
Did you enjoy that? I took me a loooooooooooooooong time to think of this so I really hope
you did. Now that you're finished, please R&R! Your comments, good and bad,
and suggestions are really appreciated by me. And I also thank the others who read my last
story, and liked it. If anyone can tell me what Tomoyo's English last name is, I thank you.
The third story is coming up, so hold on. Time to start writing again! ~~ Stargazer89
Sakura noticed as well because she had her eyes closed throughout the whole thing, but when
she reopened them, she found herself standing knee deep in water. She looked around to
see if everyone was here. They all were standing in the water, with the same look of
surprise. Sakura saw land, so she raced towards it. Just then she heard Tomoyo scream.
She turned around to see what happened.
"Something just slithered past my leg!" the terrified Tomoyo said.
"Don't move!" yelled Korman
"What do you meen don't move? That's exactly what I want to do…!" something made a slap
and a splash behind her. Tomoyo slowly turned her head around, to come face to face with
something. She gave a scream and ran as fast as she could.
"I told you don't move!" yelled Korman
Everyone turned to see what came up out of the water. Nothing was there.
"What ever it was, it's gone now." Syaoran said with a shrug
"No it's not…" Korman said, looking out at the water. He gave an order "No one move…" he
yelled
"Are you crazy! That thing looked like it could of eaten me!" shouted Tomoyo
"Well it's gonna do a lot more than eat you if you don't stop moving and concentrate on
where it's at." Korman was still telling orders.
"Like what?" Meilin piped up
"Oh nothing really. Just kill you or decapitate you and have you for dinner with a few
other stuff, that's all." Korman said with a half-sarcastic and half-serious voice.
That shut everyone up at the time. Sakura had learned to trust Korman when he pinpointed
the Death Card with out a lesion board.
Then another splash and a small scream came from Tomoyo.
"Tomoyo?" shouted Sakura but there was no answer.
Then, Tomoyo came up from under the water. She was choking and sputtering, and she was
bound to something. Sakura creened her neck a little closer to see what it was. It looked
like a snake's tail. Then she heard a loud rattle and hissing. She turned around to see
a massive mouth opened in front of her. But it slithered right past her.
She thought she heard both Syaoran and Korman mutter "Basilisk's…" at the same time, but
then she thought she heard wrong. A basilisk was a myth, and so was taming the elements
and the power of nature into cards. Sakura had to learn 'Expect the unexpected.' From
Kero-chan.
"Sakura, do you know what those are?" she heard Kero-chan whisper to her.
"Um… basilisk's?" she pretended to guess
"Yes. If they see anything move, they will go after it because they're blind. Plus their
fangs have deadly poison like rattle snakes and cobras do."
"Oh man… I was hoping they were wrong." Sakura said to no one.
"Say what?" Kero-chan whispered furiously
"Nothing…"
Sakura tried to walk over to the boys without making a sound. But the ripples that came
for her movements traveled through the water and reached the pair of Basilisks. They moved,
sensing the ripples, and dropped Tomoyo back into the water. They didn't bother getting
her again because they went straight for Sakura.
Both Korman and Syaoran saw this and both went for their own basilisk. Syaoran withdrew
his sword and jabbed the huge snake right where the skull met the neck. And with a quick
thrust with his sword, the Basilisk's head was cut off, and the lifeless body fell to
the ground. Korman kind of did the same thing but instead, he sliced his in half.
"Now we run!" shouted Korman
He took Meilin and brought her up on her feet and then ran from the corpses. Where blood
was suppose to to come out of the bodies of the basilisk's, there was a green and purple
poisonus color coming out. When they reached dry land, more basilisks came out of the
water and began feasting on the dead.
"Okay… that was just weird." Sakura said panting
"I thought… basilisks were… just myth…" Meilins said, lying down on the sandy beach.
"Obviously they haven't heard of myth's here." Said Syaoran.
Korman was taking care of Tomoyo and asking her if she was okay.
"I think someone has a girl friend…" Kero-chan whispered to the others.
Sakura and Meilin choked back laughter, and only smiled. Syaoran frowned.
"Well if the two love birds hurry up, maybe we'll figure out where we are." Syaoran said,
without lowering his voice.
He was right, they looked no where near where they lived. Tall tropical trees covered the
shoreline next to the beach, and even taller ones were on the mainland. A tall mountain
was in the center of the island. Whatever roamed in the darkness of the trees, would remain
a mystery until they went into them.
Korman and Tomoyo came walking over to the others, and just as wet as them too. They all
sat down on the beach to talk.
"Do you think this is another Nemesis Card?" Sakura asked Korman
"I dunno, nothing like this has ever happened to me when I caught all of them." He said
with a shrug
Syaoran bolted upward and pulled out his lesion board. "If it is a card, then the lesion
board should detect it, right?" he said to no one in particular.
"Not necessarily…" Korman said but Syaoran was already chanting the words.
"Source of light, with ancient spin. Send fourth the magic power within. Oracles of gold,
wood, water, fire, earth, clouds, rain, and electricity! Force, know my plight! Release
the light!"
Syaoran waited for something to happen, but nothing did. He just stood there with the
board in his hand, looking dumbstruck.
"I hate to say I told yah so, but…" Korman said looking up at Syaoran "I told yah so! The
cards we're dealing with now are stronger than the Clow Cards. They can cloak their
identities so that nothing magical can find them!" Korman was now on his feet.
Both Syaoran and Korman looked like they were going to go into a fistfight. When they
started to move towards one another, Sakura and Tomoyo rushed over to them to hold them
off.
"We can't be fighting one another. We've got to stick together to figure out how to get
off this stupid island!" yelled Meilin
Everyone stopped and looked at Meilin. Meilin covered her mouth and went red.
"Where did you learn that from?" Kero-chan asked
"I… um saw it on a TV show. You know the one where a little group of people are all stuck
in the wilderness somewhere and they have to survive off of the land. And they get voted
off." Meilin said
"You watch that?" Syaoran said looking more dumbstruck
"I'm not living off of rats and bugs the whole time we're here." Sakura, Korman, and
Tomoyo said in unison.
"Fine then. I'm going into that jungle alone." Meilin walked into the jungle.
The others just stood there, the way they were for the past fifteen minutes.
"Well, let's follow her and hope we don't run into trouble." Tomoyo said with a shrug
"I'm with you." Sakura said following Tomoyo
Both Syaoran and Korman looked at each other and glared. They stomped off into the jungle,
tying to ignore each other. Kero-chan was the last one to follow.
"Roasted cockroaches with a side of fresh rat tails, yum yummy." Kero-chan said to no one,
sarcastically. Then he flew off towards the others.
When they went into the jungle to find Meilin, they didn't have to look long. She was
waiting for them. She was sitting on a rock. But when the others came close to her, the
rock moved, sprouted crab like legs, and walked off. Meilin jumped off when it started
to move.
"I should not be surprised." She mumbled as she looked at the moving rock.
As they walked deeper into the jungle, no one said a word. They were all watching for
unsuspected surprises to come out and attack. It was getting dark, so Sakura put her foot
down and told everyone what she was thinking.
"We need to make camp or something because if we continue moving, who knows what we'll run
into."
Everyone stopped, except Syaoran. He just turned around and was walking backwards, while
holding out his hands as if saying so what.
"So… I've got a good sense of direction, I know where I'm go…"
The others heard a splash and the frantic sounds of Syaoran trying to get out of something.
The others ran ahead to see what happened.
"Why shouldn't I be surprised?" Korman muttered under his breath.
Syaoran was chest deep in quicksand, a common trap in jungles. The liquid like sand was
quickly sucking him in as he tried to get out.
"Don't move Syaoran!" shouted Meilin. Syaoran promptly stopped moving and stood there,
as still as he could.
Sakura was thinking as fast as she could on what to do. She was going between the Clow
Cards or a vine on a tree. She decided Clow Cards.
"O key of Clow, power of magic, power of light. Surrender the wand, the force ignight.
Release! Fly Card! Release and dispel, Fly!" Sakura's wand grew wings, and she straddled
it.
"Quick give me a vine or something that Syaoran can grab onto." Tomoyo ran over with a long
vine. Sakura took it and began to fly.
She couldn't fly to high or she would hit the canopy of the trees. But then she couldn't
get to low, or she might get caught in the quick sand too. Sakura had to get it right the
first time or there wouldn't be another chance and Syaoran would be dead. She pulled her
wand into a hover mode type of way, just above Syaoran. She dropped the vine, trying to
balance the weight from the vine and herself.
"Grab on!" she yelled to Syaoran.
Syaoran, trying to walk, could barely move. The thick, murky, sank was acting like a
suction cup and kept on sucking him back in. Once Syaoran finally got to the vine he
grabbed on. Now all Sakura had to do was pull him out, but how, she didn't know. The only
way was up, so that was where she was going to go, trees or no trees. She pulled and
controlled her wand at the same time. Syaoran was helpless at the time so he couldn't
do anything. That's when Sakura was coming closer to the trees. 'Now what are we going to
do?' she thought. Syaoran was half way up, out of the quicksand. Sakura saw Tomoyo holding
something again, but she couldn't see. Then, when Tomoyo threw it to Syaoran, she saw it
was another vine. They were going to try to direct him to land. She saw something yellow
start to fly towards her, which was Kero-chan.
"Listen kid, you need to fly towards the others. We need to drag Syaoran in or he's a
goner." Kero-chan pointed to the others as he spoke.
Sakura nodded and started to fly towards them, still balancing the weight of her and
Syaoran. Once Syaoran could reach his foot to the land, he tried to move his leg. Sakura
swore she saw Syaoran's veins in his neck almost pop out, because of all the effort he
was putting in to moving. She also thought she saw something red on his leg that he was
lifting. Sakura flew even closer to them, and then landing.
"We're going to pull him in, okay?" she shouted to the others.
They didn't reply, but they did grab onto the vine, showing that they were understanding.
The pulled with all of their might, trying not to loose their footing on the soft ground.
What felt like hours, they were still pulling. Syaoran finally got him foot on the
ground, and he started lifting his weight. Then he fell back on the ground, his leg
failing under his weight.
"Come on, pull harder!" Sakura yelled, even though she was pulling her hardest. Everyone
looked like they were going to pass out, and Syaoran couldn't do anything. Then with one
mighty heave, they pulled him out, then they all fell onto the ground, panting.
No one spoke, and no one looked at eachother. But Sakura did look up to see why Syaoran
fell on his own weight. She gasped at what she saw, and ran over to him with the rest of
her strength.
"Syaoran…" she gasped as she fell on the ground beside him. He was lying on his side, half
covered in sand and his own blood, and half not.
"I'm… okay…" he groaned. He tried turning over to see her face, then he tried getting up
on his feet, but he fell back down. But before he hit the ground Sakura ran to catch him.
"Yeah, and you lie… pretty bad." Sakura said with some affection in her voice, though she
didn't hear it.
A few meters away Kero-chan was whispering to Meilin. "Now we've got two more paired up…"
"Oh can it will yah." Meilin said as she tried to swat Kero-chan. She looked at Sakura
with jealousy.
Back with Sakura and Syaoran, Syaoran was trying to stand. Sakura every once in a while
rushed forward to stop him from falling but Syaoran did well, for having a beaten up leg.
"Are you sure you want to walk on that leg?" Sakura said to Syaoran, after he started to
lean on a tree. She was glancing at his leg, which started to bleed again.
"I said I was fine." He tried shifting his weight but he flinched at the pain and went
back to standing on his good leg. "But anyhow, that's twice I owe you," Sakura looked
up in confusion at his words "First with the Death Card, now this. I think it's starting
to build up to three." He said the last sentence, looking at his bad leg.
Sakura shook her head "You don't owe me anything. Come on let's try to get over to the
others." She held out her hand, but Syaoran refused to take it. When he tried to walk,
he stumbled backwards, and Sakura rushed up. He leaned on her and she took his weight.
'Hey, this seems familiar.' Sakura thought, smiling to herself. She had remembered the
dream. His body heat was starting to cover her. She also remembered the feeling of the
touch from his hand… Sakura shook her head, waking up from her daydream. She walked slowly,
so Syaoran couldn't fall. Once they were with the others, the question Syaoran was waiting
for popped up.
"What the heck happened to you 'Mr. I Know Where I'm Going'?" Korman sneered, seeing the
blood
"Shut up 'Mr. I Know Everything About This type of Stuff'." Syaoran shot back. If he
weren't so injured, he would have fought more with him, like, pushing his fist into his
face. He continued to lean on Sakura, who didn't seem to falter at his weight.
"Hey Tomoyo…" Tomoyo turned her head "Can you tell what bones Syaoran broke or if he did
more than break his bones."
"I'll try." She said walking over to them.
Syaoran didn't bother to argue, he was really tired and sore. Sakura helped him over to a
large rock (they checked if it wasn't going to walk off or was alive in any way.) Once he
was sitting down, Tomoyo looked at his leg.
"We need to clean the blood away, or at least stop the bleeding. He's going to pass out or
worse if we don't." she said, after bending down and looking at it.
"Syaoran we're going to go find water and ecetera. Kero-chan will stay with you, just to
make sure you stay put. We'll be back soon." Sakura said, as if taking the whole thing in
her hands.
Sakura dashed off with Tomoyo trailing behind. 'Jeeze! I've never seen Sakura like this
before. She's never been this concerned about Syaoran or him about her.' Tomoyo thought
to herself. It was getting dark so they had to hurry. Once the others were all gone,
Kero-chan came floating over, giving off a small yellow glow.
"Hey kid, you okay?" he asked. Syaoran looked at him as if to say 'What do you think?'
Kero-chan saw this and murmured "Okay, okay, I just asked…" he floated a few feet away
and floated there.
'Great, just great!' Syaoran wanted to yell, but kept it to himself. 'I get hurt, really
bad' he gave his leg a quick glance then looked at a rock just inches away 'Then, I have
to be helped by a girl! How bad can bad get?! Well, it wasn't so bad… What am I saying?!'
he hit his forehead with the palm of his hand 'I don't like her, I don't even trust her!
Well, then again… I kinda do. Oh, I give up. I'm just gona… fall asleep until… they get…
back.' He fell back on the rock and made himself comfortable as possible. 'Heck… maybe
Sakura… isn't so bad… maybe I… do… care… for… her.' With that final thought he fell asleep.
Sakura and the rest of the group were having their own troubles. They were following the
Glow Card, who was supposed to be leading them to water. Instead, the card wanted to play
and it kept leading them deeper and deeper into the jungle. Finally they found water, and
headed back. Once or twice they ran into giant lizard like creatures. They passed them
with little ease but they did get pass them alive. Once they returned, the moon was
straight above their heads.
"What took yah so long?" Kero-chan yawned.
"We ran into a few problems along the way." Meilin admitted
Sakura walked to Syaoran with the water, who was still asleep. Tomoyo put her hand on her
shoulder.
"We should wait till morning." She whispered "He looked really tired, so let him sleep.
The blood stopped flowing, don't worry."
Sakura glanced at Syaoran and sighed. "You're right… come on let's set up some kind of
fire."
Sakura and Tomoyo left towards the others, only two meters away from Syaoran. There they
started a fire, which warmed them a little. No one really wanted to sleep, especially
Sakura. She kept glancing back at Syaoran, with a worried look on her face. Korman was
talking to Tomoyo in hushed voices, while Meilin was sitting curled up, looking at the
fire. Kero-chan was watching them all, just to make sure they would fall asleep. As time
passed, the fire went down. The rest did fall asleep adventually; the last one was Sakura.
She checked to see if everyone was asleep, not just faking it. Once she made sure, she
went over to Syaoran, who was in a really deep sleep.
She just stood there for a few moments, looking at him. They way his chest rose and fell
with each breath, the way his face looked while he was asleep. She had only seen him once
before like this, and he was awake. It was in the dream she had about the Death Card. The
way his soft brown eyes looked at her with loving affection. She also remembered the touch
of his hand, the same warm hand that she felt on her shoulder today, that he placed on her
chin, the touch of his lips on hers… Sakura smiled. That dream she had was a fantasy dream
and a nightmare at the same time. She liked that dream even if it was part nightmare.
Sakura walked over to the rock Syaoran was resting on. She bent down and rested her head
against the rock.
'I wish… I just… wish' she thought before she fell into a deep sleep.
Sakura woke with a start. She looked around. When she did she jumped up with a start, she
had fallen asleep next to Syaoran. 'Oh man, what was I thinking?' she thought. The moon
was just starting to sink in the sky, and the sun's rays were just showing over the trees.
But that wasn't what had awoken her. She heard noises coming from the trees. Sakura walked
over to them, shaking a little from the cold morning dew. She saw something flash between
the branches.
"What the heck?" Sakura continued to walk, but something slowly came out of the trees,
which made her stop.
What came out was a child, a female child only five or four. Her face and a curious look
on it and she had the tip of her right pointer finger in her mouth. She had hair that went
down to her waist, and was in a low ponytail. Little tendrils fell down in front of her
ears, and only came up to her cheek. Her hair was a light blue, the same color of a clear
sky; her eyes were the same color. What she was wearing looked like a torn t-shirt and a
little skirt that only came up to her knees. They were the same sky blue color. The girl
looked at Sakura in a confused way, but then she smiled, with her finger still in her
mouth.
"Um… are you lost?" Sakura asked
The little girl didn't seem to know what Sakura was saying, because she tilted her head to
one side, then upright again.
"Um…" was all Sakura could say. She wasn't used to talking to little kids like this. She'd
had little experience, and that little she had was talking with younger relatives.
Then, to Sakura's surprise, the girl giggled. She shook her head no and then took her
finger out of her mouth.
"Oh… I see!" Sakura said "You want to play a guessing game!" she said smiling
"Play guess!" the little girl said happily, and smiling at the same time. Her voice was
high, childish and playful sounding.
"Can you come over here so we can sit?" Sakura asked, pointing to a small clearing, not
far from the others.
The girl looked over to Sakura's pointing finger, and then followed where the finger was
pointing. She smiled again and ran over to Sakura, took her hand, and ran to the clearing
with her. Once there, Sakura and the young child laughed. They were having a good time so
far. Once they stopped, Sakura sat down, and the girl still stood.
"Would you like to sit on my lap?" Sakura asked, remembering what her younger cousin always
wanted to do.
The girl smiled and went over to Sakura, and sat down.
"First, I need to know your name…" Sakura said
"Know name?" The young girl imitated, looking confused and putting her finger back into her
mouth.
"Well, I should tell you my name first. My name is Sakura. Can you say that? Sa-kur-a." she
sounded it out for her.
"Sah-ker-wah" she tried saying Sakura's name
"Very good! Now, can you tell me what your name is?"
The little girl looked away for a few moments, as if thinking. Then she turned her face
back to Sakura.
"Yashi-mo" she said, almost without sounding it out.
"*Yashimo? Is that your name?" Sakura asked, just to make sure.
"*Yashi" Yashimo said, with a satisfied look on her face.
'Her real name is Yashimo, but her nickname Yashi…' Sakura thought, putting the pieces
together.
"Yashi, Yashi, Yashi…" Yashimo babbled and sang while slightly rocking back and fourth.
"Well Yashi, how old are you?"
Yashi stopped her singing and looked at Sakura. She held up all five fingers on her left
hand and showed them to Sakura.
"You're five years old?"
"Yashi five years old. Yashi, Yashi, Yashi! Five, Five, Five!" she wriggled her left hand
back and fourth with all five fingers up.
Sakura giggled, and Yashi joined in.
"So where's your mommy and daddy? Or…" Sakura asked a question that she wasn't sure if
Yashimo could answer.
Yashi looked confused once more. "Mommy…? Daddy…?" it was like she never heard of the
words before.
"Never mind…" Sakura said just realizing something.
"Yashi never mind… Sahker-wah." Yashi went back to swaying
So, Yashi was a five year old girl and who has never heard of a mom and dad. 'I wonder…'
Sakura thought. Sakura heard rustling in the clearing, some of her friends were up.
"Hey Yashi, would you like to meet some of my friends?" Sakura asked with a smile
"Yashi meet Sahkerwah friends!" Yashimo bolted up out of Sakura's lap, and waited for her.
"Okay, okay!" Sakura walked with Yashi to the place where he friends were sleeping. Once
they got there everyone turned their attention to Sakura.
"Where have you been?" Meilin snapped
"Who's your little friend, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked cheerfully
Korman and Kero-chan looked up to see what Tomoyo meant by Sakura's 'Little friend'.
Yashi stuck her finger back into her mouth and went closer to Sakura.
"Everyone, meet Yashimo, but she likes to be called Yashi." Said Sakura to the others.
Yashi seemed to come out a little after her name was called. She smiled.
"Hi Yashi, I'm Tomoyo." Tomoyo did a little wave to show Yashi where she was at.
"Hi…Mady-son." Said Yashi, giving a little curtsy to her.
"Wow, I never knew she could do that." Sakura said in surprise at Yashi's curtsy.
Yashi then looked at the others, as if asking for their names. Then she saw Kero-chan,
and said the one thing Kero-chan hated most.
"Teddy?" Yashi looked at Kero-chan
"I'm not a teddy!" Kero-chan almost snapped "My name is Kero-chan…"
"Kerwo" Yashi said giving a little curtsy to him too.
"She's got more respect towards me than you others! I'm beginning to like her…" said
Kero-chan beaming
"Hello, I'm Korman." Korman said in a way that seemed to say 'Give me a break'
Yashi did a curtsy to him too "Hi Kowr-men." She said
Korman rolled his eyes and muttered something that no one could hear.
Meilin raised up her hand slowly "I'm… Meilin… um… hi Yashi…" she never had been around
kids younger than her, especially ones that were five years old
Yashi looked at Meilin in surprise, then she smiled "Hi Meilin." She said Meilin's name
perfectly without sounding it out. Then she gave her a curtsy
"There's one more I want you to meet Yashi." Sakura said to her. She led Yashi to where
Li was sitting. He obviously just got up, because he was rubbing the sleep away from his
eyes.
"Li…" said Sakura softly "Meet Yashi. Yashi this is Syaoran."
Syaoran looked at Yashi and Yashi looked at Syaoran. Yashi smiled and said hi. Syaoran
didn't know what to say he looked up and stared at Sakura blankly. Yashi saw this and
looked at Syaoran, wondering why he wasn't responding. Sakura looked at Syaoran, trying
to send him a message that said 'Come on, say something' on her face. But Syaoran's
face stayed the same, he didn't even bother.
"Come on Yashi, Syaoran doesn't want to talk." Sakura took Yashi's hand and walked out
of the clearing. Yashi looked a little sad that she couldn't get Syaoran to talk to her.
They were walking through the path that led to where the others were, and Yashi let go of
Sakura's hand.
Sakura turned and looked at Yashi "Oh, you wana walk by yourself, that's fine." Sakura
started walking again. Then she stopped and turned around, she didn't hear Yashi walking
anymore. When she did turn around, no one was there.
"Yashi?" called out Sakura but there was no answer. She called out her name again, and
still no answer. Sakura started to worry. She raced back to Syaoran, just to think that
she left to go get Syaoran to talk to her. But when she got there Syaoran looked at her.
"What do you want?" he snapped
"Have you seen Yashi, she's gone somewhere and I think she came back here." Said Sakura
"No, I haven't seen the girl. Now leave me alone…" snapped Syaoran again
Sakura left to go ask the others. But when she did, they all said no. Tomoyo and Meilin
looked really worried, and Kero-chan looked like he had lost one of his own arms. Korman
didn't give, but he volunteered to go help look.
Sakura showed them the place where she last saw Yashi, right where there was a huge tree.
The tree was about a hundred feet wide, and its top couldn't be seen. Right below it was
where they all were standing.
"Are you sure this was the last place?" Meilin asked
"Yes, it was…" Sakura said
Tomoyo, Kero-chan and Korman were looking at the tree and around it.
"You don't suppose the tree ate her, do you?" Kero-chan asked, being sarcastic.
But Korman didn't see the sarcasm.
"Don't be a stupid git, tree's don't eat people." Korman snapped
"Well, basilisks and rocks that walk away when you sit on them, aren't suppose to exist.
I think it might be possible… but not likely." Said Tomoyo, in her mater-of-fact voice.
"Hey… what's that on that bolder over there?" Kero-chan pointed to the bolder behind the
tree. He flew over to it.
"Hey everyone, I think I found something." He shouted
Everyone came rushing over to see what the big commotion was about. Kero-chan found
something all right, and it looked like a kids drawing. It had two points that were connected
together, then it dropped down to a point that was pointing downwards. Then it had the
same two connected points on the other side. In the center was the two letters F and E,
which were surrounded by a circle. A straight line, measured up exactly with the lower
point, kept the two letters apart. On one side of a double sided point had the letter W,
and on the other, another W. All around the whole picture were strange markings.
"Um… anyone who knows what this is can tell me now." Meilin said.
Sakura traced the lines with her finger while the others behind her were talking.
"It's a riddle, all of this adds up to something that we must have to know to get off of
this island." Korman said.
"Looks like someone had fun…" Kero-chan joked
Korman scowled and rolled his eyes.
"The two letters in the center add up to something, or… they could meen two words." Said
Sakura to the others. "But what it is… I dunno…"
"Fe is a name…" Tomoyo said
"Fun and excitement…?" Kero-chan guessed
"Fun experiments…" said Korman. Then he looked at the two w's "With words…?"
"Flowers and eggs?" Meilin's guess was just as bad as the others.
"Fire and… Earth?" Sakura added on her guess. "We need to get Syaoran… he knows about this
kind of stuff."
"Syaoran? You meen Mr. I Know Where…" Korman was cut off
"Listen, what is with you and Syaoran?! Ever since you two have met, you've been like two
tom cats fighting over a girl." Yelled Meilin
Her words silenced him for a little, until they went to get Syaoran. Once they were there,
he started talking to Tomoyo, and kept glancing over to Sakura. Sakura ignored him and
went to go get Syaoran.
"Syaoran, since you're the only one who knows how to solve impossible things, we… um… need
your help." Said Sakura with a sigh.
"What for, I can't go anywhere with a busted leg." He pointed to his leg which was bandaged
up (Tomoyo had done it) "Besides that, what do you need my help for? You've got Korman…"
His words went through her like a knife 'God… why did I say that?' he thought, seeing tears
swell up in her eyes. Sakura tried wiping the tears away, but hey kept coming back.
"Listen, I'm sorry. Korman is right now on my… um… 'To kill list'. Ever since he came, he
just has looked suspicious, that's all. Anyway, we're a team, with or without my busted
leg, I'm in." he smiled hoping it will make her feel better.
"You… meen it?" Sakura sniffed
"Yep, even if I have to kill something I'll do it."
To Syaoran's surprise, Sakura raced over to him and threw her arms around his neck and had
a complete breakdown.
"Oh Syaoran!" she cried "I dragged you into this, it was me! With the Death Card and all.
I almost got you killed, or maybe worse. Oh thank you, thank you!" Sakura released Syaoran,
who looked too surprised to move.
"Um… okay…" Syaoran stammered, but he was happy to see a smile on her face again. "Can you…
er… help me up?"
"Oh!" cried Sakura "I almost forgot." She smiled and helped Syaoran up. He supported his
weight on her, who took it easily.
The group walked to the weird picture and Syaoran started to study it. He found a stick on
the ground, got it, and re-drew the picture in the sand.
"Sakura, if I think what this means than what I'm going to tell you to do will work, or it
will make it more understandable."
Sakura came to full attention, and the others looked forward to see what was going to
happen.
"Take out all of your element cards." Syaoran ordered Sakura
Sakura did as Syaoran said to. She stood there holding the Windy, Watery, and Firey cards
in her hand, waiting for the next order.
"Now, place Windy on the right sided w. Watery on the other w, and Firey on the f."
Sakura did as she was told. When she stepped back, the picture began to glow. As if a giant
hand was drawing, three colors, red, yellow, and blue covered the picture. It looked like
a map. Some of it wasn't colored in though.
"Okay, I'm still confused." Meilin said as she put her hands on her hips.
Syaoran looked at the picture on the ground, and the picture on the rock. "It's a mixture
of a riddle and a map. This just made it a little easier. The two sides here" he pointed to the double points on both sides "are the mountains over there." He pointed to the twin peeks on both sides of the island. "And these two colors here" he pointed to the blue and yellow. "represent wind and water."
"What do they have to do with this?" Tomoyo asked
"Haven't you noticed? When we got here, there was a small breeze blowing, and if I'm correct
, you all had to go to the ocean runoff to get water."
Everyone nodded.
"Well, if you don't notice now, there is no breeze, not even a small one. And no water can
be seen in miles, except the ocean. The twin peeks on both sides, block the wind and water
from coming into this place."
The others looked around, kind of understanding.
"And these" Syaoran was pointing to the f and e now. "Represent fire and earth, this means
that this is where both Fire and Earth elements come together."
"Just like a volcano?" asked Tomoyo
"Just like a volcano." Said Syaoran, nodding. "And if I'm not mistaken, that big mountain
over there" he pointed to the mountain that dwarfed the others, and the only one dead
center of the island "is a dormant volcano."
Everyone stopped moving and looked at him.
"A what?" Meilin practically shouted.
"You know, a volcano. Something that holds magma and erupts at anytime, anyplace, anywhere."
Syaoran was making little gestures with his hands.
"I know what it is…" Meilin said rolling her eyes
"And if I'm correct, that's where the Clow Card is, or whatever the new set is…"
"Nemesis Cards." Said both Sakura and Korman together.
"Whatever. Well, if we want to get off of this weird island, we need to get there. So, if
anyone has any idea's, hand them over now." Syaoran looked at everyone.
"Well, the Nemesis Card that is in there is got to be at least a B class card, by the way
its done all of this." Sakura said with a shrug.
Korman and Kero-chan were the only ones that did know what Sakura meant by the B class. The
Nemesis Cards were all in class order, according to their power. Sakura had one chance at
another B class card, and that was the Death Card. And she then figured out why they were
all put into classes with power.
"Sakura's right, that card was able to trap us here with some pretty hefty magic, so my bet
is that it is a B class. But if we haven't seen its true power, then it might be a A
class." Korman said, while leaning on a tree.
"Okay, I don't know what you all are talking about but that's okay." Said Tomoyo. Meilin
looked just as confused
"It takes a long time to explain." Said Kero-chan
"Judging by the distance from here to there, it should take us a few hours to get there,
that is without any obstacles." Syaoran said, looking at the mountain.
"Well, lets get going then…" Sakura said with a sigh
Korman didn't move with the others.
"Are you coming or shall we wait till you're eaten by a pterodactyl, or something." Meilin
shouted
Korman smiled his mysterious smile. "Oh don't worry…" he rustled around in his cape for
something "I've got my own ways of travel." He took out a small capsule and smiled at the
others. "See you there!" he threw the capsule down. A huge puff of smoke rose up into the
air. The others closed their eyes so that they wouldn't get smoke in them. Once they
reopened them, Korman wasn't there.
"Well, he could of left some of those for us." Whined Kero-chan
"Nah, he's probably now lost in the jungle, some fifty miles away from the destination." Said
Syaoran not caring where Korman was.
Syaoran was correct. On the other side of the island, was Korman. He was lost and was
looking confused.
"Wait a sec.! Those usually work!" he shouted to no one.
Now back with the others. They were starting the long trek to the volcano. Syaoran was
having the most difficulty, because of his leg. Sakura was holding his weight well, but
faltered a couple of times.
"I really hope we don't run into anything!" yelled Tomoyo
That was probably the last thing anyone said on the trip. They were all either
concentrating, tired of walking, or wondering how long until they got to there
destination. They were passing trees, rocks, some monsters, more trees, more rocks, and
even some more monsters. A lot of the monsters had some kind of spell that either poisoned,
froze, burned, or shocked their opponents. A lot of the monsters were either basilisks
(Kero-chan put them into groups under poison, fire, ice, or thunder basilisks.), giant
dinosaur like creatures, spinx's, and a giant rock crab (the one's that they first saw we
babies, this one was huge.). Around the fifteenth basilisk, Sakura finally spoke up.
"I'm beginning to give up on this!" she yelled.
"No kidden, I've got scratches everywhere." Said Tomoyo
"You and me both." Meilin said, looking at her arms and legs.
"We need to keep going of we're going to get off of this island." Said Syaoran, who was
panting and gasping for air.
"So we should get going." Kero-chan started to fly away from the others then he stopped.
"Hello! Are you all coming or not?" he shouted.
"We're comin' we're comin'" said Sakura.
The others just looked at her like she lost her mind. Syaoran had to follow because she
was the one helping him walk. Meilin and Tomoyo looked at each other, shrugged, and f
ollowed. They were half way up the mountain anyway so they had to continue. They trekked
further and further up the side, knowing that the volcano they were on could erupt any
minute. But still, they wanted to go back home, and Sakura wanted to find Yashi.
Finally, they were at some kind of entrance. It looked like any kind of cave, but Syaoran
said that it was the way to the Nemesis Card. That's when Sakura felt it. A strong surge of
power was going through the cave, so strong that it almost gave Sakura a headache.
"Oh man…" Sakura groaned, holding her temples.
"What?" asked Syaoran
"You meen, you can't feel that, that strong surge of power?" Sakura looked pale.
"Um, maybe we should sit down for a little while." Said Tomoyo in a concerned voice.
"No. We can't. We need to get back home, and we need to find…" Sakura stopped abruptly
"We need to find what?" asked Meilin, looking at Sakura like she was hiding something
"Nothing…" Sakura mumbled "Let's just get going."
Everyone looked at Sakura with concerned looks. Then they started to move again. The cave
was getting darker and darker, until it was so dark that they couldn't even see their own
hands infront of their faces. Sakura started to call out the Glow Card again, but
something happened. Fire magically appeared in the torches lining the walls. The room they
were in was circular, with a cliff like structure on the far side of the cavern. And lying
down in the center was Korman. He looked a mess; there were scratches all over his arms.
They weren't the kind you usually receive when you get paper cuts, no, these were cuts that
looked like a mountain lion used you as a scratching post. He was slowly moving over and
groaning.
"Oh my… Korman!" Tomoyo tried running over to him, but Sakura grabbed her on her shoulder.
"Don't, something is watching us and I don't like it." Sakura said as she glanced around.
Sakura was right. In the distance they could hear the sound of claws on stone. Large, ebony,
claws that could tear flesh in seconds.
"Wha- What's that noise?" Meilin asked shakily.
"No clue but we should try getting out of here…" said Syaoran
"No… we have to wait." Sakura said holding out her hand grasping the air.
"Say what?! Those things and what ever they are, are probably the ones that attacked
Korman!" shouted Kero-chan
"I've just got the feeling we should wait." Said Sakura taking a few steps forward.
They waited what seemed like hours, and the claw sounds kept getting closer and closer.
"I'm going to leave really soon you know…" Syaoran said trying to back up.
But before he could do anything, the claw noises stopped. They all looked around to see
what had made them. Then bursting out into full view were giant creatures. The firelight
flickered on the bodies so they couldn't really see what they were.
"Not more dragons…" moaned Sakura
But she was far off. The firelight lit up the ice blue eyes, the color that sends chills
up your spine. Large clawed talons gripped and un-gripped the stone floor. The heads were
of an eagle with the sharp beak and the sharp looking eyes. The bodies were of a giant
cant, either lion, tiger, jaguar or a mountain lion. Their front legs were the legs of an
eagle, powerful in gripping and slashing, while the back were the legs of the giant cat,
good for pouncing and full of strong mussels. Long tails of a cat that swiped the ground.
The necks of the beasts had a feathery mane. Right above the front shoulders were wings,
some that looked like a dragons, some of them looked like an eagles. They growled and held
their heads up high.
"Not dragons…" said Meilin
"But… gryphons!" said Syaoran with his eyes bulging.
The gryphons were mighty looking creatures, the smallest standing at six feet tall to the
tallest at twenty feet. There were only five of them; three of them little ones, while two
of them were full-grown.
"Hi Sakurwah!"
Sakura looked up. On the back of one of the smaller gryphons, sitting side saddled right
infront of the wing joint, was none other than Yashi. She was smiling down on them, like
a kid getting off of a pony ride.
"Yashimo, what are you doing here?" Meilin asked with a gasp
Yashi frowned "Yashi, I like Yashi." She said
"Sorry, Yashi, what are you doing here?" Meilin asked again.
Yashi smiled, giggled, and pointed down to them "Found Yashi, game over."
Meilin looked at Tomoyo, who shrugged, then looked at Syaoran, who did the same thing, and
then looked at Sakura.
"She was playing a game! Like hide and go seek, we were suppose to find her, and we just
did." Sakura looked at Yashi at talked to her "Hey Yashi why don't you come down."
Yashi patted the gryphon's head and the gryphon growled in thanks "Yashi stay with friends.
Would you like to meet?"
"Um…" said Sakura
Syaoran bent down to talk to the others "We have to find the card, 'cause this is getting
way out of hand." Then he looked at Korman who was slowly turning over and groaning "And
we need to get him out of here before he dies or something." There was a spark of joy when
Syaoran said this.
"Still, maybe we should follow her or something because she might lead us to the card."
Said Sakura
"But there could still be trouble or something…" said Meilin
"Well it's not every day you get to meet a gryphon…" Tomoyo said from behind them.
"Fine it's settled" Sakura said. She turned to Yashi "Sure, we'd like to meet your
friends."
Yashi giggled with glee and jumped off, landing perfectly. Syaoran moved over to the stone
wall to watch what else would happen. Yashi raced over to Sakura and took her hand and
raced back to the gryphon's, with the others behind her. Yashi stopped infront of the
biggest gryphons, which was lying down. Yashi pointed to it.
"This *Yoguro." The big gryphon wheeled its head around to look at Yashi. She giggled, and
Sakura just stood still. Tomoyo had gotten Korman, who still looked dazed. His cuts looked
dry and they were starting to heal. Tomoyo was now with one of the smaller gryphons while
Korman was resting.
"They are really playful Sakura, try petting it or something." She shouted. Sakura looked
at her like she lost her mind, then she tried it. She slowly reached out her hand to touch
Yoguro's beak.
'I really hope my hand doesn't get bitten off.' She thought as she closed her eyes at the
thought. Then she felt the cool feel of Yoguro's beak. She opened her eyes to look at her
hand. Then she heard a purring noise. Yashi doubled over in the giggles.
"Yoguro say's he likes you Sakurwah."
Sakura smiled and couldn't believe she was doing this. Yashi took them around to meet the
other gryphon's named *Yagil (Yoguro's mate), *Kuijo, *Dodaro, and *Sharn. They all looked
nice like a big happy family. Then a horn blared deeper into the cave.
"Yashi and friends must go." Yashi jumped on a gryphon again and the whole group began to
move. "Sakurwah come?" Yashi looked egar.
Sakura looked at the others. "Yep, we're coming." At her words, the gryphon Kuijo bent
down to let her on. Sakura looked at the other's and Syaoran came hobbling over.
"I'm going with you no matter what." He got on behind Sakura and Kero-chan flew over.
"Mind if I join yah?" he said as he sat infront of Sakura. Sakura smiled. Then she jolted
as Kuijo got up.
"This feels like your riding a horse!" Syaoran exclaimed.
The others got on Dodaro, and they all followed Sharn, who Yashi was riding.
"Follow Yashi!" Yashi turned around and gripped Sharn's feathery mane. Then Sharn bolted
in front of Yagil and Yaguro, who didn't bother to stop the young gryphon. Both Kuijo and
Dodaro followed, while the others held on for life.
"A really fast horse at that!" yelled Syaoran
Everyone was closing their eyes that they didn't know that they were up in the air. The
gryphons swiped their wings and were up in the sky. Sakura opened her eyes and noticed
this. They were miles up in the air. Everything below them looked so little, and the
tallest of trees looked like saplings. The wind was rustling through her hair.
"It's like your flying in an airplane!" yelled Sakura
"What?!" Syaoran yelled back
"I said…!" Sakura almost had laughed
"I still can't hear you!" yelled Syaoran from behind her.
The sun was coming up. Everyone was watching at how beautiful it looked. Mixtures of
yellow, orange, red, purple, and some blue. It was just coming over the trees so it wasn't
that high yet. Then everything stopped moving and they were jolted forward.
"Houston, the Eagle has landed!" Korman yelled with a huge smile on his face.
"You meen the gryphon has landed!" Kero-chan yelled, flying off.
The gryphons let their passengers off. Then they headed into the larger cave they landed
in front of.
"Should we follow?" asked Tomoyo
"Yeah… I think." Said Sakura
They followed the gryphons, which Yashi didn't get off of hers. She was really quiet as
she rode, as if thinking. Then they reached a huge door. The door looked lock and rusted.
But Yoguro used his head to push it open. It opened with a creak then once they were in
and the door was shut, the gasped at what they saw.
"Wow! It's beautiful!" Meilin gasped
Beautiful just about summoned the cavern up. Crystals of every size lined the walls,
ceiling, and even making a neat little path in the floor. The colors were blue and white,
and in the core of the crystals were either red or dark pink. They were glowing
iridescent, even without the sunlight. But behind the crystals were rivers of magma.
Spewing hot molten lava.
"Syaoran look at your leg! Your standing on it and the gash is gone!" Sakura said
Syaoran looked down at his leg. Sakura was right, nothing was wrong with it. The bandage
was even gone. Syaoran's face lifted up to Sakura and he smiled.
"Korman, look at your arms as well. They're healed!" Tomoyo yelled happily
Korman turned him arms over and over again and his face lit up with a smile.
Then a voice came out of no where.
"Guardians of the cards, welcome. Reach your destination by following the path." The voice
stopped speaking. No one could tell if it was a female voice or male, they just looked
confused.
"Shall we take the path like they said?" Korman whispered.
"Or shall we stay here?" Meilin said just as low
"And where did Yashi and the gryphons go?" Sakura said in a loud voice.
Everyone whipped their heads up to find Sakura looking everywhere for them.
"They probably followed the path so they could get out of here." Syaoran said with a shrug
That calmed Sakura down for a few moments as she started to walk the path. The others
followed, not wanting to find out what else lived on the island. The path twisted and
turned every way. A few times they ran into dead ends, that's when they back tracked.
Then when they reached a certain path the voice came back.
"You are almost to the finish, hurry down the path to reach your goal." The voice
disappeared again.
Everyone stopped moving and smiled. Some of them whispered 'yes!' to themselves as they
continued onward. Finally they reached a larger cavern with the same crystals with the
magma behind them. Sitting on one side of the room was the group of gryphons, asleep. On
the far wall opposite of them, was Yashi with someone.
That someone was a female wearing all light blue, even her skin was a light blue, just
lighter than the rest. She had long hair just like Yashi and her face looked the same as
hers as well. She was wearing what looked like a wizard robe. On her arms were a straight
line of crystals, embedded into her skin. She had a crown, a small tiara that was barely
visible. She had a kind look on her face and was running her fingers through Yashi's hair.
Yashi was asleep on a small step. She was resting her head on the person's lap.
"Um… Hello?" Sakura said. 'She's definitely the Nemesis Card.' She added as a side note to
herself.
The person looked up and stared at them. Then she smiled. "Hello" she said. Her voice
sounded smooth like water and as pure as light.
"Are you the Nemesis Card?" Syaoran blurted out.
She smiled again and started running her fingers through Yashi's hair again. "Yes, I am.
I brought you here to see if you are really the chosen one's of the Nemesis Cards."
"Which card are you?" Kero-chan said pointing at her.
"I am called the Game Card." She said
There was a pause between the group and the Game Card. Then the master question came up.
"Why did you bring us here?" Korman asked
"I brought you here because I needed proof. I have heard of you from others. This was a
test to see if you held the Clow Cards and the Book of the Nemesis Gods. You have proved
you do and you are the masters."
"Why is Yashi here?" Sakura asked taking a step towards the card.
The Game Card smiled at Sakura and then looked at Yashi. "Yashi is here because she wanted
to. Before I made my move, I was injured severely. I was also smaller and less noticeable.
Yashi found me and took care of me. She had no family, so she survived any way she could.
She stole and she found. Over the weeks, I became stronger. I had heard stories form my
other brothers and sisters of humans who had the power to control the elements. And after
I saw you" she nodded at Sakura, Syaoran, Kero-chan, and Tomoyo. "capture many of the Clow
Cards, I had to find out. Once I made this place" she waved her hands around at the cavern "
I created the games that you went through over the few days. The Game of Friendship, The
Game of Curage, The Game of Skill, and The Game of Danger, all of them involved me in them."
Everyone was silent.
'So the card is basically Yashi's… mother…' Sakura thought.
"So what do we have to do to go home?" Korman snapped
"Nothing, I will go easy on you this time, but the others won't." The Game Card gently
placed Yashi's head on the ground as she started to stand up.
Kero-chan looked at Sakura "Say the magic words kid and we're going home."
"Hold on!" Sakura whispered back to him. Then she turned her attention to the Game Card
"Just a few things, and I'm going to put them into one so keep your ears open. Why did
Syaoran get hurt when he was caught in that sand trap? And what is going to happen to
Yashi?"
Game was up now and walking down towards them when she answered. "Syaoran was hurt because
his leg went too far down in the sand. At the bottom there were sand grimers, little
monsters that live at the bottom and suck who ever falls into their domain, down towards
them." She sighed and looked back at Yashi, who was still asleep. "As for Yashi…" she
paused looking at the others "She will forget everything about the island and me." She
sounded sad "If you will, please take her back to the human world, and let her stay with
your family." Game looked at Sakura, as did everyone else. "Your father and brother, and
everyone else but those here, will not know that she isn't from the family. It will seem
like she had been there forever." Then she smiled "I hope you take good care of her."
The Game Card was now on the floor, waiting to be resealed back in her card.
"If you want to…" Sakura sighed, but she was happy she was finally getting off of the
island. She called out her wand and chanted the magic words to seal the cards. "Oh Gods
of Nemesis, seal the warrior of Games!" everyone looked at her.
"She's saying the wrong words!" Meilin hissed
"What was done, is now undone. Seal the warrior now!" Sakura finished.
In a flash of light, three green lightning bolts bolted down and surrounded the Game Card.
Then in a hiss of smoke, the thunder cleared. Floating in the middle of the air was the
Game Card, with her eyes closed in the picture she was facing forward in her robes.
Sakura promptly dropped her wand as the card came down to her. She landed on her knees and
took the card and looked at it.
"You said the wrong words, but that was a cool capture! Too bad I didn't get it on tape…"
Tomoyo said
Sakura felt dazed 'Wrong words? They seemed right to me…' she thought.
Then a rumble came from deep in the cave. Cracks on the floor appeared and lava could be
seen through them. The gryphons were gone, nowhere to be seen.
"The island is disappearing, we need to leave now!" yelled Korman
Sakura got up and re listened to the words of the Game Card.
_ "If you will, please take her back to the human world."_
'Take Yashi back' Sakura kept thinking to herself as she ran to get Yashi. When she got to
her, she was still asleep. 'The Game Card put a spell on her!' she thought as she carried
her in her arms. Once she rejoined the group, a white light flashed and they were off the
island.
"That was some trip." Syaoran moaned.
Once they returned, they fell onto the ground from out of the sky. When they landed, they
landed in the same area that they started at.
"Anyone know where Yashi went to?" Sakura said looking around
"Dunno, last time I saw her she was with…" Meilin started to say.
"Hi Sakurwah!" came a voice
Everyone turned to see Yashi with Sakura's father. He had his hand on her head and his face
was beaming.
"Well hello kids! Nice day isn't it?" he said with a smile
"Hello Mr. Kinomoto!" said everyone together.
"Yashi thinks so don't you." He said looking at Yashi.
"Yashi say pretty day!"
Tomoyo whispered something in Sakura's ear.
"The Game Card wasn't kidding that he'd think she was part of the family." She said with a
slight giggle.
"Everyone come on in! I made chocolate chip cookies if anyone wants some!" Mr.Kinomoto
marched back to the house with Yashi right behind him. Everyone stared walking towards
Sakura's house.
"No kidding, Yashi is just going fit right in with the family." Sakura said with a smile.
The group of kids laughed like they didn't go to some deserted island and had to work some
magic. They just acted like nothing happened.
Did you enjoy that? I took me a loooooooooooooooong time to think of this so I really hope
you did. Now that you're finished, please R&R! Your comments, good and bad,
and suggestions are really appreciated by me. And I also thank the others who read my last
story, and liked it. If anyone can tell me what Tomoyo's English last name is, I thank you.
The third story is coming up, so hold on. Time to start writing again! ~~ Stargazer89