Disclaimer: Look in the first chp.
"_____" Speaking
'_____' Thoughts
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"I'm here...you can't see me...I'm in the place where your deepest secret is..."
Chap. 4 Winter Wonderland....
"Who am I? What are these new visions I'm having? Why are they calling me Sakura? Am I really Sakura? No... I can't be.. how I could I be?" Cherry said aloud while she ran. She then looked down at the key that Li-kun gave her.
'Does this key have something to do with this? Argh!! I don't know!!' she yelled inside of her head. She didn't look where she was going and tripped on feet and fell down. She slowly got up as she held back sobs and dusted herself and looked around to see where she was.
'This place looks familiar.... and I remember this slide¡¦ er¡¦ somewhere.' She was at Penguin Park although she didn't know that. She suddenly felt a pang in her head and fell on the sand. More visions began to pressure her and she kneeled, crying heavily because of pain and of strain of trying to remember who her real identity was.
"Takahashi-chan?" a voice came behind her. It was Syaoran and he was panting heavily.
"Takahashi-chan? Are you alright?" he said as he came closer, instinctively putting a protective arm around her and pulling her close.
"Who am I?" Cherry whispered as she choked back sobs and tears.
"What do you mean Takahashi-chan?" Syaoran asked in a worried voice.
"Am I really Cherry...or Sakura?" she said softly. Her leaking tears stopped as she leaned on Syaoran's shoulder.
This question startled Syaoran, but instead of showing his surprise and saying she was Sakura he answered with pain in his voice, "The answer is only in your heart. You have to choose who you are. Whether you're Cherry or Sakura." He looked at her and saw her fast asleep.
*In the distance, a little spy watched and taped the scene while smiling to her amusement.* (Now, I bet you people know who it is unless you haven't been watching CCS enuf.)
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"Here we are. It's kinda small but I hope it's all right," Cherry said bashfully.
The group traveled to Mt. Fuji to visit Cherry's home. Her home was around the middle of the mountain, away from the tourist trails and on an vast field surrounded by pine trees. The field was covered with snow and the pine trees were decorated with icicles and snow. A little cabin with a stream a smoke coming out of it's chimney was seen in the middle of the field, big enough for three visitors. A blanket of snow covered the rooftop and like the pine trees, had icicles hanging on the eaves of the roof. As the sun shone down onto the scenery, everything touched by snow twinkled and shined as if they were made out of crystal. The group awed at the scene.
"The scenery's wonderful here, Cherry-chan! No, not wonderful, beautiful! Even magical! And the cabin doesn't look small at all. It looks quite cozy to me," Tomoyo said with a smile.
"Look at all this snow! It's about 7 inches deep!" Meiling said as she twirled around. Cherry blushed at the compliments. A voice suddenly was heard behind them and they turned around to see who it was.
"Onee-chan!! Onee-chan!! You're here!!!" A little red haired girl about 8 years old ran towards Cherry. She jumped and Cherry caught her in time for the huge bear hug.
"Hi Kaijuu! Long time no see, wasn't it!" The rest looked at the little girl startled and surprised.
"I'm not a Kaijuu!!!" the lil girl said as she glared at her sister. Tomoyo stared for a moment then giggled. This is just like how Touya-kun treated Sakura-chan and how she reacted bak. Then the lil girl noticed the people behind her. "Onee-chan? Er... who are these people?"
Cherry giggled as she put her sister down and she introduced everyone to her.
"This is my sister kaijuu, Yuki. Yuki, these are my friends, Tomoyo-chan, Meiling-chan, and Li-kun," she said as she pointed to each person.
Yuki looked at each person and stared mostly at Syaoran which gave him an uncomfortable feeling. There was an awkward silence and then Yuki said while still staring at Syaoran.
"Onee-chan?? You had a boyfriend?? And you didn't tell me??"
At this statement Cherry sweatdropped and Syaoran turned crimson and Cherry answered to her sister, "He's just a friend. Besides, he already has a person he likes."
Yuki looked disappointed. "Man.... you two would have made a good couple..."
Tomoyo and Meiling agreed silently.
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As the three made themselves comfortable in the cabin, Cherry and Yuki prepared them hot cocoa. Tomoyo looked around the cabin. The kitchen and living room were connected and she saw three doors on the left wall. Two most likely to be the bedrooms and the other one the bathroom. They had a small porch with a wooden rocking chair on it and Tomoyo saw another building as she looked southward. Mostly likely to be the storage or the shed, she thought.
"Here your cocoa!" Yuki said happily as she placed them onto the table. "I'm glad we have visitors. I dun think I have seen people around here that much except for the tourists." She gave a wide smile.
"I'm glad that you enjoy having us here, Yuki," Tomoyo said as she smiled back at her.
"I was just curious, Cherry-chan. How do you get your food if you are so far away from the city? I mean, the closest store near you is about a mile away from the bottom of the mountain and going up and down the mountain is hard enough," Meiling asked.
"We don't usually go down the stores. It's only like once a month," Yuki answered, "we also get our food from the crops we plant in the fields and we can fish from the lake near here and we can pick the berries that grow here."
"What about for winter? There are hardly any berries at all and all the crops would be dead by fall. And the road to the store would be even harder to get through because the mountain pass would be really slippery and dangerous because of the snow," Tomoyo asked.
"We store the food from the summer, of course," Cherry answered, "we store them in a little shed that's behind our cabin." Hah. I thought that that was the storage, Tomoyo thought with a smile.
"By the way, I have some places I want to show you guys in the future days. Deep in the forest there's a really cool pond there. Yuki was talking about it a few seconds ago. The water is crystal clear there and that's where we get our fresh water and our fish. But¡¦ it probably is all frozen¡¦ and you guys probably didn't bring your skates¡¦"
"Nope! We brought them!" Tomoyo said with a wide smile. Meiling and Syaoran looked at her with a look, 'We did?' But that look changed instantly once Tomoyo brought three new looking skates out of her humongous bag. The cousins sweatdropped and thought, Oh I wonder where she got those. But unlike the cousins, Cherry's face lit up immediately.
"That's great! Let's see¡¦ oh yeah! We can go bird watching, too. And playing the snow will be fun¡¦ Oh! And the best part yet in the cliff right behind the cluster of trees behind our cabin. The cliff has an amazing view of the landscape below us. But it's pretty dangerous tho. But, it'll be ok!" Cherry said happily with a smile.
"Yeah! I can't wait until tomorrow!" Meiling shouted out energetically. She looked over at Syaoran who was just dozing off next to her. She lifted one of her eyebrows in puzzlement. "Syaoran, you're being awfully quiet. What's wrong?" The others looked at him.
"Huh? Oh¡¦ it's nothing. I'm just tired. I think I'll just go to sleep right now," he said as he got up.
"Oh, ok. Kaijuu, tell Li-kun where he's sleeping." Yuki glared at her sister before helping Syaoran know which room was his.
Meiling gave out a sigh. "He's not usually like this, Cherry-chan. I hope he'll regain his normal senses in the morning."
Cherry nodded. "I see."
"I think we should sleep early, too for the day ahead of us. It's so funny how the weather up here change so soon. It's already sunset¡¦" Tomoyo said as she looked out the window. Then as the other girls started to rise up, she rose up and asked while they walked in and looked into the kinda-but-not-really-big room which was supposedly the girl's room, "Is there enough room to fit us all in one room, Cherry-chan?"
"Ehe¡¦ erm¡¦ hopefully, we'll manage¡¦" Cherry said as she sweatdropped.
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During the night, Cherry tossed and turned in the blanket. The visions started to haunt her again. Sweat rolled down the side of her face and she finally sat up, panting and shivering. She looked down at other girls and hoped that they were still sleeping, and they were sleeping peacefully unlike Cherry. She slowly and quietly got up, opened the door to the living room, grabbed a sweater from her closet, and quietly walked out into the chilly dark night. She sighed and saw white smoke come out of her mouth. She smiled and walked onward, past the porch and onto the field which was covered snugly by a blanket of white soft snow. Even though the sun wasn't out, darkness didn't fully cover the field for the moon was shining brightly tonight. It's silvery beams gently caressed the white snow causing the snow to look like crumbs of a silver crystal. She sighed a content sigh. Although the coldness and darkness made her shudder, the beautiful sight of her home made her feel relaxed. She walked onward until she felt a hand on her shoulder that came out of nowhere.
A loud scream was heard in the middle of the night.
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^_~ I know it's a cliffhanger. Oh well. I think the next chapter is the last chapter! No wait, there's mostly likely gonna be an epilogue after that. *nod nod* Okay. Done finally with chapter 4!!! --;;; Took forever, didn't it?
Typed in 8/30/01. Published in 8/30/01. marianakim@cs.com Ciao!
