"Well then. A female who knows magic. This should be quite interesting. If you should entertain I and my guest well, you won't be executed."

Shaoran heard a "eep" come from the girl. He heard that execution without any dignity was the punishment of peasants looking at the Emperor's face. Another stupid law.

"So, young lady, tell us your name, and please... begin the show." He smiled.


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Cherry Blossoms and Magic
Chapter 2 ~ Meeting





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'Oh no. He's gonna kill me if he doesn't like my magic. Not good. Not. Good.' She somehow sensed the little child trick she showed the guards wouldn't be good enough. "My name is Amaiko Sokotoki, your majesty." she squeaked, giving her false name. "I... I use elemental magic."

"Please, Amaiko-san, begin. Show us your use of the elements."

"Yes your majesty." Sakura slowly stood up, and began wiping off her kimono that Tomoyo had just recently finished. She had become particularly fond of it, and didn't like seeing it dirty. When she was ready, she motioned to the shashmisan (A/N: A Japanese guitar, I know I spelt it wrong) player to begin, and unwillingly, her eyes met the sienna eyes of a young man near the emperor. She quickly forced her self to look away, and found it a bit hard to do. It seemed like something was compelling her to look into them and become lost in the pools of brown. 'Don't look into anyone's eyes!' she commanded herself. 'It will get you killed.' She had looked away, and now pulled her fan from her green silk sash, and with her other hand, pulled pieces of paper from a pocket in the sleeve of her kimono.

'Come on Sakura. You can do this. You've been using elemental magic since Kero found you 4 years ago. You now 16. You can do it.'

Fan held in front of her face, concealing her nose and mouth, she began to begin to take slow steps while she began arm movements with the fan. (A/N: If you have ever heard any traditional Japanese music, its very slow, with sharp cords once in a while, so dances consist of odd steps with the feet and arm movements.) Instantly Sakura began to calm down. The musician was playing a very popular song that was played in the market place regularly. She continued the dance pattern, while deep inside she was preparing for the 1st spell.

DRINNNG!

A sharp cord was strummed, and she took it as her queue. She quickly pulled her fan back to her face, while at the same time striking her other arm forward, with charm in hand. While she did so, she whispered quickly, "Fire, come to my aid."

The music stopped suddenly, and room went into a crown of murmurs as a giant ball of fire shot from her hand. As Sakura mad a long swipe before her with the fan, the fire mimicked her motion, and it began to stretch out in mid air, and began to circle her.

'So far, so good.' she thought, as she began the circling part of the dance.


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The room was now silent, all eyes where on the girl who was dancing with the snakelike stream of fire.

Shaoran could not take his eyes off of her. Even though he had seen his mother and sisters do a similar dance many times before, it intrigued him. 'No, its not the dance, its her.' he realized.

She was still circling, the fire following the fan like a streamer. Suddenly the emeralds met his eyes again. She had the greenest eyes he had ever seen in his life. She looked to him with them wide and frightened, like a dear being hunted.

'You don't have to fear me.' he thought, knowing she couldn't hear him.

Her eyes pulled away from his as the ribbon of fire came between them. The musician had continued his music playing a while ago, and another sharp cord was strummed. The girl made another sudden movement, hands above her head, and a small cyclone of water appeared from them. It, like the fire, began to flow around her like a ribbon, except in the opposite direction. Shaoran watched her and saw her chanting something. The water and fire began to grow into bigger columns, and steam started to fill the room. Soon the fire and water had turned into a solid wall around her, and then only her outline was visible. It took only a few more seconds, but soon the steam blocked her from total view, and had begun to fill the room. The musician stopped playing once again, but Shaoran didn't notice. His whole attention was on her. He could sense her begin another spell, and suddenly their was a bolt of lightning throughout the whole room. Women, and some men screamed in fright.

When the steam cleared, the girl was gone. The whole floor was damp. Shaoran looked around, but didn't see her.

"Where is she?!" the Emperor yelled, clearly baffled. When the thunder had appeared, his Samurai had surrounded him and the Shogun. Everyone was looking for a sign of where the girl went, but she had completely disappeared.

"Find her! Search the whole palace." It had now occurred to the samurai that she may be an assassin.

"That was quite a talented girl." Eriol commented beside him. "I'd like to see her and your lovely mother dance together sometime."

Shaoran didn't answer. Something told him he's meet that girl again.


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When the steam had become too thick for anyone to see, Sakura began to move towards the door, where she suddenly released the thunder spell. At this, she started to run, knowing it wouldn't be long till the steam cleared, and they saw her missing.

She felt Kero climb out of the bow on her back (A/N: The obi?). He began to fly beside her, and she heard him mutter something about heat, and being smushed, oblivious to seeing they where running down a hallway.

Sakura stopped and looked to Kero. "Where do we go now?" she panted in a low whisper. They where lucky most of the samurai where in the dinner hall, but that didn't mean there weren't any patrolling.

Kero floated in mid air about 5 feet from her. She could practically see the wheel's in his head move as he made the decision. Then pointed to a door at the end of the hallway.

"There!" he practically yelled, catching his self towards the end.

Sakura began slowly walking towards it, not wanting to attract any more attention. Behind them, 3 corridors and one turn down, they began to hear yells. She assumed they had just discovered her missing.

With this in mind, Sakura began running again.

Kero flew ahead, and waited at the door. She ran up to it, slid it open, ran inside, and slammed the door close. Just at that moment, she could hear the soldiers march down the hall, and she began to have an odd feeling, but quickly dismissed it.

Her eyes searched her surroundings. She was in a giant room that was filled with rows and rows of shelves piled in books and scrolls. There where tables here and their with paper spread across them, and oil lamps dotted the room here and there to give substantial light. As far as she could tell, no one was around.

Marching steps came closer, and she ran behind a shelf till they passed.

"We have to hurry." Kero whispered into her ear. "It's won't be long till they begin searching rooms. We have to find it."

She looked to the yellow face. "Well you where here before. Where is it?"

Kero flew off to a other corner of the library with Sakura in pursue. When she came closer, they where in an are with many books that looked old and ancient. All of them where sealed with locks.

Kero lands on a book on a bottom shelf.

"Its this one! This! One!" He began with a giant smile. Sakura lifted it up with Kero on top. It had odd letters which she recognized to be Roman/European. She was just about to open it when she heard the door open. She quickly ducked down, and rolled under the nearest table.

She saw two men she recognized from the banquet enter, and talking in a foreign language.


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"I hope that girl got away. I'd hate to find out she was caught and killed." Eriol announced.

Shaoran and Eriol had just entered the library. They both stood still. When Shaoran opened the door, the magic aura hit them with giant intensity. The book was here.

They stepped in, and Eriol, once accepting the fact of the book being in there, began to talk about the girl again.

'Can he ever shut up?' Shaoran thought, as he began to reach out with his magic senses to pinpoint where the book was.

Eriol stopped talking. They heard a door slide open, and someone ran out the room. At the same time they could feel the presence of the book go as well.

Shaoran and Eriol ran to the door. It led out to the garden, but in the dark they couldn't see who.

Shaoran immediately called upon his sword from the pendent around his neck, and pointed to where he could see the figure running.

"Thunder!" he yelled, concentrating. A jolt of electricity shot out from the sword, to the person. The figure fell to the ground with a thud.

As they approached, they both where in shock to see it was the girl from the banquet. Even more to see a small creature flying over her. A small thing that could only be described as a small, yellow lion cub with wings.

"Shaoran, you could of killed her!" Eriol growled under his breath.

"It wasn't like I knew it was a girl. Besides, I only called upon enough to knock a person unconscious." He defended himself. He was yelling at himself too inside for possibly killing the girl.

"If you killed my mistress, I will make sure I live to see you and your whole line dead, you stinking Chinese Gakis!" The yellow creature yelled at them both in mandarin, shocking him. The thing could talk. And in their language.

Far off they could hear guards begin to approach. Shaoran quickly turned his sword back into a pendant, and knelt down, and lifted the girl into his arms, causing the creature to growl.

"Well take her to safety, Cerberus. Follow us." Eriol said to the creature as he picked up the book.

The creature was still in mid air, clearly stunned. Shaoran was just a shocked.

Voices in the distance where heard. Guards, most likely samurai, where approaching. Shaoran took this as a que to get moving, and started running towards their room across the court yard, the girl in the green kimono in his arms unconscious.

The others followed.





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Yeah, it was short. I know. I wanted some sort of a cliffhanger. Gomen. But was it good? Horrible? Ok. What ever? The sooner I get reviews, the sooner I put of the next chapter. Ohhh I'm sooo horrible. *laughs evily*