Hidden Beneath the Flowers
Hi!! OMG! I'm so happy with the few reviews I got so far, that I decided to start the next chapter early. I hope you like it! ^^ And I decided to take SAKURALOVER's advice and use the Japanese names. Sorry for the people who want it the other way!! I'll do my best, though. Oh, and I also changed the rating for swearing. We can't have any children walking up to parents and asking were the hell their breakfast is, now can we? OKAY! Enough of me gabbing, let's get this thing rolling!
Disclaimer: No! ....*sniff, sniff*..... I- I- I-... WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I DON'T OWN EM! (sob)
Key:
~~~~*~~~~ - flashback
Everything else is basically the same!
That's all ya need to know! K, here goes the next chapter!
Chapter Three
The trio had walked silently, led by a nervous, fidgety Alycia. She took them to her apartment to explain her situation in privacy. Meanwhile, Sakura and Syaoran were both wondering what in the hell was going on. They would briefly exchange glances with each other, just to make sure the other knew no more than they.
Alycia guided them to a tall, tan building that stood regally among the other, less fancy buildings. The two awed at it's appearance. They never would have known it was there if they hadn't just seen it. It seemed so out of place, as if it had just plopped out of the sky from NYC and landed there. Beautiful, full red roses surrounded the bottom edges and corners of the apartment. Underneath every window on all eight floors had a small, yet elegant flower box, filled to the brim with an assortment of colorful, blooming flowers. The words Dove Landing' were inscribed in gold, loopy letters over the double, glass door entrance.
"Follow me, please," Alycia asked timidly. She gently pushed open the door and held it for the couple behind her. Inside, she revealed a wondrous lobby. With it's marble floor and deep red, rolling carpet, it was extremely well kept. To the left was a marble check-in desk with a shiny, copper bell and a neat stack of papers sitting perfectly in the center. To the right was a short, long oak table and two plump, cushiony red chairs to either side. If you followed the carpet from the door straightforward, you would see the gold doors of the elevator with it's bright buttons and a trimmed small potted tree on both sides.
"Do you think I should call Kero?" Sakura whispered softly to Syaoran as they entered, despite her apparent awe at the beautiful room. She had been outlining her light pink cell phone for quiet some time now, debating whether or not to call in the calvary. Mainly, Keroberos the guardian of the clow cards and protector of its' mistress.
"Kero's services won't be necessary at this time." Both Sakura and Syaoran looked up, surprised. Both had thought only they had heard what Sakura had whispered. Alycia giggled at their half amazed, half curious faces. "I will explain everything in just a few moments. Let's just get up to my apartment." Sakura and Syaoran made no attempt to move towards the elevator at which Alycia was heading.
"You can trust me," she said, sighing sadly. "I promise. It's not like I'm going to bite your head off or something!" You could see the faint outline of a smile grace her lips.
Sakura began to walk towards her, but Syaoran, who promises had never meant much to, grabbed her wrist.
"What?" she said, startled. She looked into his adorable eyes, which were, at this point and time, narrowed and suspicious. (AN: And she found that adorable?) He saw that she truly trusted the girl in front of them and if she could trust Alycia, he could trust Alycia. Without a word, he let Sakura's wrist slip out of grasp and and stood straight up.
"Let's go, then," he growled. He hated to do it, but he really did believe that Alycia's intentions were true. But still, he had to be very cautious around her, just in case. The two walked up to Alycia who was patiently waiting near the elevator buttons. She pushed one in and a small ding' could be heard. It practically echoed throughout the entire, large lobby. Up until that point, neither Syaoran nor Sakura had noticed that there was not a sound made in the building apart from the three of them.
Before they had time to think of a reason behind the silence, the gold brass doors swung back with a slight click. The three walked into the elevator and Alycia pushed the button meant for the seventh floor. As soon as the doors clicked back together, the familiar and unmistakable elevator music started to play. (AN: Ever wonder how the music is never the same, but never really different? 0.0 It's a conspiracy, I tell you!)
Alycia began to shake her head back and forth gently to the tempo in the music. Sakura found this somewhat comical and had to cover her mouth so her small laughs couldn't be detected. Too late. Alycia swung around with a wide smile and looked at Sakura. She laughed out loud at Sakura's failed effort to try and hold it in.
There was the click again as the doors opened back up to reveal a hallway. The trio walked out and another, finally click could be heard as the doors went back together and the elevator made its way slowly back down to the main floor.
The corridor was no less exquisite. It had light blue carpeting and a chair at the end of the hall, almost exactly like the ones downstairs except it was dark blue. Intricate paintings were placed strategically in perfect places. Each door was a creamy, tanish color that blended in with the mixed blue walls and had a shining, gold know handle.
Alycia walked up to the door marked seventy-seven and produced a key. She fit it into the lock with one hand on the handle and opened the door with ease. She took out the key and walked through. "Come on in!"
After exchanging one last glance, the dou of Sakura and Syaoran walked in.
"It started a long time ago before either of you or I were even thought of." Sakura and Syaoran were comfortably seated in soft chairs around a round breakfast table listening to the melodic voice of their entertainer. Alycia had set out hot chocolate and sweets that looked as if they had just come out of a bakery's oven. Alycia had just began telling them her story. "Clow Reed's idea of the clow cards had only just begun to be thought of."
Sakura nearly spit out her hot chocolate and Syaoran began to choke on his. "WHAT?!?!" They both shouted in unison.
Alycia smiled at the embarassed looks on their faces when they realized they had said the same thing at the same time. They are so cute together!' She just barely held in a delighted squeal. "Yes, I know who Clow Reed is and I know who the two of you are as well so there is no need for an explanation of the water show outside the park." she said with smirk.
Sakura and Syaoran didn't reply. They just leaned back into their seats and prepared for what they knew would be a long, and interesting, story.
"Like I was saying," she laughed. "A long time ago, Clow Reed got and excellent idea, even before the Clow Cards. He loved children, as I am sure you both must know. But was unable to have any real children of his own. He could love no woman because it would only interfer with his work. Yet, he still longed for them. Then, one day he got a marvelous idea. If he couldn't have his own kids, why not make them? He knew there had to be something he could with the immense amount of magic he possessed.
"After years of searching through magic book after book, he finally found a type of spell that he could adjust to fit his needs. This spell is unkown, even to me. But it is fact that Clow Ree destroyed it, so that no one else with lesser power or evil intent could use it.
Oddly enough, he began to grow a garden!" Alycia laughed heartily at this point. "He put some sort of spell over it and placed in the garden the pure souls of the elements, one of wind, one of water, one of fire, one of earth, and one.... of love. They were gifts, given to him by the elements themselves when he did something spectacular that I will not mention at this point and time, for it would take too long to do so.
"So everday he went out and watered this garden with a potion made of many things, this is, again, information that cannot be given out to the two of you. The flowers grew to enormous proportions, with five specific flowers growing larger than the others. After nine months of tediously tending his living garden,' the flowers opened up to each reveal a child. Four boys and one girl. Each ones power depended on their flower. The power of fire for the boy of the sunflower and so on.
"Clow Reed cared for them and loved them as his own, not even considering that their extraordinary power attracted the attention of those who could use it in other purposes. And the five children loved each other and Clow Reed dearly. They-"
"What does all of this have to do with you needing our help?" Syaoran tried to be courteous in his way of asking, but he just came across as rude.
"Syao-rrrran," Sakura murmured, elbowing him in the side as she smiled appreciatively towards Alycia. Alycia softly giggled, yet again imaging the two in the future.
"You see," she said, losing all of the cheer that was in her voice a moment ago. "I was one of them. I'm one of the flower children, the child of the rose to be exact."
I guess Sakura and Syaoran had sort of expected this after such a detailed anecdote. But it still came as a sort of shock to them.
"If you are on of the flower children, as you say you are, then were are the four other boys. You know, you're brothers?" Syaoran asked. He wasn't quiet sure whether he believed her or not. It was possible that it could all just be some made up tale that she was trying to pull over on them.
As soon as he had said it, though, he wished he could have swallowed the words back up. Alycia's eyes began to fill with tears, as they did whenever she thought of her brothers.
"We never ex-expected it!" she said between gasps of breath. She was finding it difficult to breathe right and a couple tears slipped rebliously down her cheeks. She hung her head down low, trying to not let them see she was practically having a nervous breakdown.
"Never.... expected...?" Sakura blinked. "Never expected what, Alycia? What happened?" She bented down slightly and pushed the golden brown hair out of her host's face. "Please tell us," she pleaded when Alycia didn't lift up her head to speak.
Alycia sighed heavily. It seemed so much harder than she thought. She straighten her posture and regained as much composure as she could. She inhaled deeply and started to finish what she began to tell.
"We were... so happy together." Her eyes seemed to focus on an image only visible to her eyes. "Maybe, we were a little..." She struggled to find the words to say. "...too happy. Many sorcerers and other beings of magic were envious of our bond with each other. They could take away the world, but we would still be happy. Because, to each other, we were our world.
"One day, we were about eight or so at the time, my brothers and I had just returned from a day of frolicking in the wild flower feilds, showing of our magic in pretend fights as we had seen through Clow's crystal."
She smirked at this thought. "We were so young and so naive. We cared about nothing except each other, Clow, and magic. Like I said, we never expected it." She inspired again.
"We entered our home and knew something was wrong. My brothers warned me to be careful, since I was always the one they looked after..."
~~~~~*~~~~~
"Jishin! Kaze! Kaji! Mizu!! Wait up guys! hehe!" A young, little Ai (known now to you as Alycia) ran giggling down the dirt path to her house, effectively losing the race between them. But once she got up to them, they quieted her. She was puzzled. Why aren't they going in?' she thought. The four boys crowded around the entrance.
"Kaji-"
"Sssshhhhhhh!!" Kaji answered, covering her mouth with his hand. The stern, paternal-like look he gave her hushed her up instantly. He turned his attention back to the front door and stood quietly. Ai, who was now ver confused, squinted her eyes together and tried to push all of her energy to her hearing. She heard nothing. Nothing at all. She was about to question her brothers again when realization hit her. She heard nothing. Nothing. Absolute, complete, not to mention eriey, silence. She leaned her head back towards the door.
Still nothing. One boy straightened his back and held his head high, eyes full of defiance. "Either no one is in there or some one is in there. Let's go inside and see."
"It could be Clowy doing one of his experiments," Ai suggested in her high, childish voice. Clowy was a nickname that they had all been able to call him at one time, but now only Ai called him that, since the boys had grown too big' for silly nicknames.' They five kids walked slowy through the door in single file line with Ai at the back. They took a look around once they had steped inside. Everything was in perfect order. Nothing had been touched or moved. They looked about suspciously, picking up books and papers and looking underneath them.
"Clowy!?!?" Ai called out. "Are you there, Clowy?" Ai turned a corner and head toward the kitchen where Clow Reed prepared all of his crazy, yet still supposedly edible, concoctions.
"Ai." Ai swirled around on her heel and looked toward the living room where the voice emitted from. "Use your magic. See if we are the only ones in here or not," her brother, Jishin, ordered. Ai nodded her head. Now why didn't I think of that!,' she thought. "But come here first. I don't want you to be by yourself, anyway." Ai sighed. They were always acting superior to her.
She huffed and puffed her way over to them. "Come on, Ai. Don't be that way." She looked up into Mizu's eyes and knew she couldn't stay mad at them. She smiled brightly up at them and nodded her head.
She faced that doorway to the kitchen and closed her eyes together tightly. She gripped her heart necklace in her right hand and concentrated. A light red energy radiated off her small body. She mentally searched through the first floor. Now, she was on her way up the stairs to the-
Ai winced both physically and mentally. Kaze, Kaji, Mizu, and Jishin noticed this and shook her out of her mental journey,' as they referred to them.
"Ai! Ai! Snap out of it!" Jishin took his sister by the shoulders and shook her back and forth. Ai's eyes snapped open and she gasped in for air. The four boys huddled around her.
"What? What is it? Talk to us, Ai!" Kaze was growing worried, and when he worried, he became very impatient. "Say something!"
"Some- Something's here!" she whispered raggedly. Her chocolate orbs flew to the steps. "It's dark. Really, really dark!" she was frantically trying to explain what she felt. But, like emotions, it just couldn't be put into words.
"Where is it!" Kaji wasn't asking a question, he was demanding a direction. His green eyes shone with anger. He was very upset that someone had dared to invade his home and scare his only sister.
"Up-stairs!" Ai tried to take back what she said. She knew it was a mistake to tell him. "NO!! Don't, Ka-ji!" Kaji was already on his way upstaris.
They other three boys were running towards the stairs. Right before he reached them, Jishin turned around. "Stay here," Jishin commanded before heading after his brothers.
Yeah, right!,' Ai thought, like I would listen any other time!' Besides, she convinced herself as she began up the stairs, she couldn't let them go alone!
Yelps and hollers were heard in the second room on the right. She rushed to it and flung open the door.
A girl her age was in there. Except she was somehow different. Her eyes... they held no kind of affection. They were just..... empty. Yet, this girl sparked a memory in Ai's mind. It was Koi! The girl she had met in the park the other day!! What was she doing here? And why did she seem so changed?
"Koi?" she called bashfully. Koi turned towards Ai's sweet voice. She smiled. A smile Ai didn't really care for. Her eyes widened as she took a step back.
"Run, Ai!" Jishin called. The four boys here tied down to the floor in front of a bed in the room. It was magic holding them down. Ai could tell by the dark, black rings of energy around their wrists and ankles.
"Ai, GO!" Kaze screamed. Ai made no attempt to move. She just looked over at her struggling brothers and knew she couldn't leave them. All the while, Koi was gathering energy.
"Why are you still here?" Mizu yelled. "Leave before she gets you, too!"
"No." Ai's replied simply. You could literally see the fire burning in the centers of her eyes. She summoned her power into a small ball and threw it at the rings. They came off easily. Too easily. Just as she had walked over to her brothers, Koi's energy had turned into a rotating diamond.
"Why, Koi?" Alycia asked. "What did we ever do to you?" She had tears in her eyes. She looked genuinely hurt, like a small lost puppy.
Koi sneered at them. "Because you have to much power to be happy." She let the diamond drop from the captivity of her hands. "Goodbye." She laughed evilly and disappeared....
~~~~~*~~~~~
"....and that was the very last time I ever saw my brothers...." Alycia's heartwrenching story came to an end here.
"What happened?" Sakura looked as if she might begin to cry. Alycia's losing her four brothers was like her losing her mother, brother, father, Madison, and Syaoran. She didn't know what she would do in her case.
"Koi's diamond was a potent dark spell. She didn't destroy us, because she did not possess enough power to that to strong magical beings like ourselves. And she knew that, too. So instead, she did the one thing that could truly hurt us."
"What's that?" Li asked quizzically, his head tilted somewhat to his left side, a postion Sakura found most attractive. (^^)
"She separated us. Sent us to different places all over the earth. And it is pretty impossible for five people who have no idea where the other four are to be reunited with them once again. Which is sort of why I need your help." Alycia had one hand behind her head and a sweatdrop slowly made its way down the side of her perfect face.
"Of COURSE, we'll help you, Alycia!" Sakura clapped her hands together sharply in middle of her sentence. "Oh!" Her eyes widened momentarily. "Do you want us to keep calling you Alycia? Or is your really name Ai?"
"My real name is Ai, but you can call me whatever you prefer." Alycia's answer was short and sweet. Although her name was Ai, she had been going by Alycia ever since she was separated from Jishin, Kaze, Kaji, and Mizu.
"Okay! I think I'll call you Ai, though. I like it so much better!"
"Well, then," Alycia stood up. The hot chocolate was all gone, as were all of the delicious treats she had set out for them. "I guess you two had best be-"
"AaaaaaIiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!" A white something shot from one of the rooms and hit Alycia right in the arm. At first, the trio was alarmed, but Sakura and Syaoran settled down once they heard Alycia's laughter.
"Kira! You silly thing!" She picked the thing' up by its tail and set it in the palm of her hand. Sakura and Syaoran's mouths dropped open, and would have proceeded to hit the floor had it not been physically impossible.
A Kero was standing on Alycia's hand. Except, it wasn't Keroberos himself. It looked exactly like him, only it's little body was a milky white and the tip of its tail and its wings were a luminous golden color. Not to mention the light, airy, melodious voice that could only belong to a female! (Or else some really, really crooked guy! n/o to anyone out there)
"I'm sorry to have alerted you, Ai," the little toy said. Her words came out like music and held a beautiful tune, leaving the dumbstruck Sakura in awe. Now why can't Kero be that poliet and sweet!!' she thought to herself.
"It's okay, Kira. I was just about to introduce you to the Cardcaptors anyway."
"No you weren't." Kira grinned smuggly and crossed her tiny arms in front of her chest, one foot tapping away on Alycia's thumb. "You were just about to see them out." The looked in Alycia's eyes gave it away entirely. "It's okay, though." she said as she stopped tapping and uncrossed her arms. "I just wanted to say goodnight to you."
"Goodnight?" Sakura said skeptically. "Why, it's only..." She whirled around to the fancy cream and gold clock hanging above the wall. "NINE O'CLOCK!!!"
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!!!" Sakura had grabbed her things and Syaoran after a hasty goodbye to Alycia before dashing off to her home. She hadn't realized she'd been gone so long! Oto-san and oni-san are going to be so worried about me! I should have remembered to call!' she scolded herself brutally as she skidded to a stop and swung towards the door, home to two very concerned elders.
Well.......??? What do you guys think so far? I finished this one was soon as I could! Please review it if you read it! If I get some reviews, I'll continue it. If not, I think I might just stop. So please review! I swear it's an interesting story! Please state any comments or suggestions in the review and I will be sure to read them, just like SAKURALOVER'S. Thanxs a lot! Byes!
Kung Fu Kandy