The Stones of Claire

By like a falling star

Chapter 6: Tomoyo the keeper



Tomoyo was bathed in a blinding white light. Her eyes were shut tightly, and her hands were thrust outward, palm up. Her lips were moving rapidly, as if she were chanting, but they couldn't hear what was being said.

Her friends watched in silence and absolute horror as a new 'light' began to take over Tomoyo. This one was dark and threatening. It was a shadow. The shadow of doubt, the shadow of fear, the shadow of evil.

It swirled menacingly around Tomoyo. Eriol was tempted to step towards the shadow and help Tomoyo, but something held him back. It was fear. Fear of the shadow. Fear that came from the shadow. It was controlling him, and he could do nothing but watch helplessly as the darkness overtook Tomoyo.

And she was gone.

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Tomoyo felt dizzy. Well, actually, it wasn't exactly dizziness but more of an unaccustomed lightness. It felt like floating, actually. Like she was dancing on nothingness. Just floating around aimlessly.

Then she heard a loud thud and she forced open her eyes. She was walking on… on air.

Tomoyo looked around. She was in a forest. A… a forest?!

Where had the living room gone to? Where was she? Was she all alone? She had to find out.

She took a tentative step forward, bouncing lightly on air, until she reached a clearing. There what she saw made her gasp. Li and Sakura were bound and gagged, and tied to separate trees, while a hoard of bandits, armed with dangerous weapons, sat on logs, warming themselves in front of a campfire.

The bandits were roasting marshmallows, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Sakura's ropes were almost undone. Li struggled with his ropes, but his hands were bound and he could not reach for his sword.

As Tomoyo watched, Sakura undid the last of her ropes and slipped off.

Tomoyo ran towards her bestfriend and enveloped her in a hug. "Sakura! I'm so glad you got away. I have no idea what we're doing here--" Tomoyo was confused when her friend pulled away.

"This is a void." Sakura said, sounding desperate. "I had to escape, if not I'll be trapped here forever!" she turned away from Tomoyo and began to walk away.

"Sakura?" Why was her friend acting so weird all of a sudden?

Sakura spun around. "What is it?" She questioned almost sharply.

"We have to save Syaoran. If not he'll be stuck here forever!" Tomoyo said. The mentioned amber-eyed boy was still struggling with the ropes, but to no avail.

Sakura sighed impatiently. "He's creating such a racket. The bandits are going to find out soon that I left. I'm not going to risk my life saving him!"

Tomoyo frowned. This was so uncharacteristic of Sakura. What happened to the loving, brave and caring Sakura? Especially the one who would do anything for Syaoran? "You can use the Clow cards without being found out!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Tomoyo. You can do whatever you want, but I'm going to save myself." She turned and stalked away.

Tomoyo frowned again. This was getting absurdly ridiculous! And then she realised why.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Tomoyo called. Fortunately, the bandits did not hear her.

Sakura turned and glared at Tomoyo. "What do you want? I already told you that I'm not helping to--"

"You're not Sakura!"

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Author's Notes: hehehe… a cliffhanger… I can be really evil sometimes… don't worry, I should have the next chapter up soon! But I've got a six- chapter Chinese test this week and I haven't studied yet… oh, well. Hope you liked this chapter, and please R+R ok?? Thank you.

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