Title: Once Upon A Time

Chapter: 6 - Onto Cherossyom We Go

By: Sparkling Crystal

Now that after the frustrated morning Sakura became very tired. She refused to go back into the Palace, and Syaoran didn't really want to either.

"What should we do?" Sakura asked Syaoran, she couldn't WALK all the way back to Cherossyom from HERE and she's NEVER going back into the Palace. (A/N: Heh-heh…no they're not gonna elope)

A robin flew over the garden as the sun shone brightly over the trees. It's still early, Sakura thought, maybe Syaoran could get us a carriage and-

"Syaoran, do you think-"

"You still call me Syaoran?" Syaoran cocked an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay! Syaoran-kun!" Sakura exclaimed.

Syaoran smiled approvingly, "Yes, my dear Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blushed deeply, but she liked him calling her Sakura-chan. No one ever called her that: the servants didn't dare, except for Tomoyo sometimes, but at high risk. Her stepmother never bothered, she has way too much things to care about than little details like that.

"Do you think you can get us a Royal Carriage…that ISN'T broken?" She asked, then giggled as she remembered what happened last night.

Syaoran smiled, then frowned.

"Unfortunately…I don't think so. Every carriage has either broken wheels, cracked doors, unstable floors, or pin-covered chairs"

Sakura chuckled, "Luckily I didn't get a pin-covered chair carriage!"

But soon reality chains her again. WHAT was she going to do? Sakura sighed deeply, and what would Syaoran do? Come with her? Or return back? Her mother surely wouldn't mind if they got married, after all that's probably what she planned when she sent her to the Breakfast the day before.

"Syaoran-kun, what are we going to do though?" Sakura sighed with frustrated eyes.

Syaoran looked around, scratched his head, looked at Sakura, rolled his eyes, sighed, and putted his chin onto his hand.

Sakura stared at his weird movements, "What are you doing?"

Syaoran looked back at her in serious gaze, his eyes sinking into hers.

Sakura looked back with slight fear of losing him. What if he really decided that he would return to his Mother? What if he thought of her as annoying? What if he didn't like her anymore? Was he mad at her?

Syaoran's gaze shot into her eyes.

Sakura had a sudden shudder.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Syaoran asked softly but sternly, almost a whisper.

Sakura gently bit her lips, what DID she think he was doing?

"I'm THINKING." Syaoran then stated in a serious tone.

"OF ALL THE STUPIDITY-!!!"

Sakura gently shoved Syaoran onto the side.

Syaoran simply laughed, "Well…I never said anything…it's not MY fault!"

"Stupid little wolf," Sakura pretended to be angry, "I'm just going to walk back to Cherossyom all by myself then!"

At that she stood up and started to walk into the maze.

Instead of stopping her Syaoran relaxed on the Rose Swing, "You won't be able to get out unless you played in here ever since you could walk."

Sakura looked back at him. She refused to show it by she had no idea of how to get out of the maze, she had expected Syaoran to come and stop her.

Syaoran chuckled evilly.

Sakura shot him an evil look that said "You'd better get me out of here"

Syaoran ignored her and kept on swinging back and forth on the swing, enjoying his time. "Go ahead and leave, I think I'll enjoy my time here with the beautiful birds and trees…what wonderful flowers are blossoming this season…ah…and the bright eternal sun…and those cute little puffy clouds…"

Sakura stomped her foot around and finally made her choice to rather get lost than to have to ask Syaoran for help.

"Fine then! I'll just see if I can walk back to Cherossyom myself!"

And at that she entered the Maze without another word.

After all, the Maze was only at waist-height for decoration uses only. If she really couldn't get out of here she'd have to risk the trouble of climbing over them one by one to get her out of there. It was not enough to keep her in.

Syaoran chuckled as Sakura turned left and right…back and forth…again and again in the Maze, trying to get her way out.

Sakura finally glared at him and lifted up her dress with one hand. The other carried its weight onto the boulders, and troublesomely tries to cross over. Unfortunately the dress got stuck onto one of the branches and ripped a two feet gap on Sakura's new borrowed dress.

Syaoran finally came to the rescue and helped her get out.

Sakura puffed angrily, "What are YOU doing here? I never asked for your help.

Syaoran smiled gently, "All right, all right. You win. I just can't stand by and watch my Sakura-chan get all mad."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "I'm not speaking to you. I'm just going to walk all the way back to Cherossyom all by myself."

And at that she started to try and climb another boulder.

Syaoran sighed, "You'll never get out by nightfall."

Sakura knew he was right, but she was still mad at him. Syaoran smiled again and came from the back of Sakura and two masculine hands went around her and squeezed her tightly. Sakura couldn't stay angry at Syaoran. She blushed a maiden blush and putted her hands on top of Syaoran's.

* * *

"So….what are we doing again?"

"I'm going to escort you back to Cherossyom. Then I shall return back. My Mother probably would be calm by then and after I explain we can start this all over again," Syaoran said slowly.

"You think she'll understand?"

"Well…she should, because it WAS just a misunderstanding…"

"I hope so…because, well…I really like you and…"

Sakura blushed.

Syaoran smiled, "Well, we should be on our way then! I told a servant that's really trustworthy of mine to get us a couple of peasant clothes. He'll never tell Mother, and he knows I'll be back safely. Let's get change before we go, we don't want to be outstanding."

Sakura nodded.

Syaoran walked behind some tall bushes quite a distance away from Sakura and started to take off his shirt.

Sakura blushed as she quickly turned around. She looked at the rough peasant clothes she was holding. They weren't exactly pretty but looked comfortable enough.

She quickly took off her dress, sneaking to see if Syaoran was looking this way, and finding out that he wasn't, hurriedly putting on the pale pink dress.

* * *

"Is he coming this way?"

Syaoran whispered to Sakura as he started to climb the tall brick wall. Sakura was staring carefully at the Palace Guards who were eyeing every part of their route thoroughly.

"No…" Sakura quickly whispered back from the middle of the bush, "But hurry up! I see another pair of them coming this way in a far distance!"

Syaoran nodded roughly as he tried as hard as he can to climb onto the top of the fencing wall.

Syaoran grunted hard…then…

"ARGH…!!"

"Yay!" Sakura yelled a silent cheer.

Syaoran inhaled a few deep breaths before dropping a piece of rope that's about three meters long down to where Sakura was. Sakura rapidly looked around before running towards the rope and grasping it tight. Syaoran started to pull as hard as he can on the top of the wall. Sakura tried to step on the tiny little cracks on the wall and working her way up. Finally when Sakura got to the top two palace guards spotted them.

"HEY! INTRUDERS!"

Syaoran and Sakura both gasped as they started to jump off the wall of the other side. But luckily Syaoran spotted a tree and they stepped carefully on the little space of the wall and onto the thick branches of the tree.

A guard has whistled. "INTRUDERS! ON THE TREE!"

Syaoran and Sakura climbed quickly down the tree, ripping parts of their dress/clothes and running as fast as they could away from the Palace and into the city.

About three dozen palace guards chased after the two of them, yelling and screaming as they ran.

Sakura gasped as she ran, "You sure they can't can't recognize you!?"

Syaoran grabbed Sakura's hand, "No, but let's hurry!"

Sakura nodded breathlessly as the two of them ran straight into the center of the town, leaving the guards behind angry and yelling.

Sakura giggled and Syaoran let out a deep breath as they slowed down, but not stopping, being afraid that they might be caught.

* * *

"Are you sure you know your way around here?" Sakura asked doubtfully.

Syaoran looked around the busy street without much confidence, "I'm sure we'll get out of here successfully somehow."

"If you say so…then which way do we go?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran looked around, and finally gave Sakura a "Sorry-I-Guess-I-Don't-Know-After-All" look.

Sakura sighed.

"Is it possible to rent a couple of horses here and ride back to Cherossyom? It would take less time this way…"

Syaoran shook his head, "In our hurry I forgot to bring any coins along with me, and besides, if we rode it'd raise more awareness to the guards who're searching for us right now."

Sakura nodded in acknowledgement, "Well, at least we should as somebody for the way to Cherossyom from here…or we could find the shortcut forest that's un-fenced and un-guarded from the palace and somehow walk back from there…"

Syaoran shook his head again, "It's dangerous to travel in the woods and it's easy to get lost…you only got through safely because of mere luck. And I'm going to tell Mother to build a wall around it as soon as I get back. All these years we thought it was just an endless forest…leading only to dark lakes and deserted caves."

Sakura nodded again, she sort of felt stupid, being a princess but so unaware of these tiny little details.

She slowly walked up to a friendly-looking old baker, and politely asked, "Pardon me, sir, but do you know the way to Cherossyom?"

The old baker blinked a few times, touched his gray moustache, and in his old croaky voice, "Go that a-way and you'll probably be there in a few days…"

"A few DAYS!?" Sakura exclaimed, "It should only take like about two hours-"

Syaoran quickly covered her mouth, only royalties or really wealthy people can ride carriages in Naroays.

But the old baker heard anyways, he studied them from head to toe.

"In your dreams! What's your occupation anyways? You look very much like homeless hoboes to me…and why would you want to go to Cherossyom? I heard from my friend that's serving in the palace that a princess is staying over here! Amazing, huh?"

The baker looked really proud as he kept talking, and Sakura finally thanked him friendlily and they left.

Without another word Syaoran and Sakura started to walk on foot to the way the old baker was pointing to. Soon they were out of the city and facing at a large endless field. Sakura quickly grabbed a lady that was passing by.

"Pardon me, but do you know the way to Cherossyom? I need to get there."

The lady looked at Sakura in surprise, then she smiled, "Sure, my niece lives there." She gently nudged her head towards the path of the endless fields.

"Go straight that way, and about four hours away from here you'll see this little town. I suggest you rest a bit there, and if you continue on for about a day or so you'll find yourself in the borders of Cherossyom!"

Sakura glanced at the field, it didn't look as if there was a town about four hours from here, but she thanked the lady politely before getting ready to leave.

* * *

"How much more…to go…Syaoran-kun?"

Asked a very tired and impatient Sakura, her eyelids drooping down and up.

Syaoran shook his head, "You asked that just two minutes ago."

"But that was TWO MINUTES ago!" Sakura argued, "What about now? How much do we still have to go?"

Syaoran sighed, "We've only been walking for one hour and you're this tired? We'll never get to Cherossyom this way. And you were saying how you would walk back to Cherossyom all by yourself this morning!"

Sakura sighed too, "I had no idea it was *THIS* far! It seemed like seconds when I went from the Forest!!"

Syaoran grabbed her hand, "C'mon, we can make it…just three more hours!"

"But," Sakura reasoned, "We don't have any money! We won't be able to rent an inn or anything like that…perhaps we can find a kind enough man that'd let us sleep at his stable…"

Syaoran ignored her debates; he shook his head, inhaled a cold breath, and squeezed Sakura's hand tightly.

"Let's go back to Cherossyom."

Syaoran said sternly.

Sakura blushed, and then nodded with much confidence.

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~*ARTHUR'S NOTE*~

hey~ thank u 4 all your reviews and supports! I hope I can live up to your expectations! *sweat drops* now you got me all worried that my next chapter won't be as good as the last! *WAH!*