Title: Once Upon A Time

Chapter: 1 - War and Peace

By: Sparkling Crystal

Sakura woke up in the cold morning, her eyelids slowly opens as she set eyes on the morning sun slowly rising beyond the horizon of the plain hill.

She lifted up her blankets and began to sat up. Immediately she was greeted by a room of cold, chilly air. Sakura gently rubbed her eyes and walked towards the balcony to view the beautiful and rare sunrise. The floor was covered with a layer of soft and comfortable white carpet, and she gently laid her steps upon them.

As she brushed away the thin curtains and pulled open the cold metal door she was greeted by the bright, orange sunlight. Although it wasn't warm she could hardly open her eyes. She stepped onto the cold tiles of the balcony, and tried her best to keep her eyes wide open.

Yet just as she lifted up her hand to block the sunlight she saw face to face with a pair of sapphire blue eyes.

"E-Eriol!"

Eriol was standing on the balcony to the left of hers, still wearing his robes, smiling his usual smile, and looking at Sakura in a mysterious way. "Ohayou gozamiasu, Sakura-san. Beautiful sunrise, ne?"

"H-hai!" Sakura stammer again, bit surprised at seeing him.

Together they watched the glorious sun rise from the mountain tops, and slowly began its way to climb up to the clouds. Air began to gradually warm up, and Sakura's mind drifted off dreamily in the wonderful surroundings. Soon chirpings of birds could be heard, and the land begins to wake up.

"You rarely see these magnificent sceneries of nature back inside castle walls, do you?"

Eriol said as he let out a sigh.

Sakura nodded briefly in agreement.

"MAGNIFICENT SCENERIES OF NATURE INDEED!"

A loud, familiar voice boomed at Sakura and Eriol.

Sakura was woken from her daydreams and turned immediately to her right. And was shocked as she saw Syaoran standing there with his arms crossed and staring at the two of them.

His chestnut hair was messy and all over the place, his dark brown eyes were glowing with anger, his mouth was in a frown, and he looked very unhappy about something.

Sakura blinked a few times, "Ohayou, Syaoran. Are you already awake?"

Syaoran relaxed a bit from Sakura's words, and replied a simple "good-morning". Eriol smiled at Syaoran like he always does, and gently stuffed his hands into his robe pockets. "Good morning, Syaoran-san. I see you have came to join us in viewing the sunrise."

Syaoran shot him an evil look before mumbling a gruff sound.

"Well, now that the sun had rose, I think it's about time for breakfast. My stomach is growling. Would you like to join me, Sakura-san?" Eriol said warmly, and then glanced at Syaoran, whose look could kill about anyone now, "Syaoran-san?"

Sakura smiled back politely, and accepted for them both, even if Syaoran's look could obviously tell anyone that he had absolutely hated Eriol.

Well, Sakura was Sakura.

* * *

Breakfast was in pain for Syaoran, he was used to girls going mad over him, and he had never had the feelings of jealousy before. Of course Sakura didn't have any special feelings for Eriol, but Eriol seemed too comfortable and warm towards Sakura.

Finally the three had finish breakfast in the most unique way. Eriol and Syaoran both didn't do much talking, with Eriol constantly smiling and Syaoran constantly sending him evil looks. Sakura had felt that something had been going on but couldn't tell exactly what it is, so hence just kept quiet and ate her meal quietly.

Chiharu and Takashi, however, were both just glad that Prince Eriol didn't investigate the so-called case of "stealing" the strawberries.

"Well, PRINCE ERIOL, I'm SO sorry but we have to leave NOW," Syaoran said loudly after Chiharu had taken the dirty plates and dishes away from them. He stood up and pushed his chair in.

Eriol smiled, "I see. It's about time for me to get going too. May I ask where you would be going?"

"We're going back to Cher-" Sakura had said before Syaoran started coughing like mad, covering what Sakura had said. Eriol looked at the two of them, smiled again (A/N: yes i kno...itz so annoying...), and bowed slightly to Sakura.

"Well, I hope to see both of you again soon," Eriol said politely and left with his innocent smile.

Syaoran had made sure Eriol had left the building before getting ready to leave.

"Ne, Syaoran," Sakura said as she stepped outside the doors of Chiharu and Takashi's Vacationing Hotel, "Why were you so eager to leave? And why didn't you let me tell Eriol where we were going?"

Syaoran fiddled with his hands as he tried to come up with a reasonable excuse, he surely wasn't going to tell Sakura that he wanted to leave because he didn't want Sakura to be with Eriol for one more second, and neither did he want Eriol to have the chance to give Sakura a "on-the-way-ride" to Cherossyom.

"Well...I just wanted to make sure we would arrive at the border of Cherossyom before nightfall so you wouldn't have to suffer walking painfully in the cold, dark night again," Syaoran replied.

This was partially true, he didn't want Sakura to walk in the freezing cold weather in the middle of the night; and he himself didn't want to walk either.

Sakura blushed.

"Let's hurry our pace a bit then."

Syaoran smiled back with a playful look, "You sure, slowpoke?"

Sakura's blush had immediately turned into a competitive face, "What do you mean 'slowpoke'?!"

And for some reason "hurry our pace a bit" turned into racing to see who could get to the border of Cherossyom first. Of course they would never have the energy to run all the way, but it was fun while it lasted.

* * *

"I haven't ran like that since I was four..."

Sakura mumbled as she suddenly stopped walking and sat herself down right down onto the lush, green grass under the shadows of a tall and beautiful willow tree.

Syaoran walked towards her and wiped off some of his sweat from his forehead, "Come on, we'll be there soon..."

"It's about noon and the sun is right on top of our heads...I feel hungry and I'm sweating to death. Can't we rest for a little while, Syaoran-kun?"

"All right, all right..." Syaoran replied and sat himself beside Sakura. He was sweating to death himself too, but he knew he had to be tolerant and strong. Or else he and Sakura would eventually end up as barbequed meat on the sunny road.

Sakura letted out a breath and started fanning herself effortlessly with her hand, her vision beginning to blur. She closed her eyes and soon heard Syaoran starting to lie down beside her.

There was almost no clouds on the bright blue sky, and only a few birds wanted to fly in this hot weather. They had to find food, or else their bodies would surely starve.

Sakura began to slowly open her eyes as she heard an eagle's screech.

Just as her eyelids were about to open...a pale pink, blurry thing was seen down the road.

Pink?

Sakura immediately shot up, surprising the Syaoran beside her.

She blinked her eyes a few times, and looked again.

Just down the road a bit was a tall, grand, cherry tree. Just across the road from the tree was another, identical in almost every way. Sakura almost screamed in happiness.

"S-Syaoran!!"

"Hai?" Syaoran replied, looking to see if she was feeling alright.

She grabbed his hands and jumped around in joy.

"Cherossyom! Cherossyom! We're almost there!! The Cherry Trees! I can see the Cherry Trees!"

Syaoran didn't have much clue in what she was talking about, and stared at her in astonishment.

Soon Sakura explained to him that the two Cherry Trees was a sign that they had only less than half-an-hour's walk till they would reach the borders of Cherossyom. They were planted there ever since Sakura could remember, and seeing them again was like being back at home again.

* * *

"Name?" The officer in uniform asked Sakura and Syaoran as they finally got to the border.

Sakura drew a breath, "Sakura. Sakura Kinomoto."

The officer's eyes widened.

"Ki-Kinomoto!?"

He studied Sakura from head to toe, he had never seen a Royal Family up close, and he had no idea what they would look like. Sakura was wearing a pale blue dress that Chiharu had lent her, which was very elegant but lack the feeling of royalty.

The officer decided to put her aside and skip to Syaoran first.

"What's your name, then?"

Syaoran gave him an eyeful, and said the name "Syaoran Li" stiffly.

This was certainly not the way they were used to crossing the border, usually they just sat in their Royal Carriages and stare at the window in boredom.

The officer was shocked again, his heart was racing like mad. What should he do? What should he do? If they were really Princess Sakura and Prince Syaoran he had better watched to not have offended them, but if they were imposters and he had letted them in he would be in great trouble.

Sakura wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next either, so she asked him casually, "Can we go now?"

The officer was apparently still in shock, and mumbled in bewilderment some unknown words. Syaoran rolled his eyes impatiently. "What an idiot."

Suddenly a beautiful shimmering carriage arrived towards the border from Cherrosyom's side at top speed. The carriage looked so familiar to Sakura, and she tried to see who it is so she could make them stop and bring her back home.

Another officer had been greeting the driver of the Carriage and Sakura caught a glimpse of a girl with long, black hair and violet purple eyes.

Tomoyo!

What she was doing here she didn't know, but she quickly waved at the Carriage.

"Tomoyo! Tomoyo!! It's me! Sakura!"

The Carriage had started to proceed as Sakura was waving like mad towards Tomoyo. Tomoyo didn't seem to have noticed, and looked as if she had some urgent business.

The other officer didn't know what Sakura was doing but quickly ran over and tried to stop Sakura's "craziness" with a long sword. Luckily Syaoran was way faster than him, and had his sword to the officer's neck before he could say another word.

A large quantity of other armed officers had came to stop the situation and the Carriage had suddenly stopped after traveling for another few meters.

Tomoyo jumped out hurriedly and ran straight back at Sakura

"Stop, stop! Don't touch the Princess!!"

The officers' eyes opened wide and all stared at Tomoyo.

"Lady Tomoyo! Did you say..."

"...Princess?!"

Tomoyo quickly grabbed Sakura away from the people and onto the side.

"Yes I did, and you brutes should better watch your heads after I report this incident to the Queen!"

Now all the officers were gapping and bowing and kneeling and asking for forgiveness. None of them had enough time to care about Syaoran, who was wondering who Tomoyo was. They were too worried about their own life to care about him.

"Please forgive us, Your Graciousness! We really didn't know!"

"We are so sorry, please pardon our sin!"

"Take mercy on us pathetic, useless beings!"

"If only we had known, we never had the chance to see Your Graciousness!"

Sakura waved her hand as forgiveness and turned her attention to Tomoyo.

The officers began thanking her and kept on kneeling and bowing. Some even started crying in relief.

Syaoran ignored the bunch of people and walked towards the two girls.

Tomoyo shot Syaoran a glance, and Sakura quickly told her that he was Prince Syaoran of Naroays. Tomoyo's eyes widened again, and asked that Syaoran excuse them for a minute.

"Princess Sakura! Didn't you know?"

Sakura blinked.

"Know what?"

Tomoyo shook her head, "Your really don't, don't you? I'll tell you all later. This had happened too soon! Please get on the Carriage first, we should get back to the Castle of Cherossyom as soon as possible."

"All right, but please tell Syaoran for me that-"

"I'll send him home with one of the spare carriages...oh I really shouldn't be doing this! But..." Tomoyo glanced at Sakura, "I'll send him home safely."

"Doing what?" Sakura asked as she cocked an eyebrow, but Tomoyo already started walking towards Syaoran. Shrugging to herself, Sakura quickly got into the Carriage and away from the sun.

Tomoyo walked towards Syaoran, and quickly gave him a small curtsey.

"Princess Sakura is well in my hands, and I will take home back to the Castle of Cherossyom now. I have already provided a Carriage for you to return with. Good day, Prince Syaoran of-of Na-Naroays!!," Tomoyo said and left him staring at her in confusion. Things were happening too fast for Syaoran.

At last they each went their separate ways to return to their countries.

* * *

After Sakura had arrived home she was immediately greeted by her step-mother.

"Oh, Sakura! I was so worried about you! I'm so sorry, I should have never sent you to Naroays in the first place! It was a stupid, stupid idea! But I didn't know! Honestly I didn't!"

Sakura cocked an eyebrow at her step-mother. What was she talking about?

Tomoyo had quickly came over to explain to Sakura.

"The Queen of Naroays had just announced War on Cherossyom yesterday."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat.

________________________________________________________________________

~*ARTHUR'S NOTE*~

Please review!!! Just to also let my wonderful readers know, I check my email at least three times a week. So when any of u reviews i always read it! dont think i've forgotten about fanfiction.net, cuz im still writing, so if u want 2 scream at me 4 not updating i'll always kno, n i'm trying very hard 2 type, re-read, edit, and updating, so plz keep on reviewing, bcuz the more reviews i get the more urge i hav 2 update! every lil bit counts! ^^ THANK YOU!!