A Tiger's Call
Part 1 - "The Locked Room"
By Jannah P.
(For reference sakes, this story takes place approximately a hundred years after the original Byakko no Miko died. These characters were, for the most part, created by me, so please don't use them without permission and whatnot. ^^ Nodoka is 17, in case you were wondering. ^_- This is also my first FY fanfic, so bear with me...)

Despite the beautiful day outside, Doushin Nodoka was content to remain inside the library's walls. She had been working there for the past year, and she adored her job. During her younger years, she had frequented the library two or three times a week. Now, she had the pleasure of frequenting it every weekday after school. Her job, generally speaking, was to return books and other such written items to their proper locations. Today, she had her work cut out for her.

As she pushed open the glass doors and shed her heavy winter coat, the elderly woman behind the reference desk greeted her. Nodoka smiled and waved, retrieving a pile of children's books from a library cart. The elderly woman called her to the reference desk, and the girl complied quickly.

"Good afternoon, Nodoka."

"'Afternoon, Fugen-san."

"Could you do me a favor? I can't leave this desk until my shift ends, but there is a book I wanted to look over from upstairs. It's in the third room on the left, second floor. The title is.." She scratched her graying locks. "...'For Heaven and Earth', or something like that, I believe... Do you think you could bring it to me?"

"Of course."

"It wouldn't be too much trouble, would it? I could always wait.."

Nodoka smiled. "No trouble at all. I think I'm heading for the second floor anyway, to return some old newspaper articles."

"Thank you, dear."

Nodoka hummed a quiet tune to herself as she ascended the stairs to the fourth floor. She decided to shelve the books in her arms in the children's section on the fourth floor before retrieving Fugen-san's book. She half-expected the children's room to be full of screaming youngsters and their frustrated parents at this time of day. Strangely enough, the children's room was practically empty. A toddler playing with a stack of blocks looked up from his position on the floor to watch her approach with large brown eyes. She knelt down beside him to ask, in typical adult fashion, what he was spelling out, and he continued to watch her. No, now that she was this close to him, she could tell that he was looking past her.

She turned her head slightly to find what the child was staring at and inhaled sharply; a large white tiger stood near the stairwell several feet behind her. Its eyes locked onto hers, and it raced towards her. Her eyes widened, but the tiger passed right through her as if she weren't even there. The toddler followed the tiger with his eyes and sniffled when it vanished upon reaching the fiction shelves. Nodoka shivered, unconsciously clutching the pile of books closer to her chest. She stood and moved towards the shelves, still somewhat shaken by the ghostly apparition.
Her thoughts turned constantly to the phantom tiger as she placed the books back in their appropriate places. The toddler continued to watch her, and she began to find his steady gaze unnerving. She returned the last book to the shelf and tucked a stray strand of blood-red hair behind her ear. The child followed her with his eyes until she re-entered the stairwell, then returned to playing with his blocks.

"Second floor," Nodoka repeated to herself, "second floor, third door on the-" She paused. "On the-" She blinked, struggling to recall the older woman's words. "Second floor, third door on the - right." She stopped at the hallway of the second floor. "That hallucination must have frightened me more than I thought." Walking down the hallway, she noted the eerie silence around her, broken every so often by her echoing footsteps. To take her mind away from this observation, she mentally counted the doors as she passed them. The third door on the right was at the opposite end of the hallway, only a few steps away from the opposite stairwell.

Nodoka tested the doorknob and found the door to be locked. Puzzled, she tried the doorknob a second time, with the same result. She checked behind the label-plaque on the door in the hopes of finding a key; her hand only touched smooth wood. Nervously pulling back her blood-red hair, she suddenly recalled the key given to all the workers at the library. It was supposed to open any door in the building. After rummaging through the pockets of her skirt, she pulled a small key from the right side.
As she had thought, the key fit comfortably into the door's lock. She found she had to jiggle the key a bit before the lock gave way. Although curious as to why the door had been locked, Nodoka pushed it open and entered the room. Cobwebs covered scattered piles of old newspapers and textbooks. Thick dust stirred as she walked through the room in search of the book Fugen-san had requested. The eerie silence of the hallway permeated the room as well, and the girl felt as if no one had entered the room in quite some time. The shelves were nearly empty, littered here and there with scraps of paper or the occaisonal book.
Nodoka paused in the middle of the third aisle, a cold chill running up her spine. She turned, and her eyes fell on the ghostly apparition of the tiger. They remained there, staring at each other, for what seemed an eternity. She felt her throat grow parched, and nearly jumped out of her skin when an audible (and rather loud) thud stirred the dust behind her. She turned, attempting to calm herself with the assurance that a logical explanation was imminent. Her eyes sought out the source of the sound, and came to rest upon a hefty book lying on the floor in the center of the aisle. Wondering if it could possibly be the book she was searching for, she tramped over and lifted it gingerly in both hands.
The book was ragged, with a worn brown cover and a frayed binding. The title was hardly decipherable, the faded words 'Heaven and Earth' the only remainder of the book's original title. The book appeared ancient. Nodoka sniffed the air; the book smelled ancient, too. A tarnished clasp kept the book closed tightly. It seemed no amount of fumbling would open it. On a whim, Nodoka stuck her key into the clasp's lock. The lock gave way with a quick click, startling her. Fearful that the book would fall apart in her hands, she was overly careful when opening the cover.

"This is the story of one girl who, having gathered the Seven Seishi of 'Byakko', acquired the power to make any wishes come true... The story itself is an incantation. One who finishes the book shall acquire the same power as the heroine and her wishes will come true... As soon as the page is turned, the story will become truth and begin." Nodoka stared at the first page. "Where- isn't there a title page at all?" She glanced at the cover once more and found that it didn't quite look as old as it had originally. The characters written there were clear now, reading Shi Jin Tenchi Sho - The Four Gods of Heaven and Earth. Nodoka flipped to the first page and read the words printed there again.

"As soon as the page is turned..." Her fingers touched the bottom of the page and a voice startled her. Large brown eyes stared at her from the open doorway. The toddler from the children's room. He laughed happily, attempting to point out Nodoka to his mother. The woman didn't seem to notice the girl standing less than eight feet away and soon proceeded down the hall. Nodoka turned to the second page of the book and was surrounded by a brilliant white light. The phantom tiger appeared a third time before her, and she found herself falling. Reality as she knew it turned inside out; she closed her eyes.

The book crashed to the floor, far sturdier than Nodoka had first thought. The characters on the cover gleamed, and a faint roaring reverberated through the room.


********

Sand whipped past Nodoka's face, stinging where it hit. She squinted against the billowing sandstorm, but found nothing useful.

Where am I?

Always having been able to think better when speaking aloug, she opened her mouth and was rewarded with a mouthful of sand. Coughing, she stumbled forward. Sand stung her eyes, so she instinctively closed them. Walking blindly, she groped in front of her with one hand; there seemed to be no end to the sandstorm in sight. Deciding that the sharp stings of the sand were better than no vision at all, she opened her eyes just as a thick tree branch smacked her in the back of the head. She fell to her knees, choking on the sand and dust filling her lungs. Her crimson hair merged with the shifting sands as she tumbled face-first to the ground.