DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP.







Coming and Going




The Fates were telling my story, but I want to tell my own story. I think there are things in my life I can tell better than the all seeing Fates can. No offense to them.

All right, my reasons for leaving were stupid. You don't have to tell me that. Any other sane person would have just left well enough alone and married Meiling, but I'm not normal. So there I was, in the middle of the road. I had not clue which direction to go in and the road had split into four paths. My horse, however, had ideas of his own. He took the both of us on the westward path.

That was how I made my decisions. I couldn't decide where to go, but my horse always knew. Why was my horse smarter than me?

Mother had always told me how important our family was, since we were a huge, sucessful trading family, but I didn't realize exactally how important being a Li was until I made this trip. Every where I went, no matter how far away from home it was, people had heard of my family. In some places I even meet relatives I would never have meet other wise. They would always give me messages to send to my mother or my sisters, or some relative in another village. My memory improved quite a bit during that trip.

Being on the road was refreshing. I'd never traveled by myself before, and I enjoyed the freedom I found. The birds, the air, the scenery. A nice little break from learning to keep books at home.

In most of the villages, I didn't meet anyone like the girl in my dream. Green eyes were quite rare. Almost as rare as my light brown ones. Almost.

One village I went to, there was a girl with green eyes and brown hair. I remember her quite well. The first time I saw her, was in the tavern. She was a serving wench. I asked who she was, except the person next to me was too drunk to give me anything except for her name. "Victoria," he slurred, and then he added some kind of commentary about her body. I don't really remember because it turns out, she was not only a good-looking serving-wench, she was also the village whore.




No Sakura, darling, I didn't get involved with her.




If I had relatives in the village, they would get me to stay and try to set me up with the local beauties. After all, "A good looking young man like you should have a nice wife," one of my uncles said. None of them even looked like the girl in my dreams, so one by one, I rejected them. My uncles, aunts and cousins were all sorely confused.

"What's wrong with you Syaoran?" they would ask. "These are girls other men would die for!" they would say.

I'll admit, there were times where I just wanted to give up. It seemed like I would never find what I was looking for. Never. But always, when I was about to give up, the dream would come back again. Always the same setting and she was always so beautiful. Near the beginning of my travels, I made the mistake of telling a cousin that. "Are you sure that woman's not just a figment of your imagination?" he asked me.

"Positive," he gave me an odd look, "now look here, there's something about this dream I can't dismiss. If you had it, you would understand too."

He shook his head and sighed. I made him promise not to tell anyone.

Their attention smothered me almost as much as my sisters did at home, so after three years of traveling, I decided it was time to go home. I bought gifts for my family and hoped they were all still there. My mother did look a little pale when I left. I didn't want to leave her like that, but she wouldn't let me stay either.




I'd like to take some time out to tell the legend of how the God of Martial arts was discovered. It's a short story. He was created out of a sword. How lame is that? Lame. Created out of a sword. What hoot of a priest thought up that story? He must have been half drunk when he thought it up because I can tell you, I was not made out of a sword.




The trip home was longer than I thought it would be. I probably shouldn't have let my horse guide me the way I did before, but then again. It was a good thing that my horse guided me. I was riding through flat lands and I could see some one walking towards me. A person walking in the flatlands by themselves is unusual enough, but even more memorable was that this person was a woman.

From far away, I could see something following her. Normally, I would have left her alone, but the something that was following her was a raggedy human, not an animal as I had thought it was. I urged my steed in the woman's direction. I didn't get to her first though. The other man did.

I don't like it when men are harsh with women. It offends me to the core. It looked like the woman didn't know the man, so I urged my horse to go faster. When I got to her, the man was trying to choke her and she was trying to get away from him. It turned out that the woman was wearing some jewlery. Not a good idea if you're traveling alone.

Even though it wasn't any of my business, I hurt the other man pretty badly. He saw that I was going to challenge him and tossed the woman aside to fight me. I distinctly recall his running away twice as fast as he'd come. It was after I helped the woman up that I got a good look at her. The first thing I noticed were her eyes, a habit of mine by then.

Her eyes were even more golden than mine. Almost like a wolf's or an owl's eyes. She was only a little bit shorter than I was and her hair was light brown. She didn't look like any villager i'd ever seen in that area, plus she was traveling alone wearing costly jewels and fabrics. She looked me straight in the eye and seemed to see right through me. She walked away without saying anything, just a grateful smile. I had, for some reason, held my breath and was starting to see spots, so I had to order myself to breath.

"We'll meet again," I heard her say. Her voice was spectacularly soothing. I didn't really hear what she said until after she said it. Why did she say we would meet again? There certainly were a lot of mad people running around the world. I turned around in the direction she had left. She was gone! Some things are best left forgotten. If this situation wasn't one of them, I don't know what was.

When I got home, I was greeted by an empty, darkened house. My first thought was that they had moved away, but I rejected that one because my mother loved out house dearly, but as I went from room to room, lighting lamps and fires, I started wondering if indeed my family was gone. Then I heard the giggles behind me. The trademark of my four sisters were their giggles. "Ha ha, very funny you guys. I know you're there, so the four of you can come out now," I said.

"Aaaaiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" they screamed as the ran out of hiding and pounced on me. I couldn't tell what they were saying after that since I was trying to get air. "Little Brother has grown up sooooooooooo much," one said.

"You should have visited earlier!" said another at the same time as, "what are you talking about? Syaoran hasn't changed at all!!!" and then there was another collective squeal.

"Where's mom?" I asked as soon as they were done.

"Shopping."

The answer had barely escaped their lips when my mother walked in. She hadn't changed much since I had last seen her, which was almost four years. My sudden reappearance threw her off balance. She stuttered my name and then, "I need to sit down."

For that whole first day, my mother followed me everywhere I went and then at night, she wanted to tuck me in and tell me a bed time story. She hadn't done that since I was a child! It wasn't until the next day though, that I discovered something.

"Mother, where's Meiling?" Meiling had always been around, but the realization that I hadn't seen her didn't occur to me until the next day for some reason.

"Meiling...she's been sick for the last two months," she gravely replied.

"Sick?" my astonishment surprised even me. Meiling had always been a healthy girl and a fighter too. I wanted to go see her.

"No," my mother said. "You might get her hopes up."

"I promise I won't say anything to make her think I'm here for her. Besides Mother, I have something to give her."

She seemed to consider it for a moment and finally gave in.

The change in Meiling was more than I expected. Her breathing was rattly and her skin pallid. It looked like she had lost the will to live.

She woke up when my mother and I came into the room but refused to look at me. "What do you want?" she spat, her voice burned with distaste for me.

"I wanted to give you something," on the table next to her bed, I set down a beautifully hand carved bird. Meiling loved birds. When we were younger, she used to have all sorts of birds in her room. Now there were none except for the one I brought in.

She turned her head to look at me. Her face spoke of unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. "You think I just want some triffle from you?"

I sighed. It was stupid of me not to think she would bring this up. "You want me to love you in a way I can't Meiling," I replied, beggin her to understand.

"I'm dying you know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Nonsense. What did the doctors say?"

"Screw the doctors. You think I'd know my own body."

I wanted to put some hope in her. "They could be right."

"But they're wrong." Well, so much for that tactic.

I couldn't think of anything else, so I used my last resort. From where I was, the wealthy weren't terribly religious, but the villagers were. "Did you try the Gods?"

"If the Gods existed they would have answered my prayers."

I didn't know what to say anymore. My best friend really had lost hope. I stood up. "I'm going to try the Gods."

"What for?" she argued bitterly, "you have no reason to."

"Meiling, just because I don't love you the way you want doesn't mean I don't love you. You're my best friend and whether you like it or not, I'm not going to let you die, just like that." I paused to see the effects of my words. Nothing. Her face was turned away from me, but when I sighed, I saw tears form in her eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Since I wasn't familiar with the mythology of the Gods, it took a few days for me to learn about them. I suppose I could have simply visited every single shrine in the village, but our village was large; visiting every shrine would have taken weeks. In the end, though, I visited the temple to every god and goddess that was even remotely connected to health.

Everyday, I would talk to Meiling, try to give her some kind of hope. Everyday, she would tell me to give up. Everyday, she would look away when I came. I suppose she was angry still. But, everyday, I noticed that the carved bird I'd given her had moved. Maybe she wasn't so angry after all.

Weeks passed. I'd patronized every diety that was connected to health and still Meiling was no better. She was worse. I desparately wanted her to get well. I wanted to hear her yell at me, I wanted to hear her challenge me, I wanted to look at her.

I prayed to Hitas, the Goddess of physical well-being. I didn't pray, I pleaded, begged, cajoled, threatened; I didn't pray.

There was only one entrence to the Temple of Hitas. One entrence and one guardian, an elderly priestess whom I had grown fond of, as she sympathized with my cause. I was the only one in the temple that fateful day, besides the priestess. Kneeling at the base of Hitas' golden statue, a breeze of conversation whispered past my ear. Even on the noisiest market day, the temple of Hitas was usually quiet, so I looked around.

Had someone else been in the temple, I would have seen them right away, for between the doorway and the alter was a long hall and no where to hide. Uneasily, I went back to praying. Another trickle of talk reached my ear soon after. This time, there was no doubt about it; the voices were coming from inside the temple.

It could have been the priestess, but she was tending a small garden she had in the back and she was alone. Back in the temple, I called out, "Who's there?"

The whispers were more audible after my question, but there was no answer. "Who's there?" I asked again.

This time, three women clad in white stepped out from the shadows behind the goddess' image. One had gold hair, another had bronze hair, and the last had black hair. I'm not quite sure what, exactally, I did, but I did ask incredulously, "Who are you?"

"Are you wanting to trap some flies?" the brunette asked and she walked over and shut my mouth for me.

The two remaining behind looked at each other. "He can see us!"

"Am I not supposed to be able to see you?" These three women were obviously insane.

"Not unless you're a god." Yes. These women were definately insane.

"A god?" I asked skeptically.

"Kaho was right."

"Mmm," the blonde one agreed. "Syaoran, we've been waiting for a chance to come and see you."

"What? Wait. Who's Kaho? Who're you? How did you know my name!?" I demanded.

"Little boy, do you know who we are?" the brunette demanded in return.

Offended as I was that she refered to me as a little boy, I answered anyways, "no. Enlighten me."

"The Fates," the blonde eagerly supplied.

The Fates were merely rumors. The myth of myths, legend of legends, a tale to frighten children into behaving. What ever twisted joke the villagers were playing on me, I was fed up. I couldn't take it anymore, so I turned my back on them and left.

But before I could step out of the temple, they called out, "wait. We are allowed to prove to you who we are." I turned around. The three were glowing and...and...and they were floating? They were floating, and then they disappeared.

I walked through the village, determinded to forget everything that had just occured in the temple. Since I couldn't, I went to a story teller. Story tellers knew all the myths and legends of every God in existance. There was only one in my village, his name was Ved. He lived in a rather large and spacious hut with no door. He didn't "believe" in doors. Said they blocked the spirits out. Instead, he had a canvas sized blue cloth covering the door way.

Being inside his hut always made me slightly nautious. The concentrated smoke stung my nostrils and irritated my eyes. "What have I done to deserve a visit from a member of the Li clan?" he reverently asked. Ved's back was turned to the door. He had a talent for identifying visitors before he even saw them. Unsettling the first time, but I got used to it.

"Nothing. I have a question for you."

"Oh goodie, a question." He turned around and walked stiffly over to the fire in the middle which illuminated his weathered face and leathery skin. His mop of hair was kept out of his face by means of a simple leather tie. Even though he was realatively young, he looked old. "I've been standing at that counter hoping someone new would come in," he confessed, stretching his legs.

"Why? So you can scare them?"

"Oh yeah," he answered, eyes glittering mischeviously. Story tellers often were choosen for their childishness. I don't mean to say that they were naieve in any way. In fact, they are among the shrewdest people I've ever meet. Their playful inner child has just never been subdued and that's what makes their stories so interesting to hear. "So, Syaoran, my boy, what's your question?" Ved suddenly not only looked old, but he also sounded old.

"Ved, what can you tell me about mortals turning into gods and...and of the Fates."

"Mortals turning into gods and the Fates, eh?" He ummed and ahhed for a few minutes. "I would say that the precedent for mortals turning into gods is that they usually are taken at a young age and their parents usually know what's going on. Thinking about going to the divine realms Syaoran?" he cackled at his own "joke".

"Just keep going Ved."

"The Fates...the Fates are always entwined with the mortals turning into Gods issue. You know, not much is known about them because they aren't in any of the stories. They're three women in white though; that is the only common thread."

"The only common thread?" I repeated.

Ved nodded. I sighed and got up. "Thanks Ved."

So I wandered through the market place, trying to clear my mind. The sound of merchants hawking their goods was comforting. I loved the market place. The smells were fantastic; you could tell what part of the market you were in just by the smells. The busiest place was the Plaza, since that was where all the food was.

"Syaoran," an erthreal voice whispered in my ear. I whirled around, expecting to see someone I knew, but there was no one. "Up hear," the voice said again. I looked up and there were the Fates, floating carefully three feet above everyone's head. Someone tapped my shoulder.

"What are you looking at?" It was a servant who had come to call me home.