YAY!! Four reviews!!! Thanks everyone!! *glomps Hikari, Nakuru- style* She's meant to be working on this with me too, but looks like it's my turn. She promised that she'd work more on Runaway Angel (the second story of the trilogy) Some of you may have already read it, but trust me, LOTS and LOTS of things are going to be different. I was just waiting for Matt to finish editing and now it's UP!!! Now for that nasty little thing called the 'disclaimer'. Eww... *shudders*

Disclaimer: I don't like this. I swear I don't. I will make it my next year's New Year's resolution to buy CCS from CLAMP. Yeah right, like that'll every happen. --;; I don't own it.

And now thanking the reviewers!! ^_^ I tend to ramble on and on... so don't mind that ^_^

Tomoyo-chan: Thank you for the review!! I'm pleased I left you hanging. I guess that's a good thing, although I didn't intend to leave a cliffhanger. ^^;; Oops. Hmm... I was trying to think of how she would feel in those situations, and that's what I came up with. To be honest, this is the first fic that I've written that's been based around Nadeshiko. It gets a little difficult sometimes because she wasn't displayed much in the dub (which, unfortunately, I had to end up watching -- ;; Nothing against Nelvana, but they really stuffed up that one). So I've had to piece together what I knew about her and figure out what her personality would be like. Anyway- here's a longer chapter ^_^ Once again, thank you!! By the way- who's Miru? Also- I love your fic 'Chosen'. It's a beautiful piece of work.

pink-hime-sakura: Wow! Thanks!! That's one thing I haven't been told before. Thank you so much. As for action... there's a little in this chapter, but I'm going to reserve the majority of it for the upcoming three or four chapters. Lots of new stuff going on. A new appearance too. ^_^

arcticflames: ARCTIC-CHAN!!!! Thank you so much for reviewing!! *hugs* As for why Nadeshiko was cast out from her home, I guess it wasn't explained much, bad on my part, sorry ^^;; Well, in the first chapter while Amaya was thinking about what was happening, it was said a little in her thoughts. She reflected back on what her own mother had said. Amaya's mother had threatened to cut all ties with the family unless Nadeshiko was thrown out. She was very jealous of Nadeshiko, and so against Amaya's wishes, she cast the girl out. But don't worry, Amaya's not out of it just yet. Hey- when are you going to update 'Illusione'? I'm dying to know what happens!!

On with the story... whew... that was a long beginning. ^_^

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~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Witch of the Healing Woods ~ Chapter Two ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

It was quiet. All too quiet. There was no happy singing of the birds. No sounds at all. She knew that this was a bad sign. Something was about to happen and it was not going to be good. The trees rose high above her, white fluffy clouds in the sky. She could see them when she looked upwards. The wind's gentle arms swirled around. Nadeshiko knew that there was something wrong. She immediately picked up her bag and threw her uneaten fruit inside. She slung it over her shoulder quickly as her honed senses kicked in.

What was wrong? She had to help. She had to be able to do something...

She got something, an aching head. This was it... a vision was coming.

Two people, a boy and a girl. Lying on a road with people around them, laughing, jeering, pointing. The boy and girl being stood on, poked, prodded. The girl's eyes opened halfway and Nadeshiko saw a close-up of her face. She looked about sixteen. She looked helpless and miserable.

And then, as suddenly as it had come, it went. All that Nadeshiko was left with was a taste of bitterness and a throbbing headache. Ow... Nadeshiko rubbed her head a little, feeling the pain course through her. She lay down and pressed her forehead to the earth, releasing what she felt. After a few moments, she felt a little better, well enough to stand up.

She contemplated the vision that she had just had and her senses told her that there were two young people in trouble, people who were not much older than herself. Nadeshiko put aside her worries and her emotions as she set off to find the two teenagers. They weren't far, she could feel them. She could also sense the auras of many other people there, except they weren't helping the two injured ones, that was what was really making Nadeshiko concerned. What were they doing to them?

She wasn't quite sure. She had to find out though. After about five minutes of running, Nadeshiko finally came to the place where she sensed the auras the strongest. She heard the girl calling out.

"Help me...!" she cried. Nadeshiko looked around wildly, trying to set her eyes on where the girl was calling out from. She found nothing.

~"Where are you?"~ she asked the girl telepathically.

"Over here!!" the girl yelled out.

Nadeshiko looked to the left of where she was. There, that was where the presence was coming from. "I'm coming!" Nadeshiko yelled out. "Hold on!" she feared for the young girl. If only she could get there in time...

Nadeshiko's feet carried her closer by the second. Within about two minutes, she arrived at the scene of her vision. The familiar background, the scenery. That tree. Yes, it was all familiar. Nadeshiko saw the people dancing around the two teenagers. They were the same people. She hurried forward, only to be blocked by a big guy. "Sorry girly, but youngens ain't allowed here."

Nadeshiko looked at him fearfully. "I have to help them! They're hurt!" she insisted, gesturing at the girl and boy.

"Nah, they're trash, just leave them alone. They're not gonna do anything for a while, if they know what's good for 'em," the big guy said, leering over at the two.

~What a jerk,~ Nadeshiko thought, staring at the big guy.

She glanced back over at the girl and boy again, to see that they were getting hurt. Ok, this had gone far enough. No more. Nadeshiko concentrated on a big branch that was lying on the ground after a recent storm and aimed on it to zoom into the back of the big guy's head that she had just talked to. The flat of the branch hit his head. Hard. The big guy wavered on his feet for a few moments before falling flat on his face. Nadeshiko rushed in to help the boy and girl.

The people who were still standing around after Nadeshiko had displayed her little telekinesis trick were not looking happy to see one of the cronies down and out.

"Are you alright?" they heard Nadeshiko asking the girl quietly.

The girl was sitting up. "Yeah, I think I'll be okay, but I don't know about my brother. Is he alright?" the girl asked.

Nadeshiko looked over in the boy's general direction. He was more beaten up than his sister. "What are your names?" she asked the girl.

The girl looked a little surprised to hear a stranger asking her name. But she continued to speak anyway, "I probably shouldn't be telling you who I am, but..."

"HEY! You ruined our fun you wench!" one of the crowd yelled at Nadeshiko.

"YEAH! Get her!!" another yelled.

"When are they gonna ever learn?" Nadeshiko muttered, and with a sweep of her right hand, all the crowd went flying off their feet and landed yards away.

"How'd you do that?" the girl asked, amazed.

"Long story," Nadeshiko answered, keeping her attention on the crowd.

"Oh dammit guys, she's a bloody witch. Run for your lives!" one yelled, he seemed to be the leader. His eyes glowered at Nadeshiko, but she knew that he could not do anything to her.

"I like long stories," the girl commented, smiling.

"So do I," said Nadeshiko, "but believe me, this one will leave you more than shocked. What was your name again? I didn't quite catch it."

"Amori Rina, my name's Amori Rina," said the girl. "And that boy over there's my brother. His name's Takuya. We're twins."

Nadeshiko looked from Rina to Takuya and back to Rina. She nodded. "Yeah, you can't tell it at the moment, because your brother's beaten up a lot, but underneath, you're definitely twins."

"What's your name?" Rina asked Nadeshiko.

"My name? Oops, I forgot to tell you. Nadeshiko, my name's Nadeshiko."

"Pretty name," Rina commented.

"Thanks, but don't you think that it's about time that we move your brother?" Nadeshiko asked, getting up.

"Oops! I forgot about him! It's not often that we get a witch talking to us. Most of them are mean and don't like talking to other people," Rina stated.

Nadeshiko was shocked. "Really? Is that true?" she sounded genuinely surprised.

Rina nodded. "It's true. They don't tend to like others."

Nadeshiko cocked her head, puzzled. Who would've ever thought that her own people could be that harsh? But then again, maybe she should have known, she had just been banished from home by her own mother. That memory still left a very bitter taste in her mouth. She concentrated on Takuya's body rising.

"Whoa, is that telekinesis?" Rina asked, her face lighting up.

"Yeah, I think so," Nadeshiko said back.

"Cool."

Takuya's body lifted up in the air a little higher and began floating over to beside Rina and Nadeshiko. "Your brother on the double," she said with a giggle.

Rina merely smiled. "Typical teenager." Rina glanced over at her twin brother. 'He just had to try to protect me, didn't he?' she thought fondly. 'Typical of him.'

Takuya groaned a little as he felt himself being lifted off the ground. But there was nothing holding him off of it. His eyes flew open. Same colour as Rina's, mahogany.

Nadeshiko's concentration was broken and Takuya fell straight to the ground again.

"What in the world was that?!?!" Takuya exclaimed, looking at Nadeshiko, but not seeing his sister to the right of her. "Where's Rina? Tell me where she is!!" Takuya glared at Nadeshiko. "Witch."

"Oh geez, Takuya, you can be such a prick sometimes," Rina said breezily. "I'm over here." She waved her hand in the air in front of Takuya's face.

Takuya was startled and he quickly stepped back a little. "Witch, what did you do to her?"

Rina rolled her eyes. "She did nothing to me little bro. Yeah, she's a witch, but don't go making that public, ya hear? She just saved our lives, so you should be thankful otherwise you would've definitely bitten the big one there, little bro," Rina said, smiling at Nadeshiko and then turning her stern glare on her brother. Being two minutes older than her brother, she had the right to use her authority as older sister on Takuya.

Nadeshiko quickly jumped in when Takuya quickly began advancing on his twin. "Umm... are you guys wanting me to heal you? It'd probably help a lot and you wouldn't feel so sore." Nadeshiko directed a look at Takuya. "And please, you can trust me. I won't do anything to hurt you."

The look on Takuya's face was one of doubt.

Rina's was the total opposite. She was calm, cool, collected. The typical older sister face in this situation. She seemed to be more accepting than her ever-suspicious twin brother.

Rina nodded and walked closer to Nadeshiko.

Takuya began reaching out a hand toward his older sister, about to warn her to come back, when he saw the most amazing thing emanating from Nadeshiko.

A band of pure white light. It surrounded the girl. He'd never seen anything like this before. Of course, he'd heard about it. All children in his village had been told the story of the girl with the pure white aura, but they'd never known that the girl that they had been seeking was a witch.

Takuya blinked a few times, astounded. He was speechless.

Rina noticed her brother's expression and said, "Hey, earth to Takuya. You there?" She waved a hand in front of her brother's face and he jumped out of his trance, startled. "Hey bro, what was up?" she asked, concerned.

"T-T-the-the w-w-w-wit-witch," Takuya stuttered. "White aura, healing, pure."

Rina frowned. Takuya's words weren't making any sense. She called over to her newest friend, "Hey, Nadeshiko, would you mind coming over here to see what's wrong with him? It's as if he saw a ghost."

"Nah, only a pure white aura," a voice said.

Rina jumped. She wasn't expecting to hear THAT voice. "Kamatari?" she voiced, searching for the owner of the voice. She looked questioningly at Nadeshiko.

Nadeshiko pointed behind her, over Rina's shoulder, with a giggle. "Look behind you," she said.

Rina glanced over her shoulder without turning around. "Kamatari, you idiot. Merciless trickster."

Kamatari shrugged. "Deal with it, Rina." He walked over to Takuya and examined the wounds and bruises that the sixteen- year-old boy had. "You did good saving them young witch," Kamatari said to Nadeshiko.

Nadeshiko looked at Kamatari and now it was her turn to be amazed. "How did you know that I was a witch?" she asked.

Kamatari shrugged. "It was easy. It's called 'senses'," his voice was sardonic.

"Well thanks," she said back. She didn't really like this Kamatari person.

"You don't like me? I'm hurt," Kamatari remarked sarcastically.

That only added to Nadeshiko's negative feelings about the man. He looked around fifty to sixty years of age.

Rina glared at Kamatari and then turned to smile at Nadeshiko. "Nadeshiko, meet our father, Kamatari."

Nadeshiko almost passed out with shock. That old man was Rina and Takuya's father!? He looked so old! But when Nadeshiko looked from him to the twins and back again, she could start to see some resemblance between the three.

"Aww... the little wee witch thinks that I'm too old... poor baby," Kamatari commented, yes, again with sarcasm.

Geez, he was a sarcastic one wasn't he? Nadeshiko thought, surveying the man.

Rina glanced from Nadeshiko to Kamatari. They didn't exactly seem to hit it off that well. They'd have to deal with it. Rina jumped into the conversation before it got any more out of hand. Her father was a skilled mind reader and he'd keep the sarcasm up until the crack of dawn, and frankly, Rina wanted to sleep through the night.

"Hey you two, stop it," Rina walked in between the two and glared at her father. "Kamatari, stop showing off, she doesn't know that you're a mind reader and I really do want to sleep tonight, so if you'd stop, it'd be much appreciated and then you wouldn't have to deal with a grumpy daughter in the morning. And also for your information, she saved us from the Manene. Takuya and I were hurt pretty badly and she saved us, even though she didn't have to. I know Takuya doesn't trust her, but I don't give a damn what he thinks. I want you to invite her to our village. I know it's a long way away, but we could make the trip anyway. She's only one more person and I'm sure that Akane won't mind."

Nadeshiko's head was spinning. Things were so different out here. The kids didn't have to call their parents 'Mama' and 'Papa'. They just called them by their names. The kids could see auras. She felt herself slowly going and sinking to the ground, and then darkness overwhelmed her.

Her last thought was... damn.

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"What the hell do you think you were doing?!?!?!" Rina yelled.

Kamatari backed away a little from his fiery daughter. "What do you mean?"

Rina was angrier than before. "Oh no, Kamatari, don't you go all 'what do you mean' on me. You know damn well what you did. You could at least be polite. She DID save mine and Takuya's lives today. We could've been killed! You hear me now! KILLED!! K-I-L-L-E-D!!! KILLED!! Show her some respect goddamn it. It's what she deserves."

"No witch deserves respect," Kamatari muttered, not meaning for Rina to hear, but she did anyway.

Her eyes glowered at her father. She had been pushed over the edge. She exploded in a rage, "She's not some bloody stereotype. Geez, I thought you were better than that. I thought that you were the type of person who would get to know someone before making a decision on what they were really like. She's a nice girl!!"

Kamatari merely smirked, hearing his daughter's rant. She was just like her mother, he realised.

Rina noticed that Kamatari wasn't even paying attention and she exploded again.

And so this continued on for the next few hours... and amazingly, Nadeshiko managed to sleep through it all.

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Blurs. She could see blurs. What were they? She tried to make them out, yet she couldn't. Wait, yes, she could. There. She blinked sleepily a few times.

Flames. Red, orange, yellow, blue. All the colours. They were all a part of the flames dancing in front of her. Wait! Flames?!?! Nadeshiko's eyes jerked open and she sat up, dishevelling the blanket that lay over her. She rubbed her eyes and looked around wildly. Where was Rina? Takuya? Old mean? Oops, she meant old MAN.

"Over here," a voice said.

Nadeshiko looked in the general direction of the voice and wasn't totally enthusiastic to see Kamatari. "Hello," she said dryly, blinking a few times.

"You know what happened?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think I have a bit of an idea. I passed out, right?"

"Got it in one," Kamatari replied, looking fondly over at his sleeping son and daughter. "Listen," he started, looking back at Nadeshiko. "I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier. I didn't mean to sound so... mean. After you passed out, my daughter yelled at me for a good couple of hours about respect. I've met a couple of witches before and they weren't the most pleasant people to be with. So I guess I had a bit of a bad first impression to start off with."

"You went by your opinion, people do that," Nadeshiko stated. It still hurt. Her mother banishing her from the village. She was surprised to feel it, but it still hurt. A small tear dripped out of one eye and trickled down her cheek.

"I shouldn't have. I should've known better. My people are known for forgiveness, yet I don't show it. You must know that I am truly sorry for my actions."

"It's no problem." Nadeshiko pulled her knees up to her chest and shivered. She suddenly realised how cold it was.

"Here, have my blanket," Kamatari said from behind.

Nadeshiko felt something warm and fluffy draped over her shoulders. She smiled up at Kamatari and said to the old man, "Thank you, but I think you should have it. It's yours."

Kamatari smiled back. "That may be so, but both of those are mine, and you can have both."

"Are you sure?" Nadeshiko asked.

"Yes," Kamatari answered. "I have another one in my bag." And indeed he did. He pulled out a large fleecy-like blanket and wrapped it around himself, sitting a little way around from Nadeshiko. Nadeshiko stared into the flames, feeling and absorbing their warmth. She watched the flames continuously licking at the wood, soaking it up, burning it.

Kamatari was staring at Nadeshiko, observing her, and when she looked in his direction, he smiled at the young girl. For a witch, she was such a nice girl. So friendly and willing to save others. It was rare to find a witch like that, and her aura, that pure white aura, it was the same one as in that story that he had heard as a child. His mother had told it to him...

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"Now Kamatari, you know that when this girl comes, she will not know that she is the one. But to distinguish her from the rest, you will see that she has a pure white aura. An aura of innocence."

A younger Kamatari. Fifteen years of age. Almost coming of the Sight. At the age of fifteen and six months, he would be able to See, but so far, his mother, Hatsuyo, had been doing it for him. His family was the family that was looking out for the fifteen-year-old girl with the white aura. It was not clear what people that she would be from, but it was sure that they would find her, and Kamatari was determined to be the one to find her. If not him, then one of his children. He would continue looking until he found her, until the end of his days.

And so life had dragged on for the determined teenager, then man... he had still not found the girl... until this day...

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Yes, it was clear that she was the one. Except to his mother's word, and exactly like they said, she didn't know it. But she did have the instincts and the aura to prove it. She had even saved his children. He was very grateful to her for that. He had to find some way to tell her that she was the one though... It was going to be hard, he knew that much. She might not even want to know. She might deny her fate... and then that would be disastrous for his entire village.

No, he couldn't let that happen. He had to tell her. He just had to.

"Nadeshiko?" he voiced.

Nadeshiko looked over at him, her eyebrows raised in a curious look. "Hmmm? Oh, sorry. What is it?" she asked.

Darn, this would be hard. "Well..." he started talking.

"Kamatari?" a sleepy voice asked.

"What?"

"Shut up," the sleepy voice said again. It was Rina.

"Typical of my daughter," he said, shaking his head, amused.

Nadeshiko just smiled as her eyelids drifted shut and she went off to sleep.

Kamatari saw Nadeshiko go to sleep and smiled a little. He watched the fire for a few moments more and left it crackling before picking up his big blanket and walking over to his children. He lay the blanket over them and fondly tucked a lock of hair away from Rina's face. "Sweet girl," he whispered. "Sweet dreams, children. Good night."

And with those words, he swept away into the night, stars twinkling around him and his long cloak waving in the wind.

~~~~To be continued...~~~~

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YAY! Second chapter done! Sing a happy happy happy happy happy happy song. Sing a happy happy happy happy happy happy song! ................ OK, I'm done now!! I'll be off!!!! *runs off singing* Review if you want to! ^_^

Same time, same place, same site. Until next chapter everyone!! Bye byes!

Karisa Temura