Sakura, Li and Frigid Tidings

Amidst lingering cold and dark water in all directions, Sakura and Syaoran stood on the surface. The month of January had come to a close and the new month seemed just as dark and cold as the last with no sigh or sight of hope in the distance of the time to come. There was so much that was still unknown of the doings and intent of the Phantom, all that was to be done at the moment was to catch the cards though Eriol had said that it would not be their main focus.

As Sakura stood she hoped that Syaoran's scroll that allowed them to walk on water would not run out. "It's not as strong now." Sakura said. She shivered and then looked at Syaoran. "I hope we're not out here for no reason." She looked east. "The sun hasn't even come up yet." Sakura gave an unhappy sigh and wrapped her arms about herself more tightly.

Syaoran looked at her in her pink jacket and it somehow reminded him of when they were younger. Things were simpler then he though. He then looked to the water below him. "It's out here somewhere. Probably below us. When I sensed it, it came from out here in the middle of the lake."

Sakura looked at Syaoran who was looking about them for signs of the card. She was only a few paces away but it felt to her like a great deal more distance. She thought about that morning; she awoke to a rather surprising thing: Syaoran was outside her window tapping on it. Though before she awoke as she dreamt she could tell he was there. That he had been there for quite a while watching her maybe. He woke her and told her of the card he felt and they left together without even waking Kero.

Since then Sakura had been thinking about a couple of things: the flower- band he had given her, and his relationship with Kako. Both of which were contrary to one another. Both of which confused Sakura. Though it was obvious which one she liked better. "Syaoran ." She said and he turned to her from examining the water.

"What is it? Did you find something?" Syaoran said as he walked with a light step over to her.

"No. But I was wondering about something." She said.

"What?" Syaoran said as he looked down at her.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but she stopped her self from asking the questions on her mind, afraid to ask or afraid of the answers. She wanted to ask him about Kako. But she didn't. Instead she hugged herself tightly as it seemed to be getting colder. She looked away from Syaoran with a feeling of guilt for leading him onto a question and then not asking.

He looked at her in wonder. He could tell that something was wrong but he couldn't guess what. Though he himself felt down that morning and for the last while he had. He had noted that Sakura had been spending a lot of time with Eriol since he arrived. Syaoran trusted him a little bit more than he did when he first saw him again but he wondered why Sakura spent so much time with him. He had hardly seen her since Eriol arrived. Maybe, he thought, his relationship with Sakura had somehow changed since then.

Sakura after a while of standing and idly looking about decided to try and make conversation. "Which card would hide in a cold lake anyway? It can't be very comfortable in the freezing cold." Sakura stopped short and turned to Syaoran.

"The Freeze Card!" They both said in unison. Syaoran then looked concerned and a little scared. "We should get off the water." He said calmly. There was a soft squeaky crackling sound and the two looked below their feet. All the water below them and in all directions was completely solid. Syaoran's eyes grew wide and he grabbed Sakura's sleeve. "NOW! right now!" He began to run for the shore with Sakura running behind him still in his grasp but Sakura was a slower runner than he was and he pulled her too far forward and she fell to the ice.

Syaoran heard the thud and tried to stop but as he turned he slipped and fell on his hip and slid away from Sakura several yards. "Damn it!" he muttered as he attempted to stand. He slipped again and fell to the ice. He peered down through the thick layer and saw the blurry form of a gigantic fish moving under him. It seemed to take a few seconds to fully pass him it was so large, seemingly larger than before in the ice-rink. "Syaoran?" He heard Sakura say in an injured voice.

Syaoran felt a surge of dread move over him. "I'm coming!" He yelled as he skidded to his feet. He looked forth and saw Sakura kneeling on the ice. He ran to her and as he reached her he went to his knees and slid the last few feet to her. He took her shoulders in his hands and looked at her as if searching for where her hurt came from, but he found nothing. Sakura didn't seem hurt anymore; she had laid her hands on Syaoran's chest and was smiling at him. For that moment he felt something in himself which he had thought with the coming of Eriol had been locked away. He had felt not as he did times before. Times like those from wens the scar on his wrist had come. Now he knew that despite all the others, Sakura still needed him.

And Sakura looking at Syaoran felt something as well. She had thought that he was drifting away. Away from her and towards others. But he was with her now and close. With her and no one else. They looked at one another for a time. But suddenly their peace was crushed the deafening sound of jagged ice pillars shooting up from the surface near them. "We have to get to the shore!" Sakura yelled as Syaoran helped her to her feet. But before they could run ridges of ice sprang up around them, not nearly as high as the curved pillars but just as jagged and sharp. The two didn't dare to try and jump them for it would be a horrible death indeed.

They were encircled in ice and there were several more rings beyond the one they were in. Sakura stood clutching her star-key in one hand and Syaoran's arm in the other. "We can't jump over with the Jump card, we'd just come down on more spikes!" She said frantically.

Syaoran summoned his sword and took a swing at the ice ridges which were about five feet high. It chipped off some ice but did little damage. It had become suddenly quiet. Many curved pillars loomed over them but Syaoran could still see a small amount of sky. He turned to Sakura. "Fly out!"

"No!" Sakura burst out. "I'm not going to leave you!"

"What other option do we have? I don't think any of the cards we have right now will help both of us. At least you can get out safely Syaoran argued.

"I can't! What about you?" Sakura said.

"Just go! Don't worry about me. If all else fails I all ways have my fire scrolls." Syaoran said but it didn't convince Sakura.

"But what else do you have?" Sakura would have said something more but Syaoran stabbed his sword into the ice and stormed over to her. He took her key from around her neck and put it in her hand.

"Go now! Don't worry." He paused and went back to his sword pulled it from the ice. "I have a plan. Just get yourself to the shore."

Sakura stood for a moment and looked at her feet. She had her doubts but trusted Syaoran's strength. She stepped close to him looked up at his face; red from the cold. "Okay." she said quietly. "I'll be waiting for you on the shore." Syaoran smiled a little in relief but was surprised when Sakura grabbed him by the lapels of his dark coat and pulled his face down to her and kissed him. She then quickly turned away and Summoned her staff then released the Fly card and lightly left the ground as the wings on her back slowly flapped.

Syaoran watched as she disappeared behind the spire-like ice above and he then touched his lips, a look of shock and surprise still on his face. He shook his head and regained his focus though part of his mind would be dwelling on this for some time. He gripped his sword in both his hands and mumbled under his breath: "Now to figure out what my plan is."

Sakura flew about not wanting to go to the shore as she felt she wouldn't be much help there. Then something occurred to her: Syaoran might not be able to seal the card. He could fight it yes and perhaps once long ago he might have been able to seal one but now they were Phantom Cards, and more that that they might still be Sakura Cards even though some had gone to Syaoran. This worried her and so she circled the pillars and ridge circles surrounding Syaoran trying to think of something she could do to help him.

Syaoran, in the circle of ice that may as well have been a tomb took inventory of his battlements. "My scrolls: Fire, Wind and Lightning. And my cards: Wood, Storm and Power. Not much to work with." he said to himself. Syaoran thought to himself about tactics but then noticed the significant lull in the attacks. He began getting a rather ominous feeling. Suddenly there was a slight vibration. It began getting stronger as if something very large was moving through the water towards him. It took him a moment but he established which direction it was coming from. He gripped his sword with both hands and stood in a defensive position in the direction of the tremor.

He felt it getting closer and gaining speed. The lake he was on was large enough to accommodate it. Syaoran felt as if it was gearing up for a final strike and he got a sick feeling in his stomach. He felt like for the first time he was unprepared and helpless; he couldn't fight or run. He was scared.

But he still stood low and ready. Suddenly he felt something slip from a pocket in his long coat. It flew before him as if on the wind: the Wood card. A second later the Freeze leapt from the cold surface of the ice with great speed. It was several hundred feet away but it flew through the air leaving in its wake a long arch of solid ice that rose into the sky hundreds of feet. It had reached the aperture of its arch and was now falling toward Syaoran with its shards of ice sharp and long and thick falling with it. Without thinking Syaoran plunged his sword into the card before him the released the Wood.

It rose up with speed faster than the giant fish was falling with many tendrils of root. It also spread itself across the ground forming a base for itself to either side of Syaoran smashing the pillars and ridges in its path. Before the Freeze could reach the ground the Wood wrapped itself around it and attempted to stop its decent. It slowed Freeze but the fish was so large that the Wood had trouble completely stopping it. Syaoran crossed his arms over his face as the ice shards came down around him stabbing into the ice but thankfully none hit him. The fish moved slowly toward Syaoran and stopped only feet in front of him at eye level.

The wood had stopped it. All was still and silent as Syaoran opened one eye and looked through his arms at the creature of ice before him its snout shining a deep blue in the morning light. Syaoran sighed with relief and heard a call from above. It was Sakura. "You did it!" She called from the sky as she flew towards Syaoran. She landed lightly before him and ran with the momentum of her flight into his arms.

But their happy moment ended before it began as the Fish started to whip about above them trying to free itself from the roots about it. Syaoran quickly drew a card from his pocket and stabbed it with his sword. "Power!" He yelled as he jumped toward the card. He reared an arm back and then with the immense strength of the card he punched the Freeze's snout and with a defining crash the great fish flew back shattering the ice it had left in its wake. It landed hard on its back far from Sakura and Syaoran and as the ice rained down on it. The ice below it shattered with the force of its fall in to many capsizing slabs.

The ice beneath Sakura and Syaoran's feet cracked and began to crumble in to the water. The wide slab of ice they were on shifted and tipped and they dropped to its surface to keep from falling into the deadly cold water or the sharp edge of another slab. Syaoran put a hand on Sakura's back to keep her from sliding. "You have to fly to it and seal it! NOW!" he yelled over the roar of shifting and breaking ice. She knew he was right and her wings appeared with a pip of her staff on Fly. She sailed into the air and called down to him. "I'll come back for you!" She then flew off to the giant fish floating on its back still wiping around to be free of the roots all the while churning up the waters and breaking apart more ice. The circle of her star appeared below her in the sky shining a bright gold. "Return to your true form, Phantom card!" She yelled. The Freeze broke apart into dark blue crystal shapes and flowed into the new card at the end of Sakura's star- wand high above her. The card flouted to her hand and the churning ice below began to settle.

She then flew back to the ice slab where she had left Syaoran. But something scared her when she arrived: Syaoran wasn't on the slab. She looked around frantically fearing that he had been thrown into the freezing waters somewhere. "SYAORAN!" She shouted having no sight of him thus far. She then heard a call from afar and looked toward it. Syaoran, several hundred feet away was standing waving to her on the bank. Sakura sighed with relief and flew over to him.

Sakura held the card up. "We did it!" She said ecstatically as she smiled at Syaoran. He started to smile back at her but his expression changed as he looked at the card. Sakura's giddiness ceased and she looked at Syaoran with question. "What is it?" She said.

"Why did the card go to you. I was the one that." He asked but not accusingly, more as though he were trying to figure through a riddle.

"What?" Sakura said confused.

Syaoran starred at the card for another few seconds and then looked back at Sakura's face. "Never mind." he said sounding unsure.

There was the sound of a motorcycle and a long 'Liiiiiiii!'. Touya rode up to the two and their new card with Meling sitting behind him. As Touya stopped and put the kickstand down Meling jumped off the bike and ran toward Syaoran. "Where have you been! I woke up and you weren't there!" Meling yelled as she squeezed Syaoran.

Sakura Walked over to her brother for the first time not concealing her wand or a card. He starred at her still sitting on his bike. Sakura gripped her staff preparing for an ass-chewing. But Touya simply starred at her but not with irritation or worry but with pride. He plopped a hand on her head and looked into her eyes. "You okay, monster?" He said but his tone was soft and caring and Sakura felt that her brother really loved her and only wished to protect her.

"Yah," She said. "I'm okay."

"Get on, I'll take you home." Touya said.

"What about Syaoran and Meling?" Sakura said looking over to the two with Syaoran attempting to pry Meling from his waist.

"You two gonna be all right?" Touya called over to them.

"We're fine." Syaoran said as he and Meling started walking off.

The sounds of the motorcycle died away in the distance of the now quiet lake and a mist swept over the waters like a silk sheet. The air was still very cold with a sharpness to the view. In a wide patch of trees thick lining the lake and wrapping around it to it's northern side there stood a girl looking from the trees to the plane on the edge of the city where the two parties parted and were now in the distance. She leaned on a trunk with her arms crossing her chest, her hands grasping her shoulders. The light of the new day sparkled on her eyes as she solemnly and silently wept.

She felt the land around her and took it into herself; it was empty and cold. She felt that it mirrored her own life. 'He leaves here with one who is so devoted to him and he parts ways but only for but a time with another. He has already so many that care for him and so many that he cares for, so what room in his heart is there for me?' The girl thought as she closed her eyes and her tears broke from her lashes and ran down her face with her loneliness and despair. Her thoughts then went to the ones she knew. 'and of them. who of them values me more than they would an old rag doll that is thrown away once it has served its purpose and is no longer of any amusement? Am I to them but a tool? But a human? But a girl?' Her legs weak with grief she fell to her knees. "I'm nothing."

"That isn't true!" She heard a deep voice say. She looked up from the ground and away not far was a very tall man, his deep brown hair glinting in the white light of the morn. "Do not doubt yourself so for it pains me to see so beautiful a girl cry for such a hard reality." The man said compassionately as he strode over and knelt down before the girl. He took her hands in his own covering them from the cold. "You are much more than you know. And you yourself are worth even more so, Kako."

She looked into his deep red-brown eyes and felt comforted by his words. Her breath shook as she drew it through her sobs and she leaned into the man's chest and enjoyed the feeling of his arms now around her, keeping her safe and warm. "Thank you, Roan. You have always been there when I needed you." Kako said softly as her tears came to their end.

After a time he stood her up and draped his large brown coat about her thin shoulders. He sent her off and watched her go with a warmness in his heart. Though that warmth kindled by this kind and innocent girl soon turned cold as Roan perceived another. Eyes had been watching and he had felt it. Out before him stepped now a demon of red; Dorian.

He paced in front of Roan the deep of his eyes boring ever deeper. Finally his pacing stopped and he looked away from Roan. "That was very touching, the way you pretend to care for the girl. It almost made me think that it was older times. Those were the days though weren't they?" Dorian said with a condescending snicker.

"No, they were not the days, Dorian." Roan said in deep resentment. "And I don't pretend to care for Kako, I do care for her. Deeply. Since she was a child have the five of us cared for her and you have shown her nothing but hatred and violence. She cowers and flinches at the movement of your hand and you call it discipline. Well I call it defilement. It is something no person should have to endure."

"Person!?" Dorian's voice became shrill with disgust. "You say 'person'. I say dog! You treat her as an equal and expect respect from me?" He spat at Roan's feet. "Humans! We are better than they. We came before. It is us who should have dominion over this world not them!"

"You respect no one least of all me. And you say 'humans' and 'we' yet you forget." Roan's voice became low and paused. "you forget, Traya and I unlike you were not born demons. Though we are now and always will be we were once people. Once human. But we sacrificed our humanity and freedom. And now as I look back though I bear no pride for the kind of man I was I regret my choice. But there is nothing to be done about it now."

There was silence between the two souls for some time and Dorian looked at Roan with a snide stare. Then he finally spoke. "You are what you are. But you would not be if not for the true nature of your heart." To this Roan felt defeated and ashamed. The sun rose in the morning sky and the two left one another in anger and hatred as they had so many times but had it never come to blows.

The day went by as many before it had with no other cards surfacing and no shifts in power that any of the group felt. Everyone had parted ways for the day and it seemed as though it would be a quiet night. Yukito and Tomoyo once again were spending the night at the Kinomoto residence, and Nakuru was with Eriol and Spinel in their home. The light of day was fading but Meling and Syaoran weren't at their apartment.

In Eriol's mansion he sat in the den he had eaten lunch with Sakura in watching the sun go down in deep thought. But he was then interrupted by his butler who told him of visitors in the foyer. To his feet he went and then to his guests and somewhat to his surprise it was Syaoran and Meling. Nakuru was already there greeting them or rather asking them what they wanted.

"Hello, friends." Eriol said as he approached. "And good evening." Syaoran looked at Eriol with a respectful but awkward. Eriol knew that there was something on his mind and he acted at once. "Nakuru," he turned to the girl. "Why don't you show Meling here to the dining room if she is hungry." He finished looking at Meling.

She knew the two boys wanted to talk alone. "Yah, I think I could eat." She then went with Nakuru and the boys went back to the table by the corner windows.

The wind rustled in the trees outside and some time passed before anything was said. Syaoran faced Eriol still with a troublesome and dark look. But he saw that Eriol wore a similar expression. Finally the silence was broken. "I gather by your manner you have something to ask. Perhaps about this morning?" Eriol said.

"Yes." Syaoran said thoughtfully. "and no. Not just about this morning's capture but the others too. You said that things would be different this time around and it's obvious that you're right but I would think some things would stay the same."

"To what do you refer?" Said Eriol.

"The first time when a card was sealed it went to the person who defeated it, but this time that isn't happening. Not only that but when I defeated Freeze, I didn't choose the card I did it with. It came to me from my pocket. I've never seen that happen before."

There was a pause for a moment before Eriol's response. "As you know, Clow was a fortune teller. He may have foreseen these events long ago. It is possible that he has instructed the cards in their actions; who to go to and what to do once they are free from the Phantom's evil."

Syaoran thought to himself for a moment as if in wonder. "Wait" He said. "if that's true then why don't you remember?"

"Why do I not remember. That is because, descendant, that though I am Clow I also am not. Just at Sakura's father is but isn't. Clow's spirit lives on in both of us but we are also our own people. New to this world, not whole reincarnations. That is why I do not possess all the knowledge that Clow did. I have some of the same wonders as you. But if he did give the cards instructions then we have an ally we did not know about and the future looks that much brighter. But I fear it is not enough. Even if we all fight together we may still lose."

"What do you mean by fight? Fight who?" Asked Syaoran.

"As I said before, he may have protection whether it be some of his creature army, demons under his control or however unlikely: a descendant. I fear that if these foes come again we may have no chance. Though I put much trust into the Guardians, Yue, Ruby, Kerobaros, and Spinel, their power pails in comparison to Salcon's demons. It was only with the help of Clow's dear friend Eutealemaegn that they were able to defeat the demons and kill all but five."

"Doesn't this Eutealemaegn have a descendant?" Syaoran asked.

"I don't know for Clow "died" as it were, before Eutealemaegn. He may but I doubt it. The blood of the Pealu'rogh is spent, their race extinct. There may be someone by a lower birth but I do not think they will come to our aid. Eutealemaegn was a sorcerer of the West and he traveled far to help Clow, however if there is someone I don't think they will do the same. Though even a descendant of lower birth would be awesomely powerful. Perhaps strong enough even to face a demon alone. But it is frivolous to speculate about such things." Eriol said as he looked to the sinking sun.

To Syaoran for a moment Eriol seemed without hope and it struck him that if even Eriol was doubtful of victory than what hope did they truly have? Things hadn't seemed this grim for a long while and even with the newly realized help of the cards how could they win if it all came and there was to be combat of demons and magicians.