Chapter Four: Begin Quest In Shadow World... With A Few Problems
Day 4 - Earth
"What do I do?" Sakura asked.
Eriol stood there, in a plain white T-shirt and jeans, but had his staff out, with his own pack on the ground next to his feet. "Come stand next to me," he told her, and waited for her to do so. The two stood in front of the book on the ground, with the guardians and Tomoyo behind them. Taking out a small plastic bag, Eriol took out a clear, white crystal, diamond-shaped, about the size of his thumb. He slowly bent down, and placed it right in the middle of the book of the seal.
Then, Eriol took Sakura's hand into his, and said in a clear, crisp voice, "repeat after me." Sakura nodded. "Forever borders raining down."
"Forever borders raining down."
"Crush and destroy them, burned to the ground."
"Crush and destroy them, burned to the ground."
"Secret locks, I have found the keys."
"Secret locks, I have found the keys."
"Open Shadow World, let this be."
"Open Shadow World, LET THIS BE!!!"
Suddenly, a gust of wind started to swirl from the book, and rose up, expanding in the room.
"Eriol," Sakura said with a warning tone in her voice, "I don't think that my dad's going to like the way this room will look afterwards."
"Don't worry!" he yelled above the wind. "Your brother will help you pick up the mess afterwards!"
Sakura practically facefaulted. "That's not what I meant!" she said.
Suddenly, sparks of lightning started to crackle from the center of the wind, and a beam of light shot up to the ceiling.
"There it is!!!" Eriol shouted. "The portal!! Let's go!!!" Without letting go of her hand, Eriol grabbed onto his pack, while Sakura did the same, and jumped forward, into the beam. Before she got in, Sakura bent down to grab the Book. "NO!!" Eriol yelled, a bit too late. "If you pick it up, the portal will disappear, and the rest won't-" Eriol's sentence was cut in half when he disappeared.
"Tomo-" Sakura started, a distressed look on her face, realizing just what she had done.
"Nooo!! Sakura!" Tomoyo yelled, reaching up to grab Sakura's shoulder, but missed, when her entire body faded away, along with the light. The guardians just started to move forward, but the whole thing was futile. Tomoyo blinked when she fell forward onto the book, which Sakura failed to grab, but was able to misalign the pattern, which caused the portal fizzed out. "No," Tomoyo whispered, her eyes widening. "No... Sakura...." She clenched her hand into a fist.
"Oh, God..." Cerberus whispered. "We did not even get a chance to move..."
"Well," Yue sighed, nervously raking his fingers through his hair, "at least Sakura and Eriol have their magic to protect them until we can get another spell to open up the portal, and another one to track them down."
"That's not true," Tomoyo whispered, never looking up from where she was. She sat there on her knees, trembling slightly as she finally turned to them, holding something in her hands that caused them all to suck in their breathes.
It was Sakura's key-necklace.
"She... the book. It's still here. Her cards are all still here," Tomoyo said in a trembling voice. "And I accidentally grabbed her wand. I snapped the string. She's in another world, Yue, Cerberus. Sakura is in another world, without her cards, and without her wand. She doesn't have any magic at ALL!"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Crossroads
"Sakura... Sakura..." somebody was whispering.
Sakura shivered as she was about to wrap her arms around herself. It's cold- she started to think, when somebody jerked her hand back away from her. Then, Sakura realized that she was holding her pack in one hand, and holding onto somebody else's hand in another.
"Let's go. The portal to the Shadow World is on the other side." Sakura looked up, and saw Eriol staring down at her. "You cannot let go of my hand," he told her. "We were lost."
"What?!" Sakura gasped.
"It is my fault," he whispered, shaking his head. "I was so freaking stupid, and I totally forgot to tell you the rules."
"What happened?" she asked, looking around, and found that she was surrounding by a never-ending field of bright light and white mist. "Where are we?"
"You were too hasty, and picked up the book. Damn it, Sakura. Once you did that, the road between the two worlds collapsed. You broke the alignment of the crystal and the book. They are not to be moved."
"Well, I'm sorry," she whispered, her eyes casting down as she sat on the floor.
Eriol looked down, and his eyes softened. Bending down, while he never let go of her hand, Eriol whispered softly, "I was cursing at myself, Sakura. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound as if it was all your fault. I should have known that there were some stuff that I should've told you, but we were all in such a hurry that I never gave it a second thought."
"It's still my fault," she whimpered. "Now we're without our guardians. Tomoyo's not here."
"At least we have our magic," Eriol sighed in relief. Then, he gave her hand a small tug, and said with a wearied voice, "come on, Sakura. I told you already. It's not all your fault." Sakura looked up at him. He implied that it's not all my fault, but that would mean that some of it IS my fault! Why... why... HOW COULD HE?! "Okay, I told you that we were lost. But we are not now. I found the portal to the Shadow World. We just have to jump through it before it closes."
"Wait. Why can't we go back?" she asked, looking up him with a spark of hope in her eyes. "I mean, can't we just go back the way we came in?"
Eriol shook his head gravely, immediately killing that bit of hope in her. "The portal to Earth that we opened is closed, but the one to the Shadow World is still opened, considering how nobody has gone in yet. But still, these portals are opened for a short while at the most. So come on," he persisted. "We MUST get out of here. Do you not wish to find Syaoran?!"
Sakura's eyes widened. In that short instant, she realized that she had forgotten about Syaoran. Quickly getting up to her feet, she looked at Eriol. "Come on," she said, her jaws set tightly. "Show me the way."
Eriol nodded, and started to pull her towards a direction.
"What is this place anyway?" Sakura asked as they jogged a bit.
"This is the Crossroads, a place which leads to other worlds. Usually, one would never wander off the road while they are here. They would not even notice this place, because the light just takes seconds to pull you from your own world to the one that you wish to go to. But there are always exceptions, I guess. Like this one."
"Can we go to the other worlds?"
Eriol shook his head. "In order to do so, we would need a 'key' to open a portal to them. Some keys are harder to find than others. The key to the Shadow World was the crystal that I had with me. To other worlds, it could be a plant, or mineral. Or maybe even an animal. Each key is different, and the portal would only open to those who possess magic."
Nervously, Sakura asked, "are you sure that we can get to the portal?"
Eriol turned his head around to smiled softly at her, his eyes showed contentment. "We're here," he whispered, and continued to run forward.
Sakura didn't even get a chance to see where Eriol was running to when she felt herself get enveloped by warm light. Sakura closed her eyes, letting herself go to this feeling.
Seconds passed, and then, minutes. Warm... So warm... To warm to let go...
"Sakura..." she heard a faraway voice all. "Sakura..."
Reluctantly, Sakura groaned, and slowly opened her eyes.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
It turns out that people didn't get any breaks. Not one.
"How can a person work so long without collapsing??" Syaoran huffed.
Tgaeh shrugged. "We all have gotten used to it. This is what one must do for a living, and you must get used to it, whether you enjoy it or not."
"But..." Syaoran sighed, deciding to not continue with that question. "How can they tell if somebody slacks off or not?"
"Slack off?" Tgaeh blinked.
"I mean, if a person gets lazy and just doesn't want to do the work?"
Tgaeh quickly went back to putting rocks in his basket, and walked off after he filled his up. Quickly, not wanting to cause any suspicions, Syaoran filled his up and followed after Tgaeh, ignoring the crying pain his muscles were shouting out to him.
"Hey!" Syaoran hissed. "What is it? Do they find out?"
As Tgaeh dumped his batch of rocks away into the demolition pile, he glared at Syaoran. "What do you think?! If they can find out when one wishes to rebel, don't you think they would know? They have eyes all around, and it bothers me up to a frenzy state, Li, but they do. We can talk about what we wish, but we must work. Of course, when words of revolution comes out of your mouth, they find out as well. It's hard to conceal everything here. We have no clue how it works, but they know."
"Well, I was just curious," Syaoran mumbled as they went to pick up more rocks. "Hey... what is the point of doing all of this? There's just going to be another pile of rocks here."
"Yes, well, this is where the discarded material goes. They destroy it after everything here is cleared and moved there."
"How do they do it?"
"Magic," Tgaeh shrugged. "We are not allowed to see it. They put up an illusion when it happens, and clears everyone out."
"Aren't there any who has stayed behind to try to sneak a peek?"
"Sneak a peek?" Tgaeh blinked again.
"I mean," Syaoran said, trying to get his wording right, "has anybody ever spied to see what happens when they do that?"
Tgaeh shuddered. "Yes," he muttered. "I've heard. They never come back."
Syaoran felt like hitting himself with the base of his hand. Duh! That'd be the usual, movie-like, and unrealistic answer! Why didn't he see that coming?
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
"Sakura?" a worried voice cut into her head.
Sakura opened her eyes slowly, seeing a bit of a blur at first. That face structure... she thought to herself silently. Those eyes... caring... But... what color? Could it... Could he... "L... Li?" she managed to whisper out in a hoarse voice.
"No. Wake up, Sakura. We're in the Shadow World."
Sakura opened her eyes. "Eriol!" she gasped, and jerked up. He was crouched down, staring at her face, not holding her hand anymore. They were sitting on the side of a road. Shadow World sure did get its name right. The entire place looked gloomy, especially with those clouds up in the sky. The ground was made of soil, and tiny pebbles, while the road was distinctive with it's pathway marked out clearly.
"Yes. Me. Not Syaoran," Eriol stated flatly. "Come on, Sakura. You should really get up. We have a lot of road to get along."
"But... where are we? I know we're in the Shadow World, but how are we supposed to get to Syaoran? Do you know where he is?" she asked.
"Well... I was thinking that we should check if we have everything we need. Just in case, Sakura, you know. Look in to our packs and all..."
Sakura nodded. "That's a good idea." Quickly, she grabbed her bag, when she froze, realizing something. "Oh, dear, no," she whispered in shock.
Eriol turned to look at her. "What?" he asked. "Is something really missing?"
Sakura slowly turned to look at him. "I... I left my book of cards back on Earth... remember?" she whispered, and soon saw that Eriol understood what she was talking about. "I was picking it up," she realized, "when Tomoyo tried to stop it. When she did that, I lost my grip on it, and it slipped from my hands. Oh, no. I can't do magic here. I don't have my cards!!"
"Well, you at least have your wand, right?" he asked uncertainly.
"Yes," Sakura nodded, moving her hand to finger the small key. "Of course I d-" When she felt nothing, she stopped her sentence, and pressed her fingers around her neck, searching for the piece of string. "My... my wand. Where is my key?!" she panicked. Quickly, Sakura turned to Eriol. "Eriol!" she whimpered. "I can't find any of my magical items!! What am I going to do?!"
Eriol quickly walked up to Sakura and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm pretty sure that it accidentally got off before you and I entered the portal to the Crossroads. Tomoyo, or the guardians, might be taking care of it right now. Just calm down, Sakura. I need you to calm down. Remember, I have magic as well. All is not lost."
"Oh..." Sakura moaned. "What a way to start this!"
Eriol's lips moved up to a smirk, as if smiling at the irony of it all. "Yes," he replied. "It seems that luck is just not with us today. Well, my bag checks in, though. I suggest that we start down one way, and I know the best way to do so."
"You do?" Sakura sniffed.
Eriol nodded. Quickly, he took his own key out, and said the enchanted words. If their bad luck continued, that meant that Eriol could not use his magic here. But luckily, one thing went right, and his key expanded to its true form. Eriol quickly walked up to the road, and held his wand to the ground. Then, he took a step back, with his grip still on his wand while he turned to explain this to Sakura. "There is a very magical way to do this..." he whispered.
Sakura watched with anticipation. Eriol then stepped back, and let his wand go. It fell to the left side of the road. Eriol smiled satisfyingly. "We go that way," he said in a baby voice, pointing to the left.
Sakura felt herself fume with anger. "ERIOL!!!"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Earth
"Oh... God..." Tomoyo murmured, her hands trembling as they held her face. "What am I going to do? What are we going to do? HOW are we going to do what we are going to do?"
"Shh..." Cerberus mumbled, walking up to her stroke her cheek with his own. "We will call on Kaho and Spinel to here as well. The five of us should be able to come up with something. But," he said, backing up to look her in the eye, "you must stay strong, Tomoyo. We need you to look as if everything is well. The Mirror and you must pretend if Sakura's father or Toya should come up here. Please, Tomoyo."
Tomoyo took in deep breaths, and nodded. "I'm sorry. I feel like a blubbering idiot, and after all the crying that Sakura's done in the past few days, this really is way too much. I should not start as well."
"Master..." Mirror whispered softly. "Will she be fine?"
Yue nodded to her. "Yes. We will make sure that she will be. I will go get her right now."
"I'm coming along," Nakuru said, her look of shock showing that what just happened was still affecting her greatly. "I don't think that I can stay in one place for very long right now. Just... I'll come with you," she told Yue determinedly. He didn't object.
After they left, Cerberus quickly changed back to Kero, his look of wariness still on his face. "Sakura..." he whispered.
"What about Eriol?" Tomoyo asked. "He's going to be fine, too, right? I mean, he'll be able to protect Sakura from everything... right?"
Kero shrugged. "I really don't know. He probably can, up to a certain extent. But if they run into whoever captured the kid, there's no saying if they can do much. Sakura's magical items were left here. Those who started this probably stripped the kid of anything magical he had on him as well, like his scrolls, or he might have been able to do stuff, instead of picking up those pebbles as we saw before."
Tomoyo shook her head. "This is not a good omen... So much bad things happening all at the same time. This is not what we need."
"Yes..." Kero agreed. "What we need is for you to turn on the television, and pretend that you and Sakura are watching it. Or do your homework, or whatever it is that you need to do. Just make sure that Sakura's family does not suspect a thing. I will be waiting outside the window to stand guard."
Tomoyo nodded. "Yes. I should do that. I really so. It'll put my mind off of it for a short while."
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
Eriol grinned sheepishly while he scratched his head. "Sorry," he apologized honestly. "I was just hoping that this would've lighten up the mood a bit. You just looked so devastated and worried that I couldn't bear it. Okay, Sakura. I'll do it for real, this time."
Sakura sighed as she shook her head. How could Eriol even think about doing something so silly right now. But as she thought about it, a small smile played on her lips a bit. What a silly way to cheer her up. It wasn't going to work.
Eriol picked up his wand, and waved it in the air before he held it up to the sky, mumbling enchantments. Suddenly, a blue lighting beam crackled as it dove to the ground, pointing to their left. Eriol turned to smile at her. "I told you! We are going left. See? Either way would've worked just fine." Then, Eriol shrunk his wand back down, and put it away. He walked back up to her and picked up his pack.
Sakura followed him down the road, a bit silent. Then she asked, "how did you do that?"
"I did a tracking spell to find the closest person whose magic was similar to ours. It worked out just fine," he said. Suddenly, Eriol frowned once more. "But..."
"But..."
"I sensed that someone realized it when I did that spell, as he or she saw me. We should still be on our toes, Sakura. I doubt that this is going to get any easier than it already was."
"Man..." Sakura groaned. "And it's already hell. I really hate to see it get any worse..."
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
"We all have it written down somewhere, the workers, that is," Tgaeh said at the end of the day. Syaoran groaned as he stumbled along behind him. "It's a prophecy passed down from generation to generation, always in our heads."
"But... don't you guys like ever lose hope of it and all?" Syaoran asked.
"No," Tgaeh smiled. "We believe that it would happen, and now you are here."
"Oh," Syaoran nodded, as if understanding what Tgaeh was saying. There might be a savior, but he sure doubted that it was going to be him. "Here. As in, this place. Like, this world, or this city, right?"
Tgaeh nodded. They were leaving the area to walk down to the village.
"Cool," Syaoran quipped. "Where is here?"
"What?" Tgaeh asked.
"I don't even know what this world is," Syaoran hissed. "Where am I?!"
Tgaeh blinked. "You are in the city Lyrra, of the world Hakgon. That is the name of our world. It means 'Dark Kingdom."
Syaoran listened as those words entered his head, and then, groaned. "The Dark Kingdom. Or, in other words, the Shadow World," he realized.
Tgaeh nodded. "How did you know?"
Syaoran shook his head. "My ancestors have always known of this world. It is where heavy magic lies, right?"
"Well, yes, for those whom possess it. Many do, but many do not as well."
Syaoran felt like throwing up. The Shadow World... he thought with dread. I'm never getting out of here...
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
Sakura sighed as they walked down the path. "So what are we suppose to look for? I mean, I don't think that your wand can really give you specific directions on where Syaoran is, right? And considering how I don't have my wand or cards, you're the only one that can save us, right?"
Eriol shrugged. "Hopefully, the rest of them will try to find a way to get here soon. And if they do, I have no clue how they are going to find us."
"Then, maybe we should hope for them to not be able to find a way, huh?" Sakura asked.
"In a way," Eriol replied, "that's one of the best things for them to do. The Shadow World is dangerous enough with just the two of us and Syaoran here. More could really disrupt it's stability."
"What? How?" Sakura asked.
"We can only stay here a limited amount of time because we don't belong here. This world is made to serve those they make. We came here uninvited."
"So we're like invaders?" Sakura said, wishing that they could just shrink the topic away.
Eriol nodded. "And when invaders enter a place they don't belong in, the country, or world, tends to protect itself. And the Shadow World is made of very strong magic. Unfortunately, most of it consists of dark magic, too. The Shadow World truly lives up to its name."
"But... does the dark magic come up by itself?"
Eriol shook his head. "No. The magic here is pure. As pure as crystal water. Those whom occupy this world taints it."
*~*~*~*~*~*
Day 4 - Shadow World
"Here. This is the prophecy," Tgaeh said, showing Syaoran a long piece of scroll. "My mothers and fathers before my own wrote it down eons ago. That is how long she has ruled, and how long we have been hoping for freedom."
Syaoran unrolled the piece of paper, and rolled his eyes. "I can't read this," he scoffed. "It's in your language. It's completely amazing that I can understand what you say and you can understand me. Here. You're going to have to tell me what's on it."
Tgaeh raised an eyebrow and looked at Syaoran. Then, he shrugged and recited,
"Memories disappear as thee enters our world
New thoughts replace and all unfurl
Parents knew but spoke no words
For fear of death, and of the hurt
Thee who comes has lost thou past
Magic hidden, will be cast
Forever drops of freedom rain
Through all of Lyrra, prison drained
Thee brings with thou a wizard watch
Followers approach, for all shall march
Eons past before our savior comes
But when thee does, justice be done"
Syaoran smirked. "You have got to be kidding me," he said. "I'm not that person!"
Tgaeh shook his head. "Syaoran, my good friend, you are him. You did not come from our world, didn't you?" After he saw Syaoran reluctantly shake his head, he continued, "and you have magic? You could be known as a wizard, and you ENTERED our world, am I right? And your parents might not have wanted to tell you."
Syaoran bit his lip.
"You can't lie about it, Syaoran. You are the one that the prophet speaks of, and you will be the one to save us. Please, Li Syaoran. I guess that this is a lot to ask for, but there is nothing much that can save us all. The master, I am sure that she is getting stronger. Sooner or later, we will be slaves for eternity."
"And that seems like a long time," Syaoran nodded. "But what makes you so sure that it's not going to be later on? Your savior might just be about ten years later or something, you know..."
"No, I do not," Tgaeh said, clenching his jaws together. "I don't know if I will ever be able to tell Brache and Sharhn of justice. I don't know if I will ever be able to show them of beautiful lands beyond this prison. Beyond this cage." Tgaeh looked up at Syaoran. "But I can't force you to do so, either. It will be your choice, for all is free. We just have to show it to the world."