*Flashback from last chapter*
Eriol gave her a warm smile. "From now on, you must meet me down here every evening. I will train you in use of your magic and the cards; you may need it."
Sakura nodded. She didn't know what else to do.
*End of flashback*
Away From My Life
Every evening, when the first stars appeared in the deep, dark heavens, Sakura would quietly tiptoe to the servant's level. Every night, Eriol would help her to practice with her magic, and every night she grew stronger. This night, when Sakura opened the door to Eriol's room, he seemed more serious than nights past.
"Your training is done, Princess Sakura," said Eriol giving her a small smile. Sakura stared at him. She didn't say anything. "The cards," said Eriol, handing all of the Clow Cards over to her. Sakura had used the cards before in her training, but she hadn't thought about actually OWNING them.
She gave Eriol a quick bow. "Arigato," she said as she stood. She had developed a lot of respect for Eriol over the last twelve days, and so had he, for her. She stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something, but he stared at her just the same. She bowed again and not knowing what else to do, walked quietly out of his room, locking the door behind her.
She walked through the hallway again, thinking about the cards. What was she going to do with them now? After all this, was she just going to go back to her normal life? She sighed. She may never get the chance to use them again. Eriol had said not to use the cards unless it was important, that way if she really needed to use them, she would have enough magic to do so. After the last two weeks, she knew how exhausting using magic could be.
"Umph!"
"Oh!" Sakura was knocked to the ground. She sat up and saw Syaoran sitting on the ground a few feet away form her, rubbing his left elbow. "Gomen, Syaoran!" She said. Lately, she hadn't bossed Syaoran around at all. She no longer thought it was fun to punish him, and she didn't mind it if he didn't use formalities, either. Syaoran took advantage of this, and treated her no better than any of the other servants.
"Fine." Syaoran mumbled as he stood. A soldier, who was behind him, gave him a hard shove.
"You will apologize properly and address her as Your Majesty or Princess Sakura!" Said the guard firmly. Syaoran muttered something under his breath, which brought on another shove from the soldier, this time sending him into the wall.
"It's okay." Said Sakura, nodding at the guard. "Just take him to his room."
"Princess Sakura," said the guard, looking nervous, "He was coming down for water, he was supposed to work in the garden afterwards."
"I said take him to his room." Said Sakura, taking her formal tone again, "He needs his rest. Give him double water rations and the same to Eriol tomorrow." The guard nodded and, pushing Syaoran ahead of him, scurried down the hallway in the opposite direction that she was headed. Sakura was so tired of Syaoran, the kinder and more lenient she was to him, the nastier and ruder he was to her. Then she made up her mind. She walked purposefully to her room and gathered a few things into a bag. Then she settled on her bed for a good night's sleep.
~ ~ ~
Sakura hid a yellow bag behind her as she walked up to the guards that were guarding the front gate. "There is a stranger in the hallway," she said, trying to act flustered, "He wouldn't listen to me or leave like I told him. Remove him from the castle grounds, now!" She said, ending her last word with a huff. Both of the guards nodded and proceeded into the castle.
Sakura smiled and sighed. How much easier could this get. She walked happily, but quietly, toward the gates leading outside the castle grounds. She moved to the right of them and spotted what she was looking for. She kneeled down and widened the hole a bit by clawing at the ground and pulling at the metal-wire fence.
Sakura felt an aura behind her whirled around. She sighed relief when she saw only Syaoran standing above her. She stood and wiped off some of the dirt that now covered her pink dress. "Servant boy," she said, suddenly taking a serious tone, "Please don't tell anyone, I must leave the gates unseen!"
Syaoran grunted. "Why shouldn't I tell?" he said defiantly. He eyed her suspiciously, if he told of her departure to anyone, he might get something for it. Besides, there was nothing he would like better than to get Sakura in trouble without facing any himself.
"I can't stand this life anymore!" Sakura pleaded, "You must not tell anyone. I want to never come back,"
Syaoran looked at her strangely. She was leaving? For good? "Where will you go?" He asked, "Do you seriously think you would last a day in the normal, unpampered world?"
"If you promise to let no one know, I will tell you where I am headed."
"Fine." Syaoran nodded. There was ONE more thing he would like more than to see the princess in trouble. It was to see her leave... for good!
"I am headed westward, to the town called Naanji-Yen. It's a small town, though it is very far from here." Syaoran nodded. That was good enough for him. He gave her one, last, menacing glance before hurrying off to the garden.
~ ~ ~
Sakura was walking at a fair pace through the woods beside the castle. Her dress was constantly getting caught on branches and weeds and anything else that it touched. Branches and other overhanging plants scratched and rubbed against her face, causing rashes and cuts, and the same for her arms. Finally when she noticed it becoming colder and darker, she sat in the clearest spot she could find and prepared to rest. Everything around her was wild; it all fended for itself. Everything was for itself, as long as it survived nothing else had to matter. This concept frightened Sakura, especially as she pulled out her only meal from her sack and realized how unprepared she had come.
She ate quietly, using slow movements as not to disturb anything that might be lurking in the dark. When she finished, she lay down on a thin blanket she had brought, pushing worries on where her next meal would come from to the back of her mind. She shivered uncomfortably as she felt a chill course through her body. She was cold and had nothing to cover up with. She finally pulled her clean clothes from her bag and covered herself the best she could with them.
She wondered why she felt so lonely. She had never had any friends anyway, why should she feel alone now? Was it just because she was cold and worried? She shrugged off the feeling and curled up tighter, pulling her knees under the blanket and sighing.
~ ~ ~
Syaoran was sitting in the garden, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms encircling them. He despised Sakura, so why did he feel betrayed? Maybe it was just her kindness to him for the while before she ran away, or maybe it was something else... He stared unseeingly at the weed-invaded flowers in front of him, and then shifted his gaze to the thick gloves that covered his hands. He let his vision blur and his body relax as his head worked hard to bring him an understanding.
He felt something hard strike his back and glared up at a soldier standing over him. "Hey, brat, you're supposed to be pulling weeds!" Syaoran said nothing and gave the soldier one of his 'death glares'. "Get to work!" Shouted the guard, kicking him harder. Syaoran stood up, obeying the soldier with as much dignity as possible, and kneeled down by the flower bed and began pulling at some of the weeds. Satisfied, the soldier walked back to where another one was standing, keeping watch over the garden and Syaoran.
Since Sakura had disappeared, the day before, the castle was in chaos. Many of the servants were suspected to have something to do with her disappearance and were put in prison for the time being. Because of this, there were fewer servants to spread the work among. All of the servants were exhausted and being overworked and many had collapsed (leaving even MORE work for remaining servants).
Syaoran kind of wished that Sakura hadn't left; he wanted things to be back to normal. But he was contented enough just to not see her face or do anything for her to feel that it all was worth it, just for her leaving.
~ ~ ~
Sakura had been walking all day, she could see the sun falling below the horizon, but the moon was very bright that night and she was able to see very well. She hadn't eaten at all that day, having not brought any more food along, and was exhausted from not having many rests. She wandered now, having found an area to rest for the night, trying to find some wild berries or anything else edible. She managed to find an area containing a fruit that was familiar to her, though she didn't know its name. She ate hungrily until she felt she might be sick if she ate another berry. She wasn't quite full, but she couldn't eat too much of the same thing.
Sakura found her way back to her chosen spot for the night and huddled up very much in the same way as the night before. As she drifted off into a restless slumber, she wondered how things were faring at the castle. A pang of worry hit her as she thought about the soldiers that her father must have sent after her; they would be traveling at a much faster pace. She dreamt that night about the amber-eyed servant that she had left at the castle. She smiled in her sleep as she saw the light scowl that never left his face.
When Sakura woke up in the morning, her muscles ached and a slight dizziness settled in her head. She stood up uncertainly and walked around a bit to recover her wariness and balance, but the dizziness wouldn't go away. As she set off that morning to walk further, her head began to throb. She felt unusually cool although it was very warm outside and her throat burned when she drank from her water container. She made slow progress because of her discomforts and tripped often because of her dizziness and the way her dresses caught on things.
Sakura was walking through a particularly tricky area in the wood when she tripped over her dress when it caught in a prickly bush. The first thing that hit was her left arm, and it hit hard against a rough rock. She lay where she was for a few minutes, clutching her arm and breathing deeply, waiting for the sting to go away. She had no other choice but stand up and keep going, though her arm hurt very badly, was bleeding from a deep cut, and was possibly broken.
She stopped early, lacking the energy to find food, so she suffered through her hunger and fell immediately asleep. She woke up late in the night, she was cold and hungry and thirsty, but her muscles were stiff and she felt that she would rather just fall asleep and not bother with anything else, including bandaging her arm, which was once again beginning to bleed freely. Her sleep was cool at times, hot at others, but it was hardly sleep at all. She woke frequently, having the strength to do nothing, feverishly lying there and waiting for sleep to come again and wash away the throbbing in her head and the sharp pain that constantly shot through her arm.
She felt the night would never, end, it dragged on and on, endless wakings and sleepings, it was all a constant blur. Finally, though, she fell into a deeper sleep that lasted through the morning and into early afternoon.
She awoke coughing and sputtering as something warm and soupy went down her throat. She heard something scutter backwards in surprise and her first thought was "Soldiers!" When she opened her eyes, she was staring at another pair of brown ones. She tried to scream, but it caught in her throat and she was only able to let out a soft squeak. The figure standing over her sat down beside her and watched her closely. Her vision was blurry, but she mad out the person to be a boy about her age with dark hair and brown eyes.
Sakura knew someone like that, but who was it? Was he from the castle? Or was he the son of that tree that she had been talking to earlier? Her head was too confused to tell and she gave up trying. For the first time she felt something tight on her arm. When she looked, she saw that her arm was tightly bound, leading her to assume that it had been broken. Her fever had lowered a bit, and her head didn't throb as badly, but she was very hot. She tried dizzily to push the blanket off of her, but the boy just pushed her hands away and pulled them up further.
She felt a cold metal touch her lips and she held them tightly closed. When it prodded, though, she opened them, and the warm liquid she had choked on early was once again sliding down her throat. She drank more of the soup to please her caretaker and fell asleep once more, too tired and sick to worry about herself being alone with him, or being found by the soldiers, or those evil green tree people that were chasing after her...
The boy sighed and shook his head as Sakura's breathing became even and she fell asleep. She smiled at her sleeping figure and fed the fire that was heating her medicine. He knew that she would never make it on her own, and it looked like he had made it to her just in time.
Thanks guys, for the reviews! (again!) I am wondering if I should keep going. This story is getting cheesy and this chapter was the worst yet. Should I drop it? Anyway, I have been lagging on my other story, Love is Like Sakura.
Thanks to Emily for reviewing, I updated, and I hope you weren't disappointed with the lameness of this chapter.
Thanks to IwillmarryJustinTimberlake, I hope that I am still doing alright with their characters. I'm trying, but in this situation it gets hard! Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like the story. Oh, and it was the cherry on top that made me update! (just kidding!)
Thanks to Lugia-mew for reviewing, small, nice encouragements are nice! Thanks! Glad you like it.
Gomen for taking so long to update, and I hope, if I continue, that my chapters will get better. Thanks for your reviews; they are the only motivation for me to go on. If you want me to continue, I will, but if it is too bad, I might as well not bother. Arigotou!
Eriol gave her a warm smile. "From now on, you must meet me down here every evening. I will train you in use of your magic and the cards; you may need it."
Sakura nodded. She didn't know what else to do.
*End of flashback*
Away From My Life
Every evening, when the first stars appeared in the deep, dark heavens, Sakura would quietly tiptoe to the servant's level. Every night, Eriol would help her to practice with her magic, and every night she grew stronger. This night, when Sakura opened the door to Eriol's room, he seemed more serious than nights past.
"Your training is done, Princess Sakura," said Eriol giving her a small smile. Sakura stared at him. She didn't say anything. "The cards," said Eriol, handing all of the Clow Cards over to her. Sakura had used the cards before in her training, but she hadn't thought about actually OWNING them.
She gave Eriol a quick bow. "Arigato," she said as she stood. She had developed a lot of respect for Eriol over the last twelve days, and so had he, for her. She stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something, but he stared at her just the same. She bowed again and not knowing what else to do, walked quietly out of his room, locking the door behind her.
She walked through the hallway again, thinking about the cards. What was she going to do with them now? After all this, was she just going to go back to her normal life? She sighed. She may never get the chance to use them again. Eriol had said not to use the cards unless it was important, that way if she really needed to use them, she would have enough magic to do so. After the last two weeks, she knew how exhausting using magic could be.
"Umph!"
"Oh!" Sakura was knocked to the ground. She sat up and saw Syaoran sitting on the ground a few feet away form her, rubbing his left elbow. "Gomen, Syaoran!" She said. Lately, she hadn't bossed Syaoran around at all. She no longer thought it was fun to punish him, and she didn't mind it if he didn't use formalities, either. Syaoran took advantage of this, and treated her no better than any of the other servants.
"Fine." Syaoran mumbled as he stood. A soldier, who was behind him, gave him a hard shove.
"You will apologize properly and address her as Your Majesty or Princess Sakura!" Said the guard firmly. Syaoran muttered something under his breath, which brought on another shove from the soldier, this time sending him into the wall.
"It's okay." Said Sakura, nodding at the guard. "Just take him to his room."
"Princess Sakura," said the guard, looking nervous, "He was coming down for water, he was supposed to work in the garden afterwards."
"I said take him to his room." Said Sakura, taking her formal tone again, "He needs his rest. Give him double water rations and the same to Eriol tomorrow." The guard nodded and, pushing Syaoran ahead of him, scurried down the hallway in the opposite direction that she was headed. Sakura was so tired of Syaoran, the kinder and more lenient she was to him, the nastier and ruder he was to her. Then she made up her mind. She walked purposefully to her room and gathered a few things into a bag. Then she settled on her bed for a good night's sleep.
~ ~ ~
Sakura hid a yellow bag behind her as she walked up to the guards that were guarding the front gate. "There is a stranger in the hallway," she said, trying to act flustered, "He wouldn't listen to me or leave like I told him. Remove him from the castle grounds, now!" She said, ending her last word with a huff. Both of the guards nodded and proceeded into the castle.
Sakura smiled and sighed. How much easier could this get. She walked happily, but quietly, toward the gates leading outside the castle grounds. She moved to the right of them and spotted what she was looking for. She kneeled down and widened the hole a bit by clawing at the ground and pulling at the metal-wire fence.
Sakura felt an aura behind her whirled around. She sighed relief when she saw only Syaoran standing above her. She stood and wiped off some of the dirt that now covered her pink dress. "Servant boy," she said, suddenly taking a serious tone, "Please don't tell anyone, I must leave the gates unseen!"
Syaoran grunted. "Why shouldn't I tell?" he said defiantly. He eyed her suspiciously, if he told of her departure to anyone, he might get something for it. Besides, there was nothing he would like better than to get Sakura in trouble without facing any himself.
"I can't stand this life anymore!" Sakura pleaded, "You must not tell anyone. I want to never come back,"
Syaoran looked at her strangely. She was leaving? For good? "Where will you go?" He asked, "Do you seriously think you would last a day in the normal, unpampered world?"
"If you promise to let no one know, I will tell you where I am headed."
"Fine." Syaoran nodded. There was ONE more thing he would like more than to see the princess in trouble. It was to see her leave... for good!
"I am headed westward, to the town called Naanji-Yen. It's a small town, though it is very far from here." Syaoran nodded. That was good enough for him. He gave her one, last, menacing glance before hurrying off to the garden.
~ ~ ~
Sakura was walking at a fair pace through the woods beside the castle. Her dress was constantly getting caught on branches and weeds and anything else that it touched. Branches and other overhanging plants scratched and rubbed against her face, causing rashes and cuts, and the same for her arms. Finally when she noticed it becoming colder and darker, she sat in the clearest spot she could find and prepared to rest. Everything around her was wild; it all fended for itself. Everything was for itself, as long as it survived nothing else had to matter. This concept frightened Sakura, especially as she pulled out her only meal from her sack and realized how unprepared she had come.
She ate quietly, using slow movements as not to disturb anything that might be lurking in the dark. When she finished, she lay down on a thin blanket she had brought, pushing worries on where her next meal would come from to the back of her mind. She shivered uncomfortably as she felt a chill course through her body. She was cold and had nothing to cover up with. She finally pulled her clean clothes from her bag and covered herself the best she could with them.
She wondered why she felt so lonely. She had never had any friends anyway, why should she feel alone now? Was it just because she was cold and worried? She shrugged off the feeling and curled up tighter, pulling her knees under the blanket and sighing.
~ ~ ~
Syaoran was sitting in the garden, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms encircling them. He despised Sakura, so why did he feel betrayed? Maybe it was just her kindness to him for the while before she ran away, or maybe it was something else... He stared unseeingly at the weed-invaded flowers in front of him, and then shifted his gaze to the thick gloves that covered his hands. He let his vision blur and his body relax as his head worked hard to bring him an understanding.
He felt something hard strike his back and glared up at a soldier standing over him. "Hey, brat, you're supposed to be pulling weeds!" Syaoran said nothing and gave the soldier one of his 'death glares'. "Get to work!" Shouted the guard, kicking him harder. Syaoran stood up, obeying the soldier with as much dignity as possible, and kneeled down by the flower bed and began pulling at some of the weeds. Satisfied, the soldier walked back to where another one was standing, keeping watch over the garden and Syaoran.
Since Sakura had disappeared, the day before, the castle was in chaos. Many of the servants were suspected to have something to do with her disappearance and were put in prison for the time being. Because of this, there were fewer servants to spread the work among. All of the servants were exhausted and being overworked and many had collapsed (leaving even MORE work for remaining servants).
Syaoran kind of wished that Sakura hadn't left; he wanted things to be back to normal. But he was contented enough just to not see her face or do anything for her to feel that it all was worth it, just for her leaving.
~ ~ ~
Sakura had been walking all day, she could see the sun falling below the horizon, but the moon was very bright that night and she was able to see very well. She hadn't eaten at all that day, having not brought any more food along, and was exhausted from not having many rests. She wandered now, having found an area to rest for the night, trying to find some wild berries or anything else edible. She managed to find an area containing a fruit that was familiar to her, though she didn't know its name. She ate hungrily until she felt she might be sick if she ate another berry. She wasn't quite full, but she couldn't eat too much of the same thing.
Sakura found her way back to her chosen spot for the night and huddled up very much in the same way as the night before. As she drifted off into a restless slumber, she wondered how things were faring at the castle. A pang of worry hit her as she thought about the soldiers that her father must have sent after her; they would be traveling at a much faster pace. She dreamt that night about the amber-eyed servant that she had left at the castle. She smiled in her sleep as she saw the light scowl that never left his face.
When Sakura woke up in the morning, her muscles ached and a slight dizziness settled in her head. She stood up uncertainly and walked around a bit to recover her wariness and balance, but the dizziness wouldn't go away. As she set off that morning to walk further, her head began to throb. She felt unusually cool although it was very warm outside and her throat burned when she drank from her water container. She made slow progress because of her discomforts and tripped often because of her dizziness and the way her dresses caught on things.
Sakura was walking through a particularly tricky area in the wood when she tripped over her dress when it caught in a prickly bush. The first thing that hit was her left arm, and it hit hard against a rough rock. She lay where she was for a few minutes, clutching her arm and breathing deeply, waiting for the sting to go away. She had no other choice but stand up and keep going, though her arm hurt very badly, was bleeding from a deep cut, and was possibly broken.
She stopped early, lacking the energy to find food, so she suffered through her hunger and fell immediately asleep. She woke up late in the night, she was cold and hungry and thirsty, but her muscles were stiff and she felt that she would rather just fall asleep and not bother with anything else, including bandaging her arm, which was once again beginning to bleed freely. Her sleep was cool at times, hot at others, but it was hardly sleep at all. She woke frequently, having the strength to do nothing, feverishly lying there and waiting for sleep to come again and wash away the throbbing in her head and the sharp pain that constantly shot through her arm.
She felt the night would never, end, it dragged on and on, endless wakings and sleepings, it was all a constant blur. Finally, though, she fell into a deeper sleep that lasted through the morning and into early afternoon.
She awoke coughing and sputtering as something warm and soupy went down her throat. She heard something scutter backwards in surprise and her first thought was "Soldiers!" When she opened her eyes, she was staring at another pair of brown ones. She tried to scream, but it caught in her throat and she was only able to let out a soft squeak. The figure standing over her sat down beside her and watched her closely. Her vision was blurry, but she mad out the person to be a boy about her age with dark hair and brown eyes.
Sakura knew someone like that, but who was it? Was he from the castle? Or was he the son of that tree that she had been talking to earlier? Her head was too confused to tell and she gave up trying. For the first time she felt something tight on her arm. When she looked, she saw that her arm was tightly bound, leading her to assume that it had been broken. Her fever had lowered a bit, and her head didn't throb as badly, but she was very hot. She tried dizzily to push the blanket off of her, but the boy just pushed her hands away and pulled them up further.
She felt a cold metal touch her lips and she held them tightly closed. When it prodded, though, she opened them, and the warm liquid she had choked on early was once again sliding down her throat. She drank more of the soup to please her caretaker and fell asleep once more, too tired and sick to worry about herself being alone with him, or being found by the soldiers, or those evil green tree people that were chasing after her...
The boy sighed and shook his head as Sakura's breathing became even and she fell asleep. She smiled at her sleeping figure and fed the fire that was heating her medicine. He knew that she would never make it on her own, and it looked like he had made it to her just in time.
Thanks guys, for the reviews! (again!) I am wondering if I should keep going. This story is getting cheesy and this chapter was the worst yet. Should I drop it? Anyway, I have been lagging on my other story, Love is Like Sakura.
Thanks to Emily for reviewing, I updated, and I hope you weren't disappointed with the lameness of this chapter.
Thanks to IwillmarryJustinTimberlake, I hope that I am still doing alright with their characters. I'm trying, but in this situation it gets hard! Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like the story. Oh, and it was the cherry on top that made me update! (just kidding!)
Thanks to Lugia-mew for reviewing, small, nice encouragements are nice! Thanks! Glad you like it.
Gomen for taking so long to update, and I hope, if I continue, that my chapters will get better. Thanks for your reviews; they are the only motivation for me to go on. If you want me to continue, I will, but if it is too bad, I might as well not bother. Arigotou!