Disclaimer: You already know about that. If not, you are blind. See
chapter 1.
On with Chapter 2!!!
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The wind that rattled the forest branches struck a chill through the men's armor. Grey rain started pelting their helmets. This girl, Kinomoto, a sorceress from Jadelink? That was the most prestigious and notorious school of sorcery throughout the whole land. And a GIRL had passed its countless tests? No doubt she was of the worst of her rank. But what struck the horsemen the most was her message about the downfall of Ledestar. It was impossible! No man could break through the city's 60- foot tall stone walls, with its huge door of hard, cold steel.
"The only way to penetrate Ledestar is through the top. And unless this enemy can fly, I'd say that we're on safe ground," a soldier called out. His mates laughed at the proposition.
"He's right, mi'lady. Unless of course you've got Zoniliads in mind," the man at the front relayed to her. The men laughed in her face again.
Zoniliads were long dead. These flying birds of prey were the ones that had caused the ancient kingdoms to fall. They feasted on the cold, dead hearts of mankind.
Sakura gave him a dark look. "I wouldn't be laughing, gentlemen." She swept out a bowl from the pack she carried and caught the gently falling rain. "Look here, leader of the cavalry."
She held out the bowl for the man to see. Dipping her fingers into the water, she swirled them around and called to the wind with her mind. "Show me the Zoniliads!"
The water erupted into a vivid picture of Keislera, a country of great wealth and fortune. The pitch black sky showed signs of death and destruction.
The head man gasped and turned ghost white. "It...it can't be!"
"Oh, it is. They struck late last night when the guards were switching watches. I won't be surprised if they get here in four days' time."
The huge bat-like creatures in the bowl devoured sheep, pigs, men; anything they could get their filthy claws on. The closest one dined on a lost child, ripping its flesh with its jagged beak. It looked up. Its blood red eyes were filled with a supreme hate so horrible that it sent shivers all the way down the sorceress' spine. The queen of the flock stared directly into Sakura's eyes. She let out an ear-splitting screech and tore her claws out of the child's flesh, taking to the air. She left the carrion in the swirling dust below.
"You'd better make that three. She saw us." Sakura quickly drew a spiral on the surface of the trembling water. The picture blanked out and only a crystal clear solution remained in its stead. The men around her looked as grey as the sunless sky. "Take me to the king."
~ * ~ * ~
They brought her into the Great Hall of Kings, a huge high-ceilinged room with towering marble pillars. Sakura walked past the mahogany chairs and along the golden carpet leading to the throne. She glanced above her head and smirked. It's still there, she thought. She was proud of the arrow that she accidentally shot into the base of the crystal chandelier. That's one of the things that got me kicked out of here. The guards were surprised at her. Usually when a girl is taken to see the king, she's intimidated. But Kinomoto looked as calm as stone, as cool as lake water. Sakura lifted her head and fixed her gaze on the man sitting in the high- backed throne. Nothing could faze her.
The four guards at her sides bowed to the king and left without another word. She was a little surprised at this, though. They didn't even know her! Why put the king in the same room as an armed sorceress? She bowed stealthily to her king, keeping her eyes on his. She unsheathed her sword and set it down in front of him, finally bowing her head.
"My king, I have come to give you news of a terrible war in the north. Keislera has been overrun by Zoniliads since the first of last week. I bring this sword as proof of their existence, of their terrible being." Sakura fixed her gaze on him. "They will be upon this city in three days." She stood up straight and looked the king over as he pondered her news. He looked exactly the same. Maybe a little bit more mature, a couple years older. Definitely more handsome.
The king totally ignored what she had just said. "Sakura, how nice of you to come back after all these years." The king's deep voice brought Sakura back to the old days.
Maybe he's taking my news as a joke? "Did you miss me?" She smirked. How could he not? They had been best friends before she was kicked out of the city.
"As a matter of fact, it drove me insane when you left. I never forgave my father."
Really... but the present king and the one before him had been as close as anyone could imagine. "What happened?" She would wait until later to tell her report again.
The king stood up, looking down at her. "He died of a heart attack a few years after you left. He was already a shell of his former self at that time. During those few years between your exile and his death, he became a miser. You know, he only wanted you gone so that you wouldn't interfere with my reign." He glanced up at her. "Don't blame him for making you leave. It was my fault in its entirety."
"Oh, don't even give me that crap. Of course it was his fault. He was the one that sighed the paper, wasn't he? You didn't. You had no choice in the matter. Even if you tried to stop it, he probably would have cut you down like he did with your mother. Even if she did sleep with a gypsy, it doesn't mean that she was in her right mind. We all know that she was hypnotized into it. She was devastated after the fact. You know it better than I do. And your father knows it better than both of us. The only conclusion I could come up with was that he wanted to keep up a good reputation. Well, I think he made it worse by having her beheaded."
"You're just lucky he didn't have you beheaded, too."
"Even if he tried that, I had enough contacts to get of there alive."
"You would have been able to do it yourself." His smirk was back. "So, what have you been doing for eight years? It's been really boring around here without you."
Sakura laughed. "I traveled for about three years until I came across the Jadelink School of Sorcery. I had nothing else to do, so I was like, Hey, what the hell? So I developed my powers to an extent that no one has ever reached. Now I'm the most powerful spell-casting, mountain- trekking, Zoniliad-killing warrior on this side of country. Looks like all that fooling around back in school paid off."
"Ya, like the time you shot that arrow up into my dad's chandelier. I didn't know you could use magic until then. No wonder you were able to hit something up so high."
"Hey, now I can shoot that far even without magic," Sakura protested.
"I know, I know." The king's mischievous brown eyes sparkled. "You know, you look a lot better since last I saw you."
"So do you, Syaoran." She studied him. He was about a head taller than she was now; his dark brown hair was cut short, framing his handsome face. His smile was a welcome sight to Sakura, whose last sight of him was a teary-eyed youth being chased by half of the Royal Cavalry. His amazing brown eyes sparkled when he was laughing, and had tremendous depth when he wasn't.
Syaoran, on the other hand, was in total awe of the girl that stood before him. From his calculations, she would be 24. Sakura had definitely grown up. She had this war-hardened look when she was in her own world, looking like she was remembering sights that she didn't want to remember. Syaoran could only imagine what they were. Her emerald eyes sparked with an inner fire of determination, and her smile dazzled him. True, he had been in love with her when she left, but he thought that it was over and done with. He had forgotten what love felt like.
"Now about what I really came here about..." Sakura started.
"Can you explain the situation any further?" Syaoran took on a serious look.
"I was practicing using my Sight on the lands surrounding Jadelink, and I came across Keislera in all its shining glory. Everyone knows that she has the most powerful army in the land, not to mention the highest, thickest walls ever built by mankind. I watched the children play in the street, watched the mothers doing laundry, watched the men tend to their shops, when all of a sudden, the sky turned pitch black. I've studied everything I can find about the attacks on the Ancient Cities of the Ledestar Region. The skies were as dark as midnight, in the middle of the day! The buildings of Keislera were bombarded with huge, flaming balls of destruction as big as the cannons on your walls. Then I saw the Zoniliads. They came down upon the city and the people, screaming like the world was going to end. People were ripped from burning buildings, children plucked off the streets. When they were done a half hour later, there was no living soul to be found."
Syaoran was dazed, she could tell. His eyes held an expression of horror. "How can this be? The Zoniliads were put away long ago, shut down beneath the thickest part of the earth by the Kings of Ancient Ledestar. The only one that can save the lands now is the keeper of the Sword of Ledestar, the living descendant of the first Ancient King."
Sakura held his eyes with her own. "I know what I must do, Syaoran. I only came here to say goodbye." Sakura's grave, determined face revealed the seriousness of the situation.
"Sakura, you can't do this! I'll send someone else in your place. I'll find the most skilled warrior in the country, I'll – "
"Do what? You can't do anything, Syaoran. Damn it! I'm the most skilled warrior in the country! I'm the only one that can do this. I'm the descendant of the first Ancient King. There's nothing you can do." Sakura held back tears. If she knew that he cared so much, she never would have come. Wouldn't it be better if she died and he didn't know about it?
"Sakura, let me come with you."
"Absolutely not. There is no possible way. You have your kingdom! Your people! Your life! You can't just drop everything and run to your death."
"You are."
"You forget. I don't have any obligations, except for this one. I've spent all of my life training so that I could uphold the honor of the sword that lay in front of me. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to run from it. It was my choice to take it, and it's my choice to die. I don't have anything to hold on to, no promises to anything or anybody, no reason to be living except to defend what this sword stands for. What I stand for." Sakura was about to lose the control over herself. If he didn't lay off, she would have to knock him out and make a run for it!
"Oh, and I don't count as an obligation? You don't care about me? What are best friends for, after all? I'm not about to allow you to go into danger, maybe not even to come back. Besides, the country needs you. I need you." Syaoran was gripping the throne so hard that his knuckles were white.
"I can see that coming back was a mistake. Please get your armies ready in case I don't pull through. Get out all of the women and children and take them as far south as you dare. Just don't let the Zoniliads take this city. And most important of all, don't come after me." Sakura sheathed the Sword of Ledestar, her shining blue blade ringing in the jeweled sheath. She raised her hands and called to the gods. "Divine beings of the universe! Take me to the lair of the Zoniliads!"
"Sakura, no! You don't know what you're getting into!" Syaoran ran at her with frantic tears in his eyes. "I don't want to lose you, not again."
"I have to, Syaoran," she whispered. "Don't wait up." And with that, she was gone.
All right... how was it? Please comment! I would also appreciate it if you guys could email me with suggestions, likes and dislikes - that kind of stuff. Thanks for reading. ^-^
On with Chapter 2!!!
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The wind that rattled the forest branches struck a chill through the men's armor. Grey rain started pelting their helmets. This girl, Kinomoto, a sorceress from Jadelink? That was the most prestigious and notorious school of sorcery throughout the whole land. And a GIRL had passed its countless tests? No doubt she was of the worst of her rank. But what struck the horsemen the most was her message about the downfall of Ledestar. It was impossible! No man could break through the city's 60- foot tall stone walls, with its huge door of hard, cold steel.
"The only way to penetrate Ledestar is through the top. And unless this enemy can fly, I'd say that we're on safe ground," a soldier called out. His mates laughed at the proposition.
"He's right, mi'lady. Unless of course you've got Zoniliads in mind," the man at the front relayed to her. The men laughed in her face again.
Zoniliads were long dead. These flying birds of prey were the ones that had caused the ancient kingdoms to fall. They feasted on the cold, dead hearts of mankind.
Sakura gave him a dark look. "I wouldn't be laughing, gentlemen." She swept out a bowl from the pack she carried and caught the gently falling rain. "Look here, leader of the cavalry."
She held out the bowl for the man to see. Dipping her fingers into the water, she swirled them around and called to the wind with her mind. "Show me the Zoniliads!"
The water erupted into a vivid picture of Keislera, a country of great wealth and fortune. The pitch black sky showed signs of death and destruction.
The head man gasped and turned ghost white. "It...it can't be!"
"Oh, it is. They struck late last night when the guards were switching watches. I won't be surprised if they get here in four days' time."
The huge bat-like creatures in the bowl devoured sheep, pigs, men; anything they could get their filthy claws on. The closest one dined on a lost child, ripping its flesh with its jagged beak. It looked up. Its blood red eyes were filled with a supreme hate so horrible that it sent shivers all the way down the sorceress' spine. The queen of the flock stared directly into Sakura's eyes. She let out an ear-splitting screech and tore her claws out of the child's flesh, taking to the air. She left the carrion in the swirling dust below.
"You'd better make that three. She saw us." Sakura quickly drew a spiral on the surface of the trembling water. The picture blanked out and only a crystal clear solution remained in its stead. The men around her looked as grey as the sunless sky. "Take me to the king."
~ * ~ * ~
They brought her into the Great Hall of Kings, a huge high-ceilinged room with towering marble pillars. Sakura walked past the mahogany chairs and along the golden carpet leading to the throne. She glanced above her head and smirked. It's still there, she thought. She was proud of the arrow that she accidentally shot into the base of the crystal chandelier. That's one of the things that got me kicked out of here. The guards were surprised at her. Usually when a girl is taken to see the king, she's intimidated. But Kinomoto looked as calm as stone, as cool as lake water. Sakura lifted her head and fixed her gaze on the man sitting in the high- backed throne. Nothing could faze her.
The four guards at her sides bowed to the king and left without another word. She was a little surprised at this, though. They didn't even know her! Why put the king in the same room as an armed sorceress? She bowed stealthily to her king, keeping her eyes on his. She unsheathed her sword and set it down in front of him, finally bowing her head.
"My king, I have come to give you news of a terrible war in the north. Keislera has been overrun by Zoniliads since the first of last week. I bring this sword as proof of their existence, of their terrible being." Sakura fixed her gaze on him. "They will be upon this city in three days." She stood up straight and looked the king over as he pondered her news. He looked exactly the same. Maybe a little bit more mature, a couple years older. Definitely more handsome.
The king totally ignored what she had just said. "Sakura, how nice of you to come back after all these years." The king's deep voice brought Sakura back to the old days.
Maybe he's taking my news as a joke? "Did you miss me?" She smirked. How could he not? They had been best friends before she was kicked out of the city.
"As a matter of fact, it drove me insane when you left. I never forgave my father."
Really... but the present king and the one before him had been as close as anyone could imagine. "What happened?" She would wait until later to tell her report again.
The king stood up, looking down at her. "He died of a heart attack a few years after you left. He was already a shell of his former self at that time. During those few years between your exile and his death, he became a miser. You know, he only wanted you gone so that you wouldn't interfere with my reign." He glanced up at her. "Don't blame him for making you leave. It was my fault in its entirety."
"Oh, don't even give me that crap. Of course it was his fault. He was the one that sighed the paper, wasn't he? You didn't. You had no choice in the matter. Even if you tried to stop it, he probably would have cut you down like he did with your mother. Even if she did sleep with a gypsy, it doesn't mean that she was in her right mind. We all know that she was hypnotized into it. She was devastated after the fact. You know it better than I do. And your father knows it better than both of us. The only conclusion I could come up with was that he wanted to keep up a good reputation. Well, I think he made it worse by having her beheaded."
"You're just lucky he didn't have you beheaded, too."
"Even if he tried that, I had enough contacts to get of there alive."
"You would have been able to do it yourself." His smirk was back. "So, what have you been doing for eight years? It's been really boring around here without you."
Sakura laughed. "I traveled for about three years until I came across the Jadelink School of Sorcery. I had nothing else to do, so I was like, Hey, what the hell? So I developed my powers to an extent that no one has ever reached. Now I'm the most powerful spell-casting, mountain- trekking, Zoniliad-killing warrior on this side of country. Looks like all that fooling around back in school paid off."
"Ya, like the time you shot that arrow up into my dad's chandelier. I didn't know you could use magic until then. No wonder you were able to hit something up so high."
"Hey, now I can shoot that far even without magic," Sakura protested.
"I know, I know." The king's mischievous brown eyes sparkled. "You know, you look a lot better since last I saw you."
"So do you, Syaoran." She studied him. He was about a head taller than she was now; his dark brown hair was cut short, framing his handsome face. His smile was a welcome sight to Sakura, whose last sight of him was a teary-eyed youth being chased by half of the Royal Cavalry. His amazing brown eyes sparkled when he was laughing, and had tremendous depth when he wasn't.
Syaoran, on the other hand, was in total awe of the girl that stood before him. From his calculations, she would be 24. Sakura had definitely grown up. She had this war-hardened look when she was in her own world, looking like she was remembering sights that she didn't want to remember. Syaoran could only imagine what they were. Her emerald eyes sparked with an inner fire of determination, and her smile dazzled him. True, he had been in love with her when she left, but he thought that it was over and done with. He had forgotten what love felt like.
"Now about what I really came here about..." Sakura started.
"Can you explain the situation any further?" Syaoran took on a serious look.
"I was practicing using my Sight on the lands surrounding Jadelink, and I came across Keislera in all its shining glory. Everyone knows that she has the most powerful army in the land, not to mention the highest, thickest walls ever built by mankind. I watched the children play in the street, watched the mothers doing laundry, watched the men tend to their shops, when all of a sudden, the sky turned pitch black. I've studied everything I can find about the attacks on the Ancient Cities of the Ledestar Region. The skies were as dark as midnight, in the middle of the day! The buildings of Keislera were bombarded with huge, flaming balls of destruction as big as the cannons on your walls. Then I saw the Zoniliads. They came down upon the city and the people, screaming like the world was going to end. People were ripped from burning buildings, children plucked off the streets. When they were done a half hour later, there was no living soul to be found."
Syaoran was dazed, she could tell. His eyes held an expression of horror. "How can this be? The Zoniliads were put away long ago, shut down beneath the thickest part of the earth by the Kings of Ancient Ledestar. The only one that can save the lands now is the keeper of the Sword of Ledestar, the living descendant of the first Ancient King."
Sakura held his eyes with her own. "I know what I must do, Syaoran. I only came here to say goodbye." Sakura's grave, determined face revealed the seriousness of the situation.
"Sakura, you can't do this! I'll send someone else in your place. I'll find the most skilled warrior in the country, I'll – "
"Do what? You can't do anything, Syaoran. Damn it! I'm the most skilled warrior in the country! I'm the only one that can do this. I'm the descendant of the first Ancient King. There's nothing you can do." Sakura held back tears. If she knew that he cared so much, she never would have come. Wouldn't it be better if she died and he didn't know about it?
"Sakura, let me come with you."
"Absolutely not. There is no possible way. You have your kingdom! Your people! Your life! You can't just drop everything and run to your death."
"You are."
"You forget. I don't have any obligations, except for this one. I've spent all of my life training so that I could uphold the honor of the sword that lay in front of me. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to run from it. It was my choice to take it, and it's my choice to die. I don't have anything to hold on to, no promises to anything or anybody, no reason to be living except to defend what this sword stands for. What I stand for." Sakura was about to lose the control over herself. If he didn't lay off, she would have to knock him out and make a run for it!
"Oh, and I don't count as an obligation? You don't care about me? What are best friends for, after all? I'm not about to allow you to go into danger, maybe not even to come back. Besides, the country needs you. I need you." Syaoran was gripping the throne so hard that his knuckles were white.
"I can see that coming back was a mistake. Please get your armies ready in case I don't pull through. Get out all of the women and children and take them as far south as you dare. Just don't let the Zoniliads take this city. And most important of all, don't come after me." Sakura sheathed the Sword of Ledestar, her shining blue blade ringing in the jeweled sheath. She raised her hands and called to the gods. "Divine beings of the universe! Take me to the lair of the Zoniliads!"
"Sakura, no! You don't know what you're getting into!" Syaoran ran at her with frantic tears in his eyes. "I don't want to lose you, not again."
"I have to, Syaoran," she whispered. "Don't wait up." And with that, she was gone.
All right... how was it? Please comment! I would also appreciate it if you guys could email me with suggestions, likes and dislikes - that kind of stuff. Thanks for reading. ^-^