Fountain of Age
Summary: AU. Syaoran and Eriol are on the trail of the Fountain of Youth... a trail that would lead them inevitably to Tomoeda... and Sakura...
Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura. None of it: manga, anime, little plushie Keros; I own nothing.
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Chapter 2: In Eriol's Library...
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"The Fountain of Youth?" Nakuru's brow furrowed. She closed the door to the Xiao Lang's room. "Why would he be interested in that?"
"An old Li clan custom," explained Eriol, carelessly. "Send the next clan head on a meaningless quest to prove themselves worthy."
"I suppose you-"
"Leave Xiao Lang to look for it by himself," Eriol snapped. He headed for his own room, leaving Nakuru at the top of the stairs. "Let him learn a thing or two."
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Xiao Lang's mother had mentioned a book and Eriol had mentioned a library. If Eriol did indeed own a book pertaining to the Fountain of Youth, it seemed logical that it would be in there. Xiao Lang rose early the next day to begin his search. His cousin clearly did not want him to find the Fountain of Youth; it was in Xiao Ling's interest to evade the boy. He thought that Eriol obviously did not understand the importance of finding the fountain. He was running the risk of being disowned! The shame...
With a slight shudder, he eased open the doors on the second floor. Careful not to be heard, Xiao Lang poked his head into the small space between the door and the frame. The one across from his was revealed to be a bedroom with midnight blue walls, mottled with tiny stars and planets. If Xiao Lang could guess from the size of the bed, the beauty of the mahogany dresser, and the other door on the left wall, this was the master bedroom. It was completely tidy: the bed wasn't rumpled at all. Xiao Lang supposed Eriol's parents slept there; although Eriol had yet to mention them and he had yet to glimpse them. Xiao Lang mildly thought that this was strange. Still, he closed the door to continue the quest at hand.
The other rooms on the second floor were bedrooms too; dusty ones. Everything was covered in plastic and Xiao Lang could just see what each room was painted as. He found a pink room, a lilac room, a tan room, one in a blue color reminiscent of faded denim jeans, and one wallpapered with off white flowers. The final room was the blindingly white bathroom, and it wasn't covered in plastic.
So no, The library wasn't on the second floor.
Xiao Lang headed downstairs, carefully taking one step at a time. He needed to search the first floor and he had yet to see Eriol or Nakuru. He vaguely wondered where they were. He did not see them in the living room or the kitchen; both rooms being empty but immaculately clean. With a glance at the ruined painting, Xiao Lang turned down the hallway next to the stairs.
The library was the first door to the left. He gasped at the sight of it. He had never seen such a large number of books in such a small space. The room was just a little wider than the master bedroom upstairs, though with a higher ceiling. Towering bookshelves covered every inch of every wall, save for a space in the corner for a window. The window spilled sunlight everywhere; on the long table, the chairs, the carpet. It felt really cozy, and exceptionally warm.
Where to start? Xiao Lang ran his eyes over the shelves. There were so many books, red, brown, old books. New books; all sorts. He stared at them and felt his stomach plummet at the realization:
He had no idea what the title of the book was!
Xiao Lang wished the ground would swallow him. How could he have been so stupid as to neglect such an important detail?! Now, what could he do? He should've asked his mother when he was still in Hong Kong. But if he called her now, she would think the hunt was a failure and would disown him on the spot. Calling her was not an option.
Xiao Lang ran his eyes over the shelves again, in hopes that a book, any book, would just yell out and say, "It's me! I know where the Fountain of Youth is, and I can tell you everything..."
He ended up in the F section. Why not? If he had any luck, some book was simply titled The Fountain of Youth. His fingers skimmed over the titles on the leather spines. Flora and Fauna, no. Florence, no. Forks in History; definitely not. He was just about to switch shelves when a very thin book caught his eye. Fountains of the World, it was titled, and the author was a Fujitaka Kinomoto.
"Close enough," Xiao Lang told himself, and he tried to pull it off the shelves. It was sandwiched between the shelf's side and Four Funny Fourth Graders. "Come on," he urged the book, and he pulled on it for a good five minutes before it toppled out, bringing along with it Four Funny Fourth Graders, and half a dozen other books. The force of it knocked Xiao Lang off his feet, and buried him under the reading material. They were very noisy books; far more noisy that he would've liked. He lay still on the floor for a moment, buried, biting his lip in pain since Four Funny Fourth Graders had socked him in the gut. His ears were tuned to the hall, listening for any sounds that might indicate someone rushing to check on the library. Nothing. Slowly, he extricated himself from the dusty books, placed them back in their rightful places (if Eriol was to enter the library right now...), and headed for the long table.
What he found there nearly made him wish he was buried in books again. Eriol was sitting on the windowsill, his chin on the back of a chair, grinning at him.
"I-" Xiao Lang tried to excuse himself, his grip loosening on the book. It was like being caught stealing food from the kitchens when he was eight all over again. Xiao Lang cursed himself for not seeing Eriol earlier. He supposed he must've missed him while panicking over the book's title.
His cousin's eyes were fixed on his hands. "Good book, that one," commented Eriol with a nod. He moved from behind the chair, and stood next to it instead, so that he was hard to see in the glare of the sunlight behind him.
There was nothing else for it. It was very clear to Xiao Lang how important it was for him to find the Fountain of Youth and it was equally important that Eriol understood this. He stood taller, ready to defend himself, and said, "I really need to find the fountain, Eriol, it will-"
"-decide your future?" finished his cousin. "I know. Jog my memory a bit. If you do not find the Fountain of Youth, you cannot be the head of the Li clan, you will be disowned, and you dread the shame. You could potentially become a penniless beggar living on the streets or a corpse at the bottom of the river. I know how the Li clan works, Xiao Lang. I am a Li after all. If distantly."
Xiao Ling dropped his arms, and stood there dully. So Eriol knew about the whole affair, in and out. His final chance at defense was gone. What a choice of words though! Beggar on the streets; corpse in the river. Xiao Lang felt as if he was inches away from being punished. He envied his cousin for standing there, grinning, at complete ease with the world, while, he, Xiao Lang, fried his poor brains over this impossible task.
"You know," Eriol broke into his thoughts, "I never forbade you to come to the library. I never forbade you to continue looking for the fountain. I just told you the facts which are, once again, that the possibility of finding the fountain is astronomical, and, that this quest is a massive waste of time."
"But-"
"-Your mother wants it, yes, you told me," Eriol finished, a knowing twinkle in his eye. Or maybe it was sun glare on his glasses. "You also told me that you don't believe in the existence of the fountain, but here you are."
"I-I don't," Xiao Lang told the floor. "But my mother does, and-"
"-That is all that matters." Eriol completed his sentence for him again. "But really, if you don't believe in the thing, what is the likelihood of you finding it? The Fountain of Youth could be right here, in this library, and you could never recognize it for what it was; you would just think that it was just another fountain; nothing extraordinary."
His cousin didn't have an answer to that. He stood there, gazing at the floor, his fingers running up and down the book.
Eriol moved to sit in the chair he was leaning on. "Come and sit, Xiao Lang," he invited, patting the seat next to him. Xiao Lang, feeling somewhat betrayed, came forward to sit across from him, a good long distance away. Eriol didn't insist that he move, and instead, simply wove his fingers together, and tucked them under his chin. He examined Xiao Lang from the tip of his brown head to the amber of his eyes; eyes that would not meet Eriol's own. He must've scared the boy; the last thing he had wanted to do.
"I'll tell you what I have heard of the Fountain of Youth," Eriol said, kindly. Xiao Lang, who thought his hearing might've been malfunctioning, finally looked up at his cousin with surprise. The older boy smiled. He pulled himself out of the chair and went to look out the window. "You might want to take notes," he added.
Xiao Lang did not. He, instead, stared at his cousin so hard his eyes were in danger of drying out.
"Years and years ago," began Eriol, gazing out the window, "a man named Christopher Columbus found the New World in 1492."
"But what does-"
"Sssh! Let me finish my story." Eriol waited for silence, then continued, "The Europeans became very excited because here was unspoiled land, asking to be taken, never mind that there were natives on the continent. They came, in droves, to conquer the New World, and they brought with them two very important things: Catholicism and disease.
"The disease killed off the natives one by one. They lacked the immunity that the Europeans had built up, you see, and they tried so very hard to cure themselves. They used their remedies, they prayed to their gods, they made sacrifices, but it didn't matter: the disease still killed them.
"And of course, being intelligent people, they could not fail to notice that the Europeans were not dying. They thought this meant that the European gods were stronger than their own, and they converted to Catholicism in hopes that they would be saved.
"Now, as Catholics, they heard the story of the healing powers of the Jordan River. If you don't know what that is, Xiao Lang, it is where Jesus Christ, the son of God, was baptized and blessed by his Father. The natives believed that if they could find the Jordan River, they would be cured, and they searched for it, and searched for it, and never found it."
"Isn't the Jordan River in Israel or something?" interrupted Xiao Lang.
"Yes, I believe so," replied Eriol, turning to face him. "And we all know that the Jordan River cannot make you young again. Not physically anyway. But, then again, this is what I've heard; I can't really give you any concrete proof on the subject. It is, after all, the Fountain of Youth, and there is very little concrete in that."
Eriol grinned, leaned on the chair again and said, "Years later, a man named Ponce de Leon, came to the New World to search for this source of healing water. By that time, the story had mutated to the point that it now includes the most fabled power of the Fountain of Youth: and that is, the ability to make a person young again. The natives told De Leon he could find it on the island of Bimini, so he went looking for it. He naturally thought it was a story of the natives; didn't even think it might've been actually borrowed from his own culture. He eventually came to Florida, which he mistook as an island at that time. Of course, he failed to find the fountain."
Xiao Lang gazed at his cousin with his mouth open. When Eriol clearly didn't have anything else to say, he ran his tongue over his dry lips and said, "That's it?"
"That's it," Eriol assured him. "That's all I've heard." He placed his hands on his hips, and surveyed the room. Xiao Lang followed his gaze. "Now, as for your own quest, I will allow you to search my library. As you may have noticed, I've decided to put my library in alphabetical order according to title instead of by author. Personally, I find it more efficient. Some people might not agree, but there you go. The first half of the English alphabet is here, and the second half is in the other room-"
"The other room?" Xiao Lang squeaked. His face became distinctly whiter.
"Yes, the other room," said Eriol, nodding for extra emphasis. "Books in other languages are interspersed on the shelves; I stuck them in with whatever the first letter might've been in an English translation."
"Maybe it would've been a better idea to put them in order according to author after all," Xiao Lang said. A slight squeak lingered in his voice.Eriol only shrugged as he placed a hand on the shelf of M's. "Other than that, I can offer you no more help. Nakuru and I shall be working on getting those light bulbs installed, though I'm sure Nakuru would be glad to cook you anything you want when you get hungry."
Xiao Lang's stomach gave a rumble in answer. Eriol grinned, and placed a hand on a golden yellow book. Xiao Lang couldn't see the title which was gold embossed into the spine.
"Xiao Lang," said Eriol. He pulled the boy's attention away from the golden yellow book. "I do not believe your mother really sent you on a search to find the Fountain of Youth. Remember, the fountain has the power to reverse age, but it also has healing powers that give strength to its drinker. I believe that is what your mother really wants you to find, Xiao Lang. Strength."
And with that, Eriol pulled the book off the shelf. The L shelf and the M shelf swung outwards, allowing Eriol to pass through. Xiao Lang caught a glimpse of the second room before it swung shut.88888888
Author's Notes: Thank you for reaching the end of the second chapter. The third chapter was originally part of this chapter, but I thought that it got too long, and changed it. The third chapter is shorter than this one; it just seemed appropriate to end it at this point. Also, thanks, crazy daisy. I'm glad you found the story interesting.