A/N: Yay! The next chapter if finally up. Isn't the whole world happy? Sulkily well, maybe not.
DISCLAIMER: No, CCS in not mine cries CLAMP gets to have all the fun. But, dun, dun, dun! I've borrowed the characters for a while and I can do anything with them. evil laugh I'm very good at it (i.e. evil laugh). blushes.
CH. SUMMARY: Sigh; do I have to do this?
The forest of the Tomoeda kingdom has many secrets to hide, and many people with secrets go to hide there. But what does the boy with unruly chocolate brown hair have to hide...?
IMPORTANT: Can't anyone tell me if they want ET or not? I think you people took my 'only read the important' thing too much to heart.
KEYS: Scene change: . . . . .
Flashback: Whenever there are any flashbacks the alignments will be centered. Okay? And the scene change will also be put. I don't like the word 'flashback' in the middle of stories; it ruins it.
::::: To Save The World :::::
::::: 2. Capture and Escape: Part one :::::
::::: Winter Aquamarine :::::
There was a giant forest, which stretched from the north to the west of the Tomoeda Kingdom. It was a dark and damp place and very few people lived in the villages around it, for in the forest the trees were tall and thick and the brambles grew everywhere. There were many wild beasts living in the forest and people would refuse to even eat the meat of the little rabbits that wandered across their path.
People who dared to go in, barely ever came out unscratched; and sometimes they didn't come out at all. Yet, unknown to the people who lived in the towns and cities, there did live people in the depths of the forest. Some were good, most were evil, others were just people looking for a safe place to live after escaping from their masters. The last group of people, the slaves, had just wanted their freedom and would go to any lengths to keep it.
People could say that there was more to fear in the forest than the darkness and the animals, and most often those people could be right.
Slave traders were now starting to come to this forest in recent years; somehow they had found out about this last sanctuary for the good from the evil, the evil from the good and the slaves from the slave traders. They now came here for easy business. The disgusting mongrels came to the forest and took away any of the people they saw wandering around in twos or threes or more rarely, alone. The cowards would rather pick on the defenseless than attack the larger groups of about a hundred.
The slave traders traveled in packs of twenty, aimlessly roaming around and just waiting to see if they got lucky. Thusly, nowadays the hidden people of the vast wood would remain overly cautious.
There was one person, though, who was unperturbed by all these happenings. A young man who was sitting alone with crossed legs in front of a large fire. The big blaze could cause a forest fire, or much worse, attract attention. He seemed to be just asking for trouble.
'Damn, why am I always the one being put on these so called important missions?' His thoughts wandered to a week back.
"Xiao Lang Li, it seems as if we have another mission for you."
Xiao Lang could have sworn that the woman behind the Japanese fan was smiling, in the mysterious way that she usually reserved for him. "We want you to go to Cito, we want you to spy for us," she said softly.
The boy knew that he would be definitely getting another spying job, but he still couldn't resist growling under his breath and saying a little louder than necessary, "Again."
"Yes, again." The woman lowered her fan and he could clearly see her smile. "Why? Are you surprised?" She said innocently. "You are after all the best spy we have."
"Mother," the boy said in an irritated voice. "Aren't I also the best warrior you have?"
"So, so," said the woman as if she hadn't heard, leaning back comfortably in her chair while her son stood in front of her in the otherwise empty room. "How's Meiling doing?"
"Well, she's doing fine, but she's still terrible at swords. I don't know why the Elders even want me to bother."
"But a little bird told me yesterday that she almost beat you at hand-to-hand combat."
The boy, who was looking at a portrait in the big room lit by many candles around it, suddenly looked back. "Almost," he said defensively.
"Yamazaki will give you the letter with the instructions." The woman had been looking at her chairs finding the silver filigree work very interesting, she had clearly given the order to leave but when she looked up she saw her son still staring at her. "Please Xiao Lang," she said, her eternal smile faltering a bit. "Do not make us throw you out so that you go."
Returning to the present because of a growl from his stomach, he took a rotten apple out of his sack. He didn't even bother missing the bad parts as he ate quietly. The Elders didn't even bother to give him proper supplies in their hurry to get him out of the village. "Not even a bow and arrows," he grumbled. "At least I could've shot something to eat. Not even money," he sighed. The young warrior put his hand in his pocket and shook it. Out came the faintest jingling noise. 'Only two gold coins, only two gold coins to get all the way from the depths of the forest to the capital, two hundred miles away.'
"At least I get to do this alone." The words were true because without as much as an explanation, he was simply told to go unaccompanied, much to his delight because usually he'd get paired up with some amateur that he'd have to be constantly pulling out of trouble.
All of a sudden Syaoran heard horses hooves and rustling and snapping of branches, not to mention some colorful swearing. "Damn it, you let them escape."
"Watch your tongue Suto," a loud voice said. "You didn't manage to catch the running one. I am going to do you in, you dog, if you let that tongue wag again. When we get to that bloody traders camp..." The rest ended in some more swearing.
Syaoran looked at the blazing fire in front of him and he suddenly realized that the slave traders thought of him as a trading party because of the single roaring fire. Slave villages had countless and aimless wanderers had none. He waited patiently while the men got closer. Finally one then another broke out through the foliage into the small clearing. They halted because of their surprise upon seeing a man that obviously didn't look like a trader. One opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when another man came riding bareback and almost crashed into the previous two.
They looked bewilderedly at the boy in front of them, then, finally getting it into their heads that he was not one of them, they slowly circled around him until he was surrounded. More and more arrived all glancing at him as they wordlessly joined the circle. Someone, a fat man whose horse was obviously staggering under his weight, openly guffawed at him.
"Look Suto, it seems as if we have found one to make up for your mistake." He said, pointing to Syaoran.
"Mikage, you idiot I did not let them go."
"Well, your men are a bunch of useless ninny's."
"My men caught more than yours, yours let me remind you, were the ones that let them escape!"
"Watch your mouth, I have more men than you over here!" The fat man, Mikage shouted.
"But mine are stronger." Suto took out his sword and pointed it at the other one's nose. Suddenly everyone was tense, and in the silence that followed a lone, cold voice spoke up.
"Are you done yet?"
The slave traders stared at the boy for a full minute. Sometime during their bickering he had discarded his faded mould green cloak. They saw that he was wearing frayed brown clothes inside. He now was standing in a strange fighting stance. Both his fists were clenched and his right hand was in front of his face while his other fist was raised up over his head. He was leaning forward slightly as if ready to charge, and indeed he was.
Somewhere a cricket chirped. And the fat man laughed.
"Look Mikage," he said nodding towards the boy. "The scrawny thing is going to fight us."
The boy's eyes narrowed. 'Scrawny?' he thought, 'he looked scrawny, did he?'
The man named Suto removed his sword from the other trading party leaders nose and instead pointed it to another man. "You, take care of him, but don't hurt him he looks like a good worker."
The man whom he was pointing to got off his horse and came forward. "Cool down kid, if you don't squirm too much I won't tie you too tightly."
Syaoran didn't answer. The man caught a rope that was thrown to him from one of the men and unwound it, holding it loosely in his hands. He approached him at a relaxed pace, and held the rope ready as he came closer.
The men in the camp didn't even know what happened, because one second the man was menacingly towering above the crouching boy and the next second he was lying on his back, while the boy was towering above him with the rope that had somehow managed to get into his hands.
"Aargh!" the man growled and got up again. "Want to play tough, do you?" He snickered and drew out his sword.
Syaoran raised an eyebrow as he stood up straight and clasped something around his neck. The slave trader's blade glinted evilly in the firelight, but Syaoran snickered, it looked flimsy and easily breakable in front on the one other sword that he knew.
The man didn't realize that the boy was scorning him; he merely held his blade up and began advancing. He came forward slowly at first but when he was still a few feet away from the young warrior he suddenly charged, thrusting his sword at him. He was close and thought that he was going so fast that the boy would certainly get it. He pushed forward, bringing his sword down- and missed.
He looked up to see that the boy had moved to one side completely missing the blow. Enraged he came forward again. Jabbing, thrusting, shoving his sword from side to side, he tried to drive the sword inside Syaoran.
Finally the man got tired of all the sword swinging on his part and came to a stop. The boy was silent, just as he had been through the whole fight and it annoyed the trader. But what annoyed him even more was that he was still in one piece, his sword having not even touched his clothes. How the boy was able to dodge him so fast was a mystery.
"Sir... help?" Came the weak voice of Syaoran's contender.
The trader named Mikage nodded towards his men and they all got off their horses, each drawing a short sword from their scabbards.
Syaoran straightened himself as the dozen or so men began advancing and clutched his pendant harder, now the real fight had begun.
Exp.: That man back there wasn't barebacked, his horse was; i.e. no saddle.
A/N: I have no idea when the next chapter will come out. Anyway, you'd better review or the next ch. will look like this, ",,,, ,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, , ,,,,,." Yes, this is a threat, and most definitely yes, I LOVE COMMAS. Yes, I am weird... .
Also there will be a lot of parts, Part one, two, three and not in order. Eg.
'2. Capture and Escape: Part one Followed Syaoran' after that
'3. The kings court Which follows Sakura' then
'4. Capture and Escape: Part two' etc. Do you get the idea?
And I know that many people may not have time but pls. Review?