My Little Wolf
By SibylSofiana
Ah, finally the end. To be honest, we already had the end in mind even before we threshed out the chapters in-between. Writing is sometimes like that – you don't know what's going to happen next until the characters tell you. And boy, did they tell us!
Pinketernity, Angry Girl, LokiGirl, great to hear from you guys again!
Cherrysinger, we're so happy you liked it. Really.
Thanks minna-san! – Frosted BlossomZ, sakura.cherryblossom.kinomoto, Star Silver fox, sweet-captor, Kawaii Syaoran, feifiefofum, AmericanGirl1114 for giving those kind reviews in the past.
Chapter Fourteen
The Li
COMPLETE. Card Captor Sakura from the Li POV. All the Clow Cards have already been transformed to Sakura Cards and Syaoran is summoned home to Hong Kong to face the Council of Elders. Will Syaoran finally be able to prove his worthiness as The Li?
FLASHBACKLi Yelan was quietly feeding the baby in the nursery when the maid came in and hurriedly bowed.
"Mistress, the Elders request your presence in the Sun Room."
Yelan frowned. "Tell them I'm busy."
The Elders refused to be put off. But Yelan would not leave her chamber, so the Elders came into the room instead. Yelan had dark circles under her eyes, but she did not cry. She sat regally at the edge of the bed holding Xiao Lang while she gazed at them all in turn.
"What is it you want?" She said after a few moments, when they would not speak. " My son is The Li now. There is no need to present him with his father's sword as it has already been entrusted to me. And he is far too young to be wearing his Father's ceremonial robes."
"Is the boy the Li, I wonder?"
Yelan's hair whipped from her face as she stood in outrage, still clasping Xiao Lang. "Are you questioning his parentage, Aunt?!? Who made up that lie?"
"Hush, Li Yelan. There is no doubt he is Li Yun's son. One has only to look at him and the rest of your children." Yelan subsided and sat down once more, holding the boy close.
"But is he magical?" The Elder persisted, speaking for the rest. " He is but a baby, Li Yelan. The Clan cannot be led by a little boy whose power is uncertain."
"I will train him! Do you doubt me?" Yelan's voice suddenly grew soft.
"You are his mother – you will be soft..." the Elder suddenly backed up against the wall, and the others followed, pushed back by a unseen force, thrusting them outward.
"Watch well ..." and Yelan withdrew a talisman from around her neck with her right hand and it transformed into Li Yun's ceremonial sword. Elders agape, Yelan pointed the sword downward and it glowed from hilt to tip. And her aura flared around her and her son. At that moment she looked like an avenging angel.
"How – ?!?"
"I am the recognized Guardian for The Li, thus the sword obeys me. I have learned much from Li Yun, Aunt. So do not try me, nor my son."
She gazed at her beautiful son, who was looking back at her with unseeing eyes.
"I will train him well."
The whole Clan had been summoned to the Sun Room. All were quietly looking at Syaoran who stood in the middle of the room, facing the six Clan Elders. Syaoran was wearing the traditional Li colors, his face set and impassive as he was subjected to a Clan hearing.
"Where are the Clow cards, Li Xiao Lang?"
"They're Sakura cards now, Aunt Zhang." Xiao Lang calmly replied.
"What!" Li Zhang, the eldest matriarch of the Li clan and the voice of the Elders shrieked at him.
"The cards, as well as its guardians, Yue and Keroberos, have long chosen Sakura as their mistress." A collective gasp of outrage emerged from the Elders.
Xiao Lang could sense his sisters and Mei Ling at some point beyond the Elders. Behind him, his mother Yelan sat, a silent foundation of faith. Xiao Lang was grateful for their support. He turned his attention back to the Elders.
"And this," Li Zhang pointed at him, as she gazed contemptuously at Yelan, "this weak boy is the one you and your husband Yun said would be The Li to bring back power to the Clan."
The matriarch sneered as she looked back at Xiao Lang.
"Look at your son, Yelan. Look at how soft you made him. Now he falls in love with this Ying Fa with no lineage who now holds the Cards when it should have been ours."
Yelan bit back her reply. It was the Elders who did not want the Clow cards in the first place. But this was her son's fight, not hers. Besides, if she was reading it right, they would soon be taught a lesson. Unable to help it, the right corner of her mouth twitched upwards to form a tiny smirk.
But she was surprised as Peng Mai came forward to stand in front of Xiao Lang.
"Li Xiao Lang needs no Cards. He is The Li."
Li Zhang spat contemptously. "You have no right to speak, Li Peng Mai. You are no longer The Li's wife. You are not even an Elder. Were it not for Li Deng and your daughter, you would have no place here!"
A shocked silence filled the air. Xiao Lang looked at his Aunt Mai, who was shaking in suppressed emotions in front of him. He could also see Mei Ling being held back by Fan, tears streaming down her face.
"Long have I been the object of ridicule and pity in this family, Aunt Zhang. But no more! The Elders hold no more sway than I do – you are just throwbacks to days gone by, with no use than just to --"
A forceful slap stopped her midway, and another would have been forthcoming had Yelan not stopped Li Zhang's hand from striking.
"Stop this, Aunt Zhang. And raise no magic here!" looking at the other five Elders, who had started to stand up and raise their hands in incantation.
Li Zhang saw it and wanted to punish Yelan for her insolence, but before she could, a low, deep voice stopped her.
"How dare you."
The Elders visibly started. They'd heard that voice before.
Yun? Yelan knew it wasn't him, but she wondered. She looked down to see her son's back, sitting before in a relaxed manner, now tense and rigid, like a tiger about to spring on his prey.
Xiao Lang eyed the Elders, his body taut with suppressed anger.
"How dare you." His tawny eyes turned a shade darker as he let his gaze fall on Li Zhang.
His voice, which had been breaking for quite some time since he had reached puberty, now suddenly matured into a deep, even baritone. It only served to unnerve the Elders further, as they suddenly realized that the boy before them was no longer a boy, but a man. And the authority in that voice they heard was that of The Li.
Xiao Lang carefully unleashed his aura from his tight control, letting it roll in waves around the uncomfortable Elders. Even Li Zhang took a step back from him.
"What's the matter, Aunt?" His eyes narrowed. "I thought you wanted power."
Li Zhang made a valiant attempt to reclaim her authority.
"Stop this at once, Xiao Lang," she said sternly. "It would seem that your trip to that country has made you forget to respect your elders."
Xiao Lang reached around his neck to pull out the orb which hung on a silk string. He held it in his right palm and it released the Li ceremonial sword, the symbol of the Head of the Li clan. He stood up slowly and brought the sword at his aunt's throat. No one dared move from his or her spot.
"Since the age of three I have been trained by my family to know my place," he said evenly. "I am now fourteen, shall I teach you yours?"
His gaze swept across the face of every Elder.
"No one, not one of you," he paused to let it sink in, "will ever slander my mother's name again. Nor my Aunt Mai's."
A deathly silence filled the room as Xiao Lang eyed each of the Elders one by one. And they flinched. Yelan guided Peng Mai back down on the floor.
"As for Ying Fa, she earned the Cards on her own. She is under my protection. Anyone who attempts to hurt her will answer to me. " Xiao Lang allowed a small smile to grace his features.
"You may try, if you like. But I doubt you'll go far. You'll have to go through Yue and Keroberos first. And then me."
Xiao Lang's smile relaxed and broadened into a grin, supremely smug and content on having gorged fully on the Elders' obvious discomfiture.
"And then," his eyes twinkled in remembered pride, "you can face my Sakura and her full deck of magic cards."
0000
So deep was his amusement that all his female relatives stared at him in shock; his male relatives, in envy. Even Li Zhang blushed in spite of being mocked.
Why, you ask?
Would you believe me if I told you that the new Head of the Li clan has an amazing pair of dimples?
AN: Rabid Syaoran fangirls unite! KYAAAA!!! Let's finish the story first! Ahem!
Being a serious boy Li Xiao Lang seldom smiled. But nobody had seen him in Japan, in the company of a rather genki girl who made him smile. Thus, no one had been prepared to witness this miracle beforehand.
Due to the solemnity of the occasion, his sisters squirmed and struggled to remain in their seats. Their hands suddenly developed an itch and started twitching, and their eyes took on a dreamy look.
Guess what they were thinking.
0000
Li Zhang, who still had not completely recovered, partly because Xiao Lang's amber eyes were still trained on her, now admitted her defeat and resolved to reinstate herself in the good graces of the indisputable 'Li'.
It also probably helped that she quickly understood the ramifications of having the Card Mistress under the Clan's influence.
"I offer the Elders' apologies to The Li and his mother." At Xiao Lang's glare, she hastily added, "and to Li Peng Mai, for words spoken out of turn." Peng Mai acknowledged the apology stiffly.
Li Zhang cleared her throat and addressed the whole room.
"And let it be understood that no one will have the audacity to attack the future wife of The Li." She turned her eyes back towards him.
"You do intend to wed her, do you not, Li Xiao Lang?"
Now it was Xiao Lang's turn to blush and stammer.
In the back of the room, his numerous female cousins and sisters were mentally screaming at him, "so cute!!!"
"We didn't quite catch what you said, Li." Li Zhang was thoroughly enjoying getting even with the Li. Ah, young love, she thought.
"I-If Sakura a-agrees, I intend to..to.." Xiao Lang's face was now a record-breaking red of all reds. He sighed and gave up.
"Nonsense," Li Zhang interjected smoothly. "No one refuses The Li."
She was taken aback, however, to find Xiao Lang's amber orbs darkening again.
"You will not force her." His voice was firm and commanding.
Yelan chose this time to intercede.
"They are young yet, Aunt Zhang. Besides, I'm sure my son can convince her on his own."
Xiao Lang slumped his shoulders in defeat. He was certain that these blood level fluctuations weren't good for his health.
"Very well, Yelan," Li Zhang acquiesced. "We will leave it to Li." Li Zhang bowed to Xiao Lang and clapped once to signal the end of the meeting. The remaining Elders also bowed to Xiao Lang, as did his other relations.
He had just been acknowledged by the entire clan as The Li.
0000
"Mother?"Li Peng Mai had stood rooted to the spot. She had stood up to the Elders. She looked across the room to where her only child stood. And she raised her arms uncertainly.
Mei Ling sped quickly towards those outstretched arms, tears on her face, sobbing in the arms of the only mother she had in the world.
"Forgive me, Mei Ling."
Mei Ling lifted tear-filled eyes to her mother's face.
"I'm proud of you, Mother."
"So am I." Li Deng's deep voice came from behind Mei Ling. And Peng Mai turned to face her husband to find his eyes fixed on her in a way that made her feel breathless.
"So am I," he repeated as he gently enfolded his wife and daughter in his arms for the first time together.
0000
Syaoran was stunned.
He had just been acknowledged by the entire clan as The Li.
After a while, all the Elders and his relations stood up and left the room. When he saw that all had left he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Xiao Lang."
He remembered his mother sitting behind him.
"Mother." He turned uncertainly, then he lowered himself to sit in front of her.
Yelan brought her hands to his face, and rested her forehead against his.
"You made us all proud today."
Xiao Lang's eyes watered at her words. His own hands reached up to tentatively touch hers. Yelan leaned back to look at him.
"You need to go back to Tomoeda soon, you know."
Xiao Lang blinked in confusion.
"Mei Ling told me it took you so long to tell Ying Fa your feelings." Yelan's eyes gleamed in amusement.
"Mother!" Xiao Lang protested. While blushing, of course. For the nth time.
"You'd better go and make sure she doesn't miss you. My future daughter-in-law is simply too naive and pretty for her own good. She'll need you to take care of her."
Yelan's eyes softened a bit before quickly assuming a glare.
"And don't you dare embarrass me and come back empty-handed."
Xiao Lang's eyes widened, and before he could lose his courage, he reached across to hug Yelan, who returned his embrace. He held her tight against him and said, "Thank you, Mother." After a moment, he released her and grinning, headed for the door.
We've done it, Yun.
Yelan wistfully smiled as she looked at her son's retreating back.
You've grown up, my son. But you'll always be my Little Wolf...
NOT QUITE FIN...