Once Upon A December
Okay....hey! I'm back again with ANOTHER chapter!! Sorry it took so long.....I LOST EVERY FILE ON MY COMPUTER!! So I'm having a hard time updating fast....so please be patient!!
I got a question last time, so I'm gonna answer it: Is Touya and her Father still alive? Were they evere there? Yes, they were there. The way Sakura is attached to her grandmere is the same way she's attached to her brother in the anime series. So, basically, Touya swamped places with her grandmere. Her father was there, and mentioned unlike Touya!! Just to comfim, both are dead now.
Big Thank yous to: SyaoranzCherryBlossom, Sakura Moon, garnette – lovegood, Yukimi the Ice Goddess.....you guys are the best for reviewing!! THANKYOU SO MUCH!!!
NOTE: Where "Sarah" sings the song, she is daydreaming all of her surroundings. Also, I made Sakura's middle name Emiko....to match her Grandmere's.
So, here's the next chapter...enjoy!!! Make sure to listen to "Once Upon A December" by Deanna Carter!!
Chapter 1: New Friends
....................................TEN YEARS LATER...........................................
"So...today's the day I turn 17," Sarah smiled. "And the day I get out of this orphan edge!! WOO HOO!!"
"Sarah shut up!," the head mistess called out. "Why can't you just leave already? All you've done is caused me trouble for the ten years you've been there! And, what right do you have to be happy? Your a poor, young girl going out into that world to make a living- for minium wage. Just get yourself over to that shoe factory already! Ungreatful little...."
Sarah rolled her eyes; she'd long sience learned to ignore when the Head Mistress Smazwith ranted. "I'm gonna miss this place, Head Mistress...."
"This old place? Look around, girl. See anything to miss?" Smazwith extender her arm in a gesture to look at the surroundings. The place was falling apart and packed full with homeless children. "Now, off with you. Take a left at the fork, it'll take ya to St. Petersburg. And don't get sidetracked with your Paris thing."
Sarah looked at her necklace. Forever with you in Paris. A small, key shaped pendant that she has ever sience she could remember. "I know my family's there. I just know it. And I'm gonna find them!," Sarah though the gates to the orphan edge, only to have them slammed behind her. Turing around she spoke once more to her ex- caregiver. "And I will find my family in Paris."
Smazwith sighed, looking at the young girl through the gates. " Do yourself a favour, Sarah. Get a job. When you finally grow up out of this Paris thing, you'll realize it's the right thing." With that she treacked back to the orphan edge.
{St.Petersburg}
"Did you hear?" "Still alive!" "How did she survive?" The whole town was in an uproar about the lastest announcment from the Dowage Empress; the only Royal who survived the 8 years of the Civil War, lead by a Clow who has mysteriously disappeared, but assumed to be dead.
"Eriol, ERIOL!! Come here, and take a look at this would ya? The answer to all our solutions!"
Eriol pushed through the crowds to see what the big deal was about. "What, Syaoran? What all this fuss about?"
"Urrrrrr, ERIOL!! Do you not hear things? The Dowerger Empress....she's announced that all these years the Grand Dutchess, Sakrua Kinomoto, has been missing when they rounded up to Kinomoto's, but was -is- still alive, here in Russia all these years!! She was the only member of the Kinomoto's to escape the siege ten years ago! And what's even better....there's a reward for anyone who can reunite Sakura with her grandmere! A whopping 50 million!! Do you know what this means?," Syaoran pulled in front of Eriol. "It means we don't have to live like this anymore! Making false travel papers....supplying people with forged passports...it'll be a one way ticket out – of- here! Syaron extended his arm out towrads the horizon, eyes looking just above his arm. "Now, all we need is a the girl to play the part!"
"So this is it. This is...the shoe....factory." Sarah's green eyes reflected disguest. It was an old building, falling apart even more than the oprhan edge. "There ain't no way I'm going there. It'll probably collapse on my head!!" Sarah glanced at the ten dollars she was given by the Head Mistress. "Think maybe...I could get a one way ticket to Paris with this?" She glanced with an evil smirk on her face towards the train station out in the distance. 'Paris here I come!!'
"Next!" Eriol called out, after crossing yet another name off their audition list. Why had half these girls come? Some of them aren't even the right age to be Sakura.
An 80 year old blonde, with a cigerette in her hand entered wearing a big fur coat. Upon dropping it, she was wearing lingere type clothing. "Grandma, it's me. Sakura," rang out her masculine voice. Syaroan's head dropped on the table.
"Sakura's a well brought up girl, not a he-she stripper!!," he mutterened, turning his head towards Eriol. Eriol smothered a laugh, looking back up at the woman.
"We'll...call you."
"Oh my God....45 dollars to get to Paris? And I'm probably already fired at the shoe factory..." Sarah mutterend to herself as she stood in line. "And, on top of that, I don't have the papers...!!"
"You wanna get to Paris, eh?," said the voice from behind her. Sarah spun around and looked down at an old lady. Bending down she whispered,
"Yeah, yeah I do. You know how to get me there?"
"Go over to the palace that burned down during that seige. A Syaoran's down over there...he can get ya hooked up with the papers so it looks like ya already paid. Though it's gonna cost ya. How much you looking at?"
"All I have is...ten dollars."
The old lady shrugged. "I've heard of people getting em' for less- sure you could bargin or something. Just..... you didn't hear any of this from me."
"Thank you- I mean, oh. Oh, right...I know nothing."
"Hello? Is anyone is here? Syaoran? Is there a Syaroan here??" Sarah stepped into the palace. Artifacts lay all over the place, discarded by people who'd come here to steal from the now- dead Kinomoto's. "Wow...." Sarah walked down the stairs into what seemed to be a ball room. Walking down the stairs she couldn't shake of the feeling of deja vu. "It's just like a dream...."
Sarah walked up to the middle of the ball room floor, bowing to a non-existaint figure. She spun herself around and laughed. "It'd be so much fun to be a princess! All the balls...and handsome princes..," giggling again, she spun herself back towards the staris and looked up. At the top of the stairs, a painting of the Kimomoto's lay unntouched. Sarah was jolted back after gazing into the eyes of an aged women, as if something triggered her memory. "A......song.....?," she breathed. "I remember a song I made up.....from long ago!" She began to walk up towards the painting as the song made it's way to her lips.
Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember,
And a song someone sings Once upon a December
{She began to twril herself along the dance floor, upon walking back down the stairs.It was almost as if people were actually there....}
Someone holds me safe and warm,
Horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
Across my memory,
{Sarah imagnes a dress for herself...}
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
Across my memory,
{She looked up at the staris and saw the Czar with his wife at the top of the stairs. A teenage boy from the painting with dark eyes smiled at her. The Czar approched Sarah, and began to dance with her...}
Far away, long ago
Things I yern to remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
{The Czar stops the dance and give Sarah a kiss on her forhead...}
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
"Hey! Hey you! What are you doing in here?"
Sarah looked up, snaping out of her day dream, at a dark haired man approaching her. Her green eyes widened in suprise as she began to run towards the stairs.
"Stop! Stop, who do you-" Syaroan cut himself off. "Oh my God....Eriol, do you see what I see?"
Sarah, frightned, backed up towards the painting that rested at the top of the stairs, right into a patch of light that hit her face and the face of Sakura Kinomoto. "What? See what? Look, I'm sorry are you-"
Eriol nodded in Sarah's direction. "A spinning image."
"Excuse me? A spinning image? Of who? Could someone please just tell me what's going on? This is freaking me out...."
Syaroan looked at Eriol and held up a hand, as if to silence him. Turning back towards he smiled. "What did you say your name was?"
Sarah arched an eyebrow. "Sarah. And I didn't say it."
"Sarah-"
"Sar-AH."
"So sorry, Sar-AH. Sarah who?"
"Look, are you Syaoran?"
"Depends who's looking for him."
"Look I just wanna get to Paris. And I don't have the money or papers to get there. My family could be there....I was orphaned and I can't remember my past, but I do know that I need to go to-"
"Eriol, did you hear that? An ORPHAN that can't remmeber her PAST and who happens to want to go to PARIS."
"Yes, I'm an ORPHAN with out a PAST who wants to go to PARIS. What's the big deal? I just have some clue that my family might be there..."
"I just happen to have three tickets to Paris. One for me, Eriol and the Grand Dutches. Sakura Kinomoto.
"She's....dead. Isn't she?"
"No no- her grandmother accounced this week that she lived though the war. And she wants to be reunited with her grand child really badly...."
Eriol cleared his throat. "Sarah, yes, I'm Eriol. Sorry to butt in, but- as anyone told you that well....you look like an older verison of Sakrua Kinomoto?"
"Huh?"
"Turn around," Eriol advised. "The young girl by the Czar and Dowager Empress. She was a Grand Dutchess."
Sarah looked at the young girl. Syaoran came up beside her. "Same green eyes. The Kinomoto eyes."
Eriol came up on the other side. " And the light brown hair- The Dowage Empress once had that color hair.
"Your face- like Touya's!" " Height- average just as the Czar!" "But, the beauty of Sakura's mother-"
"Okay, okay guys just stop it. I'm NO princess. Look at me- in these...rags!"
Syaroan shrugged. "Your an orphan who can't remember her past. And no one knows what happened to Sakura. And you have a hunch that your family lives in Paris? Well, so happens the Dowager Emperess lives there too!," Syaoran stratched the back of his neck. "I'm just saying....," he said, pulling Eriol away with him.
"You walked away too fast!," Eriol whispered as they began walking across the ball room.
"No I didn't. Wait for it.....3.....2.....1..."
"Wait- Syaoran? Eriol?"
Syaoran raised his eyebrows at Eriol. "Yes?," he asked turning around.
"Well, maybe I could come to Paris and like go see this Empress or whatever."
"Yes, yes. Go on." Syaoran said with a fake intrest.
"And it could just happen to be some big mistake, right? Understandable, right?"
"Yes, yes of course. So your saying...?"
"I could come with you to Paris and meet whoever and see if I am this Sakrua person?"
"Well, Eriol, what do you think?"
Eriol's bright azure eyes twinkled. "I would be delighted if Sarah – Sakura- could accompany us on this trip."
Syaoran ran up the staris towards Sarah. "Announcing her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess Sakura Emiko Kinomoto." He extended an arm out to Sarah, who took it as they walked down the stairs arm – in – arm.
