Okay, someone said the last chapter was confusing, so I reread it to figure out what was so confusing. And I think the only confusing part was the last little section. Now, I would like to point out…if it wasn't meant to be confusing it wouldn't be. And in case you didn't figure it out, Aramos and Maira were talking about Sakura and Tomoyo…the girls. I'd explain the rest of it…but that'd be giving away a lot and I like my mysterious tendencies…so here's chapter three!
Chapter 3
'That Jerk!' Tomoyo screamed to herself, kicking against the bed. 'How dare he?' She buried her face in the soft silk of the pillow and screamed aloud.
She sat up, feeling slightly better and took a fiftieth look around her cell. The warm colors on the walls and furniture still hadn't changed, and they looked as inviting as ever. Couches, tables, even fruit littered the room. Bright light, books and cloth to sew, a captive couldn't ask for better conditions. Tomoyo sighed heavily feeling both irritated and pleased at the same time. Unfortunately, the finery didn't just mean comfort. It also meant rescue was highly unlikely and escape didn't even register as a real possibility.
"Grrrrrr!" She threw the soft pillow, but it just made a small 'puff' sound as it hit the wall and then the floor. Tomoyo gave it her fiercest glare and humphed.
The key rattled in the lock, but she refused to give the door a first glance let alone a second one. A guard entered. "Follow me," he demanded.
Tomoyo shifted targets and gave the guard the full blast of her glare. "Not until you tell me where I am. I'm not going anywhere." She shoved her hands on her hips and looked at him saucily. There was a reason Touya hated to tell her to do things. 'And besides,' she thought. 'This looks like the palace's old architecture; someone will figure it out.'
The guard smiled, not a very reassuring expression, and grabbed her arm. "The master says you're to com and so you will." He gruffly yanked her to the door."
"No, no, no!" She wailed and clutched onto the frame.
And then the pressure on her arm was gone. The guard grabbled something and slid down to the floor. Two men stood before her, one bearing a very blunt object. Tomoyo didn't bother to ask who had just knocked out her guard; she knew a rescue when she saw one. It took only a few nods and a point for her to follow them down the hall.
They hurried in near silence as other guards in nearby halls ran about screaming in chaos. It gave an odd contrast to the silence Tomoyo and her rescuers walked in. Their words and noises made Tomoyo very glad they hadn't moved down those halls. A thick blue smoke crept into the hall and smelled sweetly of honeysuckle and burnt sugar. Something told Tomoyo that this smoke might have been the thing causing the chaos.
"Come on!" Syaoran pushed Tomoyo towards the wall. "We do not want to get caught by that." He started fiddling with the wall, smacking various places, pulling on different things. "Eriol, did Sakura tell you how to open this door?" Panic crept into his voice.
"What? You mean you don't know how to open the door? Who needs to learn responsibility now?"
"Oh shut up Eriol." Syaoran yelled, trying to think and Sakura's warning ringing in his ears. 'Avoid the blue smoke. If you go near enough to breath it in you will die.' He didn't fear the words or death, but the exact way she looked when she said it gave Syaoran the feeling that if he did she would haunt him through any world he traveled, even the afterworld. It was a look not to be denied. But he had yet to fail at any mission; he didn't even make tactical retreats. "Let's go!" They plunged head first into the blue vapor.
An ice cube melted on each vertebra as they passed through the barrier. Syaoran lead them through what looked and felt like fog, cerulean blue fog that slowly dissipated as they moved along. It gave way to an uncanny whiteness, but Syaoran's steps never slowed or faltered, giving no sign of worry. Eriol glanced around, searching for an end to their eerie surroundings. And Tomoyo, she clutched Eriol and practiced calming breaths, in through the nose, fill the belly, out through the mouth.
Suddenly Syaoran stopped and knelt down. His eyes widened as he felt the path right in from of him and hit nothing. Eriol paused, but Tomoyo, with her eyes closed and mind still on breathing, practically ran them over. Like dominos, all three fell into the void, through the swirling colors of turquoise, black, and cream.
Eternity passed and then FLUMP!
Snatching at her pink dress, Eriol hauled Tomoyo up before she even had a chance to open her eyes. "Don't look down." He commanded drilling the words into her.
But Tomoyo either couldn't hear him or couldn't help herself; she looked and screamed an ear splitting wail. Syaoran tried to catch her, but she threw herself over the edge and fell in slow motion. She flapped back and forth like a piece of fabric in the wind. Then both Syaoran and Eriol looked down at the path, the only thing that prevented them from falling perpetually, the bodies of Prince Sal's men. Sticky red blood pooled in the open mouths of a final cry and eyes devoid of any color at all gave testament to the horror of their deaths.
Eriol and Syaoran watched petrified as she fell several thousand feet into a waiting pair of arms. And then she disappeared and only the arms remained.
"We have to go after her!" Syaoran yelled pointing down to where the arms waited palm up as if beckoning them down.
Eriol couldn't hear a word but got the gist through his own panic and Syaoran's finger. He took one deep breath and jumped. The thousands of feet Tomoyo fell through passed in a flash, and the next thing he felt was the arms around his waist hauling him up. And then he too vanished.
Syaoran jumped, the goopy air parting and whizzing as he fell through eternity. He felt the arms slip right passed his body as if her were covered in thick oil. The end had finally come calling. The something struck his hand; the arms had reached farther down becoming more upper torso then floating arms and the world departed into black.
Sakura sucked in a raged breath, desperate to get oxygen in her lungs as one at a time Tomoyo, Eriol, and finally Syaoran all opened their eyes. With all the smoke they inhaled, she feared they might never wake and remain trapped in a nightmare far worse then death.
"Wha—what happened?" Eriol asked groggily, shaking the sleep from his face.
Tomoyo sat up and watched Sakura with those wide trusting eyes of hers, eyes she only ever fixed on Sakura. Guilt filled Sakura and she refused to let Tomoyo down ever again.
Syaoran on the other hand, closed his eyes after waking, sorting through reality and misconception. Of all the people to survive the blue mist, only he would truly understand the truth in it. Sakura didn't worry overly about him, Syaoran would keep her secret.
"The blue smoke that covered your escape has an hallucinogenic effect on people." She explained.
"You mean it wasn't real?" Tomoyo asked unaware that Syaoran and Eriol already had that little fact figured out.
For a moment Sakura didn't speak. The whiteness, distances, time, the blue smoke had distorted all perception of that. But Sal's soldiers that made the path and her arms, those remained the same. But could she tell Tomoyo that? "No Princess, only my arms catching you at the end." Sakura smiled gently. "Now, we'd best return you to your parents."
"But—" Tomoyo tried to speak again.
"Never you mind that." Sakura stood and glanced around the dark hall. "Let's see, your parents should be meeting with their advisors right about now and they could probably use some good news."
Syaoran shook his head trying to clear it of confusion. "Sakura! Sakura!"
Tomoyo poked her on the shoulder.
"Oh! That's me." She turned to face him.
"Yea, where are we? I can't see a damned thing," He said while thinking. 'Who forgets their own name?'
She put her hand on the wall, feeling the stone. "Right now we're somewhere between Prince Sal's private chambers and the front foyer. I can't pinpoint the exact position." Sakura knelt down and touched the stone floors. "We'll have to hold hands," She mumbled. "Or…"
"And we're headed where?" He spoke this time in a smoother tone.
"Careful here," she fumbled with a torch but managed to get it lighted. "We've got some steps coming up and they aren't very stable. The best place for us to exit these passages is in Princess Tomoyo's own quarters. No one will be there now." Her head disappeared from view. "Did I mention the stairs curve?"
It took fifteen minutes for everyone to make it safely down the twenty-three steps. Sakura spent much of that time running up and down helping the others. But then she knew this path as well as anyone knows their way around the bathroom in the dark.
They walked through the murky passageways in silence, except for the occasional stumble and curse. That is until Tomoyo spoke up. "Thank you for rescuing me."
Sakura immediately spun around. "Tomoyo," Her voice warbled. "How could I not come?" She rubbed away tears. "Now, come on, we're almost to your room."
Another ten steps and Sakura pushed on the stone wall. Tomoyo hurried into the light and twirled about giggling looking a little like she had too much wine at dinner. Her excitement shone as she moved about the room, unable to stay even the tiniest bit still. Syaoran leaned nonchalantly against the wall soaking in the atmosphere of relative safety. Eriol walked farther in admiring the furniture and other expensive items as if remembering. And Sakura, well she stood at a shelf randomly fingering various cheep trinkets: a ribbon, a porcelain dolls, a bouquet of dried daisies.
"Let's go Sakura! Come on!" Tomoyo grabbed the other girl's hand and jerked her towards the door. "We have to tell mother and father. They'll have to believe me now!" She dashed down the corridor, Sakura flapping around her like a well loved doll. Farther behind Eriol and Syaoran tried to catch up.
Tomoyo didn't release Sakura's arm until she collided head first with one of the butlers. The servant bowed and backed away muttering a vague apology. And Tomoyo charged forward throwing open the doors to the council room and skipping in. Silence greeted her as she practically ran through the Council Members to her parents. Never had that aisle looked so short. Her father caught her in an easy hug and without hesitation kissed her.
"Oh my little flower, we worried so much!" He whispered while kissing her hair right in front of the stiff and rather emotionless nobles.
"Ahem," one of the older men stepped forward, his beard almost scrapping the floor. "We will continue this conference later then?" He phrased it as a suggestion, but it sounded more like a command.
The King nodded a little more concerned with his daughter then the matter at hand. And the other Members wisely left giving the royal family time alone.
"Where were you? Who took you? Who rescued you?" The questions followed one after another.
"'Who rescued me?'" Tomoyo let out a giggle. "Why—" She turned and gestured. "S—" her voice dropped. "Why these fine men of course!"
Both Eriol and Syaoran noticed the drop in enthusiasm and glanced at each other, but they didn't say anything. By the looks of things it wasn't something Tomoyo wanted to bring up without Sakura. If Eriol had to guess, he would have said the girl in the wall rumors had some truth. Syaoran would have taken them for almost fact.
"Captain Aramos, how much do we owe these good men?" The King naively asked and the captain of the guard melted out of the shadows.
Aramos looked both awes and slightly taken aback, after all he didn't hire anyone. "Well, umm, you see sire—"
"We've already been paid." Eriol piped up. "It was an in-advance deal so you don't have to stress over it. We're just glad to help you find the Princess." He bowed, winked at Syaoran, and raised his eyebrows at Aramos.
"Just doing our job." Syaoran bowed as well and used the movement to scan the room. Sakura had truly disappeared and had done so with the skills of an expert even he couldn't rival. "Captain Aramos, perhaps we could brief you on the situation?"
He nodded stiffly. "Let's step into the hall, with of course, the leave of your majesties." The King nodded absently and the queen gave a genteel smile, both still fawning over their daughter. "This way gentlemen."
They stepped into the hall. "Okay boys, what happened?"
Syaoran smiled and pulled Aramos pit of earshot of the servants, closer to the wall. "A trade of information. What can you tell us about a girl called Sakura?"
Another chapter completed! Yea!...hey, did you guys know, that a romance fic gets more reviews then an action one? Well, I just learned that...kinda funny considering I think this one is like waaaaaaay better written and has a more interesting plot line then my other fic Touche. Mind you,I think Touche was well done too, I just happen to think this one is better. Maybe it's an author thing. Anyway, RR!