Chapter 5
'wolf bait'
Touya was home when they returned to her cabin, washing his face at the pump in their yard. He stood and dragged a sleeve across his brow to mop up the extra moisture, then froze when he saw the entourage emerging from the forest. Though he'd surely been wondering what was the cause of the royal carriage by his house, he couldn't have ever expected this.
Then he saw her, in the grip of the king's soldier, and a heartrending flash of fear crossed his face.
"Sakura -" He'd only taken two steps when the captain interceded, holding up a hand.
"Watch yourself, peasant, and greet your king."
Touya hesitated, glancing back at her briefly before turning slightly to the king and bowing. "Your majesty. I've been so worried for my sister, I'm grateful to you for returning her to our home."
The king arched his eyebrows and threw a significant look at the captain, who spoke again. "This girl is in the custody of the king's guard, boy. She is a criminal, having assaulted the king, and her life is now forfeit."
Sakura cringed when her brother gaped at her, clearly not believing the captain's words, eyes begging for an explanation. And all she could do was shake her head and whisper the words "I'm sorry" while yet more tears spilled down her face.
"Put her over there," the king directed, and pointed to the water pump. "And tie her up good."
"Wh-what are you doing? Sakur-" Again Touya tried to move toward his sister and the captain placed a warning hand on his chest, keeping him back. "She's just a girl, you can't hurt her!"
"Do you presume to tell me what I can and cannot do?" the king asked irritably. "Don't test me with your impudence, boy."
She had only another moment to meet her brother's stricken gaze before the soldiers dragged her to the family's water pump. Someone pushed her roughly to the earth and bound her wrists to the old iron spout, with a thin twine that bit into her skin and hurt. The trees of the forest swam in her vision. Get away, she would have told Touya if she could, don't risk his anger by trying to save me. My life is over.
"Your majesty," he tried again, forced submission in his voice, "please. My sister is just a little girl, she meant no harm, she -"
"Take him inside," the king directed impatiently. "And better tie him up too, I don't like the way he's glaring at me."
A frantic but short scuffle behind her told Sakura that her brother had tried to resist, but he was no match for a pair of well-armed and well-trained soldiers. And in between her sobs, she could hear them dragging him away from her.
Everything was destroyed and it was all her fault.
"Pay the hunters and dismiss them," the king was saying, "I don't want too many men here – it will keep him away. I know how to shoot a wolf."
"Your majesty?" The captain looked at his king, baffled. "You think the wolf will come here?"
The king smiled at the shadows between the trees. "Oh, he will. I know this wolf, I know him as well as he knows me." His gaze meandered past the woods and back to Sakura, huddled against the old pump. "He'll come for his bitch."
Sakura's breath caught in her throat, and she hiccuped.
"Put yourself and your men out of sight, I will call for you if I need you."
The captain still looked bewildered, but did not question his king and retreated to where Sakura could no longer see. Only the king remained, and she pressed herself closer to the damp and rusted iron when he stepped closer. Kill the wolf, that's what he was going to do, and he was using her to do it. Fresh tears welled up.
"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.
"Because I want to finish what I started. Tonight, he will not escape me." His large and calloused hand stroked her hair, and she cringed. "…Thanks to you."
Trying so hard to control her sobs, she didn't realize it when he bent over. His hot breath on her ear made her jump.
"Utter a sound, and that boy dies."
Sakura's heart thudded in her chest; too terrified to even nod in obedience she only trembled. The king said nothing more, and moments later she could hear his heavy tread fading away as he crossed the courtyard. Even if she'd dared, she couldn't turn to see where he'd gone.
And then everything was very quiet.
The sun was almost to the trees.
- - - - - - - - -
Under the leafy canopy of the forest, the shadows were already deep. But the fading light was no concern to him, vision was not his sharpest sense. Again he lowered his nose to the earth and sniffed, inhaling her familiar scent. The girl had been this way, but she was not alone.
He set off again, anxious to hurry but held back by the minor wounds on his left flank. He'd spent some time licking them but not much, and now a throbbing pain in his leg prevented him from anything more than a fast trot. All around him the forest was silent and tense, no evening songbirds to herald the sunset or even rustling of the squirrels above. This was more than the silence that prevailed wherever a wolf walked in the woods, this quiet ran deeper and more ominous. It was the hush before a storm.
He followed the trail of her scent back along the familiar path to her den, which he had spent many a night prowling to mark it as his own territory. Nothing moved; it was silent and still as the woods. Easier to see, though, still bathed in the light of the setting sun, and directly before him was the girl. She was alone and not very far from the trees, crumpled forlornly to the ground and smelling strongly of fear. There was no sign of any other.
Cautiously he took a few steps out from his cover and she drew a sharp breath when she saw him. Her face was streaked and red, but a fresh terror flashed through her eyes at the sight of him and she stiffened. Her mouth opened, but then closed again without speaking.
The wolf hesitated. Something was not right. Again he sniffed the air, but the breeze had died and the lingering scents were muddled. She did not seem injured, but she had not moved to greet him. And she was afraid… very afraid.
- - - - - -
Not breathing, Sakura watched the wolf for what seemed an age. He hadn't quite stepped out into the open; terrified, she tried to warn him away with her eyes. She didn't dare speak, for fear of what they'd do to her brother, but even without saying a word she could tell the wolf was wary. His eyes darted everywhere about the cabin yard, watchful and suspicious, before he finally turned his attention somewhere past her shoulder. It must be the carriage he was looking at… did he understand? Would he go away?
Please, she begged silently, please go.
And, much to her surprise, he did just that. After a long moment of sniffing the air and glaring at the foreign contraption, he melted back into the underbrush and disappeared.
Sakura's heart lifted and she exhaled, but the relief stopped short when a branch cracked loudly in the evening stillness. Quickly she turned her head to the right, but she could see nothing among the trees.
Sakura's heart pounded, unnaturally loud against the quiet. The wolf was still here, she knew it just as well as she'd known he was watching her all those days. The wolf was here, somewhere, but where? Desperately wishing she could shout at him and warn him to go, Sakura searched the dark woods with her eyes and saw nothing. But if he was moving to the right, then he was moving toward the royal carriage.
Silence, again, but for her frantically beating heart. A solitary bird launched itself from a tree branch, and she jumped. Her breathing rasped painfully in her throat. Where had he gone, where was he?
A light scuff of sound from well behind her, to the left, was all she heard before a scream ripped the air. Her head whipped around so fast her neck hurt, and she just saw a blur of familiar brown disappear behind her cabin. At the same moment something whizzed through the air and an arrow struck the corner of the dwelling, just missing the wolf. The scream choked off and died in a sickening gurgle.
Leaning as far back from the pump as possible, Sakura craned her head around and decided the arrow must have come from within the carriage; that was where the king had chosen to hide himself. And now the wolf was behind her cabin, easy prey to another arrow if he emerged.
- - - - - -
Everyone in the cabin heard the anguished yell and predatory snarl, so close it could have been just on the other side of this wall behind Touya. His two guards snapped to attention and cried out the name of their comrade, and then the captain drew his sword.
"Stay here and watch him," he ordered his underling. "I'll check."
"Yes, sir."
The captain slipped noiselessly out the door, but the soldier was apparently disinclined to worry much about a peasant bound to the fireplace grate. Disobeying the order to watch him, the man hovered by the window and tried to see what was going on outside.
Which was just fine with Touya, who'd found a sharp point on the edge of the grate and was currently sawing his bonds across it as fast and discreetly as he could manage. Like the men guarding him, he had precious little idea what was going on. But he'd be damned if he let his sister face it alone.
- - - - - - -
Head tilted so far back she was watching the world upside down, Sakura saw the captain of the guard slip out of her cabin with sword drawn. Silently he edged towards the corner of the cabin, behind which must be the wolf. What would happen? The choice was to fight a swordsman or run into the king's waiting arrow, and neither spelled good chances for his survival. Sakura thought she must be ready to asphyxiate, it was so hard to breathe. Even the horses seemed to have picked up on the tension, and nervous hooves stamped the earth.
The captain disappeared behind the cabin, but there was no cry of attack, no wolfish snarl, or any sound at all. For a time that seemed to last forever Sakura waited and watched, until finally he emerged on the other side. If anything, he looked confused. There was no wolf.
Impossible. The wolf had to be there, she'd seen him leap behind the walls with her own two eyes. He must have killed that royal soldier, but where could he have gone?
A shrill neigh split the evening quiet and Sakura almost jumped out of her skin, so startled by the noise. The carriage horses had gone into a panic, rearing up, hooves slashing through the air, and for a moment the carriage rocked dangerously to one side.
"Your majesty!"
The captain sprinted towards the carriage and leapt upon the horses' yoke before the fastenings snapped and allowed them to gallop away with his king. Sakura just glimpsed a familiar flash of white canine teeth from beyond the animals' legs, and belatedly realized that the wolf must have fled her cabin immediately to come around behind the carriage through the trees. Now while the captain was occupied with the horses he dashed towards her, running so hard and fast that for a moment she was sure he would crash into her. Reflexively she tried to shield her face, but it wasn't necessary. The wolf passed so close he had to leap over her legs, lowering his muzzle to the earth upon descent. For one heartbeat their eyes met, his fierce glare melting with worry and fear, and then he was gone again.
But not before something dropped from his jaws and hit the dirt.
It all happened so fast she didn't even recognize it for what it was until he'd disappeared again into the woods. A knife, the same crested knife that the royal soldiers had been wearing on their belts, lay in the dust just out of reach. No doubt it had come from the slaughtered soldier behind their cabin. No time to marvel at his cleverness yet again; the captain had calmed the carriage horses and was anxiously inquiring the king if he was all right. Sakura shuffled her position and managed to push the knife close enough to the pump that she could lower her hands to the earth and reach it. She did not have much leverage, but the weapon was finely crafted and sharp. Soon the blade was slicing through rope fibers.
"You there," called the captain sharply, and she jumped. "What are you doing?"
One hand on the rump of a now-still carriage horse, the king's deputy was looking right at her and by his expression she could tell the dusk had not concealed her activity.
Faster, faster, cut faster. Frantically Sakura renewed her efforts, and he took a suspicious step forward.
Snap. The last of the twine broke apart and Sakura scrambled to her feet in a run.
"Stop her!" the king ordered, almost falling out of the carriage window in his urgency. "She cannot escape, she is my way to the wolf. Catch her!"
The words spurred Sakura's terror and she bolted for the trees, unconsciously running in the direction she'd seen the wolf go. The captain's heavy footsteps followed, going faster than she could run. Helplessly she heard them grow closer and louder and just when she'd passed the family's old root shed the inevitable happened. One strong hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back, throwing her roughly the earth. The impact was so severe she cried out in pain.
"Bitch," the captain swore, breathing heavily and glaring down at her from his height. "Haven't you caused your king enough trouble for the day? Lowly peasant."
Looking thoroughly fed up, he knelt to haul her to her feet and the wolf slammed into him, knocking the captain to the ground so hard his sword flew from his grip. A scream rang out through the evening, the doomed man instinctively throwing an arm across his throat to protect it from the wolf's savage bite.
- - - - -
"Captain!" his guard gasped, and the soldier tore out of the cabin with sword drawn at the ready. Frantically Touya doubled his efforts to cut through his bonds, arms aching. What the hell was going on out there?
Snarling, the wolf fought to get past his prey's arm and burrow into the vulnerable throat. Huddled on the ground and approaching mild stupefication after all that happened, Sakura watched man and beast struggle. In the near-complete darkness under the trees, she didn't see the captain's hand close over the only weapon he could find and then strike. He cracked the thick branch against the wolf's head just as canine teeth found his neck, and with a loud yelp the wolf fell aside.
Sakura shrieked. He was not dead but lying still, sprawled across the dirt, panting hard and whimpering like an injured puppy. The captain did not move; blood was all over his arm and neck and Sakura could not be sure if he breathed. A sound prompted her to look up, and she saw the other soldier burst out of her cabin.
He looked their way.
"We have to run," she gasped, and the wolf tried to stagger to his feet. Another low whine of pain told Sakura he'd never make it, and without thinking she threw herself at the wolf. Her arms encircled his chest, just behind his front legs, and she dragged him across the grass as fast as she could go. Urgency lent strength to her small body; she hardly felt the wolf's weight at all. There was only his terrible whine, and his labored breathing, and the man with a sword coming who would surely kill the wolf if given the chance. Desperate, Sakura did the only thing she could think of and dragged the wolf inside her family's roots shed.
"You! Stop right there!"
She slammed the old wooden door shut just in time, and barely managed to keep it that way when a hard weight threw itself against it. Lungs ready to explode, muscles aching, she dragged the old plow against the door and fell back against the dirt. She'd done it, she'd kept the soldier out…
And effectively trapped them both. This tiny shed held nothing but a few farm implements and some bags of potatoes, had no other exit but that door and not even a window. Too scared to think any further ahead, Sakura had dragged the wolf into his – and their – doom. Even if he was uninjured he could never escape the soldiers from this tiny enclosure.
Another bang on the door. The wolf tried again to get to his feet, looking a little dizzy and still panting hard. She could see his eyes in the moonlight streaming through gaps in the thatch roof, looking straight at her. Gold flecks within brown, the proudest and most beautiful eyes she'd ever seen.
Bang.
Sakura burst into tears. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry, he used me to find you and you tried to help me but I was stupid… I killed you. I've trapped us both and now they're going to kill us and it's all my fault I was so stupid…" The rest of her words were lost in a flood of tears, each sob ripping hot and hard from her chest. The wolf sensed her distress and moved closer, licking the salty tears off her cheeks and whining in a placating sort of way.
Bang.
Overwhelmed by her helplessness, Sakura embraced the wolf and wept into his fur. The wolf would soon die, because of her, and she didn't even know why. He had saved her, but she could not save him.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. The door sounded as though it might be giving a little, it wouldn't take them much longer. It would all end soon, but she was still glad to have met him. He was the most wonderful thing that ever happened in Sakura's life.
She dropped a light kiss on his fur.
Bang.
The sound seemed distant and unreal in Sakura's ears, as though the very air had suddenly stretched tight in the little shed. A rush of some peculiar feeling shot up her spine, and her skin prickled.
A thunderclap made her jump, heart beating a little faster. The evening sky had been clear just minutes earlier, she must be hearing things. Again she swallowed, but the unbearable prickling on her flesh would not go away. She rubbed her arms, then flinched and shut her eyes at the flash of gold light.
"What's happening?" she whimpered, bewildered and afraid, and reached for the comforting feel of her friend. An intense heat warned her hand away, though, so hot it brought fresh tears to her eyes. The light burned so brightly that she had to cover her eyes with her hands. Gold light and heat were everywhere, it seemed to Sakura that one of the stars must have fallen from the heavens above.
It seemed to go on forever.
When her closed eyes sensed the light had faded, she timidly opened them and had to blink several times before she could see anything at all. The purple splotches in her sight gradually faded, her night vision returned, and there was no star nor peculiar light or heat. Only her family's old root shed, with its weatherbeaten planks and sacks of produce and the gardening rake in the corner.
And the boy sitting mere breaths away from her.
Sakura blinked again, but he did not disappear. A brief gleam, like some last bit of gold light, outlined his features and then faded away. He was not a boy – young man, really – that Sakura had ever seen before, but something about his face seemed familiar to her. She was too stunned and baffled to say anything and he said nothing either, his heavy labored breathing the only sound.
He raised a hand, and stared at it. Fingers curled over his palm to create a fist, then uncurled, and with something akin to awe he touched his own face. A shuddering breath escaped him, and he closed his eyes.
"Wh-who are you?" Sakura whispered at last. He opened his eyes and looked at her, amazed disbelief still plain on his face, but did not speak. "Where is the wolf?"
"Wolf," he repeated, his lips moving slowly as if he had not spoken for a long time.
"Yes, the wolf! Where did he go?"
The mysterious boy did not seem inclined to answer. As if Sakura were something precious, he reached forward with tentative fingertips and stroked her cheek. She stiffened but did not push away, distracted by the look in his eyes. She had seen those eyes before, somewhere.
"I… can touch you," he breathed, as if the very idea was a miracle. She swallowed, and nodded. His fingers traced light lines over her cheek and across her lips, then drew away. Again he flexed an experimental fist. "My name… is Syaoran. I am- I was the wolf."
What?
Sakura's bewilderment only doubled at the enigmatic statement and automatically her eyes followed his fist when he lowered it. She only had a brief glimpse of bare chest before the boy – Syaoran – hastily slapped a hand over her eyes.
"No. No, don't look."
She squeaked in obedience, then dimly heard another bang at the door. He heard it too, and she could feel him stand.
"Just stay right there," he ordered, "and keep your eyes closed."
Heart thumping, Sakura did as he said. She heard him walk, a bit unsteadily, across the dirt floor, and heard the scraping noise when he dragged the plow away from the door. The soldier outside throwing his weight against it came tumbling through, and she cringed at the abrupt sound of fist against flesh. Something heavy crashed to the ground.
"No," he cautioned, when she turned around to see. "Not yet."
A few minutes passed, marked by odd scuffling sounds that she couldn't place. "Okay. You can look now."
She did so, just in time to see him shoving the unconscious body of the soldier back toward the wall. He'd dressed himself in the pants and outer shirt of his victim, and as she watched he buckled the belt about his waist. The sword he drew from its scabbard, and tried his grip on the hilt a few times before lowering the weapon.
"You have done more than you should," he said, before she could speak. "Please stay here, and you will be safe."
He moved to the open door of the shed and peered out into the darkness.
"But I don't understand," Sakura pleaded, feeling as though she might drown in her own confusion any moment. "How are you here? What will you do?"
"I'm going to take my kingdom back."
He slipped outside and into the night.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
Anybody sense a little action coming up? Cuz I sure do.