Oh man, band camp is this week, school starts in like 3 weeks. I'm so not gonna have time to update. Lol. Sorries. But this may be the last chapter in a looooong while. :(
-.-.-.-.-.-
A portal started to open in the middle of the Li lands. It began to grow until it was large enough for a human to step through. As Sakura did just that, she found herself in the middle of a forest. As the portal closed up, she took a good look at her clothes. She was wearing pink clothing for sure. It started out from her shoulders down to her waist like a dress, but instead of fanning or something at the bottom, there were huge slits so that the kimono-like clothing broke off in the front and in the back. She was wearing large white pants. (A/N: I'm really bad at describing but it's pretty much like a pink version of Syaoran's clothes in the beginning of the series...?) Sakura noticed that she had a sword attached to the belt around her.
'Not bad, I suppose,' She thought. 'Now where do I go?'
Sakura wandered around the trees until she found an opening. There was a river flowing through the clearing so she followed the peaceful stream until she was out. The river continued but Sakura could not see where it ended. Instead, she saw that an enormous, massive castle was above where it looked like it ended. Her eyes widened at the sight of the castle and she gasped. The sight of it took her breath away.
It was pearly white...the whole thing excluding a few golden touches. As she neared it, she saw the many fountains around it, all spraying water. The entrance had two guards in front of both doors, Sakura noted as she walked up slowly to them.
"State your business," demanded one of the guards.
"Oh, um...I'm Kinomoto Sakura and I'm from America. I was sent here to help your kingdom through the war," Sakura answered as she bowed.
The guards looked at one another. Then the first one turned to Sakura and said, "We'll see what Mrs. Li-sama has to say about this. You may enter."
"Thank you," Sakura nervously said as she edged through the door that the guard just opened. She saw two thrones ahead of her: for the king and queen, she assumed. However, only the queen was present. Sakura bowed deeply and looked up at the queen. She eyed her suspiciously. The second guard also came in and he spoke up to the queen.
"Li Yelan," he bowed, "This is Kinomoto Sakura. She is from America, here to help with the war that has been going on."
"What proof does she have?"
'Oh, crap! Why didn't Clow-san tell me about this? Did he even know? Gr...' Sakura noticed two pockets on either side of her outfit and she dug through them. Perhaps Clow gave her something when she transported here. Luckily, she pulled out American bills. 'I hope this is enough of a proof...' She thought as she walked up to the queen and handed the money to her. As the queen studied it, Sakura bit her lip in silence.
"Hmmmm...definitely not counterfeit. Well, for now, this is proof enough. You!" the queen said and she turned to the general direction of a maid that happened to be walking by. "Give this young lady one of the guest rooms, please. And if you are not anyone's personal maid, be hers."
"Yes, ma'am," the maid said, startled at first. She took Sakura and led her up a winding stone staircase. The maid had long obsidian hair. She turned to Sakura, her amethyst eyes fixed on her emerald ones. "I'm Daidouji Tomoyo. And you?"
"Kinomoto Sakura. I'm...from America. To help with the war and all," Sakura replied.
"Oh, how very nice of America to send a warrior...but women are allowed to fight there?" Tomoyo asked.
"Y-yes."
"Are you good at fighting?"
"Well..." Sakura started, not knowing how to say she was without bragging. To her surprise, Tomoyo laughed. "Modest one, aren't ya?"
Sakura chortled along with her. "I suppose so."
"Well, here it is," Tomoyo said as she opened one of the doors in the corridor. Sakura was caught spellbound. Her eyes darted all over the room. It had pale pink walls and a bed colored a darker shade of pink. The room was HUGE. Sakura gaped around the room in awe. Tomoyo giggled, which surprised Sakura, who had forgotten Tomoyo was there. Then Sakura's eyes rested on her sword. 'I should train...'
"Daidouji-chan, is there a room for training or something as well?" Sakura asked.
"Call me Tomoyo. Daidouji-chan sounds too weird. And yes, there is. But you can't enter unless the prince permits you to. He usually trains with the other men in this castle. The only real match he is getting though is his cousin Hiiragizawa Eriol," Tomoyo said. Sakura thought that her cheeks were a bit pinker than usual, but ignored it. "It's because Prince Li Syaoran is really, really good...obviously."
"Oh...I want to train but he'll let me, right?" Sakura inquired. She added, "Call me Sakura too by the way."
"Um, I'm not too sure about that. The prince is...well, not someone you would want to be around with for a long time unless you were close friends or something. Of course he may look charming to most women but he's so cold and uncaring and mean and...all those traits most people wouldn't like," Tomoyo responded.
"Aww, I really want to train though. I'll ask him anyways. Um...where will I find him?"
"Actually, he may be training right now. I'll take you to there if you'd like," Tomoyo said. "Would you like to?"
Sakura nodded vigorously. "Mmhmm, please do so!"
-.-.-.-.-.-
Sakura studied the palace as Tomoyo led her through corridor after staircase after corridor after staircase. 'It's so beautiful,' she thought as Tomoyo and she walked down a corridor with embroideries all over the walls. 'I'm really glad I took this job.'
As they neared a metal door, swords clanking together could be heard. 'This is it!' Sakura thought excitedly as they neared the door. Tomoyo stopped right in front of the door so suddenly that Sakura crashed into her. "Itai..."
"Oh, sorry, Sakura! I should have warned you. But...now that we're here, I don't really want to go inside..." Tomoyo muttered. Sakura looked at her questionably. "Why?"
"B-because the prince will probably just yell at me."
Sakura sighed. 'Is he really that bad?' Mustering up the courage, she knocked on the door. She heard the swords stop clanking against each other and a voice that demanded, "Can you open it, Eriol?"
"Um...Sakura, can I leave you now?" Tomoyo asked, shyly.
"Wait, why? I can't talk to them myself...it'll be really awkward," Sakura said.
"But—" Tomoyo was interrupted when the door opened. A man with navy hair and sapphire blue eyes looked down at them...well since he was taller. "Oh, hello, Tomoyo. Who's this?"
Tomoyo grabbed onto Sakura's hand just then. "U-uh, sh-she's from America. She came to help w-with the war and all. But um...she wants to tr-train. Y-you wouldn't mind would you?"
Sakura stared at Tomoyo's hand in her own. Why was it so sweaty? Then she looked up, realizing she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Kinomoto Sakura. Um...I suppose you could call me Sakura." The man smiled and said, "I'm Hiiragizawa Eriol. And you'll have to call me Eriol then."
From behind, Sakura heard an impatient voice calling out. "Eriol, who is it? If it's no one of importance please just close the door at once and continue with training!" Sakura winced at the tone of his voice. Was that the Prince?
"Hold on, Syaoran," Eriol said. He beckoned Sakura to come inside. Tomoyo immediately let go of Sakura's hands and was about to walk away when Eriol grabbed her hand. "No, you can stay if you'd like."
Tomoyo timidly nodded and followed Sakura in. "Eriol...why'd you bring two maids in here for?" Sakura looked up at the speaker to find amber eyes glaring at them. His unruly chestnut hair almost covered his eyes. 'Maid? I'm no maid...' Eriol sighed exasperatedly.
"Tomoyo is a maid, yes. But Kinomoto Sakura isn't." The prince raised an eyebrow. Eriol continued. "She's from America, one of our allies. She was sent to help us with the war." The prince only scoffed. "We don't need help."
Eriol rolled his eyes. "Syaoran, they're only being kind to send at least one person over." The amber-eyed prince crossed his arms. "Go on...why did you let them in?"
"Kinomoto wants to train," Eriol simply said. He turned back to Sakura. "This is Li Syaoran by the way. Obviously, the prince."
"Girls don't train," Li said. "They're too weak." Sakura's anger built up at these words. 'So what if I'm a freaking girl! It doesn't stop me from doing anything! Grrrr...'
"Why don't you—" Eriol started but was cut off by Prince Li. "No. They can leave now. I really want to continue."
Tomoyo bit her lip nervously as she watched Sakura fume. Sakura angrily turned tail and stomped out of the room. Tomoyo quickly curtsied and followed her after muttering, "Bye, Eriol-san."
-.-.-.-.-.-
"Arghhh! Who is he to say that girls can't train? Has he ever even seen a girl fight? They're not so bad after a lot of practicing!" Sakura complained to herself. Tomoyo sweatdropped. "Women don't fight here so I'm not too surprised he thinks that." Sakura shot Tomoyo a look that clearly meant 'I-thought-you-were-on-my-side!'
Tomoyo giggled at Sakura's expression and shook her shoulder calmly. "It's okay, Sakura. Stop worrying. We can get Eriol-san to convince him."
"Okay, Tomoyo...Will you talk to him then? Because I don't really even know him and you two seem to get along well. You're on first name basis."
Tomoyo fought down a blush and nodded. "Err—okay, I'll try. It's so amazing how different cousins can be though." Sakura laughed and nodded her head in agreement. Eriol was nice, gentleman-like, and very different from Li.
"Do you think I can train elsewhere meanwhile? Like in the forest?" Sakura asked. Tomoyo shrugged. "It's all the Li property. But for the forest, you can ask the queen. The prince doesn't exactly rule the forest yet."
-.-.-.-.-.-
"What is this you ask of me?" The queen's voice inquired.
"I wish to train somewhere...perhaps in the forest?" Sakura asked. Queen Yelan thought upon this and shrugged indifferently. "There is an ancient place where my Grandfather used to train. It is no longer in use now. Feel free to train there. But it's secret."
"H-hai. Um...where is this secret place?" Sakura timidly asked.
"Because no one, but I, know, there is no other choice but for me to show you." The queen proceeded to stand up from her throne. "Come, Kinomoto."
-.-.-.-.-.-
"Maybe I should have showed Syaoran, my son, this place. That way, I could just tell him to lead the way instead of me, myself," the queen was saying. Sakura scoffed lightly, then realized that she was too late to hide it. To her surprise, Queen Yelan chuckled. "Met him, have you?"
"Err, yeah. I guess you could call it meeting him," Sakura said rather bitterly. But Queen Yelan only looked more amused.
"Yes, alas, he strikes you first as the cold, unloving, yet attractive prince. As he does to all," She said, clearly trying not to smile. Sakura crossed her arms together and looked at the queen with a raised eyebrow. "Cold, unloving maybe...but I don't think he's as attractive as his fans verbally bring him up to be."
"You are truly one of a kind, Kinomoto." Sakura half scoffed, half smiled, and found her kimono fabric shoes the most interesting object at the moment. Queen Yelan suddenly stopped and Sakura looked up. She saw many short wooden poles in a fairly small square feet in front of her. 'Of course...the original "Chinese" way to train, I suppose.'
"Thank you, Li-sama." Sakura bowed deeply and took out the sword that appeared when she first arrived at this dimension. It would be fun to experiment with this sword. She stared gratefully at the queen's retreating figure, happy she would be alone for a few hours.
-.-.-.-.-.-
That's so it. I just wanted to finish at least one last chapter before school started. But hey, at least Syaoran appeared. So to be nice, review. XP
