Disclaimer: I do not own Card captor Sakura or any of its characters and places. It's all Clamps'. I just own the story I made up.
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It All Began With A Dream
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Chapter Thirteen: On a Journey...
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The next morning, Syaoran was woken up by ice-cold water poured on his face.
"Whoa…?"
He sat up straight on his bed and looked around himself to find the culprit, blinking rapidly.
Eriol was standing beside the bed, the bucket in his hands and smiling madly.
The wet boy stared at him blankly. He stretched his arms and raised a brow at the blue-haired boy.
"Eriol? What are you doing at Sa…?"
Suddenly, every event of the past day came rushing in his head, causing it to spin.
Sakura's kidnapping, his arrival at Eriol's, the revelation of his magic powers, the training, the fighting…and what then?
He looked around to see that he wasn't in his bed, nor was he in Sakura's cottage. The wooden walls were darker, the light-bulb on the ceiling was naked, instead of having a flowery pink frame, and there was a blackish door, built in a dark mahogany tree, instead of a light cherry tree. Also, it was small, and there was only one window.
It was still dark outside.
The amber eyes looked up to meet the sapphire ones.
"Don't you remember?" asked the sorcerer amused by the questioning glance he had received. "You were so tired and out of energy yesterday night after our battle that you passed out in the living room. Since we didn't want to bring you over to Sakura's we let you borrow this room. Since you're not used to this kind of intense training, your body drained all of you energy and your brain turned itself down."
"Oh. Okay…"
The boy in the bed yawned and scratched his head before throwing his slender but powerful legs over the bed to stand up. Meanwhile, Eriol had walked toward the door to leave the room and to let his friend put his clothes on, but he stopped a few steps before the exit and turned to look at him.
"Breakfast is ready. We'll be waiting for you downstairs…" And he disappeared by the door.
Syaoran finally stood up and almost fell back because of the pain caused by the bruises and the aches he had gotten from the training the day before.
Wincing, he took hold on the night table beside the bed to support himself and his hand touched the alarm-clock that was on it. It read:
5:15
'Wow… that sure is early' thought the chestnut-haired boy.
But the weird thing was that , even though he had only slept for a few hours, he was not tired anymore, as if his body was used to wake up around that time.
"I'll have to ask Eriol about that." He said aloud to nobody in particular.
But as soon as he saw what was waiting for him on the table, his reminder left his head.
It was covered by food, from pancakes to cereals, from bread to eggs and bacon, not forgetting the multicoloured jams, nor the fresh fruits juices.
The two lovebirds were already seated and waiting for him to take place.
"Amazing!" Syaoran said while pulling a chair. "You did all of that Tomoyo?"
"It was nothing, really" answered the girl, her cheeks picking a beautiful taint of pink "And Eriol helped me a lot."
"Don't be so modest Love," added the smirking blue-haired fiancé "All I did was following your instructions."
And he gave her a peck on her now red cheek.
Watching them, Syaoran felt a point of longing piercing through his heart and wondered if he would ever found himself doing that with Sakura.
'Whoa whoa whoa!' he shouted in his mind, shaking his head frantically to take the thoughts out, a faint blush colouring his face 'Where on earth were those thoughts coming from?'
He washed his thoughts aside and served himself a good portion of bacon and eggs, before digging in, while the other two were teasing each other lovingly.
At the end of the meal, almost the entire food had been eaten, mainly by the two magic users.
The amber-eyed one was surprise to see how much he was hungry, but it was pretty normal considering that he hadn't eaten since the morning before; in addition, he had had a tough training with the blue-haired boy.
While the raven-haired lady cleaned up the table and washed the dishes, the two guys went in the living room to discuss about a plan to rescue Sakura. They were so deep in their conversation that they did not see Tomoyo bringing them coffee, nor the sun rising.
At noon they had finished deciding what to do and Syaoran was ready to leave.
Earlier in the morning, the blue-haired wizard's fiancée had gone to town to rent a horse and brought back a magnificent stallion in good health and full of life.
She had also prepared some food for the boy to eat during his journey.
As for Eriol, he had lent his friend a magical backpack, that was bottomless and that would reduce the weight of whatever you'd put in.
He also gave him some of his clothes so he could change, and some magical instruments that would allow them to communicate.
Before Syaoran mounted his horse, he buried him under thousands of recommendations and reminders of their plan.
Finally, after the boy promised to be safe and assured the blue-haired guy that he would remember everything, he left in direction of the town.
After a few hours of riding and asking peasants if they had seen a man with red eyes, a scar, and a girl on a horse, he arrived in a small village on the edge of a river, and he decided to take a rest.
He dismounted his horse and tied him with a rope around a tree near the water, giving him enough of it so he could eat and drink.
As for him, he opened his backpack and took out two large sandwiches made by his raven-haired friend.
When he was finished, he took a sip of water from the river and decided to call the wizard to tell him how it was going so far.
He took some kind of a mirror with a magnificent and ancient looking border and handle, and stared at his reflection, before chanting a spell Eriol taught him back at the house, during their rescue planning.
Soon, his reflection became blurred then disappeared to let the blue-haired boys face take place.
"Hello? Syaoran-kun? Can you hear me?" Said the wizard's reflection to a slightly surprised amber-eyed boy; he didn't think it would work.
"Umm… Yes. Pretty well… Can you hear me?" he answered, rather hesitantly.
The face in the mirror smiled widely, showing a range of teeth.
"I receive you 5 / 5!" he laughed seeing his friend's confused face, before explaining "In distance communications, we use a system based on five unites. 1 / 5 means that I hear you very poorly, and 5 / 5 is that I hear and see you perfectly."
"Okay, I understand now."
"Where are you? Can you release your aura so I can locate you on a map?"
During their training, the day before, Eriol had taught Syaoran how to sense auras to locate someone, and how to hide his, so no one could find him.
The chestnut-haired boy did as he was told and soon, only visible to magical beings and few animals, a comforting green halo surrounded his body, almost making him glow.
"All right!" exclaimed the sorcerer, whose face had disappeared for a short moment while he was bending on a map, "I know where you are. It's near a small village called Heiomachi. The river running beside you is a small branch coming from the river here. My, my, you've travelled a long way. Are you sure you're on the right way?"
Syaoran grunted in response. He had asked every traveller he had met on his trip, and only few had stopped to answer, while the others had just turned away and continued their way, a scared expression on their face.
He even met a farmer who had collapsed on the ground, tears running down his cheeks, as he heard the rider describe the man he was looking for.
Suddenly, a weird sensation took over him. It was like an angel touched his heart, and he closed his eyes to try and locate where the feeling was coming from.
Rapidly, he found out that it wasn't an emotion that he had felt, but a powerful pinkish aura.
And he recognized it as Sakura's.
He quickly opened his eyes and saw that Eriol too had felt the Princess.
"Eriol? Did you feel it too?" he asked, unsure and shocked.
"Of course I did!" answered the magician hastily. "Now that I felt her, I can locate her." He looked at his map and in his eyes, excitement grew. "Syaoran! Can you see some sort of a tower nearby?"
"Not from here. There are too many trees. But wait, I'll climb."
A few seconds later, he was on top of a high pine, viewing what was around him.
Not so far, but far enough, stood a dark stone tower that rose high in the sky, ravens croaking around its top in an evil atmosphere.
The pink aura was coming from there!
Jumping on the ground, he grabbed the mirror, his breath short.
"I found her!" he said, excitement making his voice tremble. "I'm going right away! I'll contact you once there!"
The blue-haired wizard was excited as well, but seeing his friend in this state, he couldn't help but worry.
"Hey! Wait a moment. Don't rush. It might be a trap!"
But the amber-eyed boy had already shut the mirror and placed it back in his bag, before detaching the stallion and mounting on his back.
The animal had felt that something was happening, and he was full of energy. He burst out in canter and went on that pace in the direction of the tower.
Syaoran was standing on his stirrups, so he wouldn't slow the horse down.
A few persons on the border of the road watched them pass, wondering why he was in such a hurry.
The stallion slowed down only when the arrived at the tower. It was standing on a hill and the bricks it was built of were filthy.
A single but large dark wooden door was closed on its side.
Knowing that his horse wouldn't go far, the amber-eyed boy got down and let him wander around, eating grass.
He took out his sword and got his incantations ready for a battle, and advanced slowly towards the door, making less noise possible.
His back stuck on the wall and walking like a crab, he managed to arrive at the door and he placed a hand on the knob.
Syaoran turned it and he felt only little resistance, so he pushed the door slightly, making it squeak. He winced at every little sound, but finally, the space was enough for him to enter, and so he did.
What he didn't see was that there was some kind of a transparent shield, but he entered it like there was nothing.
It was very dark, except for a tiny light at the opposite of where he was standing.
Carefully, he made his way toward it, trying not to stumble on the boxes and stuff that were lying on the floor.
It looked like there was no living soul here. But Sakura's aura was still floating around the area.
The light was coming from a candle.
A shadowy silhouette was sitting beside it on the floor, its back toward Syaoran.
A sudden movement from the anxious amber-eyed boy made something fall on the dusty floor, and the noise caused the silhouette to turn its head.
The candle-light allowed to distinguish the Emerald of her eyed and the auburn of her hair.
Syaoran could recognize those shades anywhere.
"Sakura!" he shouted before running to her.
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(A.N: Here goes chapter 13! I'm extremely sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this update, but school has started, and it's quite hard after two months of vacation… I've got a pretty good idea for the next update, and I hope that you'll like it. Rominastar, you're right. Eriol is considered stronger in the anime and in the manga… But my story isn't the anime, nor it is the manga (too bad in a bad), so I made Syaoran stronger here (don't you like it like that?). Armageddonangel, thanks for your advice. You're right I should work on my transitions (Blushes) sorry if it was hard to follow the action. Egyptia, beware… (Suohfei sends a computer virus to Egyptia. Your computer shall self destruct in 5-4-3-2…1…---).
To thank you all for your wonderful reviews, I handle you all chocolate chips cookies (yay)
So, 'till next time, this has been me (Suohfei).)