Summary: Sakura and her family live in the Takarin, where it is dangerous after sunset. One night, after the disappearance of her friend, Sakura leaves to go on a journey to seek out the danger and destroy it once and for all, and she even gets some help along the way.
Disclaimer: I own CCS! Actually, I don't, Clamp does... But it would be cool if I did... Anyways, I do own this plot!
A/N: Hey, sorry I haven't updated in a while... been kinda busy exct... Anyways I hope you like the chapter, remember to submit a review when your done reading... (Grins evilly, I love reviews)
Previously
After they ate Toya and Sakura headed out again. Sakura looked forwards, but her heart looked back. She missed her father already, but she couldn't look back now, so looked off into the distance of the way they were to go. "Look forward and reflect back, while grasping the now," she thought to herself. A traveler had said it once. He had said that she should look forward and then she would be prepared for what lay ahead, but that she should reflect to the past as to not repeat the past's mistakes and remember the lessons that she had learned. He then said to remember the now, for she was moving in the present, she was not yet in the future and no longer going on in the past, she must learn the new lessons of the present.
Chapter 4: New Allay and Encounter With Magic
"Toya-kun, look a town!" Sakura shouted to her brother. They had been traveling for a week now and Sakura was excited to see a town. They could find an inn and get a good night's rest, real food and even perhaps a bath, and then there's always looking around the market place for anything interesting and for food for their journey.
"Yeah, so now all that's left is finding the local inn," Toya said. He didn't sound or look excited, but deep down he was, after all this was defiantly better than the uncivilized wilderness.
"Excuse me miss, are you looking for the inn. Just follow me and I'll lead you," said a boy to Sakura while kneeling down a kissing her hand. Sakura blushed at the boy's action, but Toya got angry.
"Leave my little sister alone you!" Toya screamed at the boy who in turn just looked up at Toya and smiled.
"I'm terribly sorry to offend you friend, I meant no harm to your sister," the boy responded. He was seventeen and had azure eyes and deep indigo hair.
Toya looked at the boy, he seemed like a nice boy. "It's alright, but don't do that again if you know what's good for you," he said hoping that the boy would heed his warning.
"Don't mind him, he's just a little bit over protective," Sakura said kindly. "By the way my name's Sakura Kinomoto and this is my brother Toya, pleased to meet you."
"I'm pleased to meet you too, my name's Eriol Hiragazawa," said the boy.
Sakura looked at him, she really liked his kindness, it rivaled that of Tomoyo's. Thinking of Tomoyo made Sakura sad, she now missed her home more than ever.
"Looking sad doesn't suit a happy face like yours. Come I'll take you to the inn, and perhaps I could cheer you up along the way and come to know what brought you two all the way out here," Eriol said with kindness written on his face and painted through his words.
Soon they were at the local inn and while Toya was getting them a room Sakura sat down to talk to Eriol. Soon she had told him all about their village, why no one went out at night, Tomoyo's kidnaping, their journey to find her and now her homesickness and wishing that Tomoyo were found. All the while Eriol listened to Sakura's story without interrupting and with thorough understanding of it all.
"Why, you seem to have quite the story don't you," he said when she had finished telling him her tale. "Here allow me to buy you a drink, you must be thirsty from telling me all that." And with that he went and returned shortly with a drink for her.
"Thank you for your kindness Hiragazawa-kun," Sakura said politely.
"You may call me by my first name, we don't need all the formalities here, after all, aren't we friends?"
She smiled upon hearing this, friends. He already considered her a friend and trusted her as one. Sakura supposed that she already trusted him as a friend too because she had told him her story and her feelings of missing home, and to top things off he didn't treat her different because she missed Tomoyo and was homesick, in fact his cheerful attitude seemed to make her feel happy. Just then Toya walked over.
"C'mon, time to go up to our room now kaiju," he muttered.
"I'M NOT A KAIJU!" Sakura screamed out loud startling both Eriol, the inn keeper and Toya. "Ohh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scream," she apologized. Everyone then, herself included, began to laugh at her outbreak.
"It's alright Sakura," Eriol said. "And now if you'll excuse me I'll have to be going for I've got business to attend to and besides I'm sure you have your own business to attend to also. But please let me know in advance before you leave." Then he walked away with those words for a parting. No, he wasn't going to say goodbye yet, for they all weren't truly parting yet, he would still see them later and until they left the village, which he figured wouldn't be until the next day at least.
Toya looked at his little sister. She looked really dirty from their days of travel. "I'm gonna take a nap, I had the guy that runs this place have someone prepare a bath for you, you need it."
"Yes, thank's Toya. I'll go and bathe now, I can't wait to wash all this dirt and grime out of my hair and out from under my fingernails and off my skin," she responded. She was happy to be able to finally take a bath. It felt like years since she had taken a decent bath when really it had been only a week.
Sakura sighed as she felt the warm water surround herself, it felt so good to her, after all her recent baths were in a cold stream and lasted barely two minutes. "Life is good," she muttered out loud to no one in particular other than herself. About a half hour later Sakura looked down at her bare skin and smiled, she had somehow managed to scrub all the dirt off of herself and she had even set out a clean outfit to put on after she finished her bath. She slowly stepped out of the tub of water and started to dry off with a towel and then slipped on her outfit. "Maybe onii-chan will let me go and buy a new outfit while we're here," she thought. "Then again we are tight on money and we'll probably have to put all that we have to getting food along the way. I wonder if we'll possibly have to stop coming to places like this and sleep outside the towns in the future."
"Hey kaiju, you almost done? Ya know that your skin's gonna get all pruney like if you stay in there for too long," Toya said to his sister, he got such satisfaction from teasing her, it was so fun.
"Yes I'm done," Sakura said while running towards Toya and staring up at him. "When did you get up from you nap?" she asked.
"About twenty seconds ago, why?"
"Oh never mind, I'm gonna go and take a nap now, all that traveling has wiped me out," she said while falling onto the bed and falling asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
"She looks so cute and innocent when she's asleep," he thought, but in all actually she was going through a rough time and Toya felt bad for her because of so. He carefully slid the covers of the bed out from under her and placed them over her body. "Sleep well Sakura-chan," he whispered, little did he know that in her sleep Sakura had heard him and slightly smiled in content at it.
Sakura slowly awoke to find the sun's setting rays shining on her face as she awoke. "Wow, I must have slept the day away," she thought. She looked over to the other bed to see if Toya was in it and too her surprise he wasn't. "Toya-kun!" she called out. She really hoped that he hadn't gone out and left her here alone, she wanted to see the shops and such too.
"Boo!" whispered Toya in Sakura's ear. He was standing behind her and laughed as his sister shrieked and spun around to face him.
"Oh my goodness, you really scared me Toya-kun," she said.
"Well I see that you're wide awake now, and you being scared was the whole point in doing it. What did you expect me to do, scare you for no reason at all?"
"You still didn't have to scare me. Why didn't you get me up earlier, I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep now and then I'll be tired all through tomorrow."
"Knowing you you'll get your sleep tonight anyways and be full of energy tomorrow. At least you'd better be full of energy tomorrow because after we get some more food we're leaving."
Sakura looked down. She really wanted to stay for longer and be with Eriol a bit more, he really intrigued her, let's just say she found him to be quite interesting and mysterious. "Alright, but may I at least have some time to look around the shops tomorrow even if I don't get to buy anything.
Toya looked over at his sister's pleading face. He really wanted her to be able to look around, but the sooner they left the better. He thoroughly thought about what his sister requested and finally came to the decision that if she got up early that she could look around and they could still make good timing. "Fine, if you get up earlier than usual you can get to look around for a tiny bit. But just remember, no buying anything, we'll need our money for later for buying food and supplies for during our journey. Something makes me feel that it isn't gonna be a short one." Little did Toya know that his words were true, their journey would be easy or short but instead hard and long and filled with action.
Sakura then lay her head down on the pillow. Even though she had just slept the day away she now felt like she could sleep more. She would have a long day ahead of her and need all of the energy and strength that she could get. "Goodnight Toya-kun, see ya in the morning. And remember that you promised to let me go shopping."
"Yeah I will, goodnight Sakura-chan," Toya whispered in return to his sister before he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Sakura watch as a ninja was running towards her. She was in some sort of battle. All of a sudden she felt herself go flying and the ninja coming to deliver the final blow to her. And then, she woke up. It had all been a nightmare. Beads of sweat rolled down Sakura's face and body. The sun was just rising. Perfect, thanks to her horrible nightmare she had woken up early. "There is no coincidence only necessity," she thought. It was a saying that Toya had once told her after she had called a peculiar series of events a coincidence. "Toya-kun, time to get up, I wanna get my shopping done," she said to her sleeping brother who then rolled over and got out of bed. Sakura walked over to a basin of cold water and began to wash her face with it, she then went over to her bag and pulled out a fresh outfit for the day. She had been planing on doing their laundry while they were in the village, but sadly she had slept through the daylight the day before and couldn't do it today because they were leaving, so she would have to do it later.
Sakura looked through the town shops with Toya and soon they had found some good food items to take with them for on their journey. While they were shopping they just so happened to pass by Eriol.
"Oh, good morning Eriol-kun," Sakura greeted her friend that she had met the day before.
"Good morning Sakura-chan, Toya-kun," Eriol greeted in reply while Toya just nodded his greeting. "What brings you to the market?"
"We're leaving today so Toya-kun and I are getting some food for our journey and I'm going to do a tiny bit of looking around for a bit afterwards," responded the cheery girl.
"Would you allow me to accompany you while you shop and perhaps even a bit on your journey?" the azure eyed boy asked them, more directly Toya.
"Fine," grumbled Toya. He didn't want this boy around his sister, but he trusted that he wouldn't try anything and that he was a good, kind and honest boy and may even be a bit of a help to them. "We'd be happy if you would accompany us on our journey."
Sakura looked at all the lovely things in the stores, so many of these things she hadn't even seen or heard of before. And guess what, they had jelly! Evidently one of the men had a visitor come and trade him tons of it! With a bit of convincing Sakura managed to get Toya to let her get three jars of jelly.
Eriol looked at Sakura's excitement as she wandered from place to place looking at all his village had, it was true that his village had more than some others but he had once been to a village that had tons more when he was little. Sakura reminded him of a child, she was so happy and excited over the smallest of things, just like the girl he'd met years ago at a smaller, poor village. But now wasn't the time to think about her, he hadn't seen her since that day, but he still felt that he loved her, he would never give up looking for her and maybe even one day... well he couldn't get his hopes up, after all he didn't even know the maiden's name less than the name of the village that he'd seen her in. The chances of them meeting and her not having a boyfriend and still remembering him were slim to none. "Oh well," he quietly sighed as he put the memory behind him.
Soon Sakura, Toya and Eriol had left the town and were headed out into the wilderness again. Eriol looked behind them, he could sense something following them. "I'll have to act now to catch him off guard," the boy thought to himself. "Well I hope the boy and his sister don't freak after seeing this... Magical forces come to my aid!" he said as a key he wore on a chain around his neck suddenly changed into a long staff. He held out the staff towards where he felt the presence and a long beam of light shot from it.
Sakura watched in amazement as her friend summoned a long staff of sorts and shot a flash of light behind them. In moment's a ninja fell from a large and bushy tree about ten feet behind them.
"Calm down now, you aren't dead, just stunned. Now tell me who sent you and where can I find him?" Eriol asked the ninja while walking over to him and standing above him. The ninja just smirked and sprang up and kicked Eriol back. "What the heck, that spell should have been strong enough to paralyze you for about an hour."
"Well sadly it didn't. I masked my full power from you Hiragazawa, I'm smarter than to let my enemy sense my full power," the ninja sneered.
"What the heck is going on!" Toya shouted. "The is no such thing as magic, no way no how!"
"Actually there is," Eriol matter-of-factly informed him. "You may as well get used to it too because now that you're away from you little village and out in the wilderness your going to see quite a lot of it, and besides you sister can use it too if she receives proper training."
"Prepare to die!" the ninja shouted as he ran towards Eriol while pulling out three kunai and throwing them at the him.
Eriol watched as the kunai came nearer and nearer to him, and a small smirk was to be seen on his face.
Toya stood in shock as he watched the boy fight the ninja. There was no such thing as magic, there was no such thing as magic, but then yet what was it that he just saw with his very eyes. "Perhaps it's time I start believing," he thought to himself.
Sakura screamed out as she saw the kunai nearing Eriol, everything was playing itself out in slow motion, she didn't wanna see Eriol get hurt, but yet he made no movement as if to dodge the kunai and gave no hints as if he were to do it.
A/N: So, how'd you like it? Is it good? Anyways you can tell me in a review, your suggestions, thoughts and ideas are always welcome.
Nanie-san: Happy New Year's All!!
Rising Angel: Yup! Happy 2005!
(Nanie-san and Rising Angel now begin to party!)