Dreams of the maiden

I don't own CCS…you know the drill

The somber sounds of some odd stringed instrument quietly awakened Tomoyo from a deep slumber upon the spacious silk cushion she lay on, the cool skill of the melody playing like some stellar rain against the back of her dove-flesh neck, passing through her throat and seeming to rise like a mist from her calm, serene lips.

Her painted eyelids slit like a waking dawn and revealed the treasure of her sapphire eyes, slowly peeling out from under her twin veils, both swathed in lavender and azure powders so masterfully it seemed to rise like a chalky, glittering breath from her supple skin.

Calmly, her ears seeming to follow the sound of her serenade and lift the lithe, petite girl behind them .She gazed at herself and tilted her head silently in puzzlement.

Across her sweet, curvatious figure hung a thin dress some beautiful, translucent material, the weave seeming to disappear against her vision and simply blur her form and tint it a vivid ultramarine, assisted graciously by the calm blue light that seemed to filter like seawater down to the bed of a deep, fresh lagoon when the moon was full and the stars in full figure.

She sat up properly and tucked her legs around her, revealing just how soothing the wondrous fabric truly was. It brought a grin to her face and caused her to swish the dress against her freshly shaven legs once more, to fully absorb the sensation and feel the water-smooth grip of the material, supported divinely by the vast, firmly stuffed pad of silk that seemed to roll on further then anything of such rich material looked like it should.

She closed her eyes, and sighed deeply, savoring the swirl of decadence that permeated this place…

The music that had faded as her attentions turned remerged in her ears, this time a song that replayed a note and then changed it to a higher trill, echoing against the first and bathing her ears with waves of corresponding, yet infinitely changing music.

Upturning her chin and reopening her orbs, she folded her hands which felt too clean and silky even by her standards, she peered down to them and grinned… her nails had been painted the same shade as the her bedding.

At last searching for the musician that so delightfully awakened her, her cheek was kissed by a softly billowing veil, hung across her bed.

She followed the material up and discovered that it was held up by nothing, just hovering stoically in the air, and no breeze graced it's vales across her features. Slightly unnerved she thought back to how she arrived on her bed, and acquired the mystical dress, and realized no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't. And still the phantom music played on out across the starlit land that was shrouded by the veil.

Hoisting her nightgown, as that was a more proficient name for it; she turned her bare feet, the toenails baring the same mystic varnish as her hands, and slid out over the bed, her toes finding purchase on a cool, flat surface and supported her meager weight as she cleared the canopy and gasped at her surroundings.

Instead of painted walls and a moon-facing window as she had guessed, she beheld a landscape so odd and impossible that she pulled her clasped hands to her face and felt around with her heel for the familiarity of her silken cushion.

Where physics, gravity, and even common sense dictated some floor should exist, was merely open azure air. Twisting walkways as thin as the young girl's stride, curled and bent like errant curves of a nautilus shell, could be seen all around. The long, unsupported stretches, seemingly gilded of gold, silver and a deep peacock blue that defied a label seemed to exist in an endless abyss of the constant marine light.

Among them were chains of silver which hung ancient ornate cages far too heavy for what they should safely be able to support, and islands of stone no bigger then a bedroom set with spires and high, vaulting arches. Her initial fear slightly taken aback by the shear abstract beauty of the place, Tomoyo cautiously gazed around, distracting herself from the fact that her soft dancer's feet were perched upon nothing but the omnipresent wash of soft blue light.

Her nerves beginning to fray, and the lack of rules of nature pressing down upon her, she cupped her hands around her lips and softly called out in her cool, bell-like voice…

"Is there anyone there?" she let her hands drop and was replied by another verse of sound from somewhere in the odd, endless void.

And for once since she had stepped off her bed, Tomoyo could make out the direction of the skillful music. Turning with legs barely willing to move, she faced towards the foot of the bed, and forced her eyes open as wide as they could go, even letting her jaw go agape as the mystical region around her revealed yet another mystery.

As if a ship passing through a bank of fog sewn into reality, a man who seemed to not long ago be a boy sifted through the soft blue light, bringing with him the melody that so haunted her mind.

With a demure look of quiet concentration upon his face, he continued to romance such calm and eloquent sounds from the long stringed instrument which sat across his folded legs, resembling some ancient Hindi piece, whose name was long and eluded Tomoyo's wonderstruck mind at the time, which bemused the girl so much it coaxed the ghosts of solitary tears to the corner of her bright sapphire eyes.

Seemingly for the first time, the boy looked up and noticed the gown clad girl, floating by a cushy cot of silk. Smiling sedately, he slowly ceased his playing and held his instrument straight up over the abyss that surrounded them. Letting his long, polished fingers release the perfectly crafted item and turned back to her, the stringed instrument seeming to dissolve back to where he had come from.

Rising on the miniscule pad that seated him and ended a twisting walkway that had not been there before, he stepped towards her, his flashing azure and black pants billowing around him, undeterred by the apparent lack of material around him on which to stand.

Tomoyo folded back against herself, half terrified and half stricken with an enthrallment so fast she was further frozen in place.

Now standing at arms length from her, the mercurial man gave a slight grin, his chiseled features and mythical attire reminding her of Sakura's guardian Yue and indeed, aside from the angelic wings and the flowing tunic (the being in front of her was pale as cream and shirtless) he did resemble the moon spirit on awful lot.

"Yu..Yue?" she meekly posed

The being widened his smile a hair's breadth and shook his head no, two thick swathes of silvery-blue hair swished out from behind his shins.

"Wha...who...are you?" She let her bashful nature show through, and he simply took another broad stride closer. Shivering slightly and with the being now standing so close the swell of her misty breath now folded back upon herself after brushing across his face.

"I" The simple word fell from his perfect lips and almost made those unborn tears which hung among her lashes fall and hotly break against her cheeks.

"Wish…" he grinned in the same demure way he had mere moments ago upon his otherworldly pad.

She blinked once and almost doubted for that momentous instant that he would reappear before her…

And yet he was, still grinning with some secret reason, and an unearthly air.

"Tomoyo…" he spoke again, like bells on a winter evening.

This time leaning in to almost brush her ear with his lips, he continued.

"Did you like the music?" A simple question. And she somehow found it in herself to reply.

"Yes, I…I did"

"Remember it Tomoyo" was all her said.

The next instant was not the harmonious voice of the being from the strange land, but the familiar sing-song one possessed by one of her maid's.

" Tomoyo-san? Tomoyo-san? It's time to get out!" she said, far too perky for eight o'clock.

"Yes, thank you Shika-san." She tried for her usual perk, and almost succeeded, as she was unusually distraught by the too real dream.

"Are you ready for your big singing recital today Miss?" she posed again as she laid out her charges clothes.

She looked at her, long and calm, with the air of someone who knows just how correct an answer truly is.

"Yes, Shika-san, I am" her voice had every grace of confidence the girl possessed and even some she never had, nearly drawing a cautious eye from her long-time attendant.

"That's good Miss" she said with a smile then turned and left the room.

Once she had left, Tomoyo dug herself out from her heavy cotton comforter.

And then, almost too quietly for even her too hear, she stated to the empty bedroom.

"It certainly is…"