I would like to dedicate this chapter to Liz. You've reviewed every chapter so far, and I so, so appreciate you! I try to reply directly to all my reviewers through direct messaging, but you don't have a user here. So, Liz, thank you for your enthusiasm and your interest and I hope you enjoy what is yet to come!
This chapter starts to build the foundation of where this story is going to end. I bring in a lot of characters, only some of whom are immediately recognizable. If you think you see where I'm going though, kudos to you!
Also? This is the chapter where I discovered I love writing Yue and Yukito talking to one another. They are hilarious, like an awkwardly cohabitating Odd Couple.
Enjoy!
Sakura soared over the Kingdom of Clow for what seemed like forever. Well above the treetops, she had a perfect view of the lands far from the castle garden and the nearest town, farther than she had journeyed in her whole life. At first, Sakura barely paid any attention.
"Syaoran," she kept saying, "please be safe."
Her only comforts were the ofuda tucked in her sash, proof that Syaoran's magic was still strong and, therefore, that he had not been killed by Madoushi. Each ofuda disintegrated as its power was exhausted, but another would begin to glow at once, continuing the spell he had cast upon her. Sakura pressed her hands to them, their trickle of power a certainty of Syaoran's relative well-being long after she could no longer see the castle clearly in the distance.
But while the ofuda allayed Sakura's fears, there was something else that occupied her heart. For Syaoran had called her by name. They had known one another for so many years, and only today had he called her by name.
What did it mean?
Fear clutched Sakura's heart – could it have been his way of saying goodbye? And not the goodbye of one day to another, but a final goodbye?
"No. He promised he would come for me. He promised. Syaoran would never let anything stop him from keeping his word," she told herself. "I just have to trust him and believe in him and do my part to help him until he finds me."
So resolved, Sakura's heart lightened for the first time since she had been summoned to Madoushi's chamber. Fragile courage and Syaoran's faith in her had given her strength in the fight, but this certainty allowed her to breathe with an easier sort of cheer. Of course she was still worried about everyone, but she trusted Syaoran enough to be sure everything would be all right in the end.
With this in mind, Sakura turned her attention more to the lands below her. As soon as she began looking more closely, however, Sakura frowned in confusion. The forest above which she still flew on Syaoran's magic was...green.
Of course, all the trees and the gardens and the lands surrounding the castle had been green, too. Hadn't they?
Sakura peered back at the miles of woodlands she had already crossed. No, it was not her imagination. The trees behind her were paler in color and less dense. In fact, the comparison between what lived closer to the castle and what she could now see ahead of her was rather stark. The lands nearest the castle were downright sickly.
Sakura closed her hands tightly. "It's not right! She...she's not just pulling Clow's magic out of everything around her, but the very life of the kingdom! There has to be something we can do to stop her! We have to do something or everyone..."
Two things happened at once. The first was that the Key, still safely hanging on its cord around Sakura's neck, began to glow. But Sakura promptly forgot about this when she realized the far more important change – Syaoran's ofuda had finally exhausted themselves.
She began to fall.
Sakura let out a high, panicked scream. The nearest towering tree loomed before her.
She felt herself hit something from the side before everything went black.
-==OOO==-
Sakura woke completely later. She blinked her eyes, still making sense of being awake at all. But she was lying on cool grass and seemed not to be moving anymore. The branches of a dense tree hung above her, and beyond that she could see the sky growing dark.
"Are you alive yet?"
Sakura turned her head at the strange question. Sitting on a fallen branch mere inches from her nose was something round and yellow and altogether too close to her face.
Sakura cried out in surprise, instinctively recoiling away from the unexpected sight.
The thing in front of her also recoiled with a shout. "What? What's the matter?"
Sakura sat up and pushed her back against the trunk of the tree, staring. The little creature was no more than the size of the plush toy she had been making for Yukito, and it was similarly rounded and fuzzy, too. But this had a yellowish body with some resemblance to a bear except for the overly large ears, disproportionately longer limbs, and a pair of tiny white wings that fluttered with the creature's alarm.
"Uh...hello?" Sakura ventured.
The creature sighed. "You don't know who I am, do you?"
Sakura shook her head. "No. Should I? I'm Sakura."
The creature rolled its eyes. "I know that. Kinomoto Sakura. I know you."
"Oh! You know my name!" Sakura grinned. "It's been so long since anyone remembered us."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," the little creature said. It hovered in the air and drew near to Sakura, staring intently into her face. "Let me guess. It was a curse, right? And people forgot about you?"
"Something like that."
"That's what happened to us, too," the little creature said. "Except that's not all it took from us. Our memories are pretty scrambled, too. But I definitely remember you, and I definitely remember that." It pointed to the Key hanging against Sakura's chest.
"You must have been at the castle, then!" Sakura frowned. "I feel like I should recognize you, but…"
"Don't try too hard," the creature said. "You'll just get a headache. It's enough that you're here and you believe me." It paused, and then said, "I'm sorry I can't introduce myself to you properly. I don't remember my name."
Sakura immediately felt sorry for the little thing. "At least I still have mine. My brother helped protect me when the curse was cast. Is there at least something I can call you?"
"We call him 'Pancakey,' or Cakey' for short," came another voice, "because he can't stop talking about it. It's his favorite food, apparently."
"And because 'Bear' was taken," added a third.
Sakura looked and saw several more strange creatures gathered not far away, all of which were the size of plush toys. Indeed, there was a little brown bear as well as a goose, a yellow cat, a pudgy penguin, a lizard, and a tan rabbit.
"Um. Good evening," Sakura said. "It's nice to meet all of you. I'm Kinomoto Sakura."
The brown bear stepped forward. "Were you hurt by your fall?" it asked.
Sakura paused to consider, then shook her head. "No. Somehow, I'm okay."
"That's a relief," said the little rabbit. "We were all very worried."
The lizard clearly rolled its eyes.
"Thank you for being concerned about me," Sakura said politely.
Cakey floated into her field of view again. "You can call them all what they are. Bear, Cat, Rabbit, Penguin, Goose, and Alligator."
Penguin smirked. "We call Alligator 'Allie' so you can use that, too. We all like it."
"I do not!" Alligator said angrily. "Only you call me that because you think it's funny!"
"Now, now," Goose waddled a few steps over to move between them. "Behave."
"If you are not hurt," Cat said, smiling faintly, "we should return home. It is getting dark."
"Wait." That was Cakey, who turned to hover before the others. "She's wearing something very important. Something I remember a little. Do any of you?"
"He means this," Sakura held out the Key.
Bear, Alligator, Penguin, and Rabbit all looked to one another and shrugged. Cat peered more closely, but finally also shook its head. Goose stretched out its neck a bit, eyes fixed on the Key; after a moment, however, Goose turned away and gave a sigh.
"It's just a void inside," Goose said softly.
"Well, it isn't for me!" Cakey said with indignance. "That's an important thing and I remember Sakura a little, too, and that makes her an important person!"
"That's what you said about us," Rabbit's voice was low and sad. "When you met each of us. You said we were important things, too. But you didn't remember us the way you remember her."
"That was gut instinct," Cakey tossed his head.
"So what does your heart tell you now?" Bear asked.
Cakey spun in the air and looked at Sakura for a long moment. "We should bring her home with us. I want to keep her with us until I can figure out what I remember about her. And besides, the woods aren't safe. We should protect her."
"Thank you for your kindness," Sakura began. "But…"
Cat crept to Sakura's side and peered at her. "Do you have somewhere else you need to go?"
"No," Sakura said. "But...someone will be looking for me. Well, someone will be coming to find me to protect me from someone else who might come looking for this." She held out the Key again. "And I promised to take care of it."
"So, come with us, then," Cakey decided. "That way you can hide and protect your important thing until your friend comes. And then!" His face lit up with excitement. "We can see if we remember them, too!"
"If you know me, you might know Syaoran," Sakura said. "He was at the castle with me. Is the name familiar? Li Syaoran?"
Cakey shrugged. "It doesn't work that way. If I only had your name, I wouldn't know I remembered you. But when I saw you, I remembered your name. So maybe I'll remember this Li kid when I see him, but maybe I won't." He looked away. "I hope I do."
"Don't give up," said Rabbit. "You remember Sakura. She's the first thing you've remembered in a long time."
"How long have you been here?" Sakura wanted to know.
Bear answered, shrugging. "We don't know. We don't remember being anywhere else."
"But you must know how many winters have passed or have some other way of telling time."
Alligator rolled its eyes again. "We sleep a lot. We don't bother with the seasons. They're never the same when we wake up."
"That's so awful!" Sakura looked between her new friends with sympathy. "So you could have been here for years or decades and would never know! Have you been alone all this time?"
"We're not alone," Cat said. "We have one another."
"Cakey found us," Goose added. "And when we weren't asleep, we made our house together so we wouldn't ever have to be alone."
"And what do you do the rest of the time?" Sakura wanted to know.
Penguin spread its wings. "Mostly we just sit around and try to remember things and annoy each other until we go back to sleep."
"You mean you annoy us," Alligator said darkly.
"That's true." Penguin smiled sweetly.
But Sakura was thinking. "If I can ask, how did you find me?"
The little creatures looked as one to Goose. "Something woke me up," Goose said. "I sleep less than the rest of them. I decided to go for a walk."
"But that woke me up," Rabbit said. "So I followed."
"And that woke me, and I was having a nice dream, too," Alligator said, clearly grouchy. "So I woke everybody else up and we all went to find Rabbit and Goose."
"And then I saw you in the sky," Cakey fluttered close to Sakura once more. "You were flying and suddenly you weren't anymore. And since I can fly and I know how scary it is to fall, I thought I should try to help you."
"He caught you!" Cat smiled. "Well, not perfectly, because you're so much bigger. But he slowed you down after you went into the tree and he helped you fall so you didn't hit any branches."
"But you didn't wake up," Bear said. "So we sat and waited for you."
Sakura was touched. She pulled her feet beneath her and clasped her hands in her lap, bowing low at the waist. "If not for you, I'm sure I would not be safe and unhurt now. Thank you for helping me and for watching over me. If there is something I can do for you, I'll do anything."
Cakey hovered to Sakura's bent head and touched the top of her head gently. "Come home with us, please. I want to know why I remember you, and I don't want you to be out here alone at night."
Sakura sat up and smiled at him. "Okay. Thank you again."
The little creatures all backed up enough for her to rise, proving to Sakura just how much bigger than all of them she was. Cakey settled into a flying position beside Sakura's shoulder and the others gathered around her feet. Rabbit looked up at her shyly.
"What is it?" Sakura asked.
Rabbit bounced once in place. "Can I...I'm so much smaller than the others...I would like…"
Penguin reached over and bopped Rabbit on the head. "You're an idiot."
Rabbit flinched but then crossed its little arms. "I don't care. I like her!"
Cakey glanced at Sakura and shrugged. So Sakura bent low and scooped Rabbit into her hands. After a moment's thought, and glancing through the dense woods ahead, she set Rabbit on her shoulder opposite where Cakey fluttered. Rabbit gave Sakura a bright smile.
"Now can we go?" Alligator asked. Sakura would have offered the short-legged lizard a ride as well except for the obvious disdain in its expression.
"It's not far," Cakey told Sakura as the others on the ground began leading the way. "It's a little small, but I'm sure you'll fit with us."
Sakura navigated the darkening forest carefully, grateful for assistance from her new friends. With night fast approaching, the dense shadows beneath the trees made the ground hard to see, but the little creatures were careful to warn her when there were thorns or hidden roots or sudden holes. Cakey, hovering above, also helped to move branches out of Sakura's way, holding them until she had passed so she wasn't caught up in them.
Sakura picked her way through the dense forest until it was almost true dark, and she could barely see farther than the length of her own arm. But finally a huge shape loomed up before her.
"Is this...a tree?" Sakura asked. She was not afraid because her friends seemed so certain.
"It's our home!" Rabbit said happily.
"Everybody inside," Cakey said. "Rabbit, you too. I'll guide Sakura in so she doesn't bump her head."
Rabbit jumped easily to the ground from Sakura's shoulder and the others all moved ahead into the dark, chattering quietly. But Cakey moved to take Sakura's right thumb between his two tiny paws.
"The opening is pretty low, but it gets bigger inside. I think you'll be able to stand up in a bit."
Sakura crouched down, following the guiding tug on her thumb until she was almost crawling. Then Cakey drew her forward and she shuffled carefully along, feeling with her other hand for balance. She found a nest of roots and realized Cakey was pulling her into a gap between them.
"Careful. You'll have to climb a little. I'll help."
Sakura let Cakey move her, setting a hand on a root before he darted to a foot to guide it to a solid hold for her weight. One limb at a time, Sakura slowly descended into the hole. Cakey chattered to himself quite happily, but he never let Sakura take a single misstep and she trusted him completely. It was probably a climb of only a few feet, but in the utter darkness, it felt far longer to Sakura.
At last Cakey stopped and said, "Close your eyes, Sakura." When she had obeyed, she heard Cakey's voice rise up.
"King of the Forest, please guard us in your embrace."
Sakura sensed warmth and light and opened her eyes. There was a large area in a gap beneath what must be an absolutely massive tree, big enough for a grown man and his horse to pass the night without being too crowded in the chamber that was directly below the tree's trunk. But what was far more astonishing was that the roots themselves, particularly those above that twisted into a knot at the base of the tree, were glowing.
Sakura stretched a hand to the nearest root and could feel magic pulsing against her skin.
"This tree is the oldest in the woods," Cat said. "It's absorbed a lot of sunlight and a lot of life that it shares with us here."
"And a lot of magic," Sakura said. "I wonder if this tree has been protecting the magic of the forest to keep Madoushi from stealing it, and that's why everything here is so green and alive."
Cakey shrugged. "It's a safe place and it protects us. Even rain doesn't get in."
Bear stepped close to Sakura's feet and tapped at her shoe. "You should sleep again. We've made you a bed."
She looked up and, sure enough, the other creatures had been piling soft mosses together in the middle of the floor.
"Were these your beds?" she asked. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable for my sake!"
"Don't worry," Penguin said with a wink. "We'll cuddle up to you to make up for it."
"Besides, we get cold," Cat said. "Do you mind?"
Sakura grinned. "Not at all!"
She carefully sat down in the pile of moss and found with just a bit of poking and prodding it became a rather unusual but perfectly acceptable bed. As soon as she had settled down rest, Cakey immediately landed on a tuft of moss near Sakura's face. Cat and Rabbit boldly climbed to where they could curl up on her stomach. Alligator, after some grumbling, pressed against one of her legs, while Penguin made itself comfortable against the other. Bear tucked itself between one of Sakura's arms and her chest.
Goose, after watching the others get settled, made a nest next to Sakura's shoulder opposite Cakey. Goose extended its head to rest its beak on Sakura's collarbone.
"Good night, Sakura," Goose said with a happy sigh.
"Good night, Sakura!" most of the others repeated.
"Sleep well," Cakey mumbled, already mostly asleep himself.
Sakura felt the little bodies all around her dropping off and going still and relaxed, but as warm and comfortable as they were, she could not quite close her eyes yet. Here, in the relative safety of the tree, seeing the gentle glow of the forest's magic, the memory of how her day had begun overtook her ease.
Without disturbing her friends, Sakura took the Key in the hand not cradling Bear and whispered into the magic tree's light as though it could hear her.
"Syaoran. I know you promised to find me. I know you won't give up. But...I wish you were here now. I...miss you. And Father, and Big Brother. I hope you're all safe. I'll be brave for you, as brave as you would be if you were here. But I..."
Her words drifted off as Sakura fell into a sleep filled with dreams of things that flew on wings of safety and magic.
-==OOO==-
Elsewhere in the forest, Syaoran had not stopped moving in spite of his body's exhaustion. But with the full dark of night upon him and the tree-branches thick above, he walked into more than one impassible bush and had to fight to get out of it again.
Finally, he realized he could no longer mark the trees before him well enough to serve as landmarks to keep him moving in the proper direction. Frustrated and drained, he leaned on the nearest tree-trunk.
"I can't help Sakura if I weaken myself too much," he admitted with bitterness. "I'll have to rest at least a little."
Syaoran sank down against the tree with his back against its trunk. He reached into a pocket and found a warding ofuda. This he flicked into the air with a painful motion that seemed to scrape at the rawness of his remaining magic.
"Keep me safe and hidden," he told it.
The ofuda trembled for an instant before Syaoran's will hardened enough for it to snap to the tree trunk above his head, casting an invisible shield around him. If the forest had not been so sickly itself, Syaoran could have asked the very trees to guard him, but they had nothing to give a weary traveler so close to Madoushi's evil presence.
Syaoran tipped his head up to rest it against the rough bark.
"Sakura." He breathed her name into the dark. "Sakura."
He hoped she was safe. He hoped she wasn't frightened. He hoped she knew he would find her and protect her. He hoped she forgave him for sending her away.
At the very edge of his awareness, Syaoran thought he sensed a familiar presence, though one he had not felt in many years. But sleep began to claim him and he could not quite gather enough focus to be sure.
Still, even the imagined presence of Kinomoto Nadeshiko watching over him comforted him as he passed into slumber.
-==OOO==-
In the morning, Sakura woke to an inner call honed in her years as a servant expected to rise before the sun to begin her daily chores. She blinked at the warmth and weight all around her, her mind taking a few moments to retreat from sleep and recall her surroundings. Her seven little friends were all still sprawled about her, though Cakey was somehow upside-down now and Alligator was sleeping on its back with all four feet straight up in the air.
The tree's glow had faded, but the first light of false dawn was peeking through a gap in the roots, and Sakura could almost feel the tree waking up as well.
Suddenly a feathery weight patted her cheek. Sakura turned to see Goose awake, black eyes blinking at her. Goose repeated the gesture, cuddling its soft head against Sakura for an instant. Then it sighed happily and curled back into its nest, tucking its head under its wing.
Sakura supposed she could have gone back to sleep, but suddenly her stomach reminded her that she had had neither lunch nor supper the day before and, while it might have forgiven her for forgetting to eat after all that excitement, it would not be content to continue without being fed. Sakura decided she might as well get up before her stomach's rumbling woke her new friends.
It took her many minutes to slowly extricate herself, carefully unwinding her arms from Bear and from where Rabbit had moved in the nighttime, and easing Cat off her chest – though Cat eventually proved to be awake and simply allowed Sakura to shift it before it curled up around Goose. Sakura had to carefully lift her legs, smiling as Alligator and Penguin slid into the void she left behind to cuddle one another. Cakey opened a bleary eye just long enough to decide to go back to sleep, crawling over and dumping himself between Cat and Goose.
Sakura made her way across the little space to the opening where she could see light. No longer blinded by nightfall, she found it an easy climb to pull herself out of the earth beneath the tree. But even if the climb had been difficult, Sakura felt safe. The tree warmed at her touch, and she felt sure it would never let her fall any more than Cakey would have.
Now that she could see it properly, she looked up to the tree's branches in delight, for it was a cherry tree in nearly full bloom. The flowers for which she had been named comforted her even more.
"Now," Sakura told herself, "to see about breakfast."
By the time dawn had fully arrived and bathed the world in a warm, golden light, Sakura had gathered as many of the fruits of the forest that were good to eat as she could identify, her skirt filled with the earliest berries and some preserved nuts from the winter where she carried it before her like a basket. She had also spotted some familiar roots and leaves and mushrooms growing not far from the tree, which she knew how to make into a hearty stew. But that would require a cooking pot and fire, and she had neither. It was a problem she was determined to solve after breakfast.
"Sakura!"
At the sound of her name, Sakura realized how long she had been gone. "Coming!" she called, holding her skirt tightly and rushing back to the towering cherry tree.
Cakey met her before she reached the clearing around the tree, his face drawn with worry. "You weren't there when we woke up! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sakura said. "I'm sorry I worried you. I just wanted to get breakfast for everyone."
They reached the clearing where the other six were gathered at the edge of the wood.
"Good morning, everyone! I found berries." Sakura smiled at them. "I hope you don't mind that I didn't want to trouble you when I woke up."
"We're more worried about you than us," Goose said with a quiet reprimand in its voice. "Didn't you tell us that someone will come looking for you because of that?" It pointed to the Key Sakura wore. "What if they had come and we didn't know? We couldn't protect you, then!"
Sakura sank down on the grass. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to do something nice for you after you let me sleep in your home last night."
"You shouldn't have bothered," Alligator said, its long jaw snapping. "Only Cakey eats anyway."
Sakura blinked at them. "You don't eat? At all?"
Bear gave Alligator a mild look. "We appreciate your kindness, Sakura, but Alligator is correct. The rest of us never seem to feel hungry or need to eat."
"But you do?" Sakura looked at Cakey.
"Cakey doesn't need to eat, either. He just likes it! He's greedy and he'll eat more than all of us and you put together!" Penguin giggled at the indignation on Cakey's face.
"I'm not greedy! I just work hard for my happiness!" Cakey replied.
"Well," Sakura spread out her skirts and let her harvest fall, "eat all you like then, and I will do!"
As Cakey began piling sweet berries into his mouth, Sakura eating no less heartily but certainly less messily, Cat drew up close and leaned against her side.
"Goose has a good point, Sakura. It might not be safe for you to be alone in the woods."
"But what would we be able to do about it?" Bear asked. "Even if someone did try to hurt Sakura, even if we want to protect her."
"We're too little," Rabbit's voice was soft. "We can't even fly."
"I'm sure there's something you can do," Sakura tried to comfort them. "If we all work together, I'm sure we'll find a way."
Cakey stopped eating and looked up at Sakura with a new sort of energy. "Well, I can fly, so that's something. And I'm strong, too, even though I'm little." He shook himself and his golden eyes took on an odd expression. "I'll be your Guardian, Sakura."
"A Guardian?" Sakura blinked at him. Then she smiled. "You know what? Clow Reed had Guardians once, too. One was a golden lion and the other was a silver-haired mage and they always protected him. But he was a very, very powerful magician. I barely have any power at all, so I guess it's fitting to have a much littler Guardian!"
Cakey stared at her. "Clow...Reed?"
She nodded. "Yes. This was his kingdom long ago. And he's the one who made this Key."
Cakey abandoned his berries and floated close to her. "Sakura, can I touch the Key?"
Sakura looked rather confused, but she held it out. "Of course you can."
Cakey stretched his little paws to the swan head of the Key. The instant he touched it, there was an explosion of bright light.
Sakura cried out in alarm.
But as suddenly as it had begun, the light vanished.
"Are you all right, Sakura?" Cat asked, bumping its head against her.
Sakura took a deep breath, blinking at the Key that felt warm again against her palm. "Yes, I think so. Oh, Cakey! Are you all right?"
Cakey was still in the air, but he was now a bit farther from where he had been. He looked at Sakura with golden eyes that seemed deeper somehow, but he nodded. "I'm not hurt."
"What happened?" Goose wanted to know.
"I don't know." Sakura shook her head. "It's never done that before."
"Well, I am a little magical, too," Cakey said quickly. "Maybe the Key wasn't used to other magics."
"I guess that could be it," Sakura said.
"Anyway." Cakey grinned and returned to the grass. "There's still berries to eat and I'm going to eat them!"
Sakura was glad to see the little creature return to his breakfast with such interest. After a few more bites of her own, she had an odd thought. "Your name is Pancakey, right?"
Cakey's mouth was too full to answer, but Bear said, "Yes."
"But when did you eat pancakes?" Sakura asked. "You don't have the ingredients out here, do you?"
"No." Penguin shook its head. "But he remembers them. Every time we're trying to remember something important, he just remembers pancakes all over again."
"Oh!" Sakura thought about that. "Well, if I ever get the chance, I'll make you some, okay?"
Cakey's face flushed happily. "You will? Really?"
"Sure!"
"Hooray!" Cakey cheered. "Sakura is my friend!"
Sakura was too busy laughing at Cakey's rejoicing to notice Rabbit, Goose, and Cat exchanging worried glances.
Later, when Sakura went with Penguin and Alligator to see the river that flowed nearby where she could wash her hands and get a drink of water, the remaining five little creatures gathered in a quick huddle.
"What happened, Cakey?" Rabbit asked.
"I...remembered some things." Cakey's voice was uncharacteristically still and serious. "Some very important things."
"What were they?" Bear wanted to know.
But Cakey shook his head. "I don't want to tell you yet. I want to see if you remember on your own."
"It was Sakura's Key, wasn't it?" Goose asked.
Cakey nodded. "And the name Clow Reed."
"Why don't you want to tell Sakura about it?" Cat asked.
Cakey's expression grew distant. "Because...I...I think...there is something Sakura needs to understand for herself. Something more important than everything else in the world. And she won't really understand it if she doesn't find it all by herself."
He looked fondly at the four creatures around him. "I don't really understand it, but I think we have to give her time to understand before I tell her anything. Will you trust me this much?"
Goose and Rabbit looked at one another before nodding, and Bear was nodding too. It was Cat who said, "You have always trusted us and protected us. Of course we'll trust you."
"Good," Cakey nodded. "Then make sure you tell Alligator and Penguin when Sakura isn't around. Otherwise, let's do our best to help her feel comfortable here with us."
By the time Sakura returned from the river, only Cakey was visible in the clearing.
"We've decided to make you a proper bed in the tree," he told her with a smile. "Come and see."
Sakura followed him into the cherry tree, Penguin and Alligator at her side. Within, Bear and Goose were carefully holding some roots in place while Cat and Rabbit wound thinner, springy roots around them. It was a bit like weaving a basket from the living roots of the tree.
Sakura clapped her hands. "That's wonderful! If you make it big enough, you can all keep sleeping beside me if you like."
Alligator snorted.
"You liked it better than anybody," Penguin teased, poking it.
"Only because Sakura is warm and sleeps quietly, unlike you," Alligator replied sharply.
They joined the others and set about making a proper bed beneath the tree. But before long, Sakura paused.
"Do...do you think we could make another one?" she asked.
Cakey paused in mid-air and turned to her. "Why?"
"For Syaoran. He'll be here soon, and I'd like him to stay with us, too."
Cakey saw the raw hope in Sakura's eyes and felt his own tired heart lift a bit. "Of course we can, Sakura! We can do anything if we work together!"
Sakura's grin went wide and bright and she returned to her work humming happily.
Cakey watched her for a few moments, keeping his thoughts to himself. And rather strange thoughts they were, indeed.
Even with all eight of them working, it took them another day and a half to finish both beds beneath the cherry tree. After they had woven the baskets strong and solid and had very, very politely asked the tree to hold them up, they gathered sweet rushes and ferns to line them to make them soft and comfortable. But part of the reason it took them so long to finish was that they had also begun gathering food as a group and much more of it to sustain Sakura's natural appetite – to say nothing of Cakey's, which seemed greater than ever.
They could not come up with a way to make a pot for Sakura to cook in, but they did build a neat little fireplace during the afternoon of the second day at the edge of the clearing so the fire would not trouble their beloved tree. Alligator and Cat immediately volunteered for fire-watching duty, loving the warmth of the earth nearest the flames. Penguin and Rabbit found that they were adept fishers and helped provide Sakura with more substantial food than mere berries. Rabbit and Goose, on the other hand, found themselves following Cakey's lead more and more, keeping a watchful eye over their little patch of forest.
For those three seemed to sense what the others did not – that these quiet, easy days under the forest canopy would not last for long.
-==OOO==-
"Touya! That's enough!"
At the firm, almost edged note in Yukito's voice, Touya slowed his horse and turned in surprise; Yukito never spoke harshly, so this sudden tone was startling. "What is it?"
Several strides behind, Yukito waited until his own mount moving at an exhausted trot was even with Touya before he answered, looking over his glasses at Touya disapprovingly. "The horses can't go on like this anymore. We need to give them a rest or we'll ruin them."
Touya scowled. "They can go a little more."
Yukito shook his head. "I'm telling you they can't. And Yue is telling me. When Yue can see that the animals are at their breaking point, it must be obvious even to you."
Touya's fists tightened around the reins he held and he dropped his eyes. After a few tense moments, he wordlessly swung one leg over the horse and dropped to stand beside it. Touya did not look back to Yukito as he said, "Very well. We'll walk them for a while."
Yukito nodded and dismounted as well. He patted the white horse on the neck and pulled its reins over its head, settling in to walk beside Touya while the pair settled into a much slower, more comfortable pace for their exhausted horses.
"I'm sorry," Yukito said several minutes of silence later. "I can understand how you feel, but…"
"No, you were right," Touya said, still not looking at him. "If we had gone on, the horses would not have been able to recover enough to continue after some rest."
In Yukito's mind, Yue spoke. He didn't realize he had pushed so far. He is used to relying upon his magic to tell him when others falter. I am surprised it has taken so long. Anyone else would have made the same error two days ago.
He is observant even without magic, Yukito thought back. And now he will berate himself for making such a mistake.
He is young, Yue thought with an almost perceptible shrug. It is bound to happen.
Yukito considered that. Then he smiled. I missed you. It is good to hear you again after so long.
The admission stunned Yue into silence and Yukito laughed aloud.
Touya turned at last, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"My other self is unused to being appreciated, it seems," he said by way of explanation.
The slight upturn of Touya's mouth was the only smile Yukito received, but the only one he would expect given their circumstances. With a knowing look, Touya asked, "Should I apologize to you for having given my powers to Yue, now that you once again have a rather opinionated presence in your head that you cannot ignore?"
Yukito shook his head. "No, of course not. I'm grateful Yue is alive and strong again. Though I am sure you would not appreciate what he is saying about you if you could hear it."
"I can imagine," Touya said dryly.
"Should I be sorry?"
Touya caught the sudden uncertainty in Yukito's voice. His own went lower and more gentle. "I expected you to ask me that sooner than this, Yuki."
Yukito shrugged in a gesture less like Yue and more like Touya himself than he would have believed. "Even when we were resting the horses before, you could only think of getting to the border. And Yue didn't think there was anything to discuss. But it's been two days and I think I'm starting to irritate him with my wondering, so..."
"And what does Yue say?" Touya asked.
"He says that you knew what you were doing. That I should not feel guilty because my function is primarily to supplement him, and your sacrifice guaranteed Yue's strength and therefore our continued existence. And...that if you were truly Clow's heir, you would not have done so."
"That's true," Touya said. "I'm not Clow's heir. I'm glad he finally believes me."
"But why aren't you? You could have been."
Touya let out a breath, knowing that it was Yukito, not Yue, who was so troubled by that very question. "Because I'm not. I never was. We've been over this."
"I know." Yukito's face fell and he stared at the road beneath his feet. "And Yue is comfortable with that. But I…"
"In your own way, you've been waiting longer than Yue," Touya said. "Do you fear no one will ever come to be Clow Reed's true inheritor? That I was the only chance?"
"Sometimes," Yukito admitted. "We were so glad when you were born, Touya. You had such amazing powers already, and they only grew as you aged. Not enough to rival Clow himself, but enough to break the Seal on the Key. Enough to revive the other magics that are fading."
"If it were just a matter of power," Touya said, "Madoushi could have done it herself, and you wouldn't be happy with that at all." He actually paused and reached for Yukito's shoulder, turning him until the familiar, guileless brown eyes met his gaze. "I cannot be Clow Reed. Just like you could never be Yue. I like you better that way, anyway."
Yukito's eyes widened.
Touya never looked away. "You feel guilty, Yuki. I knew it before I lost my powers and it's clearer to me now. I finally understand why you were so desperate for me to become Yue's master."
Yukito's tongue went suddenly dry. "Why...do you think that is?"
"Because if I were Yue's master, if I stepped in as Clow Reed's true heir, then your conflict would be easily resolved for you without you having to face it."
Yukito's heart might have frozen in his chest if not for the spontaneous, triumphant yelling inside his head. He's not a complete moron! I suppose that just leaves you, you slow and foolish other half of me!
Yukito could not deal with Touya's seeking eyes and Yue's shouting at once, so he shut his own eyes and turned his thoughts inward. What do you mean?
Yukito. You may have been created as my disguise, my temporary form through which I conserve power or go unnoticed, but that is not all that you are now.
It isn't?
Don't pretend you don't know. At first, even after Clow Reed's death, you were merely a shell, a reflection of myself. But as I grew weaker and fled my true form more and more, you lived amongst humans for longer and longer spans of time. You became more than me. You became a true person in your own right.
An artificial person created as your shadow, Yue.
Artificial or no, you came to have thoughts and feelings other than my own. Even before Kinomoto Touya was born, you were more human than I have ever been, by far.
And now?
And now you are more human still. The years I spent hiding asleep to avoid that monster in our own castle left you to grow alone without influence from me. Your mind is as human and independent from me as Touya's.
Then Yue's thoughts turned smug. Well, perhaps slightly less so, now.
What do you mean by that?
Figure it out for yourself, my other half. The knowledge is in your human heart and soul. And you will not find it with your eyes shut.
Yukito opened his eyes at the mental nudge from Yue to see Touya watching him closely. "Um…" he began.
"Yue finished having his say?" Touya asked, smiling slightly.
"He...says there are some things I must figure out on my own. Otherwise, yes."
Touya huffed, clearly amused. "I think you may be as dense as Sakura, Yuki. It figures."
"It does?"
"Yes." Touya began walking again, leading his horse and letting Yukito catch up with his longer strides after a moment of surprise. "But either you'll find your way to it or I'm sure Yue will tire of watching you worry about it and he'll just tell you. Though I hope he doesn't."
"Why not?" Yukito asked, Yue asking the same question inside his mind.
"There are some things that you can't learn by being told. You have to find them for yourself, even if that means fighting your hardest and struggling through difficult times. They're true even if someone tells you, but they won't have the same power if you don't earn them on your own."
He may be right, at least about this much and yourself, Yukito, Yue thought at him. Which only further proves my point. Keroberos and I have no such need. But Clow Reed believed something quite similar about the people of his kingdom.
Does this mean you won't tell me, either? Yukito asked him.
I won't tell you if you can work it out for yourself. But if you take too long, or it becomes urgent, then I'll tell you.
Yukito nodded, including both Yue and Touya in the gesture. "My other half agrees with you," he told Touya.
"Good," Touya said. "I was hoping the both of you couldn't be all that dense."
"Apparently it's just me." Yukito smiled a little ruefully.
He was not expecting it when Touya reached over and ruffled his hair. Yukito looked up at him. When had Touya become so tall?
For that matter, when had he stopped thinking of Touya as a boy?
But before he could consider that thought much longer, Yue abruptly wrenched control from him, switching their body to Yue's true form with only the slightest afterthought of apology.
Touya was quick enough to grab Yukito's horse's reins before the horse bolted at the sudden transformation. "What is it?"
Yue looked down the path, his senses extended and seeking. "Powerful magic."
"Good afternoon."
Touya whirled in place to see a figure standing on the road behind them. Yue took to the air and put himself between Touya and the source of such magic. Magic that, he realized, had been hidden even from himself until this instant.
Stepping to one side so he could see around Yue's wingspan, Touya studied the figure. He did not see any weaponry, but that only made the threat worse. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"I did not mean to surprise you," she answered. "I am sorry if I caused any concern. My name is Mizuki Kaho. I am just a traveler, like you." She tipped her head to one side and smiled gently, her long red hair falling like a waterfall over one shoulder. She wore simple, unadorned traveling clothes, very like the style preferred by both men and women for long journeys – loose trousers, a shirt with broad sleeves, and a sturdy over-tunic and cloak.
Touya glanced to Yue. If the Moon Guardian had not sensed the woman until she deliberately revealed herself, she must be more than a mere traveler.
Mizuki Kaho folded her hands before her. "You are heading north, are you not? To the border? Would you permit me to join you?"
"No," Touya said. "We are in a hurry."
"You seek to reach the Prince of the White Jade Throne before Madoushi breaks the spell binding her within the book," Kaho said. "I am afraid even if you arrived at the border today, you would be too late. The barrier constraining that evil is breaking as we speak. But there is another power ready to keep her mischief at bay, at least for now."
"How do you know about that?" Yue's voice was short and sharp.
"I am the messenger who delivered the book to your father. I know him. As I know you, Kinomoto Touya. And I know that it will not last much longer."
"That messenger left the castle immediately," Touya said. "Even if that was you, you don't have a horse. We've been riding hard for more than two days. You could never have caught up with us."
"Unless," Kaho's eyes twinkled mysteriously, "someone made it so. Just as someone will continue to contain Madoushi, at least in part, for a while."
"How?" Yue asked.
"Will you allow me to approach, Moon Guardian of Clow?" Kaho asked in return.
Yue looked to Touya, and Touya nodded. Yue shifted in the air to one side, but stayed carefully in range to protect Touya should the woman mean him any harm.
Kaho drew from one sleeve a small scroll. "This was sent to me six years ago by someone you knew quite well."
Touya shifted the reins of both horses to his left hand so he could accept her scroll with his right. But when he saw the seal on it, Touya very nearly dropped it.
For there was no mistaking the unbroken, official and personal sigil of Kinomoto Nadeshiko.
-==OOO==-
Fujitaka rubbed at his face, grateful for the moment of solitude deep in the library where none could see him. Even back when he had been Steward, or in his earliest days in hiding from Madoushi, he had never been so tired.
The people of the castle had finally, by the end of that first fateful day, decided collectively that someone had attacked their precious Queen Madoushi and she had left in order to drive them away. Therefore, while most things had returned to their habitual patterns of the last several years, there were some problems that could not be ignored.
First, of course, was the absence of the Queen herself, but Fujitaka was more concerned with the anxiety her absence caused. Though contained in the book, apparently her powers still held the people in her sway as strongly as ever.
Second, a large number of the castle guard had been cursed into some sort of stony paralysis which nothing yet had been able to resolve. The company of guards had been arranged in rows in a little-used ballroom and the servants tended them to the best of their ability, but even the castle healer could not break whatever spell held them lifeless.
Thirdly, and the major cause for Fujitaka's exhaustion, was the fact of the escape by the prisoners from the dungeon.
It was only Fujitaka's good standing in the household that had spared him the dungeon when it was discovered that the prisoners were gone along with his daughter and Li Syaoran. While none of the people in the castle had recalled Touya's true identity, suspicion for the escape fell on Sakura and Syaoran because Sakura had been responsible for carrying meals to the dungeon, and Syaoran's aloof behavior had bred a certain amount of mistrust among the other servants. But a search of the room Fujitaka had shared with his daughter had turned up nothing of interest, the only items that might have condemned him having been sent away with the others.
And while Sakura and Syaoran were easily blamed, it was agreed by even Captain Terada of the guards that Fujitaka was an honest soul; since he had not disappeared along with the other fugitives, it was reasoned that he must not have agreed with their actions. Fujitaka's apparent loyalty to Queen Madoushi and his general reliability won him a grudging sort of presumption of innocence from those in power.
Only Fujitaka himself knew the truth, and he found the situation rather funny – or would have done, if he weren't so desperately worried about his family and the future of his kingdom.
For two days, Fujitaka continued on with his usual duties, aware with every hour that passed that his son would be farther and farther from him, and hopefully therefore closer to help from the north. He had no way of guessing how distant from the castle Sakura could be, nor how long it would take Syaoran to find her. He could only hope they would both be all right out in the world alone.
And then the book which Fujitaka had kept tucked tightly against his body day and night began to grow cold.
Fujitaka pulled it from the pocket where he had hidden it. The book had been new and unblemished when he had closed Madoushi inside it, but now it looked worn and damaged, as though it had survived a flood and many journeys in the bottom of a crate.
And it was changing color.
Even without magic, Fujitaka could surmise that the binding on Madoushi was about to break. The book had bought his children some time, but that time had run its course.
With seconds to decide, Fujitaka tucked the book into the nearest shelf and bolted as fast as he could run to his little office. It was not cowardice, not in the least. Rather, Fujitaka did not know if Madoushi would recall his presence in the battle, and if she did not, he knew his only hope to continue working on behalf of the good of the kingdom was to remain undiscovered.
He had just reached his desk, slamming the door to the library closed behind him, when there was a blast of sound and a roar of wind.
"I am free!" howled a familiar voice.
Fujitaka closed his fingers on the pendant Syaoran had left with him and wondered if he was about to join Nadeshiko at last.
But Madoushi either did not remember his participation in her entrapment or did not know where to find him, for she did not crash into his office as he expected.
Instead, even from behind the closed door, Fujitaka could hear her shout that echoed throughout the castle.
"I want that Key! I want that girl! Any man or woman who enters my sight without them will suffer my greatest fury!"
Fujitaka drew the pendant from his pocket and held it with fingers that trembled as he brought it to his forehead to whisper a fervent prayer.
"Be safe, Sakura. Be wary, Syaoran. She is coming after you both. Be watchful, be careful, be clever. I hope you are together. Take care of one another, my children. The Queen is coming."
