CHAPTER TEN
The villagers gathered around a large bonfire and chanted alongside the beating drums as Li and Meiling dangled from a tree, tied together. The fire was slowly burning but the two cousins could feel the flames getting closer to them. Li jerked his body and managed to swing them both around like a pendulum.
"What are you doing, Li!?" Meiling panicked.
"I'm trying to use the friction of that branch to cut the rope!" He answered.
The chief laughed, mocking their pitiful attempt to escape. The villagers laughed as well and continued to chant and beat on the drums, awaiting for the two to meet their demise.
"Stop that!" Li ordered the tribe but they would not listen. "Okay, that's it!"
The boy slipped out an ofuda from under his sleeve and called upon his magic. "God of Fire, answer my call!"
"Li!" Meiling tried to warn her cousin.
"Huh?" Li then realized the mistake he had just made. "Oh, shit!"
The Fire attack burst out of the ofuda and made the pillar of wood burn even faster. The two then started to swing back and forth while Li wailed with each return. The tribe laughed even harder as some went as far as dropping to the floor.
"That's… not… funny!" Li said with each swing across the bonfire.
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Above the clouds and at the head of the beach, a magic wormhole started to form in the sky. A few sparks of electricity later and the WarHawk came zooming out as Eriol held his hand out from inside the plane, keeping the portal open. Once the wormhole closed, the pilots safely landed the jet on the muddy sand as its crew walked down the exit ramp.
Sakura looked around and could feel the wind gently blowing against her. "Something's not right." She said.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" Kero wondered aloud.
Sakura shook her head. "I don't know."
Eriol hurried down the ramp and looked around the beach until he saw the huge jungle straight ahead. "Over there." He pointed out. "The temple should be well hidden in the caves within the jungle."
"Well, you guys go ahead." Touya said. "Me and Yuki will stay with the WarHawk."
"We will?" Yuki asked.
"But…" Sakura started. "What if we need Yue?"
"Don't worry, Sakura." Eriol stepped in. "It shouldn't be that dangerous. We'll be in and out before you know it."
Tomoyo took out her camera and adjusted the settings as Kero and Spinel flew into her bag. The young girl looked at them and smiled. "Aw, don't tell me you're afraid of going in there."
"I'm not." Kero said as he pointed at Spinel. "He is."
"That's pretty sad for someone who can transform into a large, magical beast."
Spinel bowed his head in shame. "I… I have a bladder problem. Transforming only makes it worse…"
Tomoyo chuckled nervously and walked over to Sakura. "Okay, I didn't need to know that."
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Li and Meiling continued swinging from the tree as the fire only got bigger. The young boy then tried one last attempt and hurled himself and his cousin along the bonfire, kicking it down with all his might.
"Yes!" He exclaimed. "All right, Meiling! Let's break through these ropes!"
"Okay!" Meiling nodded.
Gathering up all their strength, the two strained against the tight binding ropes and pushed forward, their faces almost turning red. The villagers started shouting in protest and called on the chief to interfere. The man held up his spear and attempted to jab the two in an attempt to kill them. Luckily, they were quick enough to dodge every move and eventually break free from the ropes. As they landed on the ground, several more native warriors came rushing up to them, armed and ready.
"Oh, it never ends!" Meiling whined.
Li then picked up one of the burning logs from the fallen bonfire and swung it around, scaring back the men. "C'mon! You don't want some of this man! Don't mess with me! I'm really stressed out right now!"
Li dropped the torch and spread the flame with his magic. "Meiling! Cave! Now!" He ordered her.
The two quickly escaped their primitive captors and headed for the caves that were waiting behind the many huts and bushes of the village. Once inside, Li took out another ofuda and lit the room up with its flame.
"Are they following us?" Meiling asked, out of breath.
"I don't know." Li shrugged as he slowly walked along the rocky floor. "If they're guarding it, there'd better be a damn good reason."
"What's that?" Meiling pointed out across the trail, which led to a small circle of light.
"That's probably where the Heart of Gold is. Let's go."
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Deep within the jungle, Sakura, Tomoyo, Nakuru and the guardians closely followed Eriol as he navigated through the area.
"Who is this Xiang Zhou guy anyway?" Nakuru asked.
"He was a loyal follower of Clow Reed's." Eriol answered. "He helped defend this island from the Red Knight and when he died, the natives built a temple for him in his honor. After all the Demon Knights were put away, Clow Reed chose Zhou's temple as a hiding place for the Red power gem. Within the Heart of Gold."
"Heart of Gold?" Sakura pondered.
"One of the relics Clow Reed created to seal away the Red Knight. All of the Knights had their own system of entrapment. The Blue Knight, for example, was buried in a rocky tomb next to Faust."
"And the Blue gem somewhere on his person…" Sakura concluded.
Eriol nodded. "Yes. The Knights and their gems are inseparable unless commanded by the wielder of the Sangria Gauntlet."
"Then I guess we have no choice but to destroy them."
"Or keep them well hidden."
"Yeah, well good luck with that." Tomoyo said, looking through her video camera.
"What do you mean?" Eriol asked.
Just then, Eriol was swooped up from the ground and taken for a ride with the Blue Knight. The demon warrior growled at Eriol as he held onto the boy's shirt and rode around on his horse through the sky.
"Clow Reed…" The flaming skull hissed.
Nervous, Eriol tried to think of something to avoid the Demon's wrath. "Uhh… uh… The number you have reached is no longer in service. Please hang up and try again."
Furious, the demon hurled Eriol back down to the surface, where a painful death awaited him. Luckily, Spinel in his beast form, caught his master and landed him to safety.
"Thank you, Spinel Sun." Eriol sighed with relief.
"Yeah, yeah!" The panther moaned as he went behind the bushes to relieve himself. "Oh, God! It hurts! Damn stones!"
Sakura then shot up into the air, using the Fly card and faced the Demon Knight in its flaming eye. "The Blue Knight…" She said to herself.
As the skeletal horse snorted out a blue flame, the rider slowly took out his sword and pointed it at the young girl. "You are a follower of Clow Reed."
She shook her head. "No. He's dead. Clow Reed has been dead for years."
"Then you shall die with him."
The Knight charged forward but was immediately taken aback by an energy blast unleashed by Sakura. The Knight was surprised at the young girl's power and carefully put some distance away from her.
"Now don't tell me you're scared of a little girl like me!" Sakura teased.
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Li slowly walked up the steps of the shrine and examined the gold disc engraved with ancient scriptures and small hearts encircling the red gem in the center.
"The Heart of Gold…" He whispered to himself.
Li reached for the disk and carefully removed it from the stone platform that had been made especially for the artifact.
Meiling put her hand on her face, shaking her head with disbelief. "Oh, you stupid son of a…"
"What?" Li was confused by her sudden reaction. "I got the Heart of Gold, didn't I?"
"Li, don't you think that was a bit too easy? There's bound to be a few traps waiting for us now!"
"What do you mean?"
Suddenly, an arrow shot through the air, barely missing Li's head by a few centimeters. The boy fiddled with the wooden stem of the arrow and nodded his head calmly. "Yeah. We should get out of here."
Moments later, the two were running out of the cave, screaming as several more arrows plagued the walls, shooting from across one another. They jumped onto a pile of bushes and sighed from relief as they heard a rumbling sound coming from within.
"Li?" Meiling asked. "It's not over, is it?"
"Uhh, well…" He then saw a huge cloud of dust blow through the cave's entrance, indicating the collapse of the temple.
"Li?"
"Yeah." Li sighed. "It's over."
As they got up, they turned to see them surrounded yet again by the natives and their cannibalistic chief, who was now furious over the decimation of their temple.
"Meiling?" Li started.
"Yes, Li?"
"Leg it."
In what seemed to be a repetitive course of action for the two, Li and Meiling found themselves running through the jungle in an attempt to return to the Dragon Boat.
"Li! We just pissed off a group of cannibals!" Meiling shouted as she tried to keep up with the boy.
"Oh, really!? Is that what we did!?" He sarcastically called back. "Geez! No wonder they're chasing us!"
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Sakura tumbled along the dirt and grass as the Demon set his sights on Eriol and the guardians. "Followers of Clow Reed must die…" He hissed.
"Oh, right! You wish, pal!" Cerberus said as he tackled the rider to the ground. The demonic horse then defended its master by head-butting the lion and unleashing a blue flame from its mouth.
"Oh, you wanna play with fire, huh!?" The sun guardian said as he took a deep breath. "Play with this!"
Soon a flurry of blue and orangey flames flickered in the middle of the air as Cerberus and the skeleton horse engaged in battle.
"It is useless to resist." Said the Knight. "Death is the only way out."
"Does he ever get tired of hearing himself talk?" Sakura asked Eriol.
Eriol shrugged. "He's dead. What else is there to do?"
Tomoyo then noticed something heading their way as she looked ahead with her camera. "Hey, wait a minute…"
Li and Meiling came running past the group, completely aware of the situation that was now taking place.
"Hi, Sakura! Hi, Tomoyo! Hi, Eriol!" Meiling said as she ran by.
"Meiling!?" Sakura was surprised to see her.
"Sakura!" Li said as he ran towards them.
"Li!" Sakura's face now lit up with joy.
The Demon Knight stuck out his arm and caused Li to run into it, flipping him over in the process. The Heart of Gold then flew out of his hand and into the Knight's.
"No!" Everyone shouted.
The flames on the Blue Knight grew even stronger as he got on his horse and rode away, laughing maniacally. "You fools!" He called out to them.
"He got away with the gem!" Kero said back in his doll form.
Eriol looked down and sighed. "We failed."
Sakura kneeled over Li and woke him up. Startled, the boy searched himself for the gold plate and realized it was now out of his hands.
"No…" He said to himself with disappointment. He then looked up to see Sakura smiling at him. "Sakura!"
The two quickly embraced each other with joy and kissed with tremendous passion as everyone shyly watched on.
"Aww…" Tomoyo said as she filmed the whole thing.
"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Li asked.
"Me? What are you doing here? You were supposed to come back home!" She reminded him.
Li then suddenly remembered his mother and sisters back in Hong Kong. "Home? Oh, God. We have to go back to Hong Kong."
"What? Why?"
"My family. I think something bad has happened."