The royal party had only narrowly survived the dangerous, intense encounter with the vicious Black Knight of the Very Expensive Forest. This extremely close call with such an amazingly skilled opponent had lead Queen Sakura to announce that more knights were needed to fill up the ranks of the Very, Very Round Table at Marvelous Camelot. None of the others had agreed. Shaoran had protested, albeit weakly, that they were really fine as they were,and that they were perfectly strong and they hadn't come out with a single scratch, had they? Kurogane protested more loudly, exclaiming that he was perfectly capable of protecting Queen Sakura by himself, thank you, and that knight didn't have shit on him, thank you, and had continued on in this manner until Watanuki interrupted him. Watanuki's protests were much louder and involved MUCH more flailing.

"WE DON'T NEED MORE KNIGHTS, Queen Sakura! WHAT IF WE GET ANOTHER WORTHLESS ONE LIKE DOUMEKI, OHMYGOD WHAT IF THERE'S ANOTHER DOUMEKI OUT THERE–"

"Sir Watanuki!" Shaoran tried to make himself heard.

"Another Sir Doumeki would be wonderful!" exclaimed Sakura. Watanuki stared at her in awe, and Shaoran took that moment to divert Watanuki's attention by starting him on a tirade that all of them could safely ignore, his usual "representative government" spiel. Hah. Like anything like THAT would ever happen in good old England. Besides, a two thirds majority? What a random number! Why not four fifths? Eighteen nineteenths? One hundred and one hundred and seconds?! Shaoran had analyzed this a little too deeply by this point.

Luckily, Shaoran's bordering-on-psychotic, melancholy thoughts were interrupted by Doumeki pointing at the horizon.

"Look," he intoned, startling Shaoran out of his reverie and Watanuki out of his rant.

"WHAT, cretin?" Doumeki pointed, and that sufficed to get his message across. Rising on the horizon was another castle, as if Sakura had conjured it up herself.

"It's only a model," grumbled Watanuki.

"No it's not," Doumeki said, "you can see the shadow." Watanuki looked absolutely, explosively furious. Shaoran intervened.

"Sir Doumeki," he cautioned, "I would recommend you shut up now."

Shaoran's reasoning was partly due to the fear of permanent deafness the entire party (sans Watanuki) feared, and partly due to the immense feet that had descended from the shining golden cloud above them. Kurogane had been eyeing it a while, while Doumeki and Watanuki flirted, but Shaoran had caught on and decided that the feet were a little unnerving.

"SAKURA! Sakura, Queen of the Britons!" called a female voice from somewhere above the feet. Long, swinging black hair had descended too, now, and they could see the edge of what appeared to be a very elaborate kimono. The royal party immediately fell to their knees, with the exception of Kurogane, who was staring at the sky skeptically. "Oh, don't grovel!" complained the voice, "One thing I can't stand is people groveling."

"Sorry–" began Sakura, but the heavenly voice cut her off again.

"AND don't apologize! Every time I try and talk to someone it's "sorry this" and "forgive me that" or "I'm not worthy". What are you doing now?!?"

"We're averting our eyes, oh Lord," deadpanned Doumeki somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, don't! It's like those miserable Psalms, they're so depressing. Now knock it off! Ugh, it's so hard to talk to you from up here. I'm coming down."

"Yes, Lord!" chorused pious Sakura and Shaoran. A small piece of the glowing, golden cloud detached itself from the rest, and it floated down with a beautiful but indecently dressed woman.

"All right!" she cheered, taking a sip of the sake conveniently located beside her. "Sakura, queen of the Britons, your Knights of the Very Round Table shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times."

"Good idea, oh Lord! Er.. Lady?"

"OF COURSE IT'S A GOOD IDEA! Behold! Sakura, this is the Holy Feather. Look well, Sakura, for it is your sacred task to seek this feather. That is your purpose, Sakura– the Quest for the Holy Feather!"

"A blessing! A blessing from the Lord!" cried Watanuki.

"Lady," she corrected. "Actually, Yuuko's fine." With that, the revealingly dressed woman (Yuuko, apparently) rose up again in her cloud.

"Well," said a still skeptical Kurogane, "God be praised."

The royal party continued on now, re-motivated and reenergized, to the castle that Doumeki had pointed out. Sakura herself called out at this castle.

"Hello! Um, hello there?"

A voice called back down from over the edge, "Hallo! Who eez it?"

The accent surprised all of them, and set Doumeki and Kurogane on edge, but Sakura continued on bravely. "This is Sakura, Queen of the Britons, and these are the Knights of the Very Round Table. Who's castle is this?"

"Zis? Zis eez the castle of the Master Ruiz de lu la Rampou!"

"Er, well," said Sakura, shocked at finally getting a straight answer at a castle, "please go and tell your master that we have been charged by Yuuko-san with a sacred quest. If he cares to, he may join us in our Quest for the Holy Feather."

"Well. the voice said pensively, a bespectacled face peering over the parapets, "I can ask him, but Ah don't theenk he'll be very keen. He's already got one, you see."

Shaoran and Watanuki looked aghast. "He's already got one?" Shaoran questioned.

"Why, yes, it's very nice-a." He snickered to himself, and the other guards snickered too.

"Well," said Shaoran reasonably, "can we come have a look?"

"NO!" was the vehement response. "You are English-types-a!"

"WELL THEN WHAT ARE YOU?" roared Kurogane, who looked outraged by the ridiculousness.

"I'm FRENCH! Why do you think I have this OUTRAGEOOOUS accent-a, you silly knigot!"

"Well what are you doing in England?" asked a confused Sakura.

"Mind your own businez!" shouted back the man with the strange chin.

"LOOK. If you do not show us the feather, we well have to take the damned castle by force!"

"Sir Kurogane!" exclaimed Sakura. The man leaning over the parapets screamed back,

"YOU don't frighten us, you English pig dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Sakura-queen, you and all of your silly kinigots. HMPH!"

Sakura and her entourage stared at the man in horror.

"...the fuck?" said Kurogane. "I'd be offended, if he had said anything that made the slightest whit of sense."

"He is French," offered up Watanuki as an explanation. Sakura decided to try a different approach.

"Now please look here, Sir Knight. What's your name?"

"Fei Wong Reed, you empty headed animal food trough whopper! I fart in your general direction! Your brother is a hamster and his lover smells of elderberries!" Fei Wong Reed sneered at them.

These latest insults left Sakura slightly dazed and very confused. "Yuki doesn't smell like elderberries, I don't think..." she cocked her head to one side.

"What do elderberries smell like?" asked Shaoran, also deep in contemplation. This left Watanuki, Doumeki, Kurogane, and their wonderful social skills to deal with the crazy Frenchman.

"Is there someone else up there we can talk to?" asked Watanuki as politely as he could.

"NO! Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time-a!" chanted Fei Wong Reed, and Doumeki stepped forward to protect Watanuki.

"This is your last chance," he warned gravely. The guard snorted.

"Fetchez la vache!" he commanded to someone behind him.

"What?" asked Watanuki.

Kurogane looked interested for a moment. "Fetch the cow, I think."

A long "moooooooo!" sounded from the castle.

"Look," tried Watanuki one more time, "our demands are simple, and..." a large cow in a slingshot appeared over the edge of the castle. "Jesus Christ!" He stood staring in shock.

"Run away!" yelled Shaoran, who had regained his wits. Kurogane spared half a glance at the cow and French before grabbing Sakura and walking away. The others followed in a slightly more panicked retreat. Some time later, they sat huddled around a fire in the forest, with Watanuki planning revenge.

"We just have to build a large rabbit," he was insisting, "and let them wheel it inside. Then, Sir Kurogane, Shaoran, and I will jump out and attack!"

Sakura looked at him fondly. "I'm afraid not, by dear Sir Watanuki. I have decided that tonight is when we part, to search separately for the Holy Feather. I will be sad to leave our merry company, but I'm sure God– er, Yuuko-san, will reunite us once more at the end of our quest."

"Alone, Queen Sakura?" Shaoran said in horror. Was she leaving him?

"Er, well, not exactly alone. I figured that Shaoran and I would go together back into the Dark, and very Expensive Forest, Sir Kurogane would continue on to the South, and Sir Watanuki and Sir Doumeki would go to the west. No one has any objections, right?"

And so as Watanuki screamed objections as loud as he could, the five of them enjoyed a last dinner together before heading their separate ways.