Disclaimer: the usual
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It was a long and strange night.
Kurogane could feel sleep pulling at him, weighing him down, but he refused to give in. They had laid Sakura down on a blanket and shortly after Syaoran had fallen asleep as well. Fai was still out, and that left only Kurogane to watch over them. Nothing some stranger said was going to make him trust his life to the care of some random deity he'd never heard of.
He listened carefully but heard little. There was the fluid, slimy sounds of the wolf-lizards moving just outside the clearing. They never came close enough to be seen, but he could tell that they were there, just out of sight. There were sounds of other animals moving around, owls hunting and bugs chirping. The loudest noises came from Takaki as he fidgeted and watched the fire. His restlessness irritated Kurogane and did nothing to ease his suspicions.
"Is there something I should know?" the ninja growled at the nervous man across the fire.
"What?" Takaki jumped and nearly fell into the fire. It was the first time either had spoken in over an hour. "You startled me, Kurogane-san, and I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"Is there some reason you're still awake even though you swear there's no need to stand guard? That we're completely safe here?"
"I have no malevolent motive, honestly. I simply wish to ask you something but was unsure how best to proceed."
"You should just ask, then. Sitting there thinking has gotten you no closer to an answer."
"Hm, you have a point. I would like to repeat to you my previous offer."
Kurogane didn't remember any offers, and said as much to Takaki, who shifted his gaze sideways until it fell on the magician.
"I am a doctor," he said very quietly. "I can help him, or at least take a look at him. I realize that you do not trust me, but consider it a peace offering."
Kurogane frowned, unhappy with the thought of a stranger messing around with his unconscious companion. After some consideration, though, he nodded his consent.
The doctor had watched in silence earlier in the evening when Kurogane had placed a rudimentary bandage on Fai's wound. Now he removed it and peered closely, his eyes squinting and his glasses in danger of slipping off his nose. "Light," he muttered, half to himself, and the ninja took a few logs from the fire, setting them up as torches around the patient.
Takaki's lips moved as he talked to himself, too quiet for even Kurogane's keen hearing to distinguish words. He checked Fai's pulse, breathing, and temperature, seeming to make a note of each. "Put some water on to boil," he ordered automatically, too absorbed in his work to think about tact. Kurogane went to the waterfall to fetch some water, scowling at being treated like a nurse.
When the water had boiled, the doctor soaked a cloth and used it to wipe away the blood that had dried around the wound. He looked at it more closely for a minute, then leaned back suddenly, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "This shouldn't be too much of a problem," he sighed, "It's the blood loss I'm worried about. But, treating the wound does come first."
Kurogane watched the doctor's movements closely for some sign of foul play. He worked quickly - the ninja would find out later that he had patched up many soldiers during the war. Takaki pulled several items from his pack - needles, thread, cloths, and a few bottles of vile smelling liquid.
Takaki dabbed one of the noxious liquids onto Fai's wound and rinsed his surgical equipment with another liquid, and then with the boiling water. He stitched up Fai's wound as though it were merely ripped fabric, and not living flesh. After examining his work and deciding it was good enough, he placed another bandage over it and sighed. "That should suffice, for the moment," he said with a yawn. "The rest will have to wait until he wakes up and I can see how he's doing. And I think that we would both benefit greatly from some sleep."
Kurogane said nothing. The doctor shrugged and leaned back against his medical kit. Half-sitting, half-lying down, he fell asleep in moments.
The ninja looked around the clearing once more. Despite the fire and the torches he had set up during Fai's operation, the place was dark. The moon and stars overhead were dim, and cast very little light. His eyes were giving him little information, so he decided not to rely on them. He extinguished the torches and sat with his back to the fire and his eyes shut. He focused his attention on listening to the woods around him.
He could still hear the waterfall, the wolves prowling, the crackling of the fire, the soft breathing of his companions. He ignored these noises and tried to listen for anything unusual.
At first he could only here those familiar noises, but he gradually became aware of another sound. He thought it was wind, but the trees were motionless. Then he thought it was more like a whisper, but everyone around him was asleep. Next it sounded like a buzzing. It bothered Kurogane, but he decided that it might just be one of the background noises and tried not to focus on that for too much longer.
Once, he thought there was a bright light, but when he opened his eyes everything was just as it had been before. Wary, he kept his eyes open, but whatever it had been did not happen again.
-
Sakura woke suddenly. She wasn't sure what had disturbed her sleep, but she had an uneasy apprehension hanging over her and she thought it might have been her own dream. She couldn't remember what she had been dreaming about, but her jittery nerves did not make her eager to go back to sleep and resume the dream. She sat up instead, hugging her knees.
The clearing was dark - it was still night, but she had no idea how long she'd been asleep. She looked around her, and a blush crept slowly over her cheeks when she saw how close Syaoran was. She pulled her knees closer to her chest, scooted away, and looked around.
The fire was low, but in its dim light she could see Fai, sleeping unnaturally on his back on the other side of the fire. She wondered how he was doing and crawled over to him. He looked pale, but it was hard to tell for sure. His breathing was steady and it looked like he had a new bandage on. The princess turned and saw Takaki, sitting slouched against his bag. He was probably going to have a crick in his neck from sleeping in that position, so the kindhearted girl laid him out flat and covered him with the blanket that someone had placed over her.
That left one more person from their party, and she found the ninja sitting several feet away with his back to the fire, a dark figure barely visible in the blackness of the forest. She stood, hesitantly, and walked toward him.
She was only halfway there when his low voice growled, "What are you doing awake, princess?"
She stopped and said quietly, "I had a bad dream."
"Go back to sleep."
Sakura continued to walk to the ninja and stood beside him, looking down. He was staring at the trees ahead of him, and his attention didn't waver even as he gestured for her to sit down and said reproachfully, "You need sleep. Tomorrow could be a long day."
"That's okay," she said quietly but cheerfully as she sat next to him. "I'm not tired anymore," and it wasn't until she said it that she realized she wasn't. Whatever dream had startled her awake had done a very thorough job, and she didn't feel sleepy in the least.
He replied "Hm," as though he knew what she was thinking. She looked up at him, really looked at him, for the first time that night.
"Why don't you get some sleep, Kurogane-san?" she asked.
"I need to stand guard," he replied, no hint of fatigue in his voice, but the princess wasn't fooled. He'd been up longer than any of them, and for a good part of the day he'd been carrying Fai. He needed sleep much more than she did.
"That's okay! I can stand guard," she said a little more loudly than she meant to. She mimicked Kurogane's stiff posture and stared intently into the darkness. He looked down at her and saw the look of determination on her face.
He sighed. "Not like that," he instructed, and the princess glanced up at him in confusion. "If you focus that hard on one point, you'll get tired more easily, and you'll miss things that happen in other places. Now - don't look at one thing, don't listen to one thing, look and listen to everything." Sakura did her best to obey, but she didn't quite get it. Kurogane frowned, trying to remember how it had been explained to him a lifetime ago.
"Have you ever meditated?" he asked, and she nodded. "It's kind of like that. You're waiting for something to happen, and when it does, then you focus on it. Until then, you just wait. Got it?"
Sakura nodded again, and this time she looked like she really did understand. After breathing deeply a few times, she relaxed her stance and looked out at the forest.
A few minutes passed in silence. Sakura nearly jumped when Kurogane asked, "What do you see?"
The girl chewed her lip. "Not much," she admitted. "Just some movement in the shadows."
"That's okay. Don't rely on your sight when it's this dark. What do you hear?"
"Um...the waterfall. The fire. Breathing. Something moving out in the darkness." She sounded just a little nervous.
"Good. Now that you know what those sounds are, don't pay too much attention to them. Listen for anything different. You hear something else out there, you wake us up, okay?"
"Right!" The determination had come back to Sakura's face. She shut her eyes and bit her lip, concentrating.
Kurogane reached out and ruffled her hair, breaking her concentration and making her laugh. "Don't get too tense, remember?"
"Oh. Right." Sakura shut her eyes again.
"Night, kid."
"Good night, Kurogane-san."
The ninja moved closer to the fire before lying down. He was asleep as soon as he had shut his eyes, but even in his sleep he was listening.
-
Sakura sat alone, her listening turning into a trance. She pushed away all the sounds that were familiar to her, all the sounds she could identify, and listened for anything else. Sometimes a twig would snap in the forest, or Takaki would mutter something in his sleep, but these noises only disturbed her trance for a moment. Once she had realized what they were and decided they were no threat, she would go back to listening.
Gradually, another sound came to her attention. She couldn't place it any more than Kurogane could. At first, it sounded like someone murmuring off in the distance. The longer she listened, though, the more she thought it was music - a deep, rhythmic piece that lacked a melody. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she didn't think she should wake up the men because of it. They needed their sleep, so she guarded them through the night.
Time passed quickly but change happened slowly. She didn't notice that the wolves were moving away from the clearing and deeper into the woods until they were almost all gone. The sky grew lighter, and the sound that was sometimes movement and sometimes whispers and sometimes music faded away into nothing.
In her alert state, her hearing was keener than usual, and she could hear footsteps from the cabin. She opened her eyes in time to see the temple door open to reveal Akane, who stumbled out looking exhausted. The redhead blinked a few times, getting her eyes to adjust to the light, and then looked around. Noticing Sakura, the older girl motioned for her to follow and started walking toward the waterfall.
Sakura glanced around the clearing, but the men were all still asleep. Everything seemed alright, so she followed Akane. When they were far enough away from the campfire that they wouldn't disturb anyone, but far enough from the waterfall that it wasn't too loud, Akane turned to Sakura. "Your name is Sakura," she said, showing just the tiniest amount of self-doubt.
"Yes," the princess said, slightly alarmed by the serious look that crossed Akane's face. "Is there something wrong?"
"Maybe," the redhead replied absent-mindedly. "But first I have to ask a favor of you."
"Oh, I'll do anything I can to help," Sakura said cheerfully.
"It might seem a little odd, to an outsider," Akane continued, "But you need to take part in a religious ceremony."
"Alright."
"Have you spoken to anyone else this morning?" When Sakura shook her head, Akane nodded. "Good. First, you need to wash up a bit, and change into this," Akane handed her the bag she had been carrying since she left the temple, and Sakura opened it and pulled out a white dress. "It's mine, so it might be a little large for you, but it'll have to do. You can change behind the temple after you've washed up. After that, you have to be silent. This is probably annoying, but it's a purification thing."
Sakura shook her head. "Don't worry. If it's important, I don't mind at all. Syaoran is always saying how we have to honor other people's cultures."
Akane stared at her, as though trying to memorize her features. "Thanks," she said, still sounding distracted, and walked back to camp.
Sakura put the dress back in the bag and approached the waterfall. This close, the sound hurt her ears, but she tried to ignore it and even hummed a little tune to herself. She could only hear it in her head, but it was reassuring – a song her father taught her when she was very little, and one of the earliest things she could remember.
The water was freezing, so she hurried as she splashed her face and her arms. Not wanting to miss anything important, she removed her shoes and washed her feet, almost shuddering at the cold but not letting the smile on her face waver for a second. When she felt she was clean enough, she put her shoes back on, grabbed the bag, and ran back to the temple.
-
Akane had started to build the fire up again, adding wood until it had reached a respectable height. Either the noise or the heat was great enough to wake Kurogane and Syaoran – not surprising, considering how lightly they slept.
"Where's Sakura?" the boy asked, going from sleepy to anxious in three seconds.
The redhead looked up and saw the girl was not at the waterfall. "Changing."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kurogane grumbled, standing.
"It means she's taking off one set of clothes and putting on another," Akane replied without looking up.
"That's not helpful."
"I don't have to answer to you," the redhead snapped.
Takaki sat up with a yawn. "Isn't it a little" – yawn – "early for you to be so argumentative?"
"No," Akane answered, "You just slept late."
The doctor put on his glasses and looked around. "What? How late is it?"
"About an hour past dawn."
Takaki was suddenly wide awake. "We are going to be late! We should have left by now!"
She shook her head, but before she could say anything, she saw Sakura lean out from behind the temple and wave at her, frantically. "One minute," she excused herself, walking quickly to the other girl.
The princess bit her lip and gave the redhead a nervous look. "What's wrong?" Akane asked, and after a moment of silence laughed. "It's okay, you can talk for now."
"Oh," Sakura answered sheepishly. "I'm having some trouble with this dress and the other things..."
"Right. I should have remembered what a pain in the ass all this is, especially if you aren't used to it. Let me get that for you."
She helped Sakura tie the back of the dress. "Thank you," the princess replied, feeling a little silly. "I couldn't reach the lacings."
"Not a problem," Akane answered, and for the first time since she'd met the foreigners she sounded relaxed, even happy. "I'm just glad you're more patient than those friends of yours."
"What?" Sakura asked before remembering how Akane and Kurogane had fought the night before. "Kurogane-san isn't really such a bad person. I think you just caught him by surprise – he doesn't really like surprises, and we're all a little on edge, what with being lost, and Mokona disappearing, and Fai..." her voice trailed off.
The redhead coughed slightly. "Alright, scarf next," she said, and began wrapping the dark green scarf around Sakura's waist.
-
Syaoran, Kurogane, and Takaki stared at the temple with expressions of concern, annoyance, and confusion (respectively). "What's that all about?" Syaoran asked, debating whether or not to follow them. His internal debate was settled when he remembered that Sakura was changing, and he turned away from the building with his cheeks burning.
"I honestly have no idea," Takaki shrugged. "Akane was supposed to wake us and make sure we left here at dawn."
"Is that such a big deal?" Syaoran asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Well, we do have a considerable amount of walking to do today, and I hate to keep the priestess waiting...I would have thought Akane would be even more eager to see her. She hates being away from her sister for any amount of time."
"Well, apparently this religious ceremony is more important," Fai said nonchalantly.
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed this and turned, slowly, to face the blond, who was sitting up and stretching like a cat.
"You! How long have you been awake?" Kurogane asked.
Fai smiled, looking even more like a cat. "Oh, for quite some time. Long enough to have heard your touching little chat with Sakura-chan. You know, if you weren't so grumpy all the time, you really would make a good daddy - " and he laughed as Kurogane fumed.
"If you were awake that whole time, why didn't you say anything?" the ninja yelled.
Fai tilted his head, the very picture of wide-eyed innocence. "But this was much more fun." Grinning, he added, "You weren't worried, were you?"
"Why would I be worried? You'd cling to life just to make my life miserable!"
The wizard sighed. "Aw, let's not fight in front of our son," and he laughed when he saw the confused expression on Takaki's face and the furious one on Kurogane's.
"Don't say stupid things," the ninja growled.
Takaki recovered his mental footing enough to remember that he was a doctor and the strange man was a patient. "How are you feeling?"
Fai shrugged. "A little dizzy."
"That's the blood loss," the doctor said, falling into a familiar routine. "Do I have your permission to examine you?"
The blond looked to his friends for clues and, receiving a nod from Syaoran, replied affirmatively. "But I really would feel more comfortable with an introduction," he added.
"Oh, of course. I forget that you missed last night's conversation. My name is Takaki, and I'm a doctor from the village of Losai. We found you and your friends last night when we came to the temple to meditate – well, Akane came to meditate – and it seems you were seeking shelter here from the forest dwellers. I understand you had a bit of an altercation with them."
Remembering more details from the previous night, Syaoran spoke up. "The magic users are at war with Losai."
Fai got the message and grinned quite wickedly, making his companions a little nervous. "You just can't trust magicians," he said, staring right at Kurogane.
Takaki was measuring Fai's pulse and, fortunately, did not notice the irony in Fai's voice or the rude gesture Kurogane made. "Quite true," he said distractedly. "And now I was rather hoping you could share some information with me."
"Certainly," the blond replied, "If there's anything I can tell you."
"What did you mean earlier, when you made that comment about a religious ceremony?"
"Oh, that. Just something I overheard the young woman say."
"Akane?"
"If that's her name. She and Sakura were talking – quietly, because I don't think they wanted to disturb anyone, but I could hear them. She said that Sakura had to change and be purified, for some sort of religious ceremony."
Takaki frowned and fiddled with his glasses. "Hm...May I check your wound?"
"Sure," Fai chirped, and leaned backward so he could remove the bandage. "I feel much better, though."
"Still, I should check," Takaki said, peering closely at the wound through his glasses. "I think it would be best if I put some salve on that. One can never be too careful, after all." He didn't wait for a reply but hunted through his medical kit for some ointment, which he spread over the wound before re-bandaging it. "There. Finished."
"Good timing, too," Fai said, sitting up straight and waving. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!"
The other men looked back at the temple and saw Sakura and Akane walking toward them. Sakura, startled by Fai's greeting, smiled broadly when she saw him alive and well. She waved at him, but Akane placed a hand on her shoulder and said something to her. She nodded seriously and ran to her friends, throwing her arms around Fai. He tried not to wince, but his smile faltered for just a second.
"Morning, princess," Kurogane said gruffly. "What are you wearing?"
Sakura looked at him and stood up, allowing Fai to breathe a little easier. She gestured at her outfit: a white sleeveless dress that fell a little below her knees, a dark green scarf wrapped around her waist and tied to the side, a green headband that pushed her hair out of her face, white shoes with ribbon laces that ran up to her knees, three silver bracelets rattling on her left wrist but none on her right, and a necklace with a flat silver disc about six inches in diameter and runes running around the circumference.
"She can't talk to you," Akane commented.
"Why not?" Syaoran asked, concerned. "Is there something wrong?"
"Why on earth is she wearing your ceremonial dress?" Takaki asked.
"No, nothing's wrong, she just can't talk for the moment, because she's going to be part of a ritual of augury," she explained to Syaoran.
Takaki frowned. "Akane, that doesn't make any sense. She can't participate in a ritual – "
Akane interrupted. "She can if she gets purified. Hence the silence."
He continued as if he hadn't heard her. "And only a priestess can perform that ceremony, so there was really no need to dress her up like that until we get back to the other camp and she can speak to - " This time, there was no interruption, but he stopped when he saw the slightly embarrassed look on Akane's face. "What is it?"
"She's coming here," the redhead announced.
"WHAT?"
"She's coming here."
"That's ridiculous! That's – "
" - what I said," Akane finished dryly. "But onee-san never let common sense stop her from doing what she wanted. Isn't that right?" she asked, looking over his shoulders.
They all turned the way she was facing and saw a number of armed men enter the clearing, followed by a young woman. "If I'm stubborn, it's only because I take after you," she said with a laugh.
"You don't get to blame your problems on me." Akane was laughing as well. "You're the older sister; aren't you supposed to set a good example, or something?"
"Each of us must follow the path Yuna calls us too," the newcomer said haughtily, before laughing again. "Although now is not the time for jokes or lectures, but for introductions. I am Yuna's priestess, Tomoyo."
"Yeah," Kurogane muttered. "I figured."
-
AN: Late, again. It really just comes down to the fact that I'm a bit of a flake. So, apologies.
I know my OCs were still prominent in this chapter, but I needed a doctor for Fai (with no magic allowed, he couldn't just miraculously recover) and they kind of had to run the show until Tomoyo arrived to take over (which was supposed to have happened last chapter – d'oh!). They'll still be around, but less so. Hope they didn't get on your nerves too much.
The description about Sakura's outfit was a little awkward, but I am completely lacking in anything resembling a fashion sense. That's why I very rarely bother with descriptions of clothing. The scene with Akane helping Sakura get dressed is inspired by the many, many shopping trips my sister has dragged me on so that I can help her in the changing rooms. Seriously, why are dresses so hard to put on? I have no idea. That's why I hate them XD
I'm looking forward to the next chapter, now that we've got Tomoyo, Mokona, and Fai back into the mix, so hopefully I'll get it out in the near future. Comment, reviews, encouragement are all most welcome. And, if you feel like telling me what a flake I am, you can do that too, cause we all know it's true XD