One Dark and Stormy Night
Chapter 16
Fai's mind began to race as he retraced the path to the lake in the increasing light of the new day. So many thoughts had swirled around in his mind in the hours that had passed since his dream had ended. The going was easier than it had been the day before without the torrential downpour, and he soon found himself lost in thought as he walked. There were far too many possibilities to consider and very few facts on which to base even a haphazard guess on what may transpire in the moments ahead.
Although the rain had diminished to a bare drizzle mainly blocked by the canopy of the forest above, he still found himself being assaulted by the occasional annoying drips of stubborn raindrops. One such offending drop had stealthily joined with its comrades high in the leaves above, and made its way through the labyrinth of limbs and leaves only to drop with precise timing smack onto the very center of his forehead as he looked up to gauge the increasing daylight and precisely time his arrival at the appointed meeting place.
He paused in his journey briefly to wipe the raindrop from his face before it could run down his nose. Unable to suppress it, he laughed aloud heartily. Despite his intense focus on (as well as the seriousness of) the issues at hand, all it had taken was a single well-timed raindrop to stop him in his tracks and reset his mind back to the present. He held up his hand and studied the offending drop for a moment before addressing it as if it were an entity all its own.
"Thank-you, my fine friend... I believe I needed that!" He chuckled again. "It does one no good to completely loose themselves in the problems at hand… one must take a step back and look at them anew if one is to decipher the correct path to take."
With that, Fai looked up to realize that he needed to do exactly that, as he had missed a turn at a fork in the path due to being lost in his own thoughts. He backtracked a slight distance and corrected his previous error, fussing at himself the whole way for making the mistake in the first place.
Taking a deep breath, Syaoran gave his best effort to smile for Mokona. "I will keep Hope alive, for Sakura-chan's sake." He had turned to head back to his spot on the floor at Sakura's side when he heard the deep voice of the samurai call to him from across the room.
"Oi, come here for a minute." he called out. Noting that the boy paused as if torn between choices, he gently added "She'll be fine for a few more minutes without you."
Syaoran altered direction and headed towards his friend who was leaning against the doorway, watching the yard and the softly falling drizzle that was all that remained of the previously fierce tempest the day before. As Syaoran approached him, Kurogane reached out and rested his hand on the boy's shoulder.
Continuing to gaze out at the new day that was dawning, the samurai's face softened and his eyes began to lose their focus as if he were looking at something far away. As he addressed the young man at his side, his usually gruff voice was soft and held a considerable amount of concern.
"You know… Life can bring you lots of hardships, but the thing you need to keep in mind is that there are people around you who care about you, and who are willing to help you through whatever you have to deal with." He turned and looked at the boy at his side who had grown to be his friend and held Syaoran's gaze before continuing.
"Don't keep everything to yourself. Believe me, it does more harm than good. We're all here for you, so you don't have to bear it all yourself." Kurogane's hand gave Syaoran's shoulder a slight squeeze before he moved it to the boy's head to mess up his hair and break the tension caused by his uncharacteristic, yet brief, impromptu speech.
"Ok-Ok!" Syaoran replied as he attempted to duck away from the offending hand, throwing his arms up in mock-defense of his newly-tousled locks. "I'll keep that in mind..." he said, as he attempted to calm the many hairs that had gone awry thanks to his friend's blatant disregard for personal space. He turned to cross the room back to Sakura's side, but paused mid-step. "And Kurogane-san… Thank you." he said, as he managed a small yet genuine smile for his usually fierce friend. "That means a lot to me."
As Fai exited the path at the forest's edge nearest the agreed-upon rendezvous rock, the beast was nowhere to be seen. Fai glanced up at the still-overcast sky and judged that, despite his slight detour earlier, his timing was spot-on as usual. Looking around, he wondered where the beast from his dream may be and even began to slightly doubt himself (for just a moment) that it had even been real.
He approached the large, flat rock, brushing off a few stray twigs that the storm's winds had deposited since his brief foray into the fine art of hand-fishing the day before, and he sat down to wait.