Disclaimer is on the first page, I'm too lazy...

Chapter Two

How do these things keep happening to me? Sakura silently moped about her clumsiness for the umpteenth time. I mean it was cute when I was a little girl but why do I get the feeling someone is playing a cosmic joke on me?

This morning started out okay. Well...as okay as someone like me gets, it's not as if being late for class or clubs or hhoooeeee... Then everything went downhill, getting called into the teacher's office to help Takashi spin out his still-growing tall-tale so that he doesn't get into trouble. Until Chiharu showed up, Sakura was sweating buckets trying to back up Takashi's rampant story about a project due that morning, she was still amazed the teacher believed everything they said.

And then Chiharu smacked Takashi a good one...wonder if he'll have his hearing back in that ear anytime soon... Sakura winced, she was beginning to feel sympathetic for Takashi after that hit.

A warning flag flared up in her brain, trying to break through the little mental reverie that her mind shot her into when she went straight to denial about stumbling upon a nakedman and ooooh boy, was he naked and looking good too...near the King Penguin Park. It must be the hormones, this is a hallucination, who would be naked in a public-- wait a minute! Alarm flashed through her, this must be the were-wolf Kero-chan mentioned he sensed!

Syaoran watched interestingly as the face of the girl, Sakura apparently, shifted from being pale to flushed pink, a rival of her outfit, and her eyes took on a dazed wide-eyed look which she shook off quickly before it became alarmed. Her face is so expressive, I bet she wears her heart on her sleeve, Syaoran mused. He quickly donned the grey-green sweats and T-shirt in his hands.

His amusement mounted when a moment later, Sakura took out a weird pink short-staff topped with a decorative end and started calling out for Fiery to burn him to a crisp. He snorted, is she trying to send me to hell or something, I knew meeting a cute girl in the middle of the night meant she was psycho.

His eyes widened as a burning phoenix roared toward him like a horseman of the Apocalypse. He twisted away so fast he landed a few feet away crouched with an ache starting in the middle of his back. Quickly glancing at the spot where he was just standing, he grimly noted the pile of ashes that could have been him. Even as he moved, his mind had been keeping track of what he originally thought was a phoenix but was a winged humanoid being, it turned around in mid-air and soared back at him.

Syaoran leaped with inhuman speed and gracefully tackled Sakura, tucking her in while trapping her and the wand against him so that she wouldn't be jostled. Sakura yelped as they went down and Fiery disintegrated back into a pink card which flew back into Sakura's pocket. She struggled a bit against his hold but was ignored as Syaoran stared, mesmerized by the soft bundle in his arms. She has golden highlights in her hair...and she smells heavenly...mmm...

"You don't have to set the forest on fire just to show your displeasure, Syaoran-kun!" A shrill voice interrupted, proceeding Meiling as she stalked into view. "I smell the smoke and if you think I won't tell--" Meiling paused as she took in the scene and raised an eyebrow at Syaoran burying his nose in the neck of light brown-haired girl while pinning her to the forest floor. The thought aw crap, Syaoran finally lost his sanity- ran through her head before she disregarded it.

Meiling only had time to hear the girl let out a muffled, "let go of me!" before a golden-furred creature blew by with a whomp of its massive wings and sank its claws into Syaoran's back, tearing through grey fabric to the flesh underneath and yanking with a snarl on its fierce-some lion face. The creature's deep voice rumbled out, "release her or I'll mangle you!"

A growl broke through Syaoran's lips as, in a misguided attempt, he tried to shield Sakura from the creature thinking it was going to hurt her. He lashed out with one arm and elbowed, hard, the winged-lion on its ribs making it release its claws. The lion-like creature opened it's mouth and quickly inhaled, forming a fireball from its essence but was interrupted by a small voice saying, "Kero-chan! Wait!"

"That's Kero-chan?! What would you call a rabid pit bull? Muffins?" Syaoran blew out in surprise. Sakura wrestled her way out of his now limp grip and ran to stand besides Kero. "I think he was trying to protect me..." She whispered into Kero's large round ears, standing on tip-toes while doing it.

Syaoran and Meiling both heard it with their 'sensitive' hearing and tried to reevaluate the situation. Meiling leaned over and said, "What should we do now?" Syaoran replied, "I don't know, never been in a situation quite like this, she knows about us..." Meiling's scarlet red eyes widened at the implications.

"Cast a tracking spell on her, we'll need to find her after we discuss this with the Clan. I'm going to call in a clean-up for the area for now..." Meiling said as she walked a few paces away to take her phone call. The golden eyes of Kero followed her with narrowed pupils, suspicious, as he curled his wings protectively around Sakura.

Syaoran turned his attention back to the curious emerald gaze of Sakura and they both blurt out at the same time.

"Who are you?"

"Sorry about your shirt!"

Syaoran paused and Sakura blushed, she had not meant to say that..."I mean...are you really a were-wolf?" She asked sternly. If he was one, she tightened her grip on her wand, then she would have to kill him. Ever since the death of her mother...Sakura shook her head, her mother, Nadeshiko, died a long time ago and it was hard to remember her since Sakura had only been three years old at the time but Toya, her brother, remembers and keeps a powerful hatred toward were-wolves, he was only somewhat comforted by his abilities to see ghosts, hence his mother. And then Kero-chan had started sensing were-wolves in the region...

Syaoran narrowed his eyes and tried to formulate an answer that wouldn't immediately provoke her to attack him. "I--"

"Syaoran-kun! We've got to go, Kaho-san has woken up, she had a dream" Meiling interrupted and the way she stressed 'dream' left no doubt that it meant the possessed Kaho has had another vision, another twist in the war. Syaoran's gaze hardened and without breaking eye contact with Sakura, he gestured a few times and muttered under his breath. Kero snarled and Sakura hesitated as she felt a slight tingle of subtle magic fall over her before the feeling disappeared. While they were distracted, Meiling slipped away leaving Syaoran to find his own exit. He followed up the tracking spell by calling upon the elements Earth and Wind to cover his escape with a small dust storm. Kero folded one wing over his face as protection and another wing over Sakura but she still felt the warm caress on the back of her head, fingers skimming over her hair and she shivered. The minor dust storm settled down leaving them alone and just then, dawn broke out in the sky, lightening it to a dusky pink.

End of Chapter Two

Author: That cosmic being playing a joke on Sakura is me, I'm sorry...=*( hehe. Also can't wait for Syaoran to know why exactly we call the great guardian, Kero-chan. *Schemes *

Author: Also thanks to for commenting. ^_^ *whew * At least someone likes it. And thanks to others for favoriting the story, even though I just started xD, I hope I won't disappoint T_T.

Author: If anyone finds mistakes or has advice tell me, I need to return to grammar school...

Author: Ack! This uploading and updating stories is so confusing, I think I've deleted something, but maybe not...err...must figure out!