HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012 will be another great one, so let us fill this year with a blast of memories. I hope you enjoy the first chapter of this epic. I know I've made you wait like enough.

"Chapter 1"

I must have landed on a rock head first. The first physical things I sensed when I began to stir were these grainy pebbles underneath my cheek. As I remained sprawled on the dirty floor, I warily reached up to touch the part of my cranium I bumped. There was definitely a painful and tangible bump right on the left side of my head. With the support of one arm I gradually pushed myself off the ground and scrutinized the fingers I pulled out of my hair. Luckily, there was no blood.

I looked about, scanning my surroundings. Just as I realized I had landed right behind a thorny bush, I also heard some noises. It was a combination of this hollowly whistle and some feet stomping on the ground.

"Stop attacking it. It's one of the mellow cards," I heard an impatient voice complain.

A gruff male voice answered the former, "It attacked me first."

"That's because you're being hostile."

This was when I decided to sit up. I was on my hands and knees when I peaked over the bush to watch the two squabbling. Here's what my noggin rattled and visual reception fuzzed vision caught. I saw a man with a slight build facing me and a much shorter and much smaller winged stuffed animal. It was hovering and glaring at the man, who spotted me first. When the man looked directly at me there was no mistaking his chestnut hair and amber eyes.

"So, you finally show yourself," he growled, pointing his wickedly sharp sword at me.

I cowered back even though he was a good ten yards away. When I drew back I fell through something that was quite chilly. It felt like coming out of a subzero vacuum, however you imagine that might feel like. My eyes were wide open as I fell onto my back. What I saw made my blood drop to Absolute Zero. I was staring at a female apparition bent over me. She had a look of concern on her face, but all I could do was scream everyone's ears off.

"Out of the way, you useless twit," said the sword barer as he sliced his blade through the apparition seconds after I rolled out of the way. I was breathing deeply as if my life depended on it.

The apparition's image was cut in half by the blade. I watched the ghostly, but lovely face split into halves and the rest of her scatter into the air. The head reassembled itself and now it was looking at me with sorrow. If she was looking to eat my soul it was over for me.

"Ignore the girl, Clow Card. You're battling me!" He lifted his sword and glared menacingly at the despondent ghost. She only glanced once more at me before breezing deeper into the trees again.

He was ready to chase after it, but my weak voice stopped him.

He turned to me cautiously, sword still raised. "How do you know my name?"

"Syaoran, I work for you!" I said astounded by that vicious look he directed at me. He was ill-tempered, but never like this. He looked like a wounded man with nothing else to lose and a boat-load of anger to dump on anything that stood in his way.

The doll rolled up beside me in the air and yelled at him, "You're a brute with no self control. When will you listen?"

"Don't you tell me what to do, Fur Ball," he snarled. "You're the one who let them get away by falling asleep!" He glowered at the doll and then at me. "Stay out of my way!"

"He needs anger management," I grumbled as I got up onto my feet. Everything ached, especially my head. No. That actually throbbed.

"Yes, absolutely," the creature beside me agreed

I jumped at seeing the doll talk at me. "What are you anyway?"

"I am the one and only Sun Guardian of the Clow Cards. I am also one of the most ancient magical creatures of the whole universe and frankly speaking, Clow Reed's greatest creation. They call me the all knowing, all surpassing, Kerberos," he said spastically, doing acrobatic loops in the air with his little wings.

"You mean there're others like you?"

"You must have hit your head. Where do you come from anyway and what's your name? Your clothes look funny."

"Syaoran's clothes look funny. That's the first time I saw him out of his business suit," I chuckled.

Kerberos looked at me like I was demented.

"My name's Sakura. I'm from Japan."

"Oh! I've been there before. That was when Clow Reed was still alive."

This was getting too weird for me. I needed someone to help me get home. "Look, I need you to point me in the right direction home. I don't know how I ended up here after almost dying on the street, but I can't be too far off from where I work, am I right?"

Kerberos stared at me like I was demented again.

This called for a short version explanation. "Syaoran was yelling at me and I was yelling back. While all that was going on I backed into the street with all the oncoming traffic. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to get out of the way. Next thing I know I landed here. My head still hurts from the crash landing I sustained. Will you help an injured girl out?"

"Hey, you must be from another world!" Kerberos interjected. "Clow Reed's prophecy has come to fruition! You must follow me." He hopped in the air for a while before he darted opposite the direction Syaoran had gone.

"Wait!" I followed Kerberos out of the forest and into a clearing. He led me straight up to a sloping path where a red shrine, twice my height, stood. There were vines along the four pillars holding the roof up. Inside the shrine was a cracked stone tablet. Kerberos hovered over that stone tablet. His charcoal eyes glittered at me as he waited for me to catch up.

"You know, I don't have wings." I looked about me, grumpily. We were in the middle of no where, surrounded by trees. "Where are we?"

"The Clow Shrine."

"No, I mean what country am I in?"

"De Ding, a small province in China."

China? China wasn't this backward. Were people wearing robes like Syaoran's or was it Halloween in China?

"Earth to Sakura, come in Sakura."

I stared at Kerberos' cute face and almost cracked up laughing. I'm talking to a battery-run doll, remote controlled by my boss. This was one big hoax because I wanted to quit my job before he could fire me. Okay, that didn't explain how he carried me all the way to the woods. Other people might be in on it. Maybe he enlisted the help of his friend, White Suit.

I grabbed Kerberos from mid-flight, and palpated him. "Okay, where's the battery in this thing. It's here somewhere."

The doll wrenched out of my grasp. "I am not a toy! Don't make me transform into my true form!"

I gulped and turned to leave. "I need a break."

"Wait, Sakura! Read what's on the tablet."

I didn't know why I listened, but hey, I was up there already, so why not? I bent over the tablet and began to read.

"'All the elements of the universe contained in these powers I leave behind. She who inherits the power of the Sun and Moon will be the next in line.'" Talk about equal opportunity here in China. I was expecting 'he,' not 'she'. This sounded like some guy wanted to harness the powers of the Sun and Moon and killed himself in the process of doing just that. Now, he wanted to heft whatever power he contained onto another dope with the latitude to grasp at something that was obviously impossible. Sounded like a circle of bad luck, if you asked me. Or more like a verse from a best-selling fantasy novel.

Kerberos poked me in the side of my neck. "There's more."

With squinted eyes I leveled my head to the bottom of the tablet. I reached out a sleeve to rub off sand covering the tiny letters in the corner. "Key of Clow, power of magic, power of light, surrender the wand, and let the force ignite, release for your Master," I murmured the inscription there.

Just as I did so, I was almost knocked off my feet by an invisible force. I lifted my arms to shield my eyes. All the while, Kerberos was shouting at me to hold out my hands. Crazy flying doll! Why didn't he try holding up his arms and blinding his eyes with this spiking power I couldn't see. I dared to open one eye to see what was going on. I didn't see Kerberos anymore. All that was in front of me was a spinning, pink staff. The head of it was the shape of a red beak with gold edges. Okay, this was, hands down, the weirdest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

I, with the diffidence of a woman who lived twenty-six years in practically what you might call confinement, reached out a hand. The moment I stuck my hand out, the staff smacked my palm as if it was magnetized to me. I closed my fist around the handle and the powerful force slowly dwindled away until only the tips of my hair and the edges of my clothes fluttered away from me. If I had known that reaching for the odd staff in front of me would save me from being blown away I would have done it before Kerberos suggested me to take it.

"That was weird, but awesome," I said. I started twirling the staff like a baton. It was lighter than it looked and I thought it was cute like Kerberos.

"You're the one! For a minute there, after that Brat woke me up, I thought he had said the words. Then, I asked myself why did he not have the key? I was very confused, you see, and I thought it was hopeless. That brat didn't even listen to a word I was telling him. He went right on marching through the task of catching without having much success. He just kept pointing his sword at me and threatening me and accusing me of letting out the Clow Cards!" Kerberos raved.

"Are you talking about Syaoran?"

"I didn't know his name until you started shouting it. It's hard to believe you're associated with a kind like him. You seem much more practical and nice."

I smiled. "Thank you. I wish I could make him appreciate me a little more, but that's like asking for the Sun and Moon."

"You're one step closer towards that goal," Kerberos answered blatantly.

"Come again?"

"You broke the seal." At my blank stare, Kerberos continued. "The one who breaks the seal will be granted the power of the Clow Key and all the Clow Cards she catches with The Key. When you broke the seal you released me and the cards from The Book."

He said it as if all of it made sense. Did I look like I got it? Kerberos caught on to my cluelessness and sighed in resignation.

Black beads for eyes stared unblinkingly at me. "You opened the book, right?"

I stared blankly back at him and answered, "I opened a book that was given to me by the storekeeper at the Clow Book Store. The guy laughed at me when I told him I thought he misspelled clown."

Now it was Kerberos' turn to look confused. "You mean to tell me that you opened the book in Japan when the book has been right at this shrine in China ever since Clow Reed died a century ago."

Oblivious, I nodded. "Who's this Clow guy anyway? A clown?"

"He was the greatest sorcerer of all time. He was the creator of that wand you're holding and the Clow Cards have his name on them. He's absolutely not some court jester if that's what you're implying," Kerberos sniffed disdainfully.

I snorted. "Sounds like a swell guy. Care to tell me what any of this has to do with me?"

"It means you're a card captor. It also means I need to talk to that idiot who's going to get himself killed if we don't stop him. I need to know exactly what he saw when he was here at the shrine."

I followed Kerberos back into the forest. We easily retraced Syaoran's steps. He made it easy because he left a great, big obvious mess to follow. He had cut down a few sapling trees in his path pursuing that apparition I saw earlier.

"That thing you saw was a Clow Card," Kerberos explained as we got closer to the fighting. "You have to catch it with your wand."

"That wasn't a ghost?"

"There's no such thing as ghosts."

"And there's such things as talking, magical dolls," I retorted.

We came out into another clearing where we saw Syaoran fighting the apparition. He was not doing a helpful job of capturing anything at the moment.

"You need to get out more, Sakura. Now, say the words I taught you."

"What words?" I muttered frantically, turning to the apparition who immediately noticed me breaking through the trees. It was floating towards us.

"After everything I said, you still don't believe me?" Kerberos shouted, irritated.

"You're asking me to believe that pigs fly!"

"They can if you use a little magic, but girl, you better say the words and seal that card. If I'm not right about you, then why would The Windy finally show its true form when you appeared behind the bushes? Why would The Windy stop fighting with that brat to follow you around? Why would the book open for you or why would the Clow Key come to you? Get the picture now?"

I turned away from the scowling cute face and confronted the Clow Card thingy. It was all or nothing. "Clow Card, return to your true form! Windy!" She stretched her arms towards me as I raised the wand in front of me. Willowy pieces of her gathered in front of me under the nose of my staff until all that was left was a card. I caught it before it fluttered to the dirt floor. For a moment I only blinked at what was in my hand. Then, I burst with glee.

"Hey, Kero! Your advice actually worked! I actually did it!"

Kero made a grave face. "I'm afraid The Windy has always been the compliant one. The rest of the cards will be a challenge."

"That was pretty cool, nonetheless," I said breathlessly. I felt like I was on cloud nine. I was also relieved that I hadn't been dealing with a ghost. I rather become a card captor than a ghost buster.

Kero ignored me as he flew over to Syaoran. The stuffed animal didn't waste a second in dealing with the warrior. "So, what happened at the shrine before Windy appeared?"

Syaoran turned his dirt smeared face in Kero's direction, "I read the prophecy and a blue beam of light went skyward. Smaller bolts of light fell across the land in all directions before the blue beam disappeared. You came out of the tablet a second later."

"I know you have the book," Kero roared. "Give it back! It belongs to Sakura!"

"I don't have it. There was never a book here."

"If you don't give it back, I swear…"

"Kero, I really don't think he has it," I interceded, jumping between them. I was afraid Syaoran was going to rip off Kero's adorable head. The man certainly intended to, judging by the ferocious look he was giving the guardian.

"I know a liar when I see one," Kero sneered, daring to glare back at Syaoran.

"He doesn't have it," I retort in desperation. "I have it, er, I had it, but now it's gone. It disappeared with the cards."

Kero relaxed. "I only fell asleep for thirty years, Sakura. Did you have to release all of them so quickly?"

I blankly blinked at Kero.

He sighed again and waved a fluffy paw at me. "Never mind. It's expected. He said a century, so here's a century."

"Who said?" Syaoran asked suspiciously.

"Clow Reed!" Kero snapped.

Syaoran made his sword disappear. You know… He just whipped his sword down and it disappeared. I watched him wear it over his neck and tuck it under the front of his tunic. The little illusion had my jaw drop. He stepped forward, so that the three of us stood or hovered in a triangle. "You're the guardian and you're the new master from the prophecy?" He asked, not hiding any doubt in his voice as he pointed at Kero and me.

"Sure thing," Kero answered.

Syaoran groaned. "We're doomed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kero howled.

"It means the world might be forced to rely on a lazy and fat stuffed animal with a clueless and scrawny sidekick."

"I am not a stuffed animal and Sakura has the potential that none of us can ever imagine!"

Syaoran's eyes raked me from head to toe. It made me uneasy, but that sizzled away to outrage the instant he opened his mouth to say, "She has the potential to scare the roaches from under my bed and that's all." He turned around and that was my opportunity. I chucked a fallen branch at the back of his head.

Under his raging gaze I held up my wand. It immediately dropped to the size of a small house key. "You don't know anything about me."

"You tell him, Sakura!" I heard Kero shout.

"I could do anything I put my heart into. I could even do it twice as good as you!"

"Now go for the K.O.!"

"You're just an average phony educated in suave!" I ended with a stomp of my foot.

I was walking up to Syaoran and yanking out one of his hands from their crossed position. Meanwhile Kero was asking in a fit of outrage, "What are you doing, Sakura?"

"I told you once that I wasn't going to get walked on by you and I mean it." I jammed the key into his palm with emphasis. "I'm never going to be anyone's crony if I live and breathe to see the next day of the rest of my life. I never go back on my word."

"Give that back!" Kero hollered. Syaoran just stood there, dumbfounded, with the key in his hand. Before Kero could snatch it away Syaoran pulled back his hand and started talking to me again.

"Who are you? Why are you talking to me like I know you?"

There was much more noise closing in from all sides of us, which brought our conversation to an abrupt halt. It made my heart race in panic. The shadows in the trees turned into real men with spears, swords, and bows. This was getting out of hand, I thought to myself.

"You! We banished you from this area a month ago. How dare you return to disturb us?" The familiar man who stood out from the crowd shouted at us. I spotted my brother, the one who had been speaking, leading the armed mob to where Syaoran, Kero, and I stood. I realized he was addressing Syaoran, "You consort with ilk like you now?"

Offended, I yelled at my brother, "Touya, you take that back or I'll make you live to regret it. Still, I'm so glad to see you," I said running up to hug him. I felt him freeze when I touched him.

"Have we met?" He asked, the moment I pulled away and smiled at him.

My jaw dropped, but I recovered quickly. "Stop kidding, Touya. The hoax's up. I get it. Hahaha…"

Kero kept shaking 'no' with his head. I immediately dropped my arms to my side and stepped back. "I'm sorry! You remind me of someone I know back home."

He raised an eyebrow. "A friend?"

I tittered as I looked to Kero for some support. "Yeah…"

"She just touched you without your permission, Governor. Aren't you going to dismember her hands?" Syaoran suggested sarcastically, so eager to put my head-no, fingers-on the chopping block. I bit a knuckle as I stared at my brother, the Governor of De Ding, I was guessing.

"Stop it you two," the only female in the mob reprimanded. "You two haven't talked for a month and still vying for an upper hand." A young woman around my age stepped into the fray. She had raven hair that hung to her hips and eyes the color of violets. Her porcelain skin was slowly turning pink as she frowned at Touya and Syaoran.

Touya shook his head at the woman. "Tomoyo, you don't belong out here. Get back to the house."

"Silence, Touya. Don't baby a grown woman," she warned. I was ready to swallow down my knuckle at that moment because that was the first time I saw a woman have constrain over my brother. This guy was not my brother though, I reminded myself.

"Tomoyo, please," he murmured, affectionately.

Tomoyo ignored Touya and ran straight to Syaoran, throwing her arms around his neck. I was taken aback. I jumped to the side a bit to get out of the way. It was just so obvious that those two were involved and Touya didn't look too grateful about it.

"How was the trip? Did much soul searching?" Tomoyo asked Syaoran, who remained as cold as ice and as mute as a statue.

I looked over some heads to see Kero wildly gesturing at me to run. Run while they've got me surrounded on all fronts? Great idea, Kero. He obviously wanted me to sneak out of this mob, which would have been a nice thing if I hadn't felt lost and alone with the absence of people, mob or not. Believe it or not, Syaoran and Touya being here made that much of a difference. I didn't want to leave the buffer of comfort they offered, even though neither of them recognized me. Who bumped whose head?

I spoke out, then. "I want to go home. Will someone help me?"

Everyone looked at me, including the pretty, no, I mean beautiful girl with her arms around Syaoran. "Did this monster steal you away from your homeland, Stranger?" Touya asked calmly.

"No, but they're forcing me to do something I don't want to do."

Kero yelped. "Sakura, what are you saying? It's your destiny!"

"Before I met any of you, I only had one destiny and that was to treat myself well! Kero, you can't just throw things at me and expect me to catch. Syaoran can't make me stick around either," I stated bluntly.

"If he's forcing you to do anything against your will, I'll put a stop to it at once," Touya promised. He wasn't even looking at me because he was too busy staring at the beautiful girl and my boss.

"He bullies me and forces me to do things I don't want to do. He's the worst employer ever!"

"That's nonsense! You have obviously lost your mind, you twit," Syaoran barked.

"I concur with the 'nonsense' bit, Lady Sakura. That doesn't sound like the Syaoran I know," Tomoyo said quietly.

"Sorry sister. I hate to break it to you, but your boyfriend has anger problems," I stage whispered as she came up beside me. She started inspecting me like I was some sort of art display. She picked up my arm and circled me with a critical eye.

"I concur to that as well, but Lady Sakura I'm not a nun. I've know Syaoran since we were children. He would never force a lady like your self to do his bidding."

I caught Kero slapping his forehead. He started tugging at his ears in frustration, too.

"Your attire's most peculiar. This must be some new Japanese style?" Tomoyo asked in wonder, a delicate frown marring her lovely face.

I looked at the dirty blue blouse I wore to work today. My matching beige jacket was gone. I looked down at the dirt-smudged beige slacks I had on. My clothes were quite ruined. I looked like I just farmed all day for a living. I glanced at Tomoyo in her silk pale purple robe with intricate flowers and leaves. Her touching me made me feel vile. I was tainting a flower while she was being the curious spectator of some foreign art form.

"I'm not necessarily the trendiest of Japanese where I come from," I said.

"That mustn't be the case. If you're traveling with Syaoran, then it does not surprise anyone that you're smeared in dirt," Tomoyo said as a matter of fact.

"She wasn't traveling with me. We just met," Syaoran muttered, avoiding eye contact with me.

Syaoran faced Touya and the rest of the crowd. "I just met that stuffed animal and this foreigner from another land. All of you are looking at the prophecy's new Master of the Clow Cards and her Sun Guardian Kerberos."

"You're the new Master?" Touya looked at me like I was some sort of miracle. That was new.

"No, I'm not."

"Show them the card," Syaoran ordered.

I felt Tomoyo hugging my arm to her side as I grimaced at Kero. "I don't have to if I don't want to."

"I believe Syaoran. She's the one," Tomoyo murmured breathlessly.

Her eyes shone as she gawked at me. It was the most unnerving thing ever. "She has her reason for not showing us. Quickly, we must welcome the new Master and her Guardian. Let us prepare a feast. You may stay at our house," Tomoyo said, dragging me through the woods.

We went and behind me I could hear Touya complain. "Let the poor girl go. She's going to fall down. She's not another doll you can dress up for your dinner parties…"

Who would have thunk it? I found solace in all this chaos with the slight pressure of Kero's plush bottom on my shoulder.


Dun. Dun. Duuuuun. That was not a cliffy, so I have no idea why I made that noise just now. Please review. I f you like, then you should favorite, alert or both.

Best,

MW