Greetings, everybody. It's another day in CCS world. I want to take a moment of silence for the lives lost from the random acts of mass violence that has been going on around this world.
…
With the Olympics being the epitome of the world's attention , it's the one good and exciting thing that's happening. I enjoy the kind of healthy and sportsmanlike competition the Olympics has to offer. It challenges the body mentally and physically like nothing else does. I thought a lot about this as I continue to develop the rivalry and camaraderie of this Syaoran and Sakura pair in the following chapter. I feel like a champion (not at the medaling level, yet) myself having finally finished chapter 5. When your through, please review.
Love,
M. Wing
"Chapter 5"
Touya could be such a ferocious bear even when he wasn't really my brother! See, this was what happened after Tomoyo, Kero, and I risked our lives to catch The Watery. If I do recall correctly, I blacked out from pure exhaustion and lack of sleep after I returned The Watery to its card form. I must have slept that night and the entire day after that because when I woke up the bear was there to snarl and roar at me. Did you know, for a fact, that the Governor shared the same ugly mug as my stupid bro? Well, how about that? I turned over in my bed even as he kept snorting about how stupid the Clow Mistress was throwing herself into danger before thinking about the consequences.
He went on for a lengthy hour until I was tired of hearing his voice. "Hey, I got out of that in one piece. Isn't that what counts here?"
He glowered as he crossed his big arms over his expansive chest. Meanwhile, this squeaky voice inside my head was saying; when I grow up I'm going to squish you, demented rodent… I never did grow big enough even if I did grow. In actuality I stopped growing ten human years ago.
"It doesn't matter what counts or not," he said rather evenly, "What matters is that you play it safe, so you don't kill yourself before you capture all the cards. Is that clear?"
The governor was walking all over my borrowed home turf! The nerve of him! I felt angry tears well in my eyes as he left me alone to think murderous thoughts of him.
"He gets emotionally unstable when he's stressed out. It's his way of showing he really cares," Tomoyo offered, smiling like a sweet angel.
"Your cousin is an idiot. I never want to speak to him again!"
"He suffers a little from Card Captor Sakura Complex," Tomoyo added, grinning full force.
"He is absolutely the same person as my brother! Barbaric. Loud. Rude. Stupid. The works!" I bounced up and down to express my intolerance for such a man.
"You mean the man, your only brother, Touya… Sakura, doesn't this Touya make you forget you're not alone? They are so similar you feel like you've never left Japan, right?"
Tomoyo immediately clamped her lips shut, seeing that my angry face had vanished. "That's enough about homes! What would you like for dinner? I'll have it brought up, so you don't have to face your brother…"
"He's not…" I started.
Tomoyo shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't see it that way."
I had days of rest to recuperate. Not that I needed days, so I spent those boring days wondering where Syaoran had disappeared to. The last time I had seen him was when he laughed at how I was catching The Jump. At remembering that incident; who cared where he was? He was no help so far.
The boring days couldn't be filled with the usual TV and internet. I blamed that on the time period. I had guessed that I thrived on my being the Card Captor here in this world. There was nothing else I could do other than chase after magical creatures I could sort of understand a little. Kero tried to fill some of those boring hours with me by showing me a few magic tricks.
I handed him the five cards and watched him do some 'rudimentary reading' from the five cards that we had caught so far.
"Forests," he said, which could mean anything ranging from there being a Clow Card in the forest to the forest being the tomb of the second Clow Master. This wasn't very helpful at all for interpreting those reoccurring dreams.
"You've only got five of them and this is the best we can do with just five," he explained, annoyed by my acerbic pokes at him and his magical abilities. "Whatever you can dish, girl, powers me up, so there."
"So the stronger I get, the stronger you get?"
"Precisely," he nodded sagely for emphasis.
I chuckled and reached for him. I grabbed and stretched out his cotton arms. "Well, buddy, I should go hunting for Clow Cards so you can become the almighty Keroberos for all of us."
I swung out of bed and got dressed.
"Doesn't matter how many cards you catch. In order for me to transform into my true form, you have to catch The Firey. My element is the Sun and fire is related to the Sun," Kero told me.
"I'll try not to let you down."
We marched down the stairs. The first guest room I had occupied was fixed, but I had no plans of moving back there. The downstairs furniture that needed replacements had been replaced. I skipped the dining room and strode to the front door. Kero was complaining about everything and I wasn't paying him any care as I opened the front door to go.
A loud roar of nonsense from a crowd the size of the province had me slamming the door shut again. Kero and I exchanged blank looks, but we didn't say anything. I shook my head and tried the door again. My ears met the noise of the snappy crowd once more.
I slammed the door shut a second time and said, "I'm definitely not hallucinating. Kero, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"They're in our way," Kero replied.
I opened the door and came out holding my arms over my head. I was not going to raise my voice when everyone was talking at the same time. My arm waving technique was not working. This was a time like those other times when I wished Touya wasn't at his office meeting with the officials. This was a time like those other times when I wished Tomoyo wasn't shopping for new fabrics for clothes. She usually would be home at this time to deal with messes of this grand nature.
Kero's deafening whistle made me duck for cover. The multiple voices stopped shouting over one another. After a minute, I got up from my crouched position and blinked at the millions and billions of pairs of eyes staring at me. People, I should have said, I suffer from a massive, debilitating case of stage fright, so you should all save me from the humiliation and disperse… I wasn't able to say any of that. Maybe I was able to utter a squawk that I, never in a million years, would have recognized as my own.
Didn't this crowd know that if they wanted an audience with the Governor and his officials, they would find them at the government building? Thank God for Sun Guardians who came in the forms of plush dolls for that. "Governor Touya could be reached at the office," Kero said.
The murmurings rose to an incoherent roar from the crowd.
Kero shook his head. "Silence! Speak one at a time! You! Talk!"
The man Kero pointed at shouted over the heads in front of him, "We came to speak to you and the Clow Mistress."
Kero bellowed for him to stop and he did. Kero paused to collect his patience. I truly admired him for that. He handled the situation like any fine leader might, but that left the whole place eerily quiet.
A woman raised her hand. She didn't speak until I pointed at her. "My son came back from the forest claiming he saw a one-eyed demon."
Another stepped out, "I saw a ghost with red eyes."
"Hairy legs!"
"Slime covered!"
"Fire spirit!"
"A beheaded maiden!"
I shriveled even though I was not standing under the sunlight. I shriveled to the point of falling back into the house. I locked the front door, leaving Kero to protect the entry from the outside. I had heard the citizens start begging for my help, but I could not shake out of my shell-mode. Soon Kero flew in through the open window and slammed it shut behind him.
"I was still out there, for your information. Those people are terrified to death!"
"Not as terrified as me," I grumbled, turning away from him and the muffled shouting at my door.
"Demons and ghosts. Again, they are what you are most afraid of."
"Get this straight, Kero!" I snapped. "Little, magical beings with emotional problems who each hold an itty-bitty living space in a card I can understand a little about, but undead spirits coming from who-knows-where I won't ever understand. Any moron would know not to match himself up with something he can't ever measure."
"Ah, so I guess you're going to just scamper into bed, scared."
"I actually will," I said without looking at him.
"You might save them from dehydration, but saving them from drowning is something else."
That made me pause. "Now why would people drown?"
"The Lake at the heart of the forest has been the recreational cleansing area for the people here since the deceased Master Clow Reed's birth. The supposed ghost now haunts this very lake."
I dared to peak over at his smug face. "I hate you," I said under my breath.
I would go to this darn haunted lake, but I'd drag my feet and no one could stop me from that even if they spooked the life out me. I hugged my wand tightly to my chest as I marched in the dark and gloomy forest.
"How far?" I asked Kero up ahead.
"Just a little further. It's a long walk through the forest, but it's less shady at the lake. You'll notice that once we arrive."
Moments like these called for shelter and guardian angels. More light didn't keep ghosts in hiding. They took pleasure in walking about and blending in with the living in broad daylight. Back home, sometimes I could definitely feel them.
Once we reached the lake we circled the perimeter. I kept my eyes glued to the line dividing the grass and the crystal clear water as I followed Kero. He had made a full circle around the lake and stopped where we had started.
"Okay, nothing's amiss," I started abruptly.
"Not so fast, Missy. The problem isn't out here, but in there." He directed his paw out to the stretch of water.
I shuddered and stared out into the lake. "We should just put an 'Out of Service' sign for the public," I muttered.
"If you're not going to check it out, maybe you can help send me down."
"What are you going to do down there by yourself? You're powerless," I answered, pointedly.
"I can at least search for what we're up against."
I chose The Watery card to form a bubble of water around me.
"Excellent choice," Kero said, "The Watery will give you many minutes of breathing time under water. Come up if you don't see anything. We will look again later."
I jumped into the pool and slowly sunk to the lake floor. It was unnaturally bright in the water as if there was something emitting light. I turned in my bubble, not sure of what I was supposed to find. After a minute, I paused at the sound of lapping waves behind me. I turned slowly and looked up to see.
I released a bubble of air without realizing it. "Mom? Dad?"
My parents beamed at me. I felt myself floating towards their outstretched arms and wavering smiles. "Mom and Dad," I sighed, as I broke from my bubble and fell into their protective arms. It didn't matter that I couldn't breathe. They were here!
I was accepting my parents' unrelenting love when I felt a hand seize my shoulder. In seconds, I was abruptly towed up to the surface. Someone was dragging me out of the water. At the shallow end, I felt an arm go under my knees and another arm circle my shoulders. I was being carried back to shore before I could help my parents or figure out what they needed. Why were their ghosts stuck in the real world?
I struggled against the person carrying me away from the lake.
"Stop it!" He bellowed, but I didn't listen. I kept flailing and shoving. I wanted to go back in.
He dropped me to the forest floor and roughly grabbed the side of my neck. He had no idea he also caught some of my hair in his grasp, which hurt like hell! His other hand pushed into my stomach. His muscled leg pressed my leg down and his knee fell to the floor between my thighs. As I struggled his hand pressed hard against my neck forcing me to look up.
I stared into Syaoran's amber orbs. His face was so near, I thought I was having this horrible nightmare of being assaulted by my boss. He glared at me as if I was a menace to society and he was the good cop out to take me down. With the positioning of his hand on my neck there was no way I could break away from his wide-eyed stare.
"Are you alright?" He finally asked in a ragged breath, holding fiercely onto my gaze. I needed this, I guess, in order to tell the difference between the real and the fake.
I nodded. I was going to say something. However, when I opened my mouth to speak, the way his eyes dropped to my lips made all the words in me die. My body felt like white hot fire was consuming it even after that cold dunk I just experienced.
"Sakura! Are you okay?" Kero's question was only an echo in my head.
At the sound of his voice though, Syaoran sprung off of me. I slowly rolled out of consciousness as I watched a ring of flames rise around me. Behind my closed eyelids I saw the orange flames curling around me as they flirted with the idea of touching me the way Syaoran had. Syaoran. Darn that bastard! Where had he been up until now! With that angry thought in mind and the feel of the fire warming me bone-deep, I drifted sleepily into that same dream I've been having every night.
This time I woke just before the light blinded me and the fire at my throat occurred. I jumped a little in my sleep, sitting up so suddenly I was sure that what disoriented me was the fact that I came up too fast and not because I had been sleeping on moss and rocks. I glanced over at the man resting, with his back facing me, in a hammock tied between two trees. That was Syaoran. Then I took a second to look around at the small flickering flames around me. Lastly, I chanced a long stare out into the lake. The lake was a breathtaking sight to swallow. It glittered with the reflection of the stars in the midnight sky. My wide eyes scanned the forest before landing on a bright pair of amber eyes staring intently back at me. I was startled speechless. People like Syaoran took my frightened look as a compliment. It meant that he was as ferocious as he aimed to be.
Syaoran slipped off the hammock and approached me. Silently he handed me a slice of bread and a canteen of water. As I feasted, he stomped out the remainder of the flames around me.
Swallowing was hard and talking was even harder. I croaked, "It felt like the fire was healing me."
"It was as I intended. I used the fire element to push out the cold."
"Thank you…"
"You Twit!" He made me recoil a little with his outburst. "You shouldn't expose your injured leg to cold and dampness."
"Yeah, I should have thought about infection." I laughed to myself at the bewildered frown he gave me. I forgot. These guys believed that diseases came from evil spirits. You know, the sound of evil spirits taking over your bodily functions had not sounded as farfetched as it sounded two weeks ago. Nothing was considered abnormal anymore in my book. Someone could tell me the sky was falling tomorrow and I would nod in consent. Keep an open mind, that's what I learned.
"You were asleep a second ago," he grumbled.
"Yeah. Where's Kero?"
"He went to fetch the governor. They won't be back 'til morning, earliest."
I momentarily looked away. "Oh, I was going to tell him about a detail that changed in my dream."
I took Syaoran's silence as marginal interest and continued casually, "Not only was the flight from Touya's house to the pagoda shorter in distance and time, but this time someone was standing at the door." I brought my thumbs and forefingers together to create a frame with my hands. I looked through the window I created with my hands and spoke solemnly, "I couldn't see who it was, but I heard a bell." I dropped my hands to my lap and finished with a heavy sigh, "It ended before it happened again."
"What usually happens?" He asked carefully.
"I die," I said. It startled me that I could say it so easily without my voice breaking. Don't get me wrong. I hate to die so young, but I think I've come to my senses a little. I was not going to give in to death; not because I was trying to be cavalier. I've survived plenty of close calls and I'd probably have to survive some more, but I seemed to be gaining a lot more than confidence through these experiences. I was building the way for myself without consciously thinking about it. Wasn't this something that years on top of years in training accomplished?
I got up and stretched my muscles. Everything and I mean everything cracked. I moved to the edge of the lake and stopped at Syaoran's severe order. "We are not to approach whatever it is that lives down there until daylight."
"I'm not stupid," I muttered turning on my heels and walking back to where he sat. He had great posture. It must have taken him years to master his posture.
"If that were true, then a very competent woman would constantly try to drown herself," he snorted derisively.
"For your information," I stared at him, my legs spread in a defiant stance, "I was trying to save my parents."
At his blank stare I rolled my eyes.
"You know… The kind of people who give birth to littler people. Those people. They are called parents," I said, cautiously slow. "Logically, everyone wants to save the people they care about."
"If they were truly your parents, do you think they would hurt you?" He suddenly asked.
"If they weren't my parents, pray tell who you think they might be."
"I don't know," he answered softly, as he dropped onto his back. "I've been thinking about it all day while you snored."
"I don't snore!" I exclaimed indignantly.
"Take the hammock. I don't want that stupid governor on my back for mistreating his infant protégé."
"Infant!" I fumed.
"Shut up and sleep! If you insist I could carry you again," he ended calmly.
I all but scurried over by the trees next to the hammock. "I get it!" I called as I lay on my back. This was the first time I was sleeping in a hammock. I could really get used to this.
I could never get enough sleep in this strange world. As I was dazedly drifting off again, I felt something land on me. It was a sheet, to be more precise. I opened my eyes in surprise and turned my head to watch Syaoran's back as he stomped to a tree. He slumped over a root and glared at me. "What are you smiling about, Twit. Go to sleep!"
He could be rude, short-tempered, and evasive, but I knew how he really was deep, deep, deep, down inside. I'd keep what I knew about him a secret because I wouldn't want him thinking I actually liked him as a person. When you start complimenting people about anything of theirs they get the wrong idea. Since I'm from a completely different era and eventually I was needed back home again, I was not going to do any close friendship bonding thing with a guy who barely deserved such attention from me. Really. That's just the pragmatist talking and you could never disagree with her. At least you should not choose to disagree with her.
Dreamless sleep, now that's something agreeable. I slept without having that awful dream. This was probably because I had it already. This was probably the most sensible explanation. Nevertheless, nothing could explain why I would suddenly wake at the crack of dawn. It was probably because of my growling stomach. And the fact that Syaoran was no where in sight! Jeez!
I rolled out of the hammock and landed in a pile of limbs and scratchy blanket. Growling, I kicked the offending sheet and finally got to my feet.
Syaoran suddenly spoke up, "Your cavalry will be arriving soon. I suggest we spend most of our morning working to stop this sorcery under the water."
I stumbled a little and plopped down beside him as he split some bread. I was hoping to get the biggest piece, but he handed me a small piece. He took a bite-size himself and wrapped the rest of it away.
"How the hell do you get so buff with no protein?" I grilled, jealous of his masculinity, believe it or not.
Syaoran gathered a pile of sticks and dropped them in front of me. Then he ordered me to build a ring around the campfire with a few stones he gathered. I was weighing the remainder stones in my hands while I was watching him do that neat trick with his sword.
Syaoran yanked at the leather string around his neck. There was a flash of light before you saw the sword in his hand. He pulled the dead bunny and started skinning it. I wouldn't have eaten the bunny if I saw how he killed it and skinned it, but my stomach beat reason. I wasn't going to pass up bunny for the sake of my morals. I tried to avoid watching him work by busying myself with the stones.
I finished too soon and I looked up too soon because I accidentally saw him spear the rabbit through the mouth to the other end with a pointy stick. I might have vomited if I had any food in my stomach.
He was a pro and I would never say something like this lightly. He had to set his blade down for a second to set up the little makeshift campfire crane to hold the bunny-on-stick. I was watching with mouth wide open as he picked up his sword again and touched the tip of the blade against the pile of sticks. He murmured something and the fire blazed to life.
"That was totally awesome!" I exclaimed.
"You, the wielder of Clow Cards, find that astonishing," he stated, annoyance blazing in his eyes.
"Well, it must have taken you years to train your magical talents."
"Maybe you are not as deserving of Master Clow Reed's magic as you claim yourself to be," he sneered back.
I frowned, turning my nose at him. "I never claimed I was good."
"Then, what was that about proving a point to me?"
"Whoa, whoa, Syaoran, hold your horses." At his bizarre look, I figured he had never heard anyone use the expression. "When I was talking to you back then, I thought you really were my boss. You know… The man I worked for in the twenty-first century. You two are like two peas in a pod, I'm telling you." I tapped my fingers together to emphasize my meaning. "He was a real pain-in-the-you-know-what. He pushed me around and told me to do impossible things. There was this one time he made me buy something for his girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?"
I laughed at his perplexed face. "You know… His lover."
His eyes looked too big for his face and a tinge of red colored his cheekbones. "This man you speak of who resembles me, has a lover. You. You are not his lover?"
Now it was my turn to blush. "Now that's absurd! I can't even imagine being his friend, so lover is totally out of the question!" I cleared my throat and gave him a rueful look. I was getting sidetracked from the story… "Anyway, he made me buy a gift for his date and didn't give me a price range. All he said was," I paused to clear my throat and imitate Syaoran's bossy voice, 'Sakura, pick a nice gift that a woman desires.' Jeez, all I had was 'desire' and 'nice'; how was I supposed to work off of those less than descriptive words. I had to work with very little and I assumed pricey was okay, so I went out and bought some diamonds and sapphires. I didn't really care for the price tag, but he hated the gift and told me to return it. Seller's policy was no returns unless paid in cash. I didn't have ten thousand in cash when I went shopping for his date's present, so this policy ended up putting me in debt. I agreed to pay it off by working overtime."
"You should have asked him about the value of the gift he wanted you to buy before making the final purchase."
"Syaoran, this man is made out of the kind of money that you and I don't have. He is the alpha in the financial world."
Syaoran smiled. "Sounds like quite the male. What warrior class is he?"
I wanted to throw something at his grinning face. No wonder the two were so hideously alike I couldn't tell them apart out of time.
Anyway, I ate bunny for the first time in my life.
"Rabbit," he corrected me.
"You know, this meat would be good for stew, too. Rabbit stew!" I never had that before, but I was willing to try it.
It was getting late in the morning when indeed, Kero would return with some rescuers. Not likely, I should have known. He only brought Tomoyo along.
Tomoyo flung herself at me and nearly strangled me in her worry. "Thank goodness you live!" She turned from me and strangled Syaoran next. "Thank you, Syaoran, for saving her!"
"Good to see you back," Kero stated beside me.
"Good to be back."
"Touya did not return home from work last night, but I insisted that Kero bring me to where you were straightaway once daylight broke. Only I could see to your proper treatment. That was what I thought, but how wrong was I. Syaoran would make the perfect healer if he wasn't so keen on killing the…" Tomoyo drifted off in the middle of her sentence.
"Better we deal with the water problem, so you ladies can return home before dark," Syaoran said roughly, stalking off towards the lake.
I waited for him to move far enough before I turned expectant eyes to Tomoyo. "Keen on killing what?"
"Keen on killing who," Tomoyo corrected me. "I think his story is for him to tell. Not I." Tomoyo followed Syaoran, which only left Kero and me, the last ones, at the campsite.
"Try to concentrate, Sakura. We need to put our heads together," he said.
I shook the questions out of my head and took Kero's advice to heart. As I followed Tomoyo I asked, "Should I try The Watery again?"
"Absolutely not!" Kero shouted in dismay. "Think of something else."
Soon we were at the edge of the lake again. Syaoran had taken out his sword and was casting his spells. I watched in awe, as the center of the pool began to churn.
"That's strong magic coming from him…" Kero whispered in my ear.
Was I supposed to feel threatened? This was Syaoran; the guy who saved me from a early wet grave. If I should feel anything, it would be relief that I had such a close ally to aid me. He knew the ropes to this magical world and how to deal with anything magically related. I could learn a lot from him that Kero could not teach me.
At some point, I realized that Syaoran was using the water element to control the movement of the water. The whirlpool in the center of the lake expanded, bubbling and spinning at the same speed it took Syaoran to wave his sword and arm. It was a powerful sight, watching this man move water with his spiraling motions.
"Look!" Tomoyo shouted, pointing to something bouncing up the waves around the whirlpool. "What's that?"
The Moon and Sun symbol in a detailed circle appeared before us. "I know that!" I shouted.
"It's a Clow Card," Kero confirmed to us.
Syaoran suddenly ceased his spell. I was the first to notice him slow to a halt and gaze at the Clow Card.
"Syaoran, look out!" Tomoyo warned.
The wave that had risen from the opposite end of the lake was slowly coming down. Soon it would crash over Syaoran if he didn't get out of his trance and stop staring at the Clow Card. He was motionless and apparently inept at hearing as well.
I stepped forward and released The Watery from her card. My magic managed to push the wave down. I watched in fear as Syaoran took another step into the Lake. Naturally, I was trying to reach him from where I was, but Kero stopped me by flying in front of my path.
"Stop, Sakura! If you get too close you might get drawn into the illusion again," he warned.
I told Tomoyo to take cover before turning to face this new Clow Card. I used The Watery to bind it, so that I could pull it out of the water and onto the dry beach, away from Syaoran. When it got close enough, I saw my parents again. They were smiling, their sugar-coated grins almost melting me. When I was on the brink of succumbing to the spell again Syaoran's voice asked me, 'If they were truly your parents, do you think they would hurt you?'
"No, they would not," I answered the question in the magic saturated air. I opened my eyes wider to better see my opponent. "Let's go Clow Card! Show me your true form!"
The vision of my parents wavered and dissolved leaving an enchanting woman standing in the mist. Her blonde curls billowed in a magical wind that swirled only around me and her. Our eyes met and instinctively, I raised my wand. "Clow Card, return to your power confined. Illusion!"
I captured a serene smile from her before strips of her pealed in the wind. Left floating in the mist between where she had stood and where I stood was a card. Only half aware of bringing the card to my possession I turned to Syaoran, who was already trudging furiously by me. He walked around me as if I did not exist.
"Syaoran," he didn't stop and just kept walking even at the evident urgency in my tone of voice. "Syaoran, what did you see?"
An answer from him did not come as easily as answers from me. When Syaoran walked away from us, I felt the walls build up around us. These walls weren't made up of metaphysical years of loneliness and fortified distrust, but these walls were made out of the physical parts of a forest; vines, branches, leaves, flowers, and shadows. Tomoyo came to my side and said my name quietly.
Further away, Kero took on a different tone. Kero actually yelled my name. My muscles tensed automatically. I turned to my left, right, front, and back. Indeed, walls did come up from the earth.
"What?" I gasped. Tomoyo grabbed my hand at the same time I grabbed hers. I could see Kero flying towards us, but it was too late. The last wall came up, still shaking in the ground even after it had finished growing. This was not a figure of speech. Real walls now divided three parties. Syaoran, who was in front of me, was now behind one wall. Kero, who had been behind me, was also behind another wall.
Tomoyo and I were boxed in except for an opening to my left. Tomoyo's hand squeezed my hand; for reassurance and for anchoring my fleeing sanity. Boy, was I glad to have her around for this leg of the journey. I was not ready for another crazy adventure, but I don't think Clow Cards were considerate enough to think of me.
