HTML1DocumentEncodingwindows-1252GeneratorMicrosoft Works 4.0RECAP: Last chap Sakura was playing her nintendo when Link-the main character in Zelda- somehow got transported into her house. Sakura and Syaoran try to figure out how to send Link back. They are at Syaoran’s house with Meilin when Ganondorf (main bad guy in Zelda) showed up. They end up going to a factory house where Ganondorf has made his own little castle with all the bad guys in there. Sakura almost died, then Syaoran almost died, then Meilin ran away from them cause she was mad cause they said `something about her not having magic. She gets magic out of Ganondorf’s thing and tries to use it to send Link back and be a hero, but it backfires, that’s where this starts.

Chapter 17

Sakura groped for something to hang on to, but there was nothing to balance herself on. Only the currents of energy whizzed by as she fell, down, down, though she wasn’t really falling at all, because there was no up or down in this portal she was in. Her mind swam as she fell directionless.

Suddenly she felt gravity lurch under her. She was only half aware as she fell through a roof that she was actually in a solid world. The wood slammed into her back, and Sakura fell to a dusty earth floor. Her body ached incredibly, but nothing was beyond bearing, and she was able to adjust her eyes to the room’s dim light.

She was in a small red barn, with cows on each side of her in their stalls. Sakura stood up, frowning. What just happened? I was fighting Ganondorf and then...and then... Sakura could just barely remember a black vacuum of darkness that had enclouded her. And then I was in that black cloud...so where am I now? A cow barn... Sakura stepped out of the barn and gasped as she looked at the expanse of fields in front of her. Is this... "Hyrule?" Sakura said out loud, looking across the field. Where is Syaoran? Where is Link? Am I all alone?

Fear started to take her. She didn’t want to be alone here, there was so many bad things roaming around! I can take this, nothing I can’t handle. I lived through Alice in Wonderland when I was only in fifth grade, I am three years older and much more experienced. I need to stop depending on people. She shut the door behind her and started walking the dirt path along the field. She could see the amazing landscape of every element; moutains in the distance, the shore of a lake far away, a river running in the east, a distant city, a large forest. At least I’ll get to see some good scenery.

Sakura continued on the path, heading towards the city. Maybe Link and Syaoran got sucked into the vacuum too, they just got put in different places. It’s worth a try, they’d probably go to a place with alot of people if they were looking for me.

_______________________________________________________________________

Syaoran, only a few miles away, squinted at the figure he saw in the far distance. With the clear sky and the high point he was at on the hill, he could see for the majority of the field. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but he knew he wasn’t in Japan anymore, and that was enough to go on for a while. No where on earth has all of these elements in one landscape. Where am I?

He walked swiftly forward, toward the distant figure. A few miles came and went, and the space between the two travelers slowly started to enclose. The distant figure turned their head and looked back, noticing Syaoran for the first time. They completly turned around and started walking toward Syaoran directly, and traveling went much more quickly. Once he was close enough, Syaoran slowly recognized the figure. He jogged over to her, almost smiling. "Hey Sakura!" He said, happy to see her well and not with Link.

Sakura was incredibly releived, she hadn’t been sure if she should meet this person or not, because she couldn’t be sure if it was an enemy or a friend. "I am so happy to see you!" She said gladly. "Are you alright, I mean, you didn’t get dropped through a roof like me?"

Syaoran frowned. "You fell through a roof?" He asked.

Sakura shrugged. "I’m alright now, it wasn’t that sturdy, really. Hylian architecture isn’t exactly up to date."

"Hylian?"

"Hyrule- you know, like Zelda stuff?" Sakura said.

"Zelda- you mean...you mean we are inside Zelda?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura nodded. "I’m not sure- could a spell backfire? Just before we got pulled into the black stuff, I heard someone’s voice saying something in a language I didn’t understand. Maybe they were trying to send us here, I don’t know."

"Great." Syaoran dryly.

"Well I think we should look for Link, I mean, he’d know this land best." Sakura said.

Syaoran’s face darkened. "I think we can find a spell by ourselves."

Sakura shrugged. "He did help us a whole lot." After a few minutes of silence, she sighed and continued. "Either way, I was heading to the city, I think we could find some stuff out there."

Syaoran nodded. "Alright, that’s a good idea."

They walked quietly beside each other for a while, when suddenly the sky darkened and the sun set within a minute or so. Syaoran looked at the setting sun with surprise. "Hylian time," Sakura said, "Is much quicker than ours. If I am correct, a wolf will howl ( a wolf howls) and then little skeleton things will pop out of the ground. We can’t stay in this field!"

A weird grinding noise came from behind, then a comical looking skeleton started ambling towards them. Syaoran took his sword out and easily cut him down, well aware that Sakura was watching him. "No problem." He said, turning around.

Sakura hurried over to his side and stood closely. "Um, look-" She pointed behind him where about twenty other skeletons were now making their way towards them.

"Can’t we use the Light card or something?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura took her cards out. "Light card, destroy these enemies!" Light poured out of her card, and the skeletons quickly burrowed back into the ground. Light came back to her card, and Sakura smiled at it with satisfaction.

Once the light was completly absent, the skeletons came back up, this time in greater numbers. Sakura looked uncertainly at Syaoran. "How about we go to the ranch?" Sakura asked, backing away.

"What ranch?" Syaoran asked, gluing his eyes on the advancing foes.

"It’s right over there, come on." Sakura said, pulling on his arm.

Syaoran let Sakura run ahead, as he hung around for some sword training. Syaoran slashed at the skeletons with almost a smile on his face, taking down five before tearing himself away from the game and jogging after Sakura.

They reached the entrance to the ranch and followed its high walls in. The walls turned into the high walls of houses that were built into it, and a large barn. "Was this the one you fell in?" Syaoran asked.

"No. I don’t know who’s barn I fell in, I hope they aren’t too mad about the hole in their roof." Sakura said.

Syaoran shrugged. "So why don’t those skeletons pop out here?"

Sakura shook her head. "I am not sure, they don’t in the game, either."

Syaoran walked forward, then came close to grinning as he saw the large fencing ahead, holding in numerous horses of different shapes. "Let’s go get one!" He said excitedly.

Sakura looked over at the horses sadly. Not another horse. Well last time, it wasn’t that bad, though Syaoran was controlling the horse. She shrugged.

Syaoran sprinted ahead, and Sakura didn’t think she had ever seen him actually get excited like this before. She jogged reluctantly after him, then climbed over the gate. Syaoran was already petting one horse. He put his arms on it’s back, jumped up, and vaulted into place.

"Syaoran you don’t have any reins- or...or anything!" Sakura said, not remembering the correct term for it.

"I don’t know where the horse’s bridles are, beside, I think they know how to ride around by leg yeilds." Syaoran said, turning the horse without any hands.

"With what?" Sakura asked, confused.

Syaoran put the horse into a fast speed, though he rode it smoothly. "A leg yeild- pushing on them with your leg." Syaoran called back as he took the horse around the outer fencing and then took the horse over a jump that was set up within the pasture. Syaoran slowed down, how Sakura didn’t know, in front of her and hopped down. "Try her." He said breathlessly.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Right, I can’t even ride a horse with a saddle and those rein thingys, and you expect me to use leg yeilders or whatever. I don’t think so."

Syaoran sighed, as if remembering his normal personality, and composed himself. "Well, we can go look for one. These are much better means for transportation."

Sakura couldn’t protest with that. She still didn’t want to ride, she didn’t like losing control of the animal, it was very frightening. "I suppose." She said, sighing.

Syaoran climbed over the fence and ran off. "I’ll be right back." He called, heading to the barn.

Sakura looked around at the horses in the pasture. I wonder if Epona’s here? She couldn’t spot Link’s red horse anywhere. Maybe he’s already been here. Maybe... maybe he’s out riding her. We should probably use these horses, we could move around alot quicker. But then, that’d be stealing. but we’ll return the horses, so it’s not really stealing. Syaoran came jogging out, holding a bunch of tangled ropes, though Sakura noticed grimly that he wasn’t carrying a saddle.

"Sorry, I couldn’t find them at first." Syaoran said, hopping up and over the fence. He set the ropes on the ground. "No saddles, though. I’ll give you a lesson really quick, okay?" He said, untwisting a long white rope from the bridle looking thing.

He grabbed the horse next to him and slid the bridle on, slipping the bit in it’s mouth. He then clipped the long rope to one side of the bit. "Alright, hop on." He said, holding one hand out as a step. "Grab some mane- they don’t have any nerves there, you can tug on it- swing your right leg over." Syaoran instructed.

Sakura took it in very quickly and stepped into his hand and hopped up, landing fairly smoothly onto the horse’s tall back. She looked with wide eyes down at the gruond.

Syaoran was fixing the rope and not taking much attention to her scared attitude. "Alright, relax, she’ll only do what you tell her. I have this rope so you are going to go around in a circle, nothing can go wrong. "The key to riding well is to relax, to move with her, not fighting against her bouncyness."

Sakura tried vainly to relax, but she found it very difficult to do, seeing she was about six feet off the ground on an unpredictable animal. She picked up the reins in front of her and looked to Syaoran for more instructions.

"You won’t have to steer her, but you can use those to slow down if you have to. Get her to walk." Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded and looked forward, squeezing the horse with her legs. Its stride felt completly different then Moondust’s, or the horses she had ridden at the states, but she could feel the rythm of it under her legs. Sakura tried to relax and move along with it, front back front back, and after a few moments of concentration she felt in sync with the animal.

"Okay, now go for a trot." Syaoran called from his center of the circle where he held the long rope.

Sakura looked nervously at the horse beneath her. Does he just assume I know how to do this? I’m going to fall off! Sakura exhaled, trying to relax a bit. She squeezed the horse with her legs. The horse sprung into a horrible bouncy gait, one she dimly remembered Moondust doing, but Moon had only stayed in that gait for a short period of time. Sakura gripped the mane in front of her intensly, and gripped with her legs for dear life to hang on.

"Loosen up! You are way to tense!" Syaoran called.

Sakura tried to relax her body, but she felt her body falling to the side, so she hung on again. "I’m trying!"

"Lean back a little-" Syaoran called. "Loosen up your hips, don’t grip with your legs so much. You’re bouncing around like a ragdoll, don’t fight her movement!" Syaoran shouted.

Sakura held her frustration down and concentrated coolly. She followed his steps slowly, one at a time. She leaned back ever so slightly and loosened the grip on her legs, letting her stomach be more of a shock absorber. Immediatly things started to smooth out, it felt completly different.

"Now you’re too loose, you look like a sack of potatoes, straighten up!" ‘

Sakura would have liked to shout back, but she knew better than to contest with Syaoran’s instructions. She straightened up and it was bouncy again. She leaned back slightly, not as much as before, and it felt smoother, though it was still a bit bouncy, but she hoped this medium would please Syaoran.

"Good, stop her- try to sit back, not use your reins so much."

Sakura had no idea what he meant, so she leaned back and tugged on the reins, and they came to a rusty halt. Syaoran didn’t yell, so she knew she hadn’t completly failed. "Okay, walk again."

Sakura reluctantly put the horse into a walk. It hasn’t been that bad, I kind of understand that whole trotting thing...Sakura relaxed herself and looked up at the Hylian night sky. It was clear, the moon was shining bright, and the alien patterns of stars glittered with a hospitible light. Syaoran brought her back to her task.

"Okay, trot her again, once you’re in that, kick her some more, get her to canter."

Sakura looked nervously at him. "Are you sure I’m ready for that- I mean...we all know what happened last time I rode that fast, I can’t do it. Especially not without a saddle!" Sakura reasoned.

"I know you can do this, you got the hang of it when-...when you were riding with me (he said that really fast) because it’s all about rythm. Just follow her movement."

Sakura sighed, though she had to at least chuckle at Syaoran’s previous sentence. This is going to be an absolute nightmare. hahah Night Mare. heheheh. that thought was her only consolation as she started trotting again, leaning back and finding the smooth spot again. Why do I have to go any faster? This is plenty fast enough. Sakura’s legs seemed devious and mischevious, and seemingly without any instruction, they tightened around the horse’s barrel, and Sakura found herself in a completly different gait.

Sakura was bouncing again, gripping to the poor horses mane for her dear life. I’m glad he said they can’t feel me pulling on their mane, this horse would probably try to buck me off.

"Relax! She can’t go anyway, remember, she’s going in the same circle. Sit back and move- it’s a three beat, see?" He called.

"Is this a gallop?" Sakura called, hardly hearing anything but the wind rushing by her ears.

"No, a canter, one step down." Syaoran called back.

His earlier instructions started to make a little sense. Right, kind of like a waltz. Too bad I never took waltz lessons. One two three one two three. Sit back, relax....Sakura slowly began letting her hips slide along with the horse, and the gait slowly became funner and funner. She gripped her bent legs tightly, but found herself actually enjoying this gait.

This is almost fun! It is kind of fun, really!

"Okay, you’re going to have to be able to ride without holding on when you have to rein her. Can you let go?" Syaoran called.

Sakura glanced over for a second and lost her concentration. Her balance slid to the side, and she just barely recovered and held herself to the horse. The horse broke into a trot, and Sakura was bouncing everywhere. She pulled back on the reins with one hand while holding mane with the other, and the horse slowly came to a stop. She looked appologetically to Syaoran. "Sorry, I was about to fall."

Syaoran just waited for her to get going again. Sakura pouted to herself. Gosh I think that I’m doing quite well, at least. How many kids get to canter around without a saddle in their first lesson? Sakura was a bit bolder this time, and in no time she found herself in the enjoyable beat of the canter. Sakura loosened her hands on the mane and held the reins. Her seat was unstable for a few seconds, but with a little more grip with the legs and some more concentration, she found herself going smoothly again, without hands.

She smiled triumphantly, though she made a point not to look to Syaoran in the center of the circle and dizzy herself. She could keep going in this little circle forever, she had finally found a fun side to horseriding.
The horse slowed to a stop and Sakura came out of her lala land to see Syaoran walking over, collecting the rope he had been holding. "Alright, can you go around by yourself?" He asked.

Sakura shrugged, she still had a high from the whole cantering thing. "I’ll try." She said.

Syaoran stepped back and let Sakura walk away. She bravely walked the horse around to the back of the pasture, then tried a trot. She was amazed at how well trained the horse was, it didn’t try to do anything bad, but only followed her instructions. If riding horses was like this all the time I might do it more often. Sakura continued a trot, and found it relatively smooth as she relaxed and watched the ground move under her feet.

She reached one side of the fence. Sakura turned around and tried trotting again. Now she was a little bolder, and Sakura asked for a canter. The horse moved well, and Sakura eased away her tension and tried to trust the animal under her.

Sakura quickly reached the other side of the back fence. She was very curious to see what faster felt like. She wasn’t sure how much faster a horse could go then a canter, but she was very curious. Sakura leaned a bit forward and held her feet slightly behind her and went into a canter, then found the ground moving more quickly, and the horse’s one two three beat coming more rapidly. Sakura laughed as she stopped at the other side of the fence. This is pretty fun. She turned the horse back to the direction that Syaoran was standing off in the distance.

Sakura grinned to herself and put the horse into a canter, slowly allowing it into the faster speed she had been going. Sakura continued the high speed until she was near Syaoran, then she braced herself with one hand on the horses neck and one pulling on the reins and slowly to a bumpy stop. Syaoran gazed up at her. "That’s very good for a beginner." Syaoran commented, then walked over to another horse.

He vaulted up easily then walked the horse over to Sakura. She still didn’t understand his whole ‘turn with your leg’ thing, but that was for him to do, not her. "Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Go where?" Sakura asked.

"To the city." Syaoran said, gazing up at the sky.

"But the city is closed at night, the bridge is lifted, we can’t get in." Sakura said, hoping that would be a good enough excuse to get out of stealing these horses.

"It’s not going to be night for long." Syaoran said, nodding his head in the direction of the eastern sky, where pink and orange colors suddenly popped up over the horizon.

Sakura sighed. She wasn’t going to be able to use excuses to get out of this. "Well how are we going to get out? One of use has to undo the gate."

"It’s locked." Syaoran said.

"Well how are we going to get out?" Sakura stopped her question, meeting Syaoran’s amber eyes. "No. No way. I will not- I refuse! I am not jumping some horse I don’t know over some five foot fence when I’ve just learned to ride and I don’t even have a saddle. No way!"

Syaoran sighed. "Well I don’t see a way around it."

"You jump both of themselves yourself." Sakura said, crossing her arms.

"Can you use the Through card?" Syaoran asked.

"How are we going to get these horses through the fence, they won’t understand."

"They’re smart horses, they can take it." Syaoran said.

Sakura sighed, but he was right, the Through card sounded much better then jumping. "Through card! Put us through the fence!"

The through whirled around her. Sakura could feel her horse jittering underneath her. She hung on to the mane as she felt them being set down again and gripped with her legs as her horse hopped around. The dust settled around them and Sakura found herself back in control of the horse.

The horse danced around, and Sakura got nervous and tense, and the horse was only more nervous and tense as Sakura was. Syaoran had his horse standing solidly still, though he had no reins holding her back. Syaoran walked his horse over to them and grabbed a hold of the reins right under the horse’s jaw and held them tight, petting the horse’s neck with his other hand. The horse stood still immediatly, and Syaoran let go, stepping his horse away.

"Are you ready to go?" Syaoran asked.

"As ready as I’ll ever be." Sakura said negatively, gathering her reins up again.

Syaoran took the lead with his horse and walked forward.

A door in the house ahead of them shook open, and a figure walked out, holding a long weapon of some sort, watching the horses approach with a mixture of fear and anger.

Syaoran slowed his horse to a stop next to Sakura. "Do people in Hyrule have guns?" He asked.

Sakura shook her head. "No, why?"

"Hang on, we are going to go fast for a little bit." Syaoran said.

Sakura looked nervously at him, but didn’t have any time to worry, because her horse was already trotting after Syaoran’s. She broke into a canter, and Sakura found herself whizzing by a man who was standing in the path between the walls. Syaoran’s escapade didn’t stop there, but he continued running his horse past the end of the ranch halls, and now they were out in the large field. He slowed his horse next to Sakura, who was holding her horse at a canter. "Are you alright?" Syaoran called over, crouched over his horse’s neck.

"Yeah!" Sakura called breathlessly, getting a major adreniline rush from this horseback run.

Syaoran grinned across to her. "Want to go a little faster?" He called through the night wind.

"Umm..." Sakura couldn’t see what it would hurt. The worst thing that could happen was that she would fall off, and Syaoran would surely be back at her side to help her back up. "I guess." She called.

"Let her go!" Syaoran called, his horse surging forward.

Sakura felt the horse under her extend its stride, it’s forelegs stretching out in front of them, and the three beat gait of the canter broke into the rapid full extension four beat of a gallop. Sakura looked with wide eyes in front of her as the wind whipped her horse’s mane around, and she couldn’t direct her horse because it was so dark it was almost impossible to see the black ground rushing underneath her.

After a while, Sakura found she didn’t have to worry about directing her horse, because it knew how to pick its own way, and she let it run forward until it was neck and neck with Syaoran’s horse, which was galloping fully. Sakura looked sideways at him, smiling, and he grinned back, though his eyes remained mostly forward.

A white thing popped up in the distance out of the ground. A skeleton! Crap, they’re still around! Syaoran seemed to be veering his horse toward the object, relentless to it’s presence. His horse crashed through it absent mindedly, and the skeleton fell to the ground. Sakura looked after Syaoran was amazement. He is so destructive!

Another skeleton appeared in the distance. Syaoran moved his horse out of the way and looked over at Sakura. "That one’s yours!" He called, though alot of his voice was lost in the wind.

Sakura had a hard enough time staying on and enjoying herself, so guiding her horse to crash through an enemy was going to be a difficult task. She pulled on her right rein just slightly and the horse seemed to know what she was asking, and the horse ran straight through the skeleton, jumping up and over it in a big stride while nailing it with her razor sharp hooves. Sakura smiled breathlessly at Syaoran. He slowed his horse, and Sakura did also, almost reluctant now to stop, and they approached the city moat. The giant gates of the city were drawn up, and the deep moat seperated them from the heavily walled city.

"When do the gates open?" Syaoran asked.

"In a second." Sakura said. They had to wait for sunrise, so they still had a few seconds.

"Let’s get off and give them some water." Syaoran said, swinging down. Sakura watched his actions carefully so that she might be able to copy them. She swung her right leg behind her, hung on to the mane and slid down, maybe not as graceful as he, but pretty good for her standards.

She walked her horse over by its reins, as Syaoran’s walked beside him without any further guidance. They walked along the moat until they found a good spot for the horses to drink, and Syaoran sat down on the cold morning grass. Sakura held her reins at length and sat down next to him.

"You know, it takes a while to get the hang of riding, but it’s actually kind of fun." Sakura said.

Syaoran nodded. "I knew you’d get the hang of it if you would try, you seem to get along well with animals."

Sakura smiled shyly and looked up at the sky. It was still pink, but it was brighter, and the countryside was glowing red and orange, now in the absence of the skeletons. Her stomach ruined the moment by grumbling horribly loud, seeming to magnify in volume due to the silence of the atmosphere.

Syaoran grinned, staring off at the sky. Sakura blushed red, looking at the ground in front of her. She pushed her embaressment away and addressed the real issue. "I could really go for some milk and cookies right about now." She said.

Syaoran nodded and looked toward the city gates. "Yeah, I’m sure we can get something in that city, right? I am really hungry too."

"Yeah, I can’t imagine everyone here lives without food."

"We are in a video game, though. But then again, it seems everything is human-like. I am not sure what that’s about." He said.

"Yeah, it seems like everything is materialized- it’s like a parallel world or something. But if that’s true, at least that means we have food-" Her sentence was cut off as a loud clinking and banging noise roared across the country, and the horses lifted their heads up immediatly, startled. The bridge to the city was coming back down, as the sun just peaked over the horizon.

Sakura looked to Syaoran. "We should probably walk them in the city, it’s gonna be really busy. Do you have any extra rope rope or something to lead her with, I don’t know if you’ll be able to keep her beside you with all the people."

"Alright, let’s go, I’ll figure something out on the way." Syaoran said.

Sakura led her horse to the gate and stopped as Syaoran did. He took the sleeve of his shirt in his teeth, pulled at it until it ripped, then pulled it with his hand the rest of the way. Now he had a long frayed peice of cloth, that might pass as an old sock. Syaoran tied it around his horse’s neck and just barely had enough excess to lead her with, but it worked. He looked up at Sakura expectantly. Sakura led her horse on and walked it across the wooden bridge and opened a gate, walking into the first alleyway of the city.

A gaurd standing by the gate nodded at them, then frowned. "Excuse me, sirs." He said, motioning for them to come over to him.

Sakura shot a nervous glance at Syaoran and walked her horse over, trying to look as inconspicious as she could. One look at the gaurd’s clothes and she knew that she must look completly out of place in her thick pants and winter sweatshirt.

"What business do you have or bring to Hyrule?" He asked.

"Uh, well, we are looking for someone. Link, that’s his name, he’s a friend of ours and we were planning to meet him-"

"Friends of the Kokiri huh?" The guard asked.

Sakura blinked blankly for a moment, then remembered that the Kokiri were the people Link grew up with on the game. "Yes, sir."

"That would explain your clothing attire. You may consider dressing like a local while traveling through the village, the townsfolk are on edge about...about the King’s advisor. He tried to kidnap the princess a night back."

Sakura opened her eyes wide; she had just recently gotten to that part on the game. "Oh my, well we will try sir, thank you for your forewarning."

The guard tipped his metal helmet. "Good day to you." He said.

"And to you." Sakura said, leading her horse back onto the path. Syaoran followed her, hoping the guard’s suspicious look at him was nothing but an empty curiosity.

He got away, and found himself on the edge of a crowd as they entered the town market. Sakura looked around. "I think there’s a barn around here somewhere next to a store, we can probably temporarily put our horses there." Syaoran nodded, and she led the way through the dense cloud of noisy people.

Sakura reached the barn as she remembered it being there, and stepped into it’s tall archway. She looked around, then met the eyes of a stablehand who was watching them. The burly man with curly brown hair stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and walked over to Sakura. "100 rupees a night for one stall. 175 for two animals. How many days will you be booking?"

Sakura looked back at Syaoran and bit her lip. "Uh...we don’t have any..."

"No rupees, no service." The man said, filing his nails with his other hand. He looked up momentarily. "No soliciting." He raised an eyebrow at them. "Are them Lon Lon Ranch horses?"

Sakura frowned at the man’s impatience and ignored his question. She looked down at her sweatshirt, which was fleece, and the inside was lined with a fake silk. This man wouldn’t know the difference. Hyrule was quite warm, anyway, it wasn’t the winter weather it was back in Tomeoda. Sakura pulled off her sweatshirt, ignoring the perplexed look she got from Syaoran. The open air hit Sakura’s bare arms with a bit of a chill, but she ignored it. She now had the man’s interest, though she was hoping it was not for the wrong reasons.

"This sweater has the fleece of the north’s sheep. I bought it at the high price of 400 rupees, but I am sure we could make a deal." Sakura said, holding it up for his inspection.

"What’s this?" He asked, looking at the inside lining.

"That, my friend, is the rarest clothing material you will ever find. Not even a fairy could produce a softer texture than that." Sakura said persuasively.

The man looked at the sweater carefully. "Fine, with the added price of your strange pants."

Sakura looked down at her nylon pants and flushed. "I"m not giving you my pants!" Sakura said exasperantly.

The man sighed and looked over at a stall. "I don’t know, this sounds kind of fishy to me..."

Sakura grinned to herself and turned to Syaoran. "I guess we are going to have to take that guard’s offer for 300 rupees, too bad. I thought we were going to get to be nice."

Syaoran grinned back at her, though he had been gawking at her for so freely pulling her sweatshirt off and now be willing to parade around in her tank top.

The man put a cold hand on Sakura’s bare shoulder. "You’ll have to feed them." The man said gruffly.

Sakura grinned broadly. "Thank you very much sir!"

The man shook his head and yanked the sweat shirt out of Sakura’s hands and walked away with his prize. Sakura led her horse into a nearby stall, pulled the bridle off, then walked out, waiting for Syaoran to come out. He pulled his sleeve rope off and walked out of his horse’s stall, meeting Sakura’s eyes. She smiled.

"Food!" She said excitedly.

"But we don’t have any of this money." He said.

Sakura sighed and looked down. "Oh."

Syaoran looked around, he felt horrible making Sakura starve as she had just given up her sweatshirt for her horse’s food. Sakura looked up brightly. "Come on, I think I know where some money is!"

Syaoran followed her as she rushed out of the stable and through the city’s marketplace. Sakura slowed in her pace and walked beside him. "In the game there is money along a balcony up there. We have to go up those stairs-" She pointed to some nearby stairs. "and then walk along the balcony. They should be there, if I’m right."

Syaoran nodded and followed her lead, jogging up the stairs after her. Once they reached the top, the dark shadowed balcony held several shining stones. Sakura ran down the balcony and collected them all, then jogged back to Syaoran. She held her hands up to his. Syaoran opened his hands, and she poured in a good pile of the ‘rupee’ things.

"Food, food, food, food..." Sakura sang to herself, skipping down the stairs past Syaoran. He gathered the rupees up in his hand and jogged after her, almost loosing her in the crowd as she ran to the store across the city square. He barely saw her go into a store, as a large number of people continuously blocked his veiw. Syaoran brushed his way through and walked into the store.

Sakura was already at the counter, talking to a huge man with black unruly hair and an unkept beard, who was counting her money. Sakura took the stuff off the counter and smiled at Syaoran. "We’d better buy a bunch, just in case we need some for the road." She said.

Syaoran sighed. Sakura seemed to be enjoying herself here in Hyrule, while Syaoran couldn’t be more opposed. Her logic was reasonable, though, because they seemed to be on the run alot in Japan. Syaoran looked around at the inventory the man had in stock. Most things were dried to keep from spoiling, and he had very little products of dairy or meat type things. Syaoran ordered some dried beef, hoping it would taste somewhat like beefjerky, and got numerous fruits and vegetables, which would be healthy and easy to carry around. For the spur of the moment, he got some type of milk latte, which he had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, but the way it was described, it sounded good. Syaoran took the hoard of things off the counter, and gave the man his money, which miraculously was right on the mark.

Syaoran turned and walked out with Sakura. Once out of the shop, they looked around for a good place to sit and eat. "Come with me." Sakura said, turning right and heading towards a more desolated corner of town. They walked through an alleyway and entered a large courtyard, the noise of the market seeming far far away, and found a pool of water, all the landscaping complimenting a towering temple.

Sakura gazed up at it as she sat down on a stone bench. "That’s the temple of time. It’s beautiful." She said, taking her eyes momentarily off it to look through her bag of food to figure out what she wanted to eat most.

"Yeah." Syaoran said, sitting down and sipping on the warm milk concotion.

Sakura sighed. "It’s so nice here, there is nothing weighing you down, you know? No family bothering you, no school, no...no other people." She said, sighing loudly again.

"How is your family dealing with your uncle’s death, anyway?" Syaoran asked.

"Alright. I didn’t know him that well, Touya...(Sakura’s voice paused, thinking back to Touya and his accusations) Touya and my father are upset, but they are able to handle it. Chindra is still quiet, she knew him very closely. I think she’s starting move on, though. I feel horribly for...for causing all of this." Sakura said, her mind going back into distress and guilt, and Sakura felt impending tears prick at the corner of her eyes.

"Do not blame yourself." Syaoran said gravely. Sakura was so surprised with the serious tone his voice took that she looked up from her sandwhich. "It will not get you anywhere, do you understand?" Syaoran’s amber eyes were penetrating into Sakura’s mind for an honest and dedicated answer.

Sakura nodded solemnly, not wanting to ask any questions about Syaoran’s turn in personality. After a few moments pause she tried to return lightly into conversation. "That was very cool, that flip you did off wood’s vines. I thought you weren’t going to make it."

Syaoran tried hard to surpress a smile. "It was nothing."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "When’s it gonna be something? When you single handedly fight off the ghost and Aruka with one arm and leg tied behind your back? It’s not a crime to take a compliment, you know."

Syaoran grinned. "I know." He said, looking down at his food.

Sakura bit into her sandwhich, her mood light again. "Maybe we should just stay here through the next trimester. We’re gonna get swamped with school makeup work. Geez, I’ve gotta start making up my story to explain to my father why I was away for so long."

Syaoran nodded. "Hopefully we can get back soon."

Sakura shrugged. She finished up her sandwhich and stood up, stretching. "I am going to go check out a bowling alley. Are you okay by yourself?" Sakura didn’t mean the question literally, she knew very well that Syaoran was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, but she just wanted to make sure he didn’t care if she ran off.

Syaoran nodded. "Get a strike for me." He said.

Sakura smiled and blushed lightly, surprised. "I, I’ll try." She said. Smiling, she skipped off, hauling her large bag of food with her. She would drop it off at the horse’s stall on the way to the bowling alley.

_____________________________________________________________________

"I wonder what your name is?" Syaoran said to the horse in front of him. After Sakura had bounded away, he had headed back to the stable to converse with his new equine friend. The horse didn’t seemed to bothered by him as Syaoran had brought a couple flakes of hay for both of the horses, and as long as they had something to eat, they didn’t care what Syaoran was doing.

Syaoran fiddled with the horse’s mane as he leaned against the stall wall. Scooter. no...Brownie. That’s really generic. Star. very formulative. He looked at the horse carefully. "I could name you Syaoran the second. I suppose that would be a bit selfish." Syaoran sighed. He didn’t normally go talking aloud to himself like this, but his mood had been light since he had ridden around on the horse.

The horse was munching loudly on its hay, and lifted its head lazily to see what Syaoran was up to. Syaoran pet it on it’s nose, and it snorted, stepping back to its hay, though it planted its weight heavily on Syaoran’s foot.

"Ow, dammit!" Syaoran said, pushing the horse off his foot and stepping back. He sighed it away and gazed at the horse. "I could call you dammit-"

"Hey!" Sakura’s cheery voice came from the aisle, a bit more upbeat than usual. "And hay is what they are eating." She said jokingly, looking down at the greenish yellow grassy stuff in the stall.

Syaoran peered around the horse palely, hoping she hadn’t just heard his one sided conversation. "Oh, hi." He mumbled, letting himself out of the stall.

Sakura had her hand behind her back. "You would never beleive it..." She said, grinning broadly. She brought her hand out, holding a giant jewel looking thing, a gigantic version of the smaller rupees they had held earlier. Sakura giggled happily and hopped up and down once. "Five strikes! I couldn’t beleive it, who knew I had any talent in bowling! The man said it was the highest score they had had in ten years! Can you beleive that?" She smiled, armiring the shining yellow jewel. "Now we can buy more food, or shields, or.. Ooo we could buy bombs! That’s be neat, I could buy a sword, but I don’t know how to use it..." Sakura started pacing down the aisle, thinking up things that she could blow this money on.

Syaoran was half grinning, happy to see Sakura being so sucessful. "Should we go buy stuff now?"

"You mean shop? Yes!" Sakura practically squeaked.

Syaoran cringed at the word shop, he had been trying to avoid it, it seemed like such a girly word. In Hong Kong, among his many sisters, he had constantly heard that word. "Let’s go, then. Is there any other stores besides the one we were at a while ago?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, but we’ll have to be quick, it’s going to be night soon and all the stores will close."

"Night, but it was just night like an hour ago."

"Remember, time is different. I am ready for night though, I am starting to feel kind of tired."

I never would have guessed that, you seem awfully wired to me. "We should probably sleep while we can, we’ll go looking for a spell tommorrow."

Sakura nodded. They walked out of the stable’s archway, which was relatively quiet and peaceful, and walked into the marketplace, trying to stay on the outskirts of the major crowd as they made their way to the store.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura yawned as she layed out their things. They had split the money half and half. Syaoran had bought a Hyrulian revised battle outfit, reasoning that he’d never be able to withstand any damage in the flimsy running pants he had on before. He had then bought a shield, which to his disgust, closely resembled the shield Link had. He didn’t see anything else he’d need, so he ventured to buy an extra sword that was very sharp and long, despite Sakura’s reasoning that it wasn’t really necessary, Syaoran figured he could inflict double damage if he used two swords at once.

Sakura had been much more conservative in her spending. She had boughtten some rope, then a block of wood, all of which had cost about ten rupees, and she now had materials to make a nunchuku. Syaoran hadn’t known her plan, and had thought her spending ridiculous, though he hadn’t said anything, because he was preoccupied changing in another room into the lightly armored outfit. Sakura had also boughtten some saddle bags, which she had no idea how she would get on without a saddle, and a blanket, then she had bougtten some extra bottles (remembering that in the game Zelda, bottles carry an important role in carrying substances around).

Sakura packed the bottles in the large blanket and tried to shove it into the saddle bags, but it was going to be a tight fit. Syaoran walked over and held open one side, so Sakura could try and squish it in. "Thanks." She said absently, stepping on an edge of the bag to get more force into pushing it in. With some effort, she managed to get it all in. Syaoran quickly buttoned it across while he still could, then stepped back. The saddle bag was bulging, and the buttons were just barely clinging to the string that kept them attatched, but it was holding together.

"See if that lasts another ride." Sakura said. "I am not even sure how to put this on, do you need a saddle for it?"

Syaoran shrugged. "It’s made for a saddle, but I am sure we can improvise, just tie it around."

Sakura nodded and waited for Syaoran to go back to whatever it was that he was doing before she started with her nunchucku. There was a hole in the block of wood just big enough to fit the rope through. She pulled it through and tied it in a knot, tugging on it to make sure it was secure. A stomping noise made her look up from her work and see a figure approaching them angrily.

"Sheep from the north huh? Northern sheep!?" The man screeched, coming to a storming stop in front of Sakura. It was the stablehand, and he looked a bit upset about the payment he had earned.

"Oh, heh, uh, did I say North? You know, North, South, it’s all the same-" Sakura stumbled, smiling weakly.

"Sheep in the north. You know how many sheep there are north of the castle? None. Squat. Notta single fluffy white animal for every single mile you walk. I am getting a little suspicious of our payment here..." The man said, stepping uncomfortably close to Sakura and glaring deeply at her.

Sakura bit her lip and stared worriedly back, then darted her eyes to Syaoran, who was watching worriedly. "It’s very expensive-"

The man grabbed Sakura’s shoulders violently. "I’ve got three kids and a wife to provide for, and you think they’ll understand me when I don’t bring food to the table and I say, ‘sorry, but look at this neat sweater I got. It’s got fake sheep fur’?"

Syaoran drew his sword and held it threateningly at the man. The man let go of Sakura’s shoulders and turned to Syaoran, not looking the least bit intimidated. "Get your pests out of our stable and pack before sunset." When Sakura and Syaoran were still staring at him and taking in the situation, he shouted, "Now!"

Sakura pushed Syaoran’s wrist down, the one holding the sword. "We should probably leave." She whispered, walking over to her horse’s stall. She picked up the bridle and looked warily over at the man who was still watching them.

Syaoran reluctantly withdrew his sword and, with a final glare at the stablehand, turned to his horse’s stall. He picked his shield up and walked into the stall, petting the horse on the head before instructing it to follow.

Sakura was struggling to put the bridle on. She had watched Syaoran do it several times now, but it still was alien to her, and having the man’s eyes on her didn’t help one bit. She lowered the bridle for the thousandth time. Sakura turned and stepped out of her stall, then looked into Syaoran’s. "Hey, can you put this on?" She asked quietly.

Syaoran nodded and walked over, sliding the stall door open and stepping out. "Grab the saddle bags, try and get them to stay on my horse, I can hold them if they are on there enough." Syaoran said quietly, taking the bridle from her and walking into her stall, easily sliding it on the horse. He flipped the reins over her neck and opened the stall door fully, glaring at the stablehand as he walked out.

Sakura took the extra rope from her nunchuku and tied the saddlebags as firmly as she could get them around the girth of the horse. They would be in front of Syaoran, so if anything went wrong, Syaoran could hang on to them and keep them from falling.

Syaoran handed her her horse’s reins, and Sakura let Syaoran take charge of his horse. The walked dejectedly out of the stable’s arching open aisleway back into the crowd of people. Sakura stopped them before they had went too far into the crowd. "Where are we going?"

"Out of the city, I thought. Is there any other villages?" Syaoran asked.

"Yes, a couple, but this is the one that would know where Link would be. Hold my horse, I am gonna ask around." Sakura said, handing him the reins and jogging into the crowd. Syaoran took the reins and stood impatiently, waiting for her to return so he wouldn’t have to stand still. Honestly, he would love to be sleeping right now, on a soft bed, tons of blankets, mountains of pillows.

After a few impatient moments, Sakura’s chesnut hair appeared through the crowd, and she walked over to him. "Okay, we have a lead that he might have been heading to Death Mountain-"

"That sounds pleasant."

"Yeah, well it’s rough terrain, anyway. Then someone said they saw him in Kakariko village, which is near that mountain, so it makes sense, then two suspicious boys that kept laughing confirmed that they saw a funny blonde haired boy walking toward’s Zora’s domain, which I hope is true, it’s be alot nicer of a trip then going through all of Death Mountain."

"So which way are we heading?" Syaoran asked.

"Well, the good news is they are both around the same place, or at least their starting points are. West, I think. I don’t know, maybe south. Either way, I know how to get there."Sakura said.

"You are going to be cold in that field, it’s gonna be windy and cool when the sun goes down." Syaoran said, eyeing Sakura’s sleeveless shirt.

"I’ll be fine!" Sakura said, laughing weakly to try and avoid the definite blush she got whenever Syaoran’s concern was voiced about her. "Come on, we’d better hurry before they shut the gate for night!" Sakura said, taking her reins back from Syaoran. He followed her and the large bay horse she was leading through the crowd, keeping his eyes glued to the back of her feathery brown haired head so he wouldn’t lose her in the swarm of people.

They emerged out of the other side of the crowd and walked down the quiet ally of cobblestone street and found themselves looking at the guard in the distance. He was watching them cautiously, they had just arrived in town a few hours ago, and here they were, leaving again. "You’d better hurry yourselves if you want to leave before the gate is shut." He called.

Sakura pulled on her horse and urged it into a faster walk, but the horse ignored her and continued to go the same pace she had been. Syaoran jogged up beside them, his horse jogging on his outside. Sakura finally took notice at the Hyrulian battle outfit, it’s intricate embroidery forming patterns of dragons and such things across the front, in green and white, with fiery orange to outline the patterns. It wasn’t very evident looking at it from the outside that it contained any armor whatsoever, it must be relatively light, but Syaoran had insisted on getting it, so it must be fairly nice.

With Syaoran’s horse walking quickly beside her, Sakura’s horse finally decided to spread out her walking stride, and they stepped onto the bridge quickly, crossing it without ever stopping or turning to look off the side into the pretty moat, which was gorgeous reflecting the last of the sun’s light as the sun crept behind the city walls.

Just as their horse’s hind feet hit the dirt earth, the wooden bridge behind them clinked to life and was drawn up. The horses shied away from the noise, but didn’t freak out as much as they had the last time. A wolf howled, and Sakura knew it would only be a matter of seconds before the skeletons would start popping up.

"Quick, can you help me up?" Sakura asked Syaoran, now much prefering the horse’s back to the ground being chased around by half dead things.

Syaoran walked over and laced his hands, making a step for Sakura to step up from. Sakura grabbed some mane and swung up, noticing immediatly that her legs were incredibly sore. She winced. "Are my legs supposed to hurt this much?"

Syaoran looked up, smiling sympathetically. "Yeah, at least you know you’re riding right." He said.

Sakura sighed and looked forward. It felt different then she remembered, being up here. She couldn’t beleive she had been so comfortable. Sakura immediatly started to panic, thinking she had forgotten everything she had learned so suddenly last night. She looked over worriedly as Syaoran vaulted up onto his horse. He shifted the saddlebags around him, so it would hinder him the least.

"Lead the way." Syaoran called over to Sakura.

Sakura took a deep breath and squeezed the horse with her legs, holding on dearly as the horse started walking. Relax. Sakura pushed all her mental strength into sitting easily on the horse, but it was hard. After a few strides, Sakura felt it begin to smooth out into the walk she remembered doing. I haven’t forgotten everything, I just need to concentrate. Sakura steered her horse towards the distant river that ran off the moat. They walked silently along, finally reaching a small bridge that went across the river, then continued off that. Sakura walked her horse with heavy eyes, starting to feel the actual time it was.

I hope we stop and get some sleep somewhere. I don’t know where, but I am so tired... Sakura unwillingly swayed along with the horse, too lazy to sit right. After a while, she slowed her horse next to Syaoran. "Can we stop and sleep somewhere?"

Syaoran shrugged. "We can’t stay anywhere, we have no money."

"Well if we get to Zora’s domain, that’s right over there, I am sure we can sleep somewhere, there are no bad guys wandering around like there is here." Sakura said, looking hopefully towards the river.

Syaoran fiddled with the saddlebags in front of him. He had been tired for a long while, his magic was getting used up progressively, and fighting against yourself was tiring business. "Sounds alright." He said.

Sakura smiled. She got an energy surge thinking about sleeping, so she figured she better use it while she could. Sakura clucked at her horse and it sped up, into a bumpy trot. Sakura keep her legs on her, and the horse broke into a smoot canter. Sakura sat back and enjoyed the smooth gait, moving happily along. Syaoran’s horse made its way beside them. Syaoran was looking ahead at the terrain, though Sakura could see the obvious enjoyment in his face. They reached a narrow strip of land that on one side was the high dirt walls that were part of Death Mountain. To their right, the river ran closely and swiftly, swirls of undertow apparent from even looking down from a horse. They went back to single file, and Sakura carefully helped her horse pick its way through, then walked safely out of the danger zone. They were now in Zora’s domain. Sakura stopped her horse to wait for Syaoran to catch up, then looked around some more. "This is Zora’s domain. No skeleton people here, there’s probably nothing here to bother us while we sleep. What are we going to do with the horses?"

"Tie them, I guess. Look, there’s a tree." Syaoran said, pointing at a small tree in the distance, safely far enough from the river.

Sakura nodded and walked her horse forward. She looked down at the ground. It wasn’t rocky, but very grassy and soft looking. That won’t be that bad to sleep on. Too bad we can’t sleep on the horses, it’s pretty comfy up here. They walked to the tree and Syaoran hopped off, looking for a low branch to tie them to. Sakura took the time to lay back. She rested her head on the horse’s back and let her legs dangle loosely. This really was quiet comfortable, and it gave her stomach a good stretch while she did it. "Why don’t we just catch some sleep like this?" Sakura asked, staring up at the clear Hyrulian sky.

"It’s great, until the horses get into a fight, then you’ll be on your butt with a horse’s hoof in your face." Syaoran said, taking the reins and tying the around the tree. "This isn’t really safe, we’ll have to figure out a better way to tie them later, but for now it should work." He grabbed the rope he had used to lead his horse earlier and tied the horse around the neck to the tree. The horses stood willingly, seeming to be tired from their long walk also. Syaoran untied the saddlebags and dumped it on the ground.

Sakura reluctantly hopped off her heated bed and landed on her feet a bit more gracefully this time. She started digging stuff out of their saddlebags. She happily pulled out her blanket, ready for its warmth as the sun’s heat had disappeared with the sun behind the city. Syaoran pulled out a bottle of water he had bottle and took a drink. He sat down, leaning against the tree, and looked around more carefully this time.

There was a metal gate in the distance, different from the city’s bridge. This gate ran from the steep wall of the mountains to their left all the way to the surging river on their right. How are we going to get through there? The river looks dangerous to go through with the horses. Sakura walked over with some fruit and sat down, biting into an apple sort of melon. "It’s so pretty out here." She said, her eyes sparkling with the moon’s bright light.

Syaoran glanced at her sparkling face and quickly turned his eyes forward, not wanting to put himself in a transe. "But how are we going to get through that gate?" Syaoran asked, his eyes unconsciously going over her face again.

Sakura flipped her hair over her shoulders and looked towards Syaoran’s pointing. There was a metal gate, much like the one in the game. "Well, in the game, there’s a chicken you can hold on to and it floats you across. I don’t see any chickens, though."

A chicken? Syaoran yawned widely, then shivered involutarily. It had gotten pretty cold since the sun had set, he couldn’t imagine how cold Sakura must be without sleeves, but she seemed to be handling it well.

"Are you cold?" Sakura asked, laughing and yawning at the same time.

Syaoran shrugged.

Sakura got up and grabbed her blanket, spreading it out to it’s full area. The blanket turned out to be huge, she had bought it thinking it was half the size it actually was.

Syaoran got up, knowing what she had in mind, and not wanting to unfairly share what she had spent her own money on. "I am going to go refill some of these water bottles, you might as well get some sleep while you can."

Sakura had the slightest bit of hurt and confusion in her eyes. "Oh, uh, alright."

Syaoran grabbed some of the bottles out of the saddlebags and walked over to the river’s edge, walking quickly past Sakura’s eyes. Once he reached the water, and he felt that the noise of the water was loud enough to supress his thoughts, he let his mind start scolding himself. Why do I do that? She was just trying to be nice, and I was mean with no reason. I am such a coward, I always run away when my feelings get too hard to handle. Syaoran angrily filled up the single empty water bottle they had, then stood up. I am going to make up for it. Syaoran decided, walking slowly back over to the horses.

Sakura was standing up still, petting her horse, braiding some of its mane. She didn’t notice Syaoran until he made some noise on purpose, afraid that he might scare her if she turned and all the sudden he was there. "Will the horses be cold?" Sakura asked, not meeting his eyes, but staring at the horse’s neck in front of her.

"No, its not going to get that cold." Syaoran said, bending down and putting the bottles of water in the saddle bag (though he had only actually filled one).

"Are you going to sleep?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran sighed and got up. "Yeah, I guess. The night is going to end before we ever get to sleep, though." Syaoran said, trying to say it as positively as he could manage, as if to make up for being short earlier.

Sakura nodded, noticing the happier tone he put into his speech. "Too bad we don’t have two blankets." Sakura said absently.

"I’ll be fine." Syaoran said, trying not to blush thinking about sharing one.

"Oh no, I meant that that way we could have a blanket on the ground, so the grass isn’t digging into my arms, you know?" She looked to the saddlebags. "Some of those have your old clothes in them, right? We could use those as pillows."

Syaoran was near panic. What was she suggesting? "heh, uh, I’ll be fine without a blanket or pillow, Sakura-chan."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I was giving you more credit than that, Syaoran. That’s ridiculous, this blanket is as big as all of Japan, and you are embaressed to share it? I’ll laugh if you get sick. Can’t we be a bit more professional than that?" Sakura said, almost surprised at her own mature words.

Syaoran stood back, knowing Sakura had completly just put him in his place. "Um, I- I’m sorry. I, I guess we can use those as pillows." Syaoran said, staggering in his own words. At least it’s not exactly uncomfortable anymore, Sakura has just put everything out in the open.

Sakura nodded. "Cool. Now you fix the pillows, I’ll fix the blanket." Sakura ordered. She walked over to an open spot near the tree and spread the blanket. Syaoran walked over and threw the saddle bags at the top of the blanket. Sakura stepped back, satisfied. "Oyasumi nasai (goodnight)." Sakura said, kneeling down at the farthest edge of the blanket , getting under it, and turning her back to Syaoran. Here she finally let her long awaited blush to come in, full force. Though she had acted completly calm and composed, she had been terrifed of ordering Syaoran around, especially in such a touchy manner, but she knew that was the only way she would be able to get him to sleep, or else she’d wake up and see him leaning against a hard tree, insisting he had slept fine. I can’t beleive I said all of that!

Syaoran stayed standing for a moment, then seeing that Sakura was not about to turn over the other way, he took the farthest edge of the blanket that he could possibly get, and laid down. I had no idea Sakura had that kind of authoritic quality in her character. Syaoran laid on his side for a while, to be sure that he wouldn’t have to face Sakura, then, reasoning that there was a space the size of five people in between them, he rolled over on his back, gazing up at the stars above. He shivered a bit, the cold wind grazing over his face. I guess it’s good I have this blanket, I would be freezing out of it.

Syaoran wanted to stay up longer to look up at the stars, but he was incredibly tired and exhausted, and Syaoran yawned once and fell into a deep sleep, not noticing the cold or the uncomfortableness anymore, completly forgetting where he was, just calm enough knowing that Sakura was safe next to him.

_______________________________________________________________________

Sakura’s eyes fluttered open. She was shivering, despite the blanket she had wrapped around her. Something warm and heavy was keeping her stomach warm, though she wasn’t sure what it was. She couldn’t remember where she was, but she knew the ground below her was definitely not a matress, and her room was absolutely not this cold.

Sakura’s mind slowly started to register the strange surroundings. I am in Hyrule. I was sucked into Ganondorf’s evil and now I am sleeping on the ground, and Syaoran...Sakura tried to shift positions, then she realized what was keeping her warm. How in the world did this happen? We started like ten feet apart, how did I end up under his arm? Sakura carefully rolled over, trying to keep Syaoran’s arm still as she turned around under it. Sakura rolled over and found herself facing a sleeping Syaoran.

His deep amber eyelashes were closed, and he was sleeping peacefully, his constant frown dissipated, a look of peace and calmness replacing it. His amber hair fell gently into his eyelashes, his stern brow was highlighted with the bright moonlight that was still shining. Sakura couldn’t ever recall seeing Syaoran asleep, he always tried so hard to stay alert and ready to fight, never wanting to be caught off his guard. But here he was, sleeping peacefully, despite the cold hard ground underneath them.

Sakura watched him sleep for a while, his chest rose and fell lightly with his breath. Watching him, Sakura’s thoughts were jumbled, she couldn’t think straight. He will be so mean, but then I can never completly hate him, because I am so sure he has a beautiful side. Times like this it shows, Syaoran could be such a kind person, if he would let himself. Is he trying to follow what people call him? That is not like him, Syaoran wouldn’t care if people called him mean and hateful, so why does he keep it up? What makes him like that, why can’t he stay like...like this? Sakura sighed, gazing admirably at Syaoran. Times like this I could think...

Sakura knew that night would be over soon, and she would have to get sleep while she still could. She carefully rolled back over, trying cautiously to not disturb Syaoran’s blissful sleep. Sakura snugged into Syaoran’s warm arms and held the arm over her, stroking his smooth warm hand absently. The heat radiating through him lulled her back into a daydream, and she didn’t shiver again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Syaoran squinted his eyes open, the sunlight hurting his sleepy sensitive eyes. The sun was just rising, but his eyes caught a ray of orange sunlight. It took him a moment to collect where he was, then he realized he was sleeping on the ground. He noticed quickly that something- more like someone- was in his arms. What the heck- how did this happen? Syaoran’s morning temper was horrible, but it quickly diminished, and he realized it was Sakura in front of him. He was about to pull his arm away carefully and get up before anything uncomfortable happened, before Sakura even knew that the space between them had deteriorated, but he noticed Sakura’s hand was moving on his own.

How am I going to get out of this? Syaoran collected all his courage, then took a deep breath. "Up so early?" He asked roughly.

Sakura’s hand stumbled, and she realized with a pale face that Syaoran was awake. She quickly let go of his arm and stared off with wide eyes at the river a ways away. "Y-yeah. I, I couldn’t sleep." She said, stumbling over her own words.

Deal with it like a professional. Right. I can do that. He took his arm off her and rolled onto his back, gazing up at the pink sky now that his eyes had adjusted. "It was cold." Syaoran said, trying to sound casual.

Sakura unconsciously picked at a long nail on her index finger, her butterflies threatening to take flight, but most of the danger had passed. Syaoran hadn’t seemed the least bit bothered by anything, so why should she be embaressed by it? You are only embaressed if you were trying to hide something. Sakura reminded herself, figuring she could ponder on that thought later. "There’s not enough hours in the night for me to sleep. I am going to be so tired when and if we ever get home."

"We should probably get going, then, the sooner we get home, the sooner we can sleep." Syaoran said, sitting up and throwing his side of the blanket into the other half. He tried not to shiver as he left the insulated heat of the blanket, though it was hard. Syaoran walked over to the horses and checked on them. They were still standing in their spots, though Sakura’s horse had its reins in a tangled mess. Syaoran set the saddlebag he had been carrying and untied the horse from the tree, then started working out the knot in the reins.

Sakura got up, shivering constantly because her bare arms had gotten so used to Syaoran’s provided warmth, and now they were completly unprotected from the cold. Sakura folded the blanket and looked up to see what Syaoran was up to. He was already tending to the horses, apparently her horse had got itself in a mess. What a dedicated person. Who else would take care of the horses before he even got to eat any breakfeast?

Sakura finished folding the blanket and got up, taking it over to their pile of saddle bags stuff. She walked over to Syaoran and pet her horse on the neck, then smiled at Syaoran. Not able to think of anything witty or nice to say, she just stroked her horse on the neck, then shortly met Syaoran’s fiery eyes as he glanced over quickly to see what she was up to, but his eyes returned quickly to the knot he was undoing. "I have an extra sweatshirt in the left part of the saddle bag if you want it."

Sakura smiled gratefully. Her arms had goosebumps all the way up, and she was shivering in intervals. Sakura walked over and looked through the saddlebags, then found a thick green sweatshirt that had a form of Japanese type writing that she didn’t understand. Sakura pulled it on over her tank top and pulled the warm fleece lining close to her. It quickly warmed away the goosebumps on her arms, and she walked back over to the horses. "Thanks, this is really warm." She said, watching Syaoran pack the bottles into the saddle bags, then shoving the blanket in around them.

"Are we going any place warm?" Syaoran asked, hauling the saddlebags over his shoulder.

"I hope so, if we can figure out how to get over this river. We can probably use the Through card to get through that gate."

Syaoran looked up as he pulled the knot tight around the saddlebag, securing it around the horse’s belly. The metal gate was the only thing that stood in their path. "That’s a good idea, but we should consider conserving our magic, who knows how much of it we’ll need to get back. I’ll just jump the horses over, the river is too fast moving to cross."

Sakura looked at the metal gate in the distance, its sharp prongs sticking out perilously. "Are you really sure...?"

"It’s not very tall." Syaoran said. He vaulted up onto his horse’s back. "I’ll jump him over, then you can come over and keep him still while I jump the other over, okay? You’ll have to climb over it or something."

Sakura nodded

Syaoran circled the horse at a canter beautifully, gaining momentum, then headed straight for the jump. The horse was hesitating, but Syaoran was encouraging it on with his legs, pushing it forward. He reached it perfectly, and seemingly effortlessly, he flew over the jump. On the other side over the gate and turned the horse in a circle, then hopped off, looking over to Sakura. She ran over to the gate and looked up. How was she going to climb this? Nooo problem... But there was a problem. This was impossible! "Syaoran, I can’t climb over this! Can you?"

Syaoran walked his horse over to the gate and looked at it. He hadn’t taken time to think about how they themselves were supposed to get over the gate. Now he realized he had a major glitch in his plan. "It’s really not as hard as it looks..." Syaoran started, knowing everything would be a whole lot easier if Sakura would jump her horse over.

"But what if we don’t jump high enough! Look at those things!" Sakura said, pointing at the prongs on the gate.

Syaoran sighed. The only way he was going to get Sakura to face her fear is if he ridiculed her a bit. "A real cardcaptor wouldn’t be afraid of anything, especially not insignificant things like hopping a horse over a little gate." He said, hoping his acting skills would support that ridiculous excuse.

Sakura’s eyes blazed, an old fire getting started again. So he does still think he’s better than me? After I have completly defeated him by becoming card mistress, he still won’t accept that I am a real cardcaptor? Sakura thought, totally fooled by Syaoran’s story. "I’m just looking out for the horse’s wellfare." She said hotly, then spun around, stomping over to her horse. I just learned how to ride. I don’t have a saddle. I am jumping some sharp gate. Great. Sakura looked around for something to use to mount. A tree’s root stuck out of the ground. Sakura walked her horse over to it so its left side was facing it, then Sakura stepped up on the root. She looked over at the gate nervously, then hopped up, landing hard on her stomach across the horse’s back. The horse started walking with Sakura still on her stomach, and she quickly grabbed the reins and pulled them back as she swung unsteadily over.

A great mount to start a great ride. Sakura fidgeted until she felt she was sitting comfortably, then she put the horse into a walk. I’ll show him. I bet he didn’t have to jump a saddless horse over a tall gate on his third ride. Then again, that’s Syaoran, he probably went galloping around his first time on. Cause Li’s are perfect at everything. Sakura gripped clumsily with her legs as her horse went into a canter. She did a sloppy version of a circle around the tree, then headed to the fence. Sakura’s stomach felt sick as she approached the high pronged fence she was about to hurdle over, and her hands quickly became clammy. She grabbed a nice chunk of mane to hang on with, and the horse surged forward, despite its rider’s hesitance.

They approached the fence, Sakura clueless and having no idea what she was supposed to do. When she had seen Syaoran jump, it had seemed like all he had done was sit back and let the horse go, but she knew that must not be the case. Sakura didn’t think they were going fast enough to make it over, so she kicked the horse with her legs and found that they were now going very fast. They reached the gate, and before she knew it, Sakura felt a weightlesss feeling. She instictively leaned forward, as if to help her horse make it over, and then they landed with a harsh thud back on the ground, and Sakura quickly groped for control of the horse to stop. Sakura had trouble stopping, because she could hardly feel her fingers, she was so shocked how wonderfully smooth she had just jumped. Sakura turned the horse over to Syaoran and slowed down, using one hand as a brace and the other pulling with all its strength against the reins.

"Not so hard, huh?" Syaoran said, looking up at her.

Sakura held her head haughtily high. "Whatever. Are we gonna get going or what?"

Syaoran tried his hardest to hold back a grin. That was very cool, Kinomoto. Too bad I had to make fun of you before you would do it. Hopefully you won’t hold that against me for very long. "Where are we going?" Syaoran asked, vaulting up onto his horse’s back.

"Zora’s domain." Sakura said shortly.

Great. I’ve made her mad at me. I better keep my distance for a little while as she’s cooling off. Syaoran let his horse follow hers freely, as he was free to look around at the river’s landscape that ran next to them.

They walked for a little while before the sun started to beat down with heat on them. Syaoran hated himself for buying the armored outfit he had, because it seemed to insulate heat times two. Syaoran drank a bottle of water just because of the heat, and Sakura drank a whole one as well. They only had one left, but they could hopefully find a good place to refill them from the river soon. Right now, the river was a ways below them, they were on the top of a cleft that seemed to double expose them to the sun’s heat.

Sakura had long shed Syaoran’s sweatshirt, and was feeling quite well temperatured in her tank top, though her shoulders were burning a little. "Can we take a break in a little while?" Sakura called back to Syaoran. She was very hungry and very thirsty, somewhere along their horseride she had gained an outrageous appetite.

Syaoran was happy to stop and take a rest in some shade. In fact, he was conteplating shedding some of his battle outfit. The only thing was, he only had sweatshirts to change into, and that wouldn’t be much better. He wasn’t sure how comfortable he would be strolling about without a shirt with Sakura standing around. "Stop at that tree up there." Syaoran called back.

Sakura trotted her horse up to the tree and slid down, landing clumsily on swaying feet, she had lost her sense of balance sitting on the horse for so long. Syaoran hopped off, always seeming to have perfect balance, and undid the saddlebags from his horse. He walked over and plopped the saddlebags down next to Sakura, who was finished tying up her horse. She quickly sat down and started digging through their food.

She pulled out some dried meat looking things and held them up, inspecting them carefully. "I hope this agrees with my stomach." She said, then bit into a peice of the chewy salty meat. She found that it reminded her alot of beef jerky, which was fine with her, she liked that well enough. Sakura pulled some more out. "This stuff’s pretty good." She said, then remembered she was supposed to be mad at him, and she made sure she kept a sour face.

Syaoran tried to supress an amused smile as he glanced at Sakura’s expression before digging through some dried fruits. "You know I was kidding, right?"

Sakura glanced up from her meat for a second before looking back down. "About what?" She asked, not bringing her eyes back up.

"That was the only way I could get you to jump. You ride very naturally, I was sure you could do it." Syaoran said.

Sakura glanced up from her food, not sure if she should forgive him, or if she should hold her grudge. "Thanks." She said unsurely. "You know I’ve heard you say stuff like that all the time, it’s hard to tell when you are kidding or not." She said, a sarcastical tone thick on her voice.

Syaoran sighed. "So you are just going to hold a grudge against me until you feel like I’ve gotten what I deserve?" He asked.

Sakura halfway grinned unintentionally. "Maybe." She said, her grin widening against her will.

Syaoran was releived to see that she was grinning, she obviously wasn’t that upset. Sakura finished a strip of meat and looked over to the saddle bag. "Can you get me that bottle of water?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran pulled out the last full bottle of water and handed it to Sakura. Sakura took it and chugged it down, fully prepared to drink all of its contents with one drink.

Syaoran watched sadly as the last of their water was disappearing. After it was three-fourths gone, Syaoran ripped it out of her hands. Sakura gave him a perplexed look. "You’ll get sick if you drink it that fast." He said, keeping a gravely serious expression.

Sakura studied him for a second, trying to determine if he was genuinely concerned, or if he was joking. He quickly made her decision for her, as he lept to his feet and sprinted away with the water bottle in his hand. Once a good distance away, he quickly tried to finish up the water, of which he so badly wanted.

Sakura couldn’t beleive his nerve, and with a mixture of shock, amusement, and even slight annoyance, she jumped to her feet from where she had been sitting so comfortably on the grass and landed sprinting. Reaching him, she used all her momentum to tackle him down, and she vainly tried to get the water out of his hands. Syaoran was on his back on the ground, grinning as he held the bottle of water over his head, out of Sakura’s reach as she sat pinning him down. Sakura reached just barely short of the bottle, and Syaoran’s free hand kept her other hand back.

"This isn’t fair, I am trying to keep my magic up, I need to stay healthy Syaoran!" Sakura said, pretending to be earnest, ignoring his amused smile.

Syaoran laughed, and Sakura stared at him with shock. Syaoran was now confused, and he looked up at her with perplexion.

"I don’t think you have ever laughed like that before." Sakura said, staring at him with amazement.

Syaoran only gazed up, holding his amused smile. "Did you think I was incapable of it?"

Sakura half grinned, but with their short conversation, Sakura freed her arm and grabbed a card. "Dash!" She called, then, with lightening speed she took the bottle of water out of his hand and quickly moved a distance away, then finished the bottle’s contents peacefully.

Syaoran got up off the ground after a little while and shook some loose blades of grass off his pants. "What happened to conserving our energy?" Syaoran called over sarcastically.

Sakura walked back over, holding the empty bottle of water triumphantly. "We should probably get going again. We can probably reach the home of the Zora’s in a little while." She walked over to their tree and the saddlebags and put the bottle into the saddlebag with the blanket so it wouldn’t be broken. Syaoran walked over from where he had been standing and hauled the saddlebags over his shoulder.

"What do they live in?" He asked, hopping back up onto his horse after he had gotten the saddlebags on the horse.

"Underwater. They’ve got rocks and stuff like that to sit in, maybe we can buy a watersuit thingy, that way we could breath underwater."Sakura hopped onto her horse off the side of the tree and walked it over next to Syaoran’s.

They walked on, the sun beating on them, dying for water. After a long walk of curving land, it started to flatten out, and the river started to come closer to their pathway again. After a long while, their horses started to look around, sticking their noses out in the wind. "What’s going on?" Sakura asked, looking over to Syaoran.

"There must be another animal around, keep on your gaurd." Syaoran said, pulling the heavy shield on his back to a more comfortable position.

Sakura looked around curiously. A distant horse’s whinny was carried by the wind, and wafted by them. Sakura’s horse stopped abruptly and let out a long ringing whinny, its whole body shaking under Sakura. She looked nervously to Syaoran.

Syaoran rode with his non-Hyrulian sword unsheathed and walked his horse forward. "Stay behind me."

Sakura gladly followed behind Syaoran’s protective wall. She was watching him very curiously now, after he had laughed. That was so strange. He was almost...happy. Maybe horses are the cure for Syaoran’s constant bad mood. He didn’t even get mad after I took the water away. She studied the outline of his back. His sword’s sheath went across his back, clinging against the shield he had tied to his back. He held both swords in his hands now, gripping them tightly. They rounded a corner of land and were now facing a broad expanse of straight land, land that intertwined with water falling from a high waterfall. Land bridged over pools of swirling water, and on one of the highest land bridges stood a horse, with a rider on top, their outline highlighted by the surging waterfall behind them.

Fluently the horse and rider jumped down from that bridge and galloped towards them. Sakura quickly registered that it was probably Link on Epona, though Syaoran wasn’t as quick to trust that, and he held his sword(s) readily. Link waved when he was close enough and he slowed Epona easily. "Hello!" He called, trotting up.

Syaoran watched him come angrily, and reluctantly lowered his swords. He just had to show up. Just had to. We were getting along so well, and here comes Skirt boy, ready to wreck the day.

"I did not know if you were caught in that portal also, so I was looking around. Looks like you were." Link said, stopping right in front of them, the horses sniffing each other curiously.

"We heard you were out here, so we went looking. We are trying to figure out how to get back." Sakura said.

"Come with me, then. Oh, wait." Link said. He reached behind his saddle and pulled out two long suit like things. "I’ve gotten two extra water suits, just in case you two were here. The Zoras gave them to me, so we will be able to go into the lake." He tossed the blue suits to them.

Syaoran caught it reflexively. He studied the scalely suit, it was a deep intriguing blue, but Syaoran didn’t see how it would help him swim. "How is this supposed to help us? I can swim just fine without these...these scale things on."

"It lets you breath in water." Link said simply, noticing that Syaoran had one of Hyrule’s battle outfits on. He could only grin to himself, he didn’t want to say anything that would start that boy’s incredible temper.

"That’s impossible. There’s no mouth peice, no oxygen reserves...nothing."

"What?" Link asked, not knowing what the items were that Syaoran had just listed off.

"It doesn’t work like that, it’s like, like spelled or something. It lets you breath without anything over you mouth, it’s pretty cool." Sakura said.

Syaoran studied the scaly suit once more. After he was silent for a while, Link spoke again. "Well let’s get going. We can make a fire in Zora’s domain tonight, it’s pretty warm in there, you two probably need your sleep."

Sakura nodded. They followed Link and Epona up the different steps and bridges of land to the top, where Sakura stared with wide-eyes at the waterfall. It was sunset already, and the water was reflecting orange, though they were standing in the shaded part of the cliff. Sakura was starting to get a little bit cold again, and she was very interested in the prospect of a warm fire.

Link took out a flute like instrument from behind his shield and held it up. Syaoran could only roll his eyes. Skirt boy plays a flute. How appropriate. Link played a short melody, and the water thinned out in front of them. Link hopped off Epona and looked at them. "The horses can’t come in here. Leave them with Epona, they will stay put." Link said.

Sakura hopped off her horse and gave it a pat on the neck before walking away. Syaoran got off and undid the saddle bags, hauling them over his shoulder, trying not to sway under all the weight he had on his back.

"Shall we?" Link asked. He hopped across through the waterfall into a square cut hole in the mountain. He looked over to Sakura and Syaoran, waiting for them to follow. Sakura jumped across without hesitance, her landing steadied by Link’s hand. Syaoran glared across and waited for them to clear the way before he effortlessly hopped over. The waterfall returned to its normal roar behind him, and they walked forward through a stone cut hall, entering into a huge echoing cave, brightly lit, filled with the clearest water that looked like shimmering glass. Syaoran glanced around, then looked up at the high waterfall across the cave, and watched a fish type person jump all the way from the top, diving the gigantic amount of feet down into the lake of water below.

Sakura looked around with wonder. It looked just like it had in the game, only now she could smell things, hear things, feel things herself. She was dying to swim around in this suit, it would be wonderful not having to come up for breath while you swim. Link yawned, and started a chain reaction, causing her to yawn. They had just slept a while ago, but it hadn’t been anymore then two hours, and she was dying for more.

"There’s no blankets or anything like that around here, but it stays warm all night, so you shouldn’t be cold. We can probably sleep where I normally do, there’s a place for a fire. We could fry fish there if you are really hungry."

"Well I am not really hungry, but I wouldn’t mind a fire." Sakura said.

Link nodded. "Follow me."

_____________________________________________________________________

Sakura pushed some ashes around with the long stick she had. Their fire was in its dying stages, but there was still some light coming from it, and the smoldering ashes would give heat until morning. Link was sleeping soundly to her side, but she and Syaoran were still trying to fall asleep.

"The ghost sure likes to use the Move card alot on us." Sakura said.

Syaoran nodded, his eyes staying tranced on the dancing flames of the fire. "It’s almost like she is playing with us. She has plenty of chances to kill us, but she doesn’t take them. It’s like a game. If she wanted you dead, she could strike you with lightening." With the surprised and worried look from Sakura, he added, "Sorry, I just mean,....you know? It just doesn’t make sense."

"And the Twin card, what purpose did that serve? I know what you mean. It just doesn’t seem right. I want to know what’s wrong with our family- what in my family line has brought us so many enemies?"

Syaoran cringed at the Twin card. He had pushed that whole ordeal to the back of his mind for now- the whole Zelda thing going on and all. He still hadn’t told Sakura anything about Tomoyo, but the truth of the matter was, Tomoyo had kissed him. "I think the Twin is being used on Tomoyo." He said after much thought. She needs to know that at least. Who says I need to go into detail.

"What makes you think that?" Sakura asked, shoving some ashes around with her stick into some Japanese letters.

Syaoran sighed. She just had to ask. She couldn’t have trusted my judgement, oh no, she has to know the story behind it. Syaoran knew his thoughts were ridiculous and unfair, Sakura had every right to know the story behind it. "During that New Years party she acted kind of strange...I mean, she just didn’t seem herself, she said some things...normal Tomoyo wouldn’t have said."

Sakura looked frowning at Syaoran, trying to see through the lines. He was obviously hiding something, that was for sure. "Something about you? What do you mean? What’d she say?"

"Just...just stuff. It doesn’t matter."

"What kind of stuff?" Sakura persisted.

"It doesn’t matter, okay, just trust my judgement!" Syaoran said, his voice raising slightly.

Sakura retreated to playing with the ashes in the fire, trying not to be hurt. Why can’t you tell me? What are you hiding? I will stop for now, hopefully you will trust me enough to tell me soon. "Then that makes two uses of the Twin card. I just don’t get why...why would a ghost, a normal person that died, be able to use magic against us? I just don’t understand. And then Aruka uses magic, that completly blows me away, I have no idea what that’s about."

Syaoran was glad that the previous topic had been avoided for now. "It’s almost like something else is behind it...But what? What is as powerful as Clow Reed?"

Sakura sighed. That question would have to go unanswered for now. "We should probably try and sleep, tommorrow we will probably be walking around a whole lot."

Syaoran nodded. He tried to lay comfortably on his back, but the hard ground wasn’t exactly good to sleep on. Syaoran eventually fell asleep on his side, and he slept as best he could on the cold hard ground.

______________________________________________________________________

"You’re not seriously going to dive off this?" Sakura asked Link, looking off the end of the waterfall. They had their swimming gear on now, and Sakura felt ready to swim, but she didn’t know if she felt that ready to swim. This waterfall was at least twenty feet high, looking at the water below made Sakura’s stomach do little sommersaults.

"There’s nothing to be scared of, I’ll just land in water, that’s all." Link said. He smiled at her. "Trust me, I do it all the time!" Link walked to the edge and jumped out in the air, going into perfect diving position. Sakura and Syaoran both walked near the edge to watch the rest of his dive.

Sakura watched him hit the water, and was amazed at the small amount of splash he made, despite the huge distance he had just dived. Sakura watched him plunge deep into the water, his body hardly visible as he was so far deep in the clear water. She held her breath and waited for him to come up, but it was a few moments before she saw his blonde head emerge from the water.

Sakura awed at him, and Syaoran cursed under his breath that the boy had made it back up. Now he would have to dive off this too, no matter how much he didn’t want to, because he refused to be outdone by the skirt boy. Sakura looked at him brightly. "Are you going to dive off it?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran swallowed hard. "I guess. I don’t see why we didn’t just climb down that ladder into the water instead."

"I guess this was closer. Either way, we get a better veiw from up here." Sakura said.

Syaoran nodded. "Ladies first." Syaoran said, pointing to the edge.

Sakura smirked. "What, you are actually scared? I never would have thought a Li would be afraid of a little waterfall."

Syaoran narrowed his eyes. "I was just being polite." With that, Syaoran ran past her and jumped boldly off the side. To top things off, he pushed himself into a flip before going into diving form, and he landed in the water just as surely as Link had.

Sakura looked worriedly off the side, and watched Syaoran come back up to surface. He was already glaring at Link, who was looking innocently back at him. I better get down there before a fight breaks out. Sakura was a good swimmer, she was a great diver, but she felt they had shown off enough for her, so she ran off, put her arms around her knees and screamed "Cannonball!" on her way down. Sakura’s stomach lurched for the countable seconds of weightlessness as she floated down into the water. Sakura smacked into the water with incredible speed and weight, and she swam up with a smarting underside. The water was waving crazily with the affects of her huge cannonball, and Sakura came out of the water with satisfactory.

"I’ve never seen that before." Link said, looking at Sakura.

Sakura just grinned. "It’s a Kinomoto specialty. When I was little we had a pool at our old house, we’d have contests to get the most waves. It was never fair, though, cause I was always the littlest."

"Well you can be proud to say you made a tsunami." Syaoran said, ignoring Link for now.

Sakura smiled. "So I can stay under water with this and not breath for a long time?" Sakura asked Link.

"Yes, just dive under, you won’t notice anything- but that’s the thing; you won’t ever notice anything. You’ll be under forever and then you’ll remember you were supposed to come up for breath."

Sakura nodded and dove under. She swam around for a while, then, looking down at the curious depths of water, she dove a little deeper. The water was clear enough to let her see for ages, and the beautiful underwater landscaping dazzled her eyes. Something moving caught the corner of her eye. Sakura turned and faced another figure, and she smiled at Syaoran as best she could underwater.

Syaoran was tredding water and looking around, a interested look on his face. He pointed off to a direction. Sakura turned and looked around, but she didn’t see what he was pointing at, all she could see was water. Syaoran swam over and turned her by her shoulders, giving her a more direct point. Sakura’s eyes met a distant colony of fish swimming undisturbed, not paying any attention to the people sharing their water space. Sakura smiled at Syaoran, indicating she had seen what he had. Another figure joined their side, looking curiously at Syaoran’s hand on Sakura’s shoulder. He pointed up at the surface and swam up, leaving them be again. Sakura swam up, unconsciously putting in an effort to keep a good form, now that she knew they could see her easily. She surfaced, and then Syaoran surfaced, both looking at Link.

"We should probably get going before nightfall. I think the owl will be at the lake, he might be able to help you." Link said.

Sakura nodded, and Link then dived into the water again. He swam a depth in, waiting for them to follow. Sakura went underwater and swam over to him, and Syaoran was quickly behind them. They swam deep into the water, and Sakura watched as they approached a hole that seemed to be in the ground underwater. They swam into it, and the water seemed to change noticeably, it was no longer clear and warm, but it turned a bit chilly, a bit more dreary, and Sakura made an extra effort to keep up. Link swam to the bottom and stood weightlessly on the stone floor of this water place. Sakura swam down and looked around, though her sight was limited by the water’s unclarity. Syaoran was standing a ways away, looking around at the water cautiously.

Link pointed up, and Sakura kicked her legs hard, swimming rapidly to the surface, ready to see where they were. She came up, and a fimiliar shore line was in the distance. Syaoran surfaced next, and he shook his wet hair out of his eyes. He was looking around at the alien landscape. Link surfaced.

"We’ve got to get to that bridge over there." Link said, pointing at the long suspended bridge that went over the lake for a long distance. They swam above surface for a long time, and Sakura’s shoulders started to hurt from all the excersize. She hadn’t swam for a long while, unless you count the times she got pulled into the watery’s water. Just before it was starting to get unbearable, they reached the steep shore of the bridge’s source. Link pulled himself out of the water and started climbing up the rocky hill. Sakura couldn’t help but notice Link’s arms as he had pushed up his sleeves, his well worked muscles showing through. Syaoran watched the whole thing was disgust, and brushed past Sakura as he quickly climbed up the rocky shore, with his sleeves down, mind you.

Sakura carefully stepped up on the loose rocks and made her way up,reaching the top after not to rough of a climb. She stood next to Link, and found that they were looking at a gigantic brown owl.

"Link. How may I assist you?" The owl asked.

"These two have been brought here against their will, how do we send them back to their own world?" Link asked.

"It is said that on Death Mountain, a fairy holds power to send people home." The owl said in his deep voice.

"But, but what about the dragon?" Sakura asked Link.

"We will have to get around without it noticing our presence." Link said.

"Great." Syaoran said.

Link shrugged. "I’ll call the horses, the mountain is a ways from here." He pulled out his flute thing and played another short melody. Three whinnys returned the call, and three horses galloped down the bridge without any fear that the wood might break under them. Sakura’s horse trotted up to her, and Sakura patted the animal, then untwisted the reins that had tangled with its mane.

Link looked at Syaoran, who was frowning off into space. "What is wrong?"

Syaoran glanced up with fiery eyes to repremand Link for asking him such a stupid question. "All of our stuff is at the other place. I don’t have my sword or anything."

Link sighed. "I guess we’ll have to make a detour."

Sakura was on her horse’s left side, trying to get on by herself, but there was nothing to give her a boost up. Link noticed first, and made a step with his hand. Sakura took it gratefully and hopped up, smiling back with gratitude. "Thanks. I am still learning to ride, maybe someday I’ll get the hang of it."

Link shrugged. "You fooled me earlier. I thought you had been riding for a long time."

Syaoran rolled his eyes and hopped up onto his horse, accidentally thudding down harder then he meant to. His horse grunted with annoyance, but stayed still. Link climbed up on his horse and looked back. "Are you guys ready?" He asked.

"Lead the way, Skirt boy." Syaoran said, pasting a fake smile on his face.

Link’s eyebrows went down just a little bit, but he turned and put his horse into a walk silently. Sakura walked after him, sighing. Syaoran isn’t always this mean to other guys, why is he so mean to Link? Is he jealous? Of what? Syaoran seems pretty sure of himself, he knows that he can do about everything that Link can.

_____________________________________________________________________

After changing back into their normal clothes and putting their water suits into their saddlebags, they were now making their way up the dusty path to Death mountain. Link motioned to stop, and he whipped out his bow and arrow from behind his shield, quickly aimed, and let an arrow loose. An enemy a few yards off fell to the ground, and they continued. Syaoran glared at his second sword. A bow. I knew I should’ve gotten something else besides another sword. They climbed their horses over some rough terrain, then Link signaled to stop again. He slid down off his horse. "We can’t take them into this crater, it’s too dangerous. We’ll have to do this on foot." Link said.

Sakura slid off her horse, noticing a certain amount of heat around this mountain. She had been cold for the majority of this trip, but now she felt quite nice. She looked around from the dirt platform she was on and saw their path ahead. It waved in the distance with heat, and the long path dipped through pockets of heat.

"Do we have to go through that?" Sakura asked.

Link looked ahead and nodded. "Yeah, we have to be really careful, huge rocks fall down, you’ll need your shield alot." He looked at Sakura, who was defenseless. "Stay close to us, you don’t want to get caught without any protection."

"Right." Sakura said, looking down the path. She now recognized it, it was the path to the death mountain crater. Huge rocks was an understatement, boulders and chunks of mountain fell down in the constant heated earthquakes of this path.

"Fall down from where?" Syaoran asked Sakura as they started walking onto the broad pathway.

"I’m not sure, if you look at the sky, all you see is red." They looked up, and sure enough, a blazing and swirling red was overhead. "I hope we don’t get caught in an earthquake thing, there’s chunks of mountain that fall."

Syaoran took his sword off his back and walked forward carefully. They walked down the path and mentally crossed their fingers, as they advanced safely. "We’re gonna make it!" Sakura said, the end of the path in sight.

Just as the last world left her mouth, she had jinxed herself, and the ground started to shake. Sakura lept over to Syaoran’s side, who was looking up at the sky with a disinviting frown.

"Quick, we might be able to make it!" Link shouted, sprinting ahead towards the wall as the ground shook underneath his feet.

Sakura and Syaoran ran after him, but little rocks were already beginning to fall. Syaoran saw the shadow of a boulder crashing down towards Sakura, who was running oblivious. He dived and pushed her out of the way, then rolled over with his shield up and just barely blocked the boulder as it smashed against the metal of his shield. Syaoran’s arms ached with the intensity of power they had just absorbed, but he ignored the pain and got to his feet. Sakura was just recovering from the last one, and was trying to dodge another falling rock. Syaoran grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run, trying to follow Link’s path, though they could hardly see him running through the shower of rocks.

Syaoran pulled Sakura out of the way of another boulder, and in return, she pulled him out of the way of a chunk of earth as it crashed into the ground at his side. Their pathway was slowly advancing, but the constant stops and turns were making the short straight line to the wall into a round about trip. Link reached the wall and huddled against its safety. "Hurry!" He called to Syaoran and Sakura as they were only a few steps away.

Syaoran’s shoulder hit a falling rock, but he ignored it and slammed into the high wall of the end of the path. Sakura slammed into it across from him and let go of his hand, gasping for breath. "Did that...(pant) hit you?" Sakura asked, leaning against the wall.

"Only a little bit." Syaoran said quickly, between breaths. Link had caught his breath, and was walked over to them.

"You guys alright?" Link asked.

Sakura nodded.

"We should probably get out of the way before a rock manages to crush us." He faced the wall in front of them; it was covered in vines, and it stretched up to the sky.

"Do we have to climb this?" Sakura asked, unbeleiving.

Link looked up it, then looked back to Sakura. "I can use my hookshot to bring us one at a time up there, if you want." He said.

Sakura was all for this idea, but Syaoran was fully against it. "That sounds good." Sakura said.

"I’ll take you first, then come back for you." Link said, looking at Syaoran.

Syaoran crossed his arms and glared at him. "I can manage this by myself, thank you very much." He said, already starting to climb the thick vines. They stuck out like tree branches, and Syaoran was a very good tree climber, so this was easy for him.

Sakura shook her head and watched him climb up with rapid speed, never looking down at the ground. "Well, we might as well go up there." Sakura said after a while.

Link nodded. He pulled out a metal contraption thing and held it up. "Hold on to me really tight, okay? It’ll be kind of scary, but it’ll be over before you know it."

Sakura nodded and held tightly around his shoulders. The metal thing shot out a long chain with lightening speed and they were swept off the ground. Sakura clutched on to Link for her life, and was incredibly releived to feel her feet hit solid ground. Her head felt dizzy, and she was swaying uncertainly close to the edge of this cliff. Link quickly noticed and pulled her back from the edge, steadying her atop the cliff.

"Thanks." Sakura said, stepping out of Link’s hold. "We are really high up, aren’t we?" Sakura said, looking around. It was even hotter here, and they were facing a large hole cut into the peak of the mountain. Red glowing darkness was inside, and Sakura assumed that was the Death Mountain Crater. "Are we going to be okay in that heat?" Sakura asked, remembering that on the game she had gotten a fire suit to walk around without being harmed.

"We can’t stay in there too long, but hopefully we’ll be able to find the fairy rather quickly, so we don’t have to hang around."

Syaoran emerged at the top of the vines, climbed over the side of the cliff, and stood up. He would have liked to collapse; no one told him that there was giant spiders hiding in the vines, or that the whole wall was about fifty feet of constant climbing. He had developed a pretty good sweat coming up, and he wiped his forehead off with his sleeve, then looked into the cavern in front of them. "Lemme guess, we’re going in there."

"Right!" Sakura said with sarcastic excitedness.

Syaoran followed Sakura and Link into the large stone cut hall, and found it hard to breath. The air had become smothering and hot, the metal of his sword and shield felt like coals in his hand. Link looked around once they could see the main part of the cavern. "We have to be careful, the dragon never sleeps, if it notices us..."

The ground shook lightly, and suddenly a blast of wind formed inbetween them. It threw them in three different directions, and they quickly lost sight of each other as the Move card moved them to opposite ends of the cave. Syaoran immediatly stood up from his hard landing and looked for Sakura, but he couldn’t see her. He was now standing on a peice of earth that was in the middle of some boiling red liquid, he couldn’t tell what it was, but it was hot. He knew is couldn’t be lava, because if that was the case, he’d be dead with heat at that moment, but he was still quite alive. A rickety bridge was in front of him, and it connected with a series of platforms that led back to the main entrance where they had just been. Syaoran rushed across the bridge and hopped from platform to platform, completly ignorant of the fatal liquid he was jumping over.

Sakura, quite a ways away from Syaoran and Link, was standing cautiously, knowing that at any moment this floating peice of earth may sink into the lava type stuff it was floating on. She looked hopefully ahead at the platform ahead. She dared to step forward, so she could be ready to jump, and the platform shook horribly underneath. Sakura tried to balance, but the platform was starting to sink, set off balance. Sakura took out her cards in desperation. Oh no... "Bubbles! Help me however you can!" Sakura shouted. Bubbles appeared and made a path across the lava, and Sakura jumped onto it. Bubbles quickly popped under her weight, and Sakura ran as light footed as she possibly could across the fragile path. The bubbles were growing thin under the heat’s influence as well, and Sakura found her path to be slowly diminishing. Sakura threw herself off the edge of the bubbles onto the far off platform. She knew she wasn’t going to make it, but she stretched her hands out, and they reached the edge of the platform. Sakura did a very warped version of a front handspring, not having anything to kick her feet off of, but she landed flat on her back on the safe dirt. She couldn’t breath for a moment, she had knocked the wind out of herself, but she wasn’t melting away in boiling lava, so she was happy enough.

A low rumbling roar made Sakura jump to her feet. Something was moving around, and it was watching Sakura, she felt like she was being hunted. Her eyes met a giant hand, or at least that was the only shape it came near to, that was brown and burnt looking. Sakura stepped back unconsciously, and her foot hit the edge of the platform. She quickly moved back away from the edge and looked with fear at the hand thing. What do I do? I can’t use the Voice card, the Song card, the Silent card....I have no fighting cards left! "Woody! Contain him!" She cried, swerving out of the way as it lurched out at her. Sakura ran across the platform and climbed a ladder as quickly as she could, reaching a more open peice of earth. The Hand jumped up over the side of the cliff and started crawling towards her. Woody tried to chase it down with vines, but the hand broke it off with a swipe of a sharp nail. Sakura watched helplessly as it started to come at her again. Sakura was out of ideas, the only thing she had left to do was run. Sakura sprinted away, but much of this platform was enclosed by high mountain walls, and she couldn’t go anywhere. The Hand had her trapped against a wall. Sakura boldly ran at it, then last second did an attack roll between two of the gigantic bony fingers. She kept running and then found herself trapped again, this time against the edge of the lava. The Hand slapped her off the edge, and Sakura fell down the distance she had climbed with the ladder.

Sakura landed on ground, thank goodness, but she landed horribly hard on her ankle, which was going the wrong way. Sakura writhed over it with pain, it ached relentlessly. Sakura tried to stand but it refused to hold any weight. The Hand was crawling over, taking its time as it knew it had its prey helpless. Sakura crawled backwards in an effort to get away, but she knew it was helpless.

The hand was practically over her, taunting her, holding it’s dagger nails uncomfortably close to Sakura’s neck. She couldn’t back away any further, or she would be in lava. She wasn’t sure which death was worse, but she just decided to stay put. If she had to, she could do another sommersault inbetween its fingers, though she knew that would only get her so far.

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevidible, when a rushing sound made her open her eyes. She opened them just in time to see a flung sword lodge into the center of the Hand, and it staggered around for a second before collapsing to the ground. Sakura looked at it with wonder, then looked at the sword. A figure jumped down from a ledge onto the platform, then ran up to her, his fiery eyes showing deep worry.

"Sakura-chan! Are you alright?" Syaoran asked, running up to her and kneeling by her side.

Sakura felt tears of pain pressing at the corner of her eyes. "I think...I think I broke my ankle." She said, frowning intensly to keep the tears from falling.

Syaoran bent over her ankle touching it gently as if it might fall off if he were to touch it too hard. "I think you’ve dislocated it." He said. Syaoran looked up and met her eyes, emotions flooding between them. "I can fix it, but it’s going to hurt alot." Syaoran said, feeling sick with pain just because Sakura was hurt.

Sakura nodded. "Hurry up and fix it before I cry." She said, smiling weakly.

Syaoran nodded and put his hands on her ankle. He knew he had to snap it back in place, but he was afraid to do it, because he knew it would hurt very badly. He twisted it back sharply, and it snapped back in, though the snapping sound it cracked made him grit his teeth. Sakura had her eyes squeezed shut, and he could tell she was pushing her teeth together. Syaoran sighed with releif that she was still alive, he was scared to death to do any medical procedure on her.

Sakura opened her eyes, and a few tears made their way down, despite her efforts. Syaoran looked at her helplessly, he could stand watching her cry. Sakura smiled weakly again, despite her pain. "It hardly hurts now." She said, moving her foot around in a jerky circle, cringing a little.

The ground started to vibrate under them again. "Can you walk?" Syaoran asked her, watching her tears fall down with pain.

Sakura shrugged. Syaoran put his hands under her arms and carefully lifted her up, and she put her arms around his neck, putting alot of her weight on his shoulders. He smiled warmly at her.

Sakura eased her weight onto her feet but kept her arms around his neck, just in case her ankle would decide to give on her. The ground shook more urgently underneath them, and Syaoran’s smile turned more cautious, and he put his hand on Sakura’s. "We’ve got to get going." He said.

Sakura nodded and took her arms off him, and Syaoran walked over quickly to the dead hand thing and pulled his sword out of it, trying to get the green goey stuff off before facing Sakura. She walked after him, a limp hardly evident in her walk, though she was moving a bit stiffly. Syaoran walked by the ladder and picked up the rest of the stuff he had shed to free up his movement. He had found a spear gun laying on one of the platforms, and was now carrying it around. The ground shook under them again, this time more violently, and Sakura about collapsed, and had to use Syaoran’s shoulder to support herself.

Syaoran tried not to wince, as that was the shoulder the rock had hit, and it was still pretty tender. They both turned to see what was causing the rumbling, and a great circle of lava started shooting into the air, bubbling and gurling, sending waves of heat at them. "It’s the dragon!" Sakura shouted over the roaring lava, trying to back away towards the ladder.

"Come on!" Syaoran called, grabbing her hand and jogging her over to the ladder. He let her go first, and he stood impatiently at the bottom, holding his shield and sword ready. He quickly climbed up after her, then stood at the platform they were on. The dragon roared out of the lava, red liquid splashing over the platform they had just been on, and the long red scaly figure flew into the cavern, looking around with its malicious eyes.

Sakura watched it come up with terror. Syaoran took her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "We have to run. Don’t give in, okay?"

Sakura looked from the dragon to his hand to his eyes. "I won’t." She said firmly. Syaoran turned and started running, keeping her hand in his, and he ran carefully, trying not to push her too hard. The dragon roared behind them, and Syaoran pulled her along harder, and they reached a set of steps, which Syaoran pulled her up. The dragon’s noise stopped behind them, and Syaoran pulled her a safe distance until they reached a ledge, and Syaoran stopped, sliding to his stomach and slid his hand off Sakura’s and moved it to her shoulder, and pushed her down onto her stomach as well, holding her still with one arm and holding the spear gun in front of him with the other.

Sakura tried not to breath to loudly, because she could see off this ledge the dragon flying closeby, searching with its penetrating eyes for its prey. Sakura laid stone still under Syaoran’s arm, and looked over at the long tube thing he held in his other hands. "What’s that?" Sakura whispered.

"A spear gun." Syaoran whispered back, keeping his eyes glued as he aimed the gun at the dragon.

The dragon flew out of sight, and the noise of its rushing wings and fiery roar slowly faded. Syaoran held the gun steady for a long while, but the main danger had passed. "Does your ankle still hurt?" Syaoran asked after a while.

"Not anymore. You fixed it very well." Sakura said, smiling at him.

Syaoran dragged his eyes away from the distant walls of the cavern and met her eyes for a second, before shyly turning them away. "We had to do that in martial arts a long time ago. I guess I still remember some of it."

"I thought I was going to have to jump into that lava, I had tried making a path with Bubbles, but it didn’t work. I really thought I was going to die."

"I wouldn’t of let you." Syaoran said, meeting her eyes again. This time they held their curious eye contact, and Syaoran found his thoughts starting to mix up as he looked into her shining emerald eyes. His grip on her shoulder tightened slightly, and he found himself moving closer to her, drawn to her. Sakura was horribly nervous, but she found herself moving closer to him despite her will. She tried to stop, but the space between their lips was slowly diminishing. Sakura hoped he couldn’t hear her heart pounding, because the noise of it was flooding her head, her pulse was racing, and she could hardly understand her own thoughts. What’s happening? Is he...are we going to...

The ground started to shake under them again, and they both jumped to their feet. Sakura glanced awkwardly at Syaoran, who was staring with burning ears off in the distance. Sakura stared at her feet, her cheeks flushed with embaressment. A dragon appeared again, and this time Syaoran had a clear shot, and he fired the spear gun. The spear went flying out of the gun and traveled cleanly through the air into the dragon’s side The dragon’s flight went dizzying, and it ran into a wall accidentally. Just then a chain lodged into the rock beside them, and it was retracting something. Link came flying through the air and landed solidly beside them, taking the chain back into his hookshot.

"It’s going mad, we’ve got to get to the fairy before he takes the whole mountain down!" Link said, looking urgently behind him. "It’s up there." He said, pointing up at a nearby cleft. The only problem was, how would they get up there?

Syaoran knew that Sakura wouldn’t be able to run a whole lot more, he knew what he would have to do. Swallow his pride, something he couldn’t stand to do, but he was going to do it anyway. "Take her up there, I’ll meet you." Syaoran said, pulling out both of his swords.

Sakura looked with concern. Syaoran was going to have to fight off this dragon all by himself, but he seemed completly determined to do so. She couldn’t help but admire his courage, also amazed at his willingness to get her out of harm’s way, no matter that he had to swallow his jealous pride to do so. Link nodded and took Sakura’s arm. "Hold on." He said, holding up his hook shot. Sakura put her arms around his shoulders, but gave Syaoran one last look. "Be careful!" She mouthed, just as they took off for the cliff. They reached it safely, though they were now out of Syaoran’s sight.

Syaoran looked after her for a second, then shook himself back to reality. He bounded down the stairs they had come up earlier and looked around for a pathway to take to get up to the ledge Sakura was on. The dragon spotted him, and was making a spinning path over to him. Flecks of fire were falling from the dragon and sparking in Syaoran’s path, making him run on his toes. He held his shield in front of him and ran forward, ignoring the danger ahead.

The dragon was dangerously close, and Syaoran had to think of something fast before it reached them. Syaoran took the hyrulian sword and flung it yet again, and the sword found its mark. The dragon veered away, screeching with pain. Syaoran climbed up a steep wall quickly, his feet slipping on loose rocks, his hands scratched by the sharp fire molded stones. He climbed over an edge of the cliff and looked for the dragon. It surprised him, peering up over the other side of the cliff. It roared out fire, and Syaoran narrowly missed the blast. Another wave of fire was coming at him, and he couldn’t dodge to the side this time. Syaoran threw himself into a back handspring off the side of the cliff and just barely caught the edge with his fingers, though they were severly cut up in the process. Fire whirled past his head, and Syaoran knew he had the dragon outsmarted for now. It didn’t know he was still hanging on.

Syaoran formulated a quick plan, then flipped his feet over his head, turned, and jumped into the dragon with his sword, slamming it down with all his power into its thick skull. The dragon shreiked and tried to fly, but Syaoran quickly retracted his sword and brought it down at its neck, and blood flooded out of the gash. The dragon nailed Syaoran’s head with a sharp scaly claw, and Syaoran stumbled back, feeling blood drip from the cut in his forehead, and it dripped into his eyes, but Syaoran blinked it away and concentrated. The dragon crazily shot fire out of its mouth, and Syaoran barely got his shield up in time. He held his sword readily, and once the fire had passed, he slashed the sword into the dragon one last time, this time with all his heated frustration and anger driving the blow, and the dragon gave a last screaming noise before it collapsed on the ground. Syaoran wiped away sweat and blood off his forehead and took his sword back wearily. The ground was still shaking underneath him, he noticed, this time with exstreme violence, and Syaoran remembered his task.

Syaoran quickly began climbing the next wall, ignoring the rocks scratching him, and the ash falling that stung his eyes. He only thought about the top, where he would be able to go home with Sakura, free to sleep and eat and do whatever he wanted. Syaoran finally reached the top of the rocky wall, and put his hand over the smooth top, pulling himself up. He threw his arm with the sword over the side, then climbed over, barely getting to his feet, even with the support of his sword holding him up.

Sakura and Link both ran to his side, Sakura putting an arm on his shoulder. She put her hand on his forehead, where a wide gash ran across. "Are you okay? Oh, Syaoran, we thought you fell off the edge!"

Syaoran would have been basking in Sakura’s attention had Link not been there, but his presence sort of ruined the moment. "The cave’s collapsing." Syaoran said, reminding them of the shaking walls and ceiling.

Syaoran walked stiffly forward with Link leading the way to the perfectly cut square hole in the side of the wall near them. They walked in, and the temperature turned pleasantly cool, the poisonous fumes disappearing from the air, and the deceptive waves of heat giving way to clear vision. They walked into a large square room where the ground was still, everything was quiet except a harp playing softly from an unknown source. The walls seemed to be moving by their own accord and sparkled like the brightest stars on the clearest night.

Link stepped forward and played his ocarina (the flute thing), and laughter came from the pool of water the room was centered around, and a woman emerged from the water, or not really a woman, but evolved from that, her skin shimmering, her eyes glittering.

She sent light around all three of them, and Syaoran felt his feet come off the ground, and then he felt his body become relaxed, all the aching disappearing, his vision brought to crystal clarity, his lungs cleared of the ash he had been breathing in.

His feet were set back on the ground, and he looked at Sakura, who was looking at the fairy with amazement. Sakura’s pale and exhausted face was now vibrant and healthy again, all the smeared ash was gone from her skin, and she looked just completly....healthy! Syaoran watched Link walk up to the fairy again, holding his head in a revered bow.

"Your friends would like to go home." The fairy said, before any words came out of Links mouth.

"Y-yes. If it is at all possible-"

"Do you truly wish to return? Only shadows and darkness awaits you, your fate is shadowed by unknown troubles. Are you certain of your wish?"

Sakura and Syaoran both looked at the fairy, uncertain of how to answer, awed by the reverence of the fairy. Sakura stepped boldly out, looking up at the fairy. "It is where we belong." She said. This is the only way we can get home, we can’t blow it!

"You blindly seek what is fimiliar, but so be it. Naive thoughts foreshadow your future. Do not be so quick to accept what your mind conjures, for you are deceptive to yourself, an unsteady past not fixed will lead to a unstable and eventually broken future. May what I see be wrong, may you live long and well, may no trouble await you." The fairy said.

Sakura frowned at the words the fairy spoke, and quickly made sense of them. "What do you mean, naive? My past is firm, I do not understand. I do not lie to myself."

The fairy shook her head. "But you do."

Sakura would have continued with her conversation, but the fairy dimmed away, and everything around her, the cave, the fairy’s room, Syaoran and Link, all faded away into blue around her. Sakura tried to step away, but she didin’t move, she was flying now, backwards through the portal through which she had come to Hyrule. Sakura tried to slow herself down as she watched the blue electricty around her blur as she moved faster and faster. Sakura felt gravity lurch under her again, and she looked down only to slam into hard ground.

Sakura opened her eyes and looked with wide eyes around at the sidewalk she was sitting on. Sakura heard someone next to her, and she turned and saw Syaoran, sitting on the pavement, looking much as flustered as she did. "Are we back?" Sakura asked, trying to beleive her eyes as she looked at the Tomoeda suburbs.

"I think." Syaoran said, getting stiffly to his feet.

Sakura stood up, and after a second she remembered her ankle should be hurting. It must of been healed by that fairy. How cool! Sakura looked at Syaoran quickly, and saw that there was no gash across his forehead, and he looked quite healthy, though his eyes showed confusion. "I wonder what time it is." Sakura said, looking around. It was bright day outside, but Sakura felt horribly tired. Through the past few days she had hardly gotten any sleep, despite the amount of excersizing she had done. Her arms were freezing, as there was snow on the ground here, and she saw the saddlebags in front of them, and she bent down and pulled out Syaoran’s sweatshirt. "You don’t mind do you?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Must be about three oclock." He said, as they heard the distant school bells ringing.

"Oh no, school’s started! I wonder what day it is? Oh crap my dad is going to be so worried about me....how am I ever going to explain this?" Sakura bit at her fingernails nervously, these thoughts hitting her in the face.

"Don’t worry, you are great at making up stories." Syaoran said, looking down the road toward his apartment complex.

"Right." Sakura said, grinning halfway. "Maybe I could use..." Sakura went through the list of cards she had working in her head. "I could use the Dream and make them think it was all one big dream."

Syaoran shrugged. "I suppose. Use it on Meilin, while you’re at it."

"Tomoyo won’t beleive all this when I tell her!" Sakura said, smiling.

Syaoran cringed at Tomoyo’s name. Sakura noticed the obvious clouding on his face, and she watched him suspiciously for a moment before continuing. "Do you think I will be talking to Tomoyo’s double, or what? How do I know if it’s really her?" Sakura asked.

If she doesn’t try to kiss you, you should be okay. "I dunno, you should be able to sense it, I suppose. But then again, we didn’t notice it at, at the, uh, New Years party, so she may be going in undercover. Try using the Lybra." Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded. "That’s a good idea." Sakura stopped talking, as she saw a distant figure on his bike, someone she hadn’t seen in a while. "Oh God! Touya!" Sakura said, ducking behind Syaoran.

Syaoran looked down at his clothes for a second, then remembered he was still in his hyrulian clothes, and they had a pile of suspicious looking leather in front of them, which was the saddle bags they had boughten there. On top of that, Syaoran had both swords across his back, which looked very suspicious.

"Dash!" Sakura shouted. The Dash surrounded them and Sakura and Syaoran ran their way down the street, running all the way to Syaoran’s apartment complex. Sakura and Syaoran stopped in the parking lot, and Syaoran set the saddlebags back down on the ground.

"You and Touya are not getting along anymore?" Syaoran asked. He had noticed a certain amount of hesitance every time Sakura had mentioned her older brother. Syaoran hadn’t thought to ask until now.

"heh, why would you say that?" Sakura asked, trying to smile.

"You always get the same expression on your face every time you mention him." Syaoran said.

Sakura looked surprised at Syaoran. How does he notice that? "I, wow, I didn’t think it was that obvious, it’s just...well it’s nothing, I mean, I can’t blame him for reacting the way he did, he just said some things.. Like I had set these things up for attention, stupid stuff like that." Sakura said, laughing it away.

Syaoran looked at her sympathetically. He knew exactly how it felt to have a family member accuse you of something horribly untrue. "Why didn’t you tell me before?"

Sakura shrugged. She shivered involuntarily. "Because, it’s just...it’s not that important." She looked up curiously at Syaoran. "So now that I’ve told you what Touya said, fess up. I know Tomoyo said more then just ‘stuff.’ In fact, I remember seeing her crying, I was going to talk to her, but Chihura or someone needed me."

Syaoran looked at his feet and kicked around some snow. What Sakura said was fair, but he really didn’t want to tell everything Tomoyo had said. "She just said..." He stopped, because a figure was staring at them from only about ten feet away, pale faced, her bookbag dropped at her side.

Meilin stared at Syaoran as if he was a ghost, and, not bothered by Sakura presence, she ran over to him, tears falling freely out of her eyes, and hugged him tightly. "Syaoran! I can’t beleive...! I thought...I thought I had... You are alive! You were gone for so long, I thought..." Meilin hugged him tightly, her eyes squeezed shut, tears streaming out of them.

Sakura looked with wonder at Meilin, then at Syaoran, then back to her feet. She hated being so out of place, but she didn’t really have a choice. Syaoran pulled out of Meilin’s grasp and faced her. "What do you mean ‘you thought you had’?"

Meilin wiped the tears from her eyes and looked guiltily at him. "I, I don’t really know what happened- I read some stuff on a wall, I think it was a spell..."

Syaoran was frowning furioursly at her. "You mean you were the one that sent us into Hyrule?"

Meilin shrunk under his fury, melting away with guilt. "I didn’t mean to, Syaoran. I was just trying to help-"

"Do you have any idea how much trouble we had to go through to get back? Of course you don’t, you wouldn’t care. You were too busy trying to act hereoic, the thought that you’d screw up a completly unknown curse never occured to you."

"Syaoran, no, I didn’t, I mean....I just wanted to help." She said softly, looking down with shame at the new tears coming to her eyes.

" You know Meilin, whenever you try and help, you screw up." Syaoran said coldly.

Meilin looked up at him, a mixture of anger and guilt in her teary eyes. "I don’t know why I’d ever try and help someone like you, Li Syaoran. You’re cold and heartless, you can never deal with anything without anger." Meilin bit her quivering lip to keep it still, then whipped around, her long black hair flipping behind her, and charged away, picking up her bookbag from the pavement on the way to the door.

Syaoran sighed, then remembered Sakura was standing next to him, and he glanced awkwardly at her. Now she probably thinks I am some jerk-off that doesn’t have any feelings. If she really knew Meilin, she’d know that Meilin will be over this by tommorrow, and back to trying to save the world. After an uncomfortable silence, Syaoran tried to redeem himself. "I shouldn’t of-"

"I better get home." Sakura said, interrupting him. "At least you won’t have to explain anything to her," She said, smiling weakly. "I’ll see you in school." Sakura said, then turned quietly and started walking away.

Syaoran sighed to himself again and watched her walk off. I wonder if I’ll get that sweatshirt back? I am going to have two of them mad at me. And then there’s Tomoyo, mentally unstable. I just don’t have any luck with girls. Syaoran turned and headed reluctantly into the apartment complex. Meilin was going to be very mad for the remainder of the evening, so Syaoran figured he’d spend the evening in his room reading up on some magic history. Maybe he could find something to explain why all this stuff was happening.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mean mean Syaoran! Man I wrote a bunch of this when I was home sick from school. That’s my excuse for why some of the parts move so quickly. I’m not going to have Syaoran stay so mean, he’s really nice under that mean layer, it’s just getting it out of him. The zelda thing about the dragon- I couldn’t remember the name, so that’s why I kept refering to it as ‘dragon’. I was going to play zelda and try and find out, but it’s in one of the later levels and I was too lazy to go out and find it. I figured out that I am going to make this story into two stories- that way I can have two endings; a halfway ending and a final ending. Anyway, I’m going to go get some popsicles for my sore throat.

Need more comments to support my writing! [email protected]

and visit my site if you’re not already there at geocities.com/Keanushorsechic

Ja mana ni!

-Syaoran Fan 4 Life