Chapter 1 - Distant Voices, part 1: Sakura and New Beginnings

Distant Voices, part 1: Sakura and New Beginnings

The bare trees swayed in the blowing wind. Together they swayed, back and forth, a calm dance to a quiet ballad of harmony. In her bed a girl slept. Soundly she did with pleasant dreams of ones she loved and those she hoped or wished she had the love of. The soft white cloth of the window drapes gently swayed in the wind as it came across the open portal. The girl's amber hair rustled slightly as the wind picked up a small amount. The white light of the moon poured into this girl's room as if to light her way and protect her but it fell short of her only reaching the side of her bed.

The wind began to pick up and the creek of the swaying trees became louder as if mimicking voices of evil veiled in darkness. The girl, still in slumber felt the chill of this wind on the pail skin of her fair face. She shivered and gripped her sheets in her small hands. The wind continued to grow, as did the girl's discomfort. As it came across the open window it began to sound more and more like a rasping voice calling to her in a low murmur. The girl moved about in her bed as if trying to escape a frightening dream.

The wind blew, the trees creaked and the wind's voice continued to call. The girl was cold, very cold, as if she were in no bed at all but instead naked in a place alone with the wind swirling around her. With this state came an icy sweat making her all the more uncomfortable.

The wind grew stronger and the voice became louder. It's menacing call penetrated through to the girl's dreams. The window was suddenly thrown open and almost off it's hinges by a terrible gust and with it the voice became a shrill scream that reached the girl's very soul! She awoke suddenly with a scream of her own but as she looked about her dark room she saw nothing; the wind was gone and there was no evil lurking in the darkness as far as she could see. This girl however had learned throughout her life not to believe her eyes but her feelings and her heart. They told her something was wrong, something had been there, there in her room with her and she felt very strongly that it meant her the greatest of harm. What had driven it away she couldn't tell. All she knew was that she now sat bathed in a pool of white light by the moon and she felt safe by it.

The morning came and the girl bound down the stairs of her home dressed with her purse on her arm and her book bag on her back. She did so almost gracefully but at the bottom step she tripped over her own feet and fell forward. "Ahhh!" she squealed in a high tone as she plummeted forward. She was caught before hitting the ground however by the arms of a tall and kind faced man. The girl looked up at this man as her feet were firmly set upon the ground once again. "Daddy!" she bubbled. "Good morning!"

The man smiled down at his daughter. "Good morning, Sakura. Are you ready?"

"Yep!" Sakura biped as she ran for the door to put on her skates.

"Wait!" her father called. "I have something for you."

"Really?" Sakura bubbled again at the prospect of an unexpected gift. She skipped back over to her father and beamed up at him with an incorrigible smile. She watched as he reached into his pocket and took out an envelope with the impression of something solid in it.

"Last night while downstairs in the library I came across something." He said. He removed something from the envelope. It was a beautiful faded-gold necklace with three clear red glimmering stones and a black cordage. Sakura's eyes grew wide with awe at it's beauty. "I found this in the binding of a very old book. It seemed to be a page marker of sorts." He said with a laugh. "It was a very odd book and I'd like to do more research on it but I'll be in and out of town for quite a while so I'd like you to hold onto it for me and keep it safe."

"Thank you so much daddy! It's beautiful, I'll protect it! I promise!" Sakura said as her father fastened the necklace around her neck. She then went to put her skates on once again.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to give it to her? She might lose it." There came a voice from the other room.

"She'll do fine." Sakura's father said as a tall thin man with black hair walked into the room while still munching on breakfast.

"Don't fall on your head on the way over, monster." The man said.

"You don't have to worry about me, Touya." Sakura said to her brother as she went out the door and sped down her walkway only to fall down as she turned the corner.

Life for Sakura Kinomoto since the completion of her tasks with the magical Cards made by Clow Reed so long ago had been what she would call normal for the most part. Four years had passed and little had changed. She still knew most of her good friends from the fourth and fifth grade and was as happy as could be. As happy, that is, as with the way things went.

As Sakura skated she thought about her past, the things that happened, and the people she was and had been with. For some reason there seemed to be a heavy weight on her heart this morning since she left her house but she didn't know why, as if she was recalling a painful memory somewhere in within her mind. She suddenly felt something warm touch her face and she thought it odd, as it was the winter and very cold out. She felt it again and this time she gathered that it was wet. She suddenly stopped and leaned with one hand on a tree on the side of the street. She touched her cheek and was almost distressed by what she felt. Upon her hand and rosy cheeks were tears, she had not realized it but she had been crying.

She stood for a moment and felt a breeze. It was a cold breeze. She could hear it also wisping through the bare branches of rows of trees along the streets. She was suddenly reminded of that night and she felt a bit scared. She looked around perhaps to find something or someone that would bring her comfort or security but in all oddity there were no people and no cars around; the streets were barren. The wind came through the trees more strongly and the voice of the wind returned. It was a high-pitched moan, which Sakura felt was coming from all around her. Sakura's lower lip quivered with a short squeak of fear and she then bolted for her destination without incident, whatever it was seemed to have gone away if it was there at all.
She came to the door of a large house huffing and gasping for air. She managed to get a hand off her knees and push the doorbell. The door opened and in the foyer of the house stood a beautiful girl with long wavy black hair wearing a pretty dress. "Sakura?!" the girl exclaimed as she rushed over to her side. Sakura managed to stand up straight. "Hi Tomoyo!" She said happily.

"That's a very pretty necklace!" The girl said taking immediate notice.

"Thanks, my dad gave it to me."

"You look so pretty with it on, but then again you can make anything look pretty!"

"T- Tomoyo."

The two friends went to Tomoyo's room. When they had closed the door behind them out from Sakura's purse came a little winged, orange, alive stuffed animal. "Why hello, Kero!" Tomoyo said as she gave him a cupcake and he would have proclaimed his undying love for her if his mouth didn't become immediately full.

Tomoyo and Sakura were planning to have a week-long sleep over with just the two of them and Kero. It was their winter break and school started soon so they decided to make the most of every second of it. First on Tomoyo's 'to do' list was to watch some of her old captures.

Turning her attention away from Kero's appetite, Tomoyo looked over to Sakura who was sitting by a window looking out with a blank stare. Tomoyo sensed that something was amiss. "Sakura." She said softly getting the girl's attention. "Is there something the matter?"

"What?" Sakura said slightly dazed. Tomoyo could tell that her mind was elsewhere. Sakura then looked away from the window and smiled mistily. "Oh, I'm fine. I've just been feeling a little weird today. On the way over I though I. well." Sakura trailed off.

"What is it?" Tomoyo asked.

Sakura started unzipping her book bag and reached inside it. "I'm not really sure. It almost felt like someone was following me but there was no one around." She said, perplexed. Her hand then came across something unexpected in her bag. "Huh?" She then pulled from her bag a small pink book.

"The Clow?" Tomoyo asked.

"That's funny." Sakura said slowly holding the book with two hands examining it closely. "I don't remember putting it in my bag."

Kero flew over to the girl and put a paw on her head. "You feeln' all right, kid?"
"I'm not sure." Sakura said still starring at the cover of the book in a sort of trance. Sakura was beginning to feel very uneasy. "I must have put it in as I was packing." She said doubtfully. Setting the book aside she wished to place all her foreboding feeling aside with it but the feeling would only grow stronger throughout the day. She smiled and started unpacking the rest of her things and tried to forget it but in vain.

Far away in the metropolitan area of Tomeda, the city of the Clow Mistress, there stood upon the top of a tall building an old inhabitant of the city. It was a boy with hair of dark brown and eyes that were deep with resolve and fortitude. He stared out over the city in search of something seemingly elusive, something hidden, something waiting for him. Waiting for he and the Clow Mistress. In his hands he held an ancient interment of Clow, the Derivator. With it he searched.

In the sky where only the previous day there was only blue there was now dark clouds that came with the wind. It blew and the boy's green robes whipped and fluttered as if the wind intended to steel them from him. The voice on the wind began to whale. The boy was struck with a sudden awareness. He knew what was on the wind, in the wind and all around him. His eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched. "I know you're here." He said in a deep voice. "I've got to find her." He then said to himself. The boy concentrated upon the board in his hands and in its center a blue light flickered. From the board shot a ray of the blue light and it traveled into the distance for him to follow. "Sakura. I hope I'm not too late."

For a time back at Tomoyo's house while the two girls were having tea and watching happenings of the past Sakura stayed strangely silent much of the time starring off into space. In her hands she held something she had brought with her: a small green stuffed bear. Tomoyo was still concerned with the girl; in Tomoyo's mind there was no one else she would rather be with than Sakura and she knew that Sakura felt the same way but whenever they talked deeply about the past or watched the old captures, Sakura seemed down and Tomoyo knew why. "You miss him, don't you." She said softly.

Sakura looked up being snapped out of her trance by Tomoyo's seemingly out of the blue inquiry. Sakura was confused for only a second as she looked down at the bear in her hands. "It's been so long since he left." Sakura said sadly. "I. I wonder how he is."

Tomoyo sat down on the bed next to Sakura and took one of her hands. "I'm sure he's fine, after all he is Syaoran." She said trying to make her friend feel better. "By now I'll bet he's tall and hansom and charming!"

Sakura began to blush. "T- Tomoyo."

"And if he saw you now, now that you're older and cuter than ever he'd never want to leave here again!" Tomoyo bubbled seemingly off in her own little fantasy world again as she did every time she talked about Sakura or Saoran. This cheered Sakura up a bit but she still felt ill at ease. Though she was feeling sad that her good friend was gone and she didn't know if she'd ever see him again she also seemed to hear in the back of her mind the ominous voice on the wind. Sakura felt a sudden chill and the voice came to her conscious mind. She bit her lip and felt again worried but she didn't know why. She began to think that maybe it wasn't just the sound of the wind or the coincidental absence of people on a typically busy street but something more.

"Sakura!?"

Sakura snapped out of her trance once again by Tomoyo's call. Her eyes half closed an unseeing before in trance now shot open to see Kero in front of her. "Kid? what's the matter?" He said.

"Errmm. I'm not sure." She said seeming groggy or tired. She flopped on her back on Tomoyo's soft bed and looked at the ceiling. Tomoyo looked at Kero but he was as perplexed as she. Sakura didn't move for a while. She decided to try to forget her odd feelings to the softness of the linens she was upon. For a time she felt relaxed on the bed with the bear in her arms and her two dear friends at her side but she soon felt the same warmness on her cheek as before. She turned on her side and softly and silently wept. She did so but without any reason she could conceive; at that moment it just felt right to cry.

She felt Tomoyo's hand upon her shoulder and this brought a slight smile to her face but as she opened her eyes she saw out the window something that quite suddenly put her back into the state she was in before on the street with no one around and in her bed that night, a state of awareness of something near. Something near and dreadful. She now heard the pitter patter of rain and saw it running down the window and spattering off the leaves of the trees outside. "Whe- when did it start to rain?" She asked in a shaky voice.

"Good question." Kero said. At first Sakura though he was mocking her but she then looked away from the window to see him hovering with his arms and legs crossed and his head bowed. He looked serious enough for her.

"What do you mean?" Tomoyo asked.

Kero looked up with his gravity intact. "Can you recall when it started, Tomoyo?" He asked.

She thought for a moment. "No." She answered surprised with it herself.

"What does that mean?" Sakura asked.

Both the girls looked intently at Kero in anticipation and some fear of the answer. "I don't know." He said.

Sakura fell onto the floor and then jumped to her feet. "What do you mean you don't know!?" She yelled.

"Hey! I don't have all the answers ya know." He said in his defense. "But I can tell you this: there is something about this rain."

Sakura perked up. "Yah, you're right!" she said. "It feels almost. familiar. Almost."
"Like it's happened before." Both the girls looked at Kero.

"'This rain isn't natural.' is what you said the day I started converting the cards. That rain was being made by Clow, do you mean he's doing it again? Is Eriol back?" Sakura felt herself fill with questions.

"No." Kero said. "This isn't the work of Clow but it does seem eerily familiar. And you're right, it's not natural."

"So what do we do?" Sakura asked.

"Only one thing to do!" Kero exclaimed.

Clad in rain coats and a small umbrella for Kero the three ventured outside to investigate. They walked to the Penguin King slide in the park. It was a medium rain; not falling very hard but the feelings Sakura had felt earlier that day and night were about her and all around it seemed. Not yet had she release her Star Wand from its key, they still knew nothing of the situation, but she hoped she wouldn't have to.

Kero's tail flipped this way and that in frustration. "Mrrrrrrn." He would murmur to himself now and then heightening Sakura's apprehension. Tomoyo could see clearly that the two were worried. She wished to encourage them and lift their spirits but she had no advice or sentiments of hope or explanation to give. Tomoyo, though insightful, had no magic and no way of helping in this task. Though unfortunately it seemed that those with magic were at a similar loss. The look of confusion and worry on Sakura's face sank Tomoyo's usually strong heart.

Sakura looked around; it was dusk out and the heavy clouds made it very dim like there was a dark veil covering the skies and obscuring their view. The pitter patter of the rain seemed ominous like the sound of many small footsteps all around. The voice on the wind was now intermingled with the sound of the rain, distorting it. Sakura couldn't specifically discern any presence as her dream the night before had seemed to foretell but she knew she could feel something, something elusive, hidden, something waiting.

"I don't understand." Sakura said after some time of searching. Sakura had walked far and was now near the entrance to the Tsukimine Shrine. She turned to Kero and Tomoyo. "Why can't I sense any-th." Kero and Tomoyo weren't behind her. "thing?" She felt her heart skip a beat and she became short of breath. "Kero! Tomoyo? Where are you?" Her shouts echoed in the dark distances. The sun was down now and her only light was by the faint glimmers of distant lights from the shrine.

The rain had lifted but in it's place was now a cold and harsh breeze that cut the air like a knife with the whale that had chased her all that day and night. The light from the shrine came dully through the trees. Suddenly, as if guided by that light, Sakura felt that she should enter the shrine. With each step more cautious than the one before she slowly made her way in.
Though she felt it very wrong to be walking alone in this night, Sakura felt compelled to keep going. Deeper and deeper into the shrine she went all the while she felt perused by the voice on the wind. It was sharper now, the voice, sounding more and more like summoning words as she went. The wind's call, so rhythmic and perhaps enchanting, lulled Sakura and she soon felt on the verge of sleep as she walked until she was taken back into the conscious world quite suddenly by an frigid sensation about her feet and legs. Her eyes opened wide as she realized that she was ankle deep in icy water, she had walked into the Tsukimine Shrine's Moon Reading pond.

She gasped and quickly hopped out of the near freezing water. The air was now still and silent. The voice of the wind had vanished once again. The clouds parted just enough so that the moon's light reached the pond. As Sakura looked out over it sudden fright filled her as she saw a dark figure standing upon the surface of the lake. There seemed a great flood of magic pouring from the figure Sakura thought, or perhaps it was only the numbness from the absence any strong powers that she had perhaps expected to sense that night. Either way, the power was there but it seemed somehow familiar to her. 'Is this it? Is this what this all is about?' Sakura asked herself silently.

The figure remained still and unmoving for a time. Shimmering ripples in the dark waters began flow outward as the figure began to walk toward Sakura. Though intrigued, Sakura was still frightened. She took a step back from the water's edge. For only a few moments more was Sakura in wonder and fear for there then came the figure's voice; deep yet kind, familiar yet changed. "Sakura." it called.

To Be Continued.

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