Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Night's Heart ❯ The Second Attack ( Chapter 2 )

ForeverDestiny: Wow! I'm getting GOOD reviews on FFN! Thanx to EVERONE who reviewed. It is GREATLY appreciated! I feel so warm and fuzzy inside. ^_^ Unfortunately, I start 9th grade, my freshman year at Jesuit, TOMMORROW! ACK! So, I don't know what that will do about the update time. Hehe. Don't kill me if I'm slow. Trust me, Night's Heart is totally in mind. I think about ideas for the next chappie as soon as I finish one. I'm a bit obsessed with this story right now. Heh ^_^0 I know you're all mad at me about the cliffy I left last time and are probably not reading this so, continue on with Night's Heart!

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. `Nuff said.

Night's Heart

Chapter Two

The Second Attack

A nightmare woke Sakura up a few hours before dawn. Sweating and gasping for breath, she jumped out of bed. Something told her something bad was happening to Syaoran. She knew it was probably nothing-just her subconscious reacting to the sudden engagement and just how cute the groom-to-be was-but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling in the back of her mind. That little annoying voice known as her conscience.

`Just go check on him. You think he's fine but you never know.'

Finally Sakura decided to, just to get the nagging voice to stop annoying her. She silently made her way across the corridor to the door of his room, which wasn't hard as it was only about twenty feet away from her doorway. She softly knocked.

Silence.

She knocked again, sure he just didn't hear the first time.

Silence.

Upset, she fiddled with the doorknob and found his room unlocked. `Should I go in?' Her conscience was oddly silent in this matter. After a minute or so thinking over right and wrong, she slowly pushed the door open.

She took a look around the room. It looked a little like hers but not really. A large bed was off to one side, with a wardrobe in a corner. More useful furniture, a couple of chairs and a table, were scattered about the room. But she didn't notice any of this. The only thing she truly comprehended was that the room was empty.

Frantic, she noticed a door that connected to the room next to it. She realized that Lord Eriol must be in that room so she did the only thing it made sense * to * do. She pounded on it.

Eriol's sleepy voice called out to `wait just one minute' and Sakura did, tapping foot slightly. After a short bustle, a groggy Eriol stepped into Syaoran's room.

"What is it, Princess?" Sakura frowned at him.

"Where's Syaoran? He's not in his room."

At this, Eriol seemed to snap awake, as if he had never been asleep. He laughed uncomfortably.

"He's not? Oh? Hmm? Well, heh, I guess he…went….for a nighttime stroll. He…um…does that a lot back home." Eriol grinned at his `quick wit'. Sakura frowned and glanced out Syaoran's window. She sighed.

"All right, Lord Eriol. I-"

"Eriol-kun"

"Eriol-kun. I'll take your word, * today *. I don't know if I'll believe you next time. Goodnight, Eriol-kun." Eriol grinned at her as she made her way back to her room.

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan," he said quietly as he sighed in relief.

Sakura made it back to her room and looked out the window. She hadn't seen any sign of Syaoran anywhere as she glanced out all of the windows in the corridor. She sighed.

"Syaoran, where are you?"

From the forest, as if in answer, a wolf howled at the moon.

~***~

Sakura and Tomoyo sat out in the gardens after breakfast. The boys were going to meet them there in a few minutes. Sakura had told Tomoyo all about the events of the night before and Tomoyo thought it was definitely fishy. She was about to say more when voices in the corridor silenced them.

"A nighttime stroll? I must admit, Eriol, that is a pretty good excuse."

"Well, thank you, my cute little cousin. It's good to know that you think I'm not completely useless."

"Shut up, Eriol."

"But I don't think she completely bought it, Syaoran. She had this-"

"Ssh. We're almost to the gardens."

Sakura and Tomoyo looked at each other with wide eyes. What was that about? A few seconds later, the boys came into sight. Eriol's eyes lit up.

"Well, ladies. What are we doing today?"

~***~

Awhile ago, they had split up as they thought they might want to get some one-on-one time. Eriol and Tomoyo were headed for the kitchens as Eriol was hungry, while Sakura and Syaoran were headed for the gardens. They walked in companionable silence as they neared the cherry blossom grove. As they sat underneath the largest tree, a bird chirped overhead. Sakura squealed.

"Isn't that lovely? A little bird!" She smiled brightly. Syaoran glanced over at her and whispered.

"Watch this." Sakura looked at him, a questioning look mixed with puzzlement on her face. Syaoran wasn't looking at her though, his eyes were searching for the bird in the tree. When he found the sparrow, he whistled. Not just a plain whistle either, a whistle in bird-speech. Sakura stared at him, astounded. After a few seconds, the bird flew down and perched on his up-thrust knee. It cocked its head and had a short conversation with Syaoran. Then it flew away. He glanced at Sakura who was staring at him, wide-eyed, mouth hanging open. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"You speak bird-speech?" Syaoran smiled weakly.

"Actually, I speak beast-speech." If possible, Sakura was even more astonished. Being able to speak bird, or bird-speech, was very rare but the language of all beasts, beast-speech, was granted to very few. It was rare to find anyone who knew of someone who could do it outside of legend.

Slowly, Sakura calmed down and looked at her husband-to-be in awe, taking in all is features. He was so handsome. Syaoran, meanwhile, was staring at Sakura, memorizing her face so that he would always remember, just in case. She was so beautiful. They had stayed in that pose for about five minutes when a harsh voice cut in.

"Am I interrupting something here?"

Syaoran automatically sprang up, drawing his sword, as he stepped in front of Sakura. An extremely large bird-beast (mutant bird thing from the prologue) stood in front of him. It laughed harshly.

"We said we'd be back. Luckily, they were smart this time. Instead of sending a troupe of newbies, they sent me. Good choice." He growled. After a second of sizing up Syaoran, he smiled. "You're on, boy."

The battle had begun. Syaoran and the bird-beast fought, Syaoran with his sword and the bird-beast with it's claws and teeth. Sakura watched from the sidelines, beneath the cherry blossom tree. Syaoran looked like he was doing well. The fight lasted about five minutes when it happened. Syaoran, tiring quickly, made a desperate move. And it failed.

The bird-beast grabbed his sword as it made its way for his heart. The bird-beast laughed and grabbed Syaoran by the collar.

"Good fight, boy. You lasted much longer than expected. You were quite fierce, for a human." Syaoran mumbled something that the bird-beast obviously didn't want to hear, Sakura didn't catch it. The bird-beast shook Syaoran by the collar, enraged. Dislodged by the shaking, a pendent on a chain came flying from under his shirt, still around Syaoran's neck. Syaoran gasped and tried to snatch it. Sakura couldn't make out what it looked like. The bird-beast started laughing and grabbed the pendent. He took one look at it and all looks of joy or happiness left his face. It gasped.

"Boy, you are…are...Orithianian?" Syaoran smirked and nodded his head. The beast looked furious.

"From birth?" Syaoran's smirk grew larger.

"No, from age four," Syaoran mumbled from clenched teeth. The beast screamed in rage. It dropped Syaoran.

"You…you…you should not exist! You are a violation of nature! Boy, watch out. The others may be back for your precious princess but I, I will be back for * you *. " The furious bird-beast took to the air and flew away. Syaoran glared at its retreating back, mumbling `coward'. Sakura rushed over.

"Syaoran? Syaoran, are you all right? He didn't hurt you, did he? What's this whole Orithianian business?" Syaoran smiled at her concern.

"I'm glad * you * are okay," were his last words before he slipped into unconsciousness.

To Be Continued.

ForeverDestiny: Heh! ANOTHER CLIFFY! Hehe. I'm evil, I know. What did you think? Think you might know what all this `Orithianian business' is? Bet ya don't! Heh, Syaoran's a freak of nature according to the bird-beast.

Syaoran: Shut up, FD! What do you think you can do to me, huh? I can't even pronounce what you called me.

FD: Why, I called you an Orithianian. It's pronounced O-rith-e-ann-e-ann. And I can do whatever I want to you. That's the joy of being an author. So, faithful readers, I invite you to review. You have been wonderful about it already, at least on FFN, and well, * sniffle * THANK YOU! So, this is ForeverDestiny saying, Goodbye and have a pleasant tomorrow (even though I won't) :(