Turnip95 Author's Comments-Finally! The long awaited
chapter 10 has arrived! Oh yeah, in the last chapter, John is
Madison's husband! Sorry! ^^ JANUARY "That's funny, I've never noticed this tree before. It's exactly like this one over here." Shiara stopped and stared at the cherry blossom tree. "Hmmmmmmmm........" Ray walked along with his arms over his head. "So what? Maybe someone planted it." "But it looks exactly the same as this one." "Maybe it's time for a reality check Shiara." "Grrrrrrrr........" Something fell on Ray's head. He stopped
and looked at the ground. "Hey, why are there so many flower
petals on the ground?" "Maybe, cause it's flower falling
season." Shiara said, imitating Ray's walk. "Whatever." Just then they both came in. "..........Well it IS a little paranoid that you start noticing that trees look the same, what was I supposed to say?!" Ray had obviously touched Shiara's short temper again. "Well, not as paranoid as thinking that flower petals on the ground is weird!" Sakura, Li and Madison sweatdropped. "Ok you two," Sakura made an attempt for them to stop fighting. "Let's go skate and have fun, ok?" Li and Sakura sorta pushed them to the rink. "Come on, the ice is great! And no Sakura card!" Later, Sakura and Madison sat down to watch Ray and Shiara while Li went to get some hot chocalate. "Wow, it's amazing how those two are good at practically everything!" Madison smiled at Sakura. "Kind of like you and Li." "Yeah........" Sakura watched Ray and Shiara skate and do twists in the air. Madison blew on her hands. "You know, it's getting cold." She hugged her body. "I'm freezing!" Sakura turned to look at Madison. "Huh?" Just then Li came towards them. "Here," he handed them each a cup of hot chocalate. "Oh, did you want marshmallows Madison--HEY!" Madison's feet began turning into ice. "What!" Sakura gasped. "This can't be happening! It's not possible!" All around them, people were turning into ice. "Madison, no!" Li looked out to the rink. "This can't be, the Freeze card's supposed to be doing this, but it's already captured!" They both ran to the rink and skated over to Ray and Shiara who were looking around in confusion. "What's happening, Sakura?" Shiara looked around wildly. "Why are people turning into ice?!" "It's the Freeze card!" yelled Li. "But Shiara already captured that!" Ray jumped as a tower of ice shot up behind him. Suddenly, there was a flash of light. What looked to be an old man appeared. "It's the Time card!" Li narrowed his eyes. {Something's not right. What's going on?} The Time card gave an evil grin. There was another flash. "Hey!" Shiara yelled. She got lifted into the air, and there was another flash. A card from her pocket appeared. And ripped apart. The Freeze's visible form appeared. "I don't believe it!" Li and Sakura gasped. "The card's breaking out of it's seal!" "AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Shiara plummeted to the ground and just in time, called out "FLY!", and safely floated to the ground. Then had to quickly skate out of the way, as another tower shot up from behind her. "You stupid card!" she yelled in frusteration. "If you wanna play with me, fine! You are so going down!" Shiara tried to jump as another tower of ice shot up. Instead she ended up on her side. Ray skated over. "Shiara! Get up! This is no time to rest!" "I'm trying!" Shiara snapped. "Sword of Clow, RELEASE! Jump card, help me jump!" "Oh how creative," Ray muttered. Shiara glared. "Fiery card! Thaw out the ice! Fiery, release and dispel!" Fiery's eyes flashed and the whale-like Freeze appeared. "Ok you stupid card, return to your power, CONFINE!" The card broke into pieces and got sucked into the card. "Ah, now STAY in there!" "This is bad." Li and Sakura
skated up to them. "If the Time card starts breaking the
cards' seals, then you're in trouble Shiara." "Hai! Hai!" A little boy and girl were punching a wooden pole. Their punches were exactly in sync. "Hai! Hai!" The man that was with them smiled. "Very good, you two. Now, lets try those kicks. Alright, practice on this, flying kick remember." He pointed to a dummy in front of the kids. "Shiara, you first." The little girl came up and took a running start. "HAI!" The dummy flew off, and hit a tree. The man smiled. "Very good! Now you, Ray." The boy came up and did his kick. "Excellent, Master Ray. Now, you two take a breather while I get your swords." The two children sat down panting, and the man left. In the mansion nearby, 4 adults watched them. "Oh, look at them, the poor things. Card Master, must they really go through this training? Ray comes home exhausted everyday!" the woman looked pleadingly at solemn faced Li. "I have to agree," a man next to her, watched the two kids. "They're only children!" The Card Master shook his head. "I went through the same training. They will be fine." The Card Mistress looked at them with tears in her eyes. "So young.....to be going through this......and Shiara, the only girl, all that pressure......" The trainer came back with swords. The girl grimaced as she picked up her heavy sword. "Alright, practice those thrusts. One, two, one, two. There you go, Shiara! Ray, come on, if Shiara can do it, you can!" Ray scowled and thrusted with all his might. "Ok, now parry! Oh, Shiara are you tired?" The girl sank to the ground, exhausted. She looked up, with a tired face. "I'm too tired Master John." The man's face softened. "I understand Shiara, it must be hard for a girl...." The girl's face immediatly hardened. {for a girl? Ha! I'll show him!} "No! I can do it!" The boy said quickly, "I'm tired too, can't we rest?" The man sighed. "All right then, we'll stop for today." Shiara sighed in relief. She glanced at the boy but didn't say anything, then she walked off. Ray slowly walked to his house. He could have gone on, but he knew that Shiara would have kept going if he hadn't said anything. She would have probably fainted. He pulled out his transporter. "Take me home," he said tiredly. Shiara walked into the forest. Her dad
owned a lot of property. On it was a small forest, that she
loved to walk in. It was nice and cool. Also further in was
a waterfall and hotsprings. She headed to the springs and dived
in. {Ahhhh.......relaxing} Shiara tried to hold back tears.
{It's not fair. How come all the other girls don't have to
do all this work? I'm so tired!} Fighting back tears Shiara
told herself not to cry. {If Alex or Tony saw me, they'd laugh
for sure} She imagined her elder brothers' voices. "Shiara,
you are such a baby! You can't fight at all!" A little
Shiara running and crying. "I can too! I can't do it as
well, I'm not that old yet!" "Ha! Here we go, excuses
from the kid!" The water reflected her teary face. "IT'S
NOT FAIR!" "Kero! Are you listening?!" Sakura glared at the guardian beast who was playing Xylon Warriors and not listening to a word Sakura was saying. "Hmmmm....what? Oh I'm sorry, did you say something Sakura?" Sakura took a deep breath closed her eyes and "KERO!!!!! PUT DOWN THAT CONTROLLER AND LISTEN TO ME FOR A MINUTE!!!!!" "Waah!!!! Ok, ok, keep your hair
on!" Kero grumbled and paused his game. "Geez!"
Sakura took another deep breath and said, "Kero, what should
we do if the Time card keeps trying to break the seal on the
cards that Shiara captured?" "Hmmmm......." "Don't be stupid Ray--(Shiara turns around)--oh, where did all these flowers come from?" Ray dropped to the ground in exasperation. "You are so dense Shiara." "WHAT WAS THAT RAY NARU?!" "Uh, eh he he he, nothing!" Just then the winds rose and double the number of flower petals floated down from the sky. "AAAAHHHHH! There's more!" Shiara pulled out the cell phone Madison had given her. "Sakura? Hey--" Ray grabbed the phone. "We're being buried in flower petals!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!" "Huh?" Grabbing the phone back Shiara gasped hurredly, "Get over to the Readington park! I'm serious, there's flowers everywhere and it keeps doubling!" Kero was listening on the other line, "It's
probably the Flower card! We're on our way!" "Fiery card, turn these flowers into cinders!" Which the Fiery promptly did. The Flower appeared looking tattered. Shiara ran towards it, "Flower, return to your power--hey!" The Flower grabbed her and twirled her around filling the air with flowers. "Let go! Arg, I can't see anything with these stupid petals!" "YAH!" Ray darted in and slammed his sword on the Flower's head, freeing Shiara. "Ok, now return to your power, confine!" The Flower card floated to Shiara's hand. "Whew, can we go home--YAH!!!!!!" Two kids who looked like yellow jesters kicked at Shiara and Ray who ducked instinctively. "Where'd those come from?!" "I don't know (Shiara kicked one of them) but they're really annoying!" Sakura gripped her wand. {I want to help, but they have to do it by themselves} "It's the Twin card! You have to attack them together and capture them both at once!" Shiara stopped in disbelief. "What?!" In the process she took a blow from one of them. "Ow! Why you--" "You have to work as a team," yelled Li. "Do it in sync!" Ray and Shiara nodded. The Twin charged at them, "Force know my plight, release the light! Lightning!" "Thunder card, release and dispel!" The Twin card just sorta dodged them. Madison put down her camera. "Wow, it's amazing how they do almost the exact thing you two did." Sakura sweatdropped. "No! Fight them, do the exact moves and you can beat them!" "OH!" Shiara and Ray turned around and ran towards
them, stride for stride. "Hai! Hai!" The Twin card
was bowled backwards after their punches. They did a flying
kick which left the Twin lying there. "Ok, Sakura card,
return to your power, confine! Twin card!" The card floated
to her hand. "Focus, Master Ray! Focus!" Ray shook his head and got up. {I don't know how Shiara can do this. I'm supposed to be stronger than her but she beats me every time!} He thrusted again but met air. Hearing a sound behind him, he whipped around. Ray saw the glint of Shiara's sword, then landed on his bottom again. His oponent extended a hand. He took it, then quickly pulled her down. Caught by surprise, Shiara landed hard next to him. "Hey!" she glared. "Not fair!" Master John smiled. "Good comeback Ray. But we're doing fencing not fighting. I'll tell Meilin about that though." Ray grinned apolegetically. "Sorry Shiara." The girl did not answer. "Ok you two, time to practice your dodging and running skills." So the two future cardcaptors trained and trained, never knowing what they were training for. When asked, their parents would say, "You'll see some day." The bad thing was though, Shiara and Ray weren't exactly the best of friends. Example: "You cheated!" "Did not!" "Yes you did, Meilin said punches only! You're doing kicks!" "She never said we couldn't do kicks in times of emergency!" "MEILIN! TELL HIM/HER HE'S/SHE'S WRONG!!!!!" The four adults watched them train almost everyday. Ray's mother shook her head. "It's
no use. They just can't get along. James, do you know why your
daughter has such a terrible temper?" "I'm sorry,
she lives with four brothers, and you know how hard that can
be on a girl." "Yes of course, Card Mistress, you
said that they need teamwork, how will they ever get it in this
condition?" Sakura smiled. "Don't worry. Something
will happen." "Hey Sakura!" "Oh hey you
guys! What's up? Oh, Shiara what's wrong? You look tired."
Shiara shook her head. "It's nothing really, just feeling
exhausted." Madison, saw Ray look a little worried. Nevertheless,
he did not sound worried. "Well, guess capturing cards
is catching up to you, huh Shiara? Maybe I should take over."
At this, Shiara straightened her back. "In your dreams
Ray! I'm not that tired!" Shiara stifled a yawn. "Oh,
right," said Ray sarcastically. "Not that tired.
Sure..." "Shiara?" Sakura looked at Shiara
worriedly. "Maybe you should take a rest." Ray looked
at Shiara with a concerned look on his face. "Yeah, I think
you're pushing it too hard." "Don't be silly Ray,
I'm fine..." Shiara's face looked drawn and her eyes were
dull, not at all like her usual bright and alert brown. Suddenly,
she slumped against the tree she was leaning against with her
eyes closed. "Shiara!" Ray leapt up and began shaking
her. "Come on, get up! This is no time to sleep!"
Ray looked at Li. "What is it? What's wrong with her!?
If she's tired enough to collapse, I wouldn't have let her do
sword practices!" "I don't know...unless it's what
I think it is..." |