Fly & Windy

Thr windy & fly cards

 

 

 

“Sakura, calm down, you’ll do fine.” Cerberus assured me as I tried to ward off a panic attack, my hand now clutching the small key necklace – which had shrunk down – in my sweaty palms.

“I just… I really don’t think I’m the right girl for the job.”

“You won’t know until you try. Now come. We need to give this a shot, at least.

I took a huge breath and nodded my head. Cerberus grinned approvingly and floated over to the study door as I slipped the necklace over my head to keep it safe.

“Let’s go!” He urged.

I stepped forward on shaky legs and opened the door, only to stop in my tracks as my feet almost stepped on something outside.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, bending down to pick up the card. “Look, Cerberus, it’s Windy!”

“She’s a peaceful card.” He nodded. “It’s only natural that she wouldn’t want to join in with the destruction like the others.”

“But now what? I have my first card… What do I do now?”

“You need to claim it.”

“How do I do that?” Cerberus vanished back inside my fathers study before reappearing carrying a small thin marker pen. He held it out towards me.

“Sign your name at the bottom. As you do so… Think about claiming the card as your own.”

The ground shook again, cutting off my question. Signing my name along the bottom I felt a rush of warmth evoke me and smiled. Windy was mine.

“Let’s go, Sakura!” I rushed out of the house following Cerberus’s lead, first taking a moment to strap up my skates, helmet and pad and found myself along the stretch of road I normally skated down to get to school with nii-san and Yukito-Sempei.

“Oh… My…God.” I muttered, rolling to a stop in awe.

“It’s the Fly Card.” Cerberus explained. “We need to be careful…”

There before me was a huge bird like creature that was almost glowing in the darkness. It resembled a cockatiel with its long neck and short beat and at my approach it had turned around to stare at me. It was at least the size of a three story house and just as wide as one, it’s dark eyes staring down at me almost curiously.

“What do I do now?” I whispered to him.

Just then the creature bent back its head and flapped it wings violently once.

“Run!” Cerberus shouted, but it was too late.

The gust of wind slammed into it, lifting me up clean from the air and sending me tumbling backwards, where I slammed into the wall with a groan, Cerberus joining me with a squeak. Thankfully my pads and helmet saves me from the brunt of the injuries, but my head was still ringing where it had banged against my helmet and my butt stung where it had cracked against the wall.

“Sakura… Use Windy…” Cerberus groaned. “Quick, activate the key I gave you.”

“Huh? But how?”

“Look out!” I looked towards the creature just in time to see it rearing back it’s wings for another burst.

This time, I was prepared. Grabbing a hold of Cerberus I took off at full speed up the tilting ramp at the side of the path, narrowly missing the direct blast of the wind.

“Concentrate Sakura and you will know what to do.”

Panting, I grabbed the key necklace from where it had fell down my top and held it in my palm, my eyes fluttering shut. Think Sakura… Think… My eyes snapped open wide as the words suddenly came to me.

Holding the key out before, I closed my eyes and slowly let go, feeling the a comforting warmth spread through me. I ran my hands in the air around the space where the key was before pulling their wide with my fingers spread out as I spoke;

“Key that hides the power of the dark, show your true form before me. I, Sakura, command you under our contract. Release!”

Opening my eyes I watched in fascination as the key – floating where I had let go of it – glowed and began to expand in length, becoming the staff like it had in Father study. As it floated before me I took it, spinning it lightly through my hands as I would in baton club before throwing it into the air and catching it.

The strange runic symbols bellow me faded as the glow from the wand did, too. Now it was just me, standing holding the staff in the middle of the street and suddenly I felt silly.

“Release Windy!” Cerberus called.

Taking the Windy card out of my jacket pocked I held it out with shaky fingers. Just then the creature let forth another gust of wind and I barely managed to dodge it, my hands holding onto the card and staff tightly. Not giving myself to think and grow embarrassed, I let my instincts take over.

Throwing the card out before me, I began to twirl the staff as I spoke, noticing out of the corner of my eyes the runic circle appearing below me again:

“Windy… Use your binding winds to hold the Fly Card still. I, Sakura, command you under our contract… RELEASE!” Bringing the staff down I tapped the beak-like end against the face of the floating card, causing it to hit the card and create a burst of lightly. The air around me swirled gently as suddenly a women burst from the card, her hair high and falling about her shoulders in twin long strands that touched the ground.

She was deathly pale and beautiful, her face kind yet serious. She wore a strange white cloak that appeared to be made entirely of feathers and which surrounded her body securely, flowing down into what looked like wings. On her forehead was two green wing-like shaped, the only colour on her otherwise all-white colouring.

Emerging from the card she took off at some spread towards the bird creature, where she wrapped herself around it, her bonds which seemed to belong to her herself tightening, blocking the creature from flapping its wings.

“Now, Sakura!” Cerberus spoke up. “Seal the card!”

Nodding once, I held the staff out before me, once again letting the words come naturally.

“Fly Card, I command you to return to your power confine.” I twirled the staff around as I spoke before bringing it back down, striking the air before me and once again feeling like I struck a barrier that released a burst of light. “Fly Card!” I shouted.

Suddenly the great bird began to warp as though being sucked into the staff that I still held against the weird glowing air barrier, the creature literally vanishing inside it. As the last glowing burst of air vanished inside, my staff fell away from the air barrier to my side and the glowing spot formed itself into the shape of a card, which gradually solidified and took on the form of a Clow Card.

Picking it out from the air I looked down at it, seeing the winged creature in all it’s magnificent glory.

“Fly card…” I whispered, reading it’s label.

“You did it!” Cerberus cheered. “I knew you could!”

“I did do it…” I mumbled, still admiring the card.

“You’ll need to write your name on it when we get home.” Cerberus explained. “Otherwise the card may break loose again.”

“I will do.” I nodded. “Say, Cerberus. How many cards is there, exactly?”

“There are 52.” Cerberus nodded his head. “Well, only 50 now to collect.”

“Whaaaaat?” I blinked, looking back down at the card. “Are you serious? You want me to do something like this 50 more times?”

“This was fairly easy.” Cerberus chuckled. “Fly isn’t a destructive card, he was just testing you to make sure you’re worthy to be its owner. Other cards… Well, they won’t all be as good. Others will try to cause destruction and some may even try hurt you.”

“Oh great.” I muttered darkly.

“Don’t worry, Sakura-Chan!” Cerberus grinned, striking his chest. “I’m here to help you!”

“You’re a plush toy.” I sighed. “How much help can you offer, really?”

“Now that’s not fair.” Cerberus huffed. “It’s your fault I’m stuck like this, losing the cards like you did, therefore you need to take good care of me.”

“What?” I laughed. “How’d you work that out?”

“Well… Whilst I’m stuck like this and the cards are scattered I’m unable to take my true form and return to protecting the book. I have nowhere else to go and since you were the one who released the cards, putting me into this situation, you have to take responsibility.”

“Uuugh.” I groaned, shaking my head. There was no point arguing about this, anyway, since there was no way I could let Cerberus go around as he pleased anyway, not looking like a talking plush toy. “Fine fine, you can stay at mine.”

“Yepiiee.” He whooped, twirling around in the air.

“You can help me make tea.” I nodded, beginning to skate back towards the direction of home. “Nii-san and dad won’t be back until late, anyway.”

“Why don’t you use Fly?” Cerberus asked. “We’d get home quicker.”

“What? You mean… I can use the cards as I want?”

“Well, sure.” Cerberus nodded. “Though I wouldn’t recommend using them too much, they might rebel.”

Taking the Fly card from my pocket I held it out uncertainly, suddenly feeling a little self conscious.

“Come on.” Cerberus urged.

Dropping it into the air as I had done before, I twirled the bat down and chanted:

“Fly… Help me get home quickly and safely. I, Sakura, command you under our contract… RELEASE!” Bringing the staff down onto the card I waited for the winged creature to burst free.

“Look Sakura.” I followed Cerberus’s tiny paw print to see two great big wings stick out from the back of my staff, twitching.

I almost screamed and dropped the staff.

“Calm down, Sakura!” Cerberus laughed. “It’s just windy. You asked it to help you get you home quickly, and it has taken this form to do so.”

“I… Am I supposed to ride this, like a broom?” I asked dazed, though already climbing onto the staff, holding it between my legs. I giggled. “This feels like when I was a kid playing witches.”

“Only this broom will fly.” Cerberus nodded. “Command it In your mind gently. It will follow your commands, so don’t think too much on it. Let the instructions come to you, naturally.” He instructed as he, too, climbed on.

I closed my eyes as I thought the words to lift, I felt the solidness of the concrete bellow me feet lift off. Opening my eyes I looked down to see us floating up into the air, higher than the houses around us.

“This is awesome.” I whispered.

“Fly high.” Cerberus spoke. “We don’t want anyone seeing us.”

“Oh right, of course.” I nodded. “Though we’re pretty noticeable.”

“People will no magical ability tend to make up their own theories on what they’re seeing, as they don’t like to believe that magic exists. When they see you, they’ll talk themselves into thinking they’re seeing something else, like a bird or whatever. But if they look hard and long enough, they’ll truly se you.”

We flew higher into the clouds and I yelped as we were immediately doused in the cold spray.

“I forgot they were wet.” I mumbled as my hair clung to my damp face.

Flying back just bellow them I spotted my house and quickly descended into our garden, dismounting my staff as I did so. After a moment the wings vanished and then suddenly, the staff began to glow as it too shrank back down.

“That was… Amazing.” I sighed as I fetched both me and Cerberus a towel.

“I told you that you could do it.” He mumbled as he dried his face with a dry face flannel. “Only 50 more cards and then it’s over.”

“Just 50, right?” I asked uncertainly. “I’m not going to collect them for you to then tell me there’s more, right?”

“There’s only 52.” He confirmed. “There’s no more you could possible collect.”

“Good.” I sighed, making my way towards my bedroom. “I’ll be back in five and we can start tea. Do you eat, Cerberus?”

“Of course!” He called after me enthusiastically.

Locked in my room I looked across to my desk where Cerberus had moved the Clow book. Taking the necklace out of my shirt I held it in my hands, remembering the weird stuff that I had done today. Magic… I thought. I was using magic.

Wait until Tomoyo hears about this! Was my first thought, before I shook my head. No… I couldn’t tell anybody. They would either think I was crazy or they would call the police or something and the government would, no doubt, use my wand and powers for their own means. I trusted Tomoyo but… The less people that knew about this, the better.

Which also meant keeping it from Nii-san and father.

“Sakura? What’s taking so long?” Cerberus called.

“One moment!” I shouted back as I rushed about stripping off my damp school uniform and pulling on some woolly jarmers. Taking my uniform back downstairs I put it into the wash quickly before heading into the kitchen with Cerberus and began preparing tea.

“Say, Kero-Chan…” I mused. “How is it you can eat when you’re a plush doll?”

“I’m not a plush doll!” He snapped, before pausing. “Kero-chan?”

“Ah. Cerberus is a bit of a mouthful.” I shrugged. “And anyway, Kero-Chan suits you more when you look like this!”

“I may look like a plush doll.” He puffed. “But I’m just smaller, cuter version of my true form. Although I look like you’re plush dolls, this form is still a small lion.”

“You kinda look like a bear.” I mused, taking in his lack of lion mane, claws, sharp razor teeth and aggressiveness.

“It doesn’t matter what I look like!” He protested. “I’m still the great Guardian of the Clow Cards! You’ll see, when the cards are returned I’ll impress you with my true form.”

“Okay.” I giggled. “I’ll look forward to it!”

 

 

A/N: So, as you can probably see, I’m kinda following the anime storyline, though not exactly word-for-word action-for-action.

Reviews / comments would be amazing ^^