The Tomoeda Maiden

Full Summary:

Syaoran Li had to go on a pilgrimage to Tomoeda to do his training. Little did he know that there was more in store for him in store in Tomoeda. Syaoran was just there to train; but there he was falling in love with the Tomoeda Maiden, also known as Sakura Kinomoto, a priestess who was to be married to someone else. Although it seems that meeting her was a coincidence... was it really?

Chapter I: A Story

Every village had some sort of folklore – some kind of a myth, a fable … but in the end it was just a story. A story that was exclusive to that one village only. These stories could be anything from heroic epics, to a horror story or stories meant to teach children the value of morality. Whatever it was, it was exclusive to the village's history and culture.

In the town of Tomoeda, there had been one particular story that everyone in the village knew. From small children to the very elderly, the story was consistently the same. Some people from other villages even knew about Tomoeda's folklore and the paranormal occurances that frequently surrounded the village. However, this one story is the one that people knew very well, almost like it had applied to their everyday lives.

This story was the story of the Tomoeda Maiden. Everyone knew about the Tomoeda Maiden. The story wasn't one that was of fiction – but a recollection of what people had seen. The description of this maiden was consistent: she was a young woman with pale glowing skin, shoulder length auburn hair and the greenest eyes anyone had ever seen. When people had seen this woman lingering around, an overwhelming scent of flowers would fill the air, even though no flowers were seen within the area. Added to that, many would report that they'd seen flashes of glowing light when it would be pitch black. This would often occur in the night, right near the ruins of Tomoeda which had been abandoned many years ago. No one dared step inside the ruins because everyone was taught not to go near it, but inevitably, to go anywhere outside of Tomoeda one must pass by those ruins. There, they'd see her.

People say they had seen her once – but never more than once. When they laid their eyes on her, the young woman would start running away, and the flashes of light would begin. Afterwards, it was as if she were never there and the floral scent would just disappear.

However, as interesting it all sounded – I didn't believe any of it. People here were crazy. Back home, none of these ghastly or paranormal folklores existed. Everything was focused on real things; like heroism and actual values. Moral values. Not stories that instilled fear into people. It was a load of crock, for a lack of a better word.

I'm Syaoran Li. I'm 22 years old and I'm obviously not from this place, but from a country far away. I'm a prince that had been sent here to do some training, under the insistence of my mother, the Queen. In our kingdom, in order to become heir to the throne, one must go through a 3 year pilgrimage and journey to Tomoeda, a place that is famous for it's spiritual energy. People who came to make a journey here would often become acolytes or high priests, but others came here to hone their magic skills as well. Despite it's reputation, Tomoeda was not as technologically advanced as other cities and was fairly behind in the times.

I had written to my mother many times. Often telling her how I couldn't wait to come home, how my days were, how my magical energy and spiritual energy had improved, and also exchanging questions. My mother had also made a pilgrimage here herself at my age, as she was heir to the throne too once upon a time. She often sent me words of encouragement about my situation, but she knew I loathed being here. She told me to have faith.

Faith was something I lacked severely.

"Young Master?" Wei entered the room. I was sitting in my chair, looking outside the window. It was early in the morning but the view from up here was nice. I could see the sun rise and it would remind me of home. Though the places were different, we shared the same sun.

"Yes?" I did not turn my head but continued to watch the sky. This was one of the things that I had enjoyed doing, since there wasn't much to do here in Tomoeda for leisure.

"Is there anything you need today?" He asked. This was the routine everyday. I appreciated Wei, but I did not like having a servant doing everything for me. He was more like a father figure than a servant. Some would say I was being too nice – but I had no intention of bossing anyone around.

"You know I don't need anything." My voice was calm, just to show I wasn't angry with him. Which he thought because I had always rejected his offers of serving me. "Please do as you like."

He bowed without saying a word and left. I was finally alone again.

It seemed today was going to be another boring day. Then I realized, a lot of things would change when within a few hours someone came knocking at my door…

Authors Note:

Hello! I'm not really familiar with making authors notes but here's my jab at it. So hi, this is probably my first fanfiction written since I was in middle school. I'm in University now and I have rediscovered my love for CCS again, and decided to re-write this piece of work. I had originally written it in 3rd person but I am horrible at it and decided to stick to my guns in 1st person. You may see that the story progression is a bit slow, but I planned many chapters and an elaborate plot for this story. It's not a typical romance story - that's all I'm going to say. I've never really written anything in fantasy so this is my jab at it as well.

This story will include most of the main CCS cast as well. This story is primarily a Syaoran and Sakura fanfiction.

Anyway, if you're reading this, thank you. I have written already 10 chapters more to this story, but I would really like if readers who like this story write reviews! It really helps with morale and all. But I won't base my completion of the story on reviews - it's just nice, that's all.

Anyway if you have any questions please write it in the reviews!

~ X.