Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Moonlight ❯ Moonlight ( Chapter 1 )

Moonlight

 

 

It had been watching him for a very long time.

Tonight it fell as a silver puddle beneath the window and slowly, patiently, crept across the floor. Eventually it touched the legs of the chair and then reached out to brush across the legs of the person who sat there. It slid up the side of the chair to touch his arm, lay across the book in his lap, and rested against his chest, nestling just below his chin.

“Good evening, Yue,” the magician greeted, calling it by a word he had once said meant “moon” in his mother's native tongue. The man smiled and picked up a golden object from the table beside the chair, a tiny cup on the end of a long, graceful stem, which he used to extinguish the candle that also occupied the small surface.

The moon spirit relaxed more easily without the competing light and wrapped possessively around the magician; the man called Clow Reed didn't need any other illumination when the moon was with him. It observed, radiating curiosity, as the man's pen scribed symbols on the pages of the book in his lap.

“Soon,” Clow told the moon spirit. “The spell is almost finished.”

Contentment washed through it and it reached up to caress the magician's face, brushing gently over his lips.

“Here,” the magician flipped through several pages, careful to keep the wet ink from the page he'd been writing on from touching the one opposite it. “This is what Cerberus will look like.” The moon spirit knew of the sun spirit called Cerberus, for Clow had talked of it many times before.

Yue studied the drawing for a moment, a large cat-like creature with wings, then focussed its will into words.

I do not wish to be a cat.

“Oh?” Clow asked, smiling amusedly. “What do you wish to be?”

Like you.

“Human?” The magician's smile widened slightly. “Oh no, that won't do.”

The moon spirit was hurt by that and wanted to withdraw, but there were rules that had to be followed and if it left another of its kind would take its place; it didn't like that thought, so it stayed wrapped around the human, but diminished slightly. Clow laughed softly.

“Let me show you what I had in mind.” Clow opened the book to another page. The moon spirit touched the image on the page in awe. “An angel,” the magician explained. “They are guardians who light the way for those in need of guidance through dark times. I thought the image would suit you well.”

Yue glowed with joy.

 

 

The energies of creation were fading rapidly. To one side the sun guardian stretched, shook itself, and then started turning its head every which way to examine the body that had been created to house it.

The moon guardian looked down at a pair of pale, slender hands, spreading the long fingers and then clenching them together. It could feel the ground underneath it and thrilled at the touch of the wind against its skin. Another hand appeared in Yue's field of vision, darker-skinned and broader, and the moon guardian's gaze traveled up the arm that the hand was attached to, to the face of its new master.

“Give me your hand, Yue,” Clow said gently. “I will help you up.”

Something inside of the moon guardian fluttered as it reached out. Clow took the guardian's hand and Yue gasped at the feeling that flooded through its body at the contact.

“It will likely take some time for you to become accustomed to sensations,” Clow said. “Does it hurt?”

As before, Yue tried to focus will into words, but now they didn't reach. The moon guardian almost panicked, but then remembered that humans did it differently and moved its mouth soundlessly for a few moments before managing a barely audible “no....” Off to the side, Cerberus was making a wide variety of growling noises, apparently also accustoming itself to its vocal faculty.

“Are you ready to stand?”

“Yes,” Yue replied, more strongly. The magician pulled the pale being to its feet but Yue overbalanced, stumbled, and fell against Clow's chest.

Laughter exploded from Yue's counterpart. “Awkward aren't you?” the leonine guardian called over, capering around Clow's garden. “I'm having no problems! Four legs are better than two!”

Curled against the magician's chest, head tucked under his chin and held securely by Clow's strong arms, Yue couldn't really agree with that. Clow laughed at Cerberus's antics and reached up to stroke Yue's long, white hair; the moon angel shut its eyes and relaxed against its master.

“How interesting,” Clow mused. “It seems you've taken a male form.”

“Is that bad?” Yue asked, looking up at his master with slight trepidation.

“No,” Clow assured him. “Just unexpected. Most cultures hold the moon to represent femininity, and as Cerberus is undeniably male I thought you would be female to oppose his nature more fully.”

“Hey!” Cerberus exclaimed in an affronted tone, as he bounded over. “No fair! Pet me too!” He sat at Clow's feet and stared up at him expectantly. Obligingly, the magician reached town to rub the big cat's head. A rumbling purr emanated from the sun guardian. Yue glared at his counterpart jealously.

“Shall we go inside?” Clow asked after a few minutes. Cerberus opened his mouth in a monstrous yawn, stood, and started padding toward the house. “Do you think you can walk on your own yet?” the magician asked Yue quietly. Yue shook his head, though he thought that he probably could if he really had to. He leaned against his master's body as Clow led him after the sun guardian.

 

 

It was full dark and Cerberus had fallen asleep by the fireplace in the kitchen. Yue had wandered off on his own while Clow cleared the table from his dinner; neither of the guardians had been interested in something so alien to them as eating, though Clow had created them with the ability to process food and looked forward to the day they would join him in his meals.

Clow opened the door to his study and found Yue standing by the window, looking at the moon, one hand resting on the cool pane. The light he had once been part of pooled around him.

“Do you miss it now?” Clow asked. “The freedom of being formless?”

“What freedom?” Yue asked. “I had to obey the laws of nature. I could only go where nature dictated I should. This is freedom.”

“I'm glad you feel that way,” Clow said, pulling a book from one of the shelves and walking toward his chair. “I've read that many times spirits such as yourself become resentful of being confined in a physical form, even when they entered into it of their own free will. That is my main fear for you and your brother, and the spirits I will one day use to create my Cards.”

“`My brother?'” Yue asked, puzzled.

“Cerberus, of course,” Clow stated as he sat.

Yue wasn't sure he liked that.

“I cannot speak for any other spirits,” Yue said. “But I will never resent you for giving me this gift. Did you know that I have watched you since you were a child? I was the moonlight you read by while your mother thought you asleep.”

Clow chuckled at the memory. “I did not know we went back as far as that.”

“But I could only be with you for short periods of time, and I was saddened when the moon pulled me away, or the sunlight replaced me. To always be with you has been my wish for a very long time. It is the only thing I have ever wished for.”

“I am honored.”

Yue pulled the curtains shut, plunging the room into darkness. He crossed the room quickly, kneeling beside his master's chair in only a moment, and, resting his elbows on the armrest, summoned a ball of slivery light between his hands.

“You don't need any other light when I am with you,” Yue murmured. Clow smiled affectionately and caressed the moon angel's head, then his wings. Yue gasped, then started to purr softly. Clow's eyebrows rose in surprise and he paused in his stroking.

“I don't remember creating that ability in you.”

Yue regarded his master with slightly narrowed eyes. “I won't be out-shone.”

“Ah.” Clow resumed petting his guardian's wings and opened the book in his lap.

 

Many hours later the silvery light flickered out and the room was once again plunged into darkness. With a small flicker of magic, Clow lit the candle beside the chair and looked down to see Yue asleep, with his head resting on the armrest. A glance at the curtained windows confirmed the beginnings of daylight creeping through the small openings between the drapes. It would be some time yet before his guardians would be able to remain awake when their respective celestial bodies were absent.

Leaning down, Clow dropped a kiss on top of the moon angel's head.