Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce may own her characters, but there’s nothing she could do with mine.

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Chapter 1: The Garden

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Well, my brother's gone now, took the boys with him. The girls and I are to be pages soon. We have a few days of leisure until training begins. They say that in eight years, give or take, we will be knights. That is if we survive the training.

Once again I thank the gods and goddesses, that youkai years are different than human years. For every fifty human years, one youkai year passes. But because me and the five girls are one fourth human, we age one year every thirty seven point five human years. And lucky for us, they don't know that we're not completely human.

I leave my assigned room, locking it behind me as I was instructed to. I decide to follow my nose to the gardens, taking my demon cat with me. She's a breed of neko mata, a type of youkai feline that helps youkai exterminators do their job. Her breed, like all breeds of neko mata, has a lager form that she could transform into anytime she wished or I say, but she also had the power to control and transform into the elements as well as produce them.

She sits upon my shoulder as we admire the garden's beauty. They have my native trees mixed in with other trees foreign and native to this land. I choose a big, sturdy sakura tree and sit down beneath its shady branches.

I look down at my neko as she settles next to me. Her dark ruby eyes look up at me. They are known for their excellent intelligence, even when they're kittens. I smile and gently pet her from nose tip to rump with my first two fingers. She's still a kitten after all. She wags her white tipped tails.

She looks as if I have taken my paints to her. She lays her little head upon tiny white paws and curls her two tails around her body, the very tips on her nose. Her stature was perfect. I take out my mini easel, paper, and ink set out of my pack and set them up on the grass in front of me.

I dip the smallest brush into the black inkwell. Gently, I outline me cat with ease of years of practice, including the leaves and petals fallen from the trees around her. The tricky part came next, but I could still do it better than most professional artists at home who've been doing this far longer than I. It is because of my unusual skill, I am to expertly use my glaive and katana.

Taking a bigger brush, I dip it into the coal black inkwell. I begin the painful process of thickening the lines of the insides of the drawings. I look at it when I finish and make the most difficult decision about the picture; colored or black and white. The mood is perfect, so I color it in with my other colors. When I finish it, I blow gently upon it to help speed the drying process.

When it was dry, I set it aside in my little glass case with my other pictures to keep clean and from blowing away in the wind. I have other pictures I did of this land within the glass case too; of animals standing, sleeping, and even in mid step or mid jump. There were landscapes within it as well.

I decide to create yet another picture. I begin the complicated procedure over again, but this time of the trees and the sunset light. The trees in bloom within the garden are beautiful. There are a variety of trees within this royal plot. Sakura and cherries are just two types within this expansive garden; the others I cannot pronounce, or even know the names of. The twilight was perfect. I painted the whole scene before night had fallen upon me.

As I finish blowing the painting dry, a wind picked up. It blew my picture out of my hands and deep up into a tree behind me. My frustration and temper started to rise. All that art and time, for what? For nothing, that's what.

"Damn it! Why'd the wind pick up now? Stupid piece of shit. I'm going to whip the damn thing around and throw it a good way away. Then I'll show it!"

I curse in my native tongue. Hurrying, I packed my utensils and easel back into my bag. I thank the gods that my pack was water proofed with unfading magic that would last forever. I put the bag on my back.

How did this storm rise up so fast anyways? There weren't any clouds within the sky when I was painting. It just... appeared out of nowhere. Someone must really dislike me up there!

"Sakura. Lets go girl!"

The neko mata leapt into my kimono and stuck her out of the top to look out at the storm before popping back in. I take my out my kobudou sensu from my obi and open it. It will help protect my head from the big, fat rain drops that were pouring down hard. I step out into the rain.

3rd Person POV

A boy was watching Diana from a tree diagonally behind her. He was a full-blooded inu youkai that everyone who wasn't knew to the castle knew about. Nobody messed with him. Rumors spread that he was cold, unfeeling and emotionless.

Diana chose a tree close by that he usually sat in, but for some unknown reason to him, he went to a different tree. He could tell from her aura and scent that she was youkai, if not, then at least part youkai. All he could see was her extremely long black hair and an occasional hand or arm. But he could see her paintings he thought were beautiful. He liked to admire fine art. He watched her through the antagonizing process of the painting.

Just as she finished drying her last piece, a gust of wind blew the landscaping from her hands. At that point he was trying to ignore her, so he didn't notice the flying piece of paper. It smacked him in the face. He instinctively jerked it from his face. Looking down, he noticed that it was her painting. He unknowingly folded the paper up neatly and put it inside his shirt.

He jumped down just as she stepped into the rain. Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, he rushed at her. Sweeping her up into his arms, he took off at full speed in the direction she came from. He did not slow down a tad bit, running faster than any horse's gallop, until he came to the hallway her scent came from. He found the room that had her scent the strongest within, put her down in front of the door and disappeared.

Diana's POV

All of a sudden hands gripped my waist and I was lifted into someone's arms. I automatically closed my eyes as tight as I could. The feel of his speed was incredible. I could tell that he was male and youkai by his scent, well and his body. I chose not to try to get away, even if I did, it would be for only a second; he could catch me in a blink of an eye, that also included blocking any attack I might throw at him, or counter it. Which ever he chose.

I feel no other rain drops on my already soaked body, even if they were hitting me, I was too numb to feel them right about now. But I've learned to push cold and pain out of my mind for an amount in my training. I was always considered weaker because I wasn't a complete youkai and even more so because I was a girl, so I pushed pain away while the other full-blooded were howling in it.

We get to the covered hallway. I expect to be put down now. Only he doesn't. I know he's going by scent alone now because he slows down and hesitates sometimes. I look up at my... captor? He's beautiful. I shouldn't have kept my eyes closed during the run, because I'm sure regretting' it now.

His hair is a silky white, so I automatically know that he's a haku inu youkai. The markings that I could see on the sides of his face that I could see. There were three connecting stripes, or one stripe splitting into three. The bottom one is the longest; tracing his jaw line, the middle one two-thirds that sizes; in the middle of his cheeks, and the top one-third the size of the bottom one; stopping when it touched the top of his cheekbone.

He looked down at me, sensing my stare. Our eyes meet and it seems as if we were the only ones. No world, no other people, just emptiness with us floating there. Our orbs stayed connected for a few seconds only. My dark green to his light gold. He broke contact first, forcing his gaze back out in front of us.

I saw his marking on his forehead though. A white circle with a angel wing on the sides of it, not touching. Mine was similar, only that it was a white oval with one white angel wing on one side with one black dragon wing on the other. I only know of one place, or peoples, that has his markings, as only one place, or peoples, that have mine.

There were thirty-six youkai tribes among the Yamani Isles. Twelve belonging to The Dark, twelve to The Light, and the last twelve belonging to The Night. The Dark royalty had a black circle with a black dragon wing on each side. The Light royalty had a white circle with a white angel wing on each side. The Night royalty had a white oval with one white angel wing on one side and a black dragon wing on the other.

It just confirmed my guess about him being the heir to the throne of The Light. He gets his side stripes from his mother, leader of the head tribe of The Light, Howl's Bright. He gets his forehead sigma from his father, king of The Light.

He is what my father says is “The Enemy”. For hundreds of years The Light and The Night have been at war with each other, but the war between The Dark and both has been going on forever. Well not for ever, just longer than I or anybody else knows.

All of a sudden he just puts me down. Without a word, he just disappears into the rain.

Who was that, um, guy? And why didn't he say anything?

Thoroughly confused, I whisper a thank you into the night and turned around and unlocked my door. After I open my door, Sakura leaps out of my kimono and onto my bed. Just as I was about to step into my room, arms snake around my waste again. A small yelp escaped from my lips, but it wasn't very loud. The arms pull me into a tight embrace.

"Your welcome." Comes the silky, monotone voice in my ear. A shiver went down my spine. A light kiss on my neck where it met jawbone, was set. Then a small nip was felt and he was gone, just as suddenly as he was there. Unseen into the darkness... Again!

Who is this mystery man? And what does he want with me?

With those as my last thoughts while I stared into the rain pouring night, I enter my room and lock the door. I strip from my soaking kimono and into my silky pants that flared out at the bottom and silk tank top. They were both black with the trimming, straps, and pants tie in bright red.

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Translations:

Haku: white

Hanyou: half-breed

Inu: dog

Katana: a type of curved sword that Japanese samurai use, or in this case, Yamani samurai

Kimono: a Japanese out fit that girls wear

Kobudou: fighting in close combat with weapons

Obi: the tie around the middle of a kimono

Sakura: the blossoms of a tree

Sensu: a flip fan used in Japan

Youkai: demon

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A/N: I wish to personally thank The Midnight Line for the title name of this story and DestinyHunter for naming Leannah’s people. Thanks guys.