Chapter 11
"Aaaah!" She cried out as she fell. "DON'T PANIC!" She yelled at herself as she felt the Fly card with her Magic. It seemed to be fine, then she finally felt the pain in her back. My wings hurt? She looked behind her to see how they were and couldn't find them. "They're gone! I've lost them. The heat! They must be burned off! Now what?" she asked herself. "I DIDN'T GET ANY INSTRUCTIONS WITH THESE WINGS!" she screamed at the ground that was rapidly approaching. "THINK! I've got to think calmly or I'm dead! Maybe it's like a computer? Reboot!" So she instructed Fly to put the wings away. Then she told the Card to bring them back out. And it worked! She could feel the pull as well as hear the sudden roar and her fall quickly stopped.
But as her panic subsided she also felt a terrible burning pain under her chin. The superheated air had found an area that wasn't covered and had burned the underside of her chin and part of her neck until it blistered. But when she looked up and saw Fiery looking at her, she forgot her pain.
"I'm TOMOYO! I'm SAKURA'S FRIEND!" But the words just blasted her own ears as Fiery tossed another fireball at her. It moved frighteningly fast, but this time she had seen it coming and she used the indirect defense that Eriol had taught her to divert the fireball away from herself. She felt a momentary burst of pleasure that she had done it, but Fiery was coming closer now and looking really angry. And the closer he was the less time she would have to divert his next fireball. Suddenly it dawned on her that Fiery had no way to tell who she was in the helmet. So she unfastened and pulled it off as fast as she possibly could, and screamed her identity again at Fiery. This time, instead of sending another fireball at her he came closer. "FIERY! REMEMBER ME! I'M SAKURA'S FRIEND! I ALWAYS TAPE HER. You know me, don't you." By this time Fiery was right in front of her. "I can bring Sakura back! I can use the Return Card to save Sakura and prevent her from dying! Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Yes. But how is it possible to save Sakura when she is dead?"
"The Return Card. You know the Return Card?"
"Not hardly. Time is the only one who can talk with Return."
"Well, I can use Return to go back in time and save Sakura before she dies."
"I don't understand what you are saying. But if there is a way to get Sakura back I want to do it. I like Sakura. She treats me with respect."
"Success!" she thought excitedly to herself. "Can we go down and land and talk, I am tired of flying." Fiery nodded and in a couple of minutes Tomoyo was back on the solid ground and loving it. "Now can you call Return here?"
Fiery closed his eyes for a moment then spoke. "Nope. He's not anywhere around here."
"But I NEED him! Sakura needs him!"
"Okay, okay, I'll look for him." he grumbled.
Then Tomoyo had an idea. "Tell any other Cards you can find to also look and then come back and tell me what you found." With this, Fiery nodded and flew away.
Tomoyo leaned back against a tree and watched a house in the distance burning. Her burnt chin was hurting horribly now, particularly when she turned her head and rubbed the burned part on her jacket collar. "I wonder how many people were in that house when Fiery burned it... The pain of being burned alive is beyond my imagining." But when these thoughts hurt too much, she concentrated on the fact that in a little while she would roll back time and make all the horror and death go away. And in fact to have never happened. And then she would be seeing Sakura. "A live Sakura-chan! That's a sweet thought!" But then she had a scary thought. "I didn't tell Fiery when to give up and come back? What if he keeps looking for days?!" This thought had tormented her for nearly an hour when she finally saw Fiery coming.