Written by: Sakura_Kinomoto
41. The Sands of Time
The school is preparing for the Reedington's Arts Festival and Sakura's class is deciding what to do. The play, Sleeping Beauty, is chosen, and everyone is excited about it. As Sakura watches Miss Mackenzie, she remembers how the Dream card showed her the figure in her dream was her class teacher. Characters are chosen by a random draw and all the students go up to fill their names. Li stares suspiciously at Miss Mackenzie after he writes his name and she tells him quietly that it won't be long now. Miss Mackenzie then reveals who the characters will be. Sakura is the prince and Li is the princess.
After school, Sakura tells Kero about what happened and who's playing what for the play. Kero intends to go to see her play so he can investigate their teacher. The next day, Sakura is practicing her lines, lamenting that she has to be the prince. She overhears Li practicing up in a tree and he nearly falls when she calls him. Sakura realizes that it would be easier to practice if she could partner up with Li and asks him. He agrees reluctantly, saying he doesn't want to embarrass himself. From a room far above them, Miss Mackenzie continues to observe the two cardcaptors.
The following day, three alarm clocks go off in Sakura's room and she drags herself out of bed. She had borrowed Tori's and her father's clock to ensure that she'd get up. When she walks downstairs, she's surprised to see her brother up, since his practice was cancelled. He cooked breakfast for the both of them and she wonders if he got up early just for her. Out of the blue, Tori asks her about the day she had a fever. Sakura remembers how she used Mirror to substitute for her and Tori recalls meeting Mirror. However, he doesn't mention anything about it and only tells her to be careful.
Sakura rollerblades to school, deep in thought, and is unaware of the wave of sand sweeping around the area. She meets Li at school and they decide to practice outside. Another sand snake sweeps by and Li almost catches it. Seeing nothing, he dismisses it for the moment. They practice their scenes and when it comes to the moment of the kiss, before they could do anything, the sand encircles them and tries to trap them. Li uses his wind incantation to free them and move them out of the way. Sakura releases Fly and both her and Li use it. The Sand card keeps shooting huge waves of sand at them and Li tells her to keep above the whirlpool.
The Sand knocks Li off the Fly. He tells her to use Water and she has her doubts, but does it anyway. Sakura lands in the whirlpool of sand and Li uses his Freeze card to freeze the card. Sakura seals it and runs over to Li to check on him. Both of them reach for the card at the same time. Li let's go up it first however, Sakura wants to give it to him anyway and he accepts it. Through the entire capture, Miss Mackenzie, holding the moon bell in her hand, watches them.