A/N: Whew! After three years I managed to finally finish all of “Care Bears Family Adventures” and slightly before that my solo story “Care Bear Magi Life”. After all of this I feel I’m mostly done writing solo Care Bear stories. Now I still love the Care Bears, I probably always will, but I feel I’ve done everything I can with the Care Bears, well almost everything. As you no doubt have read the title, this is a reboot of an old story of mine, the first Care Bears fanfiction I wrote on my own: Cardcaptor Love Heart.
Well not entirely on my own. Both previous versions were crossovers with other Care Bears authors, first “Rock Raider” and then “Teacher Bear” but both fizzled out before they could be finished. The reason I’m writing this is that I feel I should take the lessons I learned from the intervening 15 years of writing and re do the storyline that got me starting as a writer, the Cardcaptors and Care Bears crossover. I won’t spoil what’s going to happen because I want this to be fresh for everyone but I will be transparent in that I’m borrowing characters from my friend TakeCareBear “Amber” and Teacher Bear, used with permission. Also you should read “Finding Family” which I posted before this, as it acts as a set up for the story setting, it’s not 100% necessary but Amber and I wrote it for a reason.
As for what might come after this, well that remains to be seen. And now on with the show.
Dreaming, dreaming And just like that I can fly Through the bright sky!
Cardcaptor Love Heart
I will spread both my wings And touch the clouds above
The tiniest of dreams Unlock unknown power in me
I don't know where to go But that's the best part of all
The wind guides me along!
It's all right!
Miracles, miracles, miracles can come true no matter what they say
Here we go!
Let's fly now let's fly now let's fly now Into distances beyond
And surely someday now someday now someday now we will see each other Once more like this
Do-do-do dreaming, dreaming, And just like that I can fly Through the bright sky!
Chapter 1: Rebirth of Clow
“Pencils down. Exam over.” The teacher’s voice from his desk caused everyone in the room, human, Care Bear and Cousin, to stop writing. “Turn in your reports at my desk on the way out and have a good summer.”
Love Heart Bear was the first one to drop his history essay on the teacher’s desk before he all but tore out of the room pumping his fist in the air, “Finally!” The lime green Care Bear pumped his fist in the air, almost upsetting the brown army-surplus cargo vest he always wore. “School’s out and today’s finally the day!”
“Excited?”
Love Heart turned to see the teal-furred Care Bear with a shooting star tummy symbol wearing an open white sweater with a flower in her hair who was smiling at him.
Love Heart couldn’t stop grinning, “Yup! I just know this is going to be great, I can feel it in my hearts,” Love Heart touched his own tummy symbol, a large red heart with three smaller pink hearts inside of it and a dozen small heart surrounding it. He felt a strange rush of wind and looked up, “I… Wish Bear?” Love Heart found himself staring at empty space where his friend had been standing a moment ago. “Wish? Where’d you go?” He scanned the area, amongst the students leaving Care-a-Lot Unified School but the she was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey! Something wrong?” Love Heart’s voice was drawn to the sandy yellow fennec fox with long hair wearing a t-shirt and jeans who dashed out the front door of the school to meet him.
Love Heart decided he’d ask Wish what happened later. “Nothing much, Confidence Heart. I’m finally going to tell Harmony how I feel.”
“She’s not meeting you here?” Confidence looked around.
“Nah, her final exam was last period so I asked her to meet me in Readington Park. I should get going, don’t want to keep her waiting, see ya!” Love Heart waved as he took off towards the huge portal nearby.
Confidence Heart waved half-heartedly after Love Heart then sighed, touching her shirt that concealed her own tummy symbol: a blue ribbon with a heart shaped button. “I just hope she makes you happy.” She began her slow walk home through the portal.
The massive heart-shaped arch portal had been build almost five years ago partly because of Confidence Heart herself. She had been raised on earth by adopted human parents under the name Cassandra Avalon until she was found on a Caring Mission by Love Heart. Torn between staying with her human family and going to live up in the clouds with the furry defenders of feelings, the founders of the Care Bear Family: True Heart Bear, Noble Heart Horse, Grams Bear and Love Heart’s parents Sage Heart Bear and Life Heart Unicorn decided to expand a plan to educate their charges and, with some difficulty, were allowed to connect her hometown of Readington to Care-a-Lot using the magic portal and set up their escalator school on the clouds. The hope being that they would be able to both help children in a broader more impactful way and let the now teenaged Care Bears and Cousins be better able to relate to humans as they grew up. So far it had been a resounding success, even helping them track down other Care Bears and Cousins that were lost on Earth.
Love Heart jumped a few times as passed through the arch and ran towards the park, his feet feeling like they barely touched the ground. He had been building his courage all throughout the year and now he wasn’t going to hold back on confessing his feelings any longer.
Love Heart didn’t slow down as he crossed the street to the city park, “Harmony Bear!” He shouted and waved, catching the attention of the dark purple Bear wearing a black beret, purple shades and a thin black sweater, her tummy symbol of three joined up heart-shaped musical notes having been magically emblazoned on the front of her shirt.
“Hey, Love Heart,” Harmony smiled slightly as she waved towards him.
“Hi!” The shout came from Brave Heart Lion, a tawny lion with a thick mane wearing a cowboy jacket with tassels, open at the front so everyone could see his tummy symbol: a heart wearing a crown on one side.
Love Heart only just noticed Brave Heart and moved aside to give the lion a high-five, “Ready for summer?” Love Heart asked the both of them.
“You bet!” Brave Heart grinned.
Harmony coughed nervously as Love Heart turned to face her, “I’m all ready for it. So why did you want to meet me after here after exams?”
Love Heart smiled, “Because I need to tell you how I feel about you. Harmony, I’ve had a crush on you since we were kids. I love hearing you sing and listening to the poetry you’ve composed and you’re always finding ways to help people feel better, as much as Cheer Bear.”
Harmony blushed slightly but coughed, “We’ll I’m not that good, but thank you.”
Love Heart laughed, “So now that it’s summer and we have time, Harmony would you please go out with me? Like on a real date?” He held his hand out towards her, close enough for Harmony to take if she so desired.
An uncomfortable silence hung between the three friends for a full minute, broken only by Brave Heart clearing his throat.
Love Heart saw Harmony Bear’s distressed expression as she stared as his hand, “Harmony?”
“I’m sorry, Love Heart, but I can’t.” Harmony saw Love Heart’s face fall as Brave Heart stepped over next to her.
Before Love Heart could answer, Brave Heart cut in, “Harmony and I have been dating for about a month now, at least having study dates lately so we could get through exams.”
“I figured out how you felt about me a while ago, Love Heart, but I’ve never felt the same way,” Harmony felt her throat catch when she saw the devastated look on Love Heart’s face as he withdrew his hand, “I hoped you’d move on from your crush on me so I wouldn’t have to break your heart.” She took Brave Heart’s hand in her own as he put an arm around her shoulders, “I’m sorry, Love Heart.”
Love Heart stood, staring at the ground. His throat and mind choked with feelings of hurt as he teared up. Finally he wiped his eyes and turned away before forcing himself to speak, “I hope you are happy together.” Then he took off at a run, crying all the way.
“Love Heart, wait!” Brave Heart took off after the green bear but slowed to a stop after about twenty paces as Harmony walked up behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Harmony whispered, “I think I need to go home.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Brave Heart offered his hand, which Harmony accepted before they walked towards the portal.
Confidence Heart Fennec had just passed through the portal arch when Love Heart tore past her. Her big sensitive ears caught the sound of him crying as she turned to watch him run. “Love Heart?” She turned around and saw Harmony and Brave Heart walking hand-in-hand towards the arch and instantly figured out what had happened. Not wanting to face them she turned around and started jogging towards Love Heart Bear’s house.
Love Heart didn’t slow down until he got to his house made of clouds. He stumbled through the front door as tears still streamed down his face and all but slammed the door shut behind him. He rubbed his eyes, trying to hold back his tears.
“Big brother! You’re home!” Love Heart looked up to see the owner of the voice standing by the basement stairs, his little sister Sweet Heart Pegasus: a bright pink horse with hooves instead of feet, two large pink feathered wings and a tummy symbol that was a wrapped piece of heart shaped striped candy; her only piece of clothing was a short pink skirt with pockets.
“Huh?” Love Heart wiped his still leaking eyes, “Sweet Heart, I thought you’d be out with your friends after school.”
“Oh, I came home to...” Sweet Heart paused when she saw Love Heart’s tear stained, “Love Heart, what happened?”
Love Heart rubbed his eyes with his forearm, “Harmony rejected me...”
“Oh...oooooh!” Sweet Heart eyes lit up with understanding and she darted forwards to hug her older brother, also wrapping him in her wings around him in comfort. “I’m sorry, Love Heart.” She held him tightly.
Love Heart smiled slightly and tried to hug her without pushing her wings out of the way. “Don’t worry about it,” he sniffed, still feeling the need to cry, “Go have fun with your friends I... need to be alone.”
“OK,” Sweet Heart stepped back so Love Heart could step away from the door, “Tell mom and dad I’m going to meet Pretty Heart at that new toy shop, Twin Bells.”
“Right...” Love Heart mumbled as his sister slipped out the front door. Not wanting to be seen by anyone, Love Heart stumbled towards and down the basement stairs, leaving the door open a crack so he could see without turning the lights on.
Love Heart wandered into the storage room and slumped down against the wall before he finally let himself cry, bawling his eyes out hitting the wall behind him before burying his face in his hands. He didn’t want anyone to see him break down completely over this. He knew Harmony didn’t owe him anything and he sincerely hoped his best friend and long time crush would be happy together, but he still felt like his heart had been ripped out.
Love Heart felt a sudden chill down spine and he looked up, rubbing his now puffy eyes so he could see the faint golden glow coming from a small wooden chest at the side of the room. Curiosity pushed away his sorrow as he stood up and walked over so he could open the chest. The light intensified and Love Heart had to shield his eyes momentarily before it faded. Love Heart groped around in the dark until he hit the light switch and he saw the source of the still visible faint golden glow: a red book with a golden latch holding it shut and a cover with a picture of a large maneless armored lion with large feathery wings on the front surrounded in gold filigree over an elaborately drawn picture of a sun.
Love Heart picked the book up and read the title, written in English on a gold ribbon above the lion. “The Clow?” Love Heart shuddered as he felt a sudden pulse of energy run through him.
There was a sudden flash of golden light and the latch popped open. Love Heart yelped and held still for a moment, but when nothing happened he carefully opened the book. Instead of normal pages the inside of the book was hollowed out filled with a pile of large cards, about three times the size of a playing card the back of which were red and had an elaborate golden disk with the same picture of the sun drawn in the middle and a small crescent moon on the upper left corner.
“Cards?” Love Heart picked up the first card and flipped it over to see the face, it was a very detailed drawing of a woman with large wings enfolding her and hair antenna on a black background and a name written on the bottom. “The Windy? Huh?” Love Heart didn’t notice the card flash as he looked at the inside cover and read, “‘When the magic of this book is released, a great disaster will befall the world.’ Wait disaster?!” Love Heart’s panic came too late as The Windy Card glowed and before he could react a massive wind storm flared up around him.
Love Heart shut his eyes against the gale force wind that blew into a tornado up around him, the force reaching into the book and launching the cards up and magically through the roof and out of his home. Love Heart accidentally let go of the Windy card as he tried to shut book only for it to be set loose and every one of the cards to fly away.
The indoor wind storm finally died down and Love Heart dropped the book open pages down and fell to his knees. “What in the stars just happened?” he asked to no one in particular. Unexpectedly the book seemed to answer when it glowed bright gold again and a small creature floated out from the front cover: it looked like a small yellow stuffed animal with a big head, large round ears, small feathery wings and long tail with a white tuft at the end.
It opened its tiny eyes, then grinned and threw up an arm, “Well hidey howdy ho! Thank you so much for waking me up... small green bear?” The creature voice was male and deeper than its size would have suggested and it stared at Love Heart, “Wait, have humans been replaced by animal people? How long was I locked up in that book?”
“Huh?” Love Heart stared then pointed to himself, “No. I’m a Care Bear. My name is Love Heart Bear.”
“A Care Bear huh? That’s news to me, but no big deal.” The creature folded his arms and gave a proud grin, “My name is Keroberos, The Guardian Beast of the Seal of the Clow Book.”
“A guardian beast?” Love Heart shook his head as he tried to process what was happening, “So you were guarding that book?”
“Yeah, you got it, boy,” the Clow book lifted up behind Keroberos and stood upright with the cover open and he turned and pointed to the now empty slot in the book, “I keep the Clow Cards from getting loose and causing trouble see?” There was a moment of awkward silence before the guardian beast did a double take and freaked out “WAAAAA NO NO NO! The Clow Cards are gone!? Why Why Why?! Where did the cards go!?” He wailed, trying to dig through the empty slot as if that would make them rematerialize before he hung his head in defeat.
“I’m sorry but that’s my fault.” Love Heart averted his eyes.
“What?” Keroberos turned to face Love Heart with simmering anger in his eyes.
“I found the book, opened it and picked up this card called ‘The Windy’.”
Keroberos nodded, “Yeah?”
“And right after I read its name a big wind storm picked up,” Love Heart gulped.
“Uh-huh?” Keroberos nodded again.
“And they all got blown away, heheheh...” Love Heart grinned nervously.
“I see.” Keroberos nodded, then briefly burst into laughter.
“AHahahahaha ha ha ha...” Keroberos stared at Love Heart for a moment before he shouted, “ALL OF THEM?!” He launched himself forwards only for Love Heart to reflexively smack him back.
“OW!” Keroberos rubbed his head where Love Heart hit him, “Why did you hit me!?”
“You charged at me!” Love Heart countered, rubbing his hand.
“Because you let the cards escape!” Keroberos pointed at the green bear, “Just give me a moment I need to see if I can track them down.” He closed his eyes, folded his arms and sat cross legged in mid-air. Love Heart watched as the guardian beast glowed bright gold for several minutes, his own worries forgotten for the moment.
Keroberos finally stopped glowing and sighed, his limbs hanging down, “It’s no good. I can’t tell where the Clow Cards have gone.”
Love Heart picked up the book from where it still stood, “This thing on the inside says ‘When the magic of this book is released, a great disaster will befall the world.’ Are the cards that disaster?”
Keroberos sighed and nodded, “Yes. The Clow Cards are powerful magical items created by an amazing sorcerer named Clow Reed. Each of them is alive and possesses incredible powers that no normal force in the world could hope to stop, so when they started to get out of control Clow Reed made that book and placed me as the beast of the seal on the cover to stop them from escaping.”
Love Heart closed the book and saw that the picture of the lion was gone, leaving the cover mostly red.
“Now I have to get them back, and you’re going to help me!” Keroberos pointed aggressively at Love Heart.
“What! Why me?” Love Heart jumped up.
“Because you opened the book and let them escape,” Keroberos floated up to be level with Love Heart’s face, “So it’s your responsibility.”
It took Love Heart a moment to regain his composure, “What about you ‘guardian beast’?” he asked scathingly, “Why didn’t you stop me if you’re supposed to keep them from getting loose?”
Keroberos blinked the laughed nervously, “Well you just caught me napping.”
“Napping, for how long?” Love Heart glared at the small guardian.
“About 30 years or so...”
“30 years... you were asleep on the job for 30 years and you’re blaming me for this?” Love Heart couldn’t hide the contempt in his voice.
“I never said being a guardian was easy!” Keroberos shot back, “But because you were able to unseal the book that means you have magical abilities.”
“I do.”
It was a statement but Keroberos heard it as a question as he nodded.
“So how can I help you?”
“Love Heart? Are you down there?” the older man’s voice made them both jump.
“Dad?” Love Heart called back instinctively.
“Wah!” Keroberos gave a small yelp then flew to hide behind some boxes on a storage shelf. He poked his head out, “Don’t tell your dad I’m here!” the guardian beast said in a loud whisper, “No one can know about the Clow Cards, they’re too dangerous!”
“But I can’t just lie to him,” Love Heart answered, even as he heard his father coming down the stairs and the main basement light turn on.
“Just tell him something else and hide the book, quick! I’ll tell you more later!” Keroberos ducked out of sight again as Love Heart turned around, stepping out of the storage room while holding the book behind his back.
Love Heart’s father, Sage Heart Bear, stood at the bottom of the stairs. He was an iridescent blue Care Bear with a heart made of rainbow colored dust for a tummy symbol. He gave Love Heart a concerned look as he saw his son’s eyes were still red from his crying earlier, “Son, what’s wrong?”
Love Heart averted his eyes. He could have just told his father about what happened in the park and he would probably believe that, but... Love Heart took a deep shuddering breath, “I came down here after Harmony rejected me so I could cry in peace, and then...”
Keroberos peered out from his hiding spot, eyes wide as he watched Love Heart slowly pulled the book out from behind his back and held it out towards Sage Heart, the cover open to show the empty interior.
“I found this book and,” Love Heart was tearing up again, “I let set all the magic cards loose. I’m sorry!” Love Heart started to cry as his face screwed up.
Sage Heart just stared at the empty Clow Book for a moment then carefully took it from his son without protest. Sage Heart closed the book to see the mostly blank cover. “I see,” his voice was calm. Sage Heart looked around then raised his voice, “You can come out, Keroberos. I know you’ve been released.”
Love Heart’s eyes widened as he looked up at his father and Keroberos let out a small yelp and fell on his side.
“You know about me?!” Keroberos couldn’t help but shout as he picked himself up and flew out of the storage room.
Sage Heart smiled, “I know all too well, Guardian Beast.” He turned to his son, “Love Heart, I have a lot to tell you.”
OoOoO
As Sage Heart boiled some tea for himself he listened to Love Heart talk about his day. Once Love Heart was finished, Sage Heart took two small bowls of chocolate pudding from the fridge and put them in front of Love Heart and Keroberos, who had the book on the table between them. “Here, I was saving these for dessert tonight but I think you need it now.”
Keroberos’ face lit up as he saw the sweet treat placed in front of him, “Oh wow, this looks tasty!” He grabbed the spoon, which was as long as he was tall, with little effort and hovered over the dessert as scooped it into his mouth, clearly enjoying the taste.
“I’d almost forgotten about the Book of Clow,” Sage Heart poured himself some tea and sat down across from the other two, “I’m surprised you were able to open it, I never could. That book was entrusted to me for safekeeping years before I met your mother and I was supposed to keep it safe and hidden. But with establishing the Care Bear Family, raising you and Sweet Heart, our last battles with No-Heart and Cold Heart and setting up this school it just faded from my mind because all of that was more important to me.” He took a drink as Love Heart stirred his pudding while Keroberos ate enthusiastically.
“Am I in trouble?” Love Heart asked.
“Yes and no,” Sage Heart set his teacup down, “I’m not going to punish you but you will have to hunt down and recapture all the Clow Cards before they do any serious damage.”
“But how do I do that?” Love Heart asked.
“Oh right,” Keroberos dropped his spoon into the now empty pudding cup, “That pudding hit the spot!” he floated up with a happy smile on his face for a moment, “I was going to show you before we came up here. Love Heart go stand over there,” Keroberos pointed to a spot a meter behind Love Heart’s chair.
“OK,” Love Heart stood up and stepped back as Kero floated over to stand on the Book of Clow.
The guardian beast’s body glowed gold and there was suddenly a glowing golden seal identical in design to the one on the back of the Clow Cards on the ground surrounding them. “Key of Clow,” as Keroberos spoke a small blue orb floated out of the book’s key hole that quickly grew to the size of a golf ball that floated up to Love Heart, “This boy named Love Heart will carry out the sacred promise.” He pointed dramatically at the glowing ball and shouted, “RELEASE!” A windstorm picked up as the item inside the ball grew larger, eventually forming a pink staff with a bird’s head at the top with small wings attached to large gem eyes.
Sage Heart had to cover his cup as Love Heart braced himself against the wind.
“Take the staff!” Keroberos shouted over the wind. Determined to accept responsibility, Love Heart stepped forwards against the wind and grabbed the staff which grew to a length of 70 cm before the wind calmed down.
Kero smiled as the wind vanished, “I name you, Love Heart Bear, as Cardcaptor.”
“I don’t know much about the process,” Sage Heart was able to finish his tea, “But I do know you need to find and subdue the Clow Cards when they appear. We’ll need to step up your magical training. It’s a good thing that summer just started so you have time to resolve this before school starts.”
“What?!” Love Heart turned to Sage Heart then Keroberos, “But I just started my vacation!”
“This is important, Love Heart,” Keroberos floated up to the green bear’s face, “The Clow Cards could strike at any time and if they go on a rampage there’s no telling what kind of damage they could do. That staff will let you capture any Clow Cards you encounter so you can seal them and once that’s done you can call on them to help you subdue the other Clow Cards.” He then turned to Sage Heart, “So you can use magic too?”
“Yes,” Sage Heart was washing out the teapot and cup, “Magic is very familiar to me and my family. My wife, Life Heart, is a unicorn so both our children have inherited potent magical abilities from her. I’ll introduce you to her later. Don’t argue, it’s better than hiding around the house pretending to be a plush toy.”
Keroberos sighed, “I guess so, guess I didn’t need to try and hide earlier.”
Further conversation was halted when a sudden flash of insight shot through all of their minds.
Love Heart gripped the sealing wand tightly, “I felt that.”
“It’s one of the Clow Cards!” Keroberos shouted then suddenly pointed to one of the walls, “It’s that way!”
“That’s towards Readington!” Love Heart bolted for the door and yanked it open, only to freeze when he found Confidence Heart Fennec standing right in front of him.
Keroberos yelped and dove out of sight behind Love Heart too late to avoid being spotted as Love Heart and Confidence Heart’s eyes locked.
“Confidence Heart? How long have you been standing there?” Love Heart gulped.
“Long enough to hear everything,” Confidence wiggled her huge ears, “What’s all of this about Clow Cards and Cardcaptors and that flying stuffed toy,” she leaned sideways to get a glimpse of Keroberos.
“I’m not a stuffed toy!” Keroberos shot out from behind Love Heart.
“I’ll explain on the way, come on!” Love Heart ducked past Confidence Heart and took off towards the portal arch with Keroberos and Confidence Heart hot on his tail.
Keroberos put on a burst of speed and dove into one of the pockets on Love Heart’s vest, “You have to try and keep this under wraps, Love Heart. Will she be any help?”
“She’s a Karate black belt and used to be on the school’s wrestling team. Confidence Heart will be able to help,” Love Heart said without slowing down despite panting a little.
“Of course I can,” Confidence Heart grinned as she ran up alongside Love Heart as they passed through the portal, “So where are we heading?”
OoOoO
Twin Bells was a cute little toy store owned by a young woman of eastern descent with long black hair named Maggie. The store had only been open for a week but in the lead up to summer it had proved to be popular among the elementary grades of both humans and Care Bears.
Sweet Heart looked over a pile of stuffed animals, picking up a stuffed panda. “This always feels weird,” she turned the bear over before putting it down.
“But they’re cute,” her friend, Pretty Heart Skunk, nudged Sweet Heart. Pretty Heart was a pink skunk the same age as Sweet Heart with a large white striped tail the curled up behind her and a heart shaped compact for a tummy symbol wearing an open pale green blouse. “So what happened with that sudden urgent stuff you had to do at home?”
“Oh, uh, false alarm,” Sweet Heart chuckled nervously before hastily moving on, “Let’s just focus on having fun this summer.”
“Alright, as long as it’s nothing serious now let’s see,” Pretty Heart picked up a stuffed rabbit.
Sweet Heart sighed in relief and went back to browsing, until she felt a flash of insight in her mind, “No,” she whispered.
“What?” Pretty Heart turned back to her friend.
“Nooo thing here. Let’s go get something to eat!” Sweet Heart accidentally shouted the last word which made everyone turn to look at her as she grabbed her friend’s hand.
Pretty Heart was only pulled one step before she found her footing and was able to hold Sweet Heart back. “Ok, Sweet Heart, what’s going on with you today?”
“EEP!” a cry from the other side of the store made both of them jump and turn to see a young boy who was staring at a stuffed cat on the floor.
“What’s wrong?” the boy’s mother was at his side in an instant.
“It jumped out of my hand!” The boy wailed.
Sweet Heart felt her hair standing on end, “We should go, now!” She tried to pulled Pretty Heart outside again but found her friend unmoving.
“What’s going- WHOA!” The stuffed rabbit Pretty Heart had been holding a moment ago jumped up and nearly collided with her face. Another shout from across the store signaled more stuffed toys suddenly coming to life and in moments the place was full of bouncing animals.
Sweet Heart dropped the floor with her hands over her head and her wings pulled tight against her body. Pretty Heart dropped next to her, “This is crazy! Yeah we should get out of here.” Sweet Heart nodded as best she could and they began to crawl towards the door.
Love Heart slowed to a stop near the Twin Bells store and looked around, “I can sense it somewhere around here,” he scanned the street, paying no attention to some people who were staring at the pink bird-staff in his hand.
Confidence Heart skidded to a stop beside him as Keroberos carefully poked his head out of the vest pocket, “Focus your senses on the surroundings,” he said, “If you concentrate you should be able to pinpoint it.”
“It’s over there!” Confidence Heart pointed to the Twin Bells store. She smirked at Keroberos’ stunned expression, “giant ears, I can hear the shouts in there.” As if to prove her point, the door was pushed open and the cries of shock and fear spilled into the street, followed by an array of stuffed animals that bounced along the ground as though they were made of rubber while Sweet Heart and Pretty Heart crawled outside.
“It’s the Jump card!” Keroberos shouted from inside the pocket.
“The Jump? So it bounces around?” Love Heart held the staff as he watched more stuffed animals bounce out of the store, followed by more fleeing customers and a blue dog Care Bear Cousin wearing a dog collar, a white apron and with a heart shaped red medal for his tummy symbol.
“It also takes control of small objects and can make them jump around,” Keroberos ducked back into Love Heart’s pocket, “You have to find its current form to seal it.”
“Get up and get away,” The blue dog, Loyal Heart Dog, helped Sweet Heart and Pretty Heart to their feet as a plush bear bounced off his head, which barely phased him.
Sweet Heart was shaking as she stood up, clutching herself as her wings were pulled tight against her back. Pretty Heart grabbed her shoulders, “Sweet Heart let’s go!”
“Loyal Heart, what are you doing here?” Confidence Heart punched one of the plush toys as it flew at her, knocking it back only for a stuffed rabbit to hit her in the face before she grabbed and threw it off.
“Part time job,” Loyal Heart ducked under another flying plush toy, “What’s going on here?!”
“Explain later!” Love Heart shouted, “Try to find a weird looking toy!” He was already scanning the chaos that spilled into the street. A moment later the plush toys seemed to settle down, rolling around the thankfully dry pavement.
Maggie stepped out of her now empty store, “Oh no, I just got everything set up. Loyal Heart?”
“Already on it, my friends too,” Loyal Heart had used his tummy symbol to conjure a large basket which he was piling the stuffed animals into, trying to find any unusual looking ones.
“Normal, normal, cute, normal,” Confidence Heart deftly tossed the animals she was grabbing into the basket, barely looking but never missing, “There’s gotta be a hundred of these out here.”
“Keep it up,” Love Heart paused for a moment to see his sister, still shaking as Pretty Heart tried to keep her calm.
“Wait, is this what you mean?” Loyal Heart held up a bright red stuffed toy that vaguely resembled a rabbit, except its body seemed somehow angular with long thin ears, a zig-zagged tail with a yellow ball on the end and slitted angry green eyes.
Keroberos popped his head out and couldn’t help but shout, “That’s it!” The Jump Card heard him and its plush body tore itself from Loyal Heart’s grasp to land on the ground.
“Catch that toy!” Love Heart shouted as he charged towards it. The Jump jumped away only to be intercepted by Confidence Hear in mid air.
“Gotcha!” The fennec fox caught the plush body mid jump and held it in her arms as it struggled.
Love Heart ran over to her, “Hold it still! Now what Keroberos?”
Keroberos still had his head poking out of the pocket, “Swing the staff at it and say ‘Jump Card I command you return to your power confined!’ Hurry!”
“Right,” Love Heart raised the staff over his head, “Jump Card! Re- hey!” the Jump tore itself from Confidence’s grasp and landed nearby. Love Heart dove for it and managed to grab The Jump’s tail, right as it took another jump and catapulted itself into the sky with Love Heart still hanging on.
“LOVE HEART!” Confidence, Loyal Heart, Pretty Heart and Sweet Heart all screamed out as the green bear began to shrink into the sky. Sweet Heart felt galvanized into action, her wings spread and she flapped off into the sky after her brother.
Love Heart felt the wind rushing past his face as the Jump carried him high into the sky, his left hand still gripping firmly onto its tail. Despite the cold and force, Love Heart still had hold of the sealing wand which he raised over his head, shouting to make sure he was heard.
“Jump Card! I command you to return to your power confined! Jump!” Love Heart swung the staff at the red rabbit. The beak stopped suddenly in mid-air as a rush of energy formed the shape of a card at the beak’s tip. Realising what was happening, the Jump tried to force itself free from Love Heart’s grip, all in vain as it was sucked into the form until it solidified into a card, which flew into Love Heart’s left hand.
As he reached the apex of the height form momentum, Love Heart transferred the Jump Card to his right hand and conjured a red-heart shaped balloon from his tummy symbol and grabbed it in his left hand which slowed his descent to earth.
“Whew!” Love Heart wiped his forehead with his right hand that still held the staff and new card.
Keroberos looked up out of the vest then floated out to hover by Love Heart’s head, “That was close. How did you do that?” he pointed at the balloon Love Heart was holding on to.
“Tummy symbol conjuring, all Care Bears can do this.” Love Heart said, “Not sure how long I can hold on.”
“If you seal The Jump Card you can use it to get down faster,” Keroberos said, “You need to write your name across the bottom of the card.”
“How do I do that? I need both hands free.” Love Heart looked and his right hand, still clutching the staff and card then to his left hand which held his balloon lifeline.
“Just command the staff to re-seal itself.”
“Like just say ‘staff reseal’?” The spoken words took effect as the staff shrunk in a flash of light, leaving Love Heart holding a small key in his hand with the same bird shaped head as the staff but attached to a thin length of chain.
“Exactly,” Keroberos said as Love Heart awkwardly managed to hang the chain around his neck.
“LOVE HEART!” Sweet Heart’s voice reached them as she flew up alongside her brother. She breathed a sigh of relief, “I was scared, I thought you were gone.” She fought the urge to hug him.
“I’m fine, Sweet Heart and look,” he held up card, “I caught The Jump Card. But unless I Want to spend the next six hours floating down I need to seal it.” A thought occurred, “Can you hold me up for a couple seconds?”
Sweet Heart nodded as she flew around behind her brother, “Can’t you create a cloud car?”
“I haven’t got my license yet.” Love Heart felt Sweet Heart grab him under his arms around his chest, “And mom and dad won’t teach me how until then. Got me?”
“Uh-huh,” Sweet Heart started flapping harder.
“OK, hold on.” Love Heart let go of the balloon, which popped, and felt himself lurch downwards before Sweet Heart was able to compensate for his weight. The pink Pegasus strained as Love Heart fished a pen out of one of his pockets and wrote ‘LOVE HEART’ across the bottom of the card, a bit shaky from the wind and Sweet Heart’s flapping. “Now what?”
“Hurry! I can’t hold you much longer!” Sweet Heart wings were starting to burn with the effort of carrying her brother aloft.
“Release the staff!” Keroberos saw the desperation as he belted out instructions, “hold the key and repeat after me.”
Love Heart held out the key as he felt their descent accelerate and repeated the incantation Kero recited.
“Key of Clow Power of Magic Power of Light Surrender the Wand The Force Ignite Release!”
Wind spiraled around them as the key glowed and spun in place before growing into the sealing staff. Love Heart grabbed the staff and shouted even as he felt Sweet Heart’s grip loosening, “Now what!”
“Hit the Jump Card with your staff and call its name!” Keroberos shouted.
Love Heart, almost on instinct, threw the card forwards and called out, “Jump!” The card flashed and vanished and Love Heart felt a tingle on his feet, looking down to see a pair of tiny wings attached to each foot.
Keroberos sighed in relief, “OK, you can let him go now, Sweet Heart.”
“Are you sure,” Sweet Heart was desperate to hold on despite how much her wings hurt.
“It’s fine, go ahead,” Keroberos assured her. Sweet Heart reluctantly let go then watched Love Heart fall towards the ground.
“Are you sure, Kero?” Sweet Heart asked as she carefully flew towards the ground.
“I’m sure, now let’s go!” He dove towards the ground but Sweet Heart let herself float carefully down to give her wings a rest.
Love Heart felt the air rush around him as he fell; he had to hold his breath as he saw the ground rushing up to meet him. He closed his eyes at the last second and... felt a sudden stop. No pain, nothing but the stopping of the fall. He shook a bit as he opened his eyes as he heard clapping and cheering around him, some still taking pictures or recording on their smartphones. He wasn’t splattered but...
“So much for keeping this a secret from anyone,” Love Heart looked up as he saw Keroberos floating down, the guardian beast apparently having realized the same thing.
“Love Heart!” Confidence Heart ran over to Love Heart and caught him in a big hug, “I was so worried about you! How did you land like that?”
“The Jump Card lets you jump incredible distances,” Keroberos said as he floated down next to them, “so of course it lets you survive those landings too.”
“What happened up there?” Loyal Heart had approached them even as people were starting to disperse and Sweet Heart drifted down for a careful landing.
“Yes, Love Heart Bear, what just happened here?”
The severe voice made Love Heart’s fur stand on end as he turned to greet the voices owner, a silver furred bear with long hair wearing an open black longcoat with a katana sheathed at his side with a tummy symbol that consisted of a small red heart surrounded by a ring of ten yellow stars.
“Hi, Independent Bear,” Love Heart gulped as the silver bear approached, “It’s a long story.”
Indy looked from Love Heart, to Keroberos, to where Sweet Heart had collapsed to her knees to rest and finally to an approaching Sage Heart Bear with his wife: a green unicorn with long silver hair and a tree with heart shaped fruit for a tummy symbol named Life Heart Unicorn. “I see, well you and your family can come with me to explain that long story.”
“Yeah, squirt, and you can tell me why you didn’t come home right after school.” The man’s voice made Confidence Heart cringe slightly as she turned and gave an annoyed look to the young man in casual clothes with short black hair and naturally serious looking blue eyes.
“Don’t call me squirt, Tori!” she shot back at her older brother.
OoOoO
Hong Kong
A door opened and a young boy with short brown hair and Amber eyes stepped into the room. “You wanted to see me mother.” He stood attention as he faced his mother, a young woman in a simple yet still adorned white robe with long ebony black hair done back in a high ponytail and adorned with a golden hairpiece, purple eyes, porcelain white skin and full scarlet red lips.
“Syaoran, did you sense it?” he voice stayed level as she spoke to her son.
Syaoran replied immediately, “Yes, mother. The Clow Cards have been released. They’re in America.”
“Yes,” his mother, Yelan, replied, “It is your duty to see that they are recaptured and kept safe.”
“Yes.” Syaoran nodded, “When do I leave?”
“At the end of summer. I will make arrangements for you to transfer to school there and housing for you. Make sure you are prepared for your task.”
Syaoran bowed, “Yes, mother. I will.” As he turned to leave his mother spoke one last time.
“Syaoran. I still expect you to keep your grades up even with your task.”
“Yes, mother, I will,” his voice was still respectful though betrayed his nerves as he departed.
The start of a new story. Love Heart Bear suffers heart break on the last day of grade 11 and where he runs off to leads him to a new responsibility and adventure
