"Coooookies!"

"I'll bring you a cookie or two, then. Don't think I can sneak off with the whole plate."

And he heads downstairs.

He gets access to the family computer for ten minutes by claiming it needs an update. He's the one who set it up and keeps fixing it, after all, so nobody questions it.

And he's back up about twenty minutes later with a plate of chicken and pasta in fancy sauce, and four cookies. "Two for me, two for you."

"Yaaaaay!" he says, floating over to a cookie and grabbing it to eat.

It's warm, and contains an above-average amount of chocolate.

Terry chows down on the unimportant not-cookie food, eats one cookie, puts the other one on his desk, says, "Please don't eat that, I want it later." And starts meditating.

Relaxed sitting pose. Deep breaths. Clear thoughts. It's difficult to have clear thoughts after a day as... Interesting, as this. He doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

"It helps if you put your cards around you and your staff on your lap," Cerberus adds.

So he does that. Staff exits backpack. Windy goes directly in front of him, with Float off to the left slightly.

And this time he tries to focus on the staff, and magic that he damn well knows is in him.

Well, for as long as he damn well knows things, he won't really get anywhere, even with the subconsciously soothing influence of the staff.

He tries that for a while, but eventually... Far be it for Terry to stick to something that is obviously not working. The traditional meditation exercise of trying to think about nothing, taking deep, ryhtmic breaths, takes place.

That starts getting him somewhere. It's much easier than he'd expected, too, and he soons falls into a pattern, and starts seeing things behind his closed eyelids...

He doesn't stop the deep breaths. He sort of... Double-thinks, or tries to, deliberately not interpreting the mysterious images on a conscious level. Experience it now. Think about it later.

Then he will successfully continue meditating!

The mysterious images start being much less mysterious: a little ball of sunlight, bright as can be, incredibly and terrifyingly powerful, about the same place he'd expect Cerberus to be; the two cards, floating to either side of him, slowly gaining form in their avatars.

The ball of sunlight (too bright) knocks him out of meditation when he realizes it's in the same place as Cerberus.

"Eesh, that will take some getting used to. You're much shinier while I'm meditating, Cerberus." He checks the time.

He's only been out for like twenty minutes.

"See, I told you this wasn't my true form."

Twenty minutes is longer than it felt like.

He sets an alarm for 9:30. "Gonna try again."

"Okay."

Meditation resumes.

So do the slowly appearing images.

He continues to not really try to interpret them, trying to get... Feelings. Impressions. Being so unanalytical is a challenge, but he's trying.

Ball of sunlight: check.

Avatars of the cards growing in detail: check.

That one's Float. That one's Windy. Cerberus is over there. He doesn't think about this, just knows it.

That is correct! And he gets more details, too.

The Float embodies... gravity. Lack thereof. It has layers of meaning involving control and will, but overall it's a fairly simple and simple-minded card.

The Windy, however... is wind. She is storm and gale and hurricane, she is the summer breeze over the sea, she is a goddess and an animal, she is larger and older than most things. She is looking kindly on Terry, grandmotherly, even, and smiling.

He stays there for a while, absorbing some of the layers of meaning. The wind is big and free and giving and taking.

Then he falls out of it when he tries a little to hard to understand Windy. Something that likely isn't going to really happen for months or years, if ever.

...And he's the cardcaptor, with some sort of strange power over these vast, old things.

It's glorious and terrible. Excited and anxious. He's been thrown into the middle of something big and messy and now it's sink-or-swim. He's damn well going to swim.

He sits there, thinking, for a few minutes, then goes back to meditating. He's seen what Windy and Float are, can he piece together what they want?

Float: doesn't have much in the way of desires.

Windy: seems to... want... something? Related to Terry? Once again that grandmotherly feeling around him. She wants... what's best for him? It's fuzzy and vague, and waiting more time doesn't seem to reveal any further details.

As the cards' attitudes toward him go, 'grandmotherly' is definitely one of the better possibilities.

He stops meditating to eat that second cookie and ask Cerberus, "How do I find the rest of the cards anyway?"

"They will reveal themselves. They won't have travelled very far, and you'll be able to feel them."