Preface
Chihiro new she was dreaming because she was looking at a 5 year old version of herself. The child was sitting on a rock that hung over a flowing river and kicking her little pink shoes back and forth over the foaming water. After watching the scene for awhile Chihiro realized why the dream seemed familiar. It was a memory. A very precise memory of the day she had fallen into the Kohaku River. Her heart started beating faster as she whispered the name. She watched herself, the happy little child oblivious to what was about to happen, as one of the little pink shoes went flying off of her foot and landed with a tiny splash in the river. Her 5 year old self gave a shout of dismay and scrambled off the rock to chase the escaping shoe. When she came to a log over the river she scrambled up it and hung over the water trying to grab the shoe's strap as it floated by. Chihiro shouted to the girl but her voice was nonexistent in the dream. The child overextended and toppled head first into the current. Chihiro ran to the river and tried to follow the girl's path through the water. Her parents seemed to have realized what had happened and they were racing after her. The little shoe had gotten caught on a dangling branch and her father pulled it off gently. He stood looking at it in shock but Chihiro wasn't going to wait, she was running with all her might. Strange that she already knew what happened but was still fearful for the child's life. She rounded a bend and stopped in shock. This she hadn't expected. He was carrying her. She mouthed his name, Haku. The river spirit looked only slightly younger than she remembered but it was definitely him. The boy she had officially met 6 years ago on her accidental imprisonment in the spirit world. He was cradling the unconscious 5 year old in his arms and as she watched he whispered something in her ear before gently laying her on the shore and disappearing back into the water just as her parents arrived and roused her. Chihiro stared after him in the river hoping maybe he would appear again, but she didn't even see a glimmer of movement apart from the water which continued to flow as if nothing had happened. An exclamation from her parents made Chihiro look back at the family and she was surprised to see the little girl standing by the water waving her arms and shouting.
"Thank you Kohaku River Spirit for saving my life! My name's Chihiro! I hope we meet again someday!"
Chihiro couldn't help but start laughing like her parents were doing as they scooped the little girl up and walked away from the river back along the trail to the town. Chihiro was going to follow but then a flicker of movement at the edge of her vision caught her attention and she whirled to see Haku sitting on a rock right beside her.
"Goodbye Chihiro." He whispered, "I won't forget you, my Koru-ta."
Chihiro caught her breath at his nearness and would have reached out to touch him but the dream was starting to fade taking him with it.
"No" she moaned trying to hold onto it. "No"
But she couldn't stop the memory from fading around her anymore than she could stop the river from carrying her along its way 11 years ago.
My first fanfic on here so please rate and review