So, like my story Polaris Wild, this is a story written primarily because of a cosplay my friends and I have put together for CONvergence 2016 in Bloomington MN. If you look at my blog (search for "Clantoren" and it's that) you can see my whole headcanon of a Miyazaki chronology like The Pixar Theory. This plays into that.

Also, in the cosplay, I'm Nausicaa because SHE IS AWESOME.

See you at CONvergence!

Enjoy!

Two figures looked over the hurricane rolling in on the city.

"You don't have to come with me."

"Of course not. But I'm just as worried as you are."

"You never knew her."

"I know you. Isn't that enough?"

"Very well. And thank you."

"Don't worry about it. Besides, I don't have any pressing business elsewhere and I've missed the storms."

-==OOO==-

Kiki was crying, but it was raining too hard to feel it.

I shouldn't have come. This storm is too dangerous!

But Tombo…

The howling winds suddenly swept across her and Kiki felt her skin break and bleed as she fought to hold onto her faithful broom. It had served her ever since she had saved Tombo the first time when he was hanging from a zeppelin. It had endured hard landings, yet more encounters with birds, and eight years of her delivery service.

The broom shuddered as more of its straw was torn away.

If I lose any more, I might not be able to keep us up.

Jiji, you were right. I'm so sorry. I hope Osono will take care of you.

The wind and rain stung in the cut that spanned Kiki's wrist. Jiji, desperate to stop her, had actually raked his claws across her. But once she had read the cards - though her Tarot was nowhere near as reliable as her flying - not even the hurricane above could have stopped her.

Accident. Calamity. And Death - not the Death that means change, but the Tower. And all of it centered on Tombo.

Because Tombo was out in this storm somewhere. She had been tracking his journey for a week, had read the cards as he switched from a zeppelin to a boat. A boat, the cards were sure, whose radio had gone dark. A boat whose captain had no way of knowing the magnitude of the storm that was bearing down on them at a speed that baffled even the experts.

A boat which was now helpless in the storm.

I'm going to find him. I'm going to find him or die trying.

The storm grew darker and stronger around her. Lightning flashed and the rain became hail, pounding and painful on her skin even through the coat.

The clouds pounded around her and in the chaos she saw shapes. Faces. Places and things she had never imagined. The storm became a living tapestry of visions.

Tiny white creatures.

A world at war in the sky.

Creatures of all shapes and sizes, fuzzy or strange, that grew distorted into behemoth monsters living in an even more alien land.

Kiki shivered and tried to block out the images. I have to focus. I have to figure out how to find the boat in all this! I have to save Tombo!

And then there was a frisson of lightning, the broom shattered, and Kiki fell out of the sky with a scream.

-==OOO==-

Tombo coughed salt water. I'm going to die here.

There wasn't nearly as much terror as there should have been behind that thought. But for one who had made a lifetime study of flight using things built by kids his own age - and when not actually magical like Kiki - fear had long since lost its power over him. If he had let terror cloud his thinking, he wouldn't have made it to sixteen years old, let alone twenty-three.

Instead, his heart swamped with the boat in sorrow. I'll never see her again.

I never should have gone. But...I wanted her to have something special.

Now I'll never even get to give it to her.

A huge wave crashed and Tombo almost lost his grip. He'd been flung from his ship - a bath-toy compared to his raging storm - and had only survived this far because one of the casks of water had been knocked loose at the same time. It was far too big for him to get his arms all the way around, and it bobbed like a cork so he couldn't sit on it. But he held on anyway - it was big enough to keep his head above water if he kept his hold.

However, the winds and water seemed to be drawing him ever closer to the worst of the storm, and no amount of Tombo's feeble kicking could keep him from being caught in the whirlpool of force.

A blinding, deafening crash surprised Tombo so much that he dropped the cask and clapped his hands over his ears. His heart pounded and jumped erratically.

The sea just got hit by lightning! That was almost on top of me!

He forced his limbs to coordinate so he could fight the waves to grab the cask before it got too far away. But his fingers ached as he closed them around the narrow edge of wood.

I don't know how much longer I can do this.

But he couldn't give up.

Kiki's waiting for me. I can't...I can't leave her!

He remembered all those years ago how she had saved his life when he fell from the airship.

She came out of nowhere, just like I had summoned her.

I wish she would do that now.

Except...I don't want her anywhere near this storm.

I would rather sink right here and now than risk her life out here.

And then there was another crash but this time the cask burned and shattered and Tombo fell back into the unforgiving sea with a cry that was quickly stuffed back down his lungs as water rushed into his mouth and throat.

I'm going to die. Kiki! Kiki! I'm so sorry!

And then a hand wrapped around his collar and pulled.

-==OOO==-

Kiki flailed in the air, falling sideways as much as down, until she felt something curl around her, something warm and soft and steady.

"Hold on, Kiki," came a voice right by her ear.

Kiki could barely see in the rain and wind and hail, so she clamped her eyes closed and latched her hands onto whatever she could feel.

Hand rails, like on an airship's viewing deck? No, that's not right. They're smooth...and tapered. And curved.

"We're almost above it. Just a little more."

"Wait! Tombo! I have to save Tombo!"

Galvanized by fear and determination, Kiki pushed her eyes open against the wind and blinked.

And blinked again.

"Are you…?"

"I'm a friend."

"But...you're a dragon!"

"Not exactly."

It was then that Kiki realized the voice she was hearing was not right next to her, but rather was inside her.

"You're speaking in my mind!"

"No. But your magic allows you to hear me in this form more easily than most others. This is good, as I must spend most of my energy battling this storm."

Kiki shook her head. "We have to go save Tombo. He's out here somewhere!"

The dragon beneath her snorted. His body was long and serpentine, with a crest the color of the sea in the shallows at dawn. His face was more wolf-like than reptilian, but there was no denying the presence of the starlight-colored scales that covered his body. Kiki was holding onto his horns positioned up and away from his face.

"Your friend will be fine. Right now, I have to get you to safety."

"But!"

The dragon snorted again. "You'll see him as soon as we get clear of the storm."

"How do you know he's okay?"

"Because someone I trust is with him."

-==OOO==-

Tombo coughed and sputtered and the hail that was falling with the rain was not helping his attempt to breathe air instead of water.

"We need to get into the sky," came the voice of his rescuer. "I can fly us there, but I need you to hold on. Can you do that?"

Tombo blinked salt water from his eyes and tried to focus on her. His glasses were long gone to the bottom of the sea and the storm made it dark, but he could see a warm smile.

"Hold onto what?"

He felt more than saw her huff of laughter. "What do you think you're sitting on?"

"Uh…" Tombo blinked. "A pontoon?" he guessed, given the shape and feel of the solid form keeping him out of the water.

"Not really," she said. Then she touched his cold hands with her own which were warm and guided them to a pair of thin rails that stuck up and outward. "Lie on your stomach and hold onto these with all your strength. I'll do the rest."

Tombo wanted to ask more questions than he could count, but he was also cold and half-drowned and any help was better than no help.

As he got into position, he glanced up, realizing the mysterious woman had arranged herself above him, parallel to his position. "Are you a witch?"

"That's a very complicated question. Ask me again later, when we're safe." She shifted so she was directly over his head. "Now, don't let go."

Tombo felt the push downward and then suddenly they were in the air, racing faster than anything he'd ever flown before, even faster than Kiki's broom.

The wind ripped at him, but Tombo was strong from years of supporting his own weight in his flying machines and the rails were far easier to hold onto than the cask had been. A moment of sideways pressure and then they changed direction, moving straight upwards and letting the wind buffer the bottom of whatever flying machine he was riding.

Tombo didn't dare look down, not because he was afraid, but because he didn't want to shift any weight. His feet were hanging free over the storm below and the woman piloting was in an even more precarious position.

But as they started to rise above the worst of the storm, Tombo began to laugh. He couldn't help it. It was the same exhilarated, frightened, helpless laugh he had shared with Kiki on the back of his bike when they had first met.

To his surprise, the woman started to laugh, too.

"I'm glad you're not scared!" she called to him.

Tombo shook his head and blinked water from his eyes. "Not a chance! I love flying!"

"I can see that!" She paused for a moment. "I think you have Wind blood after all!"

"Wind what?"

She didn't answer, Instead, he felt the flying machine shift as she gathered her muscles as if to spring.

"Let's find out!"

"Find out what?"

Before she could answer, the mysterious woman turned them hard to the side and they went swirling in the storm like a feather, just as light and easily buffeted.

For a moment Tombo thought he might be sick.

And then he caught the scent of the wind and the wheeling power of the air and all fear vanished.

They were no longer fleeing the storm.

They were dancing with it.

-==OOO==-

Kiki sat, no longer clinging so tightly to the dragon's horns without the wind digging at her. The hurricane below swirled like a monster devouring the entire coast. But up so high, the stars were clear and bright and there was only the thin wind whose pressure was constant and familiar.

"Are you sure Tombo and your friend will be okay?" Kiki asked after a moment. "I don't mean to be rude, but…"

The dragon huffed. "You're not rude. But don't worry. They'll be fine. I've known my friend for a long time."

"You must like this friend very much," Kiki said then.

"What makes you say that?"

"You sound very happy when you talk about whoever it is."

"Oh." The dragon gave a low sound almost like a purr. "She has been very good company for me."

"Is she a dragon, too?"

"No."

"Is she...whatever you are if you aren't a dragon?"

"No. She's something else. Something that never existed before her." The purr deepened. "Don't worry, Kiki. She is at home in the worst storm the way you are on your broom. She's probably just enjoying herself. And if she has time to do that, then Tombo must be having fun as well."

Kiki laughed. "He likes flying more than I do, but he has to work harder for it, so I guess that's why."

Then she stopped and considered. "You know my name."

"Yes."

"How? I've never met you, have I?"

"No. But I know your name. I've known yours and your mother's and her mother's back farther than you can imagine."

"Why?"

The dragon gave a sigh. "Curious and determined. You do remind me of her."

"Of who?"

"Close your eyes and I will show you."

Kiki did so. And suddenly in her mind was a girl about her age when she left home for training, but wearing strangely traditional, foreign clothing. The girl wore her brown hair pulled back and stood proudly on a red bridge before a grand house whose tiled roofs turned up at the end.

"Who is she?" Kiki asked. "And what was that place?"

"That was where she saved me," the dragon said. "And she...wait." He turned a little in midair. "There they are."

Kiki couldn't see them at first, but then a white shape that reminded her of a bird's wing more than anything else burst from the storm and turned to head their way. Kiki saw two passengers on board - a woman and Tombo.

"Tombo! Are you all right?" It took all Kiki's will not to fling herself from the dragon's back. But without a broom, that would just cause trouble all over again.

"Kiki!" Tombo called. "Is that a dragon?"

The woman with him steered the strange craft to hover beside Kiki and her rescuer. "Let's go somewhere we can sit down and get you two dried off," she said.

Kiki had forgotten she was wet until this moment and shivered. Across from her, Tombo sneezed.

The dragon glanced to his friend and dipped his head for a moment before he set off to lead the way across the sky.

-==OOO==-

They landed high on a distant cliff overlooking the sea. The dragon dropped his belly to the ground for Kiki to climb off before he vanished in a sudden burst of starlit scales.

"Don't worry," came the woman's voice as she touched down her flying machine and shifted so Tombo could disembark. "He's fine. It's just easier for him to talk the other way."

Kiki wanted to know what that meant, wanted to watch the dragon, but Tombo was there, wet and cold and alive and she started to cry and crashed into him, wrapping her arms around him with all her strength.

"I was so scared," she whispered. She dropped her forehead to his shoulder and shuddered.

"I was scared, too," Tombo said, stroking her wet hair. "I was scared you'd come after me."

"Of course I'd come after you!" And there was fire in her words as she pulled back enough to meet his eyes. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt," he said. "It didn't matter what happened to me if you were okay, Kiki."

Her face flushed and she looked as puffed up and angry as she had as a girl. "I wouldn't be okay if you drowned!"

"I didn't. She rescued me." Tombo managed to get an arm around Kiki and turned. "Thank you."

The woman had retreated towards the woods where the trees offered some cover from the wind and rain that were the edges of the far-off storm. She waved them over and between when they obeyed and when they reached her she had lit a small fire sheltered by a large stone.

"My name is Nausicaa," she said, smiling at them. "Please wait a moment while I make a shelter. You'll feel better once you get warm and dry again."

She strode over to the nearest tree and lithely ascended it, climbing out onto a long branch thick with leaves. She leaned on it until it bent, sheltering the area around the fire from both wind and rain, and jumped down while hanging onto it. From a pocket she drew a sturdy rope and she lashed the branch down by stringing it to the trunk of another tree. It created a good shield and between that and the large rock, the space by the fire was becoming downright cozy.

Then she looked over them. "You both have eyes the size of an Ohm's. Try to relax. You're safe now."

Tombo's questions exploded out of him, surprising them all. "What sort of flying machine is that? How does it work? I didn't see any propellers and it's clearly not using helium. How did you find me? And was that really a dragon?"

"No," came a low voice.

Kiki blinked. "Are you the dragon?"

"I'm not a dragon. I'm a river spirit. You can call me Haku."

Kiki separated herself from Tombo and bowed to him. "Thank you for saving me, Haku." Then she straightened. "I've never met a river spirit before. I didn't think there were any spirits left."

"There are always spirits," Nausicaa said. "Though they sometimes change shape."

"As for how we knew to find you," Haku said, and he stared at Kiki hungrily for a moment before the expression faded and he shook his head as if at himself, "there are some people we can always find."

"You said you knew my mother," Kiki said. Then she shivered hard enough that Tombo threw his arms around her as if she would lose her balance.

"Come on," Nausicaa reached out and guided the pair of them closer to the fire. She gently helped them to the ground. "You'll never get answers if your teeth chatter too much to hear them."

Haku crouched down before them. He looked first at Tombo, then Kiki. "Do you trust me?"

Kiki nodded at once.

Tombo frowned, looked at the girl in his arms, and dipped his head.

Haku stretched out a hand to each of them. A soft, yellow glow fell over them and in the space between one instant and the next they were both completely dry.

Kiki's shivering stopped at once and she blinked. "Spirits can do magic? Could you teach me?"

Haku shook his head. "You have the magic, but not the time. It would take you longer to learn than you can spare."

Tombo was about to ask about that but stopped as there was a faint thump to the side. He turned to see Nausicaa arranging her flying machine on the other side of the fire and inspecting it.

Totally distracted, Tombo almost dropped Kiki in his excitement to get a closer look.

"Wow. I've never seen anything like it."

Nausicaa smiled. "You wouldn't. It's older than you can believe. They haven't made gliders this way for a long, long time."

Tombo squinted and shoved his face closer so he could see more clearly without his glasses. "What's it made of?"

"The last Ohm shell."

"What's an Ohm?"

Nausicaa shook her head, her smile sinking to something bittersweet. "Something long gone from the world. Changed, as everything changes. Almost everything."

Tombo looked more closely at her. She had the face of someone a few, even several years his junior, but her eyes were deep, timeless, like endless rings inside an ancient tree.

"How old are you?" he asked suddenly.

There was a shriek and Kiki then was beside him, grabbing his head and covering his mouth the way she might toss Jiji around when the cat was in trouble.

"Don't ask her that!" she said with deep indignance. "Never ask a girl that question!"

"Okay...sorry!" he managed.

And then Nausicaa was laughing, full and honest, and Kiki released Tombo and laughed with her. Tombo looked over to see Haku smiling at them.

"It was rather rude," Haku told him.

-==OOO==-

In spite of their intense curiosity, both Tombo and Kiki fell asleep long before they managed to get their questions answered. Later, Kiki would wonder if it was more magic; when Nausicaa began to sing something gentle and Haku smoothed out the ground with a gesture, neither she nor Tombo seemed able to resist the exhaustion that claimed them.

She woke just as the false dawn was beginning to light the sky.

Kiki sat up, careful not to disturb Tombo.

"Kiki."

She turned to see Nausicaa sitting beside her glider.

"Good morning."

Nausicaa smiled. "Good morning Kiki." Then she gestured. "He wants to talk to you. He wants you to understand."

Around the bent tree branch, Kiki could see Haku standing in his human form at the edge of the cliff looking over the pre-dawn sea.

Kiki frowned. "Are you a spirit, like him? Is that why he said he's known you such a long time?"

Nausicaa shook her head. "No. But I'm also not human anymore, either. A long, long time ago, so long your people have almost forgotten it, I died. I was saved by some creatures who were...connected to the spirits of the forest. There were so many of them and they were so strong. They healed me, and they left a part of themselves behind."

Nausicaa's eyes turned to the sky and seemed to stare far, far away. "I met Haku when my world was ending and yours was beginning. He was like me. He can't go home, and he's not like anyone else now. But where I was a human who became what I am because of spirits, Haku was a spirit who became what he is because of a human."

"That's who he was talking about, the girl he showed me," Kiki said.

Nausicaa nodded. "Yes. Go now and talk to him. Please." She smiled a little sadly. "He misses her and maybe you can ease it where nothing else can."

Kiki nodded and rose, brushing some dirt from her black dress before she moved towards the distant figure.

A moment later, Tombo shot upright. "Kiki!"

Nausicaa gestured to him and shook her head. "Hush. Don't interrupt them."

Tombo leaned almost into the fire's ashes so he could see Kiki approaching Haku. "Oh."

"And don't worry." Nausicaa chuckled. "What Haku feels for Kiki isn't what you feel for her, or what she feels for you."

Tombo blushed dark red. "I...uh...what do you...uh…"

"It's all right. I understand. There was someone once...long ago."

Tombo caught the sadness that fell over her and his embarrassment vanished. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Nausicaa shook her head. "Death is a part of living and should always be respected. The cycles of creation and destruction maintain a balance that is necessary for all life. I loved Asbel very much, but the winds carried him from me. The winds need me here, though, or I would have tried to follow him long ago."

"The winds?" Tombo asked. "You said something about that last night."

"No, I said you might have blood of the Wind. My people. It doesn't matter how many thousands of years pass - the blood of the Wind always finds a way to breed true."

"Your people? Thousands of years?" Tombo's eyes went huge.

Nausicaa's smile was warm again and the edge of sorrow had gone. "Let me tell you about it. About a world before this world, where the seeds of hope were only just beginning to grow."

-==OOO==-

"Um, good morning Haku."

"Good morning, Kiki." Haku smiled at her. "I'm very glad I got to meet you."

"Nausicaa said you wanted to tell me. About that girl."

Haku nodded. "Her name was Chihiro. I saved her life, and she saved my soul."

Kiki could see the clear affection in his face as he remembered, the warmth of his feelings for the human he had shown her.

"Chihiro gave me something very few of my kind had - she remembered my name. Without a name, even the most powerful spirits and gods can lose themselves, can become corrupted. But Chihiro remembered mine and helped me anchor myself against being diluted again. So when the days of fire came, I survived. My river had already been destroyed, but I had my name to keep me from being lost with it."

"She must have been very special," Kiki said. "I can see it when you talk about her."

Haku nodded. "She was brave and honest with her feelings. I watched over her for most of her life, and then her daughter's life. And then her granddaughter's life and her son's and his daughters' until the days of fire that destroyed everything and left a broken world for a thousand years. My people, the other spirits whose names were lost to the fire, bound themselves to a toxic jungle to survive. And when that at last retreated, they emerged forever changed."

"Changed how?"

"Some became almost human but with magic, like the witches of your family. Others became demons and monsters. A few found their way back to their true forms. Some just dissolved into the land making it powerful, infusing their very being into its stones."

Haku's eyes shifted to the horizon where the sun had almost risen. "Of all my people, I might be the only one who remembers the world before the fire. And who remembers being a spirit of the old world instead of something else in this new world."

Kiki's own eyes were wet. "I'm...I'm so sorry. You must have been so lonely."

Haku smiled softly. "Yes, sometimes. But Nausicaa understands. She is not as old as I, but she has seen more, in her way. And...I had Chihiro's family."

Kiki blinked.

"But...the fire?"

"I should have known Chihiro's soul would be too strong, that her courage would endure in all her descendents. I found her bloodline again, still stubborn and true. I don't spend as much time watching over them anymore, but I never lose them."

"Why don't you watch?" Kiki asked, a little breathless.

"There are so many of my people who are lost in themselves, and so many things to protect in this world. Nausicaa swore never to let the world return to those days of fire, and together we have tried to guard the peace of this second chance given to your people. And sometimes we can help a spirit who has lost its way as Chihiro helped me."

Kiki opened her hands and offered them to Haku. "It's me, isn't it? Chihiro's descendent?"

Haku took her hands and held them. "Yes. You have her same spirit even though you are nothing alike. But you are loyal and you hold a mysterious power inside you that can overcome anything."

"That's why you came for me," Kiki said. "To protect me."

Haku nodded. "As I always will when you are in danger beyond your ability to manage. But," and his eyes twinkled, "I have many years of experience knowing better than you yourself what you can endure. I will never let you suffer, but I will not keep you from learning how strong you truly are."

Suddenly Kiki had a thought. "Did you ever tell this to my mother? She never said anything about you."

"No," Haku shook his head and his hair swayed gently in the breeze. "She never tried to fly through a hurricane."

Kiki blushed. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right. I'm glad I got to talk to you. You remind me of her...so much."

The sun rose above the horizon and the golden light streamed over them. Kiki looked at it in surprise.

"The storm is gone. I thought it would last longer."

"Even a hurricane can't withstand the power of a girl trying to save someone she loves," Haku said.

-==OOO==-

Nausicaa and Haku carried Kiki and Tombo back to the city, the pair safe on Haku's draconic back after Nausicaa wouldn't let Tombo try her glider on his own and he couldn't seem to ride it without wiggling to examine it. Unseen, they set them down in the clear area behind Osono's bakery.

"Maybe I'll teach you to fly next time," Nausicaa told Tombo. Then she leaned close to his ear and whispered, "It'll be a wedding present, child of my people."

Tombo went bright red and coughed to try to cover it.

Then one of Haku's feelers tangled around his wrist and at last Tombo could hear Haku's dragon voice in his mind.

"Kiki loves you very much and I can see in your heart that you love her as well. You have my blessing."

Tombo swallowed a lump in his throat and cautiously replied in his mind, "I lost the ring in the sea."

"When you ask her, you will find one waiting."

As they returned to the air, Kiki called out, "I'll see you again, right?"

Nausicaa laughed. "You'll be sick of us. Besides, I have a promise to keep."

Haku purred and spoke into her mind. "I will never be far, Kiki."

-==OOO==-

One week later, Tombo asked Nausicaa to join him for a picnic at sunset on the bluffs overlooking the sea. He was nervous and fidgety throughout the entire meal, but just as the sun cast a glorious riot of color across the sky, Tombo drew Kiki to her feet so he could drop to his knees.

"I never told you why I went on that trip," he said, holding her hands. "I wanted to find you the perfect ring for this moment, but I lost it."

Kiki's eyes filled with tears. "All that, for something so silly? I don't care about a ring, Tombo."

"I know," he ducked his head. "But I must still ask." He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Will you marry me?"

Kiki laughed, bright and delighted. "Of course I will!"

Tombo intended to leap to his feet to kiss her, but was stopped by a flash of light.

And suddenly something hovered where his hands were clasped upon hers.

It was a tiny ring, neither gold nor silver but something the color of starlight. The stone was a clear, vibrant blue with swirls the sea-teal color of a familiar mane.

Tombo took it out of the air and glanced upward, though he could not see either of them. "Thank you." He slipped it on Kiki's finger and then rose to take her in his arms.

-==OOO==-

"Are you ready?" Nausicaa asked.

"Almost." Then, "I didn't tell her my true name yet."

"There's time," Nausicaa said. "We'll see them again. I want to teach Tombo to fly. And their children."

"You are going to cause me generations of trouble if you unleash the Wind and combine it with Chihiro's courage."

"Cause us trouble, my friend." Nausicaa put a gentle hand out and let him take it in a grip that looked human and felt like river stones. "But I think it is time for the Wind to come alive again, and there is no one who would love it more than those two and all who come after them."

He was silent for a long moment before he asked in a small voice, "Please?"

"Nigihayami Kohakunushi," Nausicaa said without hesitation. "You are still Kohaku. Now and forever."

At last Kohaku smiled. "As long as I have you to remind me."

"Well, apparently I'll always be here," she smiled back. "Come on. The winds are calling."

And they threw themselves into the eternal sky.