Chapter The First

In which Chihiro stumbles upon a new place

I hate change. It's part of my nature, to hate things that don't fit the status quo. And moving house is definitely a change, wouldn't you think? I had just established a few friends back at my old house, but suddenly my dad gets a promotion and we have to up and leave. It's not really fair, is it? I mean, now I'm going to this whole new environment, make new friends, go to a new school. Everything that I was once used to is suddenly pulled from my grasp… It's awful, I think. I ignore my mother's comments on how I'll learn to love it here and turn towards the window, just in time to see a large, grey building pass by. By the sign out the front, it's my new school… And I hate the look of it. It looks more like a prison to me, besides the apparent lush and beautiful garden, and children playing soccer.

It doesn't have my tree. I know it sounds silly, but I used to go and sit beneath this old tree with twisted trunk and mottled roots. Beneath the greenest leaves you've ever seen was a little twisting creek that attracted the birds. I used to feed them crumbs left from my lunch, and watch them twitter amongst themselves… This place had no tree, and I was all alone.

Dad turned down a little dirt track, saying something about wrongs turns and houses, and took no regard for the laws of physics or common sense, when he barrelled down the track a hundred miles an hour. It was an experience driving with my dad in the car; one never knew whether one would survive. So I closed my eyes steadfast and hoped against hope I wouldn't become a road kill statistic.

The tunnel howled its misgivings as I walked, clinging to my mother as though she were a human shaped lifeline. Yes, I will admit I was scared. I was always scared, if you think about it. The smallest spider would send me howling for help like there were no tomorrow. But for some reason, I found myself actually entering this dreaded tunnel and following, though unwillingly, behind my parents. I took a moment to ponder my sanity in all this, and then turned back to the situation at hand. Dad had found the end of the tunnel, it seemed, so mother hurried after him into the dusty, dank little room.

"It's a... train station?" I said, hearing, dancing along my consciousness, that familiar rattling of a train. I found it odd that we should stumble across such public transport in what appeared to be a remote place. I hadn't noticed any tracks on our drive over, so…

Just outside the arches was what appeared a beautiful field of dazzling green grass. It waved at us, I imagine. The wind caught the dry blades of grass and the ripples bade a cheery hello. I managed a small wave back, just for the sake of it. I couldn't help but think that this place was strange… Different. With a nervous start, I realised Pa was heading over a small hill towards what appeared to be a town. "Something smells good" he said, then disappeared over the crown and out of my sight. Naturally, I wasn't too happy about having to go into a freaky little town, but seeing my mother was following him, I didn't appear to have much choice other than to follow them.

The place was full of restaurants, interestingly. It wasn't too common to see so many of these in conjunction as business had large amounts of competition. Even more interestingly, they didn't appear to be open… Except one at the end. The steam from cooking billowed up before disappearing gracefully into the atmosphere, almost heeding danger ahead. Why I thought this, I am still yet to discover, but I do have a few inklings. The smell of the obviously tender morsels was delicious, admittedly, yet there was something not right with it. Perhaps I was just being paranoid, but somehow I knew that that food was not meant for us.

I didn't want to eat it.

While my parents were inhaling their food in the most disgusting manner, I found my feet wondering up a long set of stairs, finding myself at the foot of a wide expanse of a bridge that crossed a chasm of great proportions. As I found not a few seconds later, said chasm fell to an end with a little river.

An echo of a train's whistle startled me out of my reverie where I leaned over the side of the bridge, and I looked down to spot a train. The steam trailed after it, making it appear all the more mysterious… it chuffed beneath the bridge and I turned to follow it, and stopped in my tracks.

There was a boy around my age.

I must say, he is the cutest 16-year-old guy I've seen.

((A/N: Did you all pick up on that little tid-bit at the end? Yes, that's right. Chihiro and Haku are 16.

Ima leave this in hiatus for a LOOOONG time, so I suggest you come back in a month or so and flame me with grammatically incorrect insults because I haven't updated soon enough. Or you can ask politely, either way. While you're at it, check out my DA: Riften (.) Deviantart (.) com.

This was just a muse I wrote on a whim, so I can't even promise I'll go ahead with it. In addition, I have a hell of a lot going on at the moment, so I can hardly find the time to do something so simple as post this.

Oh, by the way, if anyone decides to flame me, go right ahead!! I love flames. I have a folder of them that I carry around and show people. You know, just to show everyone how many people there are out there that need to get a life. .

Have fun!!

"Drifter" (As dubbed by a friend)