Musings of a River

Inspired Originally by Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"

Author: LadyRainStarDragon

My Life Is Someone's Novel

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Note: Yes, the novel discussed is real. Check out my profile. I just couldn't resist this existential idea... At least it isn't more of the evil lemons that squirt acid in your eyes and burn your throat if it's already raw from a cold.

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The fire crackled in the wood heater, the kotatsu indeed reminding the dragons of a rather small dragon as the crimson leaves draped off of the trees in the crisp autumn night's air. The pine of the shrine home spoke softly of the years it had seen, and of the years it would see if granted the beneficence of the river kami to prevent high floods.

Nigihayami Kohakunushi turned another page in the novel that he was reading, some new thing from America that had arrived in the mail that day about a pair of oddly familiar lovers. His emerald green eyes took on a thoughtful depth as he read the page, and then looked up at his friend, his dark hair caught back for once so that it would stop curtaining around him.

The form sitting across the kotatsu was reading a copy of his own, blushing a deep magenta and running his fingers nervously through his short and unkempt obsidian dark hair. The chocolate eyes had taken on a muddy cast as the two had progressed further through the book.

"My life is a novel!"

Haku did his best to contain his mirth, but failed. The laughter spilled out of him like water spilled out of Ten's spring to feed his river, but muffled by stuffing his billowing sleeves in his mouth to keep his sleeping mate from being disturbed.

"It's not funny Haku!"

"Wasn't it Chihiro that was always complaining that her life was a soap opera? Now you are going to complain that yours in a novel?"

Ryu held up the book, pointing at the romantic moment captured forever on the green cover, his hair nearly writhing in his distress.

"You don't find it disturbing that some woman has either been spying on my mate and I, or somehow is causing all of the tragedies in my life... like what happened two years ago? What about that anime that featured you and Chihiro?"

"Your point?"

Ryu opened the book, nearly ripping it apart in his frustration, his finger falling onto the page.

"Look, I never knew that was how Obisdian died, or at least that Big Foot was his friend and was there when it happened! Or that the Queso moron came over here on the same plane BlowingWind did. How does this woman know this? And she didn't even change our names!"

Haku sighed, and closed his copy. Drawing something out of one sleeve, he brandished it like it was a gohei, or streamer bedecked wand for a cleansing ceremony.

"At least you weren't sent a Chihiro plushie, and you don't get fifty love letters a day from women and young girls that you have never and will never meet. I will NEVER use my young form again. At least you have been getting letters calling you a scaly coyote, although some of my hate mail has called me perverted and obsessive. I'm not human, age means little to me, and somehow some people take that to mean I was sexually attracted to a child. NOOOOOO! That started when she became fertile, and when we were young she would have been fair game and I could have been spared all that guilt! At least people don't watch you over and over again and drool over you."

A knock sounded at the front door, and then the visitor let himself in before either of the spirits could get up to approach the door. Yet another Japanese dragon pretending to be human entered the room, closing the door against the night.

"Ryu... did you actually do that while she was unconscious? I knew you were serious about taking care of every need of anyone you are caring for, but wow. It's not as bad as you think at first since it's a necessary thing at that stage... but I'm surprised you survived as long as you did after."

Ryu threw his book at Ten while Haku stifled more laughter.

"Ryu, you know that somewhere out there, eyes are reading this right now."

Ten grinned where he was now hiding behind the caught book.

"So what does that mean about your little mating with innocent Chihiro? You won't believe what I've managed to dig up on fanfiction about the two of you. It looks like you were on AFF also, but some problems ate those. Too bad, those were my favorite versions, even if only for some friendly blackmail."

Haku dropped his copy of "Dragon Shaman" in surprise.

"You have got to be joking. My life is not only caught in anime, but thousands of people out there are writing fan fiction based on my life?"

"I'd say a bit more than that. This mystery woman seems to either be a dragon herself, has bribed cat and others close to us for information, or is somehow very close to us right now, writing down everything that we say."

"How is this person doing this?"

Haku drifted over to a window and looked out into the night, gazing up at the stars through the glass as the trees began to dance in the wind. Reaching out with his senses, he could feel many eyes. Out of these some were stronger than others, perhaps those were the fan fiction writers. Others were a weaker presence, only readers.

"Remember that talk we had about alternate realities, parallel dimensions, concurrent incarnations, and the like?"

Haku continued looking out the window as he spoke.

"What if we, and all we think is real, is just a product of someone's imagination? What if we aren't real at all? Or what if all these people are writing things that they think are just stories, but they are really dreaming of us, and that is where they get their ideas from?"