Chihiro stared at the textbook in front of her, a bitter smile pasted over her lips. "Langueothe", defined as the longing of a human to return to the world of the Faeran, supposedly eating at their soul until it caused their death. Apparently the spirit world when and where the Celts were around was a more wondrous place than it was in Japan. Chihiro realised she was slipping again and tried to reign in her thoughts before they got the best of her. She continued scribbling notes down on her page about the similarities and differences of the "other world" in different religions, quickly finding it would be easy to complete her essay over the holidays. Despite appearances however, the history of religion course was not the easy way around getting a combined arts diploma at university. Since her return from the spirit world Chihiro had needed a distraction and school had provided it. At first her parents had wondered at her increasing diligence toward her work and her minimal effort toward making friends, but The quickly put it down to the move and thought no more of it. Chihiro's father had been especially pleased to note that the few boys that came to his door asking about Chihiro were received without much interest on her part, he didn't want to loose his little girl. Chihiro's mother had been more active about normalising Chihiro now that she was approaching twenty, hoping new haircuts and fashionable clothes would help her daughter to fit in. Chihiro thought it was a bit too late now for her to worry. Secretly she felt that she would give anything to return to the spirit world.
...
Chihiro happily threw her luggage onto her old bed, comforted by it's familiarity. The room still smelt of mandarins, her favourite fruit. Her mother had placed a bowl of them beside her table. As memories from her childhood came rushing back Chihiro decided to take the old trail through the woods which as a child she had regularly searched, trying to find the entrance to the spirit world.
...
Chihiro looked at the tree. The gap between it's roots was slightly smaller than her and she'd have to squeeze to get through. She could feel the fresh breeze blowing her forward once again and she smiled, recognising the sensation. The air from the human world was just as eager to enter as she was. It took Chihiro a moment to decide, remembering her parents, but she picked up the scent of a lake before her and couldn't help but place one foot in front of the other toward the gap. Even the scent of the spirit world was a thousand times more vivid and brilliant than the mortal world, which was no more than a shadow by comparison. She pressed through the tree roots, compressing her body uncomfortably to fit through the gap. Moments later she hit the ground, unconscious.
...
The woman woke slowly, blinking her eyes in the bright afternoon sunlight. Her hands bunched in the bright green grass as she weakly levered herself up. She felt hollow, like something had been ripped from her, although for the life of her she could not place her finger on what it was. She looked at her hands, uncurling them from the grass they had been entwined in. They were smooth and unscarred, they also seemed delicate and the nails were well trimmed. She ran her hand over her face. The skin there was equally smooth, but it felt unfamiliar. Her hand dropped and she gaped as she looked around her, noting that she was on a grassed island in the centre of a vast, glassy lake, which reflected a brilliantly blue sky and soft white clouds. A small wind circled locally around the island, the balmy breeze stroking her skin and blowing leaves from unseen trees, although it did not disturb the surface of the water. The woman's white knee length cotton dress flapped gently around her knees and the small black cardigan she wore absorbed warmth from the late afternoon sun.
The woman slipped out of her flat black sandals and placed them on the grass before standing and wandering shakily to the water's edge. She bent to take a sip of water and stopped, staring wonderingly at her reflection. She was not beautiful by any means, but her almond shaped chocolate eyes were warm and fringed thickly by her long eyelashes. A few freckles, inherited from her mother's distant European ancestor dotted her nose, not quite made invisible by her tanned skin. Her lips, as she traced them, seemed well shaped and her nose was delicate and small, the way it turned up at the end gave it a cheeky character of it's own. Her face altogether was pleasing, the spirit behind the face seemed delicate, sweet and slightly cheeky, as well as inquisitive. Her hair framed it beautifully, it's slight wave made it seem to flow over her shoulder to almost touch the water, her dark brown fringe was cut straight, but was long enough now to reach her cheekbones, and she had the urge to brush it to one side. She completed the gesture, noting it's familiarity. She did not know her age, but if she had to guess from her appearance she would say late teens to early twenties. She took a sip of water, hoping to ease the stomach cramps that had been sneaking up on her since she awoke.
The woman noticed that a shadow had fallen over her crouched form, and looked to her side in the reflection. Behind her stood a shadowed figure in a mask that was turned up into a happy smile. Recognition tingled, as well as the overwhelming apprehension motivated by her base instincts. She stood and rapidly stepped backward into the water as the figure moved forward, echoing her step. She turned and ran, noting that the water was getting slowly deeper the firther away from the island she ran, however there still seemed to be soft grass between her now bare feet. Suddenly she stopped, feeling the slope beneath her rapidly steepen she backed up slightly, back to a more even surface, figuring she had a better chance of pushing off faster when she had better foot hold. Although the mysterious and unknown depths of the water seemed dangerous, it was the current threat that overwhelmed her.
Suddenly, an earthshaking roar split the sky .The woman turned rapidly, hoping it was not the masked shadow so close behind her. She turned to find something much, much worse. Staring at her over it's shoulder was a dragon. Again, something tingled at the base of her brain but the dragon interrupted her musings with another roar, directed toward the shadow before it. The dragon was a shining black, covered in sleek fur along it's spine a red stripe, slightly longer than the rest of it's hair stood out, at the end of the dragon's body it became a feather shaped red tuft. The dragons face was elongated and doglike and thick black horns sprouted from behind it's skull. The horns curved upward slightly at the end into wicked points. The horns the woman felt for some reason, should have been thinner and rounder than they were, and lighter in colour, although never having seen a dragon before that she could recall, she did not know where this notion came from.
The dragon hissed one last time at the shadow spirit before disappearing entirely, and leaving in it's place a relatively human man. Chihiro stared in awe as the man gestured at the masked spirit and it stood completely still. The woman immediately realised he was using magic. She took a step backward at the realisation, but her eyes were engaged with his form as she examined the toned legs encased in tight black pants, and the firm backside the legs led up to, as well as a set of broad shoulders enshrouded in a black silk shirt that reflected hints of red. His hair, at it's longest was shoulder length, although it was layered in featherlike sections. The lower half of his hair was a deep red and the top was midnight black. The man turned to reveal that the shirt was open and that a few stray pieces of hair hung over his face. Althogh hung was perhaps not the right word. Floated might be more correct the woman mused, also noting his noble, strongly chiselled features and ember bright orange eyes which were, at this moment, lit with fey amusement. His smooth voice interrupted her musings.
"After standing still for so long, I am quite curious about the results of your examination." The woman blushed, moistening her lips slightly.
"I…" she paused to gain control of her voice "I cannot remember ever having seen your like" He laughed lightly, knowing that like every other human that wandered into the spirit realm not during the equinox the gate she had used would have stolen her memory. Her scent told him indubitably that she was human, although the stench of the human world had her own sweet undertone of mandarin. The woman took a step forward, feeling awkward speaking to someone at such a distance. The stranger raised an eyebrow at the action. Most humans were awed by his very presence or believed they were delusional, and either ran or pleaded with him pathetically. Instead the human offered him her hand quite happily
"I do not know my name, but it is nice to meet you sir. Do you have a name?" Here the shadow spirit excitedly spoke up before the stranger tightened his spell on it.
"Uh uh uh!" The masked spirit seemed desperate to talk, the woman almost felt sorry for it however the stranger seemed unconcerned.
"You are a bold little bird for sure. I am Ban Asahi, dragon spirit of the Asahi volcano."