Hey!

I already got 2 follows and an awesome review! Woohoo!

Roshini: I posted a reply at the bottom, hope you see it ^^

Anyway here's chapter 2. I decided to keep the chapters fairly short (like 2,000 words or a bit less) and post more chapters more often.

…..

After meeting that weird guy, Hisashi, and thoroughly freaking Chihiro out, she had stayed in the house, not leaving at all. So maybe he had scared her, and maybe she had stopped painting for the remainder of the week, but that wasn't a big deal.

Though, ever since that guy spoke to her, she had been feeling a stronger pull to the Kohaku River. It got stronger every day. It was like it knew someone was trying to keep her away, and it desperately wanted her to go to it. But she just couldn't. To distract herself from the pull she had made the house nearly spotless, moved the furniture around once or twice, gained a few pounds from stuffing herself boredly, and nearly watched her share of TV for a year.

After a week, she had nothing to do. If she continued stuffing herself and sleeping, she make herself fat and sick. And she would need to go shopping again. That was a no thanks for her. And anyway, she couldn't ignore the pull of the river much longer, especially after her dream the night before.

…

Chihiro woke to a clear blue a wet, cold feeling. She immediately knew she was dreaming, but where was she? Concentrating on her senses, she could feel herself standing on soft, almost clay-like sand, with some sharp rocks mixed in. Concentrating further, she could see small, brightly coloured fish swimming around joyfully, and equally bright coral on the sea bed.

She knew where she was. There was no mistaking it.

She was in the Kohaku River, and it felt too realistic to be a dream.

Chihiro let out a gasp and began to panic, even though she knew that was a horrible thing to do. Her throat began to burn as the fish began to notice her and quickly swim away. Her lungs screamed for her to release the breath she was holding, but she couldn't. Either way, if she kept the air in or let it go, she was still drowning.

The water became ice cold, the sand turned into hard, sharp rock. The water turned a dark eerie green, almost black. She couldn't hold her breath anymore and ended up swallowing water when she let it go.

'Oh god! Not this again! Please wake up! Please!'

She squeezed her eyes shut and shakily pinched her arms in attempt to wake up, but that only used up energy she didn't have. The water kept getting colder and blood began to appear on her feet and legs where they got cut by the rocks and coral. Her throat burned, her chest and stomach ached.

This was too real to be a dream, but what else could it be? She started to feel her mind slowly blank, and eventually her panicking turned into blissful nothings. She began to shut down, losing consciousness.

And then, just before she slipped into sleep, she felt something soft on her right leg and arm. Using her last bit of strength, she managed to look down to see what it was. Her brain snapped back into action when she saw the object was a beautiful glowing silver, with sea-green hair flowing down its back.

It was her dragon! But how?! Certainly this wasn't a dream, it felt too real! She began to panic again, willing herself to wake up from this nightmare, when a deep voice worked itself into her mind. The voice sounded familiar, but where she had heard it before, she couldn't figure out.

"Calm down, you're safe now."

She felt the dragon wrap itself around her and slowly pull her towards the surface. Before she knew it, she was on a hard, cool rock, on the bank of the river. She was gasping for breath, and when she tried to sit up, a wave of dizziness overcame her before she felt a force gently push her down again.

"Don't try to get up and calm your breathing before you make yourself pass out and make my saving you pointless."

She fought the sleepiness and tried to will her ragged breathing to become normal. Looking to her side, where she once again felt the soft warmness, she saw the dragon. Her dragon. His dark emerald eyes seemed to look right into her soul, and she began to feel frightened of their cold stare. The dragon seemed to notice her wariness and softened his gaze.

"I will not ask why you were so reckless and why you came here, Chihiro, but I will ask, why you even thought it was such a good idea to try and kill yourself," The dragons' eyes grew hard again.

Chihiro tried to speak, but it hurt her throat immensely. The dragon shook his head, "I will have to ask you another time, foolish human girl," He muttered the last part, but not as harshly as the words before. His eyes softened again, more than before, and he touched his warm nose to her forehead, blowing softly.

Instantly, everything went black.

…..

That morning she had groggily woken up, her bones and muscles ached immensely. When she tried to sit up her head began to pound. Her throat burned like someone had set it on fire, and her stomach and her chest felt like they were going to burst. Without opening her eyes she layed back down, she was probably coming down with something.

Her eyes snapped open as her head hit the pillow, completely forgetting her headache. She quickly sat up again and turned feeling her pillow and sheets.

They were nearly soaked. It smelled like fish and freshwater. She felt her hair and it was slightly moist. She looked down and all she had on was the bra and underwear from the day before. Knowing her dad wouldn't be home, she screeched.

Last night hadn't been a dream after all! She had really almost drowned!

Which meant…

She screamed again and started freaking out. If it wasn't a dream, then her dragon really did exist!

And if that was true… Then… He was probably the one that undressed her!

"Oh God, oh God, oh God. Why does this crap always happen to me?!"

Trying to ignore the pain, and failing, she quickly got dressed and went downstairs. She couldn't ignore the burning in her throat any longer and drank nearly four glasses of water all at once, almost choking on the last swallow.

In a snap second she decided she needed to go back to that river.

If it hadn't been a dream, then how did she end up there in the first place?

She needed to know if she had been hallucinating or if it truly had happened. She needed to know if her dragon existed.

Chihiro turned red like a tomato at the thought of the dragon. Her dad wasn't home, so he couldn't have been the one to leave her in her underwear, and she had more self-respect than to go to sleep like that. Then again, she didn't really consciously go to the river, did she?

In all her past visits her dragon had never appeared to her, so why had he appeared then?

It was true that she had random blackouts, when her body would act on her own. The doctors had said it was a side effect of her depression and her mental illness, which didn't have an exact name, so was it possible, that she had seen or heard something, and acted on her own? Was it true what he said, and had she really tried to kill herself?

She did, didn't she. Even as she fought for air, when she still had plenty of energy, she didn't even attempt to swim to the surface. When it happened when she was a child, she didn't know how to swim, so it was understandable then, but now, she was one of the best swimmers around. Her dad had put her in swimming lessons, and all her instructors said she would make a fine teacher or life guard.

Yet, she didn't try to save herself. Would she have really died if her dragon wasn't there? Most likely. She had been conscious, but she couldn't control herself. Just like a dream…

She screeched, for the third time that morning, when a shrill noise snapped her from her thoughts. After a moment of calming her beating heart, she realised it was the phone. She grabbed it when it reached its last series of rings and pressed 'talk.'

"Hello?"

"Chihiro! Thank god you're alright! You didn't pick up when I called you last night!" She chuckled a bit at her friends' antics, her one and only 'friend,' Akoto.

"I'm alright, I fell asleep early, that's all," She didn't think she should worry Akoto.

"Ah good. You've been acting strangely recently, so I guess I just let my imagination get ahead of me. Anyway, are you free today? The girls and I are hanging out, and they suggested inviting you."

Chihiro unconsciously shook her head, "No thanks. I got plans today."

Akoto sighed, "Geez, you need to be more social, you're never going to get a boyfriend at this rate, y'know."

Chihiro laughed, "Oh trust me, I don't mind. I'll hang out another time, ok? Don't worry about me. Just have fun."

Chihiro could almost imagine Akoto silly grin, she had always been a good friend, despite being a bit weird, "Alright alright, but you gotta promise, you won't refuse next time?"

"I can't promise that, but I'll try. Cya."

"Don't be a stranger, girly," With that Akoto hung up, after giggling for a moment. Chihiro sighed and enjoyed a second of peace before the doorbell went off.

Geez, how popular was she this morning. She made her way to the door, stiffly. Her chest still hurt and she didn't feel like eating, she felt sick to her stomach. Opening the door, another strange thing happened. There wasn't anyone in sight. She sighed, "Kids I suppose."

She took another look around, and glancing down, she noticed a small box and letter. Curious, she picked up them both and quickly made her way to the dining room, after kicking the door close. She placed the letter on the table before opening the box. She had to struggle with a bit before it finally gave up and popped open. Inside was an emerald. It was small and attached to a thin gold chain, to make a necklace. Despite its small size, it was stunningly beautiful, and looked insanely expensive.

An image popped into her head.

The jewel is the same shade as his eyes…

Shaking her head to get the image out of her mind, she closed the box and put it down, retrieving the letter. After opening it, she studied the letter. She nearly fainted at what it read.

'I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise, I regretted it every day. I've decided to keep it now. If you forgive me, come to my river. Please. I've missed you.'

'-Haku'

No way this was happening. Haku was her dragon. What promise? What did he mean?

Her life just kept getting stranger and stranger, and so far, it was for the worst.

…

Sorry about the ending, I might have sped it up a bit.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!

It only took about an hour or so to write, so there's probably going to be a shit ton of grammer and spelling errors, sorry about that .

Oh well, it's all for good fun Hehe.

Roshini Thanks so much for your review, it made my day ^^ I hope you stick around for future chapters ^-^