Lin began to scrub furiously at the muck. Did those frogs even have a bit of concern for their workers? All they do is go, "You, there," or "You, here." It was complete sources of humiliation! Not only that, now Haku here was suppose to be her replacement assistant, and he's bugging her to come up with a better idea! What does he want her to do, make rain out of thin air? Speaking of rain, couldn't Haku just clean the tub himself?
"Humph! How lazy!"
The River Spirit looked up from mopping up the moss-covered floor. Why in both worlds would Lin call him lazy? She's the one who's always talking about longer breaks and complaining all day!
"Talk about rude," he muttered.
And so the silent treatment began. The two friends didn't bother to fix the problem, though. It seemed all spirits got in a lot of arguments about nothing due to being stubborn and selfish. Soon enough everyone would make up and go back to their lives.
After scrubbing for what seemed to be forever, Lin decided to get an herbal soak token. Since she was still a bit angry at Haku, she, of course, made him the one to get it from the ever-so-"friendly" foreman. Haku swore under his breath as he went along his way. Lin knew about all the stares he'd receive from the dancers and whatnot! Moments like this made Haku regret quitting Apprentice rank.
"Well?" the foreman said impatiently.
"What do you think?"
"No name, no token."
The River Spirit had the urge to slap himself. Who exactly was going to the bath he and Lin were preparing?
"Eh, the Fairy of Iuka?" Haku answered nervously. That has got to be THE lamest answer ever. The Fairy of Iuka was the king's best army general! There was no possible way that she would come here unless she was severely hurt! And that was like, well, never! The foreman obviously detected Haku's lie, but checked the reservations book. The situation looked bad.
"Okay, you little scum!" the foreman said angrily. "You may be a River Spirit, but that doesn't mean that I'm just going to let you just—"
There was a loud noise coming from the front entrance. In a flash, Yubaba came rushing down the steps, and took a hold of Haku's collar, dragging him along. Was there another Stink Spirit? If there was, Haku didn't want to take any part in it, and writhing around apparently didn't seem to make the crazy witch let go.
"Stop that, you twit!" she said. "You're a River Spirit, am I right?"
"Yes," Haku replied. Talking and running at the same time took some wind out of him!
"Good! Then you should have no problem helping the Fairy of Iuka and her forty thousand soldiers get cleaned up! We'll get filthy rich…"
"What? Why do we always get the hard job?" Lin said out of nowhere.
"Because, you lazy oaf, you know Sen—"
"Chihiro."
"Oh, Whatever! You two helped her into my bathhouse, and made a mess doing so! I'm only returning the favor. Bring'em in!"
Soldiers flooded into the bathhouse. Behind them followed the Fairy of Iuka, walking instead of flying due that her left wing was ripped. She gave Haku the money, bowed, and went on her way without saying a word. "What are you waiting for? Get going!" Yubaba ordered, pushing Lin and Haku. As they went on, Haku got the soak token and muttered loud enough for only the foreman to hear, "Whose the scum now?"
--
Okay, this is it, Chihiro thought nervously. This was the night she would go back to the Spirit World. Goodbye, lame life! Hello, freedom! No nagging parents, no school, no twitchy "friends", and most of all, no Zuzak. Chihiro pulled out something from her pack; five glimmering dragon scales from Haku. When they were soaring, Chihiro caught five of them for safe keeping, knowing that it could be the last time she spent time with him alone.
But now that would all change now. She had already written a note to her parents. It read:
Dear Mom and Dad,
By now I'll probably be gone. I know you're wondering where I am. If I tell you, you won't believe me. I'll only tell you to go to the tunnel where we got lost when we moved here. Please wait for me. I promise to come back home if I can.
Yours truly,
Chihiro
The teenager clutched the scales tightly in her hand. Finally she could go where she was much more… respected. Here, everyone saw Chihiro as the fearless one, but no one had bothered to dig deeper to find out why. So nobody knew why. All they knew that she was brave as could be and that made her cool. Amazing. Brilliant. But all Chihiro wanted to be was normal, and nobody cared. That's why she wanted to run back to the Land of Spirits. There she could find work. There she could fit in.
A tear ran down her cheek as she looked to the sky. The stars… were they the same ones all or the Spirits saw? When she reached the other side of the tunnel, could she look to the sky and remember? But that didn't matter now. What mattered was that she went there un-detected, and most importantly, out of trouble.
Chihiro swiftly made her way to the woods to where the paradise lay hidden and disguised as a theme park. She was about to lay a foot into the tunnel when a rustle in the bushes stopped her.
--
"What a day… Here, I snatched a dumpling for you," said a tired out Lin. Ah, it was if it was only yesterday that she said those exact same words to Chihiro. Though it wasn't; it was five years.
"Thank you Lin."
A click-clack sounded beneath the two friends. The train was making its night ride.
"Hey, there goes the train again. Where do you think it goes?"
"Far away from here, Lin, very far away…"
There was a brief silence. Of course Haku would know where the tracks go, he's probably flown to those places in dragon form.
"Lin… do you think we could get to the human world on that train?" the young spirit said. "It's said that the train can even go beyond the stars."
"I guess so," Lin replied, "but you won't be able to see any stars tonight. It looks like it's going to rain again."
She was right. Except for the few patches of the night sky where the moon or stars were, the sky was completely a black-gray color. A silent mist hung in the air. No animals were about, so it was certain there was to be rain. After sitting there for a while, Haku and Linn heard the sound of thunder far from where they were. In fact, it was on the human side of the wall. Over there, the storm had already started to drizzle. But no, that wasn't the kind of rain in the Spirit World. The River Spirits made the rain harder in the Spirit world because that made the mass of water cover the meadow. That way the Spirits visiting the human world can come and sail across.
"Come on, I can hear Tya shouting at us. Let's go back in before we get in trouble."
Haku laughed. "Like we aren't in trouble all the time, eh?"
What the River Spirit was really trying to do is get them to stay outside. Because of his Spirit heritage, Haku just loved the water. In fact, he loved all types of water, no matter what weather. Hail, Sleet, Snow, Rain; the list was all water-type frenzy. Since he couldn't make real storms yet like the Elders, Haku spent his free time making miniature storm clouds. Every once in a while he would play a game where he would put any small item into a cloud. When the cloud would send down its small storm, Haku would try to find the object in the falling rain or snow. It was amusing, but he didn't have anyone to teach him how to make real rain.
The two friends settled into their separate sleeping bags. It was past midnight; the sun was coming out. How did the humans manage having the sun up in the sky? Doesn't it blind them? If Spirits go out into direct sunlight too long, they might fade away.
Lin noticed her friend's silent frustration.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"No, just thinking about the rain," Haku answered.
"I gotta admit, that little message-in-a-rainstorm thing is kinda interesting. Just think of all the messages you could send to people when it rains. Just like the Elders."
"Yeah."
Again, silence. That's when Haku got an idea.
"Lin," he said, "When it rains, can the Elders send messages to the human world?"
The thin spirit shrugged. "I don't know. After Chihiro came, the Elders are getting quite interested in humans now. You gonna try sending a message to her?"
"Yes," Haku said confidently. "Yes I am."
Though, easier said then done. Both Lin and Haku knew that none of the workers at the bathhouse were aloud magic tutoring. The only way to get tutoring was to become Yubaba's apprentice. Dragon boy did that; dragon boy quit. Now what? After some thinking, Haku made his second decision.
"You," he said softly.
Lin had the look of confusion on her face. "Huh?"
"You're going to be my tutor."
The Spirit worker's eyes widened. No, no, no, Haku! Don't bring THAT up again! Lin thought.