Chapter 7

Chihiro's alarm rang only once before she turned it off. She rolled over in bed, the wind spirit's little head was still tucked under her wing. Chihiro looked out her window stars still twinkled in the black blanketed sky. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes trying to remember why she'd set her alarm for so early. She looked around her room, it was cleaner than she usually kept it and on her desk was her messenger bag, instead of its usual contents it had clothes in it. She gasped and sat up quickly, "Sylph, come one we're going today."

Sylph's head poked out from under her wing and she shook herself sending a small whirlwind of air down from around her. Yes, must hurry!

They had decided to wait until the week was over before making the journey, mostly from Chihiro's wishes, she took out the letter she'd written to her parents and changed into her most comfortable pair of pants, sneakers, and t-shirt she had in her possession. Silently the two crept down the stairs, Sylph had discovered all the creaky wood boards in the house while Chihiro had been at school and had been working on how to get them to the East Gate. Sylph flitted over the non-creaky places making their way to the kitchen Chihiro left the letter on the counter. Once this was done she left.

The bus stop was empty when they arrived, Chihiro sat down, the wind spirit landed on her shoulder and tucked her head under her wing again. Wake if others come. She was quickly asleep. Chihiro simply smiled and watched as a few car drove past, their headlights highlighting the bus stop before the vehicles flashed past. Chihiro turned her head away when the lights flashed in her eyes. It was only a few minutes before the bus arrived; she climbed on, paid for her ride to the train station. She picked up Sylph off her shoulder and held the spirit in her lap while they rode.

The bus continued only pausing to pick up other passengers. And at this hour there were few, and of the few none of them looked like people Chihiro would like to encounter; thankfully none of them tried to speak or even approach Chihiro. At the train station she woke the wind spirit the two of them walked the few feet in the darkness to the train station doors. The wind spirit began to panic just before the doors.

They come they come, must hurry they will make us stop!The spirit tried to push her faster with snapping breezes, Chihiro got the idea and went inside quickly, No look back, if Sen look back can't go forward.

Chihiro continued on quickly, she could feel the wind spirit continuing to push her forward, while in her stomach she could feel something following her eageryly trying to make her look back she whimpered and rung her hands around the strap of her bag and walked faster. Black smoke began filtering around her legs even as she walked, Sylph ordered her to go faster or they would be stuck. Chihiro broke into a near run, "What are they?" she called to the bird.

"They are bounty hunters." A third voice said, "Do not take the train you are planning to take, when you reach the platforms take a left."

"Who are you?" She demanded still running, she didn't plan to listen to this voice until she knew if it was friend or foe.

"I'll meet you at the platforms, Sylph is required elsewhere."

At his words the wind spirit vanished, Chihiro swallowed nervously but continued to run, "Alright I'm getting tired of all this..."

"And it's just beginning." Chihiro looked up just in time to see a humanoid spirit dash behind her, "Turn left!"It yelled as it ran past, Chihiro did as she was ordered, she could hear screeches of creatures from behind her. The human ran until she had to stop to catch her breath. "Not bad for a human." She humphed and turned around to face the spirit but it wasn't behind her; she blinked curiously. It sighed, "Down here."

At her feet sat a black fox with a red cloth around his neck. "But weren't you just...?"

"While I marvel at your observation abilities, the bounty hunters are only distracted by my duplicate," He began walking again, "We must press on."

"Wait a minute, I'm not going any further until you tell me who you are!" Chihiro demanded.

"You may call me Blink." He stated, "I am a servant of great Inari, god and goddess of knowledge." He continued walking, "The shaman would of preferred to come get you his self, but Inari won't allow him to leave until its curiosity is satiated."

The human blinked, "What does any of this have to do with the gods? I thought this only involved spirits." The spirit paused and pulled out a ticket for a different train than the one she'd bought and held it out for her.

She took the ticket from his mouth, he spoke again, "Naivety is not something most have tolerance for. The gods have everything to do with this, it is something they enjoy; why they would choose a human such as yourself to play with is beyond my comprehension. You are lucky that you have many spirits that are trying to protect you."

Chihiro climbed on the train and handed the conductor her ticket, she was directed to a cabin and found herself a seat. The black fox spirit sat next to her, "Why did we have to get on a different train? I'm not going to be able to reach the East gate in time..."

"Don't make me laugh, shaman had to redirect your path. The other train would have been overrun by death spirits had you boarded it." He worked on cleaning his face for a moment before continuing, "The train you were going to board has had its schedule switched with this one, it will take us where we need to go."

"Who is this shaman anyway? Why is he trying to help me?"

The fox shrugged, "He has not said why, only that you are important and must not fall into the hands of the death spirit."

Chihiro metally added those questions to the list that she planned to ask this shaman when she met him. She sighed and looked out the window for a moment before turning back to Blink. "What happened to Sylph?"

"Shaman sent her on an errand, this is quickly becoming more difficult for him to bare on his own." He yawned and stretched out on the seat. "The Dragon Gate will be at the second stop. Pray that we reach it as the sun crosses it, or we will be trapped here for another day."

She was about to ask him another question but noticed his eyes were closed and he appeared to already be fast asleep. That was the only thing she envied spirits for; it seemed no matter the danger ahead they always managed to sleep peacefully. Chihiro sighed and went back to looking out the window at the station. Moments later the train began to pull out, and into the dark night that pressed in on the windows.

The young shaman pulled his cloak tighter around him, walking through the corridors of the bathhouse while unseen was simple. Walking through sleeping dragons was a different matter; waking one from his slumber even while under protection of a god and using an invisiblity spell of any strength promised to be eaten upon waking. He took a deep calming breath, "Just take it slow Raz, go to fast and it will be the last thing we ever do." He groaned and shook his head, "Gotta stop talking to myself."

Slowly he traversed over tails, snouts and clawed hands. Occationally one would move as he stepped over he'd freeze; waiting for it to stop before moving on. It wouldn't be difficult to see which was Seiryu, unfortunately he was buried under many of his underlings at the moment making the dragon guardian more difficult to have a conversation with. He sighed and continued past the massive dragon toward the red wooden gate where Chihiro and hopefully Blink would be arriving any moment now.

A dragon flew directly over his head making Raz duck and cover, dragons were suppose to be sleeping at this time, dawn was approaching. He slowly pulled his hands away from his head to look up at the human form of the dragon spirit standing before him, before remembering he was invisible he spoke to him. "What are you doing awake?" Raz slapped a hand over his mouth the instant after the words left his mouth.

Kuhaku's hand shot out and grabbed hold of the shaman's arm, the hood fell from around his face, he watched Kuhaku's eyes while they searched his own, slowly the dragon's grip on him lessened. "You are the shaman then?"