(A/N: All I have to say is enjoy.)
"Promise"
By: FanFictioner002
Chapter 9
Laughter boomed and echoed throughout the hallway. Amusement colored the king's face as he stood from his throne. I didn't know whether to be relieved or offended. Was he laughing at me or not?
"Fire lives in this girl," he spoke after calming himself. "You would be appropriate for her, Kohaku. It will take a river's worth of water to quell her flames. Tell me, girl, what are you called?"
"Her name is Chihiro, my king," Kohaku spoke quickly before I got the chance. I suppose he was afraid of what I would say. I couldn't blame him. I didn't even know what I would say next.
"Chihiro, you will do well not to speak in such a way to me again. Consider yourself more than lucky that you amused me. Otherwise, I would have had your life."
The king of the gods descended the steps before him gracefully and appraised me before turning back to Takehiko. He said nothing to him, but Takehiko left through a side entrance quickly followed by the queen. The king turned back to Kohaku and gave him permission to stand.
Kohaku did not look at me nor at the king. He kept his eyes lowered to the ground. It must have been a show of respect. I, however, looked straight into the king's eyes. They were silver and swimming with age and wisdom. But I also saw cruelty within him. I knew then that he was not kidding about taking my life. He would have done so in a heart beat. Luckily, I'm an amusing person.
"You know why you have been called here, Kohaku. My son can wait no longer, for he is weakened by your waters. This issue must be resolved immediately. You understand me, don't you?"
"I do, Your Majesty. In fact, I was about to return for that very purpose as well," Kohaku answered.
"Good, good. You know where to go, I assume. Leave the girl to my servants. They will escort her to Minori. She has asked to see her," the King said solemnly, and Kohaku turned to leave immediately.
Before he walked through the doorway, he turned to look back at me. "My king, I ask only one thing. Please keep Chihiro from the arena, if you will."
With that, he was gone, and the king snapped his fingers calling three servant ladies forward from the shadows. Two of them took my arms and led me from the chamber, and the third followed behind me closely. None of them said a word.
The hallway seemed to never end. Eventually, the women turned me around and down yet another endless hall. We didn't go far down this one however. After about twenty or so feet, we came to a stop in front of yet another set of large double doors encrested with gold and silver. The women stepped away from me then, and when I blinked, they were gone entirely.
The doors in front of me creaked open slightly. "Come in here, my child," a woman's voice called out to me. "Well, hurry up!"
I walked into the room hesitantly. Directly in front of me was the king's wife that I'd seen before in her glorious red and gold kimono. She sat across a chaise lounge, the only piece of furniture in the surprisingly small room. The woman's legs fell from the seat, and she patted where they had been laying. "Come and sit with me, Chihiro."
Slowly, I walked up to her and sat down. "Minori," she began. "That is my name. You may have guessed that I am the queen of this palace, but I shall tell you something you don't know. Actually, I will tell you many things that you do not know. Firstly, I am the goddess of Fate."
Minori paused, noticing the shock on my face. Here sat the woman with the power to make anything she wanted simply happen. She laughed a little after a moment and continued.
"You must be thinking that I control Fate, but that is not true. However, I do see the threads of Fate and how they connect. It is true that I can manipulate Fate to an extent. But I cannot make something impossible happen. Believe me when I tell you that my powers are much more limited than one would imagine."
Minori stood and took a few steps before turning to look at me again.
"I did know about you, Chihiro. I've known about you for a long time."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked her quickly, hoping that this woman could give me some of the answers that Kohaku had been promising me.
"I mean," she said. "That I've known for centuries that you would find your way here twice, that the Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi would fall in love with you. But that only names a few things that I know. You see, I know why it is that you are here."
"Please, tell me if you know! There are so many things happening. I need to know what to do!"
"Patience, my daughter. All in good time. Firstly, Kohaku has had plenty of opportunity to tell you what it is that has been on his mind, and he has not. He will be angry with me, but I am going to tell you now. You need to know these things."
I nodded in relief. She was right about Kohaku, but if it was so important, then I couldn't wait on him to tell me. Minori wasn't going to beg the question like he did.
"Do you remember the day that Kohaku took you to Gin's pond?"
"I do," I told her. "He's been promising to explain things to me ever since then. He still hasn't though."
"Surely you realized that the ritual the two of you performed was quite significant?"
"I guess so. Wasn't it just a spell to protect me?"
"In a sense, yes. That was the best way for Kohaku to protect you at the time. But at the same time, it is much more than that. In the sense of this world, you and Kohaku are, in a way, married, to put it in terms that you would understand."
"Ma - married?" I asked with a stutter.
"Indeed. Yet it is still more complicated than that. The two of you are Bonded and Mated. I suppose you might also call the two of you soulmates. Not in the sense that you were made for each other, but in the sense that two of you will never be able to be as close to another as the two of you are. I know you don't understand the full meaning of it yet, and since it isn't necessary to go into the full details, I will spare you the lecture."
Married, Mated, Bonded... My head was spinning. I honestly didn't think that my brain could process anything else she had to tell me. But she didn't wait for a moment for me to re-group.
"Chihiro, the other thing that he wanted to tell you is this: you are not a human girl."
"What are you even talking about? I'm married? I'm not human? Are you insane?"
"Calm down, my daughter," Minori said patiently.
"Stop calling me 'daughter' and 'child!""
"I apologize, Chihiro. I will not do so again. However, if my servants hear you speaking disrespectfully to their queen, I am not responsible for what the king may do."
"I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"I know, and that is why I will explain it to you. In due time, you will understand. Chihiro, you are not a human. You were born to human parents, make no mistake about that, and you do have the physical qualities of a human. Kohaku knows only this much about you. The rest is still a mystery even to him. But I will make it known after today that I am your mother. That, Chihiro, is why I refer to you as my child."
"How can you possibly be my mother?" I asked again, still screaming a little.
"You see, Chihiro, we gods do not have life spans. We simply live. But gods can have children, and these children are born gods as well. This is because after so many years of life, gods become tired of living, and children are born to replace them. Fate is the one who decides when a new god will come forth. However, it was different for me than most because I could see that my Fate's thread was drawing short. That is why I used an ancient magic to send you to the human world, to be born to human parents. In the past, the gods and goddesses of Fate have always been targeted as infants for their abilities. To consume another and take their strength... This is something that you have witnessed from Yubaba's son, Boh, correct?"
"Would he have eaten me then?"
"No, Chihiro," my mother, goddess of Fate, laughed. "Boh is but a witchling spirit. He cannot sense what you truly are. However, if he were to know, then it is safe to say that he would attempt to do so. Sending you to another realm did protect you from those like him, but your soul is too attached to this world. Your soul's attachment is why Kohaku was able to save you as a child when you'd fell into his river, and the connection you made with him at that time only made your connection to this world stronger. Then when that new connection with Kohaku brought you here again to free him, you made even more connections. So many that it would be impossible for you to simply leave here again."
"So you're saying that I can't leave? That I'm here for good?" I asked. This is one thing that I knew I wouldn't mind coming out of this whole situation. But then again, apparently I was a gods' child and belonged here.
"There are ways for you to go back if you so choose. Fate can permit that. But, Chihiro, I will not awaken your powers and your true self until you decide what it is that you will do. That is something that is still unclear to me and therefore unclear to you. For now, you must remain in your human guise. And tell no one of who you are, not even Kohaku. If someone were to realize that you are the next goddess of Fate, things would become quite troublesome for us all.
"Chihiro, there are even more things that must be told to you, but for now, you must go. Return to the audience chamber where you met with Takehiko and the King. Take the left entrance out, and walk to full distance of that hallway. Then you will take a left again. The second hallway on the right will take you to the arena where Kohaku fights Takehiko now. He needs you in order to achieve victory, Chihiro."
"Kohaku's in trouble? He's fighting this guy without even telling me first?"
"Yes, he is in danger. You must hurry to him. Fate sees that this is the only way for him to win. He needs to borrow the strength that your heart will create."
I turned quickly and quicked off my shoes. I supposed she knew how to end things. Saying Kohaku was in trouble was a sure fire way to prevent any of my questions. Fate must have seen that I had many. For now, all I could do was trust what Minori had told me. In my heart, I knew it to be the truth, so trust wasn't hard to find for her.
I ran as fast as I could down those cursed long hallways, taking the directions I had been given and repeating them over in my head. Chamber, left, left, second on the right. In between repeating, I couldn't help but wonder if Fate knew whether I would make it in time or not.
But this was all I could do: try with all of my heart.
After the last turn, I concentrated less on where I was and more on how fast I was getting there. My bare feet pounded the cold marble floor, and the echoing sound reverberated off of the walls. Eventually, a bright light appeared before me, and I ran faster because I knew that I was there now. I could hear people yelling and cheering for Takehiko. I could hear the sounds of my dragon crying out in pain.
I emerged in the arena unnoticed by anyone. The dirt under my feet was hot and burned the soles of my feet, but I didn't pay any attention to it. Before my eyes stood a large blue dragon rearing back for the final blow, and my emerald-eyed dragon struggled to get up. Takehiko had more strength than he did. Kohaku had been away from his water for so long, he'd just flown all the way here, and he'd shared his power with me to protect me. Takehiko had done none of those things.
I lurched forward and found myself in between two ferocious beasts with my arms swung out protectively. Takehiko's piercing blue eyes glared straight into mine as he stopped not even an inch in front of me.
A growl came from behind me, but I paid Kohaku no mind. Takehiko, however, was on the receiving end of the most hateful glare I'd ever given in my entire life. I didn't know what to do or say, so I just stood there.
The crowds of gods around me gasped. I guessed I'd ruined their show.
Suddenly, Kohaku came around me and bit into Takehiko's throat. The look in Takehiko's eyes was defeat. I turned away, knowing that in order for Kohaku to live, Takehiko had to die.
No one truly understood sorrow until they had heard the final dying scream of a dragon.
(A/N: Enjoyed? I'm not going to post chapter 10 until I get a review.)
