As they flew through the night sky the feeling of despair washed over the three. Their home was gone, and their hope was beginning to fade. The cold air was beginning to take effect on the girls as they began to shiver, their teeth chattering.

"Haku, its getting cold, can we go somewhere for the night?" Hikari asked as she slightly shook.

Haku couldn't respond when he was in him dragon form, but he knew exactly where he was going to take them; Zeniba's house. It was the safest place for them to stay the night, and quite frankly they didn't have a choice.

As Zeniba's house slowly came into view Haku felt as though something was off. The usual protective spell that shielded the house was no more, and he could see that the door was left wide open. Once he landed he let the girls off, and reverted back to his human self.

"There's something wrong here," he stated. "I don't want to leave the two of you by yourselves so just stay close to me. If anything goes wrong, run, get as far away as possible."

Chihiro and Hikari threw a quick glance at each other, their worries showing through their eyes. Even though they were hesitant they nodded, and proceeded to follow Haku into the house.

When they walked through the broken down door pure shock registered through them all, the house was completely destroyed on the inside. The couch was ripped, its stuffing thrown all over, broken glass covered the floor, mostly from the windows being smashed, and the wooden table was broken into two. There was no sign of Zeniba or any life for that matter.

Haku had noticed once he landed that he couldn't sense any life nearby, which was unusual considering they were in the middle of the forest.

"What happened here?" Hikari spoke up, her voice shaky.

"I don't know, I'm guess the same thing that burned down the bath house did this. Nowhere seems to be safe now, at least nowhere familiar to us," Haku was extremely uneasy, never had he been that on edge before.

"So," Hikari chimed in. "What do we do now? Where are we supposed to go?"

Both Chihiro and Hikari looked toward Haku for answers, they felt helpless. "We stay here for the night, we don't have any other option. We must leave early in the morning though, surely whoever did this will expect us to be here. As for tomorrow, I don't know. I wish I could give the two of you answers, but I have none to give. I'm sorry," Haku balled his fists at his sides.

Chihiro could see the anger and sadness Haku was experiencing. She placed a hand on top of one of his balled fists. "It's alright, you got us this far. We wouldn't have made it out of there without you. We'll figure it out later. Now," she paused. "We should get some fire wood and start a fire, then we can figure things out from there."

Haku looked down at Chihiro, even though his spirits were low he managed a small smile of gratitude. "Alright, that sounds good. I'll go and get some wood, you two stay here and try to get space cleaned up in front of the fire place."

With that Haku went out in search of fire wood as the girls began to clean things up. Sharp glass covered almost the entire interior of the house. "I'll find a broom and try to sweep up as much glass as I can. Try to get everything cleared in front of the fire place so we have a place to sleep," Hikari piped as she began to look around in search of a broom.

Chihiro could feel how hopeless everyone was feeling, it affected her too. The bath house wasn't her home, but she felt as though she had lost a part of herself as it burned down into nothing. As she began to pick up the stuffing from the torn up couch she became immersed in her own thoughts. "Zeniba is nowhere to be found," she thought. "How am I supposed to learn magic? If I don't learn, how am I supposed to protect everyone? I'm useless the way I am now," she thought repeatedly, unable to shake the feeling of uselessness.

Before she even realized it she had the entire area in front of the fire place cleared, she even managed to find a few pillows and blankets that they could use for the night. "I'm all finished here," she sighed as she looked over at Hikari.

Meanwhile Hikari had just swept up the last pile of glass. "Me too, now all we need is that fire wood, it's getting cold in here."

They sat in the area Chihiro had managed to clear, both clearly at a loss for words. They couldn't process what had happened prior to finding Zeniba's trashed house, it was all very hard to believe.

"Hey Chihiro," Hikari called out. "What do you think's going to happen now? I mean, the bath house is gone, both Zeniba and Yubaba are nowhere to be found, and we don't even know if everyone is alive or not," Hikari whimpered.

Chihiro brought her knees up to her chest. "I honestly don't know. I already told you about the prophecy, but what use am I if I can't even do anything to prevent all this from happening? If I can't learn magic, I won't be able to save everyone."

It grew silent after that, neither of them wanting to say anything more on the subject. After a while Haku finally returned with the fire wood. He placed it in the fire place. "Stand back," he told them as he hovered his hand over the wood, and closed his eyes.

He focused all his energy on starting a flame. He pictured it vividly in his mind, he imagined the heat flowing from his hand. After much concentration his eyes shot open, and at the exact same time the wood set fire.

"Whoa," Hikari said in awe. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Don't forget, I was Yubaba's apprentice for a very long time, I picked up a fair amount during that time."

The three of them began to settle; Hikari laying on her back on the floor in front of the fire, Chihiro leaning on a pillow that rested against the couch, and Haku doing the same next to her. Everyone managed to relax a little, but they were all still tense. They didn't know what the coming days were going to bring.

AN: Hey, so a lot has gone down in the last two chapters. It was going to happen sooner or later. I have a snow day tomorrow due to a major snow storm that's going to hit for the next few days so expect a few more chapters up within the next twenty four hours. Well, you know what to do! I need feedback you guys, I want to know what all of my lovely readers think and if there is anything I can improve on. Thanks again for the support!