**Despite all the flames on my previous chapter, I have decided to continue with this fic, because I, as an author, like it. If you don't like it, don't read it, but for those of you who did like it, here is the next chapter of To Trust A Dragon.**
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To Trust A Dragon
Chapter 2: Yubaba, Witch of the Bathhouse
Haku leads Kumo and Chihiro down a worn dirt path, and stops when they come to a wooden gate, and he whispers in their ears. "We have to cross the bridge, you will need to hold you breath, even the tiniest breath will break the spell, understand?" Seeing both Kumo and Chihiro nod he takes Kumo's left arm and Chihiro's right and proceeds toward the bridge.
The trio enters the flow of spirits, drawing nearer to the wooden bridge, suddenly Kumo hears a voice in her ear. "Take a deep breath and hold it." She does so and risks a glance at her sister who is holding her nose to make sure she doesn't breathe.
They near the end of the bridge, with no mishaps. Suddenly a frog appears out of no where, hopping in the air and speaking in a shrill voice. "Master Haku!"
Kumo just rolls her eyes at the frog, even though he can't see her. ((That frog sounds just like Chihiro…same annoying voice…)) Suddenly the frog's shrill voice cuts through her thoughts like a knife.
"What?! A human?!" Cries the frog, his eyes bulging as Chihiro appears, having taken a breath.
"Chihiro you fool! You took a breath!" Cries Kumo, then she clasps her over her own mouth. ((Oh shit…))
"Two humans?!"
Haku puts out his hand and the frog is enveloped in a black bubble, and he grabs Kumo and Chihiro's hands as the fly past spirits and employers of the bath house, dashing through a small door, leaving confusion behind.
"I'm sorry," says Chihiro as the crouch in a small, enclosed garden off the side of the bathhouse. "I took a breath."
"You should be sorry, you blew our cover!" Cries Kumo, glaring at her sister.
Haku casts a reproachful look at Kumo and he turns to Chihiro. "No Chihiro, you did very well." He shifts slightly so he is looking at both Kumo and Chihiro. "Now listen carefully, both of you. They will be looking for you."
"Well we kind of noticed that they were looking for us, I can hear them all screaming 'humans!' 'Humans!'" Says Kumo, rolling her eyes.
Haku sighs and puts a hand to each of the girl's foreheads. "Now, when things quiet down this is what you do. Go out the back gate, and all the way down the stairs. Go see Kamaji, the boiler man. Ask him for work, he will try to turn you away, or trick you into leaving, but keep asking."
"Kamaji…" Says Chihiro faintly.
"He works the boilers that heat the bathhouse, now go!" Says Haku.
"Master Haku?" Comes a voice from inside.
Haku stands and opens the sliding door. "I'm coming." He steps inside and vanishes from sight.
"Ok runt, let's get going." Kumo stands and brushes off her skirt and roughly pulls her sister to her feet.
Chihiro gives Kumo a glare, or what she thinks is a glare, and pushes the back gate open. She holds the gate open for her sister, not because she is being polite, but because she doesn't want it to slam and alert those in the bathhouse of their presence.
Kumo slides the gate closed behind her silently. She sees the long winding staircase, which her sister has already begun descending, while sitting down. "Chihiro, could you go any slower?" Kumo whispers fiercely and edges around her sister, taking the stairs two at a time.
Chihiro scoots down the stairs, placing both feet on a step, then lowers the rest of her body down. She tentatively places her full weight on a stair, standing up, causing the stair to break, and she begins rolling down the rest of the staircase.
Kumo looks up the flight of stairs from her spot at the bottom and notices someone moving very quickly, and a shrill scream reaches her ears, which abruptly stops as her sister slams into a wall face first. "Good going Chihiro."
The duo jumps down a flight of jagged stone stairs and comes to a green door. Kumo puts her hand out and turns the knob, pulling the door open, and the step into a room filled with pipes.
Kumo strides toward the opening on the other end of the room, her boots making a soft 'thudding' noise each time they hit the ground.
Chihiro starts to follow her sister, then hangs back undecided, until she feels Kumo tugging on her arm, telling her to hurry it up. Rather than incur her sister's wrath she quickens her pace.
Kumo steps into a bright room with a large boiler on the left side. There is a sunken dirt floor in the center, and directly across the room is a platform, upon which sits a man with six arms. She strides across the room to him, her sister in tow. "I suppose you are Kamaji?"
Kamaji continues grinding salts and herbs in the strange bowl in front of him, staring intently at the red token in front of him. "Yea, I'm Kamaji, slave to the boiler that heats the baths."
"Well Kamaji, I'm Kumo. Haku sent us here, he said you could give us work."
"There is no work for you here, I've got all the help I need." He motions to the soot balls. "Soot everywhere, I just cast a spell on it, giving me all the workers I could ever need."
"Please sir! We need jobs!" Cries Chihiro.
"I told you, there is no work for you here! Leave!"
Suddenly a door slides open and a brown haired woman adorned in a pink top and pink pants with a blue apron enters, carrying a woven basket and a tray. "Kamaji where is your other bowl, the one from yesterday? I keep telling you to leave it out…."
Kamaji hands her the empty bowl and takes the full one, using every one of his six arms to stuff food in his mouth.
The brown haired woman takes the empty bowl and goes over and tosses brightly colored star shaped candy-like food to the soot balls, she glances around and spies Kumo and Chihiro. "Humans! You are the ones everyone is looking for!"
"They are my granddaughters," say Kamaji through a mouth full of food, "They want to work here but I've got all the help I need, why don't you take them to see Yubaba?"
"No way, I'm not risking my neck!" Cries the brown haired woman.
"What if I gave you this roasted newt?" Asks Kamaji, holding it out. "It's a good one."
"Gimme that!" The woman grabs the newt and puts it inside her shirt, dumping the rest of the star candy on the ground for the soot balls. "Come on you two."
Kumo and Chihiro walk to the other edge of the room, Kumo goes rather reluctantly, considering she doesn't usually take orders from anyone, but given the circumstances, she figured that it might be in her best interests to take the orders without complaint.
Chihiro puts her foot up, as if to step onto the floor, when the woman speaks. "You wont need your shoes, leave them." Chihiro nods and pulls off her shoes and socks, leaving them in the midst of the soot balls.
"What do you mean 'leave them'? I paid a fair amount of money, I'm not leaving them anywhere!" Kumo pulls off her boots and shoves them into her sling pack, then she turns to Kamaji, her face a picture of angelic sweetness. "Thank you for the help grandfather," she says, inclining her head and goes through the small door.
Chihiro follows her sister through the door, closely tailed by the brown haired woman, who slides the door closed behind them. "Stay close." Says the woman to Chihiro and Kumo.
Kumo, now several inches shorter because of removing her boots, nods and drags Chihiro along, who is stopping and staring at everything every few feet.
The brown haired woman steps into an elevator. "We have to go to the top floor, that is where Yubaba lives."
Kumo and Chihiro follow her into the elevator. Kumo swallows a lump in her throat, and with some difficulty, says, "Uh…thank you for risking your neck like this….I really appreciate it, by the way, I'm Kumo."
"Well Kumo, I'm Lin, no thanks needed." The elevator comes to a stop and the get out, and enter the heart of the bathhouse.
Kumo looks around and lets out a low whistle as they cross a bridge on the way to the next elevator. "Damn, some of these spirits are ass ugly!"
"Sh! Don't disrespect the spirits like that!" Says Lin as they enter the next elevator.
They make it three-quarters of the way with no mishaps, other than being tailed by a radish spirit. Upon approaching the last elevator they are cornered by a frog.
"Lin, what is that I smell? It's human! You smell just like a human!"
"Oh really?" Asks Lin skeptically, then shouts over her shoulder, "If you want to go up, pull the lever on your right."
Kumo nods slightly and reaches out, which is difficult, considering she is smashed between the wall and the radish spirit, and pulls the lever. ((My poor laptop, I hope it doesn't get crushed…))
The elevator reaches the top floor and Chihiro goes up to the large red doors, when the doorknocker comes to life. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to knock? You are the most pathetic excuse for a little girl I have ever seen…"
Kumo leans over her sister's shoulder and addresses the doorknocker. "I agree with you on that account, now, may we come in?"
A row of doors open and suddenly Kumo and Chihiro are jerked forward, as if being pulled by an invisible string. They end up in a richly decorated room, Chihiro stumbling over herself as the pulling abruptly stops, while Kumo lands lithely on her feet, looking around the room.
"I suppose you are Yubaba," says Kumo to the woman seated behind the desk.
"Yes I am, and I am very busy, what do you want?"
"We were told that you could give us a job, if that is true, then make it so." Kumo says.
Yubaba rolls her eyes and looks pointedly at Kumo and Chihiro. "So you want a job? Well tough, you aren't getting work here, I have no use for humans. I could turn you into an animal…..or maybe a lump of coal…."
"Screw the hocus-pocus granny, just give us work," Says Kumo, her patience starting to wear thin.
"Don't say that!" Cries Yubaba, her eyes blazing.
"Just give us work, dammit!" Cries Kumo, her voice rising.
Suddenly a crash is heard, and a door breaks somewhere and crying is heard. "OH! You woke up the baby!" Cries Yubaba, rushing to the adjoining room. A moment later she sticks her head out again. "What are you still doing here?"
"You want me to leave? Give my sister and I work, then we will leave," says Lauraena, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Ok, ok, just be quiet!" Yubaba emerges from the adjoining room and two fountain pens and two pieces of paper float over the girls standing in the middle of the study. "Sign your name."
Chihiro takes the pen and paper and kneels down and signs her name without a second thought and the paper sails across the room to Yubaba's hand. "Chihiro, what a pretty name…..and it belongs to me….from now on your name is Sen, understood?"
"Yes ma'am," Says Chihiro.
Yubaba turns to look at Kumo. "I thought you wanted work, no contract, no work."
"I don't put my name on anything," says Kumo, scowling.
"You're a tough one, aren't you? Stubborn, persistent, I like you. Not afraid to speak your mind."
"No I'm not, now I'm not signing any damn contract, just give me a job."
Yubaba sighs. "I don't have time to argue with you…fine you can have work…"
Haku enters the room and nods to all the women in succession. "Come with me," he says, beckoning to Kumo and Chihiro.
Both girls follow him into an elevator, which they ride down to the ground floor.
**Ok, sorry the ending kind of sucked I know, but my fingers were starting to hurt. And I was on the phone while I was writing this, so my neck kinda hurt too……but yea, there is the chapter, next one coming soon!**
~*Lauraena*~
