Mhmm. So this is chapter 8. PLEASE REVIEW!!! Lol.
It was pretty early in the morning, maybe around 6:00, when Sen woke up from hearing a strange noise. She looked around to see that the sliding door was still open. Outside on the balcony was a great white dragon, who Sen recognized to be Haku. She heard the noise again, but this time she knew what it was. It was Haku, and he was snoring; Silly him. She got up to walk over to him, taking care not to step on anyone still sleeping, and sat down by his side.
"Wake up, Haku."
He looked at her with his big green eyes, stretched out, and lowered his head, as if he wanted to bring Sen somewhere on his back. So she got on, and they took off. As Sen clung to his thick, soft fur, they raced through the sky and up into the clouds. She didn't know where they were going, but she didn't care. All she could think about was Haku. With her head against his neck, she could hear him breathing, despite the wind whipping loudly in her ears. Even though she wasn't afraid, and even though she would trust Haku with her life, she clung tighter and smiled.
Sen pulled herself up closer to Haku's head so that he could hear her, and she asked, "Haku, was that you last night?"
Obviously, being in his dragon form, he was in no position to give a yes or no, but his smile was a good enough answer. Sen rested her head between his horns while she scratched him under the chin, as if he were a cat. His fur was unbelievably soft.
Sen closed her eyes, and said, "I love you so much," and she meant it with all her heart.
"I love you too," she heard. She was surprised though. Haku was in his dragon shape, so how could he talk to her? But the answer was clear. He spoke with his heart and feelings, but he was afraid to before, fearing that Sen may not have felt the same way. He must have wanted to wait until he knew for sure how Sen felt. For a long time after that, they just kept on flying, with their love growing stronger and stronger. The scenery below was very beautiful; there were thick blotches of trees, and occasionally there would be a clearing: one of which had some trees in the center of it arranged in a very odd way. Somewhere along the line, Haku turned and started going back the way they had come.
"Where are we going now?"
"Back to the bath house. I brought you out here to…….. Well, just look."
Sen looked down at the ground to see that the trees in the clearing that she had seen before were arranged to form words that were upside-down to her before, but now she could see that they said, "Tell me, have you found yours yet?" It needed no explanation.
"I have found mine, and I hold him dear 'til the end of time," Sen whispered into Haku's ear.
"I thought so. But like I said, that's why I brought you out here. I needed to know. So now, we can go back to the bath house," he said. The trees scattered as they passed by.
They landed on the balcony just outside the sliding door with everyone still asleep, and as Haku changed back to his normal form, Sen just wouldn't let go of him. He struggled to turn and face her in her tight grip (she had been on his back while they flew, and that didn't change just because he turned to a human :P). Haku actually giggled a little, picked up Sen, and carried her to where the wall separated them from the sleeping workers. He sat down, still holding her, with his feet dangling over the edge. Sen moved herself so that she sat in Haku's lap, and with her head on his shoulder. She gradually fell back to sleep as he hummed a tune, with her in his gentle and loving arms.
"Wake up Sen," Naomi said, shaking her. "Rin said that she would take us to see Kamagii so that he could teach us some magic!"
"Rin," Sen began, "I didn't know that humans could learn magic……"
"I never told you? Well they can, and Kamagii is gonna teach you some today. He thought it would be useful if there is a war between us and the Xovio Cartel."
"Won't it be fun, Sen?" Naomi asked while folding her sleeping mat.
Sen gave an affirmative grunt as she stacked her sleeping mat into the closet.
"You should wear your uniforms, too. You're gonna have to come back and work afterwards," Rin said.
Sen and Naomi got changed, and when they came back out, the others had already gone to work.
Once they reached the boiler room, they saw the usual: Kamagii grinding dried worm salt and the like, and the susuwatari carrying the coal into the furnace. One of them, seeing the girls approach, went into its hole and brought out two pieces of food, or kompeitou, that it had saved. He offered a piece to Sen and one to Naomi, who gladly took it. They didn't want to be rude, after all; he had saved it for them. It was very good, too. It tasted like an m&m with cinnamon and vanilla in it. Seeing that they liked it, the susuwatari happily went back to work.
After finishing with the bath tokens he had to take care of, Kamagii turned and spoke to them. "So, you two want to learn some basic magic?"
"Yeah," they replied enthusiastically.
"Well come on over here and sit down, I can start be teaching you how to give things life if they are not alive." Sen and Naomi sat down as they listened to him. He put a handful or soot onto the ground in front of them, and said, "Each of you take half of this pile. Now then, put your hand over it and say, 'Unleash the life within thee.' It isn't enough just to say it though, you have to feel yourself giving it life."
Sen put her hand over a small pile of soot and said the words that Kamagii had told them. Once she finished speaking, a tingle ran from her fingers and all the way up to her shoulder. Suddenly, the pile in front of her sprang to life and started looking around. It saw Sen and immediately latched onto her knee.
"Seems like he's happy to have you as his mommy," Kamagii said, laughing. "Do you want me to put another spell on him so he won't turn back into soot from not working? That way he can go with you when you go to work."
Sen nodded, and Kamagii put the spell on it. Meanwhile, Naomi was trying and trying, but the pile in front of her wasn't moving. Kamagii looked at it, and turned it over. Naomi had given it life, but it was just sleeping.
"Um…… I don't think this one would want to come with us. He might have to give up sleeping until nighttime," Naomi said, poking at the susuwatari she had created. Every time she poked it on its stomach, it grunted, and made them all laugh. "Sen, are you going to name yours?"
"Yeah, I think I'll call him Dayu," she replied as Dayu hopped onto her shoulder. "Is there anything else that you can teach us, Kamagii?"
"Well I only know one other thing that could help you during battle, and that is that I can teach you how to heal things." He showed them one of his hands, which had a scratch on it from grinding things. "You won't be able to practice on anything, but to heal something, just drag a finger across it if the cut is small enough. If the cut, bruise, or whatever is too big for your finger, trace around it." He ran his finger along his scratch, and it disappeared. "And like before, you have to feel yourself healing it. As for curing illnesses, that takes a little more than I can show you."
As Kamagii finished speaking, Rin came into the room. "Sorry to spoil the fun, but I need you two to help me. Yubaba told me to take 'my little friends' to clean the big tub again, but I think it's probably another test for you, Sen. But in any case, she's gonna rip somebody's head off if that tub isn't cleaned." Rin saw Dayu hopping up and down on Sen's shoulder, excited to see his mommy at work, and she laughed a sort of laugh that you would make when you're out of air; it had no sound. So if you can, try to imagine her leaning over with watering eyes, mouth open, and pointing at Dayu. She probably thought it was so funny because it looked like it wanted to help. But when Rin laughed at him, he puffed himself up to look bigger.
"Look Sen! He's totally ferocious," Rin said as she caught her breath. But then she started laughing again at the sight of Dayu.
"Aw, don't laugh at him Rin! Dayu only wants to help his mommy with her chores," Sen said. "Bye Kamagii, thanks for everything."
"Good luck," he said as he tried to wake up the susuwatari that Naomi had made.
"Alright then, fallow me," Rin commanded.
"C'mon little girl, you better fallow me."