Author's Notes/Disclaimer: ::poutpout:: ^^

This was 7 pages in Word…


Chapter 7


"Chihiro," Helene said as they walked across the desert, "do you even remember anything before the accident?"

"Not that I can think of. I know what my parents looked like, but that is only because there are pictures of them in the house."

"Did Zeniba show you a picture of Haku before she sent you on this journey?" Helene asked. Chihiro shook her head.

"No, she told me to look for Haku."

"Can you remember ever thinking about Haku, I mean, before you came here?"

"No… Remember how you said Haku became the river spirit of the river that I was at the other day? How did you know I was there?"

"Well," Helene explained, "people in the spirit world can watch over people in the human world."

"Oh well. I don't remember why I was at the river anyways," Chihiro replied glumly. "For some reason, I can't remember certain things. I'd start to, but then it would be gone, as quick as it came. Except for my dreams."

"Perhaps-"

"Wait… I remember something from one of my dreams… There was blood everywhere… and then I remember seeing a boy. He was lying down… and he was bloody, too… and a man with six arms…"

Chihiro sighed. Perhaps she would never remember anything before the accident. Helene glanced at her and then back ahead. They'd been walking for hours, but they still hadn't gotten anywhere.

"Chihiro?" she asked.

"Hmm…" said Chihiro, not looking up. She was watching her feet.

"Isn't that the same cactus in the same place as when we got off the train? And-" Helene looked behind them.

"-aren't those the train tracks behind us?" Chihiro turned around, and, sure enough, the train tracks were only a couple of feet behind them. Their rusty metal glistened in the sun as if to say 'Ha, ha! You can't seem to find your way across the desert, while we go on and on! Ha, ha!'

"Stop moving," commanded Helene. As soon as they stopped, they started moving backwards.

"Chihiro, what's happening? Why are we moving?"

"I don't know, but look!" She pointed to where the sand was carrying them. The sand seemed to be moving into one spot from all around them. The sand near the center would begin to sink.

"Quicksand!" screamed Helene, who was the first one to realize what was happening. "Quick! Run for your life!"

The two girls started running away, but because the sand beneath them was moving the other way, it was like they were running on a treadmill.

"Help!" Chihiro cried as the two girls, unable to resist, were pulled into the hole.


Yubaba frowned. Chihiro was close, too close. Yubaba hadn't expected her to come this far. Helene had failed to persuade Chihiro to go home, the mud man hadn't swallowed her up like he was supposed to, Danny had failed altogether, even though she knew he was too young for the job, and Phillip was too kind and soft to even think about pushing her into the lava.

"If you want something done right," she mumbled, "you have to do it yourself."


"Chihiro! Chihiro, wake up!" Chihiro opened her eyes and saw Helene looking at her with a sad but urging face.

"What… What happened?" she asked.

"Shhhh! I'm sorry, but I work for him now," said Helene sadly. Chihiro opened her eyes farther and saw that Helene had chains on her wrists. Chihiro also noticed that she herself was chained to the wall. She looked around and saw that they were in a cave, which seemed to be made out of sand.

"Who is he?" she asked.

"The sand monster! He says-"

"I sa' you betta' get ova' here right na'. Leave that stupa' gill alone! Na' getcha' butt ova' here!"

Chihiro looked behind Helene and saw a mountain of sand. He had two eyes and a mouth. It reminded her of the mud monster.

"Are… Are you… he?" Chihiro asked, her shoulders shaking.

"Ya'! Now sha' up, puna' one! Helene, get ova' here!" the sand monster snapped at her. Chihiro had to do something, and fast.

"Please, isn't there anything I can do that will let Helene and me leave this place, accompanied by the fifth clue? Please, I'll do anything! Well, almost anything. Please!"

"Well… Actually, there is something: make me a house out of quick sand!" the sand monster said with a laugh. He knew she would fail because plenty of others had tried, and they had all failed, too. Chihiro smiled.

"Can I have your word on that?"

"I swear upon my life," he replied. "However, you only have an hour to do it. If you fail, you're next on the dinner menu."

Chihiro looked around, but all she could see was dried sand.

"Can I have some sand? I mean, can we go above ground?"

"Certainly," he said with a smile. With a little poof! they were above the sand monster's cavern. Chihiro looked around. Then she turned to the monster.

"May I have something to make the sand stay where I put it?" she asked. The monster nodded, and he gave her a bucket and a shovel.

Chihiro put some sand in a bucket and began. Soon after fifty-five minutes, a magnificent house was built.

"But wait," the monster said as he gave her a tiny red flag, "it must have a flag waving from somewhere on the roof."

Chihiro took the flag and stuck it in the chimney. But as soon as she let go, the house collapsed.

"Hey," said Helene, "that's not fair!"

"Don't worry," said Chihiro reassuringly. "I still have five minutes. May I have a square bucket, please?" The monster gave her one.

She filled it all the way to the top with sand. Then she dumped the bucket over onto the ground, making a block of sand. Chihiro drew a door and two windows on each side of house. Then she stuck the flag in the top.

"Okay, there's your sand house," she said promptly. "You never specified what size."


Yubaba slapped herself in the face. Chihiro had outsmarted even her. "Just you wait, Chihiro. You'll get what's coming to you; I can promise you that!" Then she began to cackle.


The sand monster melted away. Where he once stood was a sandwich with a toothpick stuck in it. Stuck on the toothpick was a piece of paper that said, 'the clue is the sandwich.'

"Yes! Helene, come over here! Helene?" Chihiro looked around, but her friend was nowhere to be found.

"Oh no!" she gasped. "Helene's still in the monster's cave!" Chihiro looked around, but since the sand monster had left, the desert had returned to normal. The hole in which they had originally fallen through was now gone.

Chihiro picked up the shovel and ran over to where the hole used to be. Then she began to dig. She dug for three hours until she finally fell through.

"Ouch!" Chihiro looked around. Helene was lying on the floor, and the chains that had been on her wrists were now gone. She ran to her friend.

"Helene! Helene, wake up! Come on, the monster's gone now," Chihiro said. Helene blinked and opened her eyes wide.

"You… You built the sand castle?" she asked. Helene sat up, wide-awake now. "But… How did you do it?"

"Never mind," replied Chihiro. "We now have all five clues: Rumpelstiltskin, mud, ordinary, cottage, and sandwich."

"But," said Helene curiously, "what do they all add up to?"

"Well, let's see… Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold, right? So maybe the thief knows how to sew. What do you think?" Chihiro asked.

"Well," said the other, "the mud man lived in a swamp. Maybe the thief who can sew lives in a swamp?"

"Perhaps it's an ordinary swamp-"

"And there's a cottage in the swamp-"

"And the thief likes to eat sandwiches!" They both fell over laughing their heads off.

"Well," said Chihiro once she'd calmed down enough to talk, "are there any names of places that include any of the clues?"

"Definitely not Rumpelstiltskin," said Helene, thinking hard. "I don't think swamp is in anything… No, wait… Swamp Bottom! But that's where…"

"What is it?" asked Chihiro. Perhaps Helene had figured it out. But Helene only had one thing to say:

"Yubaba!"