Promise of a River
By: LadyRainStarDragon
Chapter 15: Test, Familiar Katana, Misfiled Memories
Rain owneth not ye Spirited Away.
Serious stuff. Only a sprinkle of comedic antics.
"You be careful Dragon-Boy, ya hear? I don't want to bandage anymore wounds, unless you bleed on her carpet first and not all over our food!"
"So nice to know you care."
"Idiot, of course I care. Sen would probably hang me by my toes if I let you die before you fulfil your promise, Lover Boy, even if she doesn't remember at this moment."
"Quit calling me that! Fine, fine 'nee-chan' I'll be careful. Did you want me to get you a souvenir too?"
The sarcasm in his statement was odd, if you weren't Lin. Lin, however, had become privy to this hidden side of him, seen emotions that many had even thought him incapable of, ones that he only shared with a few choice people. At first, she couldn't stand the snotty boy with his cool demeanor and noble mannerisms, but after Sen had become attached to him, and seeing how attached he was to her, she began to see more than his false front that hid his insecurities and emptiness. In time, she thought of him as a brother, although older or younger she had no idea.
"Yeah, just a stick if you find a really good forest. Then I can at least pretend I'm in a forest again . . . maybe whack a few lazy frogs with it."
"Ok, now remember, you don't know where I went, I just disappeared again."
She watched her friend leave, picked up by the very winds themselves, and as she saw the sun gleam on his scales that resembled the froth in a rapid, and observed the way his aqua mane resembled a streaming river behind him, Lin understood how Sen could have fallen for the 'Master.' He truly was a gorgeous beast, and his wild independence would only add fuel to any attraction of a child seeking friendship and safety. They would make a good couple, if given another chance. Lin regretted not getting a chance to lock them in a broom closet together, and certainly would have found a way to do it if they had been older at the time. Maybe she should have.
Even if only to tease him about it years later.
'Hmm. Another art project that I could circulate, maybe get Yoru to post in the guy's bathing area so he'd see it. Yeah. Now, while he's gone, who should I torture - I mean play with. Hmm. I haven't messed with the Head Cook for a while . . .'
After my farewells with Lin were done, the winds picked me up, a strangely familiar wind kami smiling at me in his transparent way, mouthing words at me as we traveled together for my destination. He seemed quite comfortable with me, whistling endless tunes that only make sense to the other kami of his kind.
Yubaba had said that the rumors were that the sword had last been seen by a tree spirit who had witnessed a battle between one of the water gods of that area around the base of Sacred Mountain. He had been a young god, perhaps early adulthood, and a string of bad luck had been plaguing him. In the end, he went against a dark Greed spirit, and although he barely won the battle, he nearly lost his life and the sword disappeared. The site of the battle had been the threshold of the Sacred Spring of Life known by the Kami-gumi as Fukushinizumi. So that was where I would start my search.
The landscape of the Spiritual Counterpart to the area was virtually unchanged from when Chihiro was small, the kami all managing to hold their places, more than I would have expected. As I landed, I could feel that the veil between my world and Chihiro's was very thin here, and yet it still managed to keep me in my place, uncaring and unyielding to me.
There was an odd patch of ground where the grass would not grow underneath the blanket that the sleeping mother had drawn over herself, nor even the meanest weed. It was eerie how barren the spot was, as if something so wrong and evil had perished there, tainting the very ground until it could be purified. I had reached out to touch it seeking to know more, but the overwhelming aura of evil stayed me from doing so, causing the fine hairs on the back of my neck to rise while a terrible tsunami of de ja vu threatened to drown me..
Pulling my eyes away from the dreadful sight of the profaned site, I noticed how beautiful this place was. The pond was deep, replenished from water that welled up from the bowels of the earth. Trees stood sentinel over the sacred place, and rock joined the peaceful embrace of water. It was both familiar and strange, time having changed a few things here and there. Snow lay deep on the ground this winter, covering rock and root in mantles of frozen life, chilling my feet where I stood.
I began to feel a little faint, as if something were drawing at my life force, my essence, perhaps even my very soul itself. My hands began to fade, not quite as transparent as when my Chihiro had been fading in my world, but still more so than they should be. It is truly disconcerting, to see yourself like that, and I could understand how the Little Pearl who was my most Precious Treasure had felt that summer night so long ago. I couldn't let myself go, she was counting on me to keep my promise.
My flesh began to look solid again, which is actually a strange thing when you realize that I'm really just a bunch of embodied water wandering around that would have evaporated long ago without a purpose or left unreplenished. Never the less, it became so, and I was relieved. The problem that I had tried to ignore would not get better without attention, and it was just my luck that my waning reserves of life would flare up to complain while on a mission.
There was a strange pull at my senses away from the water, into the forest. It was as good a place as any to start my hunt, and so I followed where my intuition was leading. A short distance away, hidden by a growth of heavy bush, was a very small shrine, constructed of rock to house something. The pull had increased as I got nearer, and I could hear a slow and steady heartbeat from within the stone box, which was roughly the correct size for sword storage.
I thought it strange that such a thing would only be guarded by a lone bush, but as I reached out to investigate, my hand passed through a barrier, alerting me that whatever was inside was guarded by powerful wards, and quite powerful itself. It was so strange how easily I was able to pass through the shield, which let me through like we were part of each other, an acknowledging murmur chasing through my body.
The box itself was a different story however. The warning tingle of adversarial magic tickled my fingers only a moment before I felt the singe of heat at my fingertips. I also felt a little odd, as if something had tried to swallow me. Quite quickly, I yanked my hand away, placing the most burnt between my lips as I pondered what spell had been used to lock the box. A small smirk played across my lips despite their present task, a wayward and mischievous child enjoying a new challenge. It had been a while since I had been assigned a truly challenging task, and this would serve to quiet my worries and inner quarrels for a time.
In our system of magic, there are five elements, earth, wood, metal, fire, and water, and each gives way to the latter. In other systems, there may be earth, air, fire, water, spirit, ice, or any arrangement of other elements, either in groups of four or five. I was rather hoping for something outside my realm of magical studies to test my skill against, but when I said a spell to show me the system form, I was disappointed.
The kanji written in the field clearly told me I was working with the five from my own system, but not which of the five it was. Since it had burned when I touched the box, it had to be something adversarial to water. Earth and wood would only have drained my energy when set as guards, so they were not what placed itself against me. If it were water, my own element, it would not have burned either, the two forces would merely whirlpool in the fight for supremacy. This left either metal or fire, both of which had the potential to burn me.
'So which is it?'
Starting with the obvious, fire, I attempted to quench it with my waters. I felt a weakening within the spell locking the box, but the spell did not fully dematerialize. The sibilant sounds of a quenched fire resounded through the area, louder than I had expected, and a cloud of hot steam burst in my face to announce the departure of the element I had tested first.
Whomever had placed this was strong, and I smiled in appreciation of the effort of whomever had secured this item. This spirit, if spirit it was, happened to be well versed in element magic. There had not been only one element securing the object, but another as well. The only one left was metal, and as fire will make metal brittle, perhaps whomever had placed this had forgotten and put metal directly enshrouded by the fire.
I sent a focused blast of water where the spell seemed to connect, testing to see if the encasement would shatter. When it did not, most thieves would have groaned in frustration, but not I. The only thing that could have made me smile more would be if someone had given me a heaping plate of cherry mochi and told me that if I ate it all I could keep Chihiro as my prize. After all, challenges are so hard to come by now that I'm being phased out.
So, since the spell didn't break, that meant whoever had done this knew that fire could forge metal from the earth (Iron ore from the Earth's mantle). The interaction of water and fire had turned this into steel. As I thought of the fastest way to defeat this new piece of the puzzle, I could not keep from murmuring to myself, or from holding my chin in thought as I crouched like a looming rock.
There was a possibility that the sword wasn't even in there, but hidden elsewhere and this was just a decoy filled with some hungry nameless demon. Of course, since I'd gone so far, it would be a real waste of magic to just quit now, and really, it had been a while since I had been in a good fight. My Aramitama had sworn off of taking Chihiro's underwear once I had found where he was cowering within my being. Of course, this meant that his mischievous ways had to be curbed in other manners, hence my extreme enjoyment of both this mission and the thought of getting in a fight. There was no way I was letting him have sake if I could help it, his impaired judgement would leave us way too open to Lin's endless pranks.
However, I could hear the rush of a river raging inside the box to be let out, the roar of ocean waves calling the waters home, and the trickle of where they emerged shyly as a maiden from the lap of a great mountain. This is where Haku my Aramitama decided to get distracted, as water made him think of Chihiro. So much for keeping my mind off her for a while. What did that girl do to me? Was she some kind of young witch who didn't know it and entrapped me within longings for her sweet scent?
I had to stop that thought. There was too much possibility of Haku running along that line. Inside my head, I could hear scuffles as what passed for my Nigimitama shoved Haku in the dirt, desperately hoping to ground where that thought was headed so the three of us could pay attention to the outside world.
I supposed I could have tried to smash the metal beneath heavy earth, but that would take a lot of that elemental power, which I moved through not was. Therefore, that was out of the question. Wood gives way to metal, and I wasn't a wood spirit either, so that was doubly no good. Fire could have been used to brittle the metal ingot most assuredly hidden inside the box securing the spell, but to channel true fire for me would have been a death wish. My element is water, which not only encompasses that water which is most familiar to all, but also the waters of the air that most people do not even realize are water. Perhaps I could rust it then with the combination of the earth and sky waters?
It was to remain unknown to the young dragon for years afterwards that this mission was a test of his abilities by the Council, and that not only his chance to see his only connection to his mysterious past again, but also his own life lay on the line. If Kohaku were to fail at removing the treasure locked within, a watching Council of Dragons would utter the spell that would end his life, to wait the traditional seven years before being judged by the King of the Underworld to find whether he would be reborn or if he were to pass through the Fires of Purification before going through that gateway between worlds and lives. Especially interested in the results of the test were a pair of jade orbs, almost literally on fire with their worry.
After all, what loving father wants to have to kill his own son if the boy had not redeveloped the level of control he would need? Only recently had they discovered how dire the situation of his precious balance was. There was only one way to heal the shattered dragon, but in his current state, it would be too easy for the young woman to be injured with the swirling confusion of his son's two souls that now more closely resembled a human's four souls.
Focusing carefully, I envisioned the ingot being worked on by the powers of water and air, the rust forming thick on the surface, slowly working its tenacious and creeping fingers through the hardened bar like sea water will devour anything given time. Unacknowledged by myself, night became day, day faded again to night, to be replaced once more by day's dappled then fading light. When I was sure it was weak enough, I focused the two into a stream powerful enough to blast through walls, but still it held firm.
Frowning now, I pulled back my energy, breath coming quickly as I panted a little from the exertion, giving way to the breathing patterns of my specie. The magic danced and taunted me, took the form of a face on the box to leer at me and whisper how weak I was to not defeat a little piece of metal. Incensed that a mere chunk of melted rock would dare speak to me so, I let forth another blast, opening myself fully to project every bit of effort I could to silence the taunting, which only continued in a garbled form. Eventually, I had to stop, and the ingot's words came clearly to me.
"Frustrated, are we little dragon? I suppose you will be even more so after I tell you I saw what your heart holds most dear as you opened to channel your magic. Such a weak dragon you are, holding as your heart a pathetic human girl, who was sick the last time you saw her at that. What would you do, if I told you I've bi-located to her side even now, and have rested my cold forehead against her own warm one as you have done in a most cherished memory. How sweet she smells in her rest. Perhaps I should take her for my own."
"Leave Chihiro out of this!"
"Chihiro. Thousand Fathoms, such an appropriate name for a river dragon to cherish. Perhaps why you hold her memory so sacred is that you wish to immerse yourself in her watery depths in place of the river you failed to defend? To coil within and be covered by her, secure in the knowledge that you will have a home for another 60 or so years as she performs impossible healings in your name. Or perhaps it is merely base lust that the dragon feels for a gentle and blushing virgin unspoilt by fleshly knowledge of men and offering up to you her heady perfume ripe for the plucking with but a murmured wish?"
"What are you saying? Such a relationship is forbidden!"
"Not forbidden, merely frowned on as one can never truly tell if the less powerful and fleetingly transient human is really willing. They are easy creatures to seduce, but who can ever truly know what is in their corrupt hearts? Mortal and immortal alike easily fall prey to the desires of a material body, especially if they do not have full grasp of the lessons of the various types of love."
"You lie! I have never heard of any similar relationship being allowed to continue. And her heart is not corrupt, she is the most pure being that I can ever remember meeting, in body, heart and soul."
"Such words to defend her honor when you have placed it in question in her own mind by way of her dreams many a time, easing the demands of her hormones, causing her to desire no mortal man, yet leaving proof that the things she felt may not have been mere dream. Though she may not consciously acknowledge that a spirit seeks to guard her heart by wooing her away from even thoughts of human males, at least some tiny part knows and gives in a little further each denied tryst. I have seen your memories while you assailed me, I know what your heart yearns for even if you will consciously deny it. With each blast you weaken more in your state of flux, and will die if you go too far. I will welcome that, and take her for myself, as she lies so close and the imbalance in the area will allow me to travel far. If she smells sweet, surely her pure virgin's blood must taste even sweeter. The wards that protect her are failing with each attempt by other spirits to claim her purity. A human's body in my possession as well as spilling her first blood will make me strong enough to challenge this wood spirit entrapping me."
Rage flowed through me, scalding hot in its intensity as it boiled upward from volcanic depths. I was incensed that some lowly demon thought to sink his fangs and whatever else into my tender beauty whose memory I guarded so jealously, not to mention these others that I had only just learned of. The mere thought was enough to nearly drive me insane with hate and worry. Within my chest, I felt a pressure like I can only remember feeling once before, the last time she had been in danger, in the river. But that didn't quite fit either. Had she once been in a similar situation close to that time, and it was a memory that I no longer possessed? It was like someone had heated my heart like a stone, and began to work at it with hammer and chisel to break it into pieces. This galvanized me, filling my body with energy that I had not known that I possessed.
"Vile thing! You will not touch my Chihiro!"
From their vantage around the crystal, the Council watched as the young dragon's black hair began to flail as whips about his head, his eyes glowing a deadly white like a flash flood lit from within as his audacious and reflective natures agreed to defend the maiden in question. The ghost of who he once had been overlaid his features on the young river lord-once-and-to-be, his features becoming sterner and losing the soft childishness that had played through him before as he had reveled in the challenge presented. His hair, which had previously been a midnight curtain to his shoulders, gained ethereal extensions that could barely be seen, yet left unfelt even with the fact it would have fallen about his waist had his winds been still. The young man's heartbeat resounded through his body, and this energy too he gathered to combine with the rest that he had as well as his rage merging with the rushing river streaming from him, breaking the demon that had been newly born.
Within the box of stone, the sword pulsed in time with the young dragon's heartbeat, answering the master's unconscious call. The weapon, unable to fly to his side yet still sensing the danger to the one for whom it had been forged, as well as what he guarded, instead focused what energy it held latent within itself, attacking the enemy from within in great pulses of water. Surprised at the assault from an unexpected angle, the demon was forced to turn some of it's attention within in attempt to protect itself.
A distance behind Kohaku, the pool of the spring glowed, lit blue from a forgotten silver dragon statue hidden behind a rock, leaving only a severely weakened memory tethered there yet again, to once more attempt to gather energy. As the demon was defeated, the young man's eyes stopped glowing, going back to his normal jade stones. His body, having nearly given its all, shuddered a bit at the backlash of unnecessary magic that returned. The force of it threw him backwards, cracking his head soundly on a tree several paces away.
Moments stretched by as the late teen slumped against the tree. Branches folded down to comfortably support the young lord who had been gone for so long, the ancient dryad recognizing the young man who had once caused a devastating avalanche with his friend on a bored winter day in the neighborhood of 1,000 years ago. Finally, a low moan announced that he had regained his consciousness. Recent key memories of the woman Chihiro had become had been locked away in the crash, and the three aspects who had actually agreed to function together in the way that had been intended were too dazed to realize that more memories had been lost.
Blood trickled a slow path down the back of his head were the skin covering his skull had split with the force of the impact, but he paid it no mind. It would heal shortly, and there wasn't much that he could do for it now anyway. Lin would take care of it when she could.
The barrier had broken without it's animating spirit, and a collective cheer rose from the throats of the watching dragons, a particular white and gold getting his great scaly back thumped repeatedly at the success of his boy. Said dragon was virtually dancing in his relief, the hissing of his great Armored Being the music to praise his son while the five voices toned their joy.
The young man, for man they could now truly call him again for having confronted his fear and lived through it, reached out to remove the lid of the box, uncaring if he was shocked by any lingering magic. The man was merely determined to complete his mission, and to be sure that fiend that threatened that which was his was gone.
All that was left in the stone box was a bit of rusted metal, and a gleaming piece of the sea made solid, stirring softly within the matching sheath. Kohaku carefully picked up the Sea Sword, eyes wide in awe as he knew instinctively that this was the sought after item. A memory tried to push its way to the surface, but it met with some kind of barrier even as he reached forth a hand to drag it into the light. As quickly as that, it was gone, leaving only a vague impression of standing alone against an encroaching evil, dreamlike in quality.
Eyes admiring the fine item, and the blade once drawn, he did not notice when it replenished him with what it had to give, no part of the shattered being realizing that a part of itself had been returned from the ether. With his fingers he could feel the kanji that traced the name of the proper owner, but his eyes could not see them, they hid within the blade and scabbard like deer in the mist.
I couldn't believe what I had in my hands. These swords were very rare, and here I was actually holding one! I had heard that they would only properly serve their intended masters or those who shared his or her blood. I wasn't going to tell Yubaba that though. If she didn't know, then she could find out on her own. It was strange though how familiar this sword felt to me, how it fitted my hand as if I had trained with it often. With a sigh, I sheathed it, contemplating the unity that was the female principle of sheath and male principle of sword. The female would protect the male in peace, while the male served to protect the female in time of war.
As I stood, I noticed the bush begin to move a little, as if thanking me for relieving it of the duty it had attended to for so long. Used to such odd displays, I nodded in acknowledgment, just before assuming my dragon shape to soar back to the bath house. Before leaping to the sky, I remembered by promise to Lin, and picked up a shed stick for her. I had no idea what she'd do with the sticks she always asked me to bring her, but it was better to humor her. For all I knew, it could be some weird nesting impulse, and no way was I going to mess with any woman beginning to be in her season because that was more dangerous than any mission the witch could send me on. Still clenched in my claws was the sword, pulsing and surging power like the waves of the sea, filling my ears with the low pounding of surf. Then, it struck me.
Only four elements had barred the sword from me. Wood had been present in the form of the guardian bush, having hidden the box with it's form. Earth had been the box itself, as well as the ore that had hidden within the magically triggered Fire shield. Once the Fire had been quenched with water, Metal had remained. However, water had not been set against me, or if it had, it had not been noticed. If someone who was not water had tried, would water have manifested after all?
That thought bothered me the whole flight. I was waiting for the sword to start fighting me or something, but nothing happened. It just sat there, like it was at home.
When I was finally in Yubaba's office, I presented the sword to her. Her eyes filled with malicious glee at the sight of the katana, two embers from hell. Greed shone through her eyes, more so than usual, and I wondered what could have happened to the woman in her earthly life to fill her with it so here in Kamikakushi.
Her gnarled hands, like tree roots, reached to grasp the hilt and sheath. As she laid her hands upon it, it let forth a great burst of energy, swirling up her arms like water, leaving burns where it touched flesh. With the cry of an injured bird, she wrenched away from it to gaze wide eyed at the seemingly inanimate prize. After a minute, she looked at me, puzzlement etched in every line on her face, moving then into calculation as she assessed the situation.
"The owner is not dead."
"Pardon?"
"This sword still has the protective spell on it. It will allow no one to touch it unless they are its master or carry the same blood in their veins."
"That has to be impossible Yubaba. I'm holding it, and it has not reacted to me the entire time."
"And neither can you remember anything about your family. I want to see something. Draw the sword Haku."
Rolling my eyes internally, I pulled the blade from the scabbard, allowing Yubaba to see it. I watched the katana pulsate with visible energy as it suspiciously regarded the witch staring right back at it. It was as if this thing in my hands had a consciousness of its own, mistrustful of the sorceress, and rightfully so. Water swirled around the blade, restraining itself, but clearly speaking reproachfully to the witch. Who knew what use she had intended for it?
I felt myself being drawn into the blade, when the air was rent by her frustrated screech again, now sounding as if someone had trapped an owl by its tail feathers and decided to pull out the pin feathers of the wings.
"The sword is yours! How can this be?"
"What do you mean it's mine?"
"It has said so clearly and your name right there on it as plain as day! Are you blind and deaf?"
I looked to where she pointed, but I saw nothing, only the sword smooth as a still moonlight pond, dotted here and there with lily. No glyphs made themselves known to my eyes, no etches danced before me, no utterances came from it, nor were any intelligible patterns formed by the water. Carefully keeping my thoughts off my face, I looked back up at her a moment. The strain of the bath house must be getting to be too much for her, causing her to hallucinate.
"I see nothing. Perhaps you should sit down, and I'll bring some tea."
"Don't you condescend to me, you annoying dragon! The kanji is as clear as this large nose on my face!"
"There is nothing there Yubaba."
(Although your nose is quite large.)
((If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all Haku.))
(Fine. It's a nice big nose.)
The two of us glared at each other for a while, the flames already beginning to build within her, betrayed by the curls of black smoke from her nose and the crackle as her hair began to slip loose. After a bit, she sighed and drooped like a dying flower after a frost.
"You really can't see it, can you?"
"Whatever it is Yubaba, no I can't."
"Keep the sword. I won't be able to use it, and if you have it, I know Bou won't hurt himself on it. You have the rest of the night off. Blasted metal dragon tricked me with that rumor."
"Thank you."
After I bowed and was dismissed, I headed for my room, fully intending to get some sleep, as I felt a little drained after my mission. As I got to my door, so close that I could almost hear my futon calling to me, Lin ran up behind me.
"Wow, Haku. You got a sword out of the deal?"
"Apparently so. Yubaba said that it was mine and that it wouldn't let her use it."
"Serves her right, what a smart sword. Maybe smarter than you. Anyway, I don't think she can use a sword."
We both had to laugh at the image of the old woman attempting to wield a sword.
"Yeah, but she is the boss. Far be it from me to tell her. Oh, here's your stick."
"Good one! Thanks."
"Do I even want to know what you really do with these?"
"I'm making my den. When I was little, Mom had lots of sticks piled up and woven into dividers for our den. I just want to be ready. Why?"
The image of Lin as a mother, although at first shocking and terrifying with the thought of chibi-Lins scampering about to terrorize the bathhouse, did suit her. Once she calmed down maybe. Still, with how well she did with my little Chihiro, I was willing to wager she would be a good one.
"Just curious. I'm going to go rest now. Good night."
"Curiosity killed the Dragon! Good night Haku. I'll run my girls ragged so they'll leave you alone, but I can't do anything about the slugs."
"Just don't make any jokes about what brought him back. Thanks."
I watched her scamper off, to no doubt carefully place her stick before going back to work. I wondered what Chihiro would look like ripe with child, but quickly squashed that thought before it bore fruit. I was too tired to deal with another fight with myself, any aspect of myself, and those two still hadn't stopped bickering.
Slipping into my room and locking it, I carefully suspended the sword on the wall in a fortuitous and auspicious place. The pulsing stopped as soon as it left contact with my body, and with it whatever spell was keeping me from seeing what was written on it. Gracing the scabbard was a great dragon etched into the silver, looking suspiciously like myself. He curled his tail around a set of kanji.
Studying it, it was indeed my name. No memory came though of when or how I had first gotten it. It was as if life before Chihiro had been wiped from my memory, bits of my life stolen even deeper than what had been hidden by the spell Yubaba had once used to keep me in her thrall. It was too much for me to think about right now, so I went to lay down and rest just a little before taking some time to study one of my books.
I was asleep as soon as I hit my pillow, barely having the presence of mind to pull a blanket over myself. In the dream I was plunged into, as I wrapped my coils about her form I was not tormented by thoughts of easing the tensions of her sweet body that seemed to build up in my dreamscapes. I had no such memories readily available. Merely enjoying the soothing rhythm of her heart, steady as the surf, I followed her throughout some kind of hall of learning my sweet maiden a dot of white and red among a sea of dark uniformed students. I was unable to puzzle out the significance of the dream's colorings, and unable even to make out her lovely face that I so longed to see. Instead, I could only follow helplessly as I wondered if it was some vision of the future, or some way my suppressed self had cooked up to convey another message.
Happy birthday to me (well, on the 16th). In celebration, here's a chapter.
Reviewer's Corner:
NitenGale - Nope, it wasn't very good for his mental well-being, was it.
KatsyKat - The sad thing is that he got himself into that mess.
Rakasha - :pats kitty's head.:
Littlekittykat - Here you go.
Lost-And-Lonely-Pheonix - Chihiro would throw a shovel. Here, have a suit of armor too.
TranquilMoon - all will be revealed in time, and reunions are always inevitable.
Red-sakura-wolf - thanks.
Jessica - It will come in good time.
Chelsea - glad you liked the carpet.
