Rivers Never Die
by LadyRainStarDragon
Chapter 12: Dreams of Spirits
I don't own Spirited Away or any brand names that may pop up. This story is just a result of too much psychology research, my cat knocking over a book, and my fascination with spirituality. Professor Arack, I blame you and my cat, but I'm dedicating this to my husband for all his encouragement.
There is no excuse for BlowingWind, Ryu, Ten or Haku's lost spirit piece. That's all me.
Now, on with the story. I'm escaping while I can.
From the shadows in the corner of the room, Nushi watched as Kohaku brought Chihiro in. He had not been sure if he could manifest in her room since it had been so close to another time he had wandered the complex. That time he had been searching for her home and had gotten lost, scaring the wits out of some poor girl returning from wherever she had been. This time, he knew where his objective was.
She slept soundly in Kohaku's arms as he silently padded across her tatami. The western-styled bed was the only non-traditional element in the room. The bedframe was distinctly Japanese however, and Nushi wondered exactly how much the foreign girl had bothered Chihiro to get it. Supporting the sleeping woman in one arm as best he could, Kohaku drew back the covers. When they were back far enough, he slowly lowered her to her bed and arranged her limbs. Straightening once again, he drew the covers over her body to keep out the slight chill that was in the air. Nushi's ears perked as he caught Kohaku's parting words.
"Sleep well, my Chihiro."
Nushi wondered what had gone on between the two before to fill his words with such timber, as if he yearned for something. When he had watched Kohaku land from the relative safety of the pool's water, it had seemed as if he had known Chihiro. The look on his face made it clear that it was from much more than the day when she had fallen in the river. But how much more? Jealousy stirred lazily within his heart. Nushi almost missed Chihiro's faint moan in reply.
Kohaku hadn't even noticed the presence of Nushi, and he wondered why. Then again, Nushi was hiding in the shadows of Chihiro's room, so maybe it was a good thing this time. Something told Nushi that Kohaku was becoming rather possessive of Chihiro. That was good, unless he was caught. The door shut softly, and Nushi steeled his courage to finally approach the sleeping woman.
Setting up a barrier around them to prevent anyone from hearing his flute, Nushi was grateful for all the symbols connected to him that she had placed in her room. This would enable him to stay longer than he had planned. The first few tentative notes drifted over Chihiro.
His thoughts drifted over his memories. He began with when he was but a little stream rushing over pebbles. The music traced his history as it began to swell and grow, children coming now and again to his banks to fish or play. Purposefully he left out any battles that had been fought, though he did mention the occasional flooding. Droughts found their way into the melody and spoke of the times that we wove his way through underground passages or simply lay dormant. Eventually, he came to when Chihiro was a child and the music took on a more joyful pitch while he was reminiscing about how she came to him to play or swim when his flow was calm enough. Nushi remembered well the day she had fallen from a boat when out with her parents, reaching for her pink shoe. He was thankful that he had been nearby that day watching her. That fateful day he had finally done more than just watch, he had interacted with her, carrying her to the surface and to the bank. The notes became peaceful and fulfilled for the short time after when she would come to him just to talk, calling his name solemnly, then squealing in glee as he would come up, manifesting himself just for her. The wonderful feelings were dashed away though as he was suddenly reminded of what had happened to his river, a shrill note shattering the music's spell over them both.
When Nushi opened his eyes, he found himself by his headwaters, his river flowing as he remembered it. Looking around, the trees were in bloom, which was odd as he was very sure that they were in summer, not spring. He watched the blossoms dance in the breeze, while a few petals floated off on a breeze only to be swept away by the river once they touched it. A few of the lucky ones settled on the still portion of the pond which marked the entrance to the Spring God's home. With a start, he noticed Chihiro laying beside him, the rose miraculously still in her hair despite her long and tiresome day. Groaning a little, she began to sit up.
"Ugh. Another odd dream. Like anybody would come into my room to play a flute, even though it was really nice. Meeting that strange man this morning must be puzzling me more than I thought. I just know I know him somehow."
Chihiro held her head as she finally managed to get her muscles to sit her up. "Now I know why BlowingWind says she hates dreaming. This has to be the most painful entry I've ever had."
Gingerly, she opened her eyes, then blink at the light. As she took in her surroundings, her jaw opened. This is odd. "I thought I fell asleep in the living room." Then she registered her companion in Dream-land. "Ack! You!"
Nushi looked at her, with those big green eyes brimming with longing and hunger, noticing how she trembled slightly. As well she should, she didn't know what to expect and he would be worried if she wasn't at least a tiny bit nervous with someone she was unsure of. For all she knew, he could be an incubus come to steal her energy in exchange for something pleasurable for her. Or even another greed demon, fascinated by the connection to a river god that she possessed.
"It has been a long time since we spoke last."
"I don't remember talking to you."
"Not the last time, no. You used to talk to me a lot when you were a small child. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember though."
Chihiro peered at him rather closely. "I do kind of remember playing with a man that looked a lot like you near the river. But you also look a lot like a very good friend of mine, but maybe a couple years older. You wouldn't be related to Nigihayami Kohakunushi somehow would you?"
"I guess that is one way of saying it." He didn't think she needed to hear the whole story yet. He wasn't here to whine and mope. "What has happened to the fearless little girl that I once knew? She would come running to me when her parents were not paying attention to talk and play. You are still shivering."
Chihiro shook her head. Apparently he knew her, but she still wasn't clear on who he was. "It's the first time I've talked to anybody in a dream, that I can remember. Usually that's what my friend BlowingWind does. It's a bit weird. So, what do I call you?"
Nushi let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding what with looking into her eyes and hoping she wouldn't ask him his name directly. He didn't think it would go over well. "You may call me Nushi. This BlowingWind, she is the foreign girl that you are friends with, am I correct?"
Chihiro was surprised. Just how much did he know if he knew her friend was a foreigner? She regarded him carefully. "Yes. She is. How do you know of her? Have you been spying on me?"
He'd been caught. "I guess you could say that. I've been watching you since you first started digging out the river, even since the planning stages. I couldn't always hear names, but she is the one that you were with the most often. She didn't look like most of the people who live here."
Placated a little, she replied. "You're right, she's not from here. She used to live over in America, but she never told me why she came here. She's a good friend though."
"Would you care to tell me about what you have been doing lately?"
Chihiro began to tell him about her life, beginning when she was a kid, how one day the river had been gone, discovered through the window of her hospital room. She then continued through everything else, including her time at Aburaya and beyond. After she was done, he repaid her with a little music, but soon he knew it would be time to leave.
Chihiro yawned. "Am I going to remember our talk?"
"I don't know."
"Can we talk again sometime Nushi?"
Nushi began to beam. "I would like that. But I may be closer than you think."
The dream began to fade and blend. Nushi found himself back in his rooms beneath the spring, while Chihiro continued sleeping in the place she had been.
BlowingWind was with one of her ancestral grandmothers from before reservation times. By the lodge, she knew that she was in the Medicine Woman's home for another lesson. The old woman was talking to her about how at times a warrior would come back from a battle with a piece of himself missing.
"Soul retrieval is still important in your times young BlowingWind, and more than just a human warrior needs it from time to time. Even the Old Ones can get hurt in a battle and lose a piece of themselves. Very few know how to do the retrieval anymore."
"How does one know if they are missing a piece of themselves Grandmother?"
"They will feel as if they are missing a part of themselves. Sometimes, important memories are completely missing. That is a sure sign of the problem."
"So what does one do then to cure this?"
"The Healer or a person very close to the patient must go on a quest for the return of the soul-piece. If the quest is physical, then the patient must go as well."
Suddenly, a wind blew back the flap of the lodge. A tall stocky spirit stood in the doorway, warm sun glowing on his earthy brown shoulders. Brown eyes glowed out of a round face, surrounded by brown hair that bubbled upward like a spring of water. His garb was a robe in black silk with blue trim, very incongruous with a pre-reservation Apache camp. BlowingWind looked at the old grandmother, who looked unperturbed.
"Welcome Spirit. Come sit by the fire and tell us of why you have journeyed to here from so far away."
"My name is Ten. I had come looking for the young Shrine Maiden Chihiro Ogino. It seems that she must be otherwise engaged as I was forcibly repelled from her dreams. I found myself here."
BlowingWind leaned forward in a pose similar to a cougar readying to pounce on its prey. "Chihiro is my friend. What would you want with her?"
The old grandmother handed him a small jar full of water, which he accepted gratefully. "You must be the foreign girl that Chihiro is with so often. That must be why I find myself here instead of somewhere in my native land. Can I trust you with a message?"
BlowingWind looked like she didn't know whether to hang him over the fire or to agree. She was surprised when she heard the grandmother reply. "My granddaughter can be trusted to deliver a message Ten. I take it that this message is for her friend?"
Ten nodded. "Chihiro's work has gone very well with the river she is restoring. However, even once the river is flowing again, it will not be the same. The river's guardian is broken, a very large piece of him is residing in my spring with me."
BlowingWind was curious. "How can that be? I have met the river's God. He didn't seem broken to me."
"He would seem that way if you had known him as long as I have. I know for a fact that a very large piece of him is gone as he paces grooves in my home every time he thinks about having lost his own home."
"What happened?"
"The river was filled in. As technically a killing blow was struck to the river since my spring was mostly filled in, he should have completely departed the human world. However, the current priest of his old shrine's family was still making offerings to him, so it gave him a hold in that world to hold him there. Shortly before the river was filled, he had rescued a girl from that family, and I suspect somehow established a strong connection to her, also holding him to that world. The result is that he was torn. Most of him retreated to my spring and the old Shrine's Statue for safety and refusal of abandoning the child, while the rest escaped into Spirit World to find a way of bringing his river back. I only found out about the other escape a few years ago from his mother, who had taken him to a place of healing, as he had been seriously injured The excavation woke the part of him that stayed from his slumber, but I do not know what happened in Spirit World. Recently, you met the part of him that went to the Spirit World. Chihiro has to find a way to re-unite him, or he will fade and a new guardian will be brought to the river."
BlowingWind nodded. She would definitely pass that along. "I'll do that. Grandmother was teaching me about the healing of a soul. Perhaps that information can be of use."
Ten looked visibly relieved. "Thank you. I would hate to see my friend fade away." He stood to leave, and bowed deeply to the old woman. He was gone as suddenly as he had been there.
"So grandmother. How do I ascertain whether he truly has been broken?"
"Ask him about the time from before he met your friend. If he can not remember, then this Ten speaks the truth. It will be up to your friend to bring the two together however. You and your prospective partner may help, but it will be her who will have to heal them."
"How would she heal them?"
"Earlier, you had been telling me about how she used her last breath to bring up a statue, that you feel may have been in the old shrine her family once took care of, correct?" Encouraged by her distant granddaughter's nod, she continued. "Spirits can enter anything that is connected with them, such as a statue, rock, river, or close human. The river is not running yet, so perhaps she could use the statue. I don't think she would be thrilled with the other vessel choice judging how many young warriors she has fended off, so I won't even mention it."
The old woman laughed as she remembered the last time that BlowingWind had discussed the psychological benefits of having a sexual partner, the poor child had come that night with bruises all over.
"If you're implying what I think you are, she definitely is not up for that. The statue it is. Although the thought of Chihiro trying to 'kiss' two grown men at once is a rather comical image."
"Go and rest now granddaughter. Come home again tomorrow night if you can."
