The residents of the Silver Valley subdivision would forever ponder the strange patch of stark white flowers that bloomed under every full moon in the summertime. The beautiful tulip-like flowers grew only on Mr. Hudson's backyard, leading along a path that ran back to the house where every neighbor knew the family of the missing girl lived. Most figured it was a good sign for the unfortunate family. The flowers were never eaten by pesky rabbits or even touched by bees. They simply bloomed for a week before the head of the flower would bend the stalk until it resembled a falling tear-shape.

Such mystical flowers were highly prized and very rare. They were called simply what they were created by, Dragon Tears.

Haku had comforted Chihiro while she shed silent tears, no huffing or sniffing. Eventually the sun dipped behind the edge of the earth and the green-haired dragon carefully lifted his fragile human-shaped friend back to the spirit world.

"What exactly is she now?" was his only thought.


The water was ridiculously white.

In fact, it was so white, Chihiro's first assumption was, "milk!"

Something laughed with a jingle-like tone in her mind.

Thinking someone was laughing behind her, Chihiro tightened both fists and swung in a wide arc behind her. The laughter never faltered.

What is this place? The white stuff looks like an ocean and what I'm standing on looks like sand, only dark blue. Whoa! That looks like a rainforest, but all of the leaves are red…

Chihiro walked slowly in her human form across the "beach" and towards the red woods. She couldn't tell if the dark grey sky was being brightened by the light blue star in the sky or not.

weird.

Without warning, a gale-force wind struck, spinning Chihiro and knocking her with the force of another person. Falling, she yelped and put both arms out to catch her before she could fall.

But, she didn't land in the sand. It was soft green grass, and it was the right color.

The girl looked up from where she fell and was nose-to-nose with a red-brown horse with solid black opals.

"Nice to see you again, Chihiro."