A white dragon-girl stretched aching limbs in her more reptile-like form under the bright glow of a summer-sun on the bank of a large river in the spirit world. Lazily, she rubbed her eyes and altered her partner of her consciousness when she mumbled something about dreaming.
"Good sleep?" he asked softly, only flicking a horse-like ear towards her, intent on watching his river.
She gave a soft purr-like reply, rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes.
Chihiro felt herself sigh as she openly stared at the green-tinted creature nearby. He was the ideal picture of a Chinese dragon from the childhood books her grandfather had shown her. With a finely chiseled face, he looked almost wolf-like in the afternoon glow. There was only one thing to mar his perfect fantasy-image. It was the jet-black scales that replaced once snow-white ones. The inky-look covered the majority of his body now, only small spots of white were seen, and the thick teal mane was now shaggy and flopped over.
"What happened to your paw!" she shrieked when her gaze reached his rear limb. It had bubble-like tumors and a large hole.
Turning to face her, he snatched the deformed limb to tuck away beneath his bulk.
"It's nothing."
"Let me see it…" Chihiro asked as she began to walk towards him.
There was a resounding "snap!" of fangs as Haku raised his head to tower over the girl.
Time stopped.
She stood frozen, almost expecting him to strike her next. He, however, began to shift his weight before lying back down on the ground with his paws over his eyes.
"I….."
The girl simply "shhh'd" Haku, laying next to him and resting her head under his.
"Dairy was right."
Haku raised his head to look down at her, "right about what?"
"Your heart is tainted. I can't save you anymore Haku," she whimpered, tears gathering in her orbs again.
"Then I will pass on…..but not without helping your brother first," the black dragon whispered. "I will always love you Chihiro."
And when she raised her gaze to meet his, she noticed how once his beautiful teal eyes were surrounded almost completely by black rather than white.
"And I will always love you."
Slightly Haunted: I'm going to try to finish this story within a week, maybe continue, who knows :)
