It could have been the sound of bones literally snapping.

It was possibly the overwhelming metallic-like smell of blood.

It might have been the taste of the tears that ran down her face.

But it was probably the sight of her brother, in his natural form of a small boy, being crushed by a massive black dragon that snapped Chihiro from her hypnotic state.

She wailed with all her might.

It had all started just a few hours after her morning with Haku by the river.

Although the mystic river dragon had almost lost his control with a frightening display of power, he decided to try to please what his dark side titled as his "mate", regardless of their lack of a true relationship. While not necessarily sorry about his actions, what little was left of his compassion determined that the girl needed to be happy.

In the late afternoon hours of the spirit world, Haku guided Chihiro down the river that he guarded and into an enormous cove where it ended. Among the rocks, he brought her to meet creatures the once human girl never believed to truly exist. He introduced her to several mermaids who all immediately admired her pearl-like scales. With fits of girlish laughter, they adorned her mane with jewel pins, polished her nails a teal color, and taught her to use her new form to glide at high speeds under the water.

Haku watched, pleased that Chihiro was happy, but not wanting to remind her of his condition.

The sun sank at the edge of the horizon, and with it, the mermaids returned to the dark depths of the ocean.

"Haku! I never dreamed I'd meet real mermaids! They were like a bunch of carefree girls, and…..oh it was awesome!" she twirled in the water and gave Haku a playful splash.

"I'm glad you enjoyed their company, but I'm afraid our little vacation is going to be cut short."

Chihiro turned to look back at Haku from her lazy strokes in the water with a startled expression.

"Bade is challenging us."

Looking up to the sky, the young dragoness was stunned to see the dark out line of a dragon quite far to the west and circling over Haku's territory. From that point on, Chihiro struggled to keep up with the darker dragon that chose to fly at an incredible speed, unable to use her newfound speed underwater because the current was against her.

Ahead of her, she could hear the lion-like roars each dragon challenged the other with, echoing in the valley that lay at the foot of an enormous mountain. Stopping a good quarter mile away, she paused to allow her heavy breathing to subside, and was caught in a trance.

Haku and Bade danced around one another, moving in a circle shape that stayed the same size. Each roared periodically, rolling their orbs, snapping their jaws, growling, and throwing tuffs of grass with sharp talons. Blade stopped the pacing first, turning to the center of the circle and giving the highest-pitched cry yet. Haku turned in towards the circle, raised his head and curled his lip.

In a flash, both brutes were locked front paw to front paw. Jaws snapped as each sought to tear into the other brute's head or neck, neither making more than shallow gashes. However, Haku missed a strike, tearing Bade's left ear while Bade took the opening and clamped his fangs around Haku's exposed neck.

Luckily for Haku, Bade didn't strike as deeply as he had planned and much lower than intended. Still, with the grip he had on the older dragon, Haku was in trouble. He reached up with his front paws and started to tear into the lowered head and neck of the other dragon. Bade made a terrible cry as the strikes pounded into him, releasing Haku in pain. But Haku didn't stop his assault until the other dragon fell onto its back and began to change into a human form.

This is about the point where this chapter started.

And after only seconds of struggling under the weight of the mighty Kohaku river dragon, Bade exhaled a last gust of air as he was crushed; his eyes turned toward his sister and he mouthed, "I'm sorry Chihiro."


Slightly Haunted : Yes, I know. Very unoriginal, but I promise, I will try to suprise you in the end ;)