All right. I am seriously going to hope that all of you know about how this
story is the continuation of TTT. See, some of the people who reviewed the
first two stories so faithfully haven't shown their faces here at this one,
so maybe they just don't know about how Pools of Torment was a TBC, which
continues in this story. Ahh, well, never mind.
Please, review, and tell me if there's anything that you'd like to see before this trilogy comes to an end. Also, please tell me if there are things that might be changed to the story to make it better. That's what reviews are for, and I simply don't get as many as I'd like. Not that it matters. I'm going to continue writing this story whether I get a lot of reviews or not. In fact, chapters three, four, and five are already written, and need only to be typed out before I can post them.
With that said, I can move on to some other pressing details. For those of you who have also been following my InuYasha fic, I probably won't be updating for a little while. Right now, it's hard enough to keep up to date with TTT than to also have to worry about another. Don't worry, I am in no way abandoning that fic, I just have it on hold for now.
Anyways, read and review, and once more, enjoy!
*~*
Chihiro was asleep. If there was ever a word that fit her current condition, it was that one. She lay limply in a comatose state in the arms of the green-eyed girl that carried her. Outside, she was perfectly peaceful, but on the inside. . . well, that was a different story.
She was wandering through a strange, bluish colored mist. Ahead of her, she could see dark shapes looming ever out of reach, none of them tangible, but all of them most certainly there. She wandered aimlessly until she grew tired, and then she sat down and began to think.
{This can't be right! It just can't. The last thing that I remember was that archmage guy about to say that we were husband and wife. The next thing I knew, Haku was attacking some weird looking girl. But what happened after that? How did I get here? And just where is here, anyhow?} As she sat there pondering, she failed to notice the silver winged figure coming up behind her.
"Is something wrong?" the voice asked, as clear as a bell and as soothing as a brook trickling over a bed of pebbles. Chihiro started and turned around to see what could only be described as an angel. Dressed in a clear white tunic, the figure of the youthful girl in front of her was absolutely magnificent.
Her long and straight hair was pure white, as white as the freshest snowfall, and her eyes were the color of ice. Her complexion was incredibly fair, and her wine red lips were turned up in a happy smile. Sprouting out of her back was a pair of magnificent silver wings, folded against her tunic.
"Who are you?" Chihiro asked, awed by the beauty of the strange yet perfect entity.
"Why, I'm your guardian angel, of sorts." The girl laughed, and suddenly memories began to flood into Chihiro's mind. All of them were very small things, but all of them had to do with Haku. Times like when she had first asked Lin about him, and had found out to her dismay that he supposedly couldn't be trusted. Times like when she and Haku had been falling out of the sky, and she had suddenly had the flashback that had revealed to them his name.
"Your name. . ." she hesitated, unsure as to whether she should continue. The girl just smiled and beckoned for her to do so. "Your name. . . is grace. That's it, isn't it?" The girl laughed again, and Chihiro found herself beginning to smile, then chuckle, and then laugh out loud. The sound of Grace's voice was incredibly contagious.
"Actually, I'm not really your guardian angel. I'm just a special spirit who's taken an interest in seeing you and Haku get together. I've gone to great lengths to keep the both of you safe. You don't really think that it was coincidence that Haku just HAPPENED to go to Yubaba looking for a job first, rather than anyone else. You don't really think that Link just HAPPENED to follow you here into the spirit world, do you?"
Chihiro's brain was spinning. She was no longer sure just what she should believe. Things seemed so incredibly mixed up. Nothing made any sense at all.
"Anyways, the reason that I'm here is to tell you that you don't need to worry. Your friends are doing everything in their power to get you back, and I promise you that I won't allow you to come to harm while Keetra has you in her grasp." Suddenly, Chihiro found herself surrounded by a bright light, and when it vanished, she found herself staring up at the grim and stoic face of Keetra as the two of them sped through a whirlwind of color and sound.
*~*
Haku and Nami stayed up late that night, searching through hundreds of maps and documents, hoping and hoping that they would find something that would give them even the slightest hint how to get to the place that the riddle had mentioned.
"Well, it says that the place where the light never shines. Maybe that means a cave of sorts."
"Or maybe it means the bottom of some lake or the ocean," Link said from where he had been lying on the bed. Of the entire group, Link had been injured by far the worst. Without Chihiro there, and Knoma off summoning the High Council to the tower, there was no one around who was nearly qualified enough to heal several of Link's more obvious wounds, and Haku expected that there was some internal bleeding. Though he would never admit it, Link was in terrible pain.
"Yeah, but the other line says that when you look up at the sky, you'll see pillars, and among them the next riddle. Sounds a lot like those pointy rod- like things that hang down from the ceiling in a cave." Nami searched for the correct word.
"Actually, I think that they're called stalactites." Link's voice held a perfect mixture of pain and laughter.
"Stallahooywhat?"
"Stalactites. Anyway, that's what I think."
Now that they knew just what they were looking for, they searched each map thoroughly. In the end, they discovered that of all the caverns in any of the maps, only three were specifically mentioned as being darker than the darkest night. Those would be the ones that they would concentrate on.
"So there's the first, just a short way to the south of Aburaya. Since that's the closest one, that will be the one that we'll check first." The others nodded, and Link sighed.
"I just wish that I could go with you," he said.
"Yeah, but you know full well that if you leave this tower, the deal with Jumari is off," said Haku. He looked over at where Link lay, sympathy showing in his jade colored eyes. "Listen, we'll find her and bring her back safely. You just wait for the other mages to arrive so that they can heal you."
Nami appeared thoughtful for a moment, then spoke up. "Say, Link, just how good a judge of character are you?"
"Well, I've always liked to think that I have some expertise in that particular area," Link said, trying to seem as though he was not boasting.
"See, here's the deal. The Council of Mages usually brings in at least one human for consultation before they choose the new archmage. They say it's because they want the opinion of someone whose entire world could be affected by the decision that the new archmage makes. Anyways, the reason that I'm asking is because Jumari or someone might be able to persuade the council to let you be the human involved in the process."
"Why should they?" Link asked. "It's not as though I'm ever going to be able to leave this tower, so nothing they decide can possible impact my life. After all, Jumari pretty much lives completely outside of their wishes and desires, right?"
Haku began to pace up and down, a frown furrowing his brow. He had known that it would be hard to convince Link to stay, and in doing so not totally crush his spirits, but this was getting ridiculous. It really seemed as though Link WANTED to be depressed, and certainly didn't want to have any hope. What they needed was a card the Link couldn't possibly be expecting.
"Listen, Link. You've done more than enough to help Chihiro and me already. She would never dream of asking you to do more. Now it's time for you to continue what you started while we go off and find her. You'll have more than enough to deal with, what with the tortures and the choosing of the new archmage and all."
"Fine." Link turned his back to them and lay facing the wall. "Just make sure that you get her back before that witch can do anything terrible to her."
"Don't worry Link. She'll be fine, and we'll have her back before you know it."
Link stared over hard at the wall next to the bed. "Yeah, right. Famous last words."
*~*
Haku lay in his room, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling rhythmically. As he slept, strange visions flashed through his mind, each one more unusual than the last, all, however, with a common theme. Chihiro. In the first such vision, he was back at that unforgettable day when Chihiro had first fallen into his river and he had saved her. This time, however, she quickly vanished when she hit the bank, and a laugh that sounded all too familiar could be heard. From there, he found himself traveling through his more recent encounters with her, and finally, he found himself walking through a magnificent garden filled with beautiful flowers and the sound of birds in the trees. Ahead of him, sitting on a bench was a figure all dressed in white. The person was facing away from him, but when he approached it turned and smiled. The person was a girl, no older than sixteen, with long white hair and clear, ice blue eyes. The smile on her face was enough to warm up Haku's blood.
"Well, it certainly took you long enough to find me," she said, the smile growing still broader.
"How did you know that I'd be coming here?" Haku asked curiously. "This is just a dream, so the odds are that you can't be real."
"Can't I?" Anyways, that doesn't matter. I am real, whether you choose to believe it or not. Now, I believe that I'm correct in assuming that you're about to embark on a quest?" Haku nodded an affirmative, and the girl let out a short laugh that reminded him very much of pealing wedding bells. "Good. Now, I'm going to give you a few instructions. Listen carefully, and do not forget any of what I'm about to tell you." She began to speak, and Haku hung onto her every word, being careful not to miss anything. Though he couldn't have said why, something about the girl in front of him made him want to trust her. So he listened. Listened as though the world around him would come to an end if he did not. Indeed, for him, that very well might have been true. Soon, she was finished.
"Remember," she said, her piercing blue eyes seeming to look right through him, "do not forget anything I have said. Do all that I say, and you will get your love back." Slowly, she began to fade away, along with the rest of the garden. "Remember, lest in your forgetfulness you doom yourself." With those last words she vanished, leaving him alone with his thoughts and memories.
Please, review, and tell me if there's anything that you'd like to see before this trilogy comes to an end. Also, please tell me if there are things that might be changed to the story to make it better. That's what reviews are for, and I simply don't get as many as I'd like. Not that it matters. I'm going to continue writing this story whether I get a lot of reviews or not. In fact, chapters three, four, and five are already written, and need only to be typed out before I can post them.
With that said, I can move on to some other pressing details. For those of you who have also been following my InuYasha fic, I probably won't be updating for a little while. Right now, it's hard enough to keep up to date with TTT than to also have to worry about another. Don't worry, I am in no way abandoning that fic, I just have it on hold for now.
Anyways, read and review, and once more, enjoy!
*~*
Chihiro was asleep. If there was ever a word that fit her current condition, it was that one. She lay limply in a comatose state in the arms of the green-eyed girl that carried her. Outside, she was perfectly peaceful, but on the inside. . . well, that was a different story.
She was wandering through a strange, bluish colored mist. Ahead of her, she could see dark shapes looming ever out of reach, none of them tangible, but all of them most certainly there. She wandered aimlessly until she grew tired, and then she sat down and began to think.
{This can't be right! It just can't. The last thing that I remember was that archmage guy about to say that we were husband and wife. The next thing I knew, Haku was attacking some weird looking girl. But what happened after that? How did I get here? And just where is here, anyhow?} As she sat there pondering, she failed to notice the silver winged figure coming up behind her.
"Is something wrong?" the voice asked, as clear as a bell and as soothing as a brook trickling over a bed of pebbles. Chihiro started and turned around to see what could only be described as an angel. Dressed in a clear white tunic, the figure of the youthful girl in front of her was absolutely magnificent.
Her long and straight hair was pure white, as white as the freshest snowfall, and her eyes were the color of ice. Her complexion was incredibly fair, and her wine red lips were turned up in a happy smile. Sprouting out of her back was a pair of magnificent silver wings, folded against her tunic.
"Who are you?" Chihiro asked, awed by the beauty of the strange yet perfect entity.
"Why, I'm your guardian angel, of sorts." The girl laughed, and suddenly memories began to flood into Chihiro's mind. All of them were very small things, but all of them had to do with Haku. Times like when she had first asked Lin about him, and had found out to her dismay that he supposedly couldn't be trusted. Times like when she and Haku had been falling out of the sky, and she had suddenly had the flashback that had revealed to them his name.
"Your name. . ." she hesitated, unsure as to whether she should continue. The girl just smiled and beckoned for her to do so. "Your name. . . is grace. That's it, isn't it?" The girl laughed again, and Chihiro found herself beginning to smile, then chuckle, and then laugh out loud. The sound of Grace's voice was incredibly contagious.
"Actually, I'm not really your guardian angel. I'm just a special spirit who's taken an interest in seeing you and Haku get together. I've gone to great lengths to keep the both of you safe. You don't really think that it was coincidence that Haku just HAPPENED to go to Yubaba looking for a job first, rather than anyone else. You don't really think that Link just HAPPENED to follow you here into the spirit world, do you?"
Chihiro's brain was spinning. She was no longer sure just what she should believe. Things seemed so incredibly mixed up. Nothing made any sense at all.
"Anyways, the reason that I'm here is to tell you that you don't need to worry. Your friends are doing everything in their power to get you back, and I promise you that I won't allow you to come to harm while Keetra has you in her grasp." Suddenly, Chihiro found herself surrounded by a bright light, and when it vanished, she found herself staring up at the grim and stoic face of Keetra as the two of them sped through a whirlwind of color and sound.
*~*
Haku and Nami stayed up late that night, searching through hundreds of maps and documents, hoping and hoping that they would find something that would give them even the slightest hint how to get to the place that the riddle had mentioned.
"Well, it says that the place where the light never shines. Maybe that means a cave of sorts."
"Or maybe it means the bottom of some lake or the ocean," Link said from where he had been lying on the bed. Of the entire group, Link had been injured by far the worst. Without Chihiro there, and Knoma off summoning the High Council to the tower, there was no one around who was nearly qualified enough to heal several of Link's more obvious wounds, and Haku expected that there was some internal bleeding. Though he would never admit it, Link was in terrible pain.
"Yeah, but the other line says that when you look up at the sky, you'll see pillars, and among them the next riddle. Sounds a lot like those pointy rod- like things that hang down from the ceiling in a cave." Nami searched for the correct word.
"Actually, I think that they're called stalactites." Link's voice held a perfect mixture of pain and laughter.
"Stallahooywhat?"
"Stalactites. Anyway, that's what I think."
Now that they knew just what they were looking for, they searched each map thoroughly. In the end, they discovered that of all the caverns in any of the maps, only three were specifically mentioned as being darker than the darkest night. Those would be the ones that they would concentrate on.
"So there's the first, just a short way to the south of Aburaya. Since that's the closest one, that will be the one that we'll check first." The others nodded, and Link sighed.
"I just wish that I could go with you," he said.
"Yeah, but you know full well that if you leave this tower, the deal with Jumari is off," said Haku. He looked over at where Link lay, sympathy showing in his jade colored eyes. "Listen, we'll find her and bring her back safely. You just wait for the other mages to arrive so that they can heal you."
Nami appeared thoughtful for a moment, then spoke up. "Say, Link, just how good a judge of character are you?"
"Well, I've always liked to think that I have some expertise in that particular area," Link said, trying to seem as though he was not boasting.
"See, here's the deal. The Council of Mages usually brings in at least one human for consultation before they choose the new archmage. They say it's because they want the opinion of someone whose entire world could be affected by the decision that the new archmage makes. Anyways, the reason that I'm asking is because Jumari or someone might be able to persuade the council to let you be the human involved in the process."
"Why should they?" Link asked. "It's not as though I'm ever going to be able to leave this tower, so nothing they decide can possible impact my life. After all, Jumari pretty much lives completely outside of their wishes and desires, right?"
Haku began to pace up and down, a frown furrowing his brow. He had known that it would be hard to convince Link to stay, and in doing so not totally crush his spirits, but this was getting ridiculous. It really seemed as though Link WANTED to be depressed, and certainly didn't want to have any hope. What they needed was a card the Link couldn't possibly be expecting.
"Listen, Link. You've done more than enough to help Chihiro and me already. She would never dream of asking you to do more. Now it's time for you to continue what you started while we go off and find her. You'll have more than enough to deal with, what with the tortures and the choosing of the new archmage and all."
"Fine." Link turned his back to them and lay facing the wall. "Just make sure that you get her back before that witch can do anything terrible to her."
"Don't worry Link. She'll be fine, and we'll have her back before you know it."
Link stared over hard at the wall next to the bed. "Yeah, right. Famous last words."
*~*
Haku lay in his room, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling rhythmically. As he slept, strange visions flashed through his mind, each one more unusual than the last, all, however, with a common theme. Chihiro. In the first such vision, he was back at that unforgettable day when Chihiro had first fallen into his river and he had saved her. This time, however, she quickly vanished when she hit the bank, and a laugh that sounded all too familiar could be heard. From there, he found himself traveling through his more recent encounters with her, and finally, he found himself walking through a magnificent garden filled with beautiful flowers and the sound of birds in the trees. Ahead of him, sitting on a bench was a figure all dressed in white. The person was facing away from him, but when he approached it turned and smiled. The person was a girl, no older than sixteen, with long white hair and clear, ice blue eyes. The smile on her face was enough to warm up Haku's blood.
"Well, it certainly took you long enough to find me," she said, the smile growing still broader.
"How did you know that I'd be coming here?" Haku asked curiously. "This is just a dream, so the odds are that you can't be real."
"Can't I?" Anyways, that doesn't matter. I am real, whether you choose to believe it or not. Now, I believe that I'm correct in assuming that you're about to embark on a quest?" Haku nodded an affirmative, and the girl let out a short laugh that reminded him very much of pealing wedding bells. "Good. Now, I'm going to give you a few instructions. Listen carefully, and do not forget any of what I'm about to tell you." She began to speak, and Haku hung onto her every word, being careful not to miss anything. Though he couldn't have said why, something about the girl in front of him made him want to trust her. So he listened. Listened as though the world around him would come to an end if he did not. Indeed, for him, that very well might have been true. Soon, she was finished.
"Remember," she said, her piercing blue eyes seeming to look right through him, "do not forget anything I have said. Do all that I say, and you will get your love back." Slowly, she began to fade away, along with the rest of the garden. "Remember, lest in your forgetfulness you doom yourself." With those last words she vanished, leaving him alone with his thoughts and memories.