In Need

Chihiro stared into the tunnel. It had been almost a year since she had last seen it, but it still looked the same. Maybe it would continue to be the same if went through it again. Maybe she would be able to get back to the spirit world.

She missed that place; everything had been so amazing there. Chihiro sighed, she wished she could go back to visit everyone, to visit Haku. She looked down at her palm, in it was the hair tie Zeniba had given her, over the past year it had served as the only real proof that Chihiro's adventures in the spirit world had actually occurred. The little purple band was comforting; it would always cheer her up when she felt down.

However it didn't help her loneliness. Chihiro had been able to make friends in the new town, but they couldn't replace Haku, Lin, and the others. She looked up again; the wind seemed to be pulling her toward the tunnel. She took a tentative step forward; maybe she could go for a short visit.

Chihiro shook her head and hastily stepped back. Even if she could get back to the land of the spirits it wasn't a good idea to try. The last time she had had to work very hard and face many perils to get home, and even then she couldn't have done it without all the help her friends had given her. Who knew if she would be so lucky this time?

She sighed as she turned around and began to head home. She felt pathetic for chickening out of going through the tunnel again, but the fact was as much as she wanted to see Haku and the others again she didn't want to risk never seeing her family and friends in the human world again.

She was so lost in thought that at first she didn't notice that the wind had started to pick up. It happened gradually but soon it was spinning fiercely around her. Chihiro screamed and tried to break out of the mini-tornado but found she didn't have the strength. As the wind's circle tightened around her she had to shut her eyes. She didn't know what was happening but she hoped it would be over soon.

Then, as if at her command, the wind stopped. For a moment Chihiro was too scared to open her eyes. She knew she wasn't where she had been, the dirt road beneath her had been replaced with a smooth wooden floor. The wind must have been some sort of magic, had someone in the spirit world brought her there?

Finally she opened her eyes and took a look around her. She seemed to be in a small room and in the middle of a strange chalk circle. In front of her was an agitated-looking blonde man. Strangely, he seemed to be human, did that mean she wasn't in the spirit world after all? Just what was going on here?

The man was talking in the direction of the fireplace but Chihiro was too confused to pay attention to what he was saying. "Excuse me," she asked, "could you please tell me who you are? And why you've brought me here?"

The man's eyes widened as he looked at her. After a moment he slapped his forehead in frustration and mumbled something at her. Chihiro continued to stare at him, this man was very strange. Then he began to speak more clearly, in fact he was speaking very loudly and slowly, the trouble was Chihiro couldn't understand a word of it. She wasn't entirely sure what language he was speaking but it definitely wasn't Japanese.

All the same she listened very closely and started to recognize some of the words. It seemed the man was speaking English. Chihiro perked up a little bit; luckily for both of them she had started studying English in school about a month ago. Hopefully she would be able to remember enough from her classes to communicate.

She began to speak slowly and deliberately, trying to keep her sentences and thoughts as simple as possible. "My name is Chihiro. Who is… are you? Why am…I… here?"

The seemed relieved when he heard her speaking his language. He began to speak faster but Chihiro was able to figure out was that he liked howling for some reason. When it became clear that she still had no idea what he was saying the man sighed and broke his message down into a few simple sentences that Chihiro could understand.

"Help. I need help. Please help find Sophie."