Arms of the Kami no Kohakugawa

The Dragon, the Baku, and the Nisou

Spirited Away and all characters from it belong to Hayao Miyazaki.

The young woman lay in a deep sleep upon her soft bed, both the deep and shallow colors of rivers swirling around her in her various beddings. The rounded and cherubic face, albeit slightly narrowed with her adulthood, was relaxed in gentle repose as her slow breath lightly stirred the air. Darkened pools spilled around her head as normally primly bound hair had been left free to eddy as it would in the currents of the night. The dark curtains were drawn tight across the window, and the dim glow of a night light cast monstrous shadows around the room. At the head of the bed, a shadow stirred at a change in the woman's breathing, while a vaguely cat-like shape prowled at the foot of the bed.

Every night for months now he took time from his duties to focus a sizable chunk of his presence here to watch her sleep. It was time that he could ill afford at times, and yet he gladly did it anyway. It gave him some measure of peace, and it seemed to help ease her rest somewhat. She tried to hide it from the others, but she was wearing thin, and that worried him greatly. While part of him carried on with paperwork or other monotonous tasks, the great majority of his attention was here on the woman now resting at his side.

"Master. Surely you have better things to do. You need your rest as well, and I have been guarding the dreams of humans for hundreds of years."

River grass tore itself away from its nightly study of the woman who had somehow managed to capture his heart and fire his imagination in ways that he had never dreamed possible. Instead, they now took in the monstrously ghostly form that had stopped her prowling to seat herself in a pristine comma of fur. A mix of dog and lion, as well as many other bits of creatures that he could never be truly certain of, the great beast's gentle disposition was greatly decried by her fierce visage. Moonlight had solidified to form her fur, and her eyes were two coals that cut through even the darkest night to seize her prey. Her diet, as with all Baku, consisted entirely of bad dreams.

"Little is as important to me as she is Bakuyuki."

"Be that as it may, you stretch yourself thin. What other river is rebuilding his ecology, repelling unwanted elements, courting, and defending an unopened priestess from those who seek her purity and hidden power? At the same time, this river is still repaying many other spirits for crimes he committed when little more than a well-treated slave."

"Yet without my priestess, where would I be now? I owe her far more than can ever be repaid."

"And so you try to surpass even your own father in protectiveness of those that are cherished."

The arguing pair silenced as the priestess stirred more. Whimpers tore at the river's cold heart. She was his warmth, the thing that showed him there was hope for the future. And yet, things plagued her dreams as of late. His attention to the problem had been drawn one moonless night when she had screamed his full and true name in panic to the five lands, sending great shockwaves of a familiar and yet unnameable type to every creature in his protectorate. Yet, never had he or the dream eater been able to figure out what the vexing visions were.

The projection of the river lord took her hand, seeking some way to let her know in her dreams that she was not alone. Normally, he had no problem sliding into her dreams. It was usually as simple as sliding into his own river, although the currents of her mind were a far sight warmer than the rushing snowmelt that he always transported as his blood. Lately though, many of her dreams had been as impervious to him as was Ten's head at times. It was like someone was trying to steal her away from him, or perhaps something even worse.

As his hand tightened around her frail human one, Kohakunushi felt a great wave of exhaustion. It was so similar to what he had felt when he had been an unnaturally separated entity, and he wondered if perhaps his Chihiro were suffering from some sort of separation like he once had. It would be a matter to discuss with the Shaman that served here tomorrow. It was too dangerous to allow Chihiro to partake in any more of the spiritual tasks until this puzzling predicament was taken care of.

The Baku stalked up to the head of the bed, glowing eyes trained on something that only it could see as she tensed for the right moment to strike. The ghostly fur began to stir with the powerful currents caused by the dreamer as she struggled in the net woven around her mind in the dream. Chihiro's eyes opened blindly as she sought sight within her dreamworld, the often grey eyes now brown and clouded with doubt. One word repeated itself over and over, falling from her lips like drops of water from a leaky faucet.

"Why?"

The emotions congealed in the word had no names, so primal that few ever knew of them. The hairband laid out on the nightstand began to glow as it sensed her distress, a purple glimmer of friendship given solid form. Kohaku tried to reach into the dreamer's mind, to deliver her from whatever nightmares were eating away at her. The barrier held strong though, and with each repeated attempt he lost a bit more solidity in his projection. He wished that he had mastered teleportation like Ten had in order to fully be at her side, but every dragon had his personal strengths. Ten could teleport, but he was terrible with projection.

Able to stand no more, the young priestess called out the ancient formula that would allow the dream to break no matter how strong it was. Somehow, he had managed to get through to her that whatever it was was only a dream, an illusion.

"Baku! Devour this dream! Oh, Hakuuuu!"

The dream eater had been waiting for the opening to appear, and deftly caught the dark orb as it fled from the mind of the slumbering human. With great relish, the being settled down to feast on the dream, trying to place the exotic flavor. Still though, identification was no use.

After the nightmare had been expelled from her consciousness, the young woman settled back down, her face smoothing back into peaceful repose. A gentle sigh heaved her chest beneath it's coverings as her face turned for the perceived safety of a familiar and soothing presence that was currently rubbing circles into her hand. Haggard and strained now, his eyes were closed as he fought to draw himself back to her side instead of returning to where he was supposed to be. If this were the long ago, he would not have needed to leave her here, but what good did it do to dwell on the past?

Two deep male voices broke into the silent thoughts of the river. The first was soft and thoughtful as a mountain lake, while the second had a note of deep heat threatening to ignite at any moment.

"I think these dreams of hers are posing more of a danger to you than to Chihiro, Lord."

"Haku, you're going to worry yourself to death if you keep this up."

Bakuyuki gave a growl of assent as she continued to eat the dream that she had captured. Juices of some unidentifiable type dribbled down her chin to wet her fur, staining it temporarily a suspicious shade of red. Closed eyes had flown open to become steel mirrors before warming into emerald jewels in recognition of the voices. Judging by his reaction, it was safe to assume that the kami had been unaware of his audience.

"How long have you two known I was here?"

"Awhile."

Kumiro leaned in the door way, watching with guarded violets as the river spirit reluctantly released the hand he had been caressing. Ryu was bolder though, actually having ventured inside the bedchamber to lean on a wall near the door. Both were concerned for the spirit as well as the young priestess.

"That was not a normal dream. She sounded more panicked than impassioned tonight."

Kohakunushi had allowed his features a downward turn as he said that, the dark thoughts playing in his mind causing him to seem far older than he really was. In all his days, he could not say that he had ever experienced one of his loved ones experiencing the number of night time disturbances that she had been of late. He had wondered if perhaps some dream demon had been targeting her, but it had only taken a few weeks to rule that out. Whatever was causing this was coming from within herself.

Chihiro began to stir again as she searched for the comfort that had been withdrawn, reaching out and feeling around until she found what she was looking for. Grasping one of the river lord's great sleeves, a deft tug took him by surprise and caused him to land on the bed beside her. As he lay there in shock trying to process what had just happened, he found himself swiftly becoming her 'cuddle dragon' as she dove deeper into sleep.

"Mine. My cuddly dragon."

By this time, the dream eater had finished eating the strange vision, and had seen the little human turn her master into a large and rather draconic teddy bear. Her animalistic smirk was hidden under all of her fluffy fur, but by the twinkle in her eyes one could tell how amused she was to see the great Nigihayami Kohakunushi reduced to 'my cuddly dragon.' The other dragon in the room had stuffed his fist in his mouth to cover his snickers, while the young priest just smiled at how cute a pair they made.

Haku was not amused with the others' amusement. However, even in this projection of presence he could not resist contact with her. Taking his new position in stride with a soft smile into the freed hair he began slowly repositioning himself. It wasn't long before he had made himself somewhat comfortable and pillowed her head on his chest, glaring at the others and daring them to say anything. Wisely, the shrine keepers excused themselves for bed and the Baku merely held her spot. Bakuyuki had no need to leave as to do so would be to abandon her post, even with her master present.

Bakuyuki had never abandoned a post yet, and when the river lord had hired her she had decided that she would not start with this one. The human had an immense channeling ability, and to allow her dreams to go unchecked would be folly. Still, he needed some privacy with her, even with this silly limitation that he had set upon himself to preserve the maiden's honor. A long pink tongue passed through black lips to clean the solidified moonlight that was her coat, freeing it from the odd tasting blood that had been in the dream orb.

Ten minutes passed, and Bakuyuki was clean once more. Turning her embers back on the pair, she found that instead of one sleeping soul, there were two. Her solid form lay in restful repose, gentle breath stirring an increasingly clear mane. He had wrapped around her possessively, as if by holding her in his generous coils he could preserve her from whatever had been haunting her. Having little else to do as the maiden's most active dreaming time was already past, the Baku watched the pair sleep, the river eventually fading away to leave a little water to wet the covers as the only sign of his passing.

With the unwilling withdrawal of the woman's deity, the dreams began returning again, and Bakuyuki feasted. The woman needed to put up one of those dreamcatchers like the strange woman who lived here as well. It wouldn't do much against the dreams that originated within herself, but it would certainly do much against the ones that filtered in from other places.