D/N: Again, continuing on. Maybe we'll get somewhere this chapter. Don't count on it, though. ' Sorry. –is lazy- XP I'm figuring out the plot as I go along, and I don't have as much time as I hoped to have to devote to this, so. . . . Nyah.

Haku bowed to the congregation before him; he had left Chihiro, still resting, in the way house. "She's here."

A dog-like creature leaned forward, eyes twinkling with what seemed like hope, "Are you sure she's up to it?"

"Yes Lord Inari. She is."

There was a muttering among the assembled, and then a woman shrouded by a beautiful blue cloak added in;"Haku, you do know what the Children of Fenris want to do to us, correct?"

He nodded, and looked at the one who had spoken, "Lady Ishtar, all of you have told me many times over what they wish to do."

Strange heads turned to face the center of the room, where a being sat on the center of a throne-like object in a blanket of soft shadows. It, for no one knew of its name or gender, had begun to whisper to its translator, hurriedly. The man who served it nodded, listening carefully, and announced, "My Master wishes to say that a meeting with the chosen one should be arranged." It began to whisper again, and the man leaned in again. He straightened once more, blind eyes seeming to search the crowd, and then they came to rest on Haku, "She must make it to the meeting place alone, to prove her worth. After she makes it here, she will be equipped with all she will need."

Haku bowed, unable to disobey these powerful beings, "I shall inform her of her duty, then."

As one, the beings stationed around the room disappeared, leaving Haku to stand in the center, a sense of foreboding creeping upon him.

Meanwhile, Chihiro was enjoying the way house. Everything that she could possibly need was here; food, clean water and comfortable clothes. The atmosphere was homely, relaxing. Considering everything that had happened to her the past couple of days, she would have preferred to stay here for the rest of her time here. Haku had left for something he said he had to do; he had told her that she would be safe as long as she stayed within the fence. Of course, she had no desire to go into the forest once more. One run-in with a kelpy was more than enough for her. The soft bed enveloped her in a soft scent of vanilla and lavender, her cleaned hair spread out in a fan around her. Her brown eyes followed a small brown spider that scuttled busily across the ceiling, making webs, interested.

Haku had mentioned to her that the animals of this world weren't like the ones she knew, but this spider was familiar enough. She had seen spiders just like it scuttling from her in the garden back at home. There was nothing fearful about this one.

Chihiro frowned as the spider scuttled off, resting in the corner of the ceiling. The strange webs were oddly shaped, as though they were made to be some sort of pattern. Suddenly, Chihiro got what they were trying to portray; a message. 'Hello. Everything good?' was what she thought it said.

With a yelp, Chihiro fell off of the bed, and scrambled to the other side of the room, away from what seemed to be a demonically inclined spider. Haku might have told her that the way house was safe, yet there was something about an educated spider that didn't seem as safe as she had first thought. The spider scrambled across the ceiling, gathering up the web and dropping it onto the bed before lowering itself from the ceiling several feet before her. With a puff of yellow-orange smoke, the spider ballooned out and up, the actual process hidden from Chihiro by the smoke. As the smoke began to clear, Chihiro threw her back against the closest wall, scrambling for her dagger on the nightstand.

Instead of a giant spider, as Chihiro expected to see once the smoke cleared, stood a tall woman with flowing golden hair that reached down to the back of her knees, and a face that seemed to be pulled from a movie star's complete with ocean blue eyes and full red lips. Her body was covered by a strange toga-like dress, with a shawl overtop; she looked like someone from Ancient Greece. The woman smiled at Chihiro, a sympathetic expression on her face, "I'm sorry, my dear. It is painful for me to transform; I've only just recently discovered that I can."

"W-who are you?" Chihiro managed to ask, dagger held in her relaxed right hand.

"Arachnid. Cursed to be a spider for eternity." Arachnid looked saddened by this. She shook her head slowly, and brightened up in a moment, "Haku has instructed me to watch after you while he is gone. He'll be back by nightfall."

Chihiro looked suspiciously at her, "Where did Haku go?"

"He went to a meeting. Nothing has been told to me about what he does; that would be dangerous. Just because I don't like the Children very much doesn't mean that I cannot be tortured by them." Arachnid laughed, "Do you need anything?"

Deciding she liked this new spirit, Chihiro shrugged, "Would it be possible to get some food? I'm extremely hungry." It was very true. The only thing she had to eat so far was some strange spirit-fruit before getting a bath and dropping right to sleep.

"Of course. There's a meal already set up downstairs. Would you care to follow me?" Arachnid waited, going over to the brown-wood door.

Chihiro stood up, buckling the dagger to her side, just in case. In the few days that she had been in the way house, she still wasn't sure of what could happen; this world was too strange for Chihiro to be sure of anything. Arachnid saw this, and nodded at her, "That's wise of you to take that with you. There are magics here protecting us, of course, but something strong could easily tear them away."

Feeling suddenly cold, Chihiro followed her hostess down a flight of sturdy wooden stairs, the banister carved with realistic grape vines and even small, glistening grapes hanging from the vines themselves. The walls were painted a creamy white while different animals pranced across the walls; all of these animals Chihiro could easily name. They were creatures that she had often seen in her own backyard, bounding across the yard. A wave of homesickness struck her suddenly, and she remembered her mornings back at home. Her mother would be in the kitchen, making breakfast, while she wandered downstairs, sometimes carrying the messenger bag she used to carry her books in. Drawn to the kitchen by the wonderful scent of frying bacon and cooking eggs, she would find her father, already up and reading the newspaper, his own breakfast already being digested. She'd greet them both, and then. . . . then Chihiro came face to face with a wall.

She yelped in pain as her forehead connected squarely with the wall; in her reminiscing, she had failed to notice that there was a wall where her house didn't have one. Arachnid peered out at her from the kitchen, "What happened?"

Chihiro rubbed the red spot on her forehead, telling the older woman frankly, "I decided to get acquainted with the wall."

Arachnid shrugged, and went back into the kitchen, calling after her to Chihiro, "They don't talk much, if you're trying to be friends."

She stared at the doorway where Arachnid had disappeared; Chihiro had ment that simply as a joke. After a worried glance at the wall she had just run into, she darted into the kitchen, not wanting to find out any more of the way house; it was bad enough she was suspicious of walls.

Spread out on the kitchen table were strange foods that Chihiro had never dreamed to exist. Platters of strange fruits, carved up and artfully arranged graced the edges of the table, while in the center sat the largest bird-like creature that she had ever seen. It looked chicken-like, but no chicken that Chihiro had ever even heard of were that big. Pointing to the 'chicken', Chihiro asked Arachnid, "What is that?"

"Hmm, I think that's the 'Bakbakwakanooksiwae'."

"The what?"

"Bakbakwakanooksiwae."

Both females looked at each other for a long time, Chihiro's gaze incredulous while Arachnid looked puzzled by the look she was receiving. "What? That's what it's called."

"Say it one more time." Chihiro told her, wondering what kind of sick person came up with such a name.

"Bakbakwakanooksiwae." Arachnid told her, pronouncing it slowly, as one might to a child. "Of course, Haku's mentioned this to me. You're not a spirit and you don't know anything about the creatures." She began to carve up the bird, putting things onto a plate for Chihiro. As the girl started to eat, Arachnid told her, "The Bakbakwakanooksiwae was taken from a Canadian man. It's a giant man-eating bird that lived high in the mountains of Canada, highly celebrated, you know."

Chihiro choked on the bit of meat she was working on as soon as she heard 'man-eating'. Despite her amusement in hearing it's name, she'd rather not eat something that might make her a cannibal in the process, "What?"

"It's a man-eating bird from-"

"No, I mean; has this one eaten any humans?"

Arachnid laughed, "Where would it get the humans? These bakbakwakanooksiwae eat spirits. They had to adapt because there are no humans here."

Calming down, Chihiro resolved not to ask her hostess anything about the food she was eating; it was better not to know. Both females spent a quiet lunch, Arachnid mostly watching the girl eat while firing questions every once in a while.

After lunch, and another bath, Chihiro waited in her room. She could hear Arachnid downstairs, working on the loom that was set up in the corner of the family room. Night was beginning to descend upon the land already; Arachnid had said that Haku would come home by nightfall. For the first time that day, Chihiro realized how lonely she was without her dragon friend; he brightened up her day even if he didn't talk all that much. Her two brown eyes scanned the horizon, searching for her friend, as the sun set faster and faster. What she saw next dazzled her strained eyes. A phoenix, its own miniature sun, flared up from the woods, and circled above the treetops while the sun faded. The fire that danced along the wings of the firebird sparked off into the air like the tail of a firework, yet didn't set the trees aflame. It only descended back to the depths of the forest when the sun had fully set.

A ghost of a grin touching her face, Chihiro closed the window; she wouldn't be able to see Haku in the dark. From the doorway, a voice told her, "Phoenixes are beautiful, aren't they?"

Chihiro whirled around, shocked. Haku stood in her doorway, long-ish hair in his face. He frowned at her, and motioned to the chairs, "We have to talk."

D/N: And you won't find out what they're talking about until next chapter! I love phoenixes.

Ah, to explain the Bakbakwakanooksiwae. That was best part of writing this; that name. Nyahaha. It's an actual mythical creature. A giant man-eating bird that is supposed to be from Canada. BAKBAKWAKANOOKSIWAE! It sounds like some weird curse or something. I wonder how one'll pronounce that out loud? XD

Arachnid is a character from . . . . Greek/Roman mythology. . I can't remember! I'm sorry! All I know is that she challenged Minerva to a weaving contest, got her ass kicked by her, and she was doomed to be a spider the rest of her life. The first of spiders. Sowwy. Someone can correct me if they want.

So, you know the drill: Read and review!

Thanks! –wanders off, contemplating how to say 'bakbakwakanooksiwae'-