Disclaimer: I don't own spirited away.
Rumor to bargain, bargain to lie -here is the path that fear walks
Days passed since the arrival of the dragon, -whispers of a shared hallucination that were ruthlessly dashed by his next appearance, and his next. The myth that was not a myth liked to perch himself atop the shine that overlooked the main street -his coils wrapping around the peak of it to hang lazily over the eaves, tail swaying in the wind and watching the townsfolk with calculated interest.
Chihiro wondered how this world looked to him now, what he saw in the fishing nets and the exhaust of cars. She knew his ever watchful gaze frightened the people of her town -stole the breath from their lungs whenever his eyes would settle upon them with his silent judgement. weighing and measuring each before moving on again.
It was not uncommon for her to feel his eyes watching her anytime she moved near the windows of her shop; his stare flickering to her at random points throughout the day; making her fingers fumble in their transactions whenever she felt it, or a box to fall from her hands.
Just at sunset he would fly over the town, and with him he took the light -the last flashes reflecting from his scales before disappearing beyond the horizon.
He would always circle her store in the air before he departed for the shine once more, almost as if he couldn't resist the urge to unsettle her, though he never once touched what belonged to her. Coming close, testing, teasing. But she paid his antics no mind, merely clapping her hands together and bowing in short prayer to the guardian of the land before going about her business once more.
His pointed interest in the young shopkeeper was not missed; everyone knew. Everyone feared. And it was that knowing that spread through the town like wildfire. It was that fear that sealed her fate.
Note: chapter 8.