AN: As I mentioned in the last chapter, this flight scene is the spark of inspiration that began the plotline for this entire story so I just want to give it some credit as being one of the most important scenes in this story.
For any of you interested, the flight scene was inspired by a piece of music, "Sea Horses :: by Christian Henson" from "The Secret of Moonacre" movie.

Here's a link if you're the kind of person who likes to listen to music while you read :)
http:/ www. youtube. com/ watch?v= reDVgb159EQ = Remove the spaces from the address

Disclaimer:

I don't own The Secret Of Moonacre or any of it's associated franchise...

I FORGOT TO PUT A DISCLAIMER FOR THIS STORY TOO!

Disclaimer for entire story:

I do not own Hayao Miyazaki's Characters or any of his associated works (Spirited Away)

Haku's hand hovered over the door handle tentatively, all the possible bad endings to their little trip suddenly flooding him. He didn't get much of a chance to deliberate with himself over the matter as Ryumiko opened the door for him, pushing him outside with her. She stuck to the rules and stepped only a metre away from the dragon spirit, taking a dramatic intake of breath.

Ryumiko had never told anyone, for fear of being called crazy, that she found the moonlight positively magical. She even actively went out of her way at night, just to see the moon and observe the way its pale light lit up everything so uniquely and mysteriously. She held out her arms and looked at the shadows made on the grass. Getting lost in the moment, she did a small twirl, loving the way the grey dress she wore looked like the moon itself in the moonlight.

Haku cleared his throat, snapping the girl out of her moment. She abruptly stopped moving, the faintest blush coating her cheeks.

"Now remember, don't let go of my mane, okay?" Haku warned, choosing to save Ryumiko the embarrassment by pretending he hadn't seen anything. She nodded her understanding, smiling softly.

With that, Haku slowly changed into his dragon form. Lengthening and paling as scales appeared on his body. As his features became animalistic, she watched with child-like fascination as her fantasies came alive, still not quite really believing that she was actually going to ride a dragon. As soon as Haku had finished transforming, Ryumiko had leapt onto his back, taking hold of his mane as if she were riding bareback on a horse. He was surprised with the ease in which she'd climbed onto his back, as if she'd done something like this before.

"Let's go!" she urged, leaning down close to Haku, to both keep herself hidden and to make his flight easy with less hindrance, knowing that if she kept low, she'd keep the streamlined shape the dragon was supposed to have in the first place. Wind resistance. That's what it was called, she was minimising the wind resistance. She was glad for her science lessons in school she mused, though almost laughed at the way she'd applied said science. Her teacher's face would have been priceless if she'd told her the only time she actively used her knowledge of the sciences was to ride a dragon.

Haku leapt into the air with a strong push from his legs, noting the way Ryumiko managed to easily stay close to him while he flew, without making it awkward or difficult for him. She almost felt like she wasn't there, as if she was just another part of his body. If he were in his human form, he would've frowned. The blue-eyed girl seemed as if she had been trained to ride a dragon. He continued to fly her around, trying to work out why or how the girl knew how to ride a dragon properly.

Meanwhile Ryumiko was deliriously happy, feeling like a bird, floating on air and oblivious to Haku's wonder. She could hardly hear the wind rushing past her ears as she rested the side of her head on Haku, watching the moon as they flew past it. She herself didn't know why she was so in love with the moon, but enjoyed the moment anyway.

Ryumiko noticed something odd below them and gasped. It looked like Yubaba! Remembering the 'rule' of which she was required to keep silent, she nudged Haku's sides gently with her feet to gain his attention, much like one would do with a horse. Haku was stunned when his body reacted without his consent to the girl's gesture, suddenly stopping mid-air.

Ryumiko was caught-off guard and held on tighter to the dragon's mane, to stop herself from falling. She glanced back down to the ground, where she'd thought she'd seen Yubaba, she sighed in relief when she saw that it was just a rock that looked like the witch.

"What was that?" she asked worriedly. "Are you okay?" When Haku had composed himself, he gave a little shrug with his shoulders that Ryumiko felt underneath her, before continuing the flight. Haku lifted his large head a little to look at the small human girl on his back with a single green eye.

Ryumiko frowned, surely Haku wasn't glaring at her? How was his sudden stop her fault?... Was it her fault?

She raised an eyebrow inquisitively, and repeated the previous action. After lightly nudging Haku's sides with her legs, he stopped flying immediately. Ryumiko's eyes went wide.

Haku growled a little clearly saying, Stop doing that! Just sit still already! With what sounded like a deep exhale, Haku slowly began to fly off again.

Ryumiko grinned and repositioned her hands on his mane, before swiftly tugging the left side of the mane. With a confused growl, Haku turned sharply to the left, not understanding why he had no control over his body. The girl's grin never left, excited that she had this new kind of leverage over Haku.

Haku was absolutely fuming. His body was obeying Ryumiko's commands like a common horse, and he seemed unable to transform back into a human while she had this control over him. He hadn't even known his body reacted like a normal animal's when he was in his dragon form!

Ryumiko's grin softened a little into a smile of enjoyment, "Okay Haku, let's try something out..."

Haku was about to protest, until he felt his body smoothly bending to her will; his movements nowhere near as jerky or as abrupt as they had been previously. It was almost like he wasn't the one flying anymore, rather it felt like Ryumiko was the one flying. It was an odd situation in which he was both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.

Ryumiko noticed that Haku had calmed somewhat, no longer seeming quite as tense as he was before, so she assumed she was doing something right. Was riding a dragon as difficult as this for Chihiro? How come her cousin had managed to control Haku's dragon form quite comfortably straight away? Thinking about the rules Haku had laid out for her, she decided that a little further experimenting was still within boundaries.

Haku felt his body begin to rise upwards and lean back. He realised in horror that she was attempting to do a "loop-de-loop", something Rin had asked him if he could perform while flying a while back. While he could, though never would out of his own volition, perform a so-called "loop-de-loop", he worried about Ryumiko who was attempting something so dangerous. And he was right to do so. She panicked when she felt her grip slipping while she was upside down and pulled Haku's mane the wrong way, causing him to shake violently and throw off the human girl.

There was a moment of silence as blue and green eyes met. As she realised her near future that possibly involved death, Ryumiko let out a scream, watching with increasing despair as the world rushed past her, knowing Haku wouldn't be able to reach her on time. She shut her eyes tightly when she believed herself to be nearing the ground, only to have the wind knocked out of her as she felt herself being suddenly pulled upwards again. Confused about what had happened, she nervously opened her eyes again, seeing the ground a long distance away from her, and gradually getting smaller.

She was soon aware of the grip around her waist and she looked up to see what it was. When her eyes met flaming red scales, she recognised the red dragon that had saved her before.

"You-!" she blurted, quite lost for words. The red dragon turned his head to look at her with one blazing golden orb, quietly scrutinising her. The red dragon indicated with his head for her to climb onto his back, lifting the claw he held her in to make it easier for her. Quickly climbing on, she grasped the red dragon's white mane fiercely, determined to not fall off again. The red dragon noticed and Ryumiko felt vibrations underneath her.

"Are you laughing?" she asked incredulously, wondering how it was possible to laugh at such a thing. When the dragon vibrated some more, she concluded that he was in fact laughing at her.

"It just seemed like a good idea in the moment okay? It was fun until I realised my own limits," she said disappointedly, to which the red dragon resumed his chuckling.

The red dragon began a slow descent to the ground, to which the human girl was glad to see... until she saw a positively pissed off Haku waiting for her.

Once she had her feet on the ground again, the red dragon shifted back to his human form. His long red hair braided behind him, standing out against the white fabric of his clothes. The spirit quickly put his arm around her when he saw her stagger a little, obviously still shaken from her fall, "Are you alright Ryumiko?"

Ryumiko frowned up at him, "I'm fine, although unfortunately I don't appear to know your name as you know mine."

The red-haired man stepped a little away from her and gave a short bow, "I would be honoured if you call me Retsu."

"Why are you bowing? I should be thanking you for saving my life just then," Ryumiko said, rushing to lift the dragon spirit out of his bow. Though she froze when she heard a light growl behind her. She nervously turned to lock eyes with furious green orbs.

"You wouldn't have needed saving if you hadn't pulled a weird stunt like that! Imagine what could've happened if - Retsu hadn't been here to save you!" Haku shouted.

Ryumiko straightened up, defiance suddenly welling inside her, "Excuse me? You set out rules and I'm quite sure I followed them almost precisely, except for when I asked if you were okay! Besides, couldn't you have stopped yourself from doing a loop with me?"

Haku grumbled, "I couldn't."

The human girl was shocked, "Wai- Wha-? Why?"

Retsu cleared his throat, grabbing the quarreling two's attention, "I think I may be able to answer that question, but it's not exactly - safe - to explain so openly outdoors."

Chihiro walked awkwardly into her art class, noticing the thick tension in the air when her eyes met with Allen's. She felt so guilty for leaving him hanging on their first date, but she really couldn't have a date when she knew her cousin was missing. She had explained to him that her cousin was missing and she was extremely worried, and Allen had seemed really calm about it. But looking back on it this morning, she realised that it might have looked like a lame excuse to get out of a date.

As they began working on their projects, Chihiro was absently painting not much in particular, stealing glances at Allen to try and see if it was possible to explain properly, rather than a rushed call over the phone.

She was also insanely worried about Ryumiko being in the Spirit World. She'd scheduled her flight home in the next few days, incase Ryumiko returned home and she had time to cancel her flight if necessary. She huffed under her breath. If Kohaku didn't keep her younger cousin in one piece by the time she got there, he'd have more than hell to pay.

"Chihiro that's incredible!" cried the shrill voice of one of the other classmates whose name she didn't know.

Wondering what the girl was raving about, Chihiro looked at the canvas she'd been painting on. She found herself trying to not throw the canvas across the room at the sight of it. On it was a portrait of Kohaku as she last remembered him.

"Is it anyone in particular?" asked the girl enthusiastically. "Your brother? A friend? First love?"

Chihiro could practically feel the atmosphere thicken between herself and Allen.

Preoccupied with avoiding Allen's gaze, she mumbled, "S-sort of... something like that..."

"Really?" asked the girl loudly as Chihiro realised what she'd said.

"Well! That is to say... We haven't seen each other for eight years! So I don't even know if he still rememebers who I am..." she sighed, just wanting the girl to leave her in her own misery.

The girl in question, unfortunately did not pick up on Chihiro's discomfort with the topic as she continued, "Don't worry! I'm sure he'd fall in love with you when he sees how beautiful you are eight years later!"

Chihiro groaned, mentally strangling the girl for opening her mouth in front of Allen.

'Thank you, oh-nameless dolt... thank you so very much for filling the hole I've dug myself in with water...' Chihiro wished she could scream at the girl who skipped happily away believing her words of 'encouragement' to be helping yet another soul in their love life.

Aww I'm sorry Allen *sobs* I'm so mean! And poor confused Chihiro! WOO! RETSU IS IN THE PICTURE! Yeah! *grins*

Many thank-yous to:

Mysticbreeze327 (That would be epic...)

livelovemusic95 (She will eventually! Don't you worry :P)

Laugh. While. Crying (Oh so I realised that both spellings of 'meter/metre' are the same, just the one that I use is the Aussie version [metre] XP)

Ink Woven (Thank you for the review :3)

I loved getting reviews from you! Why? Because reviews are my DRUGS! Haha kidding! But seriously...

REVIEW PLEASE?