Yay! The story is finally picking up :) I'm still so excited about this.

The next morning, Chihiro woke up early to see her parents off.

"We'll be back Monday evening," said Yuuka, waving as she leaned out of the car window. "There's food in the refrigerator, and if you call Grandma, she'll have food for you too."

"Yes. Have fun!" said Chihiro blearily, leaning against the doorframe as her father backed out of the driveway. "I'll see you!"

When they had gone and Chihiro had gone back into the house, she found that she was too awake now to return to bed. Yawning, she poured cereal into a bowl and ate it dry, picking at the purple hair tie she had left on her wrist last night. She would go biking, she decided. There was a nice trail nearby that she liked to bike on; if she went now, she could be back by nine.

Ten minutes later, Chihiro was pedaling out of the city, head tilted toward the sky. She loved the feeling of the wind on her face; it felt like she was flying - not that she had ever flown before, on a plane or ever. But she liked to imagine that it was swift yet safe, cold yet somehow not lonely.

She plunged into the trees, following the trail carefully. It was easy to take the wrong paths in these woods, and (though she didn't remember it) her father claimed that they'd gotten lost in here the day they moved into the city. Thus, Chihiro was always cautious when biking in the woods. A wrong turn could go a long way in the wrong direction, and she had a specific path that she stayed on every time she came.

Except for today.

She was biking past an unpaved path between the trees when something caught her eye and she skidded to a stop, leaning back to get a better look down the path.

Chihiro gasped - there was a person down there, leaning against a hump of rock.

Heart thumping, she made to quickly pedal away before the person spotted her, but it figured that the person would turn before she could so much as press down on the pedal.

For a moment, they stared at each other. Chihiro couldn't make out the person's face from this far, but he was wearing green clothes that made him nearly blend into the background.

He stepped forward. "Ogino," he called, his voice carrying down the empty path.

Chihiro's mouth parted. She wondered if she ought to flee while he was still quite a long ways down the path.

"Ogino, it's me."

She squinted. The voice sounded familiar, and she rethought her instinct to flee. Maybe she did know this person.

She swung her leg over the bike and took a step toward the boy. She could make out brown hair and that he was tall, but that was still it.

"Humans are terribly short-sighted, aren't they?"

And at last, Chihiro identified who it was. Yes, there was that elegant look to his face, the accent in his voice. "Sota Miyagi?" she asked in astonishment. "Is that you?"

"Yes. Finally." He pushed himself off the rock and she hesitantly moved forward. She had never been down this path before, and she also felt certain that she'd never seen it, either.

"What are you doing here?"

He didn't miss a beat. "To find you."

Chihiro gulped at the casual way he spoke, and resolved to tell Kagura and Rin not to hang out around this boy too much. He was scaring her, with his calm and random appearance.

"Why? Were you searching for me?"

She was close enough so that she could see Sota smile. "Yes. I've been searching for a while, too. But today, you came to me."

Chihiro eyed him suspiciously. She had not come to him. She had been biking, then stopped by the sight of him in a random spot in this forest, and now stopped by his strange words.

He was clearly crazy.

"Lady Zeniba will be pleased," Sota said slowly, enunciating each word and watching her as he did. They were closer now, so that she could see the green in his eyes, the rosy flush of his cheeks that hadn't been there yesterday at school when she'd first met him. He sounded and looked more… alive here, against the foliage of green around him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

Sota paused, observing her. "You really don't remember? Not even a little bit?"

"Remember what?" His gaze was so intent now that Chihiro flinched when he stepped closer, an arm's breadth away from her. His eyes were startlingly green, she noticed. Like the leaves around him, the wall of vines behind him.

He frowned. "This will complicate things," he murmured, more to himself than to her. "It can't be avoided, though."

"What can't be avoided?" Chihiro backed up. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Sota looked at her strangely, then shook his head. "I apologize, Chihiro Ogino."

Eyeing him warily, she demanded, "For?"

"For doing this, when clearly some part of you has been trying to stay away."

These were the last words that she heard before a cold wave rushed over her body and she fell to her knees. The woods spun in all directions around her, the trees as green as Sota's firm eyes, before the world faded to silver, then pitch black.

She was flying through the air, the night wind rushing past her as she held on tight. Miles below was the water that held the train tracks she'd been planning to walk back on. Chihiro closed her eyes. Up here in the sky, everything felt so right. She did not want this moment to ever end.

Leaning forward, Chihiro breathed in the scent of the dragon she was riding upon. He smelled of freshness, like how she imagined light would smell like if it could have a scent. Her mouth opened to say his name, like how she had in all her dreams about the silver dragon - she remembered now that they'd always been of a silver and green dragon with beautiful hazy green eyes - and Chihiro clutched his light fur between her fingers.

"Haku," she whispered to the stars.

And then the pain hit her body, and she was flying off of Haku into the empty air, plunging down to the water with nothing to stop her. Just falling, falling, falling.

Silver. Chihiro only saw silver even as her every bone seemed to have shattered and she throbbed all over from her head to her toes. Silver. She clung onto the color like it was a life vest saving her from drowning.

Gradually, she became aware that she was lying on something soft. For some reason, she thought it was fur, silver fur, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, needles seemed to assail her brain. She cried out and rolled over, forcing her eyes open.

The ground was not silver, but green. It was a bed of springy green grass that waved in the gentle breeze. Chihiro's vision was dotted as she pushed herself up, but she could make out a beautiful blue sky adorned with white clouds like cotton candy.

As her surroundings slowly cleared, she wondered where she was. This wasn't the forest she'd been biking in, had it? Where was her bike, anyway? She tried to remember the last thing that had happened to her, but her head hurt so badly -

Sota.

Chihiro's eyes snapped open despite her body's protests. Sota Miyagi. What had he done to her? Where had he taken her? Her heart pounded wildly as she forced herself to get up. All she could see was grass, from all directions, and a river to her right. The river was filled with rocks, and as Chihiro stared at them, she suddenly remembered the feel of slippery rocks under her feet as she followed her parents across the river.

Another wave of pain hit her brain, and she almost sank to her knees in pain. As Chihiro looked between her drooping lids, she thought she could spot the top of a building over the hill on the other side of the river. When she dropped her hands from her face, she saw it was indeed a building structure.

She moved toward it without hesitation. Buildings meant people, and even though she couldn't recognize the building from here, surely there could be people there to help her, and at the very least, she could ask if they'd seen anyone like Sota around. She wondered where he'd went.

It was easy to move from rock to rock over the river, and she climbed up the hill easily. When she reached the crest, she paused, staring ahead with an open mouth.

There were traditional buildings lined up in the village up ahead, red lanterns hanging across each aisle. She couldn't see any people, but the place didn't look abandoned. It had a very warm feeling to it, and as Chihiro walked toward it, she felt strangely calm.

The streets were empty when she reached them. Chihiro walked through them cautiously, eyes taking in every building with astonishment.

"Hello?" she called out hesitantly. "Is anyone here?"

The only reply was the echo of her voice through the town. Biting her lip, Chihiro made her way to a staircase and ascended the steps. Maybe there'd be people up there.

There were no people, but there was a building, the most impressive yet, though still old-fashioned, like a shogun's house. It stretched across in different directions and rose into the sky. Near the back of the tall building were towers that reached up very high.

Chihiro stumbled toward the place, hoping there would be people inside. Surely such a big building kept in good condition would have someone, just one person to tell her where this place was and how she could get back home. She mentally cursed herself for not bringing her phone with her that morning.

A loud caw made her jump about a foot into the air. Chihiro spun to the side to see a small gray raven flapping in the sky. It watched her with its beady eyes, and as Chihiro looked up, lips parted, it gave another loud caw then darted upward into the sky.

She followed its path with her eyes until it disappeared around one of the high towers, and then she returned her attention to the building. To reach it, she would have to cross a little curved bridge.

The bridge. Chihiro gasped as she stared at the bridge connecting this side of the village to the large building. It was her bridge, she thought in astonishment. It was the very same bridge that she'd drawn on her school notebook - she was certain! The elegant slope, the golden planks, every bit of it was the same. Her head spun and she reached out to grasp the side of the bridge -

But she never felt it.

Chihiro looked down and screamed. Her hand was not on the side of the bridge - it was in it, hovering between the wooden bar. And she could see through her hand, see the glistening water beneath it. She quickly raised her other arm and saw that it, too, was turning translucent.

Fear pounded through her veins, and Chihiro looked to the house desperately. She forced herself to swallow her fear and ran toward it.

If only I had food, she thought desperately, unexplainably.

Chihiro fought back a whimper as she finished crossing the bridge and stood on the doorstep of the building. Her skin prickled as she stared at the red doors. Where had Sato brought here, and where was he now? What was happening to her?

She shakily reached up and lifted the knocker. It landed back on the door with a bang that evened to echo throughout the empty village.

Leaning against the side of the door, Chihiro waited. Her head was spinning again, and she felt drowsy, nearly drunk with dizziness.

That was when the door opened, and she was met with the sight of a large frog. For a moment, they both stared at each other, Chihiro helplessly and the frog with both surprise and disgust.

"Please," Chihiro whispered after a stunned moment.

The frog continued to stare at her as she held out her hand, almost as clear as glass.

And then the frog opened his mouth and screamed a word that made the throbbing in her head explode, filling her vision with black and making her knees give out as she collapsed to the ground.

"Human!"

For the second time, Chihiro fainted, the frog's familiar, shrill voice ringing in her ears as the house in her hazy vision seemed to burst alive with more frogs, maids, and a boy with eyes the color of spring.

Oho... who exactly is that boy? Sota Miyagi, the person who has for some reason brought her back into the spirit world? Or Haku, whom Chihiro's mind prevents her from remembering? Does Haku even remember Chihiro?

Find out in the next chapter ;)