Spirited Away Fan Fiction ❯ The Reign of the Elements ❯ Storytelling ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 8: Storytelling

A/N: Hi again everyone!! I had originally said that I wouldn't update `til the twentieth but I got to a place where I could use the Internet soooo I decided to give you all a surprise! Have fun reading!

P.S. Thanks again to my beta Strayphoenix!

Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away or any of its characters nor do I make a profit from writing this fanfic. Spirited Away belongs to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

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"Land!" Gina squealed, darting off Akihiko's shoulder and onto the rocky landing that used to be a stop for the train. It was gone now, destroyed by Boh's minions, another memory lost.

"For a catfish, you sure like solid ground," Akihiko clucked as he climbed onto the dry earth, ruffling and shaking his feathers until all the water had fled his body and landed on us.

"Akihiko-kun!" I yelled, wiping water from my already drenched clothes. Sora huffed and shook out her hair patting it this way and that before sitting down seiza style at the edge of the landing.

"My pardons, ladies," he smirked at me as Gina wrung her hair dry.

"`Pardons' my butt!" Gina muttered. I cracked a smile and rubbed her head affectionately.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it." The swords and the bag were getting heavy and a huge relief enveloped my muscles as they dropped to the floor.

"Of course not!" Akihiko's face was a picture of honesty. Gina frowned at him and turned to scrounge through her bag.

"Guess she didn't believe you," I told him, my mouth cracked into a smile as Gina ignored us.

"Tried my hardest," he sighed dropping his bag behind him and undoing the sword hanging hidden beneath his clothes.

We fell silent, letting the water lull us into a sedative trance. The stars winked down on us like eyes ever watching our progress. My stomach grumbled just as Gina tossed me some type of spirit fruit and a piece of bread. Was this all we had? Just perfect.

"What I would do for some steak now…marshmallows would be good too." My thoughts escaped me as I watched the sky.

"What are marshmallows?" Gina asked, keeping her food away from Akihiko's snatching hands.

"Aw, come on!" Akihiko whined as he was foiled again.

"Shouldn't he get some food too?" Poor bird man, he was going to starve if Gina had her way.

"No," she huffed biting into her bread and munching heartily, "not until he asks nicely!"

Akihiko frowned, narrowing his eyes before passing a hand over his face. When his hand moved away, everything had changed. Gone was the humor replaced by an extremely intense expression.

"Gina," he whispered, moving closer to her. Gina's eyes were wide and her sparkly skin translucent. Her grip on his food loosened slightly as he inched in closer.

"H-hmm?" she murmured, looking away from his forest eyes and towards the ocean.

"Please give me my food," he whispered as his face crept closer and closer to her own. My eyes were wide watching the display, knowing what he was doing but too frozen to do anything.

"Umm…s-sure?" she breathed.

Akihiko snatched his portion out of her hand and jumped back. He smirked at her then gobbled down his food in an instant. The spell was broken and the thunderstorm that was Gina erupted.

"You—you!" she sputtered in indignation as my lips pressed together.

"You were going to say something about marshmallows?" Akihiko asked calmly.

"ARGH!" Gina yelled, sitting down and facing away from us. My eyes fixed on her form before turning back to a smug Akihiko.

"You shouldn't have done that," I chided.

"Done what?" he retorted. This was no use, he wouldn't say he was sorry and Gina was too stubborn to forgive him.

"Okay…" my fingers kneaded the bridge of my nose trying to calm the twitch that rippled through my muscles every few seconds. "Marshmallows…are this cottony sort of sweet food that you eat at night around a fire with your friends"

"Why would you want to sit around a fire with your friends and eat marshmallows? Don't you usually sleep around a fire?" Akihiko's eyebrows drew together in confusion and even Gina turned slightly to hear my explanation.Now how was I going to describe something they had never seen? They wouldn't know what a campfire was. Oh brother, this was going to be a pain.

"You gather around a fire and tell stories too. It's for fun," I added. They still looked confused.

"Tell stories about what?" Gina chirped in.

"Anything”

"Sounds lame," Akihiko huffed leaning back on his elbows and straightening his legs.

"It isn't!" I responded, indignation at his brush-off filling my veins. "The stories are usually scary stories or stories about your life…they can be anything”

"I don't believe it's that exciting," Gina contributed, giving Akihiko a withering look, "though I hate to agree with the bird brain” Akihiko rolled his eyes and turned to me.

"If you're convinced they're so great, tell us one of these great stories," he waved his hand.

Me? Tell them a story? All the stories I knew were about spirits. They wouldn't be impressed with my storytelling skills at all and then they'd rub it in forever! Aw come on, Chihiro, think of something!

"What do you want to hear about?" They stayed silent for a minute thinking before looking at each other for another few seconds. Finally their eyes landed on me.

"Tell us about you," Gina smiled and scurried over to sit next to me.

"About me? But my life is boring” Which was sadly true. There was no adventure in my life only the one when I was spirited away but they had heard that story. It was practically in their history books.

"So make it interesting," Akihiko said as he lay down, resting his head fully on his bag, and motioned for me to start.

`Interesting,' eh? Well, it was worth a shot even if it did explode in my face. How to start or where to start?

My mouth turned into a frown as my thoughts raced through memories upon memories searching for a starting point. Everything turned up a blank and blanker. Maybe there was no starting point because...

My heart clenched as my thoughts led me to something painful, something dark.

There was no starting point because my life had never started.

My eyes stung in harmony with my hurt heart. There was no story just…monotony to my life. Wake up, go to school, come back, do homework, sleep. Oh. Of course, I forgot, and dream of Haku every waking moment.

That might be my story…

"Sen-chan?" Gina asked softly from my side.

"There once was a girl," my voice sounded like it was speaking through water, "who dreamed of finding her prince everyday that she was alive. She had found her prince in a land of spirits and magic. He had been her savior, her soul, but the girl had to go back to her home and he…he promised to come for her”. My throat was closing and as my story began to gush from my lips, trying to be heard before it was constricted back inside of me.

"She went back home, home to parents who were to involved with themselves to notice the little girl that had been affected by a dream journey to a land they did not remember. It took the girl two months to recall the journey in its entirety. She ran from her house to the place where she had entered the land of magic but there was no entrance there anymore, only a statue who laughed at her failure”Akihiko and Gina began to blur into a painting of colors and in that painting, forgotten images flashed and disappeared.

"The little girl returned home to her parents and brother, vowing to find her prince. She felt him in the water. Every day she almost drowned herself in her pool just to feel his skin around her. She felt him in the forest. Every time she could, she would sleep on her balcony to feel the trees, to be near to her prince. She felt him in the pencil that scratched against the paper. Every day she drew him on paper, never quite succeeding in capturing him” A strange emotion rose within me like a snake or a dragon.

"For eight years she waited. The girl developed the shadow of a life. She received good grades in her school and passed all her classes with flying marks. The girl had many friends who loved the shadow that she showed. A boy fell in love with her and for a while she glamoured him in her eyes, trying to make him seem like her prince but failing. For eight years she pined for a prince that did not appear. For eight years she questioned…"

A damn broke and the echo sounded through my ears. My legs snapped up and I roared like a wounded animal.

"Why, Haku?!" My throat tore at the force of my yell, "I waited until I could wait no more! You promised! You promised yet here I am and you're not!" My knees gave out and in a jumbled heap I fell to the floor in agony.

"Sen-chan…" Gina said in a voice full of concern as she came over and placed her hand on my shoulder.

My body felt boneless like it was floating through the endless ocean that surrounded us. There was no light in this sorrow and nothing to bring me out of the aching misery. My cells cried, my mind mourned, everything shook. It came to the point where there were no more tears to cry and only silent shivers racked my body.

The pain went deep, beyond the soul. It was physical and it was emotional. To me, Haku had died and I was still mourning his death. But the thought of him being truly dead made me cry harder. Not even Akihiko wrapping me up in his warm, feathered and rail-thin arms comforted me. He hummed under his breath and rocked me. My fingers wrapped around pieces of his shirt and clung. It was like my body had transformed into that of an octopus youkai, sticking to everything with suction force.

Fingers touched my cheeks, pulling and tugging me forward. An impressionistic painting met my eyes. There was a vague form with blue hair kneeling before me and as the distorting tears were blinked away an image of a silent wind youkai formed before me.

Sora held my face prisoner between her cool, elegant palms. Her eyes searched my face intently, not letting a single crevice pass by her warrior eyes. In my state, I didn't even think to question what I was doing. My mind was separated from my body by a void. And even though it called for my hands to push her away, my limbs refused to obey.

Her fingers brushed at my tears causing my eyes to widen infinitesimally. She stared at the fluid motions of her fingers as if entranced by their dance.

Brush, brush, brush.

Soon there were no more tears for her to brush away and she pulled away. It seemed as if she had placed a spell over me to keep my mind lulled into hypnosis because as she pulled away my senses came back to me, rushing forward all at once.

"W-why d-did you d-do that?" my voice wavered, a wraith of its old self.

She did not answer, as usual. Instead, Sora sat down again on her perch at the edge of the landing, facing away from us and in the direction of our mission. I waited for her to answer, hoping against hope that she would speak just once.

My hope was in vain.

"She's not going to say anything," Akihiko finally sighed, lifting me from his lap and into his arms before standing. His steps played a gentle staccato against the ground as he stopped before my assigned bed roll and place me on it.

My body curled in on itself, trying to ease the ache that seemed to envelop my abdomen.

"Sleep," Gina whispered as she scurried to my side and slid her hand through my hair, massaging my scalp, "it heals all things”

"Not this. Believe me, I've tried." A paper-thin smile spread across my lips. A wince passed over her wide eyes making a greater pang of guilt flow through me. I was making her suffer, damn it! More sorrow to add to my already over flowing pile.

"No more storytelling for tonight,” she switched the subject wisely. “I…I will stay by you until you fall asleep"

"Don't know how much good a catfish will do in protecting you," Akihiko murmured, putting on a smile.

We smiled wanly back at him. Laughing was out of the question right now and it seemed that it was hard even for Gina. She just sighed and kept on petting my hair, ignoring Akihiko's jab.

"Sleep," she purred, concentrating on my drooping eyelids.

"I…fear it," I slurred as fatigue inebriated my brain.

"What? Sleep?" Gina seemed to be fading away, going farther and farther away from me as darkness overtook me.

"Haku lives there…" I trailed off, finally succumbing exhaustion, physical and emotional.

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Yay another chapter!! YES! Go me! Go me! Go me! (And my beta too!)

This was a particularly hard chapter to write…really hard actually…because of the angst and the pain. I go through a lot of pain when my characters go through pain so…yeah, you can imagine.

Now, my characters want to talk so, without further ado…

Akihiko: I think I might kill Haku.

Gina: Why would you do that?!

Akihiko: (looking around for said water dragon) He hurt Sen-chan! (catching a glimpse of blue hair) AHA!

Gina: Wait Akihiko! That's—"

(From a distance there is a shriek and then a long silence. Akihiko comes running out, hightailing it off to god knows where.)

Gina: Uh-oh…

(A furious Sora with a huge bump on her head stares murderously after Akihiko before chasing him down screaming at the top of her lungs)

Gina: Stupid bird-man, got what he deserved! (She huffed.) Anyways, Sen-chan was going to talk but she's still crying…(sighs) poor thing…

(From distance a distinctive male yell is heard).

Gina: Looks like bird-man got caught (she grins and bows) I better go make sure Sora doesn't go killing him…without me! Until next time! Hey Sora! Wait for me! (She skips off towards the yells for mercy.)

*Sighs* With lunatics like this controlling my brain, does anyone question why I'm insane half the time? ( LOL) Anyways, keep reading and keep reviewing while I try to keep my characters from destroying each other!

Oh yeah! P.S. just to clarify, Gina is about 3' 4” tall. I made a mistake in chapter 6 saying she was four feet tall. Whoops! My beta caught it while rereading my stuff. Thanky you stray, yet again.

~~Go-chan