Book 3. The saga continues. With her mating to Haku rapidly approaching, Chihiro has a number of new problems to face. But these are nothing compared to the plans a new foe has for her. Sequel to Enchantment of the Heart.
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Chihiro refused to come out of her room for three days. She hardly slept and only drank water from the taps in her bathroom. She did not eat; she could not face the thought of food at all. She began to hear the bathhouse coming back to life. Repair crews hummed through the night and voices echoed in the corridor during the day. It gave her little comfort that someone was taking care of the place. What did it matter to her now? Looking back, Chihiro knew what she must have experienced was something akin to shellshock. She had shared so much of herself with Haku that the edges of their consciousness had started to blur; where Chihiro ended and Haku started had been a fluid thing, they were in truth part of each other. Now he had been ripped from her, and her shocked mind needed the time alone to adjust.
Linca, Rin and Meeka all tried to get her to open the door. In gentle, sympathetic tones they called to her, telling her they would not force her to come out but she should eat. Chihiro would just ask them quietly to leave; eventually she gave up responding altogether, leaving them to worry. Yes, she was being ridiculously selfish and there was plenty of work she could have turned her hand to but she could not shake off the feeling of emptiness for long enough to want to leave the room.
On the third day, something changed. Chihiro was curled up in the windowsill watching the early summer grass of the plain dance, a sea of lush green tips blown before a warm breeze. Strange grazing animals like oxen browsed the grass and predators hunted their herds, taking the young the old and the weak. Chihiro felt her nail catch on something and she hissed as a splinter worked its way under the nail. She pulled out the sliver of painted wood and squeezed the digit to make sure there was no wood left in the puncture wound. She sucked away the blood, crushing the thought that someone would be getting a little crazy about now if he was here. She looked down to see what had hurt her.
Between her feet, the paint had started to come loose and bubble as the summer air turned humid and damp seeped in. The paint was not old but it was damaged. Someone had scratched characters into it. Chihiro turned her head so she could see the scrawl.
"Chihiro Ogino's home is here," the sill declared proudly to the world. Chihiro gasped. Her hand fluttered to her mouth and her bottom lip trembled. She remembered writing those words, carving the characters into the wood with her now lost hair sticks, trying to leave part of herself behind in case she was not bonded to the spirit world.
That evening she had become the first human bonded to this world in centuries. That and a white dragon announced to the spirit world that he loved her. For her own obtuse reasons and because she had a romantic streak, the goddess of the spirit world had bent ancient laws and bonded her. The memories flooded her and for a moment Chihiro thought she would drown in them. With the memories came emotions; hope, fear, need, want, lust and above all love; love that had pulled together a human and a dragon and bound them so tightly they could not live properly without each other. Without Haku Chihiro would exist, but not live; life would lack colour and depth. Tears pricked Chihiro's eyes and she hiccupped forlornly.
