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 chewed at her fingernail. Rin had been missing for almost two days and the strain was really starting to tell on her fellow questers. They knew from Linca's attempts at tracking her magically that she was far ahead of them. She had not waited for them and for some reason had pushed on alone. They had asked every spirit they had come across if they had seen Rin. The answer was not always a negative. On their first day of looking, one helpful wood sprite told them she had spoken to a spirit woman who had been stumbling through the woods looking confused.
"I thought she might be lost," chirruped the small mouse-like spirit, its beady eyes held no hint of deception as far as Chihiro could tell.
"She looked at me and said she knew exactly where she was going but she had lost some friends. She was supposed to meet them but she could not remember where." Scott had been sceptical of the spirit's story. But Linca had quietly taken him aside that night and explained what they knew about Rin. Chihiro had only heard snatches of their conversation as she drifted fitfully in and out of sleep.
"We don't know who she is or where she comes from; Rin is not even her real name... She has a mark of da'tant on her, just like Chihiro, she has some sort of quest to fulfil but we don't know what... Yubaba's memory spell is powerful and Rin has been under it for a long time, she wants to remember but is frightened of what compelled her to forget everything in the first place, she paid Yubaba to be employed at the bathhouse and have her memory taken... The spell can make the one under it slightly unstable as it wears off... She may have had a bit of a mental breakdown if she has come across something familiar, it has happened before... We think she left a child behind but it's just a feeling she has, she is not really sure..."
Now it was the end of the second day of searching. Chihiro was already tucked up under her tent made of a plastic sheet. She was getting weary much more easily as the days went by, as if something was sapping her strength.
"Or someone," Chihiro muttered ruefully to the green plastic above her. Linca and Scott were still sitting around the small campfire, arguing about who would take the first watch. Crickets started to sing as the last anaemic rays of light faded. Chihiro sighed and rubbed her stomach. Was it just her? Or had it rounded slightly?
"I should be losing weight with all this riding and flying, but because of you I'm going to look like a blimp in a few months rather than the fashion model I could be after all this exercise," she grumbled. She drew little circles around her belly button and smiled, she felt slightly better about being pregnant now Haku knew. She had no idea how they had managed to talk to each other, even touch each other, but she was eternally grateful that they had. Her heartfelt lighter than it had in weeks. She had no doubt that it had been real, dreams were never that lucid. He had been so shocked at her news, she had worried that he was going to be angry. He wasn't, he was thrilled.
"Your daddy's going to spoil you rotten," she murmured. "Him and your aunties Rin and Linca. We just have to make sure we get auntie Rin back then we can work on getting your daddy back."
