SPIRITED AWAY: CHIHIRO RETURNS

The Tengu's Keep

Chihiro P.O.V

"Haku...he's been poisoned," she says taking in the ghastly sight of her poor fox friends hind leg as he fell into unconsciousness at her feet then changed back into his human form.

She could see the wound better on his smooth skin now that his fur wasn't in the way, but it made her feel worse, the extent of the poison was worsening by the minute. On his ankle she could see that in one of his attempts at dodging, some of the purple substance splattered onto his leg and ankle, it looked to have seeped into his skin, making it look like a very dark severe bruise, however, she knew better, bruises didn't blister up like that and it seemed to be spreading slowly under his skin.

She looks up at her dragon who was looking at Shigeru from the corner of his eye whilst he concentrated on keeping the barrier in place, he looked like he was beginning to get a little tired keeping it up, but his eyes still held steely determination as he tries to figure out what to do. She watches as Haku slowly makes his way towards them when she suddenly remembers the hole in the tunnel ceiling.

"Haku...there is a way out but you would have to fly in your dragon form, I know its risky and I know it will be uncomfortable for you flying in here and dangerous but I can't see any other way out. We could go through the webbing but let's face it, if we continue further here we will get caught, there has to be a way to get past it to get to it..." she explains determinedly.

She could hear Haku growl in frustration, his reactions in here were surprising, he was usually so stoic, calm and collected 'dragons must really dislike confined spaces...he has been on edge like this since we entered...' she thinks to herself.

"How big was the hole Chihiro... do you think I could fit in it? " Haku asks peeking down at her his eyes softening little, she must really look like crap right now, not as bad as Shigeru probably but still... "Don't worry love, I promise you everything will be fine, I'm merely disadvantaged, doesn't mean I'm weak against him" he explains giving her a soft smile that escaped through his rigid and determined exterior.

She smiles at her dragon a little "lets put it this way, it was able to fit that giant spider perfectly as far as I could tell" she explains and then rips a strip off her clothes and wraps it around Shigeru's wound carefully trying to tend to her friend without touching the affected area.

"Well if that's the case then its worth a shot it beats being cornered hiding behind this barrier that I probably won't be able to keep up for much longer without depleting too much of my energy" he says, starting to get a little pushed back as he strains for dominance over the giant spider who was trying to break through his barrier.

Suddenly, one of the Tsuchigumo's legs breaks through the barrier and the barrier begins to crack, she watches and clings to her dear unconscious friend as another leg breaks through, she hears Haku growl fiercely then he lock gaze with her...

"Hold on to him and count to three slowly then grab hold of one of my horns okay" he states. She nods, wrapping an arm around Shigeru's waist tightly keeping her other one free then starts to count keeping her eyes pinned to her dragon.

"One...two...three..." she says slowly.

In those moments of counting Haku had quickly let go of the barrier, shifted into his dragon form and made his way to her. She quickly grabs his closest horn and they were off, using the barrier-breaking as a diversion to confuse the spider and to narrowly sneak passed it, fly over it then make their way up the exit in the ceiling of the tunnel.

It was a semi-tight fit, she didn't realize just how much larger Haku was now compared to the size he was when she was 10, however, he was able to fit through nevertheless. They were almost to the exit of the tunnel when Haku started declining, and he didn't like it one bit his growls and roars shook the tiny space. Looking down she see's that the spider somehow caught up despite its loss of two of its legs.