Reflecting

In her dreams Chihiro flew. She flew at a riverside. A great dragon would be by her side. He was majestic and pale. His eyes shone with such a vibrant colour. He was as wonderful as anything ever could be. She loved to be near him.

However, Chihiro couldn't remain a child forever. She grew up. The dreams faded. The colours dulled. The dragon was always as vibrant and luminous though. Nothing could dull him. Once their sky and earth fell from existence he vanished. The end was sudden. He wasn't there and the dream was over. She took comfort in how nothing could taint her wonderful dragon. He was too magnificent to be caught by reality. He escaped from reality, from the burdens of growing older, and became someone who was free.

Chihiro admired him most of all. The teachers sometimes asked who the students' role models were. She would always smile mysteriously at their question. She never answered them. That made her stand out from everyone else. They were sure that she must have been mysterious and people flocked to her because of that. Their company was nothing in comparison to her dragon's so she didn't concern herself with them much.

Her eyes were fixated forward. The future was her goal. She strived for success and comfort. Most of all, she strived for the freedom that her dragon knew. Her words became her friends, her allies and her greatest strength. She used them and they used her – a mutual relationship of equal give and take. That, she knew, was the foundations of the greatest relationships.

Her words were her tickets. With those tickets she flew to amazing worlds with the greatest of people. No one could match her dragon, but they were good enough. However, all trips that take root in the pen – and in the mind – must have a return ticket. She hated the world. Reality was a prison that there was no escape from.

Chihiro's individuality flourished. She matured quickly and soon reached her own beliefs on life. That was when she took her paper and ran away from home. It was a gamble that could have gone horribly wrong. She could have died, starved, fallen ill, been kidnapped or goodness knows what else. She wasn't. She succeeded.

Her work became books. Book after book was released. She was a genius that soon became known throughout the land. Her greatest hit – A World of Dancing Shadows – was her twenty fifth book. The random notes she scribbled in her classes flourished in a world of their own. She was nineteen when A World of Dancing Shadows was released. No one could quite believe her success.

She was on her way to Tokyo for a fan meeting. The private plane was soaring above the countryside. She was doodling once again. Monsters and fairies took up the entirety of the borders in her notebook. She could name them all already and had only begun to create them since she boarded.

Chihiro didn't know why. She never stopped working. Her attention never wandered elsewhere when she put pen to paper. That time, however, things were different. She glanced down and found a gleaming river. The scene was beautiful.

"Captain, please stop the plane! We need to land!" she called.

She was paying him. He was paid by her. That was as simple as it was. He obeyed immediately, knowing that difficult requests often came with a bonus check. He landed the plane in a field next to the river. Chihiro had leapt out of her seat the moment the plane stopped. She pushed the emergency button and leapt out.

Her pace was in stark contrast to her escape. She walked leisurely. Her eyes drank in the scene. She memorised each and every detail to the best of her ability. The scene was beautiful, wonderful and somehow all too familiar. She felt at home; no longer racing about, searching frantically for this manuscript, that doodle or that darned note that always wandered off in the night.

She felt at peace. So much so that she didn't return when the captain called. She missed her fan meeting entirely. She stood by the river until nightfall. The scene was so entrancing. However, as soon as the light left the spell broke. She hiked up her skirt and began to walk back to the plane.

"You're leaving now?" a voice enquired.

Chihiro froze.

"You stood there for so long. I wondered if you were alright," the voice continued. "Have a safe trip."

"Wait!" she cried out, her back still to him. "Do… Do you fly?"

He chuckled. "Fly? What human can fly without a plane?"

"A human that's with a dragon," she replied.

Her fear shook her to the core. She didn't understand why she was scared. Being alone with a stranger on a dark night? That was scary. The captain was close enough. He kept a gun. They argued over the matter but he was allowed to take it on flights in the end.

Her eyes drifted over him. He was oddly familiar but somehow entirely new. She felt like she knew him but he had died and been reborn as someone else.

"Your friend looks worried," he told her. "You should go."

"Is that it? How can we say goodbye when we haven't said hello?" she frowned.

"We started talking. That's enough of a greeting," he replied. "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Say hello and then we can part," she insisted, pouting in annoyance. It was a childish habit that she had somehow grown into.

"Hello, miss…" he frowned. "Hello miss. I think you should leave."

"Hello and goodbye," she started to walk away and paused. "Hey! If anyone asks if there was a plane accident around here then tell them that Chihiro is fine!"

He rocked back on his heels. The name echoed in his mind as though it were a cave. That name of all names struck him. He remembered. He had never forgotten. She had simply changed. The Chihiro that he knew would never walk away like that. He wanted to talk her into coming back but bit on his tongue. She wasn't the Chihiro that he knew.

"Miss, we really have to go now. The weather is to worsen tonight," the captain urged worriedly.

"Don't worry. You'll see your children tonight. I promise you that," she smiled. "Sorry about today. This place looked so familiar and beautiful. I had to draw it."

The captain retreated to the cockpit. The door slammed shut behind him. Chihiro stepped up onto the ladder. She had a minute to board and have the plane secure before they left. If she failed then she would have to jump off and hope that the wheels wouldn't crush her.

"Chihiro!"

Author's Note: Wow. That was longer than I planned. Well, you know, I never plan length but wow… This may be the longest of them all. I can't be sure though but there's a good chance that it is. Oh thank you so much for reading my work. I'm sorry happy that you read my story and I truly hope that you enjoyed every word of it. I am so sorry if you were less than satisfied!

(As a writer, I wrote the first draft and got halfway through the second in about 4/5 months. Please bear in mind that I did take quite a few months off because a story was hard to write. I do believe that on that time scale it would be possible for her to reach twenty five books in that time)

Part of the Revival Collection.