He coughed a laugh and glanced at me with a playfully wicked look in his steal green eyes. He flew even faster and higher. I laughed and held on to his horns hard as I could. We were so high up! It could easily be the highest we've ever flown together.
The moisture from the clouds was gathering on my forehead, so I wiped it with the back of my hand. But my watch caught my attention.
I sighed. “I have to go accueil soon.”
I expected him to start heading for the tunnel leading back to my world, but he didn't change direction.
“Haku.”
Still no change.
“Haku?”
He closed his eyes and made a sad sound the back of his throat. Unwillingly, he turned and started flying downward.
“I know. It feels like I just got here, doesn't it? ...I'm sorry.”
Haku shook his big dragon head and half-smiled at me, but I could tell he missed me as much as I missed him.
“I can quit my after school football team. They have enough players to get along without me, and I'm really not that good anyway. That way, we'll have-”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Haku started changing and I started free falling.
“Haku!”
“I'm right here Chihiro,” he yelled over the rush of the wind.
I turned around and Haku grabbed my hands.
“Chihiro, toi don't have to make sacrifices for me. Look at me!” he yelled for I had looked away. “I want to help you, be there for you. Not make toi have to compromise for me, do toi understand?
I studied his features, and he was serious. I nodded and said, “Yes Haku. But know its not a sacrifice. I want to be here. I want to be with you. It's not a burden. Ever since I first came back, I've had a need for this place.”
“But toi can't spend your life with spirits Chihiro. You'll be one yourself in such a shorter amount of time than toi think. toi have to live your life.”
“I'm living it,” I said, with no better defense than to deny it.
He sighed. “Not really.”
I squeezed his hand and looked him softly in the eye. “If I didn't come back, I would be sulking in my room wondering what could possibly be happening to toi and everyone here. It'd be torture. I'm happy here. Happy with you. Believe that.”
But he was shaking his head before I was done. He a dit nothing, but we both knew what the other thought.
I tried to lighten the mood. “Now do toi mind dragon-ing it up? I'm not a fan of free-falling.”
He smiled (though his face was still a little tense) and in a divisé, split second, he was that white and blue-green dragon I loved so much.
We flew back to the tunnel and when we reached the boundary creek, I hesitated.
He smiled a sad, half-smile. “Remember not to look back.”
I took a long look at him, trying to imprint his face on my mind. Then I nodded. “Okay,” I said. I wondered if he heard the sadness in my voice as much as I did.
Before he had a chance to reply, I ran off onto the path and inside the tunnel.
I flew through the ballroom connecting the worlds and out the other tunnel leading to my world. Once out, I paused to catch my breath, bracing my arms on my knees. This was the only way I could leave there now. Running as fast as possible. If I merely walked, I would be too tempted to look back.
I climbed up the huge colline leading to my house and came up from my backyard.
My mom met me at the sliding glass door.
“Chihiro,” she said, shaking her head playfully, “where do toi disappear to?”
“A magic spirit world,” I said, shrugging (just to make an inside joke). We both giggled and she gestured to the cuisine table, tableau inside.
“Dinner's waiting.”
I walked inside and grabbed my bowl. Without pausing, I went straight up the stairs and into my room.
I stared out my window as I ate, wondering what Haku was doing.
