Just as the sun was rising, Haku returned. The large windows to his bedroom opened wide to admit him with only the smallest of magical nudges. He landed gracefully, killing his forward momentum by digging his green-tinted claws into the floor. The floorboards bore numerous gouges from many landings in this manner. He was going to have to have a landing platform constructed at some point. It might save his furniture from damage; he had smashed a few chairs to splinters on less calculated ingresses, but it was low on his list of priorities at the moment.

He changed from dragon to man again. The transition was complex, and being tired, it was a little disorientating to see his field of vision change dramatically and feel his centre of gravity and sense of balance shift rapidly. He stumbled a little into the room, and the windows closed quietly behind him. He yawned and stretched. He had worn himself out by finding the nearest storm cloud and playing one of his favourite games, Dodge the Lightning Bolts.

The local air spirit, who had created the storm in the first place, was furious. It had whipped the storm into such a frenzy that it had started a few fires on the plains below. The storm had blown itself out and the air spirit, a nasty goblin-like creature, the lowest of his kind, had flown away cursing all dragon kind. Haku had thoroughly enjoyed himself, and now all he wanted to do was sleep for a week. His sensitive ears then heard something stirring in the next room, and he realised he was not alone. Haku padded warily to his living room and was greeted by a very welcome sight. Chihiro was curled up on his sofa. Her face was resting on her hands; strands of long chocolate brown hair had fallen over her face, hiding her delicate features. At her feet was a rucksack stuffed so full that it threatened to burst at the seams.

Haku smiled slowly to himself. He crept across the room noiselessly and knelt before her. He gently pulled back the hair from her face; the expression on her face was much softer in sleep than it was when she was awake. She tended to frown when thinking or concentrating. Now, however, her brow was clear, and her dark lashes cast shadows on her pale cheeks. He ran his thumb lightly over her cheekbones. She did not move. Her generous pink lips were parted in sleep; allowing a glimpse of flat white human teeth. Haku could no more resist kissing her right then than the sun could help rising. He bent his head, tilting it slightly as he did so and tenderly touch his lips to hers. He felt her wake at his touch; her eyelashes fluttered against his cheek. A small hand rubbed his jaw, and another cradled the back of his neck. He drank in her delightfully sleepy kiss and ran a hand down her back and pulled her closer. At last, he drew away and sighed wistfully.

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Hi," she whispered back, feeling a little shy. "I must say that was a charming way to be woken." Haku smiled, looking deeply into her sleepy brown eyes.

"May I ask why you are asleep here? The last thing you said to me was that you wanted to spend time with Rin."

"She practically kicked me out just before dawn; she thinks she owes you for trying to kill you," yawned Chihiro and Haku chuckled.

"I was in no danger from her; it's you she should have been worried about. Diving in like you did was thoughtless. A blow to the head can be fatal for you, where as I can easily recover from it." To Haku's amusement Chihiro frowned.

"You're probably right," she mumbled, "but I could not just stand there and do nothing I..." Haku kissed her again, silencing her.

"Hush little one, let's not argue about this. Next time, just think that's all I ask."

"There is going to be another time when someone attacks you?" she asked slightly sarcastically. Haku looked serious.

"Probably, the spirit world is not a peaceful one. There have been five major wars since I was born, millions of spirits killed, bonded and non-bonded. I have a bathhouse and a river to defend. It could happen again and be someone more dangerous than Rin." Chihiro swallowed nervously, and Haku helped her to sit up.

"So are you ready to go?" he asked, gesturing to her bag.

"Yes, but aren't you tired? You must have been out most of the night." He smiled again and pulled her up off the sofa.

"I am tired, but I want to get out of here as quickly as possible. I will rest when we get there I promise." She nodded seemingly satisfied. "This is going to be wonderful. I have so much planned for us; I'm even going to cook for you, I've not cooked for decades and..." His words tumbled over themselves in a rush. Chihiro could not help but laugh at the enthused look on his face. It did not go with the Godlike image he normally tried to cultivate. It struck her how different he was when alone with her. Other people knew almost nothing about him. Haku clicked his jaw shut realising how he must have sounded to her. "Sorry" he muttered, feeling foolish.

"Don't be," said Chihiro, she ran her fingers through his hair in a motherly fashion. "You really can be cute sometimes. But you're right we need to get there soon before something else happens to stop us leaving." Haku nodded but still felt stupid.

"I'm a dragon, I'm not supposed to be cute!" he thought sourly.

Back in his bedroom, he opened the windows, letting the sweet morning air in. He changed again, feeling the slight disorientation once more that demanded he rest. Chihiro strapped her bag to her back, grasped his horns and swing a leg over his neck as if it was the most natural thing in the world for a human to do.

"Just don't forget I'm on here and start pulling loop the loops!" she warned. Haku informed her sharply by telepathy that he would never do such a thing. She laughed again.

"Just what was so funny?" he thought. He slightly mocking laughter was getting to him. He felt like he was a pet and she was affectionately but patronisingly laughing at his antics. He knew he was being unfair and he knew he could have taken off much more gently. Diving fifty foot before climbing back sharply to a good flying height was probably a bit immature, especially since he knew his little human was afraid of heights. However, he felt it necessary to remind her that he was no one's pet, not even hers.

Chihiro was shocked to discover just how tired Haku was. Once inside his pebble shaped house, he changed back to his human form. She saw he had circles under his eyes and he generally just looked weary. She had kissed him and told him to get to bed. He had worried over leaving her to her own devices, but she had assured him that he would be fine. Eventually, he had given in and disappeared up the stairs.

Chihiro knew the house quite well and headed for the kitchen. She cooked herself some rice with some sort of fish oil to add flavour. Most of the ingredients in Haku's kitchen were fish based. She guessed he ate a lot of it. After eating, she headed for the library and perused some of the spirit literature on humans. After an hour of this, Chihiro was thoroughly disillusioned. The spirit view of her race was very one-sided and bleak. Chihiro felt like a parasite. She glanced out of a crystal window at the large black lake. Its shiny surface reflected the cavern roof, making it seem bottomless. The light from the bioluminescent fungi that Haku had encouraged to grow here to light the cave gave the lake an oily gleam. Chihiro realised that she had never had a good look at the surroundings of Haku's underground home. She decided to rectify the situation immediately.

She found herself on a black beach with sand that sparkled with quarts, looking very like the stars in the night sky. She sat contentedly on the sand simply watching the water lap against the shore. It was eerily quiet, except for the constant drip of water from the cavern roof. She contemplated taking a dip in the water but decided against it. Firstly she did not have Haku's permission to do so, for all she knew it could be some great insult to him just to dive in without asking. Secondly, she did not know what lived in that lake. Not that she thought she would be in any danger with Haku's mark on her, but all the same, she would rather not annoy the neighbours. She ran her fingers through the coarse black sand and had an idea. She shifted onto her knees and started to build a sand castle. She became so obsessed with forming buttresses, moats and battlements that she did not realise she was being watched. She had her back to the lake, and it was only when she heard the creature struggle out of the water that she realised that she was not alone.

She froze but did not turn around. The creature behind her made no move to introduce itself, so Chihiro sighed and calmly continued her castle building. She heard a shuffling of feet and then a sound that was suspiciously like an equine snort. She continued to ignore the creature and her suspicions where confirmed when she heard a low nicker. Haku had warned her about the water horse.

"Never ride him; he has a dangerous sense of humour..." She had covered water horses in her studies. They were known as Nygels in north-western Europe but were well known in other cultures too. These creatures took the form of a horse and enticed humans to ride them. Once on, a human could not get off. Now they would either treat the human to a good dunking and laugh at their expense, or they would drown them and eat everything except the liver. Chihiro knew that Haku would never allow anything truly malevolent to live in his river, so the creature must be the trickster sort.

It whinnied impatiently behind her, apparently growing tired of her ignoring it. She continued to work on the placement of her arrow slits. She heard the spirit scrape at the sand; she imagined it was pawing the ground in temper. Chihiro continued to ignore it. She started humming to herself. Then all of a sudden her castle collapsed into a featureless heap of sand. Chihiro whipped around to face the creature.

"Hey!" she shouted. The Nygel whinnied in a way she supposed was a laugh and pranced sideways up the beach, tail up, ears pricked forward. It was about the size of an average pony, bay with a white flash and downy fetlocks. Its mane and tail were white. However, no ordinary pony was so adorably appealing. Something in its beautiful brown eyes seemed to tug at her very soul. She wanted to stroke it, hug it and most of all ride it. It was every little girl's fantasy of a pony. Chihiro had been prepared for all this; the folklore books spoke of such urges. She guarded her heart and stamped on the emotions that the creature was provoking. She was no ordinary human.

"That was not nice," she told the horse sternly. "If you wanted me to talk to you then you should have introduced yourself." The Nygel bowed its head as if repentant but then it trotted towards her and nuzzled at her clothes. Chihiro could not help a delighted laugh escape from her lips. The creature snuffled the pockets of her tunic as any normal pony would have if it were looking for treats. The Nygel stepped sideways and bent its foreleg. Chihiro knew an invitation to ride when she saw one. The urge to accept was strong.

"I'm hardly going to be fooled by that trick," she told the pony. "I suggest you go and play with someone else." She walked away, but the pony followed her, frolicking and prancing until it was in front of her, cutting off access to the path that led up the cliff. She frowned; she was beginning to lose patience with the pony. It was only doing what was in its nature to do, but it was starting to act in an ever so slightly threatening manner. One thing Chihiro did know about was mythical creatures. To find out as much as possible about dragons during her university course (though she had never admitted it; she saw it as reading around her subject) she had absorbed a vast amount of information about other beings. The best way to deal with a lesser sprite of this nature was to show no fear and ignore it. Unfortunately, she had already acknowledged the spirit, but it should leave her alone if she showed no more interest in it.

She made to push past it and then discovered that her books had been wrong. The creature swung its head, and it connected with her abdomen and sent her sprawling in the sand. The Nygel danced away making whinnying laughing noises. It kicked up its heels and cantered back towards her. To her surprise it skidded to a halt a few feet from her, sending sand flying. It rolled its eyes and appeared to be terrified. Chihiro picked herself up and brushed sand from herself. Her fingers caught against something as she did so. The Tac'Tal had slipped from her tunic and sat upon her breast. The water horse was gazing at it fixedly. Eventually, it bowed its head, practically burying its nose in the sand. Chihiro rubbed at her stomach and glared at the horse.

"If you can talk, I suggest you explain yourself," she said calmly. The horse nickered, head still bowed.

"I is sorry lady. I should of guessed. Me was so happy to see a human that..." It trailed off miserably, snorting into the sand.

"I see," said Chihiro hotly. "I suppose you wanted to dunk me in the lake?"

"It's what I do," mumbled the horse. "It's fun to make girls squeal and boys shout. Is only water." Chihiro narrowed her eyes in thought. The Nygel was giving her the impression that it was not very bright. She did not believe that for a moment, she had seen the all too knowing gleam in its eyes when it pushed her over.

"Just drop the simple-minded fool act, I've been warned about you." The horse snorted indignantly and stood up. It bore its teeth, but Chihiro got the impression it was grinning.

"You can't blame a horse for trying, my Lady. Having just discovered I had accosted the River Lord's mate, I had to think fast." Chihiro was impressed, despite her aching stomach.

"Surely you knew who I was?" drawled Chihiro. "You were just trying your luck." The pony's ears flattened in annoyance.

"Forgive me, my Lady, but I did not know. I am not a powerful spirit, and I could not sense the aura of the Lord's mark until I had touched you. Even then it took me a few moments to recognise it for what it was. All I can do is apologise." It bowed its head. "Please also convey my apologies to your life mate. I meant no harm or insult." The beast was eloquent; she had to give him that. He spoke with a soft, cultured accent and Chihiro was starting to take a shine to the trickster. But she also felt the need to put him straight.

"Haku is not my life mate," she said, "but I will tell him about you before he hears it from another denizen of this lake. I will also tell him how sorry you were." She folded her arms. "But this is his domain; he will deal with you as he sees fit." The water horse did not appear to hear the last part of her sentence.

"You are not life mates?" She shook her head, puzzled now. The Nygel also seemed to be confused. It stepped closer and peered at her from under its white mane. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Chihiro snapped, "I think I'd remember something like that!"

"Oh," it said, "he must be planning to ask you soon then." Chihiro blinked.

"What are you talking about?" she sighed.

"Well, it's the river. Can't you hear it?" Chihiro shook her head. The water horse's ears pricked forward. "Of course, if you are human you will not hear it. No wonder you don't know."

"Know what?" asked Chihiro, who was getting tired of the cryptic equine.

"Well, it's constantly calling your name, down to the smallest drop. The whole lake ripples whenever you are near it, the water is practically shouting for joy." The water horse glanced up at the house on the cliff. "The dragon must love you deeply for his river to be so affected. They are one, what he feels it feels. We who live here are aware of him at all times. If he has not taken you as his mate yet, he intends to do so soon." Chihiro gulped and could almost imagine the river listening in on the conversation. She looked worriedly at the lake.

"Don't be frightened," chortled the Nygel. He nudged her towards the lapping wavelets with his velvet nose. "Stick your hand in and have a chat."

"Isn't it... well... like eavesdropping?" she asked uncomfortably.

"Well, we are aware of it all the time; it can't be that much of an intrusion." He nudged her again. "Go on; you'll see what I mean."

She looked suspiciously at the lake again but then crouched down. She gently touched a finger to the water. Nothing happened at first; then it felt like something grabbed every nerve in her body and pulled.

"CHIHIRO!" whispered a voice as big as the ocean, echoing in her head. A sense of absolute ecstasy washed over her making her shudder. The water was delighted that she had come to it at last. It told her how pleased it was she was here. She had swum in it once, it had liked her then, but now it wanted to share everything it had with her. It wanted to pull her down into its deepest embrace and keep her safe from the harsh dry world. She would be happy in its dark, airless heart and it could have her with it forever.

Something burned painfully at her chest. She pulled her hand away to feel the Tac'Tal red hot. Her mind cleared and she looked up to see a huge black wave towering above her. Her reactions had been honed by Rin's training. She scrambled up the beach and was sprinting away when the wave hit her. Instead of dragging her into the water she was far enough up the beach to be washed further up it. The water gave a cry of distress and disappointment as it rolled away from her leaving her at the base of the black cliffs. She struggled to her knees. The now very wet Nygel cantered up to her.

"See what I mean? It's like it's obsessed with you. Look, it's getting all moody now." Chihiro looked at the black water. The surface was choppy, like it was being driven by a strong wind, but no wind blew in the cave. Chihiro turned and ran up the steps in the cliff to Haku's house.

Note- The Nygel became a rather popular character over the years. So he started to get his own fan art.

credit @keychild

Credit- Shadow dancer.

Credit Daishar (Now a pro artist that sells equine art online! So proud to have seen her development. http://jenwhite-equineart.com/ )