Haku was almost a changed dragon overnight. Chihiro could hardly believe that something so simple could precipitate such a transformation in him. All the stress just seemed to fall from him and after a good 12 hours in bed with his mate and a half-pint of blood, Haku felt completely refreshed. He would never have expected his mate to be so tolerant of his more animal needs; it was called "bloodlust" for a very good reason.

Early next morning, Haku transported the icy meltwater from the plain and dumped it over every single staff member that had not turned up for the morning shift. Strangely there were few absences for the evening shift and only a few had to be persuaded to work the night shift. Haku told Chihiro that if he had been thinking clearly he would have implemented such a motivational policy weeks ago.

As mid-spring approached, the mating season was over its peak and Chihiro began to feel as if she could finally relax. All was going well. Her friends and family were in good health and the effects of the strange season seemed to be lessening. All was peaceful. She should have known it was too good to last.

She awoke one night a few weeks later to feel the chill crackle of magic in the air and her tac'tal was burning her with warning. She sat bolt upright and something light and smooth brushed her cheek. She squeaked, causing her mate to wake. Sensing her distress he cast a light orb above the bed so she could see. When her eyes adjusted to the dim glow she saw a garish orange envelope sitting on her lap. Chihiro's heart froze. Haku had given an enchanted envelope to her parents as a method of contacting their daughter directly in the event of an emergency. They were difficult to make as they had a tendency to disintegrate in a world where magic was almost entirely absent. Chihiro did not know how much power her mate had used to solve the problem but she assumed it was a lot. Haku had told her parents how rare the envelope was and Chihiro had assumed she would never see it again.

"Don't just stare at it," whispered Haku. "Open it." Chihiro swallowed and ran a nail under the gum seal and removed the letter inside. With a pop and a crack, the envelope became orange dust. Chihiro's eyes were greeted by her father's scrawled characters.

Chihiro...

I don't wish to alarm you by sending you this, but I am at a loss for what to do. Your mother is extremely sick and the symptoms she is exhibiting tell me that this is not an illness that any mortal doctor would be able to treat. I don't know what to do. If I take her to a hospital they will surely provide the wrong medicines or worse still, put her in confinement and do nothing. I have listed her symptoms as best I can and I would ask that you show them immediately to some sort of healer or whatever you have for doctors there. Write to me as soon as you have anything. Please, daughter, she is gravely ill and I can't help her or even make her more comfortable.

Chihiro ran her eyes down the list of symptoms; they seemed fairly mundane at first.

Lethargy,

Wheezing cough,

Sweats,

Temperature,

But then there were things like...

A blue glow surrounds her at night,

Black fur has grown on her back,

Bright green rash on her stomach and legs,

A black tongue and lips,

Her breath smells of sour pears.

Chihiro passed the list to Haku who virtually snatched it off her. His green eyes scanned the letter quickly and dispassionately.

"What do I do?" asked Chihiro softly.

"Get dressed" he replied. "Kamaji is off tonight but I'm sure he won't mind being woken up for this."

Kamaji, like Rin, had been exceptionally grumpy during the mating season, throwing himself into his work. He had been almost impossible to work with, but luckily his apprentice, Bee-la, seemed as unaffected by Kamaji's sharp tongue as he was by the mating season. This was probably because Bee-la was a hive spirit and had no mating season; he was a worker and that was all he would ever be or be expected to be. When his hive had been destroyed in a war, the bathhouse was the only place he could think to go. If he did not work then he did not exist. So when Chihiro and Haku burst into the sweltering boiler room, Chihiro babbling almost incoherently and waving a letter before her, the puffball spirit was not fazed at all. He calmly took the letter from the human and disappeared into the storeroom that had been converted into a bedroom for the ancient spirit. There was a buzz, a shout, a clatter, and then the light in the room clicked on. Chihiro could hear Kamaji mumbling to himself, then the spider-like spirit shuffled out of the room and into the boiler room.

"Kamaji, I'm so sorry to wake you," Chihiro gushed. "But this is important; my mother-" Kamaji raised a hand imperiously to stop the flow of chatter.

"Quiet, Sen, I'm thinking!" Chihiro felt Haku bristle beside her at the spirit's tone but he wisely chose to say nothing. Kamaji started rummaging in his chest of drawers with two hands while another hand scratched his head and another neatened his moustache and pushed his opaque glasses further up his nose. He muttered to himself under his breath and Chihiro could only make out a few words even with her improved hearing.

"It could be... mutated sallow-hale...? Husband was not affected... rash and aura... mmmm... blackwater fever... wrong season... Kermes ailment... only magical creatures..." Finally, he located a black leather-bound tome that was a good six inches thick. Chihiro recognised it as the volume he had turned to when she had been suffering from the sallow-hale. He sat resting the book on his lap while getting a pen and paper with two arms another hand flicked threw the yellowed pages of the book. The spirit was a collage of nervous movement. Chihiro sat cross-legged on the floor and Haku followed her example, throwing a comforting arm over her shoulders. Bee-la tended the boiler but managed to get the dragon and the human a cup of camomile tea in a lull. The soot balls had stopped to peer at the couple, but a sharp buzz from the puffball spirit got them moving again. Kamaji was reading in total silence for nearly 45 minutes but finally, he gave a grunt of satisfaction.

"That will be it," he announced.

"What?" trilled Chihiro, clasping her hands before her.

"Spalercum pestilence."

"It can't be," said Haku flatly. "That's a tropical disease and carried by a very rare type of mosquito."

"If you are such an expert, Haku, then why did you ask my opinion?" snapped the irritable spirit. Haku glared at the old spirit but it seemed to have little effect.

"It's the only thing that fits the symptoms, why no one else has got it I don't know but it's treatable. With the right care, Sen's mother should fully recover."

"That's a relief," sighed Chihiro.

"But there is a problem," continued the spirit and he adjusted his dark glasses primly. "The herbs needed to cure her do not grow in the human world." Chihiro's heart sank. "The potion is not easy to make and it must be remade every two days by someone with herbal knowledge. I doubt your father has the skills required to make a bundle bark and starflower decoction." Kamaji turned to Haku. "The bottom line is; do you have the strength to send potion to the human world every 2 days for the next two weeks? Even for you, it would be difficult I think, judging by how tired you get when you send Sen's letters."

Haku sighed. Acknowledging the truth of the spirit's words, he felt his mate's mood plummet to something very close to despair. It almost hurt him physically to feel her so unhappy.

"Is there nothing we can do to help?" asked Chihiro.

There was silence in the boiler room with only the metallic clanking of the boiler mouth opening and closing as it greedily guzzled coal. Finally, Haku's voice broke through the hush.

"All you have to do is pack your things; I'll take care of the rest."

"What?" exclaimed Chihiro in surprise, turning to look at him sharply.

"I said pack your things; you are going to help your mother," said the dragon as calmly as if he was talking about the weather.

"I can't do that!" Chihiro hissed. "I can no more cross the border to the human world than you can. I'm bonded to this world remember? Besides it's closed, the equinox is..."

"Things are different now," interrupted her mate gently. He took her hand and ran his fingers gently over the gold mating scar. "You're bonded to me now and I say you can go. It will take quite a bit of power to protect you from the non-magical human world, but you will not sicken. It will be unpleasant for us both, me most of all probably, but I'd rather expend my energy on guaranteeing your mother's return to health. You've gained enough experience while helping Kamaji out down here to make up that potion and you know how to use it. I could send your father potion every other day but I would weaken more quickly and he may not administer the potion correctly. This is the best way."

"I can't let you do this," Chihiro breathed. "It will drain you the point of exhaustion."

"This is not your decision to make little one," he whispered. "If I am willing, you can have no objection." He touched her face trailing his fingers from her ear lobe to her sharp chin. "Your family will need you, Chihiro. Your mother will be disorientated and frightened and your father will be lost without her."

Chihiro tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "I don't want to go back there. I'm still wanted by the police and I feel like an alien in my own world." And she did not need to add what else was in her heart because her mate could see it in her eyes.

"And I'm afraid."

"This is what must be," he declared. The dragon leant forward and brushed his mate's brow with his lips. "I always knew that your world was not finished with you yet. I knew I'd have to let it claim you at least once more; you are still not at peace with those you have left behind." He squeezed her scarred hand and smiled sadly. "Just make sure you are not incarcerated this time. I'm not sure I can aid you at all in the state I will be in. It will be all I can do to keep body and soul together let alone organise another hospital break out. Zeniba will have to run things for me while I'm indisposed but I'm confident in her skills." He sat up and let go of her hand slowly, almost reluctantly. "I can maintain a protection spell on you and keep a small hole in the border open for three weeks, by that time your mother should be almost recovered."

Chihiro shook her head. "I can't do it, I'll kill you."

Haku kissed her lips softly. "The only difficult part will be your absence; that is the only true hardship I will suffer. Now go and pack, the sooner you leave the sooner you will return." Chihiro's chin wobbled but she nodded, stood and slipped from the boiler room soundlessly.

Haku stood and yawned. "Make up that potion for her, Kamaji, and supply her with everything she needs to make it herself. I'll underwrite the cost of it all." He turned to leave but a gnarled old hand clasped his forearm turning him back to the old spirit.

"I'm sure you know that this is probably something Yubaba has cooked up. There are no other cases, Haku; that has to raise your suspicions." Haku patted the old spirit's hand fondly.

I know as soon as I read that letter that it was probably some scheme she had a hand in old friend. But what can I do? I cannot let Chihiro's parents suffer and do nothing. I'll post a guard and put Rin in charge of security; she has a good head on her shoulders." Kamaji let go of the dragon.

"You should tell her what you suspect, Haku. If anything happens when she is away she will blame herself."

Haku shook his head, his dishevelled dark hair flashing green in the light given off from the boiler fire. "If I tell her she will refuse to go." The dragon picked his way carefully through the busy soot balls and nodded to Bee-la as he passed him. At the door, the dragon turned to Kamaji one last time.

"Besides, if Yubaba is indeed trying to avenge herself on me then perhaps the human world is the best place for Chihiro right now."

Kamaji felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he watched the dragon leave. He would make the potion as promised but first, he would check his supplies. He shuffled over to the panel-covered wall and tapped the corner of one of the panels with his thumb. The panel squeaked open on hidden hinges that had not been used in years. Kamaji felt a little better when he saw row upon row of wax-sealed jars. He carefully removed one and blew the dust off the yellowed label. There, in his own neat handwriting, was written a word that made him feel much better just reading it.

GUNPOWDER

A little further back in the secret cupboard was a crate; Kamaji had paid a lot of his own money to acquire it from a spirit that traded with certain individuals in the human world. He had thought to try and study it to find out how it was made. The stuff had proved far too complex and far too dangerous, however. It had taken him four years to re-grow the hand he lost. He read the label on the crate with a grin.

DYNAMITE

Despite their destructiveness, Kamaji had a grudging respect for the human race. They were inventive people; they had to be not being able to use magic. Kamaji ran through the bathhouse defences in his mind. They had not been needed for some time but the building sitting on a spire of rock was as defensible as any castle. There was also an extensive armoury and most of the staff was trained to use its contents.

"Better be careful, Yubaba," muttered the ancient spirit. "If you come here you will not only find your revenge thwarted but your life in danger of being extinguished."

Akio paced back and forward, agitated and at a loss for what to do. His wife had been hallucinating for the last few days and he had had to lock her in her room twice. He should have tied her to the bed but he just could not bring himself to. So with his wife screaming that he had stolen her daughter and that she would kill him, Akio had written to his daughter. She was her mother's child; she would know what to do. Yuuko was asleep now but it was a fitful uneasy sleep. He still thought taking her to a hospital was a bad idea. Visions of men in white coat flocking around her prone form filled his head.

"Yes, Dr Tanaka, a very interesting case; one for further study. When she dies, order a special post mortem..."

Akio shook his head to try and clear his morbid thoughts. He might still have to take her to hospital if his daughter could not help him. He kept checking the hallway for a letter that may have slipped itself under the door like Chihiro's letters normally did. Would she respond to his pleas? Would that letter even reach her? She had looked radiant the day she had married that sly lizard and Akio had shed bittersweet tears knowing that his daughter, who he had never truly understood, was now someone else's to worry about. She had rejected everything they had ever wanted for her; a steady job, a nice human husband and in time, perhaps, children. Normal human children. She had chosen another way, a way he could not comprehend. Did she hate her world? Had that been what had driven her away? Or had that other place seduced her with its strange and dangerous beauty? Akio was startled out of his musings by a sharp knock at the door.

He thought it was probably another neighbour come to enquire if Yuuko was any better. He was sure there was a suspicion in the street that he had murdered his wife, as he never let any visitors see her. He opened the door, the lies ready on his tongue. He nearly choked when he saw his daughter standing on the doorstep, soaked to the skin by a heavy downpour that had started half an hour ago. She looked pale and weary, her brown eyes appearing overlarge as the dark evening had dilated her pupils. She blinked in the light pouring out of the front door; Akio simply stared at her. She shuffled her feet and shifted the large pack on her back. Finally, she grew impatient.

"Are you going to invite me in, Dad?" she asked casually. "I'm still technically a wanted woman and it's quite wet out here." Akio sprang into action. Ushering her into the hallway, he helped her remove her pack and coat. The simple green tunic she wore underneath it was wringing wet.

"How can you be here?" he asked. "I thought you could not return here."

"Haku found a loophole," Chihiro muttered distractedly as she started to dig around in her pack.

"The dragon let you go?" said Akio, clearly surprised. His daughter looked up at him and her tired eyes flashed with anger.

"He's my mate, not my gaoler, Dad," said Chihiro through clenched teeth. "Don't start insulting him. I've been back five minutes and you're already getting on my nerves. He has given up more than you can understand for me to be here. I would not be surprised if he will have to confine himself to bed in a few days. He will become too weak to talk or even eat by the time I get back. He is expending his every resource in order to keep me safe and you start on him the moment I arrive."

Chihiro's anger died quickly after reprimanding her father. In fact, a chilly calm came over her. Getting her mother better was all that really mattered. Akio fell silent, not knowing what to say. He kept glancing at the mark on the back of her hand; it reminded him of a cattle brand. Finally, Chihiro grunted, obviously finding what she was looking for. She extracted an earthenware bottle from the pack and she turned and trotted up the stairs to her parents' bedroom. She could smell the sickness as soon as she opened the door. The room was stifling and Chihiro had to take a moment to make sure her lunch stayed put. Underneath the coiling sickness smell was the odour her father had mentioned; sour pears. Kamaji had told her that this was the smell the body gave off when it started to digest muscle rather than fat. It produced acetone, which smelled like pears fermenting in the sun. In the light from the bedside lamp, Chihiro could see her mother's lips were swollen and black. Lurid green pimples almost glowed on her pale hands which rested on the blankets; she was breathing in short wheezing gasps and sweat beaded on her brow.

"How long has she been like this?" Chihiro whispered, truly shocked by her mother's condition.

"Two days," her father replied in a flat tone, "though the first symptoms appeared a week ago."

Chihiro moved to the bed and took out a tiny silver ladle from her pocket. She tipped a trickle of thick white liquid from the bottle and parted her mother's lips. Then she tipped the contents of the ladle into Yuuko's mouth and rubbed her throat gently until her mother swallowed. She administered another three doses of the potion. Already her mother seemed to be breathing more easily. It was a start. Chihiro turned to her father.

"This potion must be administered every hour for the next two days, four doses each time. I'll make up more of it tomorrow afternoon."

"It will cure her?" asked Akio hopefully.

"Eventually. As she gets better we will lesson the dose."

Akio nodded and then frowned at his daughter. "How did she get this; we've been home for weeks. It this a common illness? Have you ever had it?"

Chihiro shrugged. "Let's get her better first; all I can tell you is that Mum is the only one to get this and that is unusual." Again Akio nodded.

"Well, I can give her the potion; you should get some sleep, Chihiro. If you don't mind me saying you look terrible. I'll wake you when I need a rest myself."

Chihiro smiled a small smile and handed the bottle and ladle to her father. As she crossed the hallway to her old bedroom her father called softly after her.

"I'm very glad you're here, Chihiro, thank you for coming." Chihiro sighed, bid her father goodnight and slipped into her room.

She had forgotten how pink it was. He mother had decorated it in an effort to try and make her introverted daughter a bit more feminine. Chihiro lent against the door and sighed closing her eyes, trying to quiet her screeching nerves. Everything seemed so strange; even the air seemed different. She composed herself somewhat and opened her eyes. She gasped when she saw a well-remembered picture on the wall. The university must have sent her things back to her parents. A white dragon was painted on silk with a blue background. Her lip trembled. She stretched out her hand and ran her fingers over the silk, sweeping them up the dragon's nose. It had been her daily routine at one point, the only outward expression of what had happened to her that she had allowed herself.

"My beautiful white dragon," she breathed and her heart ached for a moment. She could still feel his presence even though it was very faint. She could still pinpoint his direction with relative accuracy, northeast at the moment.

"Oh Haku," she whispered. "I hope you have not bitten off more than you can chew this time."

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