Return to the River

Chapter 6

I couldn't see his face because the light behind him made it difficult to see. But I knew it was him. I looked at him in disbelief and quickly used my feet to push the sandals off and started walking into the river. Luckily, the water stopped at my knees so my clothes wouldn't be wet. 

After a little while of walking in the river, I finally made it just a foot away from him. Up close he looked the same. He was taller of course. Same clothes, same haircut....same eyes. His eyes were no different than before. Those shiny green eyes with flecks of gold because of his dragon form. He just looked like a taller version of the Haku I knew back then.

"You're here," I said simply.

"I am. I can't keep this form for long, but just know that I've been waiting for you."

"You've been waiting for me for eight years?" He simply nodded his head in confimation. "I remember everything. I remember the bathhouse and my parents turning into pigs and Lin and Kamaji and No Face and the twins and....and you. I followed your instructions and didn't look back until I passed through the tunnel, but you didn't tell me it was at the cost of losing memory of my time in the spirit world. So...why the day before I'm about to leave some place again am I remembering everything?" I questioned.

"I didn't want to worry you or make you sad if I told you that you would forget about us. I wanted you to be able to move on without any interference of your time with us spirits."

"But what if I wanted to remember you?" I countered. I felt the tears behind my eyes again and used all of my strength to keep them at bay. "What if I wanted to remember the one who saved me twice and helped me survive in a world that I didn't think was even possible for someone like me to survive in?...I missed you...I couldn't remember you, but something in the back of my mind always kept my heart closed off and made me feel like I was missing something. But now I know that that something was you. So why after eight years do I get that back?" My last words were choked out, and I failed to stop two stray tears from falling. It was okay though.

He looked at me in silence and to my surprise he raised his hand to my face and used his thumb to brush away the tear still left on my cheek.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that's how you felt. I know I promised I'd see you again, and I wanted to keep my promise. That's why I was the one that used magic to open up your mind and heart to those memories before you started a new life again. I wanted you to come find me, so I could keep my promise and make sure that you wanted to see my on your own will. I did miss you, though," He explained. It all made sense now. My heart started to warm because of how he wanted to keep his promise and how he saved it for eight years. And how he missed me, too. 

"You don't have a lot of time left here do you?" I asked sadly.

"No. I bartered with Zeniba to allow me to enter the human world for a short period of time for you. I intended to keep my promise." I remembered when I went to Zeniba's house to apologize to her for Haku. She's the one who gave me the hairtie I always use and encouraged me to find my own strength to get me and my parents out of the spirit world. I missed Granny. But there was one other thing I remembered.