Spirited Away II: Return to the Spirit Realm

Chapter 22

When the train stopped at Swamp Bottom, it was dark. A foggy mist blanketed the ground and a gentle breeze swished through the air. It was a moonless, starry night, and the heavenly illuminations mercifully shooed away what would otherwise be a rayless night.

"So, this is it?" Lin said offhandedly, peering through the foggy windowpane. "The famous Swamp Bottom?"

"I've never been here, but this is the Sixth Stop - our stop," Kamaji replied simply, rising from his seat. "And I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'famous.' By the looks of it, only Zeniba lives here."

Briskly exiting the train, Kamaji and Lin soon found themselves standing upon a deserted pathway that lead to a dense woodland. The songs of cicadas, the croaks of frogs, the rustling of leaves, and the merry twinkling of stars were all gone. Instead, there was a foreboding silence. The wind's icy fingers scratched menacingly at the visitor's backs before, with an empty howl, it disappeared somewhere off into the distance.

"Where is Zeniba's house?" Lin wondered, looking around her. "I cannot see it anywhere."

"I'm not sure it will be here, Lin, but ..." Kamaji took off his spectacles and wiped the lenses absentmindedly against his sleeve before placing them back on the bridge of his nose. "But from what I recall Chihiro telling us, the cottage isn't here but located beyond the forest."

Lin gulped nervously. "B-beyond the forest? Don't tell me you're expecting us to go there, Kamaji! The fog's so big, w-we can get lost in there. Or worse! We can have an unpleasant run-in with someone and ..."

"I know," Kamaji murmured gently, the unspoken two latter words of the sentence ringing in his mind. He, for sure, was not looking forward to becoming some beast's lunch. At least, not before seeing Zeniba.

The boiler man cranked his ancient neck to get a better look at his traveling companion. He opened his mouth to say something reassuring, but the words got stuck in his throat as he saw the quizzical look spread over the weasel spirit's face. Lin was staring ahead, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and her mouth slightly agape. She lifted a trembling finger and fixed it accusingly at the trees in front of her.

"What ... is that?!" she whispered fiercely.

Kamaji looked at the woods before them and saw a dim dot of light shine through the white mist. There was a strange, jumping noise that gradually grew louder as the light turned brighter. In fact, the light - or, rather, the creature emitting the light - was moving towards them.

"Kamaji?" Lin's voice trembled, and it was almost inaudible. She grasped the boiler man's large hands in her own. "...Shall we run...?"

The aged spider pressed his lips firmly together as his mind calculated the potential outcomes. A frown creased his forehead in concentration a few minutes afterward, and he felt the familiar tingling sensation of magic run down one of his hands and prick at his fingertips as he called upon a protection spell. "No. At least, not yet. Just be smart."

The two spirits carefully observed the approaching dot of light. After a few agonizingly slow minutes, the light came close enough for Lin and Kamaji to see a slender metal rod carrying a rectangular shaped glass box that glowed with a soft, white light.

It was a lamp. A hopping, enchanted lamp.

The lamp stopped some meters away and bowed formally at them. Kamaji took one sharp, studying look, and immediately dropped his head in a respectful bow, letting his gaze tear away from the said lamp and to land on the permafrost underfoot.

Lin watched the unsaid greetings pass between them with growing dread. Her eyebrows knitted firmly into a suspicious frown as she regarded the spellbound object before her uneasily. Her heart nearly leaped up to her throat when the lamp turned its "head" and directed a bright hue at her face. Her dread grew in size as it coiled evilly around her stomach like a serpent, suffocating tiny blossoms of hope and infecting her brain with an emotional frenzy.