Kajai woke up to the smell of lavender, with a hint of mandarin spice. He rolled over on the couch. "A dream." He whispered into his hands, before remembering that he didn't have any lavender. A warm breeze blew through the house. After getting his bearings, he stood up and went to the front door.

Himiko was sitting in the doorway, her chin propped up in her palms. The porch light illuminated her features.

He stood behind her, nervous.

At the sound of his footsteps, she turned her head. "Please don't faint again." Himiko asked. "You're very heavy."
"I'll try not to." Kajai scratched his cheek, looking guilty. "Though I'm not so sure that I'm awake."

"..." Himiko stood up. "Do you want proof that this isn't a dream?"

Kajai looked past her, towards the broom hovering on his lawn. "Yeah, that would be great."

The broom looked different from what Kajai had pictured. The handle was a slightly bent pole of bamboo, with a set old branches--the type of broom he expected to see old ladies use to sweep out their storefronts, or staff members used at shrines. This one, however, also had an enormous flower protruding from the branches, which littered small petals onto the ground beneath it.

He shivered when Himiko grabbed his hand, dragging him towards Petalbroom. "Hang on a second..."

Himiko stopped in front of her familiar as Petalbroom floated parallel with her knees. She wrapped one leg over to the other side and crossed her ankles. While she didn't speak, the look on her face was expectant.

Kajai swallowed, his mouth dry. He shakily sat down behind her, unsure of what to do next. Petalbroom was long enough to fit them both, but quite snugly. 'This is strangely comfortable.' Kajai wasn't sure where to put his hands. "What do I..."

Himiko looked back at him. With a sigh, she directed his hands towards her hips. He froze at the contact, and by the time he realized his feet weren't touching the ground, it was too late.

Himiko gripped her familiar with both hands, the feather on the end of her hat suddenly tilted upward, and they shot several feet into the air. Kajai tightened his grip on Himiko's torso as the night air ruffled his hair. He blinked back tears as Himiko climbed higher and higher with quick speed.

Finally, their ascent stopped and Himiko looked back at him.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now."

Kajai blinked, not sure when he had closed them.

Yumekoji was far below. His mouth opened in awe and his grip on Himiko loosened. Seeing it from this angle was different from viewing it from a satellite image, or the window of a plane. "It looks so small..."

"Hwaaa.." Himiko took a deep breath. "I can breathe."

Kajai let go completely. "S-Sorry!" His squirming caused him to almost fall off the familiar and he squeezed her again. "Ah! Sorry..."

Himiko pried his fingers out of their death grip. "Relax. Breathe. Oh boy, you're trembling."

'Can you blame me?' "Of course I'm trembling! Brooms don't normally fly!"

"Of course not." Himiko grinned mischievously. "And neither do mortals."

Kajai broke out in a cold sweat. "Ha?"

"Now that I've got you up here, and there's nowhere for you to go, let's get some answers out of you."

"Answers...?"

"Roll!" Himiko commanded her familiar.

The air was knocked out of Kajai's lungs as he found himself free falling back towards the island. It took him several seconds to realize the screaming he was hearing was his own.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

His fall was suddenly brought to a halt. Kajai found himself face to face with Himiko, who sat atop Petalbroom. He grabbed hold of the hilt of the familiar with his fingertips.

"Awake yet?" Himiko asked. Her grin had disappeared, as did whatever force that kept him in the air.

"Ahhhhh!" He struggled to hold on. "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

"Watch your hands, mortal!" Petalbroom's voice squawked over the wind.

Himiko crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed. "Why are we engaged!?"

"I--I don't know--please--I think I'm going to be sick--"Kajai's fingers couldn't keep a grip on the broom.

She presented the parchment again, this time unrolling it. "Just when I was in the middle of a..." Her cheeks reddened. "Unfortunate arrangement...I received this notice from the council congratulating me!" Her face reddened and the air grew hot. "Explain yourself, what did you do!?"

Kajai was more preoccupied with not falling to his death than answering her. "I...I didn't..." It seemed his actions had caused more trouble than he originally thought. "Engaged!?" 

That was what he had written...

"Explain!"

"I just..."

"Now!"

"I just wanted to rescue you!" With only three fingers holding on, Kajai was starting to unravel. Himiko's hand snatched his.

"And just who are you?" Her voice was barely audible over the wind. "How did you do it?"

"The book! It's all in the book!"

"What book? Do you mean the journal?"

"I can answer that...but...let me do it on the ground!"

Himiko stared at him. "...Very well."

When Himiko finally touched down again, Kajai hopped off the broom with a set of wobbly legs and fell.

"Ah..." He landed face-first in the grass. Never before had he been so happy to be on the earth.

"You're being over-dramatic." Himiko huffed.

"Hardly." Kajai sat up, staring at her.

Himiko crossed her arms."Now, where is that book?"

Kajai retrieved the tome from his room and brought it downstairs, where Himiko waited on the couch. When he entered the room, she hopped up quickly and grabbed the book from his hands. "My journal! That's it! Where was it...How did you...Where did you find it?"

As menacing as she had seemed a moment ago, she was now nothing but jovial. She hopped up and down. "Ha Ha! This is it! I've found it..."

She hugged him, which startled him, but the scent of lavender and vanilla clouded his judgment. "Uh..."

She held him at arm's length. "Where was it?"

Kajai blinked. "Ah...That's the thing..." As briefly as possible, he described his history with the book. They sat on the couch again as he regaled the tale.

"You don't remember anything else?" Himiko's eyebrows knitted together once more.

Kajai felt the urge to keep the mood light so he countered with, "Nope. Just your book hitting me in the head."

Her eyebrows raised at that, and she sighed. "You're very calm about this. Well now, you are anyway."

Kajai pulled at his shirt, remembering his earlier reaction. 'I must have seemed a little crazy.' "Can you blame me? I'm a recluse living with a magical book, on a tiny island of a few people. When you showed up at my front door, I thought I was dreaming."

"So all you did is write in it." Himiko flipped through the book. "But you didn't even know what it really was. Interesting."

"I've had a few ideas. Wait, how did you find me? I mean, we've never met before."

"Simple divination. I used the parchment to point me in the right direction."

'She sounds really sure of that. I guess I should explain that I don't really know how divination works.'

With her in front of him Kajai realized he had a million questions he could ask, but all he could focus on was that their legs were touching. Himiko had no qualms about personal space. 'I had my theories, but had no one to ask.' He moved his hair from his eyes.

"This is my celestial journal." Himiko held up the book. "My grandmother, a follower of Thoth, gave it to me. As you probably know, it chronicles my life. It's my grimoire. I'm supposed to write about my daily practice." She frowned. "I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I was told as a child that terrible things would happen if it fell into the wrong hands." She narrowed her eyes. "I guess we know that's not just a simple warning. Whatever appears in this book must be true." Her eyes fell on his handwriting. "So, what did you use? A spell? A charm?" She was not completely convinced that he was mortal.

"A pen." He answered dryly. "Spells are sort of hard to come by here, and I can't cast any. All I did was write my name in it."

She looked up at him. "Have you ever done this before?"

He shook his head. "Never."

"Well, I suppose it could be some latent power on your part." She looked down at the book. "Or the power of Thoth. A deity's blessing is a powerful thing. But what could it mean..."

Kajai held up a pen. "Maybe you can undo the engagement with this."

Himiko nodded. "Let's try 'however, the engagement was then broken'..." Black smoke suddenly poured out of the book and filled the room, causing them both to head for the exit. Kajai found his way across the room through the haze and opened the front door. When it dissipated, they found that Himiko's handwriting had vanished.

"Hyaaah!" She pulled on her hat and stood. "What does this mean? Why!? How!?" She slumped back onto the couch. "Hyaahhhh, it's all too much for one day! What now?" Her stomach grumbled loudly.

"Now we have dinner, apparently." He looked at the hologram clock above the television, it read 11:24 p.m. 'A very late dinner.'

He stood and walked towards the kitchen. Himiko fanned herself for a moment before following him.

Kajai opened the small white fridge. 'Eggs. Flan. Sausage. Green onion. Juice concentrate. Rice toppings.'

He felt a hand on his back as Himiko peered in from behind him.

"Do you have any basilisk eggs?" Her face grew smug as she put her hands on her hips. "I can make an omelet."

He bit back a smile. "Just regular chicken eggs." He looked back at her. "I can make something. Something a little similar to what you're used to."

"Oh?" Genuine curiosity made Himiko eyes widen.