"Will you remember me

As the one from the trees

When the forest use to sing"

Two years

Two years have passed since the presumed death of the deer god and the total destruction of the iron town, many things changed since then.

Ashitaka has never left the city through this years feeling in a way responsible for its destruction, wanting to stay until the city was fully viable.

With the regrowth of the trees near the city and the drastic weakening of boar clan the townsfolk managed to gather enough resources to be able to rebuild the city in a short time without much resistance, but this time for every tree that was cut a seed was planted.

Unfortunately, the main foundry has been destroyed and all the iron supply were exhausted, so the town lost all of its trade routes Eboshi established with other towns and they had no other choice but to converte the forges in to small rice field and dedicate themselves to agriculture just to manage to survive; at the beginning it was hard, there was not enough food for everybody but when they started to produce rice sometimes they started to trade again.

Now everything has been rebuild, from the bridge to the people's house, the defensive wall surrounding the city was now stronger and higher than before since the war against the animals was over but the town still had a lot of enemies.

For once it seems the humans and animals might live in peace and harmony.

That day the weather was beautiful, the sun had risen from a few hours but the air was already warm and a small breeze was moving the leaves of the nearby trees.

Ashitaka was on a grassy field outside the city near the lake, the sunbeams were reflecting on the surface of the water making it shine.

He was laying on his back, with both of his hands behind the head, staring at the cloudless blue sky, wondering what he could do now since his job at the iron town was over.

Yet he had the feeling that something was missing.

He was so focused on his thoughts that he almost fell asleep, but a familiar voice brought him back to reality.

-"ASHITAKA" yelled a woman in a red kimono running towards him

-"What happened Toki ?"

Toki stopped a few meters away from Ashitaka and helped hip get up.

-"Lady Eboshi wants to talk with you"

-"Is there something wrong ?"

-"She didn't told me that much, she just wants to spend some words with you"

He was surprised by all of this haste but didn't asked other questions, already having a head full of thoughts, and both began to walk towards the city.

No one was never the same since the end of the war, the wrath of a god made the townspeople concern about treating nature with much more respect than they ever did, but Ashitaka was probably the most changed of all.

With all of the work done in the city he grew significantly taller and gain much more muscles, making his old blue vest too small and forcing him to wear one of the boring grey dress that every man in the iron town wear but he didn't care that much.

He continues to keep his hair somewhat short, being a tradition of his village when a prince stays away.

A beard started to grow on his neck and chin, and his voice became extremely deeper to the point the it was almost unrecognizable.

Overall Ashitaka looked a lot older and more mature since when he left his village.

When they entered the town everyone was busy with their fields since it was almost harvest time, and saw Kohroku having some troubles pushing a cart full of crates

Ashitaka, as usual, wanted to help but Toki knowing what he was thinking whispered to his ears:

-"We do not have time for that"

And so they continued to walk.

Eboshi's house was on the other side of the the city so it took awhile to get there.

Both of them haven't talked during the trip, neither seems they wanted to.

They were silently walking on the main road thinking, Ashitaka was oddly uncomfortable about what Eboshi wanted to say but also very curious.

Yet he still had that feeling that he was forgetting something.

The house itself had nothing significantly different from any other house in the town, it was just slightly bigger due to the private garden but other than that it was pretty bland on the outside.

Toki was still standing behind as he knocked the door.

-"It's me Ashitaka, Toki told me that you wanted to talk"

-"Ashitaka please come in, the door is open" replied Eboshi from the other side

He gave a last look to Toki, that was still behind, she was smiling but for some reason there was a slight sigh of concern.

As he entered inside, Eboshi was sitting at a table in the middle of the room writing on scroll using her only good arm.

The room was unexpectedly well appointed with some high quality furnitures, rugs and other decoration such as pots of flowers; there was one wide window lighting the entire place, giving it a really welcoming appearance.

-"Sit down" she said without raising her head from the paper, pointing in front of her; Eboshi has not changed much during the past years, but he noticed a few white hairs and some small wrinkles probably caused by the intense stress.

-"Is there something wrong ?"

-"What makes you think so ? Actually i was going to tell you that you are free to leave if you want to, do you have any plans for the future ?"

There was a moment of silence between them as Ashitaka reorganized his thoughts.

-"Actually I haven't planned anything, I was thinking about coming back to my village"

-"Seems fair, but what are you going to do with the wolf girl, didn't you want to meet her again?"

As she said these words a shiver ran down his spine, now he remembered what was missing.

The promise that he made with San when they split up two years ago, but he never left the city since then.

Not because he didn't want to see her but because he felt guilty just to think to leave the townspeople in their worst moment.

-"What happened to you ?"Said Eboshi noticing Ashitaka's worried expression.

"it's nothing, I have got to go now"

Quickly he got up and headed to the exit.

-"Ashitaka…."

He turned around to her.

-"I and all the other townspeople will never forget you, your help has been precious for us"

-"It was the right thing to do, or at least I thought it was"

As he steps out and closed the door behind him he noticed that Toki wasn't there anymore, which in that moment was a relief for him.