New Beginnings Chapter 1
'What time is it?' Kaya asked herself as she woke up to find that it was not her marten that had woken her up to show her his latest kill. "What will I do with you," she asked as the marten looked up at her, his lips and cheeks soaked with blood. The marten was an unusual color, a very light brown with no white. Normally martens are a dark brown with a little white for camouflage. She found this marten just three years before, with Prince Ashitaka. She smiled at that memory, the one of her and Ashitaka before he was banished.
Flashback
It was early morning as Ashitaka rose to find no other than Kaya knocking at the door of his house. A house with only a bedroom and a front room with a table and some cushions around it, the house itself looked smaller on the outside than it did on the inside, but Kaya knew better.' "Don't judge a book by its cover, as mom always says,' she thought to herself every time she approached his house. Ashitaka answered the door with his bow in his hand and his quiver on his back, a small sword hung in its sheath on a strap around his waist. He wasn't wearing his usual clothes instead he wore a blue, short sleeve shirt with long, baggy pants and he was not wearing any shoes. Nobody in the village did, expect a few wore sandals, but none of the children ever wore them, they were easy enough to make, but the supplies for them weren't so abundant. "Ashitaka, what are you doing with that?" Kaya asked pointing to the bow he was holding.
"I'm going to scare that marten that keeps coming around just to eat the chickens," Ashitaka answered while moving around her and closing the door to his house, "Want to come along?"
"I do not like it when we have to kill other animals."
"I promise I am not going to kill it, just scare it away so it does not eat anymore chickens."
"Ok. I will go." Kaya answer as she and Ashitaka started down the dusty path in-between the houses. Ashitaka was the last prince of the Emishi tribe, but at 13 he was more mature then he should be for his age. His light brown hair blew in the gentle breeze and his green eyes closed as the wind kicked up some dust into his face. They had reached the chicken coop in almost no time at all. Kaya looked around to see if the marten was here, she was about to tell Ashitaka that the marten was not here when the chickens started to panic. Then a light brown marten shoot out from the chicken coop with a pearl white egg in its mouth running towards were Kaya and Ashitaka stood. The marten did not even try to stop as it collided with Kaya's legs. For several seconds it lay there in a daze, not sure about what he just ran into. As he looked up to see the face of a human he turned to the forest and tried to run away. But Kaya was quicker; she had caught him by the scruff of the neck and brought him to her eye level. He was squirming until Kaya gave him the evil stare all women in this tribe had, he stopped dead. As soon as Kaya lets go of that thing he is going to run away, Ashitaka thought as Kaya began to put the marten back on the ground. To his and her surprised he stayed where he was, he just stared at Kaya and followed her around as she walked towards the forest to try and get him to go in and find his family. "You might as well give it up Kaya, he is not going to go back," Ashitaka said with a sigh.
"But I can not bring him back to my house, the wise women would never allow it," Kaya said with some fear in her voice, although it sounded more afraid then she actually was. She was not afraid of the wise women herself, just of what she would do to the marten if she ever found him or got her hands on him.
"If you say it is a trained marten that you want to keep as a pet, then she would let you keep it."
"Are you sure? Remember the bear cub?"
"Of course I do, everyone does. A one year old bear cub following a young girl home with its mother close behind is not something one just forgets."
"So why should this marten be any different?"
"Because it is not a bear, it is not a baby so it is not with its mother, and it seems to like you better than the bear cub did."
"I'm not sure…"
"If you don't I will, but it does not like me nearly as much as it likes you."
"Fine, fine, you win I will take it home." Kaya said as she bent down to pick up the marten. The marten did not object to being held, it seemed to like it, but after walking a few steps it moved to Kaya's shoulders.
"What are you going to name it?" Ashitaka asked, petting the marten's soft fur.
"I was thinking… Atan."
The loud continuous knocking pulled Kaya, unwillingly, out of her memories.
End Flashback
"Yes?" Kaya asked as she opened her door. A pair of bright, laughing blue eyes stared her in the face as the wise women came into her house. The old women was well into her sixties now, she acted her age, but did not look it, a common trait among the Emishi. Must be hereditary, Kaya thought as she looked at the old lady sitting down on one of her cushions and the edge of the table. The table could only hold four, but luckily she had brought no one with her this time. "I see that Atan is still here," she said as she looked into Kaya's eyes to only see depression and sadness. "I know, I miss the prince too."
"I… just wish… to know if he is… dead or alive." Kaya said to the old women while looking in her eyes. There was nothing but pure joy in those eyes of hers, What was there to be joyous about? The prince is gone, and the future of our tribe is in chaos, how can she be smiling at a time like this? Kaya felt herself get angry at the wise women. She was her who told Ashitaka that he should abandon his tribe and go find a cure; even if he did he could not return to the Emishi people.
"Kaya, sit down I have something to tell you," she spoke when she saw angry creep into the beautiful brown eyes Kaya had inherited from her mother.
"Tell me what?" Kaya asked almost afraid to know the answer.
"We will be leaving tomorrow for Iron Town."
"Why? Why would we leave our tribe to go to some place that we have never heard of and never come back?! I'm not going!"
"Who ever said it was just going to be us?"
"What?" Kaya asked, more confused now then she ever had been in her entire life.
"Everyone in the tribe is going, we are also taking the wolf tribe that lives in the forest to our west. Apparently, some 18 year old boy shows up out of now where and helps Iron Town, now called West Point, out about a year ago. Moro, the wolf god in the western forest, is dead and now only has two sons and a daughter. The daughter is 17 and is a human. This boy also helped them out and is currently living at West Point. There have been a few battles since then and the boy has earned himself a very interesting nick-name."
"What is he called?"
"Demon boy, he is feared and recognized throughout the Emperor realm and the realm of the gods. I also heard from a reliable source outside of this tribe that he first met him riding on a red elk. Sound familiar?"
"No it couldn't be… could it?"
"It could be."
"So
when do we all leave?"
"Tomorrow, when the sun rises. If it is
Ashitaka remember, he is free from this tribe now and forever… so
don't get too over excited when you meet him, if it really is him.
Even if you are his sister."
"It is him, I am sure of it." Kaya said with fierce determination.