Disclaimer: Princess Mononoke (a.k.a., Mononoke Hime) is owned by Hayao Miyzaki and Studio Ghibli. This story is being written for my amusement and not for money purposes.
Night of a Thousand Horses
By ShaggyDiz
Chapter One: Calm/Storm
Ashitaka slowly walked across Tatara Ba towards the main gate. The sun was beginning to set behind the hills, closing another beautiful day in the forest valley. It had been seven days since the Shishi Gami had died, giving the forest a brand new flourish not seen in many years. During those seven days, the people of Tatara Ba were slow to rebuild, as supplies were short due to the recent affairs with the Shishi Gami. They had managed for the most part though, with what little they did have.
There was a reason why Ashitaka was heading for the gate. Exactly four days before, while helping with the rebuilding process, he spotted San and one of her brothers on the hill overlooking the town. He was planning on visiting her within the next few days, but seeing her there made him curious, and he decided to ask her about her position on top of the hill.
"I still don't like them," she said. Her brother had snarled in agreement.
"I know. So far they've kept their word. I'm making sure of that," Ashitaka replied.
San nodded, albeit very slowly. "I wanted to see for myself. I've been doing this for the past three days."
He was a bit surprised, but Ashitaka hid it well. "Has anyone seen you?"
"Not until you did." She paused for a moment. Her attention had been on the town ever since Ashitaka made his way up the hill. She finally turned to look at him though. It was only the second time she did. "We've kept a distance until today, hiding ourselves in the shadows of the trees."
"I see," he said, nodding as he did. His gaze returned to the town itself.
"San, we must return," her brother said.
"Okay." She looked to the town once more before looking back at Ashitaka. "Make sure they stay in line. I don't want to have to attack them if it comes down to it."
"Don't worry. They're more worried about getting back on their feet if anything." His attention was still on the town. He squinted a bit before pointing forward. "San, do you see that guard position by the gate?"
"I do."
"If you come here at this time every night, I'll go up there then and send you a signal as to how things are going here. How does that sound?"
San thought about it for a moment before leaning down and whispering into her brother's ear. He made a bark of some sort. It sounded almost half-pleased.
"Okay," she said. "What is this signal?"
"I'll keep it simple. I don't want to gain the attention of the town's people if I do something crazy." Ashitaka started back to the town. "Meet me at the lake in the forest in two days time, okay? I'll explain it to you there."
She seemed to want to disagree, but she couldn't. It was either his word or no word at all. Ashitaka was the only human that she trusted.
"Two days then," San finally said. "I will still come here every night though."
Ashitaka stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I'll be in that tower then. Look for me, all right? Good night." He walked down the hill without another word.
For four days after that, they kept their agreement. Ashitaka would take a spot in the guard tower to the left of the main gate, and at the hill overlooking the town, near the setting of the sun; San would arrive and look down. Ashitaka explained to San the simple gestures he would make, and told her brothers – whose eyesight was much sharper than San's – what they meant, so that they can tell it to their sister.
For four days after that, the town remained as peaceful and content as the two wanted it to be. Ashitaka climbed to the top of the tower, and as he set his gaze to the hill, he saw San and one of her brothers sitting at the top of the hill. He nodded his arrival first before showing a quick sequence of hand gestures – simple, and to the point.
"'All is good. Do not worry.' The message repeats itself twice more San," the wolf stated to the girl.
"Good." It was all she said. Her focus now remained on Ashitaka.
It was what she did every night after the agreement was made: San and her brother would remain several minutes longer – at her urging – so that she can see Ashitaka. Her brother had an idea as to what her reasons were, but he did not object to staying. They had, in fact, remained at their spot on some occasions for nearly fifteen minutes until Ashitaka took leave of the tower.
Tonight would be no different, though this time Ashitaka took a greater note of San than he normally did. Usually his sights were at the setting sun and the massive array of colors that lit up the sky before it turned into darkness.
This time though, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her.
Twenty minutes after he arrived on the tower, Ashitaka took his leave. San and her brother decided then to part as well.
The next day, San and one of her brothers rode up the hill towards Iron Town. Before they reached the top, they spotted a figure sitting on its crest.
"Who is that?" San asked. They walked closer until they saw an animal head peek up over the hill.
"It's the boy and his beast," the wolf said, answering her question.
"What are they doing there?" San pondered out loud. They continued up, though now, with Yakkul's sudden movement, Ashitaka had spotted them as well.
"Good evening," he said.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting for you."
This made San curious. "Why? You could have easily done so from the tower."
"I know. But I decided to head out today for a little bit. That's why he's with me," he explained, pointing to Yakkul.
"Oh…"
"But why I'm here… well, I wanted to see you. No one expects me back until after the sun sets."
San nodded.
"Sit down," he commanded lightly, pointing to a spot next to him. She walked over to him and sat down, albeit a couple of feet away from where he pointed.
Her hated of humans still existed, even if she sat next to the one that she loved. It was uncomfortable being close to one.
"How was it today in the town?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Things were all right before I left. Lady Eboshi wants to rebuild the town a bit, but she would need some wood to do it. I told her I would ask you if it were allowed." He looked over to her, seeing her mood turn sour.
"What makes you think I would allow this?" she spat at him.
Ashitaka reached into his pouch and pulled out a small bag. "This was one of my reasons for heading out today," he said, handing the bag over to San. She opened it and pulled out some of its contents.
"Seeds?"
He nodded. "I took the main road down to a few towns to see if anyone sold seeds in a large quantity. I found a few and bought a sample of each. I'm going to give these to Lady Eboshi, and after she chooses the one she likes best, the two of us and Gonza will head out and buy more of it."
"I still do not like this. This will lead to more destruction, and everything that the Shishi Gami did will be for nothing." San handed the bag back to Ashitaka.
He shook his head. "Eboshi has promised to create no more Ishibiya. The iron factory will never be opened unless it is taken over by someone else."
"Someone else?"
He nodded. "She has a feeling that another attack will happen, though more will come than last time. Gonza led a team to try and track down Jogi a day after the Shishi Gami died. He came back three days later empty handed. They found none of the Jibashiri or any of the Karakasa Ren as well."
San turned to look at her brother. "What do you think?" she asked him.
"The boy is right. The human's greed will bring them back here for this town."
She shook her head. "I hate this."
"I know you do San. It's either this, or we all get destroyed," Ashitaka said, trying to explain to her.
She wanted to argue, but couldn't. He was right. She didn't want the sacrifice of the Shishi Gami to be in vain though. "We will talk with the Shoujous to see if they will lend us any assistance. I doubt they will be of any help though."
Ashitaka nodded. "Eboshi promised to replant whatever she destroyed. That is why we'll be buying seeds." He stood up and moved towards Yakkul.
"Where are you going?" San asked.
"I've got to head back. The sun has set." He pointed towards the far hills. Sure enough, the sky was quickly changed from a pink-orange color to midnight blue.
"Oh." San stood up as well. She reached up and grabbed the Gyoku no Kodachi that was tied around her neck.
"I'll see you tomorrow night then." He mounted Yakkul and turned towards the village.
"Ashitaka!"
He looked over his shoulder. "Yes, San?"
She kept her head down, concentrating on the feel of the knife. "Come back here, to this spot tomorrow… okay?" She looked up at him.
"Sure," he said. "I'll be here, before the sun sets." Ashitaka smiled, and then he rode off.
"Okay… bye," San whispered to his retreating form. She turned back to her brother.
"Are you okay?"
"No. But I will be tomorrow when I talk to him again." She finally let go of the knife and mounted her brother. They rode away from Tatara Ba, back to the seclusion of their cave.
"Lady Eboshi knows that you come here."
"What?" San asked, shocked.
"I went to give her the seeds last night, and after we finished, she asked me a question as I was about to leave her house," Ashitaka explained, keeping his eyes towards the setting sun, though he would look over to San occasionally. She did the same thing.
"What did she ask?"
"I was wondering, Ashitaka: what do you do up in that tower?" Lady Eboshi asked him.
"Me? I just like to stand guard, and also watch the sun set." It was most of the truth, he realized. No need to tell her everything.
She nodded. "That's what I thought." She stood up and walked over to Ashitaka, although it was a bit clumsy. The loss of her right arm shifted her weight a bit. It would still take some getting used to.
"Is there anything else, milady?"
"Yes," Eboshi said. "I was beginning to wonder what took you so long, so I climbed the tower."
Ashitaka stood there in shock. "You climbed the tower with just one arm?"
"Well, most of it. I had a few of the women help." She laughed at the memory of her struggle to the top. Eboshi composed herself and looked over to the boy. "I guess I don't have to continue, huh?" she asked, smirking.
"I ended up explaining everything to her."
San nodded slowly. "It was very… careless, of you."
"I didn't expect her curiosity to get the better of her," Ashitaka explained with a shrug. "Anyway, she promised to keep it to herself."
"I don't trust her," came the immediate response. That was followed by a loud sigh coming from Ashitaka.
"I know you don't. She's kept her word so far though, and that's always an improvement." San made no outward emotion. He didn't mind. It would take a lifetime of convincing to make her think otherwise of Lady Eboshi.
"So how did it go with the Shoujous?"
San shook her head. "Horribly. I've never met a more stubborn group of beasts in my life."
"What did they say?"
"'If any human cuts down a single tree, we will attack and destroy them.' Given what they've done to help us so far, I don't think that's a threat they'll back up.'
Ashitaka nodded. "Keep talking to them. If they don't change their minds, then the only thing we have left to convince them with is a demonstration of what we plan to do."
"I still don't like this. I'll do my best though."
"Thank you," he said, keeping his eyes on San. "It means so much to me that you're doing this."
The look on his face made her heart flutter and her stomach turn. Never before had she experienced such an emotion.
'I wonder if this is what love truly feels like,' she thought. She finally stuttered a "you're welcome" before looking away from him completely. Her eyes once again fell upon the Gyoku no Kodachi tied around her neck.
"You like that?"
"Hmm?" The questioned startled her.
"The knife. Do you like it?"
San quickly nodded. "I do. It's the one thing that reminds me of you every day."
"Good. I'm glad you like it." Ashitaka looked in her eyes briefly before looking away, towards the sun. There were dark clouds moving in from the north that threatened to cover it up.
"It's going to rain tonight," San muttered.
"Yeah, it looks like it. Hopefully the clouds hold off until the sun goes down. I'd hate to miss it."
She nodded. They sat there in silence, watching the vast array of colors light up the night sky. After some time, the sun disappeared behind the hills, and it wasn't until then that the clouds finally moved in over the landscape. A bolt of lightning danced in the clouds, followed a few seconds later by a clap of thunder. The storm was close.
"You should get going. I don't think you or your brother would want to get stuck in the rain," Ashitaka stated. The wolf grunted behind him.
"Okay." They both stood up and moved towards their respective rides.
"Hey San."
"Yeah?"
"I'll be here tomorrow again, okay?"
She smiled. "Sure. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay. Night." And he rode off. In the distance, another round of thunder hit, and San and her brother quickly fled into the woods to the safety of their cave.
The clatter of rain on the rooftop and the constant banging of thunder kept Ashitaka up longer than he normally were. He sat up on his thin bed and did nothing but stare out at the rain. At times, it was life giving, and at other times, like this, it was a pain and bother.
A flash of lightning revealed the scar on his right hand. It still remained after the death of the Shishi Gami, and while it didn't shrink, it luckily didn't expand.
"Is it because I have no anger in me?" he pondered aloud. His life had been content for the past week or so. The town's people were hardworking and happy despite the troubles they had with rebuilding, and he, of course –
"I have San.
"But I don't have her."
His right arm twitched slightly, but he ignored it. There was nothing to get angry about. It was just the unforeseen circumstances he had to deal with before he got here, and also the circumstances he had to deal with now.
He looked at his hand again. Nothing. No growth.
He sighed. Somehow, he wanted to have the curse again, if only to deal with the threat that everyone knew was coming.
Sleep would eventually come upon him, and he stayed that way until the late morning.
It still rained when he woke up.
And it still rained in the evening, and he couldn't be close to San. His heart was never calmed that day.
It took ten days for Jigo to return to Lord Asano's palace in the south of Honshuu. He would have reached it four days, but he had with him dozens of wounded samurai and several of his own secret group wounded. He didn't mind the slow walk, but that was only after the search team from Tatara Ba gave up their hunt for Jigo. For three whole days, he was only a few hours ahead of them. He was constantly moving through the forested areas, keeping away from the main roads so that no one would see where they were headed. Once they turned back though, Jugo managed to slow his pace for the wounded he carried. He maybe a sneak and a deceptive man, but he always had his men in mind. He needed them to recover as quickly as possible anyway.
Both attacks Jigo had launched – the one on Tatara Ba (in the bidding of Lord Asano) and the attack on the Shishi Gami (in the bidding of the emperor) – failed horribly, as he came away with neither prize. One prize still existed, and he knew that, once Asano would find out, he would launch another campaign, sending more samurai than he had originally done.
That's what Jigo would do, of course.
The news of the failure to capture the head of the Shishi Gami wouldn't reach the emperor for another week or so, as the news of the failure would take some time to travel. The only people that knew of these events were his men and the people of Tatara Ba, and they had no reason to go see the emperor. His men had to rest anyway, so no one was made to travel towards the middle of the island.
Of course, by the time the emperor received the news, Jigo and whatever men he had left would simply leave the islands and head west to China. No doubt the emperor would want his head – he needed something to make up for the other head he didn't get – so once business was concluded with Lord Asano, Jigo would leave the palace and travel southwest to a secluded harbor he had set aside (Jigo, being sneaky and deceptive, had this set up for many months, if not years, in advance).
Still, he had to deal with Lord Asano, and even he had no idea how that would go. He might just get a slap on the wrist, or he may end up losing his head before the sun would set.
At least the rain continued. It washed most of the bad travel scent that he picked up the last ten days, but he also hoped that it washed off the stench of failure that now went with him wherever he went.
"Lord Asano!" Jigo said enthusiastically as he entered the lord's presence. "How are you on this fine day?"
"Fine day? It's been raining for two whole days now!" Lord Asano bellowed over the large hallway of his throne room. His voice was extremely loud, and that was complimented with his even bigger girth. Being a local lord, he allowed himself to gain weight to hold a more intimidating presence over his peoples, sometimes to the point where they actually start shaking in their spots. Jigo was an exception: being in the lord's presence many times before, he had grown accustomed to the man's outbursts.
But then, Lord Asano stood up, and that caused a lot of worry within Jigo. Lord Asano, no matter how livid he was, never stood up.
Nor did he ever walk down the stairs from his throne down to the people in his presence.
"I give you one thousand samurai, and you couldn't even capture a small fort? What the hell were you doing there Jigo? Were you in the gambling houses throwing dice with the local whores?"
"My Lord, I can explain the situation." He didn't stutter, but he was still deathly afraid.
Asano laughed. "'Explain the situation?' How do you explain complete and utter failure?" He stepped closer to Jigo.
"It wasn't complete failure, my Lord. There were unforeseen circumstances that prevented the samurai from taking the town."
The lord stopped. "Yes, I heard of these 'unforeseen circumstances'… something about a Didarabocchi walking around without its head? Hah! You make me laugh Jigo!"
"It was for the emperor!" Jigo shouted out of desperation.
"What was for the emperor?" Lord Asano leaned down slightly to hear what Jigo had to say.
"The emperor… he wanted the head of the Shishi Gami, and the only way to obtain it was to remove it when it was transforming into the Didarabocchi." Jigo was sweating – he never got this worried before.
"I see." Asano turned away from Jigo and walked back to his throne. Jigo stood there, making no attempt to speak. He didn't know what would happen to him if he did speak.
"Jigo."
"Yes?" he asked cautiously.
"Where is the head?"
He gulped. "It was returned to the Didarabocchi before dawn. It ended up dying before it returned to its daytime form."
"And what of the town?"
Jigo breathed out. It sounded like Asano was neither mad nor happy. It just wanted information. "It still stands, but it'll take sometime for it to return to operation. Many of the people in the town died because of the samurai and because of the Didarabocchi. Half of them remain from what I saw before I made my escape."
Asano nodded. "Servants! Bring me a map of Honshuu!" Within several moments, four men carried in a table and placed it a few feet from the stairs, while two more men carried a large parchment out. They laid it on the edge of the table and rolled it out, revealing a large, detailed map of Honshuu.
"We will launch two attacks at once," Asano said, quickly getting to the point. "Half of the samurai will attack from the road that leads into Tatara Ba," he said, pointing to the twisting dirt road. He slid his finger over to the left of the town, at the water entrance. "The other half of the samurai will attack from boats. They will be delayed, to let the town's people focus on just the front attack.
"You, Jigo, will assemble the samurai needed for this attack."
He nodded. "How many do you require?" Jigo asked.
"Five thousand."
"Five thousand? I don't know if I can gather that many men from around here."
"Then you must go to all the places on the island to get them!" Asano bellowed.
"Yes, my Lord." He paused. "How long do I have?"
"Twenty days."
Jigo gulped. "Yes, my Lord."
"Good. Now, if you don't have anything else to say, then I advise you to leave now." Asano made his way back to his throne and sat down, disinterest setting in on his face.
"Actually, there was one final thing to mention. There was a boy there."
"A boy? One single boy doesn't concern me."
"This one will though, my Lord," Jigo said, smirking. "I found out from Tatara Ba about this particular boy, and found out something interesting.
"He's an Emishi."
"An Emishi? I thought them to be gone centuries ago," Asano said, a little surprised with this development.
"Apparently, a tribe still exists. He was their last prince."
Asano nodded.
"I ran into him during my travel to Tatara Ba. He came from the north, on his way to the forests west of here, by Tatara Ba. He was cursed, but the Didarabocchi cured him, from what I saw."
"Then he is of no threat to me, Jigo. Your mission remains the same. Return in twenty days, and then we will march on Tatara Ba. They either surrender or die. Do you understand, Jigo?"
"Yes, my Lord."
"Good. Now get out of my sight. This never should have happened in the first place!" Jigo quickly departed. He decided, on his way out, to begin his search for samurai tomorrow.
Asano, meanwhile, walked off of his throne and made his way to the left hallway. He opened a door and stepped in, walking down another hallway before opening a second door. Grey light entered the room, and the smell of rain permeated his senses. He looked down into a courtyard and smiled.
Below the balcony he stood on were nearly two thousand samurai training in the rain. They were part of the force that he had set to march on the capital once he gained the iron making resources of Tatara Ba. Once he acquired those, he would easily be able to march into the emperor's palace and become the ruler of Honshuu.
Asano left the balcony, and retired to his room for the next few hours. His thoughts remained on the Emishi boy, and the last remaining Emishi tribe. Then he came upon a thought.
It was a devilish one. It was perfect.
To be continued...
Author's notes: well, this was chapter one. If it sucks, well, sorry. This is my first serious work in nearly seven months (no, I wasn't busy, it's just been a bad year), so my writing is definitely rusty. Hopefully I can get back some consistency in the next few chapters.
Speaking of which, before the next chapter comes out, I'm going to plot out the rest of the story, so I know how much more writing I'll have to do. It won't be that long I think – I'm estimating about ten chapters, maybe less. Should be fun though.
A few things: this is my first story outside of DBZ, so I was definitely limited to what I can do (namely, not dealing with characters more powerful than, well… everything). For the writing, I used a bunch of Japanese spellings. If they turn out wrong, then I point you to where I obtained them: www(dot)nausicaa(dot)com(slash)miyazaki(slash)mh(slash). Click on "Story", and then click on "Character Guide". No pre-read was done, save for my own. Expect mistakes, if there are any.
As always, read and review. Direct comments can be sent to shaggydizbot101( sign)Comcast(dot)net.