Hello. Sorry for the wait, but here is chapter two! I am doing my best to update all my stories so please stay tuned! Also, I realize that the first chapter is first person and in this one it's third...Meh...I think I like third person better XP sorry...Will change the first chapter to third soon.
Reviews are always welcomed (as are suggestions). Negative criticism is not appreciated...though I'd love if it was constructive! ^o^
Thanks for reading! Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Ashitaka
"Damn it!" Ashitaka hit the closest tree with his closed fist and growled in anger. "What the hell was I saying? I must have sounded like an idiot to her!" He hit the tree again before turning around to his now empty practice area.
With a huff of anger he glared down at his target waiting in the distance and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Damn it." Angrily he jerked his outer jacket up from the perch he had made in the tree near his starting point and threw it on. Cursing some more, he snatched up his quiver and jammed the arrows back into their home and once securely tying the belt back on to his jacket, he tried to take a deep calming breath. He raised his fingers to his lips and gave a long, piercing whistle.
The sound of hooves clacking against the ground came from behind him and he smiled as he turned to see Yakul dashing through the trees. He reached his hand out for Yakul to bump into as he slowed to a halt in front of him. "Hey bud. Sorry practice ran later than normal." He said as he rubbed his friends furry chin and scratched his muzzle gently.
"Come on, let's get going," with a running start Ashitaka grabbed Yakul's horn and hoisted himself onto his back.
Down the mountain, jumping from rock to rock, they made their way back to Iron Town. Though the name was more of a habit than a befitting name to the new village. Upon exiting the forest area Ashitaka drew Yakul to a halt and gazed across the water, smiling upon seeing the now rebuilt walls and towers of the new and improved town. Three large watch towers supported the high outer ring of the wall protecting many of the merchants and their families while the inner ring housed the rest of the towns people. There were three gate ways facing the roads from the north, the south, and a large dock area to the east where all the fishing boats were tied up.
"Good morning Ashitaka!" the young man glanced down to the waters edge and waved back to the boatman waiting for their return. "How was practice this morning? I heard that wolf howl, freaking scary…still can't get over that initial fear just yet, I guess," the older man said with a shudder.
Ashitaka chuckled and nodded, "Nnh, it had caused a lot of alarm and worry when you guys were still mining the mountain, it's bound to take time to get used to." He hopped down onto the ground and helped guide Yakul onto the boat's flat area. As the boatman pushed off from the shore, Ashitaka took in a deep breath of the clean fresh water air.
"So how is your little girlfriend?" Choking on that inhale of fresh air, Ashitaka turned surprised eyes to face the older man, his shock very apparent. "Haha! Don't gimme that look, young man! I know how it goes with you younglings!" He gave the younger man a saucy wink and the receiver could feel his tan face warm.
"Eh? I don't know what you are talking about..." He said sniffing, his arrogant air lost as he turned another shade darker. They shimmied up to the far shore to the sound of the old mans cackling laughter. Yakul and Ashitaka made their way up to the closed gates of the new-and-improved Iron Town.
"Ashitakaaaa!" With a glance upward, Ashitaka could see the ladies upon the wall waving frantically and smiling broadly. "How's the Wolf Girl?! We know you saw her this morning!" They "wolf" whistled loudly and when he sent them a smirk on an already pink face in return, the ladies lost it and laughed and cheered loudly. With a signal to the men minding the entrance, the heavy gates began to open. Yakul gave his own version of a laugh-snort too as they made their way through, nodding greetings to the men guarding the front.
As the pair made their trek through the town, everyone said or nodded their good mornings to them and Haru tossed Asitaka his morning bread. After inclining his head in thanks, Ashitaka lead Yakul down the main road.
Taking a bite of his freshly baked bread, Ashitaka looked over main street. He still couldn't get over the initial shock of walking through the front gates and seeing how different everything was. The stalls that used to house all the small shops and distributors with their rice now housed all sorts of goods; from the fresh fish of the day to pearls and glass pieces, made into beads, found at the bottom of the river bed; Suki was out in front of her stall selling the grains and vegetables that her father and brother were growing up on the hillside while her best friend, Yamato, sold his mothers basket ware and wheat mats in the next stall. Ashitaka, along with most of the village, knew that they had a thing for each other but had yet to make anything official. Their parents tried to help them along, sending one or the other over to the others house to drop off a basket of fruits or a bag of grains. But sadly, they just couldn't get their act together. 'They're still too young,' was something Ashitaka tended to hear a lot of when concerning those two, but he wished them the best of luck. They will be together in the end, he knew. Considering the look Suki just sent Yamato and the look she received in return, Ashitaka hoped it was sooner rather than later. Yakul nipped lightly at his sleeve snapping him out of his current thoughts. With a shake of his head, Ashitaka was brought back to the realities of his own romantic problems and continued on his way. "I seriously must have sounded like a complete imbecile this morning..." Yakul butted his head into his shoulder a couple times and Ashitaka smiled, petting his friends snout, "You know, you're right, I just have to move forward, I can't take it back now..." His smile slowly faded from his face and he smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Dammit."
They finally reached the main cluster of buildings at the towns center. After leading Yakul to the small bag of grains he had forgotten and left out earlier that morning near the back door, Ashitaka entered the small side entrance nodding his greeting to the guard. Walking through the maze of passageways took a few weeks to master, but now Ashitaka was able to quickly weave the hallways confidently until he found himself in front of an open set of shoji. Inside Lady Eboshi waved him inside without even looking up from her paperwork. "Come in Ashitaka, I have been waiting for you. Tell me what you think about these new trading routes." Ashitaka made his way forward and grabbed the sheets from her hand. "I am unsure if I want to continue business with Lord Kurosawa. His last couple of shipments have been far less than what we had ordered. He has been swindling us of our goods for the past few weeks and I cannot stand it." Lady Eboshi gritted her teeth in annoyance. "If he thinks he can walk all over us because we are changing our goods and mindset, he has another thing coming!" She slammed her fist onto the tabletop, causing the sheets of parchment to shiver like leaves in the wind. With a huff she picked up her brush and continued to document that mornings income of fish and grains. Ashitaka stared at the woman. Who would have thought that she was able to take losing her arm in such stride and go about life like it was normal. Her left hand was steady and the brushstrokes sure; he could remember the many restless days after she had finally healed enough to be up and about. Training left handed after living her life as a right-handed swords woman had been difficult, as was relearning to write with her left. He shook his head to get his mind back to the present. This woman is freaky in her resilience. With a sigh Ashitaka took the side seat next to the desk and shuffled through the paper work he was given. A few minutes of companionable silence fell upon the pair as the sound of shifting paper and the light scratches of the brush filled the room. Tapping the papers back into order on the table top, Ashitaka nodded, "I think these routes are pretty good. It's a good idea to start up another route through the waterways to Lady Hiroshi's village. She seems like an excellent ally so it's important to make sure she gets her supplies on time and as fresh as possible." Ashitaka laid the paper back into a side basket at the edge of the desk. "Though I don't think that we should cut off all ties with Lord Kurosawa for the time being. He has gotten pretty strong in the past year and even though the power might be going to his head, it might be a bad idea to get on his bad side. Unfortunately, even though we don't produce anymore iron for weapons, the town over the mountain can only supply us with a limited amount of raw materials for our weapons at any time." Ashitaka scratched the back of his head. "It would be bad if a war started because of something as simple as stuttering trade routes. It'll all work out in the end. Lord Kurosawa needs our grains and mountain deer to survive during the winter. He can't afford to cut off ties with us either."
With a sigh, Lady Eboshi put down her brush and adjusted the one arm kimono back into place, it having shifted unnoticed during her furious rampage earlier. "Alright. I understand. Thanks Ashitaka, you really help me out at times like these. As much as Gonza likes to help, he really has no tack when it comes to politics and trading." She laughed a little, "I still remember when he tried to talk to that one tradesman from Evergreen who wanted to setup a trade route through our town." She shook her head in mirth, "It's really quite something that he made him cry without even meaning to. He has really bad social skills." Ashitaka smiled and nodded his agreement, remembering his own first meeting with Gonza at the lake side where he had been accused of being untrustworthy even after bringing back two survivors. "But you can't deny he is one of the best guards. He has singlehandedly upgraded the entire towns defenses. Even with fewer accesses to natural resources, we are still able to defend ourselves properly because of him."
Lady Eboshi flipped her hand nonchalantly, as if waving away a pesky fly, "No matter. Enough talk about all this rubbish. I need to get to a meeting with the ladies. Find something to occupy your time before we need to go over the goods supply." With that she stood and shook out her kimono bottoms and swept from the room. Ashitaka quirked an eyebrow and had a huge urge to roll his eyes. Only she would be able to still maintain such aloofness when talking about her most dedicated officer. Anyone would be able to tell that he was completely, helplessly, and utterly in love with her. But of course Lady Eboshi believed she was too good for him. Ashitaka really rolled his eyes this time. She was an idiot.
He stood and stretched his stiff shoulders and helped put all the papers back in order on the desk. Even though Lady Eboshi was such a stickler with organizing before, Ashitaka felt that it was her right arm that controlled all her order. And after losing it. Well...things went downhill in organizational skills.
After setting the supplies list and political documents into stacks on the right side of the desk, he made his way back to Yakul outside. Stepping out into the now blazing sunshine, Ashtiaka raised his arm to block out the glare. The town was now at full bustling power and it was time to get out. Given that he was raised in a small village, Ashitaka still had issues with large crowds and couldn't help the feeling of confinement and claustrophobia whenever the town was so active.
Yakul came up behind him and nibbled at his shoulder. Ashitaka turned and petted his fluffy chest and scratched behind his ears, "Yeah, let's go buddy." As they made their way through the crowds, Ashitaka heard his name being called. Turning towards the source he didn't see anyone until he was hit in the mid-drift by three bumps. With a glance down he smiled genuinely for the first time since entering the village and patted the three kids on the top of their heads. "Hey there guys. How are you this morning?" Yuuki, even with a few missing teeth, gave Ashitaka a huge smile while Tomo and Kei stepped back and identically gave grins while scratching the back of their heads. Ashitaka still couldn't get over the fact that even though those two weren't related, they still acted creepily similar. "Taka-nii, we were on our way to Haru-sans house to drop off these!" Yuuki held up her small bag of what looked like plums. "Yeah, we were given these from Suki-nee-chan and were told that if we saw you to give you two!" Tomo cried, excitedly bouncing up and down. Kei stood there grinning and nodding in agreement, "We were told two specifically so you could go give one to your wolf girl!" Ashitaka's brow twitched but he smiled anyway. "Huh. Okay, give Suki-san my thanks." He took the offered plums and placed them gently in his side pouch. "Well, off you guys go. Be sure to stay out of trouble!" He finished with a yell as they scampered off to Haru's house. Yakul gave another laugh-snort and Ashitaka tweeked his friends ear playfully, "Oh, shut up."
After recrossing the river and taking the trail back into the woods, Ashitaka wondered where he'd find his so-called "girlfriend." He shuddered, that wasn't quite the label he wanted to use. Heck, he didn't even really want to have a label. San was her own person as was he. He didn't think they needed to be "called" anything. He loved her. And she...well...Ashitaka gave a sigh. She didn't really understand his feelings yet.
A rustling in the bushes to his right pulled him from his musing. With practiced ease he grabbed his bow and strung an arrow within seconds, aiming into the area he heard the noise. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
"Put that away, human." A growling voice reverberated through Ashitaka's body as he recognized the wolf stepping from the leaves. "Wolf-san, what are you doing here? It's too close to the town to be your normal hunting grounds." Ashitaka asked, releasing the tension of his bow string and lowering the weapon. "San's been injured. Come." Those four words had Ashitaka up on Yakul's back in a heartbeat. "Lead me there, hurry."
Sorry to cut it off here...Still having a bit of plot issues..._ BUT! They shall be solved and I will update soon!
Thanks for reading ^0^
