Disclaimer: I don't own Princess Mononoke, or any of the characters :) they all belong to Hayao Miyazaki
A/N: I named San's wolf brothers myself, but if anyone knows their true names, tell me :) I did this because I never heard the movie mention their names.
Crystal Ashes
Blushing Petals
Chapter 2: My Mother's Blessing
Thunder. The sky roared in outrage as all the world continued to spin beneath its furious tears, when at times like these it should've halted. San sagged against the drippy pewter-like cave wall of her den… She dipped lower to the dusty ground and curled into a ball, her dark eyes staring out hollowly at the beaded forest. Nothing was the same… Nothing was easy, or set… No morals or actions were simple. Nothing was left but an empty shell. It had always been that way, she supposed, but before she hadn't had something to fill her emptiness to know she wasn't full…
Nudging her, his eyes, like bright suns—like Moro's—watched her as she collapsed into herself. Growling lowly he stood and padded next to her. Nudging her he sniffed her face and began to mold himself to her, twining himself protectively around her, as though she were his pup.
She merely shivered at his touch and retreated further into herself, her eyes once again locked on the gray skies. At that Alkine growled, his hair prickling on his nape.
"San..." He whispered gruffly. San turned to face her companion. She studied him calmly, remembering a time when they had been young, and unafraid of the vast world.
But now they lay, side by side, their eyes full of sorrow and emptiness, older in their bodies… but mostly in their hearts.
"I cannot stop your pain..." He rumbled, letting his snout rub against her cheek once more, trying to calm the pain that rolled like waves from her small frame. The scars of the battle still traced along his brow and stomach and paws, never fading, even after months and months had passed, marking features on his face that were not part of any of her happy memories.
"I know…" San whispered back, her eyes brimming with tears that she refused to let fall.
"Nobu has moved on—he is the eldest and it is his place to keep our blood running thick and our clan alive. But you and I, our destinies are elsewhere." He replied, never once letting his gaze flicker back to San. He could feel her body stiffen at his words then listened as her heart-beat steadily increased.
"And you will stay beside me, Alkine?" Alkine smirked, listening to his human sister's words.
"I will." With that both let the tension seep away, and slowly they gained the joy they'd lost deep within their dreams…
"Mother…" San whispered, kneeling beside the place where her mother had breathed her final breaths. The land where Moro had been was now covered with wild, twisting, beautiful white orchids. And just a few feet away, Okkoto's final resting place was covered with vivid, sun colored flowers, the kind that had thrived within his homeland, and nowhere else…
Cupping her hands she retrieved the water from the lake beside her and poured it across both sets of flowers.
"You both were brave and good…" She announced, bowing low to the resting places of the Gods. "And have earned the respect your clans and you deserved for the rest of the generations of our earth." Once again she kneeled beside her mother's grave and watched it with glistening eyes. I wish that neither of you had passed…
After the moments melted away and the sun began to sink below the trees San shivered and began to speak to Moro. Locked in golden and crimson light, everything seemed slow and ethereal.
"I need your blessing, mother, for the journey that I and my brother are about to take. It is what will keep us strong, and what will keep me knowing that the journey was the right choice, for you, Goddess of the Wolves… you, my mother, approve of my choice."
The silence went on for what felt like decades, and the sun kept the world in dim, honey colored light, as though the world were waiting, holding its breath, just as San was. But she sat quietly and patiently, waiting to see if her mother would reply, or if her journey sickened the Goddess.
And just as she was going to sigh and crumble into a sobbing mess San saw, out of the corner of her eye, and huge black bat, even larger than Moro, with large golden eyes watching her, hanging from the thick limb of a tree. It blinked, eyes just like those of Moro's clan, watching San in the silence of dusk.
"…A bat from the lands to the south?" San whispered, watching the bat as it watched her. Suddenly warmth rippled through her, and the smell of stone and wolf-scent blocked out every other sense she had. Her vision blurred, fading until she could see nothing but faint shapes in the thick, gold, twilight… And her mother's face, smiling.
And as quickly as it came, it left, leaving her shivering, staring wide-eyed at the now darkened world. Looking around her, there were no traces of the gold-eyed bat, but the flowers across her mother's resting place seemed brighter and more vivid than she had ever remembered them to be.
"Thank you, mother…" She whispered her voice low and full of love and sorrow.
Yakul was outside of their den, watching the opening with wide, eager eyes when San first spotted him.
"You are lonely without your brother, and your friend, aren't you?" San asked in a gentle tone. The early morning wind was brisk against her body. Behind her Alkine stood tall, his eyes scanning the lands. Months had made him grow larger and stronger, and now he'd almost reached his mother's size, though he had hardly reached her seemingly infinite age.
"We will find him." He replied briskly, watching the red elk with compassion. "We have all lost those that we love most in the world…" He finished as he kneeled to allow San onto his back. Fisting his fur she held onto him and he leapt from the cliff, Yakul close behind…
Her breathe caught as they fell, the sky and forest blurring together, as though the wind were stitching the colors together to a point where there was no up or down, just a constant lack of both.
Alkine landed with a thud and was instantly tearing away through the brush and bark and dirt.
Burying her face in his fur she mumbled against him.
"Where….?" She asked, using only one word to illustrate her entire question.
"The bat you described is a member of Dai's clan, the clan of prophets, born of the God Dai himself who was blessed long ago by the Forest Spirit with the ability to see far into the future." Alkine spoke in a low, thunder-like voice, his paws continuously beating the earth, like war drums, as they sprinted forward. Yakul neighed behind them, easily echoing the young Wolf God's speed. Together they ran, nothing but shadows flittering through the dark of the thick forest.
San blinked back the wind that ripped past them, gripping the crystal dagger that he had given to her... It felt like so long ago when she had last seen his eyes, burning with the warmth of a million fires…
"Haro." Alkine finished. "The tunnels and caverns beneath Haro Bay lead far beneath the ocean, and that is where we will find Dai." San nodded, watching the sky, flickering through the leaves, tiny shards of pure blue, past hundreds of emerald leaves.
"Haro." She repeated her voice hoarse and her eyes strained.
Warmth prickled through her and instinctively her eyes flashed behind them… where a patch of the forest gleamed with gold and a single dear sat, watching as they left the haven of his forest, a small smile gracing his lips.
Thank you for reading and thank you so much for all the support you have given me in comments! Tell me what you think!
Blushing Petals
