When Ashitaka opened his eyes he blinked violently against the bright light, groaning. He realized his arms were bound to his sides and he tried to struggle out of the snakeskin that was wrapped around him, his shoulder pulsing with a sharp heat.
He managed to awkwardly wiggle out of the dead snake's grasp, holding his shoulder as he watched rings of smoke and black blood pour out of Lord Hebi's mouth and eyes. The body of the snake seemed to wither and shrink, curling into itself until the smoke and blood stopped flowing.
Ashitaka stood and instantly fell down to his knee. His head was swimming with vertigo and the pulsing in his shoulder intensified where the snake had bitten him. He settled his head onto his knees and took a few deep breaths.
After his heart rate had slowed he pulled back his tunic's sleeve and examined the wound. Running from his arm pit to his collarbone in an arc were four punctures that were bright red and throbbing. He twisted his head back and could barely make out a similar mark on the back of his shoulder.
He sighed and retrieved his bow, thankful that his weapons were relatively unharmed. He stood and craned his neck around, suddenly aware that he was no longer in the forest. Instead all around him was a dry grassland under a strong sun that lit the fields a bright green over its rocky soil.
As he wondered where he was the wind picked up and made the tall, skinny grass ripple like ripples in a pond. He was about to head towards the sun when a sound, low and strong, reached his ears. It reminded him of Moro's growls, back when she was alive to growl at him, but stronger, different.
He couldn't see anything moving on the horizon and drew his bow, wincing as his shoulder protested. The sound grew louder and Ashitaka felt himself growing fearful, the heat from his wound spreading.
He caught a glimpse of something in the clouds, squinting at the mass of white. Something large and dark came flying out of the clouds and Ashitaka stepped back, mesmerized.
It wasn't a bird; the wing-ling extensions didn't move, there wasn't a head or feathers. The sound turned into a roar as it flew over him, the underbelly of the flying thing that same pale brown color as the rest of its body.
It was close to him; as it passed a wall of wind followed it and knocked him back onto the ground. He watched it with wide eyes as it flew past and eventually left his view. He realized he was breathing heavily and shook himself.
He stood again, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder. The snake lay still in the grass, ants already claiming it. "I think," Ashitaka said out loud after a moment, "that I am nowhere near the forest."
So saying he steeled himself and walked toward the sun.
Traveling on back of Qui was always an interesting experience. Kui was much more mindful and diligent when it came to listening to his rider, and it was for that reason the Lord Yupa always took him instead of Qui.
Asbel let out a small cry of surprise when Qui reared back with an excited chirp, small wings flapping and talons clawing at the ground. Ahead of them was a squirrel scrabbling about, chewing on a large nut between its agile hands.
Asbel was just able to keep him back from chasing after it as it scampered away. Besides him Yupa chuckled into his moustache.
"A year of handling him and he still takes you by surprise," he commented teasingly. Asbel gave a bashful grin and resituated himself on the saddle.
"No matter how well you think you know someone, they can always take you by surprise," Asbel returned, scratching his head. Yupa gave him an intrigued look.
"That was unexpectedly philosophical of you, Asbel."
"Was it? I thought that was just common knowledge."
Yupa chuckled again and they walked their birds on, feeling the wind blowing on them from the Inland Sea. Asbel had learned, from back when he first started accompanying Yupa on his travels, to enjoy the peace and reflect in its silence.
"Lord Yupa, do you think the Doroks will keep their word?"
Lord Yupa didn't answer for a moment. "I want to believe they will. But you know how humans act when they misunderstand the jungle."
Asbel nodded. "Yeah. I know too well."
"But the king gave his word, so we must trust them until something does happen. Nausicaä will be happy that her plants have helped us throughout our travels."
Asbel smiled to himself. As they passed through villages and kingdoms that felt threatened by the toxic jungle, they had managed to bring along a few small containers of the plants Nausicaä had cultivated on her own. After showing the frightened civilians the labeled 'deadly' plants in a harmless light, they were able to persuade many not to fear or harm the jungle.
The mention of the red-haired princess brought back a longing to return the valley of trees and farm land, with the windmills constantly turning and the sound of the ocean on his ears.
A warning from Yupa made him pull on Qui's reins and they halted on the gravelly path. Asbel followed Yupa's line of sight and made out a figure walking slowly towards them.
"I think they're injured," Yupa muttered, sliding off his saddle. He took a few steps forward and called out to the approaching figure. Asbel could make out a mass of dark brown hair and a strange shirt. The man had a bow on his back.
"You there, are you in need of assistance?"
The man came closer and Asbel picked out the splotches of blood bleeding through his shirt in evenly spaced stains. "Uh, Lord Yupa—"
Ten feet away from them his knees gave out and he crumpled to the ground. Yupa rushed to his side and turned him over, slipping his hand under his shirt and tugging it up, exposing whatever wounds were ailing him.
"Asbel, help me. We have to get him back to Nomisto."
Asbel hurried to his master's side and caught sight of the wounds on his shoulder, taking his other arm and carrying him to Kui's saddle. As they laid him across the leather his sides heaved and his eyes snapped open, staring wildly at Asbel.
"Where am I?" He wheezed out.
"It's okay," Asbel assured him, giving a quick smile. "We're going to get you patched up." The man's eyes closed and he gave a hazy nod, passing out.
"We need to move quickly," Yupa told him, sitting up and turning Kui around, back the direction they had come. "His wound is something I've never seen before."
Asbel followed suit as they spurred their steeds on as fast as they could.
Back in Nomisto they surprised the locals by returning barely half an hour after they had left. Yupa rode up to the nearest group of men and asked, "This young man requires immediate medical attention. Where is your physician?"
They pointed the way and hurried to a small house down the road and around a corner. They dismounted and brought the man inside, a few nurses coming to help them, guiding them to a raised table where an older woman with sparkling green eyes was washing her hands.
"Set him down on the cloth, ladies. Gently now, that's it." Her eyes scanned his clothes with an interested glint but took them off without comment, running her fingers over his wounds. "These look like snake bites but…much, much bigger. And these marks," she followed one blotchy, black-colored ribbon traveling from wound to wound in a winding arc, "I have no idea what these are."
"Think you can do anything for him?" Yupa asked. Asbel picked up his bow and quiver of arrows, examining them with great interest.
The woman moved closer to the table, cracking her knuckles. "I most certainly can! We can't lose such a handsome face, can we ladies?"
Here aides smiled and go to work, cleaning up his blood and wiping the filth from his skin. The green-eyed woman looked up at them.
"One of my girls will send for you when we are finished. It might be an hour or so."
Yupa nodded and Asbel took his bow with them as they left. They crossed the street and walked into the inn they had stayed the previous night. The inn keeper smiled behind his counter and his wife stopped her sweeping to give them a puzzled look.
"Master Yupa? I thought you and young Asbel had left not even an hour ago." Yupa took off his hat and sat down at one of the tables by the window.
"We had. But we came across a young man with a strange wound just outside of town." Asbel sat down across from him, feeling the need to rest the bow on his lap out of sight of the others. "Now we wait to hear his condition."
The innkeeper's wife covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, that's awful. So good of you to find him, though! How about some tea while you wait? On the house, for doing a good deed."
Yupa thanked her and was silent as she came back with steaming cups and milk, thanking her warmly. When she was gone Asbel spoke up.
"Master, what do you think about that guy?"
Yupa poured a bit of milk into his tea and took a sip. "What do you think of that man, Asbel?"
"His clothes are strange. And he was carrying this bow and these arrows. They're well-made and worn with use. And when he spoke," his brows narrowed in concentration, "he had an accent I've never heard before."
Yupa nodded and took another sip. "His wound had something I've only seen once before in all of my travels. Those black markings are similar to the ones I've seen in a book found in the holy city of Shuwa, before it was swallowed by the jungle. It was in the possession of a monk that I had the great honor of living with for a few days while I stayed in Shuwa.
"The book held accounts and stories of human's struggles with demons."
"Demons?" Asbel asked, a hint of skepticism in his voice.
"The story goes that a man angered a river god by over fishing his waters and dumping his waste into the river. The angrier the god got the more violent did the fish and birds and animals that drew from the water grow. Soon he was attacked by a bear, left with horrible claw marks on his back and a missing eye.
"Someone had drawn in his injuries, including the few black rings that I thought were smudges or accidents on the artist's behalf. But now, I'm sure they were a product of the demon bear's curse."
Asbel took of his own hair and ran a hand through his hair. "So, any animal can become a demon? How?"
Yupa gave a deep sigh and turned to look out the window, watching a few children play in the street. "When they were taken over by fear, or hate. It turns them into something dangerous, a beast unlike the world should know."
Asbel pondered it for a bit, thumbing the smooth curve of the bow. "Why is it I've never seen nor heard of demons all my life?"
"The same reason you don't casually meet gods anymore. They've died out, or perhaps they've just moved on. Whatever the case, without the gods' presence in the land, the presence of demons becomes unobtainable."
"I see." The notion of coming across a god of the river or mountain or forest seemed like an impossible one. "So you're suggesting he was attacked by a demon? And those rings are a curse?"
"Precisely. Although, I could be completely wrong and there's a rational explanation for both the wounds and the markings."
"Master," Asbel sat up straight in his chair, tea forgotten. "Are you saying that this guy is from…somewhere else? Where demons and gods still live?"
Yupa fixed him with a calculating gaze. "There was once magic in this land, Asbel. Magic does strange things to remarkable people."
A young woman came rushing into the inn, spotting them and coming over.
"Lord Yupa, we have finished stitching him up but…well, Madam Jin wants you to come see."
Yupa shared a look with Asbel and they followed the woman back to the small house, taking a path around the house to a separate hall. They entered and saw the young man lying in a bed over the covers, bandages on his shoulder and chest.
Asbel stood on the opposite side of the bed from Yupa, examining him. Madam Jin had been right in calling him handsome; he boasted a strong jawline and tanned skin, expression stern even in sleep.
The older woman unwound the bandages and showed them the sewn up wounds that were a much calmer shade of red now. The black rings that were blotchy like bruises were still there, tracing his left shoulder in concentric patterns.
"I don't know what these are," Madam Jin said tracing one ring with her finger. "And if these wounds weren't the size they were, I'd say they were snake bites."
"Well, it must be quite a feisty serpent, hm?" Yupa said lightly, eyes shining. "Madam Jin, maybe I speak with you in private?"
She nodded and the younger woman showed them to a separate room. Asbel watched them go, setting the bow and half-full quiver on the night stand and taking the bandages in hand, reapplying them diligently.
He started when the man's eyes snapped open, muscles in his torso seizing as he surged up. Before he could blink Asbel was pushed down, back on the ground and strong hands gripping his biceps, a pair of wild brown eyes staring him down.
"Whoa, hold on!" Asbel cried out, willing himself not to kick at the other man with his free legs. The man's breathing was rapid and erratic. "Hey, calm down. It's okay."
His grip didn't let up but his breathing and eyes calmed down a bit. "Who are you? And where are we?"
"I'm Asbel, and you're in a village named Nomisto." A thousand questions bubbled up to his mouth but only one floated out. "What's your name?"
The man's eyelids started drooping. "I am…Ashitaka. Where are…San…" His lids dropped and his arms gave out, his body landing heavily on top of Asbel's. Ashitaka's head landed between the crux of his shoulder and neck, and Asbel could hear a light snoring from his mouth.
For a second he was stunned at the other man's collapse, lulled into a strange sense of nervous contentment by his strong heartbeat and body heat, his breath hitting the side of his head.
After a moment the realization of what he was doing hit him and he scrambled to lift Ashitaka off the ground, hoisting him as gently as possible onto the bed and smoothing out his own shirt and hair before fixing the other's bandages.
His cheeks were still warm when Yupa and Madame Jin returned. Yupa gave him a curious raised eye brow at his flushed face but said nothing about it.
"Asbel, I've decided we should wait until he wakes up and question him. Whatever the reason is for his clothes and wounds, we need to know. It may be some giant beast roaming around putting others in danger."
Asbel nodded. "That seems like the logical thing to do."
"I'm going to go back to where we met him, see if I can find anything," Yupa continued, taking out his coin purse and placing a few silver bits into the madam's hand. "Would you wait with this man until he wakes? The nurses have other, more pressing cases to attend to."
"Yes, sir."
"Excellent."
Lord Yupa thanked the women again for their help and checked his pouches. "I shouldn't be more than a few hours. If he wakes up, see if you can find his name and what happened to him."
Asbel nodded hesitantly, deciding to keep their earlier confrontation quiet. Why, he didn't know.
"Well, I'm off," Yupa called, Asbel waving him off.
Asbel settled on the empty bed next to him, sitting cross-legged on the covers. After a few minutes of observing Ashitaka he brought out a puzzle ring that Yupa had found for him an a previous city and commenced trying to solve it.
Every now and then Ashitaka would stir and mutter something Asbel wasn't able to catch before settling down again. Movement underneath the other's wraps caught his attention and he left the bed, peeling back the first layer and freeing at the sight.
The rings were moving. Like painted snakes they twitched and coiled around his wounds, becoming thicker until they settled down again. Asbel realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled, letting go of his bandages.
Asbel was starting to believe in curses.