A/N: Oh man, it's been SO long since I last wrote! Sorry for the late delay, it won't happen again!

Anyway, this is the third chapter...I won't spoil it! But I promise you, THIS IS GETTING GOOD.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to "Princess Mononoke"...as usual

Chapter 3: The New and The Old

"Explain," San demanded, her voice sharp with reproach. Akatara met San's fierce gaze for several seconds, trying to analyze what she was going to say. After the silence had persisted for a while, Ashitaka heard the other tigers burst from the forest, plunging themselves into the pool, reddening the water.

"I cannot tell you much more, Princess," Akatara said at last as she walked over to her children. "But I do have a request: stay away from the eastern side. For yourself. And your sanity."

"Are you CRAZY?" San shouted to Akatara. "Half of your children turned into demons! You can't fight them alone! The Moro tribe WILL help; if not for you, for the forest."

The tigress ignored San, rousing her children from their exhaustion. "Come, children. The humans are eating the forest alive as we rest," she urged them with strict determination. "Duty comes before safety."

Raising themselves slowly, the tigers reluctantly followed. Ashitaka could tell that they were more than tired, and that their spirits was very low. As the tigers disappeared into the forest, Akatara looked back at San, who had not stopped glaring at her.

"Promise me, San, that you will not venture into our side of the forest. There are things the wolves should not see; secrets of the past that the wolves have long tried to forget. Secrets not worth dying for. Believe in us tigers, and we will set things right."

San grit her teeth. "No." She declared, as Akatara disappeared into the forest.

"You can't LEAVE!" Toki said, banging the table with her fist. "We had plans for you! Live an adventureless, safe life for once!"

"I'm sorry, Toki," Ashitaka replied, his face drawn with determination. "But I am bound to the forest as much as I am bound to Iron Town. I must protect it if it is in danger."

Eboshi, Gonza, Kouroku, Toki, Ashitaka, and various other villagers were gathered around the village fire. Under the stars of the night, Ashitaka had discussed his plan to leave for the other side of the forest. The effect was profound upon all members there.

Ashitaka looked upon the faces of all the other members, who had fallen silent at Ashitaka's declaration. Eboshi looked back at him with her bright eyes as he look at her. Surprisingly, she had a slight smile on her face.

"It seems that nothing will change you from being a noble, dangerous person, Ashitaka," she said, with a voice of sadness and pride. As Toki started to speak, Eboshi quickly silenced her with her hand. "Leave him alone, Toki; Ashitaka will go if he chooses to do so. Nothing we say or do will change that."

Ashitaka stood and nodded at Eboshi, who nodded back in return. They were both stubborn warriors who understood each other. As he waded through the small crowd to his room, he caught Sophie and Melanie staring at him from his door.

"Ashitaka, don't leave!" Sophie exclaimed, hugging his knees. Ashitaka gingerly detached himself from the little girl and lifted her up to his eye level. The child met his determined eyes with her own innocent ones.

"I'll come back, Sophie. I promise."

With that, Ashitaka let Sophie down and hugged Melanie, whose tears had made a small wet mark on the ground. "It's okay, Melanie," He whispered in her ear.

"But-"

Ashitaka quickly put his finger to Melanie's lips to silence her. "Please don't worry. I'll be fine."

The sun beat down on Ashitaka's back as he rode Yakul across the forest. He was dressed in his old traveling cloak from the Emishi, with stone arrows that he had made himself in Iron Town. His sword sagged by his side. San was waiting for him by the mouth of her cave, dressed in her full hunting gear-including her new mask.

Ashitaka closed his eyes. "San, I told you not to dress up," he sighed.

In response, San quickly grit her teeth in annoyance. "You also told me that I shouldn't go," she said, with a voice full of anger. "It's my forest, Ashitaka. I must go."

Ashitaka opened his eyes and met her fierce gaze, which reminded him of the first time they had met. He knew San well enough to see that persuasion was out of the question. He had to conform to her will or fight against her.

He decided to choose the latter.

"San. Your brothers are far from recovery. We cannot face them alone, if we were to get in a fight-we need your brothers." he turned away from San, pointing Yakul to the east. "This is why I am not going there to fight. I'm going there to-"

"See with eyes unclouded by hate." San finished sarcastically. Ashitaka nodded-San knew him well enough.

"Trust me, San. If I don't return soon, and once your brothers recover, you can follow me. But for now-" Ashitaka gazed intently at San. "For now, we must try to resolve this without hatred. We have no other option."

Without a reply, San thrust her spear into the ground. "I give you five days, Ashitaka." She declared. "If you do not return, I will follow you. Alone, if I have to."

With that, she stomped back to her cave, leaving her spear half impaled into the ground in front of Ashitaka. "Five days," Ashitaka muttered anxioiusly, as he pushed Yakul forward.

Yakul trotted through the eastern forest, following a stream that flowed from the pool of the Forest Spirit. The journey had been unusually peaceful-he had not encountered any gods or tigers along the way, and there were no humans nor kodomas in sight. The wind stood still; the only sound Ashitaka could hear was Yakul's soft steps.

"Strange," Ashitaka said to himself. "I don't even see wildlife here."

As if on cue, something moved far ahead, making a loud, painful roar. The sound of breaking trees filled the air. Immediately stopping Yakul, Ashitaka narrowed his eyes, trying to discern what was happening. It didn't take long for him to see that a demon was charging at something.

At him.

"Run!" He yelled, as he oriented Yakul in the other direction. Yakul sprinted away from the demon like lightning, easily dodging trees in the way and jumping through the underbrush.

The demon didn't care. He charged through everything in his path, closing the gap.

Ashitaka turned back as Yakul rode forward. "Stop!" He yelled to the demon. "We're here to help you!" The demon didn't take heed (as expected), charging dutifully at Ashitaka.

As Ashitaka notched an arrow, a voice spoke from within his head. "YOU WILL NOT FIRE THE ARROW AT ME, CURSED HUMAN!" the voice, deep and powerful, reverberated through his head. Immediately, Ashitaka's left arm convulsed, almost making him drop his bow.

The young warrior watched in horror as he watched reddish black tentacles fly out from his arm. The faint purple scar on his arm pulsed with bright light, making his arm feel like it was on fire. Wincing to the pain, Ashitaka fell from Yakul.

"Run, Yakul!" Ashitaka yelled as Yakul turned around. "Go away!" He tried to fire an arrow in Yakul's direction, but the tentacles from his left arm quickly ate away the wood of his bow.

Meanwhile, the demon had advanced on Ashitaka. Without a bow to defend himself, Ashitaka grit his teeth in pain, clutching his flaming arm as he waited for death. He knew his sword would be useless against a demon.

Just as he saw his life passing from his eyes, Ashitaka heard a voice from behind him. "No need to hurt foreign travelers, little tiger," the voice said, calmly. In a flash, a person robed in white animal skin jumped in front of him and slashed a white sword upward and the demon's chin. The demon screamed in pain as it backed away a step, blood dripping from its head. It recovered quickly and charged at the white-robed man, who charged back. At the point of contact, the person stabbed his sword into the demon's eyes, jumping away at the same time to avoid its teeth.

Ashitaka watched in amazement and horror as the person drew his sword from the demon's eyes and thrust it at the screaming creature's heart with one fluid motion. The demon was dead before it hit the ground. The battle had lasted less than a few seconds.

The man was now robed in red, as the blood had stained his entire white attire. "Are you alright, traveler?" He said, with sarcasm. Ashitaka realized that his arm had retreated back to its normal state.

"Yes. Thank you...for saving me." Ashitaka replied, as he struggled to get up. His exhausted body flopped to the ground in vain.

"Please. I could do this all day," the other answered, helping Ashitaka to his feet. Ashitaka gasped as he viewed the man face to face.

The man's white robe was made out of the fur similar to San's. He wore a white gown with sleeves that extended down to his fingers. The gown was tucked into his long white pants, which were in turn tucked into his black shoes. A large oval earring dotted each ear—the ones San wore, except on these there were gold engravings of wolves. The man, who Ashitaka realized was not much older than he, had two long streaks of triangular red tattoos that marked his cheeks and a smaller triangle on his forehead. The only things different about him and San were their heights (San was about a foot shorter), and the color of their hair—while San had jet-black strands of relatively short hair, this man had silvery hair that extended down to mid-chest.

Although Ashitaka had observed all this in a matter of a few seconds, the man had noticed his intent gazing. "Oh," He said cooly, as if he read Ashitaka's thoughts. His voice slid over Ashitaka's ears like glass. "So you know the Princess."

Ashitaka came out of his observing trance and nodded silently, not wanting to give anything away. In truth, he wasn't sure if he could say anything if his awed state. He was still unsure of whether he could trust the man or not: the man had saved him, but in doing so he had single handedly taken down a demon in just a few seconds. He wasn't sure if the man was a human or some weird spirit—and, judging by his suspicious attire, he had something to do with San. He also had a chilling way of speaking, his voice smooth with calmness—the calmness of a lion before it strikes.

"Is she well?" the man asked, with a nonchalant manner. Ashitaka looked at him in surprise.

"Who?"

"Princess Mononoke, of course."

Ashitaka pondered about what he was going to say. Carefully, he replied, "Yes."

The man smiled and frowned at the same time, which made him look like he had eaten a lemon. He seemed to think about something.

After a long silence, Ashitaka pulled Yakul over to his side and mounted himself with all his strength. "I owe you great thanks; however, I must be on my way." Ashitaka bent his head down slightly, then started leaving.

Then something made his blood run cold.

"Where do you think you're going, young Emishi traveler?"

Ashitaka stopped, startled at how he was addressed. Without turning back, he replied, "I do not understand what you are talking about."

The man walked toward Ashitaka slowly. "You know well enough. Do you think I'm stupid? You're riding a red elk, for the wolf-god's sake. And you have stone arrows."

"The Emishi tribe died out a long time ago." Ashitaka shot back, calculating his words. How did he know? He thought desperately. Only a few people knew stories of the Emishi tribe; and only a handful know that they rode red elks. Ashitaka had believed that Jigo was one of the only people who knew that fact.

The man grinned. "I know all about your tribe" He said, leaning into Ashitaka's ear. "I didn't know they existed. Until we cut down the wrong trees by accident."

"KAYA! Where's my lunch?" A man cried, sitting cross-legged at a table. Kaya, who was still busy delivering bowls to the Shakim women, busily hustled over to get the man's lunch.

"Move faster, you lazy maid!"

"Ouch, watch where you're going, slave!"

Kaya was clad in a bright yellow robe, made out of coarse fibers that often created rashes on her. The others from her tribe, as well as countless other people from different towns, wore the same symbolic clothing. Only the Shakim people wore beautiful white robes.

It had been two months since the Emishi tribe was overrun by the Shakims, who found them by destroying the trees around their village. The Emishi's scanty population was no match for the trained army of warriors, and most of the Emishi men died during a quick "battle". More like a massacre, she thought. All the women were spared, but many were raped each night. Kaya was one of the few lucky ones who did not get abused. At least, not yet.

On many occasions, other village women had accused Ashitaka of revealing their location; however, Kaya knew this was not the case. Through marriage planning by families, she had known Ashitaka more than anyone else in the village. The prince of the Emishi would never do such a thing.

As Kaya daydreamed about her past, a loud cacophony broke out outside. "Master Skartok is back!" A man yelled to the people inside the dining hut. Immediately, people rushed out to greet the master as Kaya was forced to take refuge upstairs, where the slaves would bow down as Skartok enters.

The iron gates opened slowly as the townspeople gathered, straightening their clothes. Anyone knew that looking good in front of Skartok meant a lifetime of pleasure-and that looking bad meant certain death.

The master entered, immersed in a myriad of admiring shouts from the people. Kaya bowed her head, as did the countless other slaves, from the second floor balcony. She would have to do this until the shouts lasted, which often lasted a long time.

But this time, the shouts didn't even last a few seconds. The people's enthusiastic yells soon became murmurs of confusion. Confused, Kaya lifted her head. It took her a moment to figure out who stood beside Skartok. And a longer moment to convince herself that she wasn't seeing things.

He was pale, and very dirty, but Kaya had daydreamed too long about him to not recognize his features. Ignoring the rules that forbade slaves to speak unless spoken to, she yelled his name across the expanse of people below.

"Ashitaka!"

A/N: If you haven't noticed, the man who saved Ashitaka is Skartok. It's very hard to create names that fit the character, but I tried. Anyway, why is Skartok dressed exactly like San? How could he single-handedly take down a demon? And what is Ashitaka going to do, with Kaya and the other Emishi people in Shakim? Oh, and remember that San may be coming in 5 days. This will be a mix of the old and the new-a complete twist of fate.

P.S. I have no clue, as of right now, of how many chapters I will need.

Reviews greatly appreciated~!