Okay! This is chapter four. It's a little shorter than some (to make up for the long chapter 3). Things are really starting to get interesting, huh? There's mild blood in this chapter, so...read at own risk. But please read! And review! I haven't been getting a whole lot and it's kind of discouraging, you know? Well, anyway, thanks to those who have!
--
Ashitaka followed behind the foreigner's as they rushed through the village of Tatara Ba, desperately trying to reach the assembly hall.
'They're so fast, considering,' Ashitaka thought to himself. But not faster. He arrived at the entrance to the hall just as they did. The foreigners created a three stooge effect as all of them tried to push through the doorway. Aaron yelled for order in his frustration, forcing the other three back so he could get in first. Then they followed.
Ashitaka stepped into the hall. Everyone was standing in a circle, not just Aaron's people, but a small group of Tatara Ba villagers. All of the wooden benches and tables had been shoved to the outer edge of the room.
"What's happening?" he asked as he pushed closer to the center of the circle. He caught sight of what was causing all the fuss. A young man, perhaps in his mid-twenties, was lying on his back on the hard wooden floor. His entire body was convulsing and blood poured from his nose and mouth.
The girl that had been at the meeting, Aaron's granddaughter, pushed herself through to the center. She yelled something in her language and her people stepped back, giving a little space. The Tatara Banians did the same, mostly because they were pushed aside.
"Well well well," Eboshi said, stepping up beside Ashitaka, "isn't this interesting?"
"Interesting?" he demanded, pushing the rest of the way through to the mostly clear center. "This isn't interesting at all, it's horrible." He knelt down by the man, looking at the girl. "What can I do?" he asked. But he shook his head, she couldn't understand him anyway.
"Just get back," she ordered in a voice harsher than he would have thought imaginable form the look and size of her.
He looked at her in surprise, but didn't back down. "I want to help."
"You'll die, fool," she said, though it was more of a mutter than anything.
He didn't think that was likely, but he stepped back anyway. The man on the floor shuddered and coughed, blood spraying the air around him, drenching the floor and the young man's odd garb. Many people stepped back further.
"He needs to be isolated," Aaron said from the other side of the crowd, standing behind his granddaughter.
"There's accommodations that can be made," Eboshi assured. She called for a stretcher and ordered three villagers to accompany the sick man. The girl and four others followed.
The crowd of Tatara Baians mostly dispersed, talking and whispering amongst themselves about the horrid things they had seen. Ashitaka leaned up against the wall, torn between following the sick stranger and going to the forest to talk with San.
He turned to Eboshi. She was talking with Aaron in the corner of the room. He stepped close enough to hear but not too close as to become involved in the conversations.
"-sorry that this had to happen while we were here. I had hoped it would be some time before the next victim," Aaron was saying, staring vacantly out the opening of the hall.
"Is this sickness contagious?"
"I don't know. We haven't encountered people since leaving our lands. You are the first. It is contagious to our own people, that's all we know. But that is the curse."
"Of course." Eboshi sighed the sigh of a leader worried about her own people, but compassionate enough to care about others. Ashitaka respected her for that. "You're people may stay until the young man is better."
Aaron looked up. The hollow look in his eyes was enough to send shivers down Ashitaka's spine. "You don't understand. He won't get better. He will only get worse from this point on. And the longer he is like this the more my people are exposed to the curse."
Ashitaka ducked out of the room and into the cool, crisp evening. Darkness was drawing in around the village and the surrounding mountains and forest. The moon was a crocked smile in the sky. He had a sudden urge to see San.
San sat sharpening her dagger within the confines of her home, the wolf den. It was quiet, aside from the clash of stone against steel. Her brothers were out hunting; she had stayed behind in case Ashitaka decided he wanted to visit after all.
A sound in the distance caught her attention. She sat her sharpening rock aside and climbed nimbly and silently to her feet, dagger in hand. Suddenly, a wolf lunged through the opening in the back of the cave.
"Urufu!" she said, instantly relaxing. "You startled me."
*'No time, San, come quick!' the wolf insisted, his tone urgent.
San frowned but didn't question, jumping forward onto her wolven brother's back. He jumped back out of the cave and raced through the trees. San held on tight, questions forming in her mind, anticipation building in her bones.
They burst through the trees into a small clearing. Shiro was there, lying on the ground, his body circling something. San slid down from Urufu's back and ran to her other brother.
"What's going on..." her words trailed off as she saw what had caused the commotion. A small child, no more than a couple years old, lay within the soft folds of fur at Shiro's stomach. "My gods," she whispered.
The child was covered in dry blood, crusted all over his face and clothes. Tuffs of blond hair was stained red all along one side. The child was shivering slightly, but random tremors burst through his body, causing him to shake violent.
San dropped to her knees beside the child, putting a hand to his forehead. "He's burning up. So why is he shivering? And where is all this blood coming from?"
*'Him. He carries the curse.' Shiro said, looking down at the child from his curled position. 'He doesn't have long to live.'*
San stood up and threw her head from one side to another. "What is he doing out here all alone? Where are his parents?"
*'He was left here,' Urufu concluded.
"What?" she demanded, looking at her brother in disbelief. A growl formed in her throat. "They abandoned this dying child in my forest? Left him here to suffer on his own? Those pathetic humans." She ran off into the forest until she found a small creek. She ripped a corner of her dress and wet it in the water before returning the the child.
*'Your efforts will be wasted,' Shiro warned. 'It's too late for him.'*
"He can't die like this," she insisted, wiping the blood from his face. "No innocent child deserves this." She cleaned him off as well as possible and stood, collecting the tiny, fragile bundle in her arms. The child shivered against her body and whimpered strange things. She couldn't tell if it was baby talk or the child's language.
*'What are you going to do, San?' Urufu asked, stepping up next to her.
"Take me to the village," she said, turning to him. He lowered himself enough so she could climb on with one arm, the other cradling the small bundle.
"Those humans will pay for this," she said. "This is unforgivable." Her own parents had abandoned her in the forest. She would make this child's parents answer for their atrocity.
--
I hope your interests are tweaked! Things will really heat up from here. Stay tuned for an authors note coming up next.
