"Get back down here!" Lady Eboshi ordered. Gonza obeyed without hesitation, hopping down from the ramparts as the crimson flames raged outside the walls and the cries of the blackened soldiers diminished. He slung his bow over his shoulder and pressed his back against the gates. The shot hit its mark. Although there were no more barrels set up outside Irontown, there were several more casks of oil in the storehouses ready for use as an improvised weapon. Each was a contained inferno. One shot from a burning arrow was enough to set ablaze the oil and build pressure within its container, a fatal combination for any soldier.

"Nice shot," Hirooki complimented. "Are they all down?"

"I don't know, but I don't think they'll try to attack from the front again," Gonza replied. "Not yet, at least."

"They'll be back, that stubborn bunch," Toki spat.

"I doubt they'll cross the bridge unless they're sure we aren't around to defend it," Lady Eboshi said. "We'll be safe until then. For now, stay against the wall. They might fire another round of arrows."

The twelve nodded. Splinters dug into their shoulders and clothes as sweat dripped down their skin in the warm humid air. They looked towards the town. There were more arrows fired than there were people in Irontown. Not a sound peeped up from the houses. Arrows stuck out of straw rooftops and wooden walls. Lady Eboshi noticed a bird lying atop one of the shops, pinned to the building by one of the blindly fired arrows. She held her breath. Although she ordered everyone into their houses, there was no way for her to tell if a stray arrow somehow found its way inside, not unless she left the safety of the area beneath walkway.

Time froze. No one in Irontown moved for fear of triggering another barrage and no one outside of Irontown advanced out of concern of another trap. Shohei kept the archers at rest. They fired six times, six potential wastes of ammunition. He narrowed his eyes at the town, as whoever fired the arrow at his soldiers was a man unfazed by the multiple barrages. Perhaps the others were the same.

"What now, sir?" one of the unit leaders asked. Shohei didn't face him. His attention belonged to the walls, his eyes were only to seek out movement, and his ears devoted themselves to listen for one of the townspeople. Nothing came of it. He growled in his throat, a low rumble that few aside from those immediately next to him heard.

"We pull back for now," Shohei answered. "Make camp at the designated area. These people have only one way out of their town, so we'll be able to catch them if they try to leave."

Nobody questioned him. The sergeants ordered their soldiers towards a predetermined site close to Irontown, one of the few level areas in the region Irontown inhabited. There they set up tents. Six thousand men flooded the area and crowded into the makeshift compound, putting down their bedrolls and tucking away their weapons for the time. Shohei walked through camp. He knew his force had more than enough manpower to overwhelm Irontown, so many that he was sure he could take the town in one day if he truly desired, but the one exit for the enemy was his only entrance. Although he didn't see Irontown as a true threat, his plan for an immediate attack was shelved as he considered how many more defenses and traps they had in stock.

"It shouldn't be this complicated," he grumbled to himself. "Damn that woman. We should have attacked sooner." Shohei sat in his tent and rested his sword on a low table. As he began removing his black armor, he devised strategies of getting into Irontown that were beyond his original plan of storming the town through the front gate. That bridge tempted disaster.


"They're gone, Milady!" Toki called from the ramparts. The soldiers footprints remained in the dirt, revealing the path they took around the bend of the mountain. Lady Eboshi came up to the walkway to see for herself. "Looks like the oil attack worked."

"Indeed," Lady Eboshi noted. She glared at the crisp blackened corpses lying at the foot of the gate, the bodies indistinguishable from one another. Much of the bridge was charred and dark scorch marks marred the wall, but appearances mattered little to Eboshi at this point. "I hate to give this order, Toki, but I want you and the rest to take care of the bodies. Wrap them in cloth. We'll give them a proper funeral. For now, I need to tell the rest of the townspeople should know the danger is gone for the moment."

"Sure thing, Lady Eboshi," Toki said.

"Good; oh, Ayako won't be helping you. I need her for something else."

Toki nodded. She went to the group and informed them of what was asked of them while Lady Eboshi pulled Ayako aside. They walked to Lady Eboshi's home. Eboshi was silent the entire way, and Ayako cast several nervous glances at her every few dozen steps. When they arrived at Lady Eboshi's house, she was told to wait outside. Eboshi came back several minutes later with a rolled up piece of paper in hand.

"Pardon me for being a bit wary, Ayako, but this is something I need to be kept secret, even if it means not letting others in on it," Lady Eboshi said. "There are some people who don't know what is and what isn't appropriate to speak of, and I can't let this slip out on accident."

"No problem, Milady, but what is it?" Ayako asked.

"It's a message. You know Ashitaka, right?"

Ayako nodded. "I helped him take care of his wife for a bit when she was pregnant."

"Have you been to his home in the forest?"

"Once or twice," Ayako replied. She recalled the cave high above the forest. Her head spun the first time she stood on the ledge and peered at the sprawling green canvas below her feet. San's wolf brothers kept their piercing eyes trained on her as she tended to San and gave she and Ashitaka advice on taking care of their future children. Whenever Ayako's eyes briefly met theirs, she quickly turned her head elsewhere and took several steps from the wolves. They made her tremble. Although she was aware that the wolves only wanted to protect San, Ayako never felt comfortable around them unless Ashitaka was nearby.

"Do you think you can bring this letter to him?" Lady Eboshi asked. She offered the rolled up paper to Ayako. "It's something I prepared a few days ago. We might need help and I want to know whether or not we can count on Ashitaka to give assistance if we ask him."

Ayako took the message. The dusty streets of Irontown were silent aside from the distant creaking of the gates. Toki, Gonza, and the others were moving the bodies. It was a grisly task from which Ayako was more than happy to be exempt, though it presented less danger than leaving the safety of the walls and venturing into a forest many still believed to be a danger. Asano's troops didn't make it any safer. Her voice stuck in her throat as she opened her mouth to answer. Sweat coated her hand. She sighed and gulped down the choked reply, giving instead a silent nod to Lady Eboshi.

"Thank you, Ayako," Lady Eboshi said. "I promise that I'll provide you and your father some sort of remuneration by the end of this."

Ayako nodded. Her right hand clenched into a fist as she made her way to the front gate; the left hand which held the note for Ashitaka remained loose. As she passed the gates, she saw Sakura and Shinjiro roll one of the sixty charred corpses into a white tarp, doing their best to avoid touching the body. The black carcass's white teeth remained visible in the mass of burnt flesh, making Ayako shudder and recoil. Dirt kicked up as she hastened her pace towards the forest, holding her breath so that the acrid odor of the smoke and singed remains didn't pollute her senses.

The path which Ayako took ran the opposite direction of where the invading soldiers went: up the left bend of the hill before breaking off the road. Although there were scattered trees, much of the area was rocky and had no soil to allow vegetation to grow. Ayako hurried past the desolate area. There was no hope of hiding if one of Asano's soldiers caught a momentary glimpse of her, and there was no cover to take if that one soldier happened to carry a bow and arrow. It wasn't until she reached the crest of the hill that the forest's edge began to form. Grass covered the ground. As she neared the top, the rough stone gradually shifted into soft dirt that gave her feet a reprieve from the pebbles that dug into her soles and uneven surface that made her stumble.

Cicadas sang in the trees. Their droning drowned out Ayako's soft footsteps in the grass. Her eyes weaved between the trees, seeking out the wolves, Ashitaka, or San as she made her way beneath the dark canopy. The sun began its shift west. A twig fell from the tree next to Ayako, making her gasp and jump at the sudden tap against her shoulder. She took in a deep breath when she saw it was only a branch. Inside her chest, her heart pounded against her sternum as the distant calls of birds, rustling bramble, and imposing shadows slowed her pace.

I can't turn back yet, Ayako thought to herself. She released her bated breath and pressed on into the forest, passing through the thin wall of the edge for the dense heart. Her footsteps followed a memorized path. The hands which held Lady Eboshi's message for Ashitaka quivered as the golden sunlight dimmed deep within the woodland. A sea of green broken by brown pillars dared her to turn around and return home; perhaps lie about an encounter with one of Asano's soldiers. There were worse things in the forest. Although it was several years in the past, Ayako remembered the battles against the spirits of the forest, the boars that crushed scores of men and women, and the black ooze that the dead God of Life and Death released in a torrent. Those memories did little to calm her heartbeat.

Ayako didn't count the minutes that passed. She turned her focus towards reaching the cave, ignoring the noises that made her breathing hold and her feet stumble. Her persistence proved worthwhile. With the horizon glowing orange and the moon's light brightened, Ayako caught sight of the steep hill where Ashitaka and San made their home. A smile graced her face. The shaking in her fingers vanished. As she took her first step, two white wolves the size of quarter horses came loping down the hillside. They stared at Ayako with eyes that glowed green in the dark, but they didn't approach with their ears back and teeth bared.

"Are you lost, human?" Okami asked.

"No," Ayako replied as she shook her head. "I'm here from Irontown. Lady Eboshi wanted me to deliver this message to Ashitaka." She presented the slightly crumpled scroll. The wolves glanced at each other for a brief moment before returning their attention to Ayako.

"I'll tell him you've arrived," Urufu said. He disappeared as he ascended the slope, leaving Okami to watch the girl. Both recognized Ayako, though the recent circumstances surrounding Irontown left them wary of anybody who came from Irontown. Ayako leaned against a tree and waited. She glanced away from Okami and examined the scroll in her hand. Lady Eboshi never told her what the message said, only that it requested his help.

"I suppose we need all the help we can get," Ayako muttered. "Still, what can one person do against an army?"