Earth and Stone
Chapter Ten: Fabled Meeting

Kataki Bou rode at the front of his men, picking his way through the undergrowth of the forest. His face wore an expression of self-satisfaction, and his black eyes were constantly moving, searching the shadows for any sign of his prey. His men rode in single-file behind him, silent except for the creak of leather and the muted stomping of their horses' hooves on the ground. Though they had heard the stories of the haunted forest in which they now rode, they were unafraid. Their master had assured them that the Forest Spirit, the main accursed sprite, had been beheaded long ago and was no longer a threat to any man. They were also mercenaries, accustomed to the sharp tang of danger that they tasted in the air.

Though the mercenaries had exited the city too quickly to reclaim their arms that they had left at the gate to appease the sentries, they remained armed to the teeth with concealed weaponry that hadn't been noticed by the notoriously perceptive guard at the new Iron Town. With daggers hidden in shirtsleeves, and a few fire weapons concealed beneath cloaks, the men were still dangerous in every sense of the word.

For all of their secrecy and efficiency, the men felt the forest recoil from their presence. Kataki noticed that the birds stopped singing as they approached, and more than once he felt the eyes of a hawk on his company. Once he caught one of the great birds taking off abruptly, winging into the air and off toward the west. Though he didn't believe that the forest was a threat, the keen stares of the birds made him slightly anxious, and he drove his horse into a quicker pace.

The heavy silence of the trees around them broke with a long, keening wolf howl. "That's it!" Kataki wheeled his horse around, urging the animal to move toward the sound. "Where we find wolves, we'll find the brats. Remember, men, their deaths mean heavy purses for us!"

His mercenaries grinned fiercely, and Kataki matched their smile. The gold would be welcomed, but the revenge would be much sweeter.

Usi-Kai pierced the air with another of his long howls, and Ashitaka's stallion shied a little, blowing nervously. Even though Hiasu had gotten comfortable around the huge wolves, he knew the sound of a hunting cry from a hungry predator. Ashitaka patted the horse's mane soothingly; the hairs on the back of his own neck prickled at the cry. He had never seen the wolves hunt before, and could only guess at their prowess. As neither of the wolf brothers offered to carry him as they did San, Ashitaka had assumed that hunting with the aid of his horse was permissible.

"Ashitaka, are you ready?" San grinned excitedly at him from her perch on Yama-Inu's back, her spear gripped tightly in one hand.

"Just a moment, I need to string my bow." He turned his concentration to his unstrung bow. Setting the base of the bow haft on one knee, he looped his bowstring around the bottom string nock and bent the supple yew haft to fit the string into place on the top string nock. Once the bow was strung, he tested the weight of the weapon, pulling back on the twisted pig-gut string experimentally. Should the poundage be too light, one of his arrows could merely wound a deer rather than make a clean kill. Not only was Ashitaka loath to make any creature suffer overmuch, he was also nervous about hunting before the great wolves. Even though they had invited him along as a sign of goodwill, he knew they didn't completely approve of his affection toward their human sister. Anything Ashitaka could do to assure them he was worthy of trust and admiration, however grudgingly it was given, he would try.

The villager who had given Ashitaka the bow hadn't made the string short enough to induce the proper poundage, and so he bent the shaft again and looped the bowstring around the top nock again twice. Satisfied, Ashitaka slipped the bow around one shoulder and settled it across his back. "Ready when you are."

San gave him another smile, and then leaned down to whisper into Yama-Inu's ear. The great wolf bunched himself up, and with an almighty leap, propelled himself into the forest. His brother was off and running behind him like a ghostly shadow. Ashitaka spoke a word to Hiasu, and the stallion galloped into place behind San and her brothers.

The forest merged into a brown-green blur as the wolves and Hiasu sped through it. The wolf-brothers were more agile than the bay stallion, more at home twisting and leaping through the lichen-covered remains of the fallen old forest and the young trees and saplings of the new forest. While Hiasu galloped along as best he could, the wolves pounded on ahead; slowly Ashitaka fell back. As the wolves disappeared in the trees, Ashitaka guided Hiasu in a slightly different path that appeared to be some sort of animal trail. It was futile to try and catch up with the demi-gods, so Ashitaka decided against trying. He hoped the wolves would eventually curve to the right so he would meet up with his new direction, but it was also a better chance he would find game on an animal path.

Ashitaka rode for a quarter of an hour at a slightly slower pace, trusting Hiasu to follow the path as he set an arrow to the string. Hiasu slowed of his own accord, keeping to a swift trot that made less noise than his previous gallop.

The forest seemed strangely devoid of animal life the further they went, and Ashitaka soon learned why. The jangle of spurs and bits cut through the natural sounds of a forest, and through a curtain of leaves and ivy Ashitaka saw a trail of evil-looking horsemen approaching. Moving quickly, he slid halfway off of Hiasu's back, keeping one leg over the horse's back and both arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Practically invisible on Hiasu's far side, he murmured to the stallion to move away from the men.

"What's that?" One of the men from the middle of the line spoke in a hushed voice.

"Nothing but a deer." Another muttered back. "Lord Kataki isn't worried about it, and neither should you be."

"It's too big for a deer." The first insisted.

"Not too much bigger-"

"Stay silent back there! Keep talking and the wolves are bound to hear you! Then they'll bring the brats warning of our presence. Remember, one of them thinks she's a wolf herself." The man at the front of the line had stopped to face the two, who were looking slightly anxious at the mention of wolves. They both bowed their heads in deference, keeping silent.

Once the company had passed out of sight, Ashitaka moved to sit on Hiasu's back again. The wolves, they said... and the brats. They were searching for San… and himself? Who where these men?

A thrush alighted on a low-hanging tree branch a few feet away from him, looking keenly in the direction the men had taken into the forest. Remembering that the forest still held some mystical potency in its creatures that allowed them to communicate with humans, Ashitaka leaned toward it. "Friend, if you can find San and her brothers, warn them of this danger!"

The thrush jumped at Ashitaka's voice, fluttering a few branches higher in alarm. Then hearing his message, it cocked its head for a moment, considering him with bright black eyes before taking off abruptly into the canopy.

Ashitaka nudged Hiasu with his heels, and followed the men's path. It wasn't hard to do; in their careless passage, their animals had broken twigs and ferns that formed an easy trail. Here and there the shod hoof of one of the horses had left a deep imprint in the uncovered loam. Ashitaka frowned; none of the Iron Town horses were shod with the shoes that had left the prints. The heel of the shoe made tiny imprints, as if small cleats had been built into the iron. Horses from the city didn't need the extra grip, being animals that didn't range much difficult terrain. It confirmed his guess; these men weren't from Iron Town or any of the surrounding villages or cities. Only horses expected to travel across mountains would be shod in such a manner.

But it didn't explain why the men were here, searching for them.

After a few more minutes of travel, a terrified scream caused the birds resting in the tree tops to fly up in alarm. It was a horrible wail from one of the horses in the party Ashitaka was following. The men began to shout, and then the tell-tale explosion from a firearm rent the air with a definite finality. Hiasu shied a little, quieting under Ashitaka's hand. He urged the stallion forward, putting an arrow back to the string as he did. The men came quickly into sight; they were still shouting amongst themselves.

"Dear gods, what the hell was that thing?"

The cold, calculating voice that answered was unaffected. "Most likely a demon. The scourge of the Forest Spirit didn't manage to kill off the trees, so it probably didn't manage to get rid of all of the abominations either. It's run off now, so we should continue on our way and hope the noise didn't alert the wolf girl or Ashitaka at all."

"And what about us? Do we walk and follow you, or turn and head back toward the outskirts of the forest?"

Ashitaka had gotten close enough to see the line of men. He slid off of Hiasu, pushing gently on the horse's hip to send him off in the opposite direction. Crouching down in the foliage, he peered out at the scene. One horse lay terribly mangled, obviously dead, and a second stood trembling with a large wound on its shoulder. The man with the cold voice spoke again, and Ashitaka assumed he was the leader.

"Ride double behind Takka and Shinzu for the time being. Once we set our trap, there will be no need for us all to ride."

The two unhorsed men complied, and the company rode off into the wood. The injured horse gave a distressed whinny as its companions trotted away, and Ashitaka moved quickly to its side. The wound was only superficial, but the smell that emanated from it suggested that the demon's claws had inflicted within the wound a corrosive poison. The horse shivered violently at his touch, the whites of its eyes showing.

"This is some kind of sickness I do not have the arts to heal. I apologize, my friend." Ashitaka took out his dagger and mercifully slit the distressed animal's throat. What sort of demon left such wounds? The only demons Ashitaka had ever dealt with left the angry purple scars that still wound like a shadow around his arm. There wasn't time to continue wondering about the nature of the demons, however, so Ashitaka moved away from the dead horses and whistled to Hiasu.

"San, something is not right." Usi-Kai slowed abruptly, settling onto his haunches as he regarded his brother and human sister.

"I heard it too," Yama-Inu growled, turning his head toward his rider. "There was a horse being attacked, and humans shouting." The dark eyes turned even blacker. "And the sound of that fire stick that killed our mother."

San hadn't been able to discern any of this with her human hearing, and immediately she looked around to see where Ashitaka was. "Where is Ashitaka?"

"He fell behind," Yama-Inu said, a hint of smug satisfaction in his voice. "The horse couldn't keep up."

"The sounds of a horse being attacked, you said?" San fired up immediately. "What if it was Ashitaka and Hiasu being attacked? Turn around, let's go!"

The wolf brothers rose, Yama-Inu looking slightly abashed as he ran.

Hiasu galloped along the path the company had created, Ashitaka ready with his bow. Whoever the men were, and whatever they wanted, Ashitaka would not allow them to harm San, her brothers, or himself. How he would stop them, being outnumbered ten to one, he wasn't sure, but he knew he would have to try.

Hiasu turned a corner, and then reared at the sudden appearance of the riders. All ten men were facing Ashitaka, cutting off his path, with firearms pointed at him menacingly. One man, the young leader with the cold voice, was smiling grimly.

"I thought that was you, Ashitaka, when we passed trails earlier today. Where are your wolf friends? Get bored of them? After the Forest Spirit, I guess dealing with demi-gods would be dull."

"Who are you?" Ashitaka aimed his bow directly at the man's heart, ignoring the musket muzzles pointed at him. "What do you want with me and my friends?"

"Revenge." The man's smile grew wider and more horrible. "Revenge for the life I could have had, the life you thwarted. Revenge for my father's disgrace. Revenge on you and the wolf girl for stealing away most of my life by stealing away the Forest Spirit's head."

"We saved the forest and the town by returning what was rightfully the Forest Spirit's, and the destruction was started by other men who were blinded by greed." Ashitaka kept his aim steady. "Your quarrels are not with us. We have robbed no one of anything."

"So it has been parroted to me by your pitiful Lady Eboshi." The man sneered. "I fail to believe her. I was told that you and my father had forged a temporary friendship, all those years ago. Too bad he put his faith in you; you remember old Bou, don't you?"

"You are his son?" Now that he thought about it, Ashitaka saw the same wide eyes, the same stretched mouth that the father had passed to the son. He still didn't understand why this young man was so eager for blood.

"Yes, I am Kataki Bou." The grin was back, more demented than before. "And I am finally going to exact my revenge."

He raised his own musket, and pulled the trigger.

End Chapter

I know I'm a horrible person for not updating in so long, and then ending on a cliffhanger, so I apologize for both. Hope you enjoyed it- updates will not take this long, I promise, and there are only one or two chapters left in this story.

Thanks to everyone who kept reviewing- it really got my butt into gear.

Cheers,
Pen