This was supposed to be a prelogue of sorts but it turned out to be a story... However, it is almost done and I can actually start my ACTUAL story! I'm crazy so don't say anything, ok?
The forest was extremely dark, probably because of all the huge trees that did not allow the moonlight to come through. The trees themselves were an oddity, their height was enormous, looking as if they almost touched the sky. They were standing in a clearing, however, a small spot where there was only grass and rocks— and of course, huge fantastic beasts known as the God of the Oldest Forest. There were not many, they realized now that they had their eyes adjusted to the scene. One member of each Clan seemed to be present but just because the quantity of Gods was low, it did not mean they did not take up a lot of space. The sheer size of each of them was befuddling. The Ape and Wolf had sat down at their respective place, the Ape near the Head God of the Deer, the Wolf near the God of the Boars. Other animals were there as well, though they were not so big and intimidating. There was a beautiful crane sitting peacefully near the group, more to San's right. A gorgeous fox was also among them and a couple of more animals they couldn't quite see clearly.
Ashitaka thought it strange to have such diversity of animals in one forest alone. The crane's coat was incredible in color and it looked healthy and well. He did not know it could survive in such a forest like this one. The fox, too, looked quite comfortable in this habitat and did not seem to mind being stared at. Actually, none of them seemed to mind their presence. They stood quietly there as the small of group of two humans, a pair of wolves and an elk took their time in gawking at them. Even so, one of the became impatient and finally spoke.
"Who is the leader among you?" rumbled the voice of the Boar, raspy with age.
"It is I," said San, stepping forward and away from the group, her back straight with new found confidence, or so it seemed. None of them could tell exactly what they felt at them moment, their feelings seemed to have been numbed by the sight of what they had been hoping to see for so long.
"You are the leader," cam a statement from the Wolf, his voice holding a great amount of disbelief, "I had the impression the two brothers were the ones who guided all of you."
"They are my brothers," she explained, the two wolves shuffling over to her side as if to show the family resemblance among all three of them.
"Brothers?" came the surprised boom of the Deer God, a beautiful Royal, his head rising to meet them. His horns looked heavy and large on his head but he managed them with great ease and almost with a sense of aristocracy.
"You are the human that all the talk is about, then."
She nodded, noticing the light in their eyes changing. They had looked upon them with a sense of aloofness but a twinge of distrust never left their eyes. Now that they had discovered she was the human guardian of the forest, their eyes clouded with suspicion.
"Moro is dead, is she not?"
Another nod from San, her face falling at her mother's name.
"Pity, she was a strong animal, courageous and fearless."
San raised an eyebrow, looking dubiously at the group of Gods.
"You– knew her?"
"Knew her?" grunted the Wolf God, shaking his head in disbelief, "She was born in this forests, of course we knew her!"
San turned to look at her brothers, who looked mildly surprised at the discovery. However, they seemed to be impatient with all this talk of their mother.
"We have come with a request," started Kendo, his green eyes inspecting each of the Gods, "We plead that you hear us out."
They said nothing else, leaving it all up to San. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to disengage her tongue from the roof of her mouth. She had never felt this nervous before, not even when fighting wars and coming close to her death. The forest depended on their answer and it was up to San to give a convincing argument.
"We have come to ask the Ape tribe to allow us to bring back some the members of your tribe back to our forest."
A silence followed. The only noise around them was of the crickets and the rushing of water. Ashitaka feared this. He could tell they were mulling it over but after years of bigotry and being in solitary, it was obvious their distrust of humans was high.
As if to gain more thinking time, the Wolf spoke again.
"If you three are the guardians of the forest," started the Wolf with a nod towards Ashitaka, "who are they?"
"They are my companions, they served as a bridge between the humans and us."
"So he is willing to help you out, then, on your treacherous journey?"
San nodded and they fell into the lapse of silence again. The Crane spoke for the first time, its voice silky and smooth and traveled through the air effortlessly.
"You do realize we have heard of what occurred in your forest?" started the Crane, shaking its beautiful head, "a real tragedy but no surprise. Humans have always devoured our forests, as if it belonged to them."
"I realize that," said San, "and do not misunderstand, I do not trust humans– well, not all of them," she paused to throw a sheepish look at Ashitaka, "But I have learned with experience that we have to co-operate with them if we are going to move forward."
Her gaze reached everyone as she spoke.
"But as of now, I am simple trying to get my forest back together and in harmony. For that, I need some members of your ape tribe to help me, I cannot do their job by myself."
"Well, you speak of human cooperation," started the Crane mischievously, almost with malice, "why don't you have the humans help you?"
San's temper could not be quelled, even by her nervousness. To even thing of such a disastrous suggestion was ridiculous. Her nostrils flared at the Crane.
"I realize what needs to be done to be alive in this world but I will never stoop to the level of asking humans for help if I can find some other way."
She shook her head, throwing her arm towards them as she continued,
"I am asking for the help of my fellow kin to aid me in my mission," her voice turned somber, "or is that too much to ask?"
The Wolf growled deep in his throat, menacingly baring his teeth.
"Be careful of how you speak for you are in the presence of Gods."
"I've always been in the presence of Gods," stated San sourly, "and all I see is death and destruction come from them, just like humans."
Ashitaka restrained the urge to slap his forehead for as soon as she spoke, the Gods went into a frenzy of growling and baring of teeth. He could not see San's expression but a part of him felt as if she was smiling.
The only God who had maintained calm was the Ape God and he was the one who spoke over the din of noise.
"You must be tired," he stated and rose from his sitting position, "the mice will escort you to a spot where you can rest."
As soon as he spoke, the rest of the Gods quieted down and the hordes of mice came into view, forming a clump on the ground that seemed like the shadow of an incredible animal. With a grunt that could have meant a lot of things, the Ape left and the others, rather hesitantly, followed his lead. Once they had left, San seemed to puff up with a long and deep sign. She shook her head as she saw her brother start to speak.
"I know I should have held my tongue but—"
"Yes you should have," said Kanha angrily, his often passive face suddenly lighted with anger, "you know very well what this means to all of us, San!"
"I know, I know—"
"No, obviously you don't–"
"Excuse me?" asked San incredulously and Ashitaka backed away a little. He knew how San got when she got into the stance she was currently in. Her feet were planted on the ground, her head pointed straight at her prey, about to send out a torrent of anger at the poor soul.
"I think I have an idea of how important this is, Kanha, since it is I who have to guard the forest and speak to the Gods. I may have some sort of idea what this means to all of us."
Kanha bared his teeth at her, growing ferociously, scaring the mice who were currently clumped near a tree, ready to lead the way to where they would finally rest.
Ashitaka had the notion that the two wolves were about to fight and it would not be a good idea at the moment. He looked over at Kendo who seemed to have realized this as well. He jumped in between them and gave a loud growl.
"Get a hold of yourselves, you idiots! We are all exhausted so if you want to rip each other's throats out, I suggest you leave it until morning," the hairs on his back stood up suddenly, "I'll be glad to help you out, then."
Sighing, Ashitaka grabbed Yakuul's reins and nodded at the mice, who started to scurry to their destination. He did not care if they followed or not, h e was tired and weary and needed sleep. He barely heard the soft thuds of the wolves and San and instead, concentrated in trying to see the shadow that was currently their mice guide.
The way was not long or even arduous. They quickly found a nice spot which had been given to them by the Gods and bowed to the mice who scuttled away quietly. Sighing, Ashitaka flopped down on the ground, almost as soon as Yakuul did. Yakuul was never one to have insomnia and quickly fell asleep. Too tired to set up camp, he leaned against his friend and sighed deeply, the smell of grass and dirt filling his nostrils. Huge trees surrounded them and obscured the stars. Ashitaka did not mind, he was too tired to keep his eyes open. Without so much as a good-night, he fell sound asleep.
San and her brothers were a different tale. If anything, they were more awake now than ever. San was sitting down, her legs crossed and looking at h er brothers. They seemed tired but they needed to talk.
"I will control my tongue," said San before they could speak, "and I am aware that this is it. This is the place where we can receive help and revive our forest but you have to understand, I don't stand for attitude of any sort!"
"That's rich coming from you," said Kendo with a gruff laugh.
She snorted at him but let the comment pass.
"We need to convince them that we are trustworthy–"
"I don't think it's that, San" started Kanha, whose temper seemed to have returned to normal, "In fact, I believe that they do know we are speaking the truth. But they have heard stories of wars between animals and humans and they will not give us members of the Ape tribe so easily."
"So– what must I do?"
"First, you need to control your temper," started Kendo patiently, grunting as San shrugged her shoulders at him, " and if you find yourself losing it, let us speak."
Nodding, she signaled him to go on.
"Second, we do not know what it will take for us to convince them that our forest is worthy enough to have members of the Ape tribe with us. That said, we must think before we agree to anything, do you understand?"
"Yeah, yeah–"
Sighing, the two wolves settled down, their bodies gave up and settled in for the night. San crawled in between her brothers for comfort.
"You no longer want to sleep with your human?" teased Kanha, much to Kendo's disgust.
"He's completely knocked down," said San indifferently, "and besides, it's not like we can do anything with you two here..."
She laughed as Kendo gave a disgusted growl and closed her eyes, feeling quite safe in the forest for some unknown reason. Maybe she just missed her home...
The next day the sun shone down without mercy, which was a surprise since the tree branches were so thick and intertwined with each other that they thought even rain could not get through. But the sun found a way and soon, the muggy air and smell of wet grass woke them up. Since they did not know what to do, they decided to eat breakfast first and maybe look around for a river. The humidity was high and they could no longer stand it. After a quick breakfast, San and her brothers led the group to a small river near them. Though they did not k now the forest well, the brothers had a great sense of hearing and San could smell the fresh water running through the forest. With a cheer, the wolves waited for no one and jumped into the river, happily splashing around and drinking mouthfuls of water. Muttering something about immaturity, San smiled and jumped in as well, clothes and all. Ashitaka saw nothing wrong with this and since the humidity was getting to him as well, he let all worried go to the wind and jumped in as well, Yakuul following his master but with more of a regal sense. They spent the better half of the morning in the river, the two wolves playing some strange game with Yakuul, leaving Ashitaka and San alone. Floating happily in the water, San sighed.
"Damn, it's hot!"
Laughing, Ashitaka greed with her colorful comment.
"Do you really think it's ok for us to just swim in the river without asking?" asked Ashitaka, the first serious question, even feeling, he'd had this morning.
"Well, it's not like they're around for us to ask," started San reasonably, "and besides, it's hot!"
"Yes..."
San saw his expression, the same Ashitaka always had, a serious and pensive look. Not that San minded, she didn't really think about it too much but today, he had been all smiles and jokes and she hoped it would last longer. Making up her mind, she splashed some water at him, making him sputter with surprise. She laughed and submerged, planning to get away from his wrath but as soon as she stretched her legs to swim away, she felt him grab her and stop her. She turned, underwater still, and faced him. His hair was long by now and seemed to be swimming around him like separate entities. Still, even underwater, his eyes shone brightly, a shade darker than the water around him. She stuck her tongue out at him and pushed him, successfully getting away. She merged from the water to catch her breath and submerged once more, hearing Ashitaka do the same before her ears were covered by the sound of rushing water. She saw with all her might, feeling the tips of his hands on her ankles, almost catching her but she slid away, like a serpent, from his gasp. They went on for some time until San tired and gave in. She did this very abruptly and Ashitaka bumped into her, underwater. He rose to the surface and took a breath. He looked around for San and saw the top of her hair, then her forehead and then her eyes, as the rest of her slowly emerged as well. Her eyes shone with playful mischief but Ashitaka wasn't paying attention. She looked like a mermaid, about to show herself for the first time. However, a mermaid probably wouldn't have spewed a jet of water at his face. She laughed heartily as he shot her a look and jumped at her. She yelped and struggled but he held her wrist and came closer toward her. He began to submerge again, giving her a look and she followed his lead. Underwater, they wrapped their arms around each other, their vision becoming blurry from the water and They gave in. With closed eyes, they shared a kiss, in the most intimate place in the world where no one could bother them or find them. No other sound but the sound of their own hearts drummed in their ears accompanied by the sounds of the rushing of water. The only spectators were the fish, their only companions in this small piece of heaven. They knew better than to stay there for a long period of time but they broke through the water, still joined and tasting each other as well as the crip water of the river. They breathed each other in and stayed like that for a while. For the first time, San did not pull away or start panicking about the future. Maybe it was the water or their setting but it did not cause her to panic. She felt quite happy to stay like this for as long as it was permitted. His lips were soft and inviting and he obviously knew how to kiss. Surrendering herself for once, with no objections from her body or mind, she let him kiss her and caress her and even invoked him to keep on. Who knows how far they would have gotten, for their minds were not working and instead, their hearts had taken over, if they had not been so rudely interrupted.
"Ingrates!"
Breaking away quickly, their vision was still blurry and they could not focus on the owner of the shout. However, San recognized the silky sound and knew.
It was the Crane.
