DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own any of the characters, (sadly enough) they all belong to Mononoke-Hime! And as 4 Asano, I hav no idea wut he looks like, and I don't know if he has a son or not, so I just made up an appearance. (How old is Eboshi neway?) Well, enjoy!

"" Speech (no duh)

** Thoughts

The ground shook violently, almost knocking Eboshi to the ground, managing to keep her balance, she leveled an Ishibiya using her new wooden arm, in which Moro had bitten the real one off. Now all the old gods were dead, except for Moro's children, who stood by the Mononoke Hime most of the time, Ashitaka was the only person keeping San from trying to kill her again, apparently losing an arm was not enough to quell San's thirst for revenge. She shot, taking out a captain and several soldiers. "Damn. They're coming in fast, I don't know how long we can hold them off." Eboshi said hesitantly. "I don't like it, but we have to retreat, otherwise we'll be killed or taken as prisoners."

"Eboshi-sama." Gonza and several other men and women said.

"We won't win, since the Jibashiri and Ishibiya troops left we won't stand a chance, we can only hope to hold them off 'til dawn, then they may be able to break through." Eboshi trailed off. "Gonza."

"Yes Eboshi?" Gonza answered.

"Should we just surrender? We've lost enough lives, if we continue on, there will be more bloodshed." Eboshi said.

"You have changed, Eboshi-sama." Was Gonza's quiet reply.

"I said we would start over, and if surrendering means saving the lives of those in Tataraba, then I go by it, I suppose I realized that without a work force, Tataraba would never have been created."

"Does that mean you will treat us men better?" one of the men asked, the other men and women snickered.

"If you wish to push a Tatara for the rest of your life, sure." This caused everyone to burst out laughing. "However, there is no time for jokes, this is war, and people are dying, we should focus on the war, not our own needs, if we get out of this alive and still manage to save Tataraba, I'll think about having the men push the Tatara." Eboshi said with a grin.

Gonza's expression became serious, "You know that even if Tataraba is lost, I will protect you."

"What do ya mean protect her? You can't even protect yourself, you would be more useful in a mountain dog's belly!" a woman sneered.

"Kyo, (A/N: in the movie, Kyo was the one who shot Ashitaka when he knocked out Eboshi and San, if you have no idea who I'm talking bout, jus watch the movie in Japanese w/ English sub.)" Eboshi said. "That's enough, we wasted enough time." Eboshi walked quickly in the direction of Tataraba.

"Wait, Eboshi!" Gonza said and immediately fell in step behind her. The ground exploded beside them, the sheer force of the explosion nearly knocked her over, but Gonza managed to grab her wooden arm before she fell.

"They've gotten even closer." Eboshi said. "Gonza tell everyone to quickly retreat, don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"But, Eboshi-sama." Gonza argued.

"Go!" Eboshi immediately commanded. Within a few minutes, everyone was flooding in Tataraba, some carrying the wounded, or mourning the dead.

"Kouroku!" a woman shouted. She ran through the crowd of men and women (who were not assigned to push the Tatara btw) and stopped at a limping man. "Ha! How are you going to herd the cattle with a broken leg! You're so careless, why couldn't you be more like Ashitaka!?"

"Toki!" Kouroku complained.

"It's too bad I married you and not Ashitaka, and the fact that Ashitaka loves the Mononoke Hime." Toki sighed.

"Just be glad he's alive." Eboshi commented.

"Eboshi-sama!" Toki cried. "You're back already? How is it going?"

Eboshi shook her head. "Not well, they could take us out right now, but they're over confident, so they most likely will wait until dawn, take a rest, everyone will, I will help keep watch along with several other soldiers." Toki did not look happy with the news.

"Eboshi-sama. What do we do?" several other women asked.

"I don't know, I'm just glad we managed to last this long." Eboshi said. "What happens next is for you to decide. Do we surrender? Or fight to the end?"

"We should at least try." Toki said. "If worse comes to worst, we'll pour molten steel on 'em, just like we were planning to when they attacked several years ago."

"Well, that's what we'll do, now go sleep." Eboshi ordered, before settling down in a watchtower, Gonza had already fallen asleep. Eboshi stood there, wind whipping her robes, Ishibiya by her side, while she watched the sun's last rays retreat behind the hills.