Sleeping Shadows

Chapter 2: Rebuilding Iron Town

Summary: A demon comes upon a troubled town we all know very well. How well Iron town cope with the God of Demons residing on the mountain harboring a grudge against the very air you breathe… He won't……………………………

Chapter 2: Rebuilding Iron Town

The gate clicked back into place. The men fell over out of the effort. "I'm glad we got that fixed," said Lady Eboshi.

There were a few exhausted murmurs of agreement and Ashitaka's reply of, "Me too, do you have any idea how it broke?"

The day before yesterday the gate had broken, disallowing any entrance or exit. It was still unknown how the sturdy wood and iron gate was broken without any trace of how. It would normally have been assumed that stormy winds had trounced the gate, but wind had not been present that day or the previous few. It was very puzzling.

Suddenly shouts rose up and the uproar came closer. Ashitaka looked at the man standing in the guard tower. "Oh my god! Open the gate, quickly!" He said amazed and fearful.

Ashitaka moved to the gate and heaved with the help of his fellow men. It's time like this I still had the strength of Nago; the boar god. The gate roared open, though barely daunting the ferocious sound of fearful shouts. Ashitaka noticed Gonzo shudder at the thought of what, human or beast, might be inspiring such fear into a man. Ashitaka saw it first and gasped. Lady Eboshi saw the sight next and… (A\N- wow I am eating right now and its very good… Pizza, mmmmmmmmmmmm. Ok now back to my little cliffhanger.) ordered ten of her Ishibya men to the gate lifting mechanism.

"No, you must let this man through, if you don't hatred will kill him!" Ashitaka said. Lady Eboshi sighed and stared back at the man sprinting beyond his appearance's told capability. He was losing the black slime (hatred) and running towards the open and welcoming gate, at least to his perspective. It didn't look like he could make it, so Ashitaka did something rather rash. He ran out the gate and fired an arrow in between the man and hatred's grasp. It stopped momentarily and seamed to take in Ashitaka before charging at him. Ashitaka grinned and ran over to help the man make it the rest of the way to the gate.

"Close the gate," Ashitaka said and began running, signaling to the man to run as fast as he could. They slid through the closing gate and were put at a barrier from hatred's talons.

"Might I say that that was extremely crazy, my friend." The man said, panting rapidly.

Lady Eboshi stepped in between them and pointed a rifle at the man's head. "Who are you, what are you doing here, where are you from, and what did you do to get on the bad side of a god?"

"Well, I guess I couldn't of excepted a warm welcome. My name is … how do I know I can trust my name with you?

"Well, if you wish to live a few more seconds…" Lady Eboshi replied.

"Show some respect!" Gonzo demanded.

"My name is Akio, I was chased by that stuff, I don't know why… Any way I am from the village over the mountain, it was massacred, all but me and my lord and his guard. I did nothing, an even god called "Fury" attacked my village and killed my father while he was defending Lord Almanzyro." Akio said, while letting tears flow freely from his eyes.

Gonzo raised an eyebrow and Lady Eboshi said, "Welcome, Akio, to Iron town." She then helped him to his feet and handed her rifle to Morouku, who stumbled with it and managed to put it gradually to the ground using his one good arm.

After the Eboshi lady left Akio walked over to Ashitaka and said, "Thanks… umm I didn't quite catch your name."

"Ashitaka is my name. Nice to meet you." Ashitaka said. Ashitaka than headed to his bunk for the night. Akio headed the opposite direction to where he could look at the forest.

An hour later, in Fury's point of view (to be called pov in later chapters)

This forest is beautiful, but that's just another human emotion conquest I left behind thousands of years ago. Fury walked slowly and alertly through the forests, knowing that "Princess Mononoke" and her brothers could attack at any time. It is pathetic that she now rules this forest. She has also surpassed humanity, like I. Leaves rustled but Fury noted that it was just vermin plaguing the roots on the ground. Worthless creatures. It walked forward and noticed a pool with a certain demeanor about it. This was where the forest spirit resided. Iron town is close to this forest, it was a woman called Eboshi Gozen who killed the "Great" forest spirit. She resides there. It is her gates alone that hatred cannot pass through unless acted upon by an inside force.

The leaves rustled again and two wolves and a human girl jumped out and she spoke, "Why do you damn humans keep trespassing on my forest?" Make that three wolves…

"I am no human," Fury said using his godly amplified and mighty voice. Princess Mononoke stared at him and noticed just now hatred clung to him like a frightened child.

"I don't like demons either. Leave demon, your fight is not here." Princess Mononoke said, still questionably looking at the fact that Fury was indeed half human.

"I am no demon, don't you know, San, demons are almost mindless. I am The God Of Demons. And you humans keep me alive with all of your nearly mindless hate. You are human, San, you should have listened to Your Emishi prince; Ashitaka. Fury was reading San's thoughts about this matter. He had already known of the Emishi though, it was obvious that Ashitaka was Emishi.

To be continued… Later. PLEASE REVIEW