Reflections
San had blood on her hands and upper torso; sweat poured off her back like rivers and her breathing was labored. She'd been out hunting, and the result was a small deer slung over her muscular back and two rabbits whose ears were gripped by the iron-like strength of her left fist. Her right one held her dagger, the blood on it shimmering in the sun. She planned to take the meat to Ashitaka. Tonight.
Tonight was the night where she would see him in that stinky and filthy human town. If, she gauged, he was too busy to come see her, she would come see him, even if it meant infiltrating the very walls that she had once did before, with the intent of murder.
She sighed and put the game down; she had stopped by a stream and thought it better to wash off the blood before it dried on her. As she washed she looked into the undulating reflection; she noted the stark differences she had with her wolf brothers: slightly longer brown hair, while they had silvery white fur. She had a feminine human body, always weak and vulnerable at times, and needed clothes, while they had fur to keep warm during the harsh winters and streamlined bodies that displayed the majestic aura of the Wolf clan.
She had fingers and arms and longish legs, while they sported sharp claws and strong legs that went as fast as the wind. She had human teeth, barely made for consuming raw meat, while they possessed menacing fangs and barred their razor like teeth, equipped not just for eating raw meat but also killing humans.
She was a human; they were wolves. But she felt she had the soul of a wolf in her, so why was she made different?
Only the deceased Shishigami could have answered that. But now he was gone physically, and so was her mother, the only mother she'd known to care for her poor, weak, and naked body.
Somehow Ashitaka had changed her, and she smirked at the thought of a human changing her whose kin had tried to destroy humankind exploiting the precious Forest. That felt so long ago, though it was a mere seven months. And seven months had brought about changes that she nor her mother had ever dreamed would have happened.
By this time she had finished washing, so she grabbed the game and sped off toward the den where they resided. Gosho, the younger wolf, was perched atop the boulder where their mother used to lie before her decease. Kuza the Elder was patrolling the outer boundaries of the Forest; they'd set a roster for themselves: each one patrols the outer boundaries of the Forest for three days; San was an exception; since she couldn't walk for long miles without tiring herself out she was given to patrol the area near Tatara-ba. She had no qualms with this, although it colloquially meant that she took a step nearer to her former archenemy whose current intentions she didn't even know nor trust.
"Out hunting this morning, I see, sister," stated Gosho. She acknowledged him with a small nod.
"Consider, are you really gong to do this? Will it not be better for him to come?" She shook her head and sighed. "I'm afraid not, Gosho. He is busy, and if he can't come, I must go to him. I...love him too much that I can't lose him. Not now." Gosho smiled. "Becoming more human I see. He is changing you more than you did to the Tatarabans." She gave him a cheeky look then disappeared into the den to set the food down. Later in the evening she would sneak in and bring it to him, and catch up with him. For now, she would have to wait until the set would set and have rise to the moon.
