A Stranger

A very strange stranger at that…

Haha… a month since I last updated. I apologize. ^^, My editor was on vacation when I sent this to her (I didn't know she was on vacation at the time), about a week or so ago.

Something you should know about me - I procrastinate as much as possible, but when I actually start working, nothing can pull me away from my stories. Literally, nothing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Mononoke or any characters thereof. Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki are the proud owners of the fantastic film, while I am just a High School student and am writing this for my own amusement and because I'm shocked that no one else had come up with the idea before me. I only own any possible changes I make to the plot of this movie, the dialogue of this movie, and/or any other things that I can't think of right now.

-(o)-

After spending an hour's worth of resting by the stream in the forest, San and Yakuul rode on, leaving the massacre behind them.

The guilt would remain, however.

San knew now she had to be careful - she didn't want to have any more blood on her hands. Even if it hadn't exactly been entirely her fault - it was the strength of the Demon mark that had killed the men, after all - but if she just hadn't had gotten so angry, the strength wouldn't have been unleashed.

But it wouldn't do it again. She would make sure of it.

A few miles away from the forest, San noticed a village, full of people - and where there were people, there was food. Food that she needed to survive. After making sure that she had enough gold to pay for anything she needed, she dismounted Yakuul and entered the village.

Nearly eighteen years had given San a long amount of time to learn how to ignore people's stares, so the stares of about thirty strangers wasn't nearly enough to bother her too much. She could feel their gazes burning into the back of her neck as she approached a rice vendor, and calmly requested one bag of rice. Without a word, but with a glance at the crowd of people that had formed a circle around the stranger and her red elk, the woman did what San asked, and scooped enough rice to fill her bag.

When the woman finished, San placed a small nugget of gold into the woman's hand without a word. The rice seller looked at the nugget, her expression became a scowl. "What the hell is this? This isn't money! What do you think you're trying to pull?"

San glared back at the woman. She wasn't in a mood to be trifled with at that moment. "I assure you, this is more than enough to pay for the rice. No, if you'll excuse me-" San turned, about to take her leave, before the rice seller grabbed her wrist, infuriated.

"Give me back my rice, you little thief!" She snarled.

San opened her mouth, ready to fire back a retort, before a short, rather fat man in red monk's clothing emerged into the middle of the crowd, holding up a hand to stop them from fighting. "Wait, wait." He said. "Let's not get into a fight. Let me take a look."

"Fine." The rice seller scowled, releasing San's wrist before handing the gold over to the stranger. San eyed the stranger, paying little to no attention to the rice seller's glares.

The stranger inspected the nugget of gold for a moment, before his eyes grew wide. "My god! Woman, this is a sizable gold nugget!" He exclaimed, smirking just slightly at the rice seller, whose eyes narrowed slightly. "This is more than enough to pay for the rice you gave him." The stranger nodded toward San, who blinked, slightly taken aback. He thinks I'm a man. She glanced down at her clothes, before sighing to herself. She did look like a male in her baggy white clothes alone, and with her face mostly covered by a mask, there was no way for anyone to tell she was a girl unless they heard her speak, or saw her face.

"However," The stranger continued. "If you really don't want to keep this, I'll be happy to pay for the rice and take this back." San resisted from rolling her eyes. It was her gold, and she would be the one to take it back, thank you very much. The stranger began to speak to the crowd. "Excuse me, is there a money changer in the crowd? No? Well, I can't be sure, but for this lump of gold, you could buy three bags of rice - at least." As the crowd gasped and leaned in, trying to catch a glimpse of the gold, San silently grabbed hold of Yakuul's reins and left the crowd.

The stranger, noticing her disappearance, turned to follow the warrior. "Wait a minute! Where're you going?"

The rice seller instantly reached out and grabbed hold of the stranger's wrist, clawing at his palm to get the gold. "Give that back to me! It's mine!" She shrieked.

A moment or so later, San had left the village and was now back to riding Yakuul, enjoying the silence. However, the stranger from the village somehow managed to catch up to her, despite his age, and started to stride alongside the elk. "You can't leave now! We've only just met!" He exclaimed. "There's no need to thank me, by the way."

"I had everything under control." San said flatly, her voice revealing to the stranger that she was, in fact, a woman.

The stranger blinked for a moment, taken aback, before grinning sheepishly. "Well, the great warrior is a woman, is she? At any rate, it's best that I was there to help. There were quite a few samurai in that village, you know. And a few of them probably remember you." Seeing San glance down at him with suddenly narrowed eyes, the stranger continued. "I was caught in that massacre, back in that village? With the samurai? I saw what you did to them. You know, you fight like a Demon, girl. Like something possessed. It's amazing! I wouldn't want to get on your bad side."

San glanced sideways at the stranger again, before something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw three people, two men and one woman, following them with long spears.

"Well, I see you've finally noticed we're being followed, hmm? That's the price of having a bit of wealth these days. The moment we fall asleep, they'll cut our throats." The stranger grinned up at San. "Shall we run, then?" Not even waiting for a reply, he ran off, running remarkably fast for someone of his age. The warrior quickly followed on her elk, leaving the bandits behind in the dust.

-(o)-

The two of them soon stopped for the night, and the stranger started to make dinner for the two of them. While he was doing this, San told the monk her story (not including the part about the Emishi village). During the entire time San was telling her story, the stranger had never once asked for her name, and she hadn't asked for his. They were complete strangers to each other, and San preferred it that way. When she had finished, the sun had set, and the only thing giving them light was the fire that the stranger was using to cook their rice gruel.

"So, the Demon turned out to be a boar God." The stranger said, sounding like he was talking mostly to himself.

"Yes. I followed its trail through the mountains. But then when I reached the village, I lost it." She felt the urge to pull her knees up to her chest, like she always did whenever she felt disappointed or irritated, but managed to fight it.

"Well, that's life, girl." He gestured to their vicinity. They were surrounded by boulders, and in the midst of the boulders were broken planks of wood, and small stone markings, symbolizing places where people had died. "See our surroundings? The last time I came here, a few years ago, this was a lovely little village. But then, something must have happened. A landslide, or a fire, or a flood, maybe another massacre like the one you saved me from. The only sure thing is that everybody that lived here died here." The monk sighed. "These days, angry ghosts are all around us. People die every day, from wars and sickness, starvation. Do you think anybody cares about them anymore? So what if you're under a curse - this whole world is a curse in itself."

San regarded the stranger thoughtfully for a moment, before her eyes went to the ground. "I never should have gotten into that fight." She said angrily. "Two men are dead now because of me."

"True, but you saved people that might have died otherwise, myself included." The stranger pointed out. He asked for her bowl, and San handed over what he wanted. "Besides, they were just Samurai thugs. Anyway, my point is that everybody is going to die someday, girl. Today or tomorrow. From brothel girl to Emperor - but I have heard rumors that the Emperor himself has promised an entire hill of gold to anyone who can help him live forever." The stranger scooped the rice gruel into San's bowl, before handing it over to her. San took it back and began to eat silently, listening to the stranger speak. "You know who you remind me of? The Ancient people from the old writings - the Emishi."

San straightened, her eyes narrowing and her posture becoming tense. The stranger continued, seemingly not noticing her sudden behaviour. "They were said to ride red elks, and use stone arrowheads just like yours. Anyway, you don't have to worry about me." He flashed a grin. "I'm not going to tell anyone where you're from."

After eyeing the man for a moment, San reached into her pouch, and pulled out the small iron ball from the Demons body. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" She reached over and held it out to the stranger, who took it in his chopsticks and inspected it.

A second passed, before the stranger looked up and responded in a completely cool voice. "Never have."

San considered snapping at the man, verbally forcing him to tell her if he really had ever seen the iron ball before, but decided against it. "It came from the Demon's body. It shattered his bones, rotted his flesh, and turned him into a monster."

The stranger made a small noise, before handing it back over to San. After another moment of silence, the stranger said, "You know, there is a place high in the mountains, to the west from this place here. It's where the Forest Spirit has made His home, and it's a very dangerous place for humans. Almost no one who goes in there ever comes out."

San's eyes widened. "The Forest Spirit?"

The stranger nodded. "I've heard them say the animals who live there are all giants, just like they were during the Age of the Forest."

As the stranger continued to shovel rice gruel into his mouth, San looked over to Yakuul. The elk looked up and met her eyes. For a moment, it was like the two of them could understand each other without speaking. Then San continued to eat, and the stranger and she finished their meal in silence.

San and the stranger stayed in the ruins of the town for the rest of the night. As soon as the sun peeked out from behind the mountains, San got onto Yakuul and rode off, not looking back even once at the still-sleeping stranger.

Or at least, to San it had appeared that he had still been sleeping. For the moment San rode off, the stranger opened his eyes, watching her leave. "See you there, my friend."

-(o)-

Oh my god, I just realized - The WOLVES are coming in next chapter… oh my god. I'm going to have so. Much. FUN.

If you're wondering why I refer to Jigo (because we know who he is) as "The Stranger" or "The Monk", it's because we never actually see Ashitaka or Jigo exchanging names in the film, and Jigo never calls Ashitaka by name - like, ever, not even once in the whole movie, just calls him "Boy" - and Ashitaka never calls Jigo by name, so I'm going to assume that they never told each other what their names were. So the same would go for San and Jigo - besides, even if Jigo would tell San his name, I can't really see San giving her name to him. Or maybe that's just me. *shrugs*

And If I refer to Jigo as Jigo instead of "The Stranger" or "The Monk" at all, tell me where and I'll fix it - I might have spaced out and written Jigo without realizing it.