After months of saying I'd do it, I finally got around to fixing the final chapter of my second story, Into the Jaws of a Wolf. It wasn't for grammar mistakes or anything like that; it was some awful, horrible dialogue which was exchanged towards the end. Let us all pretend that those lines were never spoken the way they were. Anyway, sorry that the chapters have been kind of getting large gaps between updates; work and college will do that. In any case, if you could review this story, that'd be awesome.

The night air was cold in the quiet mountain pass. San was laying on her side, her blanket beneath her to try and make the stony ground somewhat tolerable. Tiny goosebumps covered her skin. Suffering a small chill for a single night seemed preferable to spending the entirety of the next day with a sore body. She and Eboshi's food and water were stored in her tent for the time being. Despite Lady Eboshi's reassurance, San was still wary about Akane. It was a foolish move, she thought, for Eboshi to trust her so soon after meeting her. Perhaps it was simply her innate disdain of humans seeping back into her, but she wasn't entirely sure. In any case, she kept her ears perked and her eyes peeled.

In her own tent, Lady Eboshi had given a blanket to Akane to help keep her warm. Akane had been curious about Eboshi's missing arm and asked her many questions about her past. Eboshi explained that her arm had been lost in a war, leaving out the details of Moro and the other Forest Gods. The two spoke at length. Although Akane did not have a great deal to talk about, she listened attentively to Eboshi. On the other side of the camp, San was beginning to grow tired of listening in on the two. Hours passed and the only sounds in the night were the chirping of crickets and Akane and Eboshi's conversation. She passed out after a few more minutes. As she was drifting away to sleep, the last thing she heard was Lady Eboshi explaining how she trained with her katana.

San was awoken by a something tickling her neck. Before she could react, something clamped down on her, locking her in a vice like a pair of anacondas. Her eyes shot open and her hands grabbed whatever was choking her. A pair of silk-like black arms were wrapped around her throat. She could feel her pulse as the grip tightened. Both blood and air failed to pass through the chokehold. Using as much strength as she could muster, San pulled the arms away from her neck. They continued to twist and turn around her, continuing their attempt to strangle her.

"Eboshi!" She shouted as she wrestled with her attacker. The obsidian-colored limbs blocked her from seeing whoever was trying to grab her. Each time she tried to grab her knife, she could feel something wrap around her throat. Her hands yanked the appendage away from her neck. In a quick moment of thinking, she squirmed from underneath her adversary and inched her way towards her dagger. One painful stretch of her neck was what she needed for her jaws to latch onto her knife. San twisted her head to the side, driving the blade into an arm wrestling her to the ground. To her shock, no blood flowed. Instead, what appeared to be locks of hair fell to the ground. With one arm free, she spat the knife into her hand and began to swing at whatever was trying to pin her.

"Get off of me!" San roared as she cut away the last bit of hair. Whoever or whatever was attacking her fled before she could get a good look at it. She bursted out of her tent, knife in hand and eyes wide and darting around the area. Yakul was staring into the distance. His eyes seemed fixated on whatever had attacked San. Though it was still in the infant hours of twilight, San could see the figure as it put distance between itself and the camp. "That must have been one of the demons Akane mentioned." She said to herself as she brushed the strands of hair that clung to her clothing and skin. "Eboshi!"

No response came from Lady Eboshi's tent. San hadn't been quiet whatsoever and couldn't believe that neither Eboshi nor Akane had awoken during the tumult. Yakul trotted up to her and brushed his head under her arm. A smile spread across her face, only to fade as she approached Lady Eboshi's tent. Her moment of joy and relief didn't fade because of anger; she feared that something had happened to the two women. When she opened the tent, she found no sign of them. Lady Eboshi's katana was missing. What remained were the blankets they slept under.

"Follow me." San ordered Yakul as she began to chase after the demon, fearing that he may be attacked by another. Her knuckles began to turn white as her grip tightened around her knife. The scent of the demon was still strong enough for her to detect. Strands of hair clung to her clothes, drifting away one by one as she sprinted towards her target. She could sense the smell grow stronger with every step. Rough stones digged into the bottom of her feet but she ignored the discomfort. Yakul kept up without any trouble. As the demon's smell peaked, San spotted a cave. Without a second thought, she and Yakul hurried towards it.

With the light of the full moon, San was able to peer into the cave and see what had attacked her. Akane was sitting on her knees, facing away from San. On the other side of the cave lay Lady Eboshi. She was motionless but breathing, albeit it was shallow. Her katana was unsheathed. It was several feet away from her body. San took one step into the cave before a hiss, like steam escaping from a pipe, passed through Akane's teeth.

"Not one step closer, little girl," Akane spat, "Or you and your friend here won't be leaving this cave."

As much as she wanted to charge in and cut Akane's head from her shoulders, San heeded the warning. "What are you doing?" She shouted, glaring at Akane with fury burning in her eyes. Akane's hair began to rise, parting at the middle and revealing a second mouth on the back of her head. Her hair danced in the air like a field of tall grass during a breeze. The second mouth which Akane had been hiding had thick red lips which appeared dry and cracked. It formed a wicked smile, revealing a set of yellow dog-like teeth.

"Why don't you just leave and pretend this never happened?" Akane offered, "You have no idea how hard it is for me to find food in these mountains. I'd go down to one of the villages, but they're so far away and most of them already know what I truly am so I couldn't just walk on through."

"You're a demon, aren't you?" San said with narrowing eyes.

"How very observant, little girl. Your kind would call me a futakuchi-onna, a two-mouthed woman. I wasn't always like this, you know. A witch placed a curse on me and I became a monster. She was one of my first victims. But that doesn't matter now. You are being given an opportunity to leave without a single scratch on your body. Not many other demons would give you this chance."

San knew that Akane - if that was even her real name - was trying to trick her. With a knife in hand, no amount of fancy waving was going to keep San from shredding Akane's hair if she tried to use it to attack again. She knew that Akane wouldn't be able to stop her if she got close enough. Although she was a demon, she wasn't physically strong. "I'm not leaving until I kill you and get Eboshi out of here."

Akane sighed from both mouths and shook her head. She dashed behind Lady Eboshi and wrapped her arms around the unconscious woman's neck. "This is your last warning. If you don't leave now, I'm killing this woman and coming for you next."

San's grip on her knife slightly loosened. She thought of throwing it at Akane, but if she missed then Akane could easily grab it and have the upper hand. It wasn't well-balanced for throwing and she had only done so a few times before as practice and had little success. An idea crossed her mind, though she wasn't sure if it was any better than chucking her knife at Akane.

Akane grinned as she watched San walk away. When she was finally out of sight, Akane began to squeeze down on Eboshi's throat. The red marks from when she strangled her earlier remained on her neck. She regretted not killing Eboshi before trying to capture San but at least now she rid of her.

An arrow pierced through Akane's second smiling mouth, breaking her teeth and shredding her throat. She didn't echo a death rattle when the tail of the arrow got caught on her lips. Her body dropped like a bag of stones. The grip on Lady Eboshi's neck was released, causing her to slump forward. San hurried in to catch her before her head could hit the ground. Ashitaka's bow was slung over her arm, his quiver and arrows over the other. A sigh of relief escaped San's lungs, thankful that she hadn't missed. Both of her arms were shaking, partly due to drawing the bowstring and also because of the adrenaline flowing through her body.

San emerged from the cave with Eboshi over her shoulders. She had to drop to her knees to set Eboshi down without causing any harm. Yakul trotted over as San went back into the cave to retrieve Eboshi's katana. Before she tried to bring Eboshi back to camp, San listened to her chest. Fortunately, she could hear a heartbeat. Eboshi was still breathing, though her breaths were as weak as when San had found her.

"Let's get her back to the campsite." San said to Yakul as she lifted Eboshi again. She put her onto the saddle and positioned herself behind her. Her arms interlocked around Eboshi's waist as she told Yakul to go. A small part of her felt ashamed for helping Eboshi. Try as she might, there was no way she could make her old grudge vanish into nothing. At times, she wondered what her mother would think about her journeying with Eboshi. Perhaps she would have been fine with it, considering that it was to help Okami and Urufu, but San would never be sure.

Once they had returned, San carried Eboshi over to her tent. She set her down on the blankets and sat down next to her. Dawn was still an hour or two away and the adrenaline rush was wearing off. San decided to wait several more minutes, fearing another possible demon attack. There were no unfamiliar scents in the air and the only noise from outside was the chirping of the crickets; Yakul had already fallen back asleep. Even with the lingering wariness of another attack, it was easy for San to rest.

Sunlight poured in through the open folds of the tent, falling over San's eyes and waking her up. With a yawn and stretch of her arms, she was ready to continue moving forward. She found that Lady Eboshi wasn't in the tent. Without much thinking, she scurried out of the tent. Eboshi was standing at a newly made campfire. Her fingers were outstretched, warming by the rising flames. San could see the red marks on her neck from the night before. Despite what had happened to her, Lady Eboshi still had a smile on her face.

"Good morning, San," Lady Eboshi greeted, "I hope you had a nice rest."

San was stunned silent. Had Eboshi forgotten about what happened last night? "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yes, and I have you to thank for that." Lady Eboshi stepped away from the fire to face San. She placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. San glanced down for a brief moment but managed to return her gaze. It felt wrong for her to brush off Eboshi's gratefulness.

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" San asked, not knowing what else to say.

"I am," Eboshi replied as she released San's shoulder, "Let's get everything packed up so we can get out of these mountains."

San nodded in response and helped desconstruct the tents, put out the fire, and tying their bags to Yakul. They got onto his back and Eboshi began to give directions.

"Are there many caves in your forest?" Eboshi asked as Yakul trotted along the pass.

"I live in one." San replied.

"Good, because we're going to enter a rather large one, and in all honesty, I can't recall the passage very well."