Just going to say it: I don't own Mononoke-hime.
Yet another chapter... Please R&R
Chapter 5: Practice Session
The next ten years seemed to flow by. My choice for our permanent den seemed to be a good one. It was near the pool which I had identified as the Shishigami's realm, and had a source of drinking water and many deer herds nearby. Saria's shells were no longer in my mouth. I had found a spot twenty paces away from the den, buried deep enough that Saria would not find them. I was now the size of an average adult wolf. Naku was growing just like he was supposed to. Saria had not grown at all. Physically. She had realized that she was never gong to be able to be as strong as Naku or me, so she decided to think up strategies.
One day, within my 13th year of life, she showed me just how cunning she could be. Naku had been practicing fighting with me almost every day. Every time we practiced was sad for me, as I was an instructor, not a play mate in these fights. Naku was very strong physically, but lacked much of an idea of how to beat an opponent besides just using brute strength. One day, when I was trying to get him to learn how to think, Saria came by. She asked if she could play. After moment of hesitation I agreed. I did not want to hurt her, so I decided to go easy on her. I called the start, and began a slow move to the right…and then the next thing I knew was that I was lying on the ground with Saria's jaws around my throat. ((How...how?)) I managed to choke out. Saria bared her teeth in a wolf's grin. ((You went easy on me because you expected to win so much that I had a window of opportunity. Think. Remember what you saw happen.)) I looked back at our quick match. I had an excellent memory, so replaying my defeat was easy. I moved to the right…and Saria had bounded in, dived under my head and clawed the inside of my right front leg. As I started to fall, she jumped up on my neck, pushing it to the ground and placing her teeth on my throat. ((That wouldn't have beaten me if I had been using my full strength.)) I said, feeling like I was a pup whining about how unfair it was. Saria nodded. ((But you weren't using your full strength. Always take advantage of your enemy's weakness. Again?)) I nodded. This time I was feeling angry and humiliated at my defeat. I could hear Naku snickering as he watched me preparing to fight. I charged Saria dead on. She sat there, not moving. She did not move until I was within ten feet of her. She leapt into the air, heading right towards me. By the time I figured out what she was doing it was too late. I had been closing on her using my full speed, sprinting as fast as I could. When she jumped, she partially turned in mid air. I felt her back collide with the sensitive part of my snout. I yelped in pain as my vision turned red. I heard a grunt of pain from Saria, but that was all. It took a minute for me to gain the strength to open my eyes. What I saw was Saria sitting down right next to me, grinning and panting hard, her paw on my throat. ((You let anger blind you.)) she said. ((Once again, but start over.))
As the day went on, we played. She won some of the time, and I won some of the time, although not as much as I would have liked too. Then Naku joined in, and we tussled around in the grass, having fun. As the sun started to go down, we headed to our den. On the way back I realized something. For that enjoyable part of time, I had not acted as a mother, someone who is watching over and always instructing. We acted like brother and sisters, and after my first two rounds withy Saria I had so much fun. I had not had that much fun since I was a pup. The day should have ended on a good note, but as we walked back to our den, I felt that someone was watching us.