VII
Ashitaka: Town of Ironworks
"Ah! Sir, you're right! We're back at the ironworks!" Kohroku says to me excitedly.
In the distance, the ironworks is a giant tumor of a fortress in the middle of a lake, surrounded by burned forests. From within the great palisades, I can hear metal clanging against metal and see huge clouds of smog rising.
"Looks like a castle," I murmur, pulling up my mouth guard.
"It's Eboshi-sama's great Tatara Ba," Kohroku informs me proudly. "It heats iron sand to make iron." I've heard of the tatara before. It is a method of using huge foot bellows to melt sand and create iron.
We approach the edge of the lake, where two men with their boats watch us approach. "Hey!" Kohroku shouts to them. "It's me! Kohroku, the cattle herdsman!"
They look incredulous, but pull us across to the Tatara Ba on their boats. A crowd of people has gathered, wanting to get a look. Apparently they all thought the cattle herdsman was dead.
"You sure you're not a ghost?" they ask. "Where are the others? Four of you fell."
"It's just us that are saved," he answers quietly. Men in orange robes carry the other wounded man to safety. I stay in the back, out of hustle.
I see a buff man with a shaved head coming our way from out of the gates. He seems to be one of leaders, for the spectators all make way for him. "Clear the way," he bellows.
Kohroku is busy explaining the situation to his comrades as they help him out of the boat. "Hey, rifle men! This man carried your friend all the way here! Thank him!"
One of the orange-robe men bows to me. I see the buff man stomping his way to where I stand.
"You there!" he barks. The man stops at a distance away. "Firstly, I thank you for bringing us our wounded. But I'm not satisfied with the situation. You came within an hour after we arrived here. Furthermore, they say you carried a man from the bottom of the valley, and came out of the Shishi-gami's forest—"
He is cut short by the cry of a woman running out from the fortress.
"Kohroku!" She screams. Quite evidently she is his wife. "You're alive!"
"Toki!" the cattle herd calls back.
"Ah, ah, ah!" she clucks as she examines his broken leg. "A cattle herdsman breaking his leg! How are we supposed to eat now!?" Everyone's attention turns to the squabble between the man and wife.
"I-I couldn't help it!" Kohroku moans, shrinking back.
"I was worried half to death," she continues. "The wolves should've eaten you! Then I could find a better husband!" The spectators start to laugh.
"Toki," Kohroku protests. "Please forgive me!"
Annoyed, the guard who has been talking to me turns to the woman. "Toki! Save you quarrel for later!"
Toki retorts sharply, "What makes you so great? Leaving the wounded to die; what good are you as a guard? You haven't even pushed the tatara bellows once in your life. At least act when there is danger!" she shouts.
"It couldn't be helped…" he mumbles.
Toki's demeanor changes entirely as she talks to me. "Thank you. My husband is an idiot, but I'm glad he is safe."
I smile at her through my mouth piece. "Good. I was starting to think I did something wrong bringing him back."
She looks puzzled for a moment, then throws her head back in a roaring laugh. After that, she peers at me curiously. "Hey, you must be a good-looking man! Please show us your face!"
"Gonza." A woman's voice makes everyone look up. A stately woman dressed in a red kimono and blue robes stands by the gate. She addresses the guard. "Guide our guest to me later on; I'd like to thank him.
"Kohroku," she says, "It's good you are back. I'm sorry."
"Y-Yes," the man stutters.
"That's absurd, Eboshi-sama; the fool's just spoiled!" Toki tells her.
"Toki, please forgive me as well," Eboshi replies. "I shouldn't have let it happen."
"No, if you hadn't been there, the men would've all been eaten by now!"
The town women crowded by Eboshi all laugh heartily. She says, "Go and rest, traveler," and walks back into the fortress. I pull down my mouth guard and stare down, not knowing what to think of this town in the middle of the mountains, and all its men and women.
Toki notices me and exclaims, "Ah! I knew you were good-looking!"
As the sun sets that evening, the workers hurry back into the Tatara Ba, the giant gate closing behind them. The center of the town is in a bustle. Vendors distribute the rice, telling people to eat it gratefully, for they defeated Moro the wolf god to bring it home.
I eat with the cattle herdsmen, comrades of Kohroku. Town women crowd around the doorway, trying to catch a glimpse of the unusual traveler, me. They chitter-chatter with each other, looking at me shyly.
One of the cattle herdsmen yells back, "Be quiet! We lost two men out there today!" Another man disregards him and calls out, "There are lots of handsome men in here!"
"A bunch of cowherds!" a woman retorts saucily.
"Come to our place, traveler! Don't stay in a stinking animal pen like this!" the women flirt openly. I dislike the attention, but say nothing of it.
"Watch your mouth! We risked our lives to bring you this rice. I hope your mouth rots…" a man by me growls.
They yell back about how they make the iron that buys the rice, and that it is the women that tread the tatara bellows all night long.
I turn to them. "If you don't mind, I would like to see your work place."
"Really? We're going to push the bellows tonight with makeup!" They laugh and run off.
The man by me frowns disapprovingly. "Don't mind them, sir," he tells me. "Eboshi-sama spoils them."
"A good town has happy women," I reply. It is true. In my Emishi village the women are always a cheerful bunch…last I was there.
"Still, women working the tatara bellows! They defile the iron," the men say to me. "Eboshi-sama sees to the women sold off and takes care of them. She is a kind person."
"She is kind, but she doesn't care about laws or curses!" one informs me. "Or of gods either. The thing with the wolves was nothing! You should've seen her with Nago!"
"Nago?" I echo.
"He was a huge boar, master of this area! No one could get near the mountains. We could only bite our thumbs and look up at the mountain.
"We had used up all the iron sand in the lower parts. A lot of skilled iron makers wanted this place, but the boars got them all.
"Our job is to strip the mountains and cut the trees down. But it enraged the lord of the mountain…"
I can imagine the giant Nago being shot at with arrows of fire, and ravaging the town, sabotaging the tatara works.
"But then Eboshi-sama came along with her guns and troops."
I clutch my arm, like it is bulging again with the demon snakes. A man dances a dance of ridicule, mocking the great boar. Nago, whom I've killed. He must've been wounded badly by Eboshi's forces and turned into a demon, running across the land and finally coming upon my village, where I made it meet its agonizing death.
One man notices my grimace. "Sir…what's wrong? Does your arm hurt?"
"No. I was just thinking about that boar." I say tightly. "Wherever he met his end, his resentment must've been deep…"