IX
Princess Mononoke: Midnight Raid
Riding on the back of my older brother wolf, the three of us steal quietly in the night. It is dark, around midnight, I figure. My two older brothers' eyes glow luminescent green as they stalk the rocks. I have my spear ready, with my full battle outfit: the white tunic, navy skirt, and my wolf pelt and blood red mask. The mice clan skitters at our feet, their eyes glowing red. We come silently to the edge of a rock outcropping overlooking our target: the Tatara Ba.
As we stare down at the peaceful little human settlement, my brother beside me growls softly, pushing his head against me. I smile reassuringly, stroking his head. But there is no time to lose. With the moon high above us, I pull my mask down from the back of my head and flip the pelt over my shoulder. The time has come.
We charge towards the town. Within seconds my brothers and I have reached the barren strip of land surrounding the wooden fortress of Tatara Ba. I wave my spear, as if greeting the guards and the musketeers. In the distance I hear metal clanging against metal, and someone shouting, "The wolf princess!"
Out of the corner of my eye I see a figure clad in orange with a gun, one of the hated musketeers. He fires at us, but we swerve easily. We run along the outside of the fortress, down the hill, across the little stream, and up again. My brother slams me against the spikes outside of the fortress, and I catapult myself up, over the spikes and almost to the top of the fortress walls.
With my spear, I pierce one of the chinks between the wooden logs only a few feet from the top and haul myself up, scrambling to hook my legs between two logs. I draw my knife, facing a rather white-faced musket guard.
He yells, and takes a wild swing at me. I jump away, onto the next post, then the next, as the guard destroys the logs in my wake. I hop down and with a slice of my knife, the guard is no more. I run along the side of the lookout, dodging bullets, and jump on the next roof. I need to make it to the heart of the Tatara Ba.
Humans! A whole crowd of them! I jump down from the roof and start attacking.
"It's her!" they scream. I swing my knife at the first human. He can't be much older than me. Dress in a blue shirt with a red hood…this one looks familiar.
"Stop!" he yells at me, blocking my every attempt to slit his throat. "I don't want to fight you!"
No matter. He is not my target. I can get him later. I jump back and up onto a roof, barely missing a torch by an inch.
"She's after Eboshi-sama!" the humans cry. Yes I am. Tonight, I will take that cursed gunwoman by her severed head and hang it in my cave.
I leap from rooftop to rooftop, up to the boiler house where they make their iron. I reach the heart of Tatara Ba. The humans below are in a frenzy, gathering in the square. Torches light the center. It seems like they were expecting me. I hide behind the top ridge of the roof of the boilers. I can see the gunwoman Eboshi in the center of the torch square with two women behind her, armed with guns. She calls to me, "Can you hear me, Princess Mononoke? I'm here. If you would avenge your tribe, here are some who seek vengeance for husbands killed by wolves."
One of the other women shouts, "Come out! We have a score to settle."
It is the moment of truth, now or never. My heart drums in my chest. I climb up from the ridge and stand up. Steam rolls around my face, hot and choking from the bellows, but the wind blows my wolf pelt back from my face. I hear the humans below me yell out, "There she is!" More are gathering now, almost all armed. "Out of the way! You'll get hit!"
I focus my attention on the woman in blue robes in the square, preparing to attack. Suddenly, down from my side, I hear a voice.
"Stop! Wolf-God Princess! Go back to the woods!"
I spare a look at the human. It's the boy in red hood from earlier! What is he doing on the roof?! But I disregard him and what he is saying.
"Don't die for nothing!" He is screaming at me now.
I hear the howl of my brother in the distant hills. Time to kill the gunwoman. Raising my wolf-fang knife, I sprint down the steep rooftop towards the square. As I run, I see the boy in red hood coming from my left. We'll slam into each other! What an idiot!
My thought is cut short though. A musket ball blows up in front of me. I can't stop! Too much momentum! I trip, and begin rolling down in a tucked position. My head feels like it is exploding. My vision goes dark. I vaguely hear the humans starting an uproar.
I am barely conscious as I drop from the roof. Regaining my posture, I try to stand up. But too soon there is a force slamming against my face. I am knocked down on my back; my mask shatters into a thousand pieces. I don't get time to mourn for the loss of my mask, but it shielded my face from what probably would've been a fatal wound. I moan. The impact does nothing to help my already splitting headache. I close my eyes. In the distance the humans are roaring again. They are coming towards me.
I think to myself, Is this how I will die, so undignified?
I hear a voice shouting. Suddenly, a crash sounds not too far from me and the humans are quiet. Someone is next to me, shaking my shoulders. "Wake up," the boy in the red hood says.
I open my eyes, my rage boiling up all over again. Who is he to touch me?! I scowl and swing my knife, nicking his cheek and drawing blood.
"Agh!" I jumped up on my hunches and slash at him, one, two, three, four, five times. He is unarmed. I don't care much for killing him. My goal is in the square, guarded by humans. I run forward. The boy shouts behind me, "No!"
A man with a four-foot blade tries to swipe me off my foot, but I jump up, landing on his face and stepping two times before using it as a launching pad and soaring over the humans and into the square.
Screaming my fiercest battle cry, I charge at my mortal enemy, the woman that killed the trees and the mountain and now is trying to get our forest. The two women beside her scatter. Eboshi throws off her robe and blocks my strike with her sword. She draws an awl and slices at me, shaving off some hairs from my pelt. I hop back and attack, counterattack, parry, jab at her. I feel the humans closing in with their long spears, making a tight circle. They will probably kill me after I murder their leader but I don't care, as long as that woman meets her demise tonight. But as we fight, one-on-one, I begin to feel desperate. It is her and her men against just me, but I keep going.
"Get her! Don't let her go!" the people of Tatara Ba yell.
I have no idea how long we duel. But all of a sudden the humans watching become quiet. As I slice at Eboshi, a strong arm comes and holds my wrist, pushing me away from her. I look up. The boy in the red hood! Why does he insist on interfering?! The cut on his cheek is still bleeding. I promise myself that if he keeps me from killing my nemesis I will give him wounds a lot more serious than that. I try to wriggle out of his grip, push it off, but his strength is incredible. No man should ever have a grip that strong!
"What are you doing!?" the gunwoman sneers at him.
"The girl is mine." He answers calmly. I bite down on his arm like a wolf, feeling my teeth sink into his flesh through his sleeve, but he doesn't even acknowledge me.
"I'm sure she'll make a lovely wife," she replies.
Their conversation goes on as I try to free myself from his iron grip and kill him.
Suddenly dark tendrils bloom from his arm and curls around. The mark of a demon, I realize with fear bursting from my heart, replacing the former rage. This boy is cursed! I scream, swatting the tentacles. If he didn't have such a grip on me, I would run out of there, leaving him and that woman, and go deep into the forest so as to never see him and his arm again.
The boy shouts, "Look on this! It is the form of the hate within me! It rots my flesh, and summons my death! Do not make the hate grow!"
This curse inside him would explain his superhuman grip on me. I struggle, trying to get as far away as I can from the curse.
"Enough talk of your curse!" Eboshi snarls. "I'll cut that arm off!" She brandishes her awl and goes for his face.
The boy backs up and drives the butt of his sword into her stomach. The crowd gasp as she collapses onto him, the tendrils growing bigger and bigger. Then he pulls me in too, and I feel him punch my stomach. For the second time that night, I black out.