PART TWO: Two Battlegrounds

XVI

Ashitaka: Leaving the Forest

When I awake in the morning, I find the sun already high in the sky, shining hotly on the stone ledge. San and the wolves are gone, the blankets thrown aside. I rise hastily and trot out of the cave and onto the ledge. They are nowhere in sight. I walk back to the shade of the rocks.

By my foot are my sword, pouch, and hood, carefully folded by San, no doubt. She has also packed food for me, covered in leaves.

I remember Okkoto-nushi's words. Leave this forest. And now the food prepared. San is telling me to depart for good.

I don the hood and strap the sword by my side, then walk out from the back of the cave. Birds chirp their morning songs loudly, but everything else is quiet. The cave ends on top of a huge boulder over a steep green hill. Yakkuru grazes calmly.

"Yakkuru!" I call. "Were you worried?" I take off down the boulder, intending to greet my old friend. But my legs fail beneath me, and I tumble onto the green. "Oof!"

The elk comes towards me, concerned. I chuckle apologetically. "My legs are so weak!"

Someone is watching us, my sixth sense tells me. My head whips around. One of San's brothers is sitting on a rock off to the side, studying me and Yakkuru.

I stand solemnly. Yakkuru bows his head, and I grab onto his horn to hoist myself up. In the distance, the wolf walks off, and we follow him down the rocky side of the mountain. It ends in a green tunnel, the trees protecting us from the sun.

As we ride through it, I turn my head, realizing something amiss. "It's so quiet," I murmur. "Where are the kodama?" The usual happy little creatures are absent this morning.

We come out from the foliage to a path made of giant rocks. Yakkuru picks nimbly through them, the odd surfaces no problem for his agile feet.

"I can smell the ironworks," I mutter. The burning scent of the tatara fills the atmosphere. Turning my back, I see San's brother behind us on a rock many feet away.

"Thank you for guiding us!" I shout to him. "I have a favor to ask you." I reach around my neck and loop off the strings of the crystal dagger. "Give this to San!" I toss the glittering necklace to the wolf. He catches it in his mouth and lopes gracefully back into the forest.

I watch him leave, and then urge Yakkuru to go on.

A/N: Please take note: this story will be soon put on hiatus because of a Hetaia fanfiction I am doing called Memories of Plum Blossoms. s/9502192/1/Memories-of-Plum-Blossoms (Truth to be told, another reason this will be paused because the lack of feedback is somewhat discouraging...)

Please check it out! Once this is finished, Princess Mononoke will be back in progress. Don't worry~I swear I will finish this novelization someday. :)