Welcome back. Sorry for the delay, but a lot of things happened. I had to get used to all my schoolwork, as well as my on-campus job. Thanks to all you who read and/or reviewed. I know you're all anxious to see this chapter since it's the first in the actual movie storyline.

Well, here we go. Chapter 4.

Being Alive

Chapter 4

The sound of birds chirping in the early morning met Dante on his trip back to consciousness. He tried to open his eyes, but found that they stung when he did. He shut his eyes tightly, and then reached up to rub them with his hands.

When he finally opened his eyes, and sat up, he saw where he was laying: on the floor of a fresh, damp forest. The smell was very notable. Unlike the jungle where he had just been, there was no smell of smoke or sweat, or anything left by mass humidity. Another thing that he noticed was the temperature. It wasn't hot at all right now, feeling no more than seventy degrees.

For a while, all he could do was stare off into the forest. Waking up in here had actually felt good. So good, in fact, that it made him temporarily forget what had just happened.

He shook his head, and looked around, trying to think back to what had happened. He remembered the sniper…who had gotten hit…

Remembering the sniper brought guilt back to Dante. He remembered seeing Mason get struck down by the gunfire. He shuddered, trying to push the thoughts out of his head. Move on, he thought. I know it sucks, but there's no point of crying over it anymore. He shook his head again, and went back to the recap. They had run into the transport plane…then he found the strange doll…then something happened to the plane…the plane!

Dante suddenly stood up, and frantically looked around for wreckage of the plane. He couldn't see any.

This can't be! How can I be on the ground, and there not be any remains? Where'd the plane go?

He moved through the forest, checking around in the bushes. For a while, he found nothing. Then, after a few seconds, he saw what looked like a small piece of the hull of the plane.

"Here we are!" Behind the piece were a few more pieces of scrap metal, which appeared to have once been part of the plane. And, behind all that, were a couple cases of cargo.

Dante walked up to the cargo, and saw a number of things lying around. A Remington 870 12-gauge shotgun was lying next to one of the boxes, its strap clinging to one of the handles on the box. He picked it up, and inspected it, pumping the action to see if there was any ammo inside. When no cartridge came out the first time, he pumped again. This time, a red shotgun cartridge came flying out of the ejection port. The gun was loaded.

He picked the cartridge up, and shoved it back into the chamber. He then put the shotgun down, and looked around for more supplies. Among them were a second Colt 1911 pistol, identical to the one he had in his holster; a small box of food rations, including a package of coffee grounds; a carton of Marlboro cigarettes; a bandolier with two frag grenades, as well as three gas grenades; and inside the cargo boxes were cases of ammunition: .45 ACP, 5.56 mm, and 12-gauge; there were also a few blocks of C-4 plastique, detonators included.

These must've been the only things that survived the crash, he thought to himself. Still, it doesn't explain where the rest of the plane went. I don't even see any marks in the woods! The plane couldn't have slid; otherwise it would have left some sort of trail. Plus, I figured it'd take longer for a C-130 to take off. It went up pretty fast…

It was then that he remembered the temperate conditions of the woods. Hey…why is it so cool all of a sudden? He walked around, looking at the trees around him. They were not the ones he had seen in the jungle. This forest seemed more of a deciduous forest rather than a jungle.

"What the hell is this? We didn't fly THAT far, did we?" He tried desperately to think of what could have happened. But nothing came to him.

Damn. Well, maybe this is some secluded, cultivated area, I don't know. Now, where to go…

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a magnetic compass, and a map of the southern area of South Vietnam. "Let's see. We flew east, so… " He turned the compass until it pointed southwest. "The reinforcements were definitely coming from Saigon, so they would be approaching from the south." He sighed angrily to himself.

"Dammit! That means I've gotta weave my way through the outskirts. And Charlie's sure to be all over the place." He looked at the map. "It's at least fifteen miles to the rendezvous point. That means…" He thought for a minute in his head. "More than ten hours of walking. Almost half a day. Shit…"

He walked over to the lost equipment, and packed away everything that would be useful to him. He took the ammunition out of the boxes, and placed as much as he could carry in the pouches of his ALICE pack. He put the other pistol, the C-4, the rations, and cigarettes in his pack as well. The grenades went with his others. And the shotgun was swung over his shoulder, next to his M-16.

That's all I can carry. He dumped the empty cargo boxes behind some bushes. I still wonder where the rest of the plane went. He rubbed his hands together, and turned to leave. "Okay…hey, where's my helmet?"

He looked around for his camouflage helmet. It was nowhere to be found. He sighed.

"Shit, who needs it? It ain't comfortable, anyway."

And, with that, he started walking west, thankful for the modest temperature.

Fresh, green plants on the ground suddenly shriveled up into dry brown withers as a dark, shadowy creature approached. The figure moved along the land slowly, oozing forward like an enormous slug. Nasty, unintelligible sounds emitted from its body, leaving no feeling of remorse as it plowed over everything in its path. Beautiful beds of flowers and shrubberies were reduced to brown dirt, all covered in the disgusting, black substance that the creature left behind. It knocked any tree in its path down, and crunched them in two as it passed.

Suddenly, it stopped in its tracks. It sensed something in a different direction. Something strange. With a loathsome groan, it turned left, heading toward the new, unwelcome smell.

When it finally reached its destination, it saw the destroyed remains of something it did not recognize. Nothing but pieces of scrap metal. In a fit of horrendous rage, it crushed the metal debris under its strong hoofs, the black slime around it eating through the metal.

It then turned to the scent it had come for in the first place. Something had been here. Something fresh and ripe. Something healthy. The beast lunged forward, heading in the direction of the scent, ignorant and uncaring of the trail of death it left behind.

The midday sun could just barely be seen through the thick canopy of leaves left by the tall trees in the forest. The dampness of the morning dew had dried up, and the fresh feeling that had been there in the morning was starting to drift away, making way for a little humidity.

Dante sighed for the hundredth time as we continued to make his way through the woods. It had been over three hours since he had started for the rendezvous point, and he was starting to speculate about whether he was going in the right direction. He was sure that the deciduous forest would come to a stop somewhere, and he would be back in the jungle. But it didn't stop. It kept going and going. That just didn't make sense. These kind of forests didn't exist this far south in Vietnam. And the temperature hadn't risen much at all. It felt no more than sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

Another thing that had caught Dante's attention was the sight of a few mountains during his little journey. There were no mountains near Bienhoa, at least not that he knew of. Mountains weren't even common in this whole area of Vietnam. This just confused him even more, making him feel that he was most certainly going in the wrong direction.

He pushed all thoughts aside, following his compass. Things hadn't been the same, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't hot at all, and he hadn't seen any sign of Charlie since the incident at the air base. No heat and no gooks meant pleasantness, something he had not had in a while. Of course, it didn't make him feel great. He was tried, as well as thirsty. His water supply was limited to what he had in his canteen and would have to do until he found a new source. As for the rations, they consisted of some saltine crackers, a couple pieces of beef jerky, and a few packages of coffee grounds. Everything else had been too old to eat, and discarded.

After another half hour, Dante came to a small, darkened part of the woods. He noticed that almost all the plant life in the area were either black or dark brown, as well as shriveled. They all looked as though they had been burned. Maybe they dropped a load of napalm here. Still, I don't smell it…

All of a sudden, Dante felt a twinge in his nose. Something didn't smell right. He sniffed the air, then recoiled, covering his face. God Damn! What the hell is that smell! He took another few steps forward, and turned his head around a tree before stopping abruptly.

A long, shallow trench had been dug into the ground in front of him. It was coated with a thick layer of what looked like slimy black film. Like nothing he had seen before. He then looked back in the direction the trench went in. It went about two hundred feet to his right in a slight arc before turning further right. The path was curved, meaning whatever had caused it had moved for miles in different directions. The smell was at its worst this close up.

"Son of a bitch!" he barely breathed. "What the hell could have caused this? This couldn't be the remains of a napalm drop!"

Dante considered that theory, hoping he wasn't near a group of the southern radical natives. He jumped over the trench, just barely landing on the other side. I don't know what could've done that. A plane can't cover miles of land with one load of napalm, especially not in different directions. And I'm not sure what kind of thing would leave this after getting burned. He kept walking. Maybe Charlie did this. Who knows. Whether they did it or not, I sure as hell hope I don't run into this thing.

"Finally!"

After another exhausting two hours of walking, the forest had finally opened up. When he cleared the last row of thick trees, a ray of sunlight hit him right in the eyes. He recoiled, shielding his eyes from the sun. Thinking quickly, he reached into one of the pockets of his fatigue, pulling out a pair of black, horn-rimmed sunglasses. He flicked them open, and put them on, giving his eyes much-needed shade.

When he looked back in his path, he felt relief wash over him. There was a long dirt path extending from the forest, running alongside a stonewall that had been built into the side of steep hill. He couldn't yet see what was beyond the grassy hill, but, at the moment, he didn't care.

Reaching into another one of his pockets, he pulled out one of the packs of Marlboros he had, and took a cig in his mouth. He whipped out his stainless steel lighter, and flipped it open. He cranked a few times until a flame generated, and lit the tip of the cigarette before putting his lighter away. He breathed in the fumes, and, feeling a lot better, continued forward, leaving a trail of dust clouds as he walked down the path.

The sound of hooves against the ground quietly echoed through the woods. A magnificent red elk, with an enormous pair of antlers, galloped over rocks and grass, heading up the hill, through the forest. Riding the elk was a young man who held the reins with ease. He was dressed in a brilliant blue tunic, with a pair of tight leggings. He also wore dark blue gloves that extended past his forearms, acting like sleeves to his short-sleeved tunic. His dark brown hair was bunched together in a tight ball, held together by a single red hashi. Hanging on his back was a large wooden bow, and a deerskin quiver of arrows. A short sword hung in its scabbard from his waistline.

As the elk bounded over obstacles to stay on the trail, the young man scanned the woods carefully with his eyes. He enjoyed his daily ride through the forest in the early morning. His job may have been to search for anything out of the ordinary, but not much had come up in his lifetime. Sure, he was only seventeen years old, but he still knew the forest better than many in his small village. And, under his watch, nothing dangerous had ever come to their home.

Just after crossing a small creek, the elk stopped to sniff the air more clearly. It did not usually stop for a scent, but this one was different. It reeked of something unknown and unwelcome.

The young man noticed his companions' unusual pause, and moved his head down to meet the elks'. "What is it, Yakkuru?" he asked, addressing the animal. "Do you smell something strange?"

The elk returned the look of worry to his master. He had a much stronger sense of smell than his human companion, and decided to bring them both closer so that the young man could smell it as well.

Yakkuru brought them both further through the forest, closing in on the strange odor. As they neared, the young man could make it out as well. He clutched his own face, realizing just how strong the horrible smell had gotten. Gods, he thought to himself, what could possibly smell like this?

After they cleared another small patch of woods, they came upon it: a long, slime-ridden gash on the forest floor. Every piece of vegetation on and around it was either dead or rotting. The smell was at its worst.

The young man was still covering his nose as he took in the sight. What on earth could have caused this? He reluctantly opened his mouth to speak. "Yakkuru! Let's go along this path, and see if we can find the source. If we can't, we'll head back to the village and tell the others."

The elk nodded to his rider, and took off in the direction of the infected path.

As Dante walked down the dirt path, the stonewalls on either side of him grew and sunk as the path went higher and lower. After a bit more walking, he could see over the wall on his left; the first thing he saw was what looked like a primitive-age watchtower.

The second he saw the tower he ducked behind the wall. He had suspected something of the sort sooner or later. This could mean VCs, he thought to himself, or possibly NVA…

Then he stopped. Watchtowers were not common for either to use. Charlie always concealed himself in the woods, having certain outposts to watch, but never a tower of that size. Nothing that would stand out like that, anyway. Besides, it had looked a bit too primitive. Just to make sure, he lifted himself up again, peeking out from behind the wall to get a better look.

He saw the tower rise up from behind the wall, at least eighty feet in the air. The tower was supported by thin tree trunks, bound together by ancient and logs acting as crossbars. The top held a small platform, roofed by a level of straw. When he looked into the small chamber, he saw, for a split second, that there was indeed someone inside of it, acting as the lookout.

He ducked back behind the wall, and started walking along the path, crouching to keep out of view of the watchtower. He didn't know if the tower was an outpost for the enemy, but he didn't want to take the chance. If he was spotted, all there would have to be was a yell of alarm, and gooks would come jumping out of the tunnels they were bound to have dug underground.

As he moved along the path, he noticed that the wall was becoming shorter and shorter. The path was moving uphill, eventually opening into a clearing made up of tall grass. Thinking cautiously, Dante took off his pack, put it on the ground in front of him, and pushed it along with himself as he crawled through the tall grass. He kept going until he was closer to the woods, far away from the watchtower.

When he was finally able to stand up and look around, a breathtaking sight met his eyes. Far down below, at the foot of the mountain he was on, as well as several others, was a small village. One longhouse stood in the center of the village, with several smaller, triangular huts surrounding it. All houses were covered in straw and other materials on the outside. Other small structures were scattered around the area, as well as a few agricultural fields, definitely crops kept by the village. A tall pole was also stationed on one end of the longhouse.

The thing that caught Dante's attention most, however, was on the other side of the village. A small structure had been built right into the mountain, held up by long wooden supports. A long, thin staircase allowed access to the building from the ground below.

The entire idea of such a landscape confused the soldier. In Vietnam and the surrounding areas, villages were not built with such ancient qualities. Also, huts weren't built to keep in warmth, like these appeared to be.

And he couldn't get rid of the fact that, when he looked out onto the landscape, he saw mountains as far as his eyes would allow him. There was no sign of flatland, or jungle. It was also very temperate, unlike the tropical environment he had been in a day earlier. It just didn't make sense. In short, he wasn't even sure of where he was.

Ashitaka's mind raced as Yakkuru bounded through the woods, heading down the mountain, towards the village. He was so focused on his current situation that he didn't seem to notice the leaves and branches that constantly brushed in his face.

Whatever had left that horrible trail back there couldn't be good. He had to get back to the village fast, and warn everybody. Perhaps the Oracle already knew what was happening. Either way, it didn't look good.

As he was gazing at the village below, Dante heard noises coming from further down the path he was on earlier. He looked over, and saw a surprising sight: three people, all of them short, were heading down the mountain. Dante moved a bit closer on his hill to get a better look. They were girls, it turned out, about 14-17 years of age. They each wore dark purple tunics, with shin-length leggings, and pointed hats made of straw. They all carried sacks full of gardening equipment on their backs.

Dante noticed that they appeared to be in a hurry, as though they had all been called back to the village. They didn't look like the kind of villagers he was used to seeing, and they certainly weren't wearing the same kind of clothing.

After the girls had disappeared into the woods between the top and bottom of the mountain, Dante began to think. He decided to push all thoughts about how he could be in such a place, and take the chance by asking for help down at the village. He stood up from the ground, lifted up his pack, and swung it over his shoulders.

All of a sudden, Dante heard a yell come across the mountain. He whipped his head around, trying to figure out what it was.

"Who's there?" he called out.

He heard the yell again. This time, he was able to pinpoint it: it was coming from the watchtower.

That meant he'd been spotted! Was it really an NVA hideout?

The person in the watchtower kept calling to him. Dante's first instinct was to run into the woods, but something stopped him. He hadn't been able to make out what the person had been saying at first. He knew enough basic Vietnamese to get the idea of what VCs or NVAs might be saying to each other. But the yells from the watchtower didn't sound at all like any Vietnamese.

"Oooooiiiiiiiiii!" The call came once again, and Dante finally realized what the man was speaking in: it was Japanese.

Acting on instinct from his childhood, Dante responded in the same language.

(All dialogue from this point on is in Japanese, unless otherwise noted.)

"What is it?" he answered, cupping both hands to his mouth.

The man was yelling back to him, but Dante couldn't understand him clearly. He was still pretty far away from the tower. He went over to pick up his pack.

As he crouched down and grabbed the shoulder strap of his pack, he froze. Something didn't feel right. He looked into the woods, looking for anything.

There was a faint rumble in the ground below his feet. And the sound of something crashing through the woods was just barely audible. The sound grew greater with every second. And then, he saw it: it was just barely visible, but he had spotted something moving through the thick woods. It disappeared from sight, but the sound only grew.

Dante lifted his pack, and backed away from the woods. The man in the watchtower was still calling to him, but Dante wasn't listening. He was slowly moving back towards the trail, keeping his eyes on the opening to the woods, his breathing moving at a faster pace.

On one of his deep breaths, Dante got a lungful of rancid odor. It took him a second to verify, but he recognized it as the same odor from before. Whatever was coming had caused that massive trail of destruction he had come across. Just as he covered his mouth and nose, he saw several trees start to crumble. A number of them even appeared to shrivel up, losing their green color. They just rotted away, as though being burned, only there was no fire at all.

Suddenly, the woods burst open, throwing foliage and bark everywhere. Out of the darkened hole stepped something Dante couldn't even fathom. The creature, if it was even a creature, was the most horrible sight the soldier had ever laid eyes upon. Its enormous body, bigger than a normal truck, was like a giant arachnid, with several legs sticking out on either side. The entirety of its body seemed to be covered in the same black film that had coated the contaminated trail; only here, the slime seemed to have a life all its own. It moved around the creature wildly, as though a virus madly eating away its host.

"Holy mother of God…"

The creature moved out of the woods, onto the grass, eating away the fresh green vegetation. After it had cleared the woods, it stopped, and backed up on its heels. It then lunged its front forward, sending the layer of black slime flying up into the sky. What was revealed made Dante's spine shiver: the head of an enormous wild boar, with sword-like tusks, and lifeless, loathing eyes. It let loose a horrible roar of hatred, and the feelers returned to the host, engulfing it once again in the hideous black slime.

Through this entire ordeal, Dante hadn't moved a muscle. His shock and fear had overcome him completely. And he was still so frightened that he didn't notice when the creature started moving again, coming right for him.

Dante regained his composure just in time. What the fuck are you doing? MOVE! He snapped into action, and leapt to the side with all his strength and agility, clearing the path of the creature. He landed in the dust, and saw the creature go right past him, heading for the watchtower.

The youth got to his feet, and looked up at the tower; the person was still up there. But it was too late for him to do anything. By the time he brought his eyes back to the creature, it had already reached the wooden supports, and was eating away at them ferociously, forcing the tower to tumble over, and sending the man in it falling into the woods below.

"Holy shit!" Dante tore off in the direction of the fallen man, not noticing the creature as it headed down the mountain, towards the village.

When he reached the trees on the other side of the field, his eyes darted left and right, searching for any sign of the man who had fallen. And he saw him; an old man, probably in his late seventies, sprawled out on the ground. He leapt over to the man, and lifted him up.

"Hey! You okay? Are you still alive?" Dante asked frantically, in a slight panic.

The man's face stirred, and he slowly and painfully opened his eyes. Not thinking twice, he uttered what was important.

"V…village…"

"Huh?"

"You…you have to stop it…before it gets to…please, you must warn the village…"

Dante couldn't believe what he was hearing. Here he was, holding a complete stranger who had nearly fallen to his death, and the man was already telling him that he needed to go save his home from the creature he had seen. How was he supposed to do that?

"What do you mean? How am I supposed to stop that thing?"

"You saw the village…did you not?"

Dante remembered that the old man had seen him back by the woods, and nodded. "Yeah, I did."

"Then you know where it is. Look, over there." He pointed to his left, where a large, red elk had just walked up. Dante gaped at the sight of the animal.

"You can use him to get down there. Quickly, you must go!"

Dante tore his eyes away from the elk. "But what about you?"

"Don't worry about me; there are others down at the village, and they need your help…please…"

The man clutched at his side, feeling for broken bones. Dante sighed, and laid the man against a nearby rock. He threw off his back, stopping only to grab his 12-guage, and ran over to the elk. He leapt onto the saddle, pumped the action on the shotgun to chamber a round, swung the weapon over his shoulder, and grabbed hold of the reins. This was not the first time he had ridden horseback.

"C'mon! Yah!" He kicked at the sides with his heels, and the animal bounded down the mountain.

The old man could only watch as the elk carried the mysterious stranger down the mountain, towards the village. And he could only hope that the boy knew what he was up against. "My dear boy, be careful. You are facing the worst of all evils…" He struggled to breathe as he finished "And, if you are not careful, you will become part of that evil…"

As the elk bounded down the mountain at an alarming speed, Dante held onto the reins with all his might. As uncomfortable as the ride was, he kept his mind focused on the problem at hand. His eyes scanned the forest around him, searching for any sign of the enormous creature.

"Shit! Where the hell did it go?" He was afraid that the thing might have already reached the village. It was a long way down, but the creature could move surprisingly fast.

Suddenly, as the elk made a turn on the path, the woods behind them exploded in a flying mass of branches and foliage, and the enormous beast came bursting out, barely missing them. The elk leapt away from the mass of black, and tore down the mountain trail, the creature now right on their tail, and closing.

"Holy shit!" Dante said to himself as he got another clear look at the beast. The same hatred was in the bright red eyes in the front of the huge mass that made up the head. The black slime moved around violently as though to reach out and grab him and the elk. Thinking fast, he grabbed his Remington by the action, and pulled it off his shoulder. He then tossed it up in the air, and caught it by the grip, holding it like a pistol.

He aimed the weapon at the face of the charging predator, which was still coming at them with no signs of letting up. He eyed the creature, his finger on the trigger.

Suddenly, the darkness of the forest was gone, as the forest opened up into a clearing. They now rode on a wide-open field of grass that went all the way down the mountain, right to the village.

At this, the demon stopped. It turned its head around, facing the path that led down to the village. And, there, it spotted three figures walking quickly down the hill. Dante gasped in horror; they were the same three girls he had seen earlier at the top of the mountain. His eyes went back to the creature, which had forgotten about him, and was now making its way down the hill, after the girls. With the sound of a scream, the girls were aware of the danger they were in, and were running down the hill as fast as they could.

With a much harder kick to the sides of the elk, Dante urged the animal on. "GO! After them, now!" The elk responded, tearing after the demon again.

Dante's face went pale when he saw what lay ahead of him: one of the girls had tripped, fallen flat on the ground, and was not getting back up. The other two hadn't stopped to help her, lost in their own sense of horror and panic. Dante urged the elk on even more. After a few seconds, he was parallel with the beast. But the demon was closing in…

Yakkuru and Ashitaka burst out of the forest, onto the smooth dirt path of the village. Ashitaka saw that the village was already in a total uproar, with villagers scrambling everywhere, running from one place to another. Men dressed in their battle armor were heading to the foot of the mountain, ready to take on the approaching demon god. Women were running after their children who had come out of their houses to see what the commotion was about, and were trying to usher them back to their homes.

The Emishi prince rode through the village, people scrambling to the sides to get out of his way. When he reached the foot of the mountain, he saw that the warriors had already built an enormous fire for their arrows and other weapons, as well as several of the elderly folk, who were in the utmost state of fear, praying for their gods to protect them from the oncoming horror.

"Prince Ashitaka!"

The boy looked to his right to see one of the warriors approaching him. "Unosuke!", he responded, "What happened here?"

"Hii-sama ordered everyone back to the village less than an hour ago, my liege. Us warriors were ordered out here, so we got ready. But panic spread fast when someone said they spotted something moving through the forest!"

Ashitaka nearly went pale. He had come too late. The beast that had left the trail he had seen was already moving towards their village. He went back to Unosuke.

"Where are Kaya and the other girls?"

"We don't know, sir. They never came back down from the mountain."

The prince's heart sunk. If Kaya was still out there…

"We have to go out and make sure-"

"Look! There it is!"

At the yell of another fellow warrior, Ashitaka whipped his head in the direction of the mountain. Coming down the mountain at an alarming speed was an enormous black creature. He recognized it as a tatari-gami. Then, his eyes went to what was in front of the beast: the three girls were running down the hill, the demon on their tail.

"Go, Yakkuru!" He urged the elk onward, and he responded. They bounded through the other warriors, ignoring their yells, and headed straight for the girls. Ashitaka gripped his bow, ready to strike.

Suddenly, he saw the most frightening sight in his life: Kaya, the girl he had always known as his sister, had fallen down, and was left unnoticed by her companions as she cried for help.

"No, wait! Help me!" she yelled, reaching out for her friends.

Ashitaka's heart sank. They would never get there in time, she was too far away, and the demon was closing in…

"KAYA!"

Suddenly, something happened. It all happened so fast, but when he looked again, Kaya was no longer on the ground. He looked to his right, and saw someone else on one of their red elks, with Kaya on the saddle with him. He had scooped up Kaya while she was on the ground, and ridden away while the demon god had crashed to the ground after skidding to a stop.

Ashitaka's heart rose, and he breathed again, actually managing a smile. He didn't know who the person on the elk was, but, at the moment, he didn't care.

"Are you okay?"

The young girl slowly opened her eyes. The elk she was riding on had come to a stop. She still didn't know what had just happened. A second earlier, she had been lying flat on her chest, and the enormous beast was tumbling after her. A second later, she was being scooped up by her outstretched arm, and lifted off the ground.

She looked up at the person who had saved her life. He looked utterly strange to her, someone she definitely did not recognize. It took her a few seconds to stop staring in disbelief.

"Well?"

She suddenly responded, holding her leg.

"I'm fine, it's just…I think my ankle might be…"

Dante inspected he leg. "It's twisted. You won't be able to make it down there on foot. Here."

He leapt off the elk, landing on the ground beside the mounted girl. "Head down there and warn everyone. I'm gonna distract this son of a bitch. That should give you and your people enough time to prepare."

"What?" the girl responded. "But you- you'll never make it!"

"That doesn't matter okay? Just go!"

Sighing in defeat, she nodded. Taking hold of the reins, she urged the elk down the mountain, towards the village. Dante watched her go about halfway, but turned his attention towards the murderous sounds of rage as the demon rose back up on its feet. The beast had now decided that the soldier was one annoying little creature, and was best done away with. It turned away from the village, and rumbled after the red-haired youth.

Ashitaka rode up to Kaya as she rode down the mountain. When they were five feet apart from each other, he leapt off Yakkuru, and ran up to her elk.

"Kaya!"

"Ashitaka!" she cried as he helped her off the elk. They embraced tightly, both of them on the verge of tears.

"Are you all right, Kaya?"

"I'm okay, but I think I might have twisted my ankle…"

The young prince smiled. "It's okay. We can fix that up." His eyes then moved back up the mountain.

"But…oh my gods! Ashitaka, you have to help him! He can't defeat that monster by himself!"

Ashitaka already knew of whom she spoke. "Who is he, Kaya?"

"I don't know…but he still needs your help!"

With that, the prince helped her back onto the elk she had ridden down on. "Get to the village, Kaya, and have Yuriko-chan look at your ankle. I'm going up there to help the stranger. Tell the other warriors to come up as well!"

"All right" she said as she took the reins. The animal bounded back down to the village, and Ashitaka mounted Yakkuru once again.

"Let's go, Yakkuru." With that, they tore up the mountain, after the demon god and the outlander that it was chasing.

Dante had to move quickly to dodge the attacks that the beast sent at him. The slimy black film formed extra limbs on the body of the creature, and launched themselves at him. He kept diving away, using every ounce of his agility. The creature, however, kept on coming.

After a long dive backwards, Dante rolled onto his feet, and gripped his shotgun. He aimed it right at the head of the creature as it approached him. "Eat this, you parasitic motherfucker!"

He squeezed the trigger, and fired a round right into the head. But nothing happened at all. The shot was absorbed by the slime, which acted as a shield.

"Fuck!" he yelled, pumping out the used cartridge. He kept moving away, dodging all the attacks the beast sent at him. It won't penetrate that slime! Still, there's gotta be a weak spot somewhere…wait! There! He aimed again, and fired.

This time, the shot hit the creature in its left eye. The beast let out an agonizing cry, and curled up in a ball-shape, concealing itself in the worm-rippling flesh.

"Yeah!" Dante yelled in victory. He watched as the creature continued to ball itself up, then turned his head towards the village. He saw that several people had lined up at the foot of the hill. He was just about to go back to the demon, when someone called out to him.

"Stranger!"

"Huh?" Dante turned his attention to someone riding up the hill. He was riding on another one of those red elks. He took a step forward, about to walk up to the man.

All of a sudden, something struck Dante on his right arm. He yelled out in pain, and turned back towards the creature. The huge ball had burst into hundreds of slimy tentacles, and several of them had darted right at Dante. One had latched onto his right arm, and was gripping it tightly.

Dante could only scream in horrible anguish as the burning black flesh seeped into his skin, burning him right to the bone. He tumbled to the ground, just barely holding onto his 12-guage as he fell. The pain was excruciating, worse than anything he had ever felt in his life. Worse than the worst wound he had received in the jungle, or the time when the medics had had to remove a large piece of red-hot shrapnel from his body while bullets flew around them, using only a pocketknife, and no anesthetic.

Despite all his pain, he tried to break free of the demons' grasp. His effort went to no avail, however, as the creature retaliated by latching a second tentacle onto his right shoulder, causing even more pain, and lifting him into the air.

Ashitaka rode up the hill, heading straight for the horrible scene with caution. The tatari-gami had the outlander in its grasps, and was lifting him off the ground. Ashitaka gritted his teeth, and yanked on the reins, urging the elk to move closer to the beast. He took his bow, and grabbed an arrow from his quiver. "Keep going, Yakkuru!"

In a swift and brutal motion, the demon slammed Dante's body to the ground with its tentacles. He cried out in pain as he hit the ground hard. The demon rose him into the air, and slammed him a second time. When he was risen up again, Dante's head was bleeding, and his left arm looked like it was about to break, the shotgun just barely hanging from his shoulder. The demon moved closer to the woods, and slammed Dante against the trunk of a large tree, pressing him hard against the wood.

Dante screamed one final time before all feeling in his body suddenly went away. He couldn't feel any part of his body, and his consciousness was slipping away as well. As the tatari-gami slowly began to consume his limp form, the black mass spreading all over his upper body, he could only watch as the demon looked at him, its one-eyed face showing no remorse.

Ashitaka pulled back on the reins, beckoning the elk to stop. As he gazed upon the scene, he felt his spine chill. But he knew it wasn't too late. With that, he lifted his bow, and pulled the arrow back on the bowstring. His eyes scanned the beast for a weak spot. And, after a few seconds, he found it: the black film was thin at a small part around its back right leg, revealing the hoof of a giant boar.

Ashitaka took aim. His arrow would not fail him now. And, pulling back the bowstring he let his arrow fly.

The tatari-gami suddenly felt a sharp pain in its back hind leg. It immediately turned away from its first target, and spotted the one who had committed the act against it. Retracting its tentacles, it shot attacks at Ashitaka, who rode away, dodging them. Of course, in order to focus on the new target, it had given the other one up for dead. It hadn't, however, finished the job.

Dante slowly regained consciousness as light flooded his eyes. When he regained his focus, he saw the beast chasing another man on a red elk- the same one he had seen just minutes earlier. Thinking fast and ignoring the pain, he crawled over to where his shotgun had fallen, picked it up, and ran towards the demon. He fired one round into the air, and yelled out "Hey! Over here!"

Full of rage, the demon turned around again, this time revealing its true form, that of a giant boar. Taking aim at the exposed head, Dante pumped in another round, and squeezed the trigger. The beast was caught completely off guard, and, before it knew what was happening, the hot, steely shot pellets had buried themselves in between the creatures' eyes, blasting out a piece of the skull. Blood and brains squirted everywhere from the enormous wound on the boars' head, and it shook itself violently for a few seconds before giving an ear-piercing cry that shook the whole mountain. And, when its breath subsided, it collapsed to the ground.

Dante fell to his knees as he watched the boar begin to die. The living demon flesh was slowly melting off the boars' body, leaving a horrid-smelling lump of brown fur laying in a heap, surrounded by boiling puddles of black flesh.

Feeling pain once again, Dante looked down at his right arm, and watched the moving worms subside, turn to hot, burning muck, and slowly ooze off his arm and shoulder. He grasped his shoulder to subside the pain, but brought it back immediately when he felt the hotness of the burn. His arm stung and burned like an infected grenade wound tenfold. And a long, dark burn mark that stretched all the way to his shoulder remained, as though it was some sort of reminder of what he had done that day. He fell onto his side, rubbed his infected arm on the ground, and threw one final glance at the dying boar god. "Die…motherfucker…"

Ashitaka was at his side almost immediately. He leapt off Yakkuru, and crouched down beside the fallen soldier. "Stranger! Are you all right?" He turned Dante over onto his back, and lifted him up in a seated position. "Can you speak?"

Dante looked up at the young man who was holding him up, just before his eyesight began to fade. "Is…is it…dead? Did…I…stop it?"

Ashitaka smiled at the outlander. "You did, friend. And there is no one as grateful for your actions today as I am." He was about to say more when he noticed that the soldier had fallen unconscious. At the sound of approaching feet, he whipped his head around to meet the warriors, all armed with swords, bows, and torches.

"Prince Ashitaka! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine" he answered. "Our friend, however, needs help fast. Where's the Oracle?"

"Hii-sama is on her way! How did you bring it down, sir?"

"We saw you hit it with one arrow, but then-"

"I was not the one who defeated the tatari-gami." He gestured to Dante's limp, unconscious form. "This man holds that honor."

The warriors all gathered around the fallen soldier. Unosuke, the captain of the guard, knelt down to face him. "Are you still alive, lad?"

"I'm afraid he's unconscious, Unosuke. We need to get him to rest and bandage him if he's ever going to have a chance."

"Ashitaka!" came a yell from down the hill.

The young prince glanced over to see Kaya riding up the hill on an elk. She threw herself off, and crawled towards the group surrounding Dante. Ashitaka stopped her.

"Kaya, wait-"

"What happened to him? Is he hurt?" She tried to break free of the princes' restraint, but failed.

"Please Kaya, stay over here. The wound the demon god left him is evil. He's still alive, though, don't worry."

He turned his attention back to the warriors, who were eying Dante with contempt and confusion. They scanned every inch of his body, taking note of all the strange features about him.

"Look at this boy," one of them said, "he can't be from around here."

"What kind of clothes are those that he wears? And his shoes!"

"Look at his skin! It's pale, paler than the whitest sheet! And you talk of his clothes!"

"What's that long black thing next to him? Isn't that what he used to defeat the demon?"

"That's enough!" Ashitaka pushed his way through the crowd, and stood by the fallen youth. "We don't have time to worry about such things! Let's get this man to rest!"

Just then, one of the warriors returned, carrying a short, stocky old woman on his back. In her hand, she carried a wooden jug. "All of you, keep away from the stranger! He's been cursed with the demon gods' touch!"

Kaya limped over to the dwarfish old woman. "Hii-sama!"

The warrior let her down, and she handed the jug to the younger girl. "Take this purified water, child, and pour it over his wounds. You must do it carefully."

Kaya took the jug, and, aided by Ashitaka, poured the water over the exposed wounds that covered Dante's right arm and shoulder. Steam rose from the burns, easing the pain that Dante would feel when he finally awakened.

With a sigh, the Oracle slowly walked over to the fallen boar god. She stood right in front of the head, stopping where the grass stopped, and clasped her hands together, bowing to the animal.

"Oh nameless God of rage and hatred, I bow before you. On this spot where you have fallen, we shall raise a mound, and perform a ceremony in your honor. Pass on in peace, and show us no hatred."

The enormous, blood-soaked mouth of the boar god suddenly moved on its own. "Silence, you disgusting little creature! Your words of sorrow and remorse sicken me. Soon, all of you loathsome beings will feel the hatred I have felt, and suffer as I have suffered!"

As the last words were spoken, the boars' body began to melt away, leaving nothing but a lifeless skeleton, soaked in a pool of rancid blood and black mass.

Whew. Long chapter. I don't imagine that most of them will be this long, though. This one just had a lot to cover.

A few notes: "Charlie", as some of you may know, is another nickname for the Vietcong by American soldiers. Just thought I'd point that out. Another thing is how I'm naming some characters. Every character that appeared in the film, but did not receive a name, will be named after characters from Kurosawa films. Unosuke is the name of one of the characters from the movie Yojimbo. And one more thing: this chapter may seem similar to a scene in N'Jata's Savior of the Future fic. What can I say, the fic was partial influence, and the pacing was just right. Still, even though some parts of this fic are borrowed, the story is completely different from that fic. I've changed the story enough in my own right to make it different. I just wanted to clarify that.

Well, that's pretty much it. Until next time. And thanks to all those who read and review this story. Keep 'em coming.

Music for Chapter 4:

The Death of a Soldier, by Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)

The Legend of Ashitaka, by Jo Hisaishi (Mononoke-Hime)

The Demon Power, by Jo Hisaishi (Mononoke-Hime)