Chapter 4

Overstayed welcome

As Coro Elysium, Harrow Sharp, and Midnight Sky exited their jump to their first world, Coro raced to the wheel and asked Sky, 'So..where are we and who do I need to pick up?'

'We're in the same world, just several centuries in the past, and you're looking for a San and Ashitaka.' Sky said as they glided down till they were just above the treetops of the mountains and it started pouring down rain. As Sky tipped over the top of a mountain and into a steep valley, Coro ordered Harrow to slow the engines to quarter of the normal speed while she slowly edged past the steep cliffs. As she looked out the windows at the cliff side, she saw a trail winding slowly downward with a large mass of people and cattle meandering along.

'I wonder where they're going in this weather?' Cor thought while she slowly edged past.

Then, she watched in amazement as two wolves, each the size of a small car, attacked the convoy with a girl on one's back. As Coro continued watching, another wolf suddenly appeared, except this wolf was almost the size of a small semi truck, and knocked several of the men and cattle over the edge of the cliff. Several puffs of smoke issued from some pipes that the humans had towards the large wolf as the girl and two smaller ones retreated.

At that instant, Coro had to turn her attention back to what she was doing as the front and back aero-pods exploded in flames. As the fire claxton began blaring, Coro told Sky to try to land on the edge of the lake as she walked out onto the deck to survey the damage. When Coro walked onto the deck, Sky began to tilt as the lone aero-pod in the center of the ship struggled to keep the ship upright as it began to sink to the earth. Suddenly, Coro heard a screeching sound from behind her, and turned, to see two large crates falling towards her. As they hit Coro and pushed her over the edge of the ship, all she thought before blacking out was, 'Man! This is going to hurt!'

…

As May woke up, she looked around slowly. She was laying in a hollow of a tree that was near a river in the bottom of the valley. As she checked herself over and found that she was ok, Coro heard voices of someone near. Nervous about who it was, Coro slowly looked around the edge of the hollow. Standing some ways away from her was a boy about her age, wearing a leather mask and armor, and helping an injured man onto a red elk.

As Coro got to her feet, a blast of pain shot through her body, and steam from the funnel of her hat blasted high into the air.

As the steam chugged from her hat, the red elk suddenly perked its ears up towards her and Coro thought as the boy looked too, '***T! He knows I'm here!'

Coro slowly looked around and saw a small trail that lead along the river in the direction that Sky had fallen. Moving quickly, Coro hurried along the trail, soon she was able to see a large column of smoke rising in the distance.

'Man Sky flew a ways! I'm going to have to run to make it by sundown.' Coro thought as she picked up the pace and the funnel started to chug faster and faster.

…

Toki, one of the girls at Iron town, was on guard duty as she scanned the forest for possible threats since the crash, earlier, a large flying ship had crashed in the forest higher up the mountain side and a teen wearing a white jacket had come down to purchase a ton of iron. When she was inquiring about him, the rice caravan had arrived and with it another young man who was carrying two hurt men, one of them her husband kuroko from the forest. Still thinking about them, Toki continued to scan the forest as the sun was setting and noticed a column of smoke.

"Hey Moroko! Come here and look at this!" She yelled down to the other girl who was below her on the watch tower.

As a fat women ambled up the ladder and next to her, Toki pointed out the column of smoke and they both saw that it was moving.

"Is it a demon?" Moroko asked as the smoke drew steadily closer.

"I dont think so, it's following the trail." Another women above Toki yelled down.

"It'll be coming into view here in a moment!" Toki yelled back as the smoke came closer to the edge of the forest.

As the edge of the smoke exited the forest the women above Toki yelled down, "It's a person!"

As the person neared the town, the men began to lower the gate.

"Hold the gate! One straggler coming!" Moroko yelled at them.

…

'Finally! I can see a town that I can stop in for the night!' Coro thought in joy as she approached the gate of a town that sat on the lake.

"Who go's!" A woman called from the tower that stood over the open gate.

As Coro slowed down, the steam chugging from her hat stopped to a wisp as she answered, "Coro Elysium! I'm looking to spend the night!"

"Enter!" the same woman called as Coro raced into the open gate as it slammed shut behind her.

"An outlander!" Coro heard several people say as she bent over in exhaustion.

"My, how lucky we are to have three guests tonight." A smooth woman's voice said as the towns folk parted to let a woman through, obviously the mayor.

"Hello Madam." Coro said as she took off her hat and bowed before continuing, "You wouldn't have by any chance seen a large flying ship crash around here… would you?"

"So you're the young captain one of our visitors has been talking about. I'm lady Eboshi you can meet your friend in the men's dinner hut." the woman said as she turned and walked away.

…

Coro found the men's dinner hut across from the large iron furnace. As she looked in the door, she spotted Harrow at the coffee table closest to the door, and with his back to her. As she felt her temper rising, Coro walked up behind Harrow who was joking around with several of the men, and whacked him across the back of his head with her sword's holder.

As Harrow turned around in surprise and anger, when he saw Coro's enraged face, before he could utter a word, Coro began to yell at him for not being with Sky.

As she calmed down after several minutes of yelling, Coro was interrupted by someone yelling, "Saan!"

Immediately, Coro ran to the door and looked to the rooftops, a teen girl raced along the roofs to the roof of the furnace. Then Coro saw a boy on a neighboring roof jump to the furnace roof as the girl started to run down the slope and knock her aside. As the two rolled down the slope, the girl fell and landed on her feet while the boy stopped on the roof edge.

"Leave her alone!" The boy yelled as one of the men aimed and fired a old musket at the girl and hit her mask, knocking her out.

"I said; Leave her alone!" the boy yelled as he pulled out two timbers from the roof and speared them into the ground at the feet of the people who were rushing forward.

The boy suddenly fell to the ground and tried to check the girl over but, the girl jumped up and started to attack the boy, who fended the blows off with his own sword before the girl took off and started to attack lady Eboshi. As the girl and Eboshi battled, the boy started to walk towards the two that were fighting. One of the women saw him moving towards them and raised a musket to her shoulder.

"Don't come any closer!" the woman yelled at the boy.

"Koraki! What are you doing!" one of the girls yelled at the women who was holding the gun, startling her enough that her gun went off. The bullet from the gun hit the boy square in the chest and knocking him to the ground.

The boy hit the ground with a thud and the girl continued to battle with Enoshi, Coro reached her breaking point.

"Enough." Coro whispered before stepping forward to the boy. As Coro walked, the stack on the side of her hat suddenly started to blast steam high into the air with each step she took. After checking to see that the boy was still breathing, Coro turned to the crowd that was centered around the fight between the girl and Enoshi. Slowly, Coro started towards the crowd and with each step she took the steam from her hat blasted higher.

As Coro got to the crowd, she plowed her way through, tossing people to her side when they didn't move, until she entered the ring of people. As she approached Enoshi and the girl, Coro drew her right hand blade and grabbed the girl with her left hand, while simultaneously locking blades with Enoshi.

"I.. must admit… I never expected you to stop us when we have been waiting to go at each other for years. ..Now die!" Enoshi said as she whipped out a small knife and tried to stab Coro while the girl clawed at Coro's arm.

As though slicing through butter,Coro's sword sliced through Enoshi's sword and blocked the small knife. As the tip of Enoshi's sword hit the ground, Everyone went silent and the girl, who Coro had firm grip on, stared in shock for a moment before trying desperately to get away from her.

"I won't become the monster like you two." Coro whispered venomously to Enoshi and the girl, before hitting them in the stomach and stunning them.

As Coro gently set down Enoshi and hoisted the girl onto her shoulder Coro called out, "Harrow! Get your butt to the front gate now!" and started to walk to the shot boy.

"Stop! I won't let you hurt our lady Eboshi without punishment!" a man yelled as he pointed a gun a Coro's back.

"You should have stopped her from attacking without cause." Coro replied over her shoulder and continued to walk to the boy.

Then, as the man holding the gun hesitated, his finger hit the trigger and the gun went off. As the crowd watched, Coro whipped around at in-human sliced the bullet neatly in two with her sword, with the sides of the bullet ploughing into the buildings on both of her sides.

"Apparently I have overstayed my welcome." Coro replied in a calm voice that sent chills into the people as she heaved the boy onto her other shoulder and walked to the front gate.

As Coro neared the gate, she saw Harrow standing next to a red elk that was loaded with iron. Without stopping, Coro walked to the gate and said, "Open the gate we're leaving!"

Two guards blocked her path with their weapons and one said, "We can't open the gate unless instructed by Lady Enoshi. Besides, it takes ten men to open."

"Ten men huh?" Coro replied as she put her hand to the gate and muttered to the guard, "Stand back and watch me open this flimsy gate on my own."

The two guards stepped back as Coro gripped one of the massive logs on the gate with her left hand. Suddenly, Coro shoved forward with all her strength as the steam from her hat blasted several hundred feet in the air. All the villages watched in amazed silence as the heavy, solid gate rocketed off its hinges, and fell to the ground several yards away.

Coro stepped outside the walls and gently set the boy and girl down against the outer wall before turning to Harrow and asking, "Are you coming?'

Harrow wandered out the door with the red elk in tow as Coro picked up the large, fallen gate as if it was a toy and threw it back into place.

"Now take me to Sky." Coro told Harrow crossly as she hoisted her load back onto her shoulders.