V
The pathways in the forest were not numerous, at least not to untrained human eyes. Well worn paths in forests were not limited to the floor after all. The trees, branches, boulders, streams, all constituted pathways for the beings that made their lives under and around the forest canopy. With patience, one could manage to steal a chance sound of scampering against the sticky resin of the pines. Or even the shifting in current that signified a fin redirecting the water flow. It was said the flap of wings of a passing raptor enhanced the natural music of life and death tenfold, given man's constant envy of flight. This was the music of the forest today. And the interloper passing through was set on listening for one specific instrumental tone.
The horse's hooves steps in purchased rhythm down the limited forested path. Eboshi keeps her head bowed as her mare progresses on the curving path beset by engorged oaks with exposed roots thicker than most men's bellies on the right and sloping cedars overpowering the olfactory nerves on the left. Yesterday marked exactly four weeks since the fateful night she had walked Ashitaka home. Since San had left, Ashitaka had withdrawn from interacting with others. He showed up to help finish the moat, and one additional project involving animal pens, but the only person who saw him outside of this was Toki. She was barely social at that. He would allow her to take meals with him, but refused any attempt at conversation. Toki was now the one maintaining the tenuous connection between Eboshi and Ashitaka, but it was apparent to both women that San had exited in higher spirits than either wanted or intended.
Gonza had insisted on coming with her, but while Eboshi was in charge, he would follow her direct orders, and so he would in fact stay behind after strapping her into her saddle's modified harness for the single arm apparatus and following her to the edge of the forest, the place the wolf princess was last seen by anyone. He had stayed standing in her sightline until she vanished behind the trunks. Now she was here, with no company but the horse, and her mind's tricks.
This was her second day perusing the possible paths to find her quarry, after returning to New Tataraba for the evening; there was no reason to encourage danger by staying in the forest at night. San was not the only resident of the forest bearing her a grudge. And it so happens to be her third day in a row without 'medicating'. Her joints are sore, especially her jaw, missing the confluence of her lit pipe. Her eyes water with the slightest contact with sunlight, and her belly swells with ire, no doubt due to her general inability to keep her food down as a result of the other symptoms. Worst of all were the noises. The noises she has to keep a lookout for, but so many seemed to be manufactured in her mind attempting to relieve her latent anxieties on her journey, only to stoke her frustration as the results proved unfulfilling. A brief hint of foot traffic, clothed feet on the beaten leaves of the forest floor, unreal and inanimate. Eboshi chews at her lower lip, reopening a sore that she really should leave be.
She produces a pair of persimmons from the saddlebag and squeezed the juice into her mouth, popping the spent rind and skin into her jaw for chewing purposes. If solid food was going to be so troublesome, she would adapt to a juice diet until her ulcer and stomach could come to an eventual truce. A squirrel chirped from the heights far above, a brief shower of hairy acorns plummeting atop her curved hat. She smacks her jaw and presses her mare forward with a clicking of her tongue.
On the path before her, she scans for any sign of recent travel. Droppings, indentations, but aside from squirrel and deer signs, wolves and human signage evaded her as of yet. She sighs, her ruined shoulder flares with discomfort. That was new. She thought the 'phantom pain' was over after the first season without it, no need to worry until winter returned to agonise every fibre. She wishes to shrug and roll it away, but the hundreds of thorns inhabiting her bloodstream beg to differ with her prognosis.
Her breath steeps in little agonies. Her vision dips in saltwater once again. The fruity granules only serving to irritate the sandstone in her jaw. She sucks at the open sore on her bottom lip, hoping stale copper will overtake the grind of the journey.
Her horse follows the divide of trees up to the base of a mountain. Not so much resembling a traditional mountain, but a piled tower of slate grey rock beset by green vegetation in between the layers. The horse nickers as it clove the dirt beneath. Eboshi blinks through the stinging haze her eyesight had descended to.
Ashitaka, during one evening's meal, had gone into detail about the night he had spent in Moro's 'care' on the mountain she claimed with her children. She recalled his description of stacked stone, with the sparse greenery, and grimly smiled. Regardless of the pain that troubled her, she just may have found it, on the second try too.
A cracking of branch and swift padded movement drew her attention from the rock before her. Given San's no doubt high emotional state when she left that evening, Eboshi had foreseen this encounter. She clicks her tongue twice, and moves to dismount. An intricate effort, given the contraption set to counter balance her lack of a right arm. She carries with her a small saddlebag, strung across her complete shoulder, a decorative faux katana, and her cloak and hat, standing before the high ground, walking staff at the ready wrapped alongside her saddle.
The wolves move to flank her, approaching from both sides of the mountain base. Their teeth bared and claws ready for rending at an instant's notice.
"Forgotten your thunder arms on your way in today, human witch," the bright-toned one on the right snarls.
"I only bring with me what I need for my tasks. I am not at war. I am here to talk, peacefully."
The muted wolf on the left let out a sound resembling a scoff. "The boy sent you instead of showing himself. Pitiful excuse for a man."
"Ashitaka did not send me, though doubtless he knows I am here by now."
"What if we were to devour your horse and you with it, right now?"
"I would not be able to stop you, but the boy back there would not approve of it. And she wouldn't like that."
The bright one growls again, "You dare to assume and speak of her?"
"I know enough not to use your names without being introduced, for fear of seeming entitled without due."
The muted brother narrows his eyes, stepping forward. "Are we to believe that you are showing respect to us, after the years of carnage you have reaped on our family and home? Is this a game to you, human witch?"
Eboshi was careful to keep her eyes between them, not locking with either the speaker or the accompanying at any one moment. "I cannot speak to what you believe. Only what brings me here at this moment in time. If you require me to make an offering or apologise, I will. Though…"
As she speaks, she takes her waterskin from her attached saddle bag and drinks. Her shoulder feels as burning. She makes no indication of it. She flexes and whips the fabric of her robe on the right side, revealing the shorn shoulder. Her scarred porcelain skin shining in the sparse dappled light.
"I believe one could make an argument that one has been made and accepted already. By previous masters of the domain."
Both brothers roar at this remark, leaping forward, drawing within spitting distance of Lady Eboshi. She does not budge from her place or make a sound.
The horse startles and escapes behind her. No horse or beast of burden could ever be trained to withstand such, she had been assured. She doubts a red elk would weather that event either, privately. She lowers the waterskin, snapping the top shut with her thumb. She is alone now, in hostile territory. Getting back was a bit of a reach at the moment. She chose to leave New Tataraba having only done her hair, no makeup, no rouge on her lips, no overpowering scents. She came seeking the wolf princess as just another woman. If she could only meet her halfway.
After unleashing their emulated fury at her, the wolves quiet to panting in the daylight. Eboshi remains, surveying her gatekeepers. "May I proceed onwards and upwards, then?"
Another scoff, from the bright one. "You could but why should you? She's not even up there."
"Is she out hunting? Will I see her before evening?"
The muted grey coat answers, "We have made a separate camp at the opposing side of this rock."
"You can follow at your own hazard, human witch."
The two wolves break formation and turn to leave. Eboshi waits barely a second before following the muted brother to the left. Out of curiosity, she attempts to whistle and click, summoning her mare. She does so twice. She resigns herself to the walk, when to her surprise she hears cloven feet slowly making their way from the distant treeline. Eboshi smiles. She reaches into the saddlebag and proffers a browned pear to her mount, pulling her staff from the carry on.
"Good girl."
Getting back on the horse would have been difficult, but being able to restore her saddlebag greatly helps her movements, now that the accumulation of the day's expectations wore away at her. She blinks more tears away, and discards her rubbish, taking out a mandarin and juicing that for nourishment before imbibing some of the pulp to activate her nutritious instincts. She hopes to fool her beleaguered stomach into processing the juice.
The muted wolf, who she assumed was Kaihaku ( 灰白 / grey ), makes no attempt to instigate conversation. And she knew better than to ask it to modify its walk speed for her sake, so she kept at it for well over an hour. By then, Eboshi's legs burned as if stuffed with coals. Her tears mix with the sweat pouring down her face, true potency of her body's salt content.
At last, the trio reaches the edge of the mountain, where a small cave entrance sat. Shiro ( 白 / white ) the bright-toned one, was already there. He had no limit on his speed, so of course he beat us here. She spots a long, flat rock in front of the cave entrance and sits down. She wipes down her face with her cloak, not too classy, but she was in the wilderness and cannot find the initiative to care. She spits out the pulp in her mouth, popping off the lid of her waterskin for another drink. Her head aches aggrievedly, along with all of her joints, and the burning in her belly.
She had known ahead of time that the journey would involve some painful activity, but she is just short of exhausted now that she was at her destination. She couldn't even catch her breath properly, though she struggled to mask this detail to her surrounding audience. With how fatigued she was by the first half, she had sincere doubts about the return trip. Given how it turned out so far, she would be impressed if she were allowed so much as a ten minute nap.
Her ears perk up, catching the sound of scraping and scratching from just inside the cave beside her. Eboshi grunts softly, straightening her tender back muscles. She glances sideways into the interior cavern. The wolf princess, San, sharpens her knife at a whetstone. Eboshi's mouth twitches, reflexively attempting a smile at this time, but her fatigue will not allow it to stick around.
The wolf princess is bare from the waist upwards. Eboshi smirks to herself. It was not even terribly warm, though Eboshi was overexerted and could have doffed her own if she could, given her sweat.
"No one asked you to come here, you witch."
Eboshi rolls her eyes. Of course, I didn't expect a warm greeting. She tips the brim of her hat upward with the staff.
"No. I came by my own choice. May I call you San, wolf princess?"
San spits on the ground in response. Well, that wasn't a resounding no.
"San. Given our history, this will come across laughable at best, and insulting at worst, but I want to talk."
"Do as you wish, human."
Eboshi sighs deeply, gathering breath for the onslaught ahead.
"San, I want you to know that I am not here to beg you for anything. I am not here to make demands of you. I am here hoping that the two of us, two human women–"
A long, wide scraping noise echoes from the interior cavern.
"The two of us should be able to communicate, like the adults we are. You suffered greatly at my hands and those under my care. If it weren't for Ashitaka, doubtless one or both of us would be dead by now. He is the very best humanity has to offer. And I am most grateful that he came and did what he did and undid what he could of my idiocy. Which brings me to why I am here."
"You wish to have him for yourself, I know this."
Eboshi groans and stretches to straighten herself again as she speaks. "And who, pray tell, told you that was my intention?"
"Oh piss off. I'm not stupid, Eboshi. I could tell by the anguish in his eyes as he tried to sugarcourse and throw me off with his cute miscorrecting words about your wishes."
Eboshi fails to suppress a chuckle at the malapropisms, a possibly fatal error she recognizes at the end of her response. She doffs the belt crossing her blouse, dropping the decorative katana to the dirt. "Of course that is the first idea that came to you. Well, allow me to correct your mistook thinking. I do not want him for my own, at all. That would be unfair to him, and you too. The last thing I wish to do is dilute his comforts in any form. San, I want to make peace with you. I know you consider it impossible to be friends, but I'm not going to accept that without trying first. Thus here I am, alone, unarmed, wanting you to hear me as I am willing to hear you. On equal ground."
"Peace. You want peace. You've only taken everything else from me, so the will for me to fight is the last holdout?" San snarls the last sentence, enveloping it in enough venom to kill any negotiator.
Eboshi's head blares with prickling pain. "No, San. You're not listening."
The wolf princess stands, raising her voice in tandem. "You have sought my whole life to take everything from me: my home, my mother, my god, the very blood and breath from my body, and now Ashitaka." She makes her way to the front of the cave, mere steps away.
Eboshi coughs, her pulse raising with the shifting situation.
"San, I think–"
San begins to shriek. "I don't give a damn what you think, you wretched devil woman. Is nothing ever enough for the likes of you? How dare you? You are the bane of my existence since I was born."
Eboshi feels nauseous, but stamps it down as she rocks herself forward, attempting to stand, encumbered and minus an arm. She moves to Ryu, adjusting the saddlebag and the harness Gonza installed. She is tempted to leave, but that would more likely exacerbate the injury.
"I expect you'll return with your army to force my submission to your wishes, hag?"
Eboshi frowns openly as she faces San, already weary. "I am not going to war over the boy. How am I to convince you when you will not listen, you beastly girl?"
San's anger burst, beset completely in her anger, and she sobs. She buries her hands in her face.
Eboshi takes in the child before her. A child of the forest. The forest she herself had sought to conquer completely, crushed beneath her forces and flames if necessary. She saw the years of struggle, of battle, of the tightrope of life and death they both had navigated. She looks over San's bare abdomen, nicked all over, warping scars marring her stomach, breasts, and sides. The bile in her chest slams against her oesophagus once more, but Eboshi refused to be cowed by illness. Whatever remains of her womanly instinct tells her to comfort her. She steps forward and reaches for San.
But as soon as the lone arm reaches her periphery, San howls in rage, swiping at Eboshi with her sharpened dagger. She wounds Eboshi's wrist, a modest cosmetic blemish. One she can and will accept, gladly. The light in San's dark brown eyes extinguishes completely. Her teeth bare in a full snarl.
"I hate you with every drop of blood, every bead of sweat, and every howl of rage inside of me. You should be prepared for a fight; you came bearing." San points at the ground behind Eboshi, the ceremonial katana lying slightly unsheathed.
Eboshi pinches the bridge of her nose and groans, "I'm not going to fight you, San. I'm sorry to disappoint you."
San looses a blustering shout, "Keep the name my mother gave me out of your maw, you witch." She lunges forward, leaping into the air toward Eboshi.
Eboshi ducks and rolls, "Oh, fuck!"
With a full cloak and missing one arm, a backwards somersault is a tall order on a good day for a woman approaching middle age. And Lady Eboshi is in the middle of recovery from 'medicating', so she considers herself lucky that she merely lands on her back, ass in the air. The fact that San overshoots and scrambles to bounce back herself is the luckiest break of all.
Eboshi manages to heave herself on her side, standing to a crouch in order to properly grab the useless katana, better than being butchered by an enraged wolf princess. Just as well, for when she raises to full height, San is at her already, launching a series of vicious overhand slashes that Eboshi barely blocks.
Eboshi knows she has to plan accordingly. She was not lying about the sword in her hand, and she knows better than anyone that hit just right, the blade will shatter, and she will be good as in the ground. So her mind races to make sure to connect with San only glancing blocks, working to fully dodge everything else. She wrenches off her cloak. She needs the manoeuvrability, tossing the cloak towards San to delay her approach.
San is inconsolable, completely beyond reach of any words or plea Eboshi could muster, she can see as much. So she has to evade. And fight dirty, non-lethally. Perfect circumstances, come to think of it.
As San draws near, Eboshi kicks dust into the air. This provokes a frenzied cry from San, half-blinded. Eboshi, with her own fatigued sickness against San's perfectly calibrated storm of violence, knows this didn't even begin to cover the chasm in their abilities at this moment.
Eboshi scrambles around the corner from the cave, seeking cover behind the cedar trees. Her head screams in overstimulation. Her breath is stilted as she struggles to keep herself from being sick, in the middle of a fight to the death. She almost wants to laugh at the absurdity of it, if she weren't the one at risk of buying it.
San comes back to form, screaming like a folk devil, her eyes still coated in dust, but she is able to keep one eye open for seconds of time enough to follow Eboshi and swipe at her in the trees. Eboshi keeps her distance, ducking behind and around every tree possible. San grows increasingly desperate shouting and howling at Eboshi at each turn.
Eboshi is going to become exhausted herself if she can't end this quickly. That is, if she doesn't vomit over herself before San disembowels her; an ironic fate in the moment, Eboshi notes. Eboshi turns from facing San and flees towards the cave again, spotting her horse on the far side of the clearing out front. She ran as much as she could manage. She couldn't spare a look behind her until she was mere feet from the horse's flank. San was gaining quickly, barely two arms length away. Perfect.
Eboshi curves her run, turning into her horse's rear blindspot. She slaps the beast's hind right leg as she bolts past, prompting a reflexive pair of kicks. A gut-wrenching snapping sound echoes in the clearing, accompanied swiftly by San's blood-curdling howl of anguish. Eboshi keeps moving though, until she returns to the cave's entrance. There she at last takes a moment to observe her handiwork.
San's left knee is bent the wrong way, the joint already turning a vile shade of blue. It isn't just that though. Her ankle is lopsided, not broken or fractured, but Eboshi knows it is far from pleasant, all the same. San is in so much agony that she was drooling.
But her reserves of madness still held. She lumbers stutteringly toward Eboshi at the mouth of the cave. Eboshi dives into the cave, hoping she will at least live to regret her last strategy, one that she already hated herself for.
San roars into the cave. Barely 5 metres deep, the walls close in around Eboshi. Eboshi breathes deeply. And again. And as San comes within reach, lifting her knife in finality, Eboshi stops walling off her nausea.
Eboshi vomits sick directly into San's face.
San is as good as on one leg and now blinded as stomach acid and bile sinks into her eyes. She raises both hands to wipe the burning away. Eboshi takes her opportunity. She kicks San's right foot out from under her, sending her to the dirt. As she wails, Eboshi smashes her right foot on top of San's blade hand, using her other foot to kick the blade free.
With San disarmed, Eboshi gathers the knife and tosses it into the trees. She turns back to San. The girl is beyond feral. She claws at the ground, searching for Eboshi. She babbles animalistically, creating whole new verses of sound in her rage.
Eboshi makes her way back to the front, where San's brother's are waiting, teeth bared. Eboshi gathers her cloak, shouting, "I'm not going to kill her or hurt her any further. Back off."
San was sobbing. Weaponless, sightless, and hopeless. Eboshi can't help but pity the girl, who she only managed to best because her horse hadn't been completely scared off by the wolves beforehand. She moves to wrap San in her cloak.
As soon as the cloak touches her, San launches upward and claws Eboshi across her cheek and nose. "Damn it all," she manages before San resumes her battle now down to only her hands.
San punches Eboshi, directly in the eye. Eboshi swears, directing San's next strike to her mouth. Eboshi attempts to negate any furtherance by hugging her close, best she can given the single arm. This prompts San headbutting Eboshi square between the eyes. Eboshi feels something at the bridge of her nose give as her head swims under even more fresh pain. She spits up blood, fresh from the stream.
San shoves Eboshi, who having exhausted herself and overcome with double the usual amount of pain, falls easily. The savage wolf princess straddles Eboshi, striking her face again and again. Strike after strike, each one pummeling her closer to oblivion. She can't defend herself, San is crouched on her good arm. Eboshi is having trouble breathing with the swelling and the blood in her mouth. San's rancour boils over as she reaches for a rock and lifts it above her head.
Eboshi looks softly at San, the girl who rightfully hates her. The child she had willingly tossed into the hell of war, for a few coins, iron, and some timber, sacrificed for capital. A girl who lost her mother to Eboshi's cruel bullet. A girl fighting for the last thing she had in the human world. Unfortunate.
Eboshi puts on a wistful smile. She lifts her wrist and strokes San's leg crushing above it. The girl shudders and pants, rasping in anger.
"Will this ease your suffering, San?"
The moment hangs in the air with the rock held aloft. San's arms give a minute flex. She continues to pant. She lifts the rock until it kisses the low ceiling of the cave. She holds it there, her fingers fastened securely to the underbelly.
In the distance, the wind picks up. Carried along with it, a strong voice enters range.
"~Saaaan!"
San blinks, her eyes crusted in dust and sick. She growls halfheartedly. Her growl disappears into her belly. Her diaphragm trembles. She grimaces. Her dam breaks. She resumes sobbing. She drops the rock behind her head, bouncing off of Eboshi's leg. That will leave an awful bruise. San crawls off of Ebosh. Her cries echoing around Eboshi as San's brothers enter and nudge their sister.
"San, they are coming. The boy prince and a man guard. Do you want to stay?"
The wolf princess pushes the white mane away, choosing to stare at the floor in front of Eboshi, soiled rust brown. Eboshi's hand flexes, breaking San's concentration. Panic floods her eyes. San stands, swaying under her hood of pain and anguish. She hugs her brother's fur collar as she climbs on, her face hidden from view. Her brother backs out of the cave, disappearing before he even hits the treeline.
Eboshi attempts to get up, but her legs and back deny that request. She considers it lucky it didn't hurt to breathe, alone. If Eboshi had any strength left, she would at least make an effort to wipe San's tears as an initial peace offering, but no luck today. She exhales heavily, her lips swelling with the minutes. She'll consider herself blessed if she only lost a couple teeth.
"~Saaan!" "Lady Eboshi?"
Two voices come closer. Ashitaka. The boy prince? Questions for later. Right now, she needs to stay awake. She may have a concussion. Losing consciousness now was a bad idea. She digs her nails into her palm, hoping just an ounce of peppery pain in hand will do the trick. Major movements are hard at the moment. But fingers are easy enough to handle. She sniggers. Handle. Keeping that pun on hand for later. She smiles through the dull roar of her strain and wounds combined.
Two shadows appear at the edge of the cave. One broad, one lithe. Ashitaka is here. At last he was willing to see her. If only she could have chosen a better robe and made up her face beforehand. She chuckled, spitting up more blood. Not ideal at all.
"Oh god no!"
Eboshi blinks. It was harder as the minutes passed, no doubt the bruising is finally taking full effect on her. Soon she might not be able to see much of anything at all. Unfortunate. I would have loved to see the care in his eyes when he picks me up. She shudders. No, none of that now, please. Her heart can't bear the strain of compassion at the moment, she is under too much physical anguish. This is no time for her damned puppy love to enter the equation.
Gonza appears above her. Eboshi moves to hide her face to the side.
"My Lady! I am so sorry I was too late."
Eboshi smiles. "No, I'd say you were right on time, dear Gonza. Help me up?"
Yakul was a calm and tender mount. She assumed so after so many months of engaging with him at the stables while in conversation with his master. The cheerful chirps he gave when fed his delectable softened cherry bark, the nuzzling Ashitaka received upon first arrival, Eboshi had wished she could have a companion so compassionate and nurturing for her own. Ryu was a fantastic mount, don't misunderstand. But Yakul is so special. Considering the harm she had wished upon his master and him by association in the Forest War, she would not hold it against him if he chose to nip or bite her for her sins. But that was not the red elk's way. Another unearned blessing.
She sits in front of Ashitaka on top of the red elk. She has her eyes closed as they travel; it hurts her eyes to keep them open right now. She remains controlled. He has his arms encompassing her as he holds the reins. She keeps herself upright. Stoic as possible given her injuries. Refusing to lean into him. Her spine groans. Her teeth grind inward. Knuckles tighten until she can feel the skin taut over her tendons. Blood gathers across her tongue. She leans over to spit out her excess.
The sky grew darker. Had the day escaped her entirely? Eboshi sucks her teeth. In response, the sky crackles and drums with thunder. Eboshi chuckles darkly.
"Of course the gods and spirits would deem it time for a cool cloudburst as we traverse. How appropriate. Mayhaps I've finally struck a nerve with the cloud deities with my spilled life's-blood?" It was painful to smile; Eboshi hopes her face wasn't overly torn up. Toki would most certainly take umbrage with that, and no one else needed trouble with San at the moment.
Eboshi makes for a deep breath, but her diaphragm convulses with tight agony at the attempt. Tears flood to her swollen eyelids. Her head thrums as she grimaces, a lone line of bloody spittle racing out the corner of her inflamed lip.
Ashitaka's hand leaves the reins to wipe her face. His gentle touch merely complements the injury. She starts at the contact. Her conscious mind urges to recoil, but her want betrays that order, leaning into it. More tears stream. She pants out loud, gasping in and out in a stuttered rhythm.
"Ashitaka, please."
His hand pauses. Yakul nickers in his chipper fugue. Eboshi manages to regain composure, enough so as to at last to nudge Ashitaka's grip back to the reins. The pair continues down into New Tataraba in silence, Gonza following behind them, his usual stoic self.