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Somehow… somehow he's gotten a little lost out here…
Ashitaka whistles through his teeth, raising his head high, calling for Yakul. No hoofbeats.
Every sapling, every vine and leaf of the Great Forest seems to darken. The kodama are gone. They're no longer following Ashitaka at his feet, circling, rattling softly. Wherever he travels, it is not a path meant for humans. Animal spirits, and gods, and whatever else may be…
Demons…
No, no, not demons… and it is not water spilling out like a floodplain up ahead… Ashitaka trudges through it, staining his knees red… he can see the Emishi village downhill, and the roofs burning, and Ji-san hollering for the other men… Ashitaka hears their oxen stampeding away into the fields, their backs carrying rice and harvested wheat… it is raiders, Ashitaka discerns, holding up Kaya's crystal dagger in hand…
One of the raiders, wearing a face-covering of dark sheepskin, grabs onto Hii-sama who kicks and writhes and screams enraged… they corner girls, yanking their arms, cutting apart their throats with long, steel weapons… Kaya, bleeding from the mouth, whispers Ashitaka's name…
YOU WILL…
SUFFER…
Ashitaka yells out wordlessly, stiffly taking a step, but unable to do anything else as the village becomes the fortress named Lady Eboshi's Iron Town, all of it choking with ore-blackened smoke. The scent of powder. Gunfire. The ape tribe rips up Koroku, from groin to chin…
To the west, San rides over a cliff of rock, on wolf-back.
An iron ball strikes her where it aims.
Right into San's heart…
Poisonous hatred overtakes… as it did the boar god Nago, as it consumed flesh and bone and spirit…
AS I HAVE SUFFERED…
"What's the matter with him… Ashitaka!" San yells, hurrying over from another winding path.
He finds one of San's brothers, a gigantic white-haired wolf, nudging him. It leads Ashitaka back to where it is safe. "He is not well," San's other wolf-brother declares. Ashitaka hears Yakul's hoofbeats finally. "He got lost. I smell the blood on his breath… his tongue. He bit it."
Ashitaka unsteadily clutches onto San's arms helping him up.
Tears flow down Ashitaka's dirt-smudged face.
"I saw…"
"What you saw, you must understand that it wasn't real," San explains determinedly.
Her fingers fiercely grip over Ashitaka's cheeks. Reassuring him.
"The forest can sometimes see what you fear most and bring it to life in your head. Humans are full of impurities. It's easier."
Under the sun's glow, Ashitaka embraces her.
He weeps whole-hearted.
San startles, blinking owlishly while Yakul gruffly snorts and presses to Ashitaka's leg, and then she embraces him back.
And somehow… somehow, everything is alright.
*