Forbidden Forest's Change
by: Shampoo
San glanced curiously at the magical trees which now held nothing on them. This was the part of the forest where the magic of the shishi-gami had not touched them and still held a reminder of the terrible day when the forest had lost to the humans.
She let out a sigh of breath, petting her brother wolf on the back to tell him that she was okay. The healing lake where the shishi-gami had once dwelled was green and red with death. The soil was dark and watery, too soaked to take up any life. The trees around had all lost their leaves and were brown with late season. But the forest had never completely died before, not in summer and not in winter. All except for the moments when the Deer God had lost its head.
"Have the apes come back?" She asked her brother wolf, stroking his fur.
*Yes.* The wolf answered. *They are replanting trees as we now speak. Mother would have said that the forest had won, but I know it is not so.*
"Neither of us won." San said quietly, knowing that the sharp wolf ears would pick them up. "We will parish soon, leaving behind no guardians for the forest. The Mountain of the Gods will die, now that the shishi-gami is not here to protect it. And even though the Iron Village has agreed to start again, to make peace with us, there are still many humans out there. Many who thinks of this land as a place of wealth, and not a place of magic."
Her eyes stayed on two Kodamas, staring at a tiny tree and willing it to grow faster. She still remembered when she had cut off a tree as small as that not a moon ago- to plead with the shishi-gami to save her love, Ashitaka's, life. The small Kodamas had surrounded the place, looking so sad at the death of that plant, and willing another to grow in it's place.
"But the forest is already dead." She spoke. "This is now nothing but an ordinary forest. Soon, all the Gods will die out, and none more will remain. It is as the humans say- we will soon become nothing but wild game to them."
*Hush up!* The wolf demanded. *We are still alive. And while we are still alive, we will guard this forest. The shishi-gami has not died for if it has, then all life would have died with it. It is a reminder that it still wants us to live.*
"You can not even speak now." San said, angry. "You say that the Gods will live. Another generation and we will loose our strength, our size, and our intelligance. Humans have might as well won."
The wolf nudged her on her arm. *You have a choice though, San. You are human. You can live with the one named Ashitaka. We take into our hearts that he will take care of you. Do you not love him?*
San thinned her lips. "I love him, all right. But he is still a human and he lives with humans. I am not human, and I hate the humans. I do not need to be taken care of. If I have lived in this forest for all of the beginnings of my life, I will live here for the ends of my life." To tell the truth, she had considered living with Ashitaka before, but that was before her mother, Moro, had sacraficed her life to save her from another God, one who are about to turn into a demon and take her along with it.
Any thoughts of living with Ashitaka was now considered to her as selfish and unworthy. Besides, he visit often from the Iron Village and they were still together. She just had to stay in the forest to help out in whatever way she could. Even though Lady Eboshi was sorry for what she had done, and was willing to make a change, San could not forgive her for killing the forest and condemning her mother to death.
It was only that she could not make such a big difference in the forests. The apes were replanting the trees, blessing the shishi-gami for the miracle of all the greens and life around them. But it was not the same. The magic in the Forbidden Forest simply wasn't there anymore. The awe, the trees, the life- it mostly disappeared. Though the forest was greener and more filled with lafe than before, San could sense the missing element in the air.
"If only the Gods would come back." she stated bitterly. "We have done nothing but protect the forest from the humans. Yet now we are here, waiting to die. In a sense, we are the ones who have lost. Why did the shishi-gami not help us win?" She shook her head, "Sometimes I do not understand this forest."
*It is not meant to be understood, San.* The wolf said, the thoughts coming out with a low growl. *If anyone had understood the forest, it was be the shishi-gami. But it had decided for things to go the way it went. It was the Gods' decision, and it will be forever.*
"Perhaps." San said, her eyes once again scanning the lake. Such loss. "Life springs from unusual places, as it takes from those places too. Who would have thought that everything would come alive again, only to leave the most precious place- the lake of the shishi-gami, dead?"
The wolf also cast eyes on the dead lake, maybe pondering the same thing. *It is not for us to know.* With that, the wolf turned and walked away slowing, stopping as it reached the edge of the forest again, where everything grew. *Come, San, we must leave this place before the sun sets, honoring the spirits here.*
San tore her eyes away, and looked at her brother wolf. After a few seconds, she also walked into the forest with him, not knowing as to why he did not allow for anything by the lake after the sunset. But she respected whatever the Moro clan put down, and would take note to stop anyone from going to the lake after sunset.
The walk through the forest was the same as always, but this time they both took their time to pay their respects to the tiny Kodamas, watching carefully at how few there were. The Kodamas didn't seem affected by the forests' change, considering how playful they still were. But it bothered San how the Kodamas barely rattled their heads anymore. And how most would watch from a high place, as if afraid that the Moro clan would attack them.
"It is strange for the Kodamas to be up so high." San commented, breaking the silence.
Her brother wolf paused in mid-step, and turned his head to look at her. *You know that you can't expect them to trust anyone anymore after how they were all killed off a few days ago. They are barely regaining their population, a few hundred at a time. The trees are still pretty much considered dead, dear one.*
San kicked at the dirt, her hand automatically going up to her necklace. She felt like cursing just for the heck of it, but then remembered that the Moro clan did not do such things. Humans did. It scared her how human she was, even in the inside. She felt very helpless to her human side, and also the side that told her that nothing she did would ever help the forest again now.
"Why do the apes not plant the trees by the lakes?" She asked. The crystal felt cool and calm in her hand.
*They say that the shishi-gami controls all things by the lake. They say that the shishi-gami will tell them what to do if the place by the lake was to grow again. They say that they will not touch the lake unless someone tells them to.* The wolf's pace quickened, almost as if hearing something strange.
"What is it?" San said, forgetting about the earlier conversation.
*Either damned villagers or that boy.* The wolf replied. *But there's someone by the cave!*
Jumping to conclusions a bit too quickly, San told her brother to give her space, and that she could take care of this herself. The wolf jumped away, careful to watch at a distance though. Loosing one family member was enough. He was not going to loose another.
San moved in on her cave, watching the lighting and how the winds carried. If tose were perfect, she would be able to see and smell them a mile away. But as she moved closer, she saw that the person was not trying to hide itself. In fact, that person was sitting on the edge of the cliff, just looking over it into the greens beneath.
"Ashitaka?" She called out, low enough so that the trained warrior could hear, and not some normal person from the village. The person's head came up, and he smiled at her. Relieved, she stepped into the sunlight and answered his smile. "Really, she should stop scaring me like that. The sun is about to set."
"I know that." Ashitaka said, then grinned. "Yakkoru wanted to visit the wolves." He was talking about his giant red elk, who had saved him in battle many times.
"Oh?" San asked slyly. "And you didn't want to visit me?"
The grin grew wider. "Of course I did. My princess is too kind to think of me."
At this, San relaxed and grinned back at him. It was strange how he called her that now. But she did suppose that she was the Princess of the Moro clan. Funny how only she knew who *he* was.
"But my prince Ashitaka, I think of you quite often." She was giggling with the effort to put on this play. Taking a deep bow in front of him, she continued, "It is an honor for you to come across the vast forests to see me!"
Of course, he didn't look like much of a prince, in his red mask and his straw cloak- but the last prince of the Emishi people was a well trained warrior and of pure Emishi blood.
"My princess, the further I come, the more closer I sense you. It would be a sin not to come here." Ashitaka could not hold back a laugh at that. They were both just grinning idiots now.
Relaxing completely, San sat herself next to Ashitaka, leaning her head against his shoulder. She could feel as he put his arm around her, and didn't mind. In fact, that brought back the pleasent feeling that she always had near him. It was feeling she had never experianced before. Actually, she kind of felt it with her mother and brothers, but with Ashitaka, it was more pure.
They stayed like that, silent, for the longest time. Until they heard the growl of acceptance and looked back to the see wolf walking off to leave them alone.
"You know," San started, "Brother forbids anyone in the Forbidden Forest after dark. Or else, that is where I would be right now."
"You want us to go to the lakes of the Great God tomorrow." Ashitaka concluded.
San bit into her lip, but nodded.
Ashitaka smiled at her, grey eyes sparkling. "Then we'll go there. I have to say, though, that place is not on the top of the list for great places. What do you plan on doing there."
San leaned against him again, and sighed. "The apes do not want to replant there. They say that they will not until the shishi-gami tells it to do so. So I want to help. That place reeks of death- but it is supposed to be magical. I think that if we try to put that place back together, we will be able to."
"We have nothing but our hands to plant."
"Then that is what we shall use. I remember the Kodamas- tbey can't change the place, but they try. I think that if more people try, then the place can come back again." San said hopefully.
"I can ask the others for help also-" Ashitaka started.
"No!" San had paniced for a moment. "I mean, no. The hands that delieved the head of the Great God back should be the hands that replace this forest."
He nodded, slightly tightening his grip on her. "We'll do what we can then."
San smiled. She knew that if they tried, they could fill the place with magic again. And she was going to try as hard as she could. As Ashitaka had said before, the body of the shishi-gami might be destroyed, but the spirit is not. And she spirit would aid them on their goal.
Hope you like it! Just the beginning... I'm working on The Crystal Dagger. You might like it. =) Princess Kaya gonna go lookin' for her lost brother...