The Wolf Girl

Chapter 1

    I sit in the trees waiting for the young prince named Ashitaka to come by on his elk. I have never approached him afraid of what he and his human brethren might do to me if they see me. I do not know why, but ever since I ran across him I have been able to separate from this place. It's as if something is keeping me here. I am as I like to call me and my older sister wolf girls. Mortal woman raised by the great wolfs of the wolf clan that I had lived with. My mother who is harsh towards humans knowing what horrible things they are doing back home who is kind, caring and very protective of me and my sister especially.

    My family consists of my two wolf brothers and my human sister San. I watch as Ashitaka comes raising around the corner on his elf and as he passes me I begin to chase him, far enough that he couldn't see me. I hear as we both quickly move him talk to three girls from his village about something bad is coming. We raise forward until we both stop, me watching as he climbs as fast as he can on his two mortal legs up the tower and by half way he stops looks at something far off in front of him. I look to my right where he is looking at trying to see what he has seen and met with a horrible sight. A thing with red eyes and a worm covered body comes charging. I look closer and see that is a huge brown boar god.

    "No," I whisper as I see the prince fall with the older man along with the tower they were on. I chase after them hoping to stop the demon, but knowing something bad was going to happen. I run along the forest line watching as the prince save the girl that has fallen in the line of the demon. I slowly watch and horror and shout a "No!" still in the forest line watching as the demon wraps the arm of Prince Ashitaka with its evil curse that I would never want anybody to bear. I slowly approach the group sadly looking at the boar demon as it quickly decomposes. "You are all fools you stupid humans." I say and with that they all turn their fearful gazes onto me.

    "Leave her." Ashitaka says as they slowly help him into their village's wise woman's home.

    "Don't die Ashitaka." I whisper as the wind blows my silver white hair into my face

    "I won't mysterious girl." he says to me as he and the village men enter the home. I sigh in relief that Ashitaka is now safe with his people, but I can't help but worry about that curse upon his arm. I have never seen it before since I left mother, San, and my brothers. I climb on top of the closest building which happened be the old women's home that Ashitaka was taken into. I lay on top of the hay roof and slowly my eye lids begin to close until all I see is darkness.

    "You shall return home my child." I hear my mother's voice within the darkness.

    "Mother? What do you mean I will return back home. I won't leave Ashitaka. He might not know but I have been watching over him and his village. I have shamed myself by letting him be wounded. I just watched him sacrifice himself." I sob near the end.

    "He shall bring you home. He shall free this land that has been disrupted by that evil woman." Her huge face appears through the darkness as my eyes focus on the glow of her eyes.

    "But mother I don't understand. What woman? What has happened to our home since I've been gone?" I try to plead for an answer, but all of a sudden I am woken and all I can see is the shine of the moon. I look around to see what had woke me up and I heard whispering coming from the home that I laid upon. I looked through a hole in the roof and all I could see was Ashitaka and the old women companied by a couple of men. I noticed that Ashitaka is stone faced and that the village has tried wrapping his arm. That won't help. That is one of the nastiest curses I have seen in a long time. The woman is throwing bones and other small items until she begins to speak.

    "I am afraid this is very bad. The stones tell me that the boar god came far to the west. He had some kind of poison inside of him driving him mad. A poisonous hatred that consumed his heart and flesh…and turning him into a demon monster. Prince Ashitaka." She paused

    "Yes." I stare at the two trying to figure out what they were going to do about the curse.

    "Show everyone your right arm." She told him. He begins to un-wrap his arm showing the marks from the god. The men gasp and one of them asks her what the marks meant. "My prince, are you prepare to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?" she asks him

    "Yes, I was prepared the very moment that I let my arrow fly." Tears begin to rise to my eyes. Why must a kind hearted prince that would sacrifice his life have a fate that I know wouldn't be good just by one corrupted boar god. I shake my head trying to refocus on the two. The woman hums in understanding.

    "The infection will spread throughout your whole body, bone and flesh alike. It will cause you great pain, and then kill you." She tells him and again the dreaded tears rise to my eyes, but again I fight them back. The men begin to rant and ask if there was anything to stop the curse or if they should just sit there and watch their prince who gained that wound by protecting their village. The women ignores the men and begins to talk again. "You cannot alter your fate, my prince. However, you can rise to meet it, if you choose. Look at this." She shows from his items a ball of some sort. "This iron ball was found in the boar's body. This is what hurt him so. It shattered his bones and burned its way deep inside him. This is what turned him into a demon. There is evil at work in the land to the west, Prince Ashitaka. It's your fate to go there and see what can see with eyes unclouded by hate. You may find a way to lift the curse. You understand?" I decide than without even thinking that when he left on the journey he was going to take that I would follow him to where maybe I will meet my family again.

    "Yes." He answers. The oldest man in the room begins to talk about the past of their village and that it's unfair that Ashitaka was leaving them. Ashitaka grabs a knife and cuts his hair letting his beautiful brown hair fall to his shoulders.

    "Our laws forbid us from watching you go Ashitaka. Whatever comes to pass now, you are dead to us forever. Farewell." I jump off the roof and follow close behind him.

    "Ashitaka, I know you may not know me, but I have watched you for a long time protecting you from things, but today I did not protect you from the greatest thing I should of." He quickly rushes into an outfit that consisted of a hay covering and a reddish mask. He stops suddenly and looks back at me with his piercing eyes. "I am sorry Ashitaka. Please forgive me by letting me go with you on your journey and help protect you from the monsters that you might face." I half bow to him as he grabs his elk.

    "Tell me your name first then maybe I will let you come." I nodded.

    "My name is Luka." He looks back at me again, but this time his look makes me blush a deep red.   

    "That is a beautiful name. Matches your beauty." He climbs on top of his elf. I blush even redder. "You may come Luka." I look down at a water puddle that I now noticed I was almost stepping in. I see my silver white hair, yellow eyes that remind me of my mothers, and the pale skin. I'm wearing my normal clothes that I hide most of my skin. It consists of animal furs that matched my hair that goes down to my animal skins that I hide under the furs that I made into a tube top and short shorts. I nod and before we could head off a girl stops us.

    "Ashitaka!"

    "Kaya, what are doing here? You know it's forbidden." He stops her with a whisper.

    "I came to give you this so you won't forget your little sister." She hands him a dagger.

    "Your crystal dagger. Kaya, I can't take this."

    "Please, keep it with you, brother, to protect you. You must take it with you. Please, I want you to have it, so you won't….forget."

    "Kaya, you know you I could never forget you." We begin running. Me by foot while he on his elf. We climb mountains without stopping, plains of grass with water. We stop quickly to eat and feed the elk and begin running again.