Y/N woke to the strange feeling of something around her waist. Something warm. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and she stared at the ground as it passed by beneath her feet. She attempted to raise her head but flinched when she felt pain blossom in her lower stomach, soaring through the rest of her veins.
Suddenly the feeling disappeared and Y/N whipped around to see a figure falling to the ground. She recognized it immediately. It was the form of the boy that she had encountered before. The one who had intrigued her down by the river. She slid off her mount, which turned out to be a serow, and rushed over to the body of the boy, crouching beside him. She leaned down and pressed her ear to his chest, shutting her eyes as she focused on the sound of the still-beating heart in his chest. It was weak, hardly there at all, but it was enough. She let out a soft breath of relief and manoeuvred herself so the boy could rest his head on her legs. For some reason that she didn't quite understand, she didn't like the idea of his head resting on the cold mountain terrain.
"Y/N, get away from him."
Y/N raised her eyes from the boy to see San stumbling over, accompanied by their siblings. The two true wolves seemed eager to feast on the boy's corpse, but Y/N held him closer to her. She felt protective of him and of his life. Strangely protective.
San stood beside her sister, staring at the deadly wound in the boy's torso that had drawn a trail of splattered blood after them. "His own people shot him."
Y/N drew a mark in the ground and San nodded. The boy was dying. He wouldn't last the night.
The boy suddenly shifted and Y/N let out a small gasp. Her hands cupped his cheeks, holding him in an attempt to keep him still. The less he moved, the less he would bleed.
"Why did you stop us from killing her," San hissed, kneeling beside the boy. "Tell me while you're still alive!"
The boy grimaced, and Y/N gently drew her fingers across his cheek, unknowingly soothing him with her touch.
"I didn't want them to kill you, that's why." His eyes fluttered open for a moment and he stared up into Y/N's pools of e/c hovering over him. Despite the pain, he couldn't help but smile. If he was to die, he could rest well now.
"We're not afraid to die," San growled. "We would do anything to get humans out of our forest." But even as she said this, her eyes flickered to her sister's hands, which were now pulling the hood from the human's head and gently untangling the knots. She didn't like the... ease... that Y/N seemed to have around this human. The peace. And the way that she gently caressed his face as though he were of some value to her.
"I knew that from the first moment I saw you," Ashitaka breathed, wincing again.
"And I'm not afraid of you," San shouted. She grabbed Ashitaka from Y/N and wrenched him away, pulling out his sword. "I should kill you for saving her!" Just as she was about to bring the sword down upon the boy's throat, Y/N jumped in the way, shielding Ashitaka with her body. She stared up at San, shaking her head from side to side, and San froze. She had never seen this emotion in her sister's eyes. Or rather, she had never seen the emotion displayed like this. Love mixed with a tinge of fear.
"Please," Y/N whispered, her voice hardly audible over the mountain breeze.
"Y/N," San hissed, her eyes hardening, "Move." She pushed Y/N away and held the sword to Ashitaka's throat, the tip pressed against his skin. "That woman is evil, and there's no one who can stop me from killing her."
"No, live..." Ashitaka forced the words through his lips.
"That's enough! I'm not listening to you anymore!"
Ashitaka could feel the sharp point of his sword being pushed deeper into the flesh of his neck.
"San! Please!"
San froze once more at the sound of her sister's voice. She glanced over to where Y/N was sitting, only a few paces away, large fat tears dripping down her cheeks. Her hands gripped the ground beneath her, and as her tears fell to the earth, the ground absorbed her sorrow.
San lowered the dagger and Y/N slowly moved over to Ashitaka's fallen form once more, watching San as she backed away. Y/N knelt beside Ashitaka once more and slid her arm beneath the crook of his neck, pulling him towards her.
Ashitaka's eyes slowly fluttered open and he smiled softly as he saw Y/N gazing down at him. Forcing his arm to move, he lifted his hand and gently cupped her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away the tears that stained her cheeks. "You're beautiful," he whispered. A moment later his hand fell and Y/N felt her heart jump. She raised his body higher and pressed her ear to his chest. His heartbeat had faded even more.
Without even glancing at her sister, Y/N picked up Ashitaka's body and turned to the serow that was standing a little ways away. It seemed to understand her plight and approached her, allowing her to slip Ashitaka's limp form onto its back.
"Y/N, where are you going?"
But Y/N said nothing. Instead, she hopped up onto the serow's back and a second later, they were bounding away over the rocks and stones.
. . .
Y/N slowly led the serow through the woods, moving gracefully from one root to the next. She hummed softly as she walked, swaying in time with the branches as they bowed in the wind, and the flowers as they flowed. As they crossed over roots and wove between the trunks, the tiny little spirits of the forest emerged from their hiding places, among the moss and branches, watching silently as the wolf-girl led the serow through the woods.
Soon, they reached a large lake, hidden from sight by large oaks and pines. Bushes bordered the moss that bled from the trees to the water's edge, and as she approached, Y/N reached down and pulled off her shoes. She set them down beside the water before kneeling at the edge and slipping her fingers into the wave. Her eyes fluttered shut as she searched the forest for the presence of the spirit who roamed these woods. He was not far. Perhaps he would see her plight, and this boy's heart, and would grant her wish.
She stood from the water's edge, abandoning her shoes where she had left them, and darted over to a large rock, where a young sapling was starting to grow. Taking the boy's knife, she cut the stem as close as she could to the rock. Before returning to the serow and the boy, she drew a rune in the moss, apologising for cutting the young plant. Then, she returned to the serow and led him into the water, moving slowly and carefully so she wouldn't spook him.
Once the boy and the serow had entered the water, Y/N pulled the boy from the serow's back, cradling him against her chest as she pulled him to the small island at the heart of the lake. As she walked, the plant clutched firmly between her teeth, she hummed to herself and to the boy. She did not know where the tune had come from, but she knew what it meant to her, and what it meant to the forest. It was the song that she had hummed when the rains ceased to fall, and the song she had sang when the rock slide had crushed nearly half of the forest. And it was the song that she had sung when Lady Eboshi had brought her ironworkers and gunmen to the Iron Town. It was the song that brought peace to her heart, and allowed her mind to settle, clearing away the anger she held for the humans in the village.
Upon reaching the shore of the island, Y/N lay the boy down at the edge, so the water covered his wounds. She set the plant in the island's soft earth at the top of the boy's head, like the marker of a grave. If the forest spirit wished to take his life and use his body to fertilise the life of the forest, then so be it. Staring at the boy, Y/N slowly removed the cap from his head, releasing the dark waves of his hair. Then, with cheeks darkening with embarrassment, she pulled his tunic from his body, so only his arms remained covered. There was a chance the spirit would save his life. And the least she could do for the boy was mend the hole in his shirt that had been inflicted because he had saved her life. Dead or not, she would repair this and return it to him one way or another. In death, she would burn it, and in life, she would return it to him.
As she finished pulling the fabric from the boy, she turned to the serow, who stood a little ways away from the island. She smiled and reentered the water. "You are very wise, young one. You know better than to step onto this island, don't you?" The serow bowed its head to her, almost as if agreeing, and Y/N smiled.
As she reached the steed, she gently cupped its muzzle, soothing it for a moment, before pulling the bridle from it and wrapping it around her arm. He would not need this anymore. "You can go wherever you want to," she said, scratching the steed behind its ears. "You're free now."
Then, she swam back to the island, not sitting on the mossy shore as she had before, but instead remaining in the water, resting her hand on the boy's chest. She could feel the gentle beating of his heart. It was growing weaker by the second, and she let out a sigh. The chances of him making it were slim.
She gently stroked some of the boy's hair from his face, her fingers trailing down his cheek as she started to sing the song that she had carried with her since the day Moro had found her and San in the woods, abandoned by their human parents. "Hush child, the darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down into sleep. Child, the darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down into sleep."
Far from the island, in the town of Iron by the lake shore, the ironworkers listened to the faint voice on the wind, turning their gaze from their tools and weapons. Slowly, one by one, they got to their feet and turned their gaze towards the forest.
"Guileless son, I'll shape your belief, and you'll always know, that your father's a thief. And you won't understand, the cause of your grief, but you'll always follow the voices beneath."
The men looked at each other. Never before had they heard a voice like this. A voice so ethereal, yet so haunting. The words crept down their spine like the spiders of the woods, and like the shadows that reached for their heels when they passed through the village. To some, the voice was soothing, but to others, it made them cower in fear. It brought memories to light, both good and bad, and to all, it made them weary of what lay beyond the borders of their iron wall.
"Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, only to me. Guileless son, your spirit will hate her, the flower who married my brother the traitor. And you will expose his puppeteer behaviour, for you are the proof of how he betrayed her loyalty. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, only to me. Hush child, the darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down into sleep. Child, the darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down into sleep."
Y/N rose and pressed her lips to the boy's forehead. His heart was still beneath her hand. Now, his life lay in the hands of the forest spirit, and there was nothing more she could do. And so, she left the island in the heart of the lake, leading the serow to the banks on the opposite side, where they sat together, Y/N soon slipping into a dreamless sleep as she lay on the serow's back. She would sit here and wait until the boy received his sentence of life or death.