trans_9 | Solitary Hunt [open]

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Solitary Hunt [open]

San's shoulder was not healed. But pain was relative, and if she'd been at home, in her forest, then this would be nothing next to the pit in her stomach. It was more important to stay sharp, to hunt this simulation of the Wilds instead of laying on her back and feeling her stomach burn with shame or guilt.

...or follow Ashitaka around.

She should know better than that, really. Ashitaka was the kind of human who made friends with everyone— it was enough to make her doubt he even was human. He didn't need her babysitting any more than she enjoyed trailing him like a lost pup. Laying in the plant temple was at least as rankling.

So, here she was, in a simulated forest, tracking a solitary deer through countless miles of wandering forest. The tree's rots snarled and knotted the ground like angry fingers twisted 'round a fistful of sand, they made tracking both easier and more difficult and walking treacherous. It was a good night, cool without being cold and breezy enough to mask the sounds of soft-padded feet on soil and root. The rotted leaves were soft, slipping under her stance like slimy tongues. She felt comfortable this way, the slow, patient, meditative crawl, tracking deer by spoor and foot-trail, eventually by sound and smell until you stood poised over them on a branch or a hill. The final run, hot blood against her hands and then a feast of copper-smell and salty-sweet meat. The simulation of her lost spear was light in her hand.

It was early yet, and San had yet to gain anything like that stalking closeness with her prey, but the deer was out there, and she would find it, very soon.

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Ashitaka was tracking something too as he scoured the ship from head to toe. Civilities had needed to be made with the human population of the ship, an act that San herself would never willingly assent to. He had become too involved with the hubbub of the ship and the wolf girl had apparently decided to slip away while his attention was otherwise engaged.

He stopped at the mouth of the sensoriums. This was the forest - their forest - and yet there was something alien about it, like an old friend returning from war. Regardless, that was irrelevant for the time being as he knew San would be somewhere within it. With some degree of trepidition he steps forward, the transformation of his plantsuit into his more customary blue robes going unnoticed for the time being.

"San?" He called experimentally, and when there was no response, he padded off into the thicket.

People had never been her strength— not even among the dubiously intelligent gods and animals of the forest. No one would call a Kodama wise, but what else could they be?

San had found the trail, clear hoofprints in mud and disturbed greenery when Ashitaka's shout echoed the valley and startled a drum-winged pheasant out of its hiding place nearly under the wolf-girl's foot. For a moment, she startled, then crouched and listened. Surely not.

Then again, who else?

San reversed her trail, and after some thought, took to the trees. As it seemed she'd be hunting a different kind of prey, different tactics were in order; the ancient branches of the forest linked hands in the canopy, like jealous children wrestling for sunlight. It made moving among them easy— and no little because the ever-present Ape Tribe was absent from this idyllic little simulation. San liked to earn her meat, but she didn't like to earn it that dearly. And there he was, moving along with the practiced hunch of someone who'd hunted with a bow all his life. She draped herself along a branch, let an arm hang down and waited for him to look up.

He paced underneath and almost passed her by entirely before hearing a small creak from the branches above. His head flicked up, a relieved smile following quickly behind.

Good, she was safe. Perhaps once time had passed that wouldn't be a reassurance he needed to make. But for now, while the ship was still so new and dark and alien, there would be no greater sight for his eyes to meet than her, safe and every bit the girl he remembered.

"Have you been here all this time?"

"Maybe," she replied archly, head lolling to lean on her folded arm and look down on him at the same time. She smiled, and made a show of linking her ankles comfortably— San had no intention of going anywhere.

"Have you been looking for me all this time?"

"Maybe," he gave her a smile in return. This was a side of San that he enjoyed but rarely saw. The playful, mischievous pup with no care in the world. He felt the weight of their situation slip from his shoulders with each lazy swing of her arm.

"Are you going to come down or do I have to come and get you?" he teased ruefully.

She didn't answer, only uncrossed her ankles, then crossed them again the other way, smugly. Knees hugged the branch lightly, as if she lay astride a particularly restive mount. Her smile widened until it could properly be called a grin.

He'd have to come and get her.

He chuckled quietly before taking to the trunk of the tree like a puppy scrabbling after next door's cat. Just like the puppy, he was nowhere near as graceful at it as his quarry but it wasn't long before he had pulled himself up into the tree's canopy.

Slowly, carefully, he shimmied along San's branch until they were almost nose to nose, "Hi."

"H-hello," She stammered, abruptly bowing her spine at the proximity in a startled effort to regain a little distance. Slowly she relaxed, like the hackles falling back on a startled dog.

"If you fall, I'm not going to save you," she grumbled, and looked away in a futile attempt to hide the blush, "You climb like an idiot."

"You made me climb up here," he replied, softly humoured, "It's your fault if I fall."

"I didn't make you do anything!" she protested, but the out rage unwound her enough to sit up and face him in challenge.

Really, could anyone make Ashitaka do something he wasn't already going to do? He always seemed to have his own idea of what would happen, and whenever he was involved, things turned out that way. Even Eboshi had to bow and let him pass.

"But I go where you go," he replied as if it sufficiently explained everything, meeting her glare with all the intensity of the love he felt toward her.

She was all that was left of his former existence. His village, his people and his sister. Iron Town and the spirits of the forest. All were gone but their fire and beauty lived on in San, and she burned so very brilliantly. All of the depraved creatures that came out of the blackness of space would turn tail and run before him, should they dare try to claim her.

"Ugh," she scoffed and punched his shoulder, but there was no real malice behind it. Besides, her shoulder still hurt enough that hitting as hard as she'd like would be a painful mistake, "Stop being so frustrating!"

Not that she was really unhappy with it, for all her growling and grumbling. San was already leaning on him, sighing as if in utter disgust. Ashitaka was warm through his clothes so she sighed again, resigned.

"You're rotting my teeth," she complained, futilely.

Bracing himself against the branch with one hand he grazed her arm lightly with his other, "But I want to be with you. Is that frustrating?"

"No..." Her face twisted and with reluctance San was forced to admit it aloud. When she dragged her eyes to meet his again, she had to drop her head, a deferential gesture that left her looking vulnerable, especially looking up at him through her eyelashes like that.

"I like having you around, Ashitaka," San murmured, finally, earrings catching the light dimly with the residual movement from her embarrassment, "At least I know, you I can trust."

She never need defer to him and he assured of that with a silent gesture, cupping her chin with his finger and gently tilting her head until their eyes were level. Then, he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. Thank you, it said, I will need it before the end.

"The forest looks--" he caught himself before the word 'alive' could pass his tongue, "-- beautiful today. But how can it be here?"

"It's the Ship-Spirit," She smiled again, but it it was halfhearted, coated with sadness as if the expression reminded her of all the reasons not to smile, "In this room, whatever you want to be real is real. It's like dreaming...I wanted to hunt, so here I am."

Though now, put that way, it seemed like a waste of time, so false. This wasn't the forest, this was just a reflection of a memory, blurred by time and made overwarm and sweet with nostalgia. The reality had been cold at times and as full of death as life, but this was none of that and all the more of the happiness it had been. She sighed and let her legs hang.

"It is beautiful."

Ashitaka sat back against the trunk and listened to the creak and sway of the trees catching in a temperate spring breeze, little sighs of satisfaction rippling throughout the forest. Perhaps it wasn't the reality either of them had truly known back home, but this was a memory of San's and something deeply personal to her. The intimacy of it warmed a part of him that had been cold since he left the Emishi.

"There's much of this ship that I don't yet understand," he replied, "I never imagined the Spirits to be anything like this."

"It's a god bigger than the forest," she snorted, shaking her head at him, "What else would it be like?"

"I don't know," he replied distantly, "I would have thought it could be anything it wanted to be."

Kang had gotten used to the humid atmosphere inside of Stacy, and being poikilothermic, he was perfectly fine with it. The breeze was a nice change, though, as well as the scents and sounds of a forest. He could see as well in the moonlight as he did during the day, but the thick foliage cast shadows everywhere.

Curiously, he put a hand on the hilt of his sword and moved through the forest. He wasn't really designed for moving stealthily, but he was capable of it when he put his mind to it.

A successful hunt was a thing born of a hundred failures. One did not simply take every leap that presented itself, or soon there'd be nothing to leap at and you'd go hungry regardless. You had to pay attention, focus, watch, predict and—

What was that?

San had drawn near her herd, approaching them from the leeward side, moving with care when they bent to eat, and holding herself in trembling stillness when their heads came up again, scanning the underbrush for a presence they sensed but could not find well enough yet to fear.

But something was...subtly wrong, and San waited through her next opportunity to move when she saw it. Him. What did he want?

But no, she wouldn't give up on this. It had taken her too long on this stalk already. She wasn't leaving until she had the taste of venison in her teeth.

...ah, so this was a hunt. Kang was careful to stay upwind of the deer, and held still, watching them from the underbrush. He could sense someone else watching them, and immediately picked out the best spots other than his own for someone to come at the deer; he saw her right as she saw him.

It was the girl who'd broken in to the tavern and tried to attack him. He'd wanted to talk to her about what had happened, but he figured it could wait until after she'd finished her hunt; hell, why not help her, even if the food was fake? It'd taste real enough. Acknowledging her with a nod, he pointed at the herd and silently drew his dagger from his belt, waiting for her signal. She was the more experienced one here.

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Solitary Hunt [open]

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