Between Men and Wolves

By Arlia'Devi

Disclaimer: I do not own The Princess Mononoke in any respect; all rights go to Hayao Miyazaki and associates. I make no money from this.

Between Men and Wolves

By Arlia'Devi

20. Epilogue

"[pitching the proposal for Mononoke-hime (1997)] There cannot be a happy ending to the fight between the raging gods and humans. However, even in the middle of hatred and killings, there are things worth living for.A wonderful meeting, or a beautiful thing can exist. We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation. What we should depict is, how the boy understands the girl, and the process in which the girl opens her heart to the boy. At the end, the girl will say to the boy, "I love you, Ashitaka. But I cannot forgive humans." Smiling, the boy should say, "That is fine. Live with me."
― Hayao Miyazaki

A year and a half later...

A pregnant Toki was working in a large garden with a handful of other women. The sun was coming to the middle of the sky and it was getting sweltering in their working clothes. The sound of their hoes hitching up the dirt and their banter filled the air. Gently they began to sing a working song as the day toiled by and they planted seeds for the early winter crops.

San entered the village, walking over to where Toki worked. The older woman greeted her warmly.

"The seeds just came in yesterday," Toki said, dusting her hands off on her apron. "Take five ladies," she called to the women folk, who dropped their tools and went to sit by the shade of a leafy tree and grab a drink from a bucket.

Toki ushered San into her house and grimaced at the scene before her – her husband, Kohroku and their daughter Maya, now two, sleeping against the far wall. Maya had her head nestled into her father's chest, clutching his shirt in her tiny fist. Kohroku had his arm under her bottom, supporting her.

"Lazy, aren't they?" Toki rolled her eyes. "I hope this new kid isn't allergic to a little bit of work. Ah, here it is." Toki grabbed the small pack of seeds from her basket and handed it to San. In exchange, San handed her back a small amount of money.

"Thanks," she said, putting the coins into a small pouch. "Hey, there's a big feast down in the mess halls tonight, you and Ashitaka should come in to Iron Town for the night."

San shook her head, "No thanks," she politely declined. "Yama killed a cow this morning. He promised me a leg."

Toki made a face.

"I have to be going," San called, putting the seeds into her tunic. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye, San," Toki waved the girl goodbye as she ran out the village before turning and rolling her eyes as her husband let out a loud snore. Some things never changed around here.

San ran out through the gates and onto the grassy fields. She saw Yakul grazing, and he trotted over to her rather happily.

"Yakul," she smiled and scratched his chin. "Is Ashitaka still out in the clearing?"

The elk nodded and whinnied as San climbed onto his back and took to the forest, weaving through the trees and dirt roads before they came to a clearing at the base of a small hill covered in trees. The sun filtered through the canopy and the ground was covered in wild flowers and low-growing grasses. Against a sheer rock face was a small, new, hut made out of bright fresh wood and a cleanly thatched roof. A little to the right of the house, beside the tree line was a large, rich garden bed. The man working in the soil stood up and watched the woman upon the elk approach.

"San," Ashitaka ran to Yakul's side, helping the woman down. "How is everyone?"

"Well," she said. "You should go in yourself and see, husband."

"Did you get them?" he asked. San tossed him the seed packet.

"Great," he grinned. "We can get these in today." Ashitaka groaned and stretched his back. "I'm famished, want some lunch?"

San nodded and went to walk inside when suddenly she stopped. Ashitaka turned leisurely and San shot him a sharp look.

"We're being watched," she muttered lowly. Ashitaka drew his branch-cutting knife and gripped the handle tightly, his eyes shifting around. If only he had his bow and arrows, but they, like San's spear, were resting just inside.

"Alright," San called. "We know you're here. Come out!"

Yakul began to freak out a little, and Ashitaka moved to calm the elk as his fur shingles stood tall.

A low growling erupted from the surrounding foliage and Yakul let out a large bleat.

Suddenly something white and fast lunged at Ashitaka's ankle, latching onto the cotton pant and shaking it between it's mouth violently.

"Hey, hey!" Ashitaka cried, kicking off his assailant and letting go of Yakul. Yakul stumbled backwards into a trap.

Two more ltitle white demons came out from the bushes, running around Yakul's feet and jumping back and forth, growling loudly. By now, Ashitaka had grabbed the little monster that had grabbed onto his pant leg and was holding her under his arm. San went to catch her nephews by their scruffs and pull them away from Yakul.

"Rani gave off our positions," one of the boy wolves San was holding cried. San dropped them both on the ground at Ashitaka's feet. The two wolves named Eno and Anizu growled began to claw at the dirt.

"I did not!" cried Rani who was dropped to sit with her brothers. She bit Eno's ear and pulled hard.

"Leave Yakul alone," San chided. "You know he can't handle you scaring him like that."

Eno looked away. "Father told us to hunt rabbits. Ashitaka is much better. We weren't gonna hurt him! Promise!" Anizu ran to roll in the newly turned dirt in the vegetable patch. "We thought we could help out Ashitaka today and then he'd play with us." Rani ran over to join her brother.

"Are they troubling you, sister?" Yama came out of the shadows, eyeing his three pups carefully. At his feet was the leg of the cow promised. Rani and Anizu stopped playing and stood underneath a tree. "I told you not to go near the house – if you ruin it, my sister will have no food for the winters and she will have to stay in the den. Will you hunt the rabbits for her when they burrow deep underground?"

"No," replied Eno. His ears drooped over. "Sorry."

"Come now," he replied, turning his back to the hut and the two humans. "San, here is your cut as desired." He motioned to the leg before turning and leaving without another word. The three wolf pups followed their father back to the den.

Ashitaka grinned to his wife on the departing wolves and said, "I knew they were there for quite a while. They're not very quiet and they argue a lot about how they're going to stalk me down." He went to grab the leg and cut the hoof off with the end of his sword. "Let's get some lunch."

San nodded and followed her husband and mate into the house. It was certainly different to the small one-bedroom hut they'd lived in at Iron Works – they'd bought nicer things, better fabrics and chests. She'd worked on a lot of furs, and they were packed away in a storage shed for winter. They'd also added more bedrooms.

Ashitaka sat down by the fire pit and began to chop up the meat.

"Carrots would be nice," he smiled and San handed him a carrot from a small pile of garden vegetables.

"I harvested some Jaraberries this morning," she showed Ashitaka the basket and tossed him one. "I've been thinking now, if we have enough food for the winter."

"We will," he nodded and added some beef to the pan. The carrots were sizzling away in a low frying pan. Ashitaka added some ground ginger and spices for taste. "There's miso in the barrels, there is a chest full of dried fish, and a few bags of rice."

San shook her head. "I didn't think how long it was going to take to build this house for us…"

Ashitaka looked around the mess before him. There were still many things that they'd bought to unpack. He laughed. "We've been getting it more like a home and less like a house," he said. "There's time in winter when we have to stay indoors to get it all done. Besides, I wanted those extra rooms." He looked at San and smiled. "It seems we needed them."

Her hand travelled down to the slight swell in her stomach and felt something flutter inside. "You were right."

"I was wondering," Ashitaka said, coming to sit by San as he stirred the stir-fry and put some rice on to cook. "If our pup is going to be as troublesome as our niece and nephews?"

San laughed. "They're youngsters, let them be happy."

Ashitaka nodded and smiled. He looked to his young wife. "We're happy now, aren't we? After everything that's happened to us, I mean - is this our happy ending?"

San shrugged and laughed. Ashitaka rubbed her stomach fondly. "Maybe, Ashitaka."

The End.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed during this story - your support was much appreciated! I was so happy so many people looked out for updates and can safely say this story is now completed. I added a new cover for it, which, frankly, is a bazillion times better than the one I originally did for it. I don't know if I have any more plans to write AshitakaxSan in the future, besides finishing "She Wolf", but I'll be lurking around the fandom somewhere. Thanks for your support, and please take the time to leave a quick review for this final chapter before you go!

Thanks everyone!

~ Arlia'Devi.