Princess Mononoke Fan Fiction ❯ The Chronicles of Princess Mononoke ❯ Dream Reflections and Hands in Blood ( Chapter 13 )

Dream Reflections and Hands in Blood

 

The second day until the call must commence was about to pass away into the last day, as the sky bled a dusty navy rapture down upon earth. Ashitaka and Sasuke were still riding out from the west, as they exposed themselves to the wide open atmosphere, where they can roam free with no one to pull them down, or feel trapped and ruptured in.

Not that the forest made them both felt that way, but it felt undone and open that they can see the sky absolutely clear once again. The sun shimmered out his rays of yellow spirits, deep orange delight, and crimson rose, while it blurred and dissolved in with the contrast of lonely dark abstract colors of the night. The moon was about to gloss out once more on the very moment that the sun fades and surrenders into the tarry fluid drench of black.

The wind began to rise a little as Ashitaka and Sasuke's streamlined bodies split through the current of the mild gale.

“We have to stop somewhere.”

“Where? There's no shelter we can go to.” Ashitaka then pointed out an abandoned bungalow; to be frank, it didn't look at its best; the timber was rotten with termite bite marks upon them as thy must have chewed through those bitter fibers. And the thermal state almost seemed impossible to sleep a satisfactory warm night in, but nevertheless, it was still a shelter. So then, Ashitaka and Sasuke settled inside, as they built a fire safely inside with scraps of eaten timber lying around. They then settled around the fire, opposite each other, with Kaya's elk munching her meal on bits of wood and dead leaves. Ashitaka sat with his knees close to his chest and his arms wrapped together on them, as so did Sasuke. They both stared blankly at the fire which slowly burned its way through the wood.

“I hope San and Motoko are doing fine.”
“Yeah.” Sasuke replied utterly. “I'm…sorry, about you sister.” A small silence emerged when Ashitaka looked up at the Kira.

“Thank you.” He looked back down. “How did you get these messages, did they send you them in dreams.”
“You do the first stage you turned…” Sasuke shifted his body slightly to get himself in a more comfortable position. “…and then, when you become more experienced with it…you just sense it at an instant.”
“Right.”
“I think you first…get a series of a dream that repeats the scene over again, but the event is different from each night.” Ashitaka thought for a moment; was this huge moon with the carbon black sky meant to mean something. “Does that mean anything to you?” Ashitaka then rose himself back up, and leisurely walked himself over to the view of the mild gale hasting away, silence filled the room once more. And Ashitaka closed his eyes to try to imagine himself back into his surreal abstraction. Just…envisioning it…

 

“The dreams had always had the same mark.”

 

Then, he saw the hunter's moon close to the surface, the carbon black sky dusted with silver stars, and the longs blades of jade grass…

 

“I'm standing, looking at the hunter's moon. My feet felt like there were on the ground, but they were stood in the air. And then, as I look forward, someone shady would always be standing there, and finally something strange would happen to me…”

 

“What do you mean by something strange?”
Sasuke's question made Ashitaka reflect on the moment that fiery wings burst through his back and the instance when his body disappeared and turned invisible, as his muted voice screamed for help. He then turned his eyes back at Sasuke and stared at him for the minute.

“Things that sometimes seem impossible to occur.” Sasuke always had impossible things occurring to him; he always thought of them as bad luck. But then again; things happen for a reason.

“The must have happened for a reason.” Sasuke implied at Ashitaka, as he turned back to him.

“That's true, but for what reason?”
“I don't know.” Ashitaka then grew curious and wondrous towards Sasuke and stood himself up again.

“Sasuke…after you beaten up that man…”
“Ashitaka, I already told you, I don't know what happened to me back then!” the Kira rose up and looked away from the prince.

“I'm not asking what happened…I'm asking…what you felt.” Sasuke looked behind him with quite a weird look upon his face, but then he looked back outside, where the wind began to blow a little stronger than before.

“I felt…unusual. Like, I lost control of my body; going numb…” He then pictured the hands in blood groping onto his clothes as they dragged him down below the surface screaming. “…what I saw…was horrible…I began to see…hands…hands in blood…”

Sasuke began to feel the churning sick nausea in his stomach like before, but not as strong as before, only more…deeper. “The hand's in blood…the hands in blood…the hands in blood…”
“Sasuke, are you ok?” Ashitaka started to worry a little whilst Sasuke kept repeating the phrase `hands in blood' over and over again. What could it be this time? It can't be like before; he didn't look like he was in any pain, maybe just getting paranoid and indistinct. Or was it something more cavernous?

“The hands in blood…the hands in blood…the hands in blood…” Sasuke was getting sweaty, his pulse began to race in his blood and the thumping of his heart punched and throbbed his chest with every second.

 

It slowly hit him.

 

He looked down at his hands as he still continued to repeat the phrase. He looked down. And then he saw blood. Blood stained and dripping from his fingertips. All dark luscious red like wine that has been embalmed from a human being, and then was left with the dye of crimson running through the fluid horror of it. His eyes widened. His teeth gritted. His temper rose higher. “What is this?! What is this?!” he whispered inside his head. He then saw himself choking the death out of Ashitaka. The face went white, as the hands were too weak to make Sasuke let go of him. “What am I doing?! Stop it!”

…But you can't stop it…

 

“Who was that?!”

 

A faint, eerie whisper echoed in his ears.

 

…you can't stop it…you are what you are…a killer.

 

“Stop it!”

 

…a killer…a killer…KIROYSHIMA!!!

 

“STOP IT!”

Sasuke swung his hands over behind him, but fortunately Ashitaka clutched hold of his wrists before they managed to hit him. Sasuke stared with fret and terror. The sweat dripped from his face and dampened his skin little by little. His eyes were still swollen out and his teeth continued to grit. The panic on his face distinctively shown across his face, as Ashitaka tried to calm him down.

 

“Sasuke, it's only me! What's wrong?”
“I-I…I don't know.” Sasuke then slowly made Ashitaka let loose of his wrist and rub his shoulders. “I-I think I need sleep.” The prince then sighed a little and looked back up at him.

“That's probably the best thing to do.” Ashitaka replied in a sigh, as they both calmly prepared themselves to sleep, and let the small mediocre fire die out within the liquid blackness of the night.