He sheathes the longer sword, the katana, in the scabbard at his left hip. I recall the book we read (okay, Jinx read) by Musashi Miyamoto and how he went on and on about how two swords were better than one.
Now I see why.
“What were those creatures?” I ask him. Peyton’s head flops to one side, onto some small rocks. I try to bunch his hood under his head to make him more comfortable. How are we going to get him out of here?
“Tsuchigo,” Kintaro replies. “A tiger-spider. Those skull orbs lure people to the cave.”
“Yeah. I figured that out.”
“Interestingly, the orbs are the spirits of those who were eaten,” Kintaro adds.
I shudder. “Now that’s just plain creepy. You’d think they’d want to save people from the spiders.”
“Things do not always work out in a just fashion,” Kintaro says. “Particularly not in this world.”
“Thank you for rescuing us, Kintaro.” Jinx steps up to him with a brighter smile than I’ve ever seen on her.
He takes her hand very gently in his, as if he’s holding an egg he doesn’t want to break. “At your service.” Then he lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it.
Oh barf. Really? He’s, like, five years older than her. That’s just gross.
“Thanks.” I step forward and thrust out my hand for a shake. “You don’t need to kiss me.”
He shakes so firmly my knuckles crack, but I keep a grin on my face and don’t let the pain show. At least I hope I don’t.
“He’s the Momotaro,” Jinx says, nodding in my direction.
Kintaro squints at me, the corners of his mouth turning down. “Really? But you have no powers.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. It’s a long story.” I inhale.
Kintaro chuckles. “Well, little warrior, I don’t know what you don’t know, but I’ll think of something to tell you. Come, I’ll take you to my house so you can rest, and you can tell me your tale. But first, let me check your friend.” Kintaro kneels and grabs Peyton’s arm. He bends it, seemingly checking for broken bones. He runs his palm over the top of Peyton’s tufted hair and looks back at me, his black eyes sharp. “Was this boy once a bird?”
“Once.” Peyton opens one eye in a slit.
Kintaro shakes his head. “His dreams are gone. That is why he is so lethargic.”
“Thanks, Sherlock.” I plant my feet and cross my arms. While we sure needed the help with the spiders, the last thing we need is another know-it-all on this quest.
Kintaro flashes a smile. “I am Kintaro, not Sherlock.”
I try to exchange a knowing glance with Jinx, but she won’t look at me. Annoyance is rising off her like steam. What’d I do?
“We’re trying to get to the Angry Lord of Light,” I say to Kintaro, who has turned Peyton over and is examining the nubby stubs of flesh where his wings tried to grow. “He’s supposed to be able to help us. Do you know how to reach him?”
“I do.” Kintaro straightens Peyton’s clothing, pulling his shirt over his back. He squats on his heels. “If you don’t correct this malady, Momotaro-san, your bird friend will surely die.”
“Die?” Jinx steps forward, her hands clasped at her chest. “Did you say die?”
I notice my arms are shaking. I hold them tighter to stop it. “Are you deaf?” I ask Jinx, mostly to make sure my mouth still works. Die? I thought Peyton would just act kind of lazy and sick for a while. Like my parents. Eating junk food and whatnot. I thought only my grandmother was in real danger.
Jinx punches my shoulder, not softly. Which maybe I deserve. “How long do we have, Kintaro?” she asks.
“I do not know for sure. You should not have brought him here. He is too weak.” Kintaro takes hold of Peyton’s arms and yanks him all the way to his feet, in one smooth move. “In this land, time passes more quickly. Every day here is like a week where you live. This boy is still on his world’s time, so his symptoms are worsening.”
Ohhhh. That explains why Peyton and Jinx thought I took so long to come after them when they vanished through the torii gate. What seemed like seconds to me was minutes for them.
My spine stiffens with fear. And here we are wandering around, lost in the woods. We’ve been in this world a half day at least. That’s half a week gone in our world. “Let’s take Peyton home and then come back.”
“No,” Jinx says sharply. “We’ve already come this far. We may not have time.”
“The monkey girl is right.” Kintaro lifts Peyton and deftly throws him over his shoulders in a firefighter’s carry. “Complete your mission as soon as you can. It is your best and only hope.”
Best and only hope. That sounds kind of melodramatic, yet it’s probably true. My stomach gurgles in sickened response. I pick up Peyton’s backpack. Luckily, it’s not too heavy, since we drank those iced teas. “How far, Kintaro?”
“Not too far, but not too close,” comes the answer.
Very helpful.
Kintaro left a lantern at the edge of the battle scene, which he now picks up as he leads us away from the cave and up another hill, out of the place I’m privately calling the Valley of Despair. Though he’s carrying the 160 pounds or so of Peyton, he strolls like he has no extra weight at all. Jinx walks next to him, asking him about the trees and the bushes and probably each grain of sand on the ground. I’m not really listening.
Then Kintaro laughs, a melodious noise like a saxophone. Can’t he at least have an annoying braying laugh like a donkey? “Ah, Jinx, I hope you don’t bring as much bad luck as your name suggests!”
I scowl. How dare he make fun of her? Only Peyton and I are allowed to do that. “She doesn’t.”
He looks at me, his finely shaped eyebrows raised. “Oh, she is yours?”
“Mine?” I don’t understand what he means.
“His?” Jinx casts a horrified glance back at me. “No way. Never.”
Oh. He means like a girlfriend.
Heat rushes over my face, and I know I’m as red as a Valentine’s heart. “First of all, Golden Boy, she’s practically my sister. And secondly, even if she was my girlfriend, she wouldn’t be mine, like property or something. What year do you think this is?”
“Calm down. It’s only an expression.” Jinx waves away my concerns, even though I’m defending her. “Besides, I’m a lot older than you, Xander.”
“Yeah, a whole year older.” I scowl at Kintaro. “Don’t even think about robbing this cradle.”
“Shut. Up.” Jinx shoves at me while continuing smiling demurely at Kintaro, fluttering her eyelashes in a way I only saw her do once, when she had a stomach flu and was about to barf.
“Jinx!” I tap her on the shoulder. “Do you need a bucket? You look a little green.”
“I’m fine.” She smooths down her hair, an uncharacteristic blush spreading from her collar into her face.
Kintaro studies her. “You do look a little worse for wear. I would carry you, but I’m otherwise occupied.” He gestures at me. “Xander, could you?”
“Xander carry me? I could carry him.” Jinx shakes her head. “Let’s just get up to the house and forget this conversation ever happened.” She grabs the lantern out of Kintaro’s huge hand and moves forward.
Now it’s Kintaro and I who exchange a glance. He grins and raises his eyebrows in a look I don’t think I like. I hope this night is over soon.
Kintaro’s house is not located on the most accessible part of this mountain, unfortunately. First we climb a steep trail that zigzags among the trees. We hike for forty minutes in silence, except for the sounds of our breathing. The night air is cool, pressing down like an ice pack on my body. Occasionally the wind whips up and blasts through the leaves with a ghostly oooooh that doesn’t help the creep factor go away.
Peyton doesn’t make a single sound. A few times I run to catch up with Kintaro and touch my friend just to make sure he’s still warm and breathing. How could I be so dumb, bringing him on this quest? I should have kn
own that he, like Obāchan, would get the life sapped out of him. It had just taken longer with him because he’s younger.
Are my parents and Inu as sick as Peyton is now? I swallow. Maybe Jinx should have stayed home to take care of everyone. She would’ve argued about it, but that would’ve been the best thing.
I wish, just once, I knew the right thing to do before it happened, instead of afterward.
Most of the time, I follow Jinx’s back. In her white shirt, she’s the easiest thing to pick out in this forest. Kintaro’s sure strides never hesitate, even when he has to hop over a huge log that Jinx and I bang our shins on. His long toes splay out with each step, his sandals leaving craters in the earth.
At last, Kintaro makes a forty-five-degree turn, and the landscape changes. Moonlight illuminates a gravel path, which crunches under my feet. The path is lined with tall bushes, so if there is a house nearby, I can’t see it yet.
A low deep growl to my left makes me jump. I put my hand on my sword.
“It’s all right, Xander.” Kintaro speaks calmly. “Kuma, they are with me.”
A black muzzle with sharp white teeth pokes out of the bushes with a snapping of twigs. “If you say so, Kintaro-san.” Then the rest of the form comes crashing out.
I take a step back.
That muzzle is attached to a very large, very angry-looking bear. Without pausing, it lumbers toward me, its huge, wet nostrils quivering, its jet-black eyes narrowed.
I stop and stand as still as possible. That’s what you’re supposed to do in case of bear attack, right? Or is it lie on the ground in the fetal position? “Umm, it doesn’t look like it’s leaving us alone.”
The bear shoves its snout into my belly and sniffs so hard my shirt flattens against its nostrils. It grunts, sounding like an old car trying to start, as it snuffles around my ribs. It tickles, and I giggle automatically.
“Kintaro,” the bear says, “he smells too green to be a Momotaro.”
This again. When will people—and bears—stop saying that? “Well, I am new to all this.” I take a step back, squaring my shoulders. “But if I’m not Momotaro, explain this prematurely gray hair.” I point to my head.
The bear stands up on its hind legs. I almost snap my neck looking up at him. It’s approximately sixteen feet tall. “Maybe you dyed it,” the bear says. “I understand it’s all the rage now.”
“It is,” Jinx pipes up. “I would do it, except Xander already has gray hair, so I’d look like I was copying him.”
“Hardy har har. I do not dye my hair.” I cross my arms.
Kintaro continues up the path. “Kuma only means to say you smell green. Like grass.” He rounds a sharp corner. “It is not a usual scent for a Momotaro.”
“What do they usually smell like?” I ask.
Kuma snorts. “They smell sweet, like peaches. Spicy, like sandalwood. Never like grass.”
“Xander sort of smells like his mother.” Jinx falls into step beside Kintaro, matching his gait perfectly, despite her shorter legs.
I snort. “Jinx, why are you going around smelling my mother? That’s creepy.”
She shrugs. “I can’t help it, Xander. If there’s a Christmas tree in the house, I can smell it. If someone’s baking cookies, I can smell it. If you and your mom are near me, I just happen to smell you.”
“Still, if I smelled you, I’d never tell you about it.” I hope we get to the house soon. Every single one of my muscles is twitching. My legs might fall off. “Yes, I’m not like the other Momotaro. But maybe I’m better.”
“I know how you can prove yourself.” The bear’s front legs thud onto the ground. “We should wrestle.”
“Um…” There are safer things I could do, like jump out of an airplane without a parachute. “I’ll take a rain check.” I start walking faster. “Hey, Jinx, wait up.”
“Kuma, stop baiting Xander,” Kintaro says without turning around. “That’s how we met, Kuma and I. When I was very young and Kuma was but a cub, he and I wrestled.”
Now the bear’s face is right at my shoulder. “Kintaro beat me when he was smaller than you.” His hot breath smells like fish that’s been left in the sun. “I want to know if you can, too.”
“Uh, yeah.” I step away. “That’s definitely not happening in this century. Or any.”
Kuma sputters in disappointment. “You’re no fun.”
“I never said I was,” I say rather sourly. I just hiked up a mountain that’s a lot taller than I remember it being, fought off some tiger-spiders, and now they want me to wrestle a bear? If that last one is optional, then I choose to say no. “Listen, I just want to get some sleep.”
“Understandable.” Kintaro shifts Peyton’s bulk around his shoulders. “Xander’s still a little boy, Kuma. A regular little boy. Not one like me.”
I roll my eyes. Whatever. If they get me to the house, I’ll listen to any trash talk they hurl at me.
After what seems like another quarter mile, we finally step out from between the bushes into a wide-open yard. Dozens of hanging lanterns swing in the wind, lighting the way. The house is two stories tall, with a curved sloping roofline and statues of bears on its corners.
Oh, and it’s completely covered in gold, as if a leprechaun melted down his pot of coins and poured it over the rooftop and walls. Even in the dim light from the lanterns, it shines as bright as a flashlight in a dark theater.
“Fancy,” I say. I wonder what Kintaro would think of my house, and if living in this golden shack has totally ruined all other residences for him.
We head up a winding flagstone path toward the house. There is a large pond in front of the home, serving as both moat and decoration. Big flat rocks in the water lead to the porch. Kintaro steps across them. “Watch yourself. They can be slippery.”
A gold-and-red koi fish the size of a small rabbit leaps out of the water, jumping through the air between Kintaro and me. I stop short so I don’t run into it, and I lose my balance. I windmill my arms. “Whoa!”
The bear holds out his great arms to steady me, and his claws poke my back slightly. “The fish won’t hurt you, little Momotaro,” he booms.
“Huh. I know.” I regain my footing, glad for the dim light so nobody can see me blushing. “If I were the fish, I’d be worried about you eating me.”
Kuma blows more hot air out through his nose. “I don’t touch the fish.”
Kintaro clomps across the wooden porch, then slides off his sandals, still carrying Peyton as if my friend is a fashion accessory instead of an almost-grown human. “Welcome, treasured guests.” He slides open the door. We follow his lead and kick off our shoes. The bear doesn’t have shoes to remove, but he carefully wipes his big, clawed feet on the doormat.
Inside, more lanterns dot the space, glowing with energetic yellow light, but I doubt it is electricity. Tatami mats cover the floors. On one side is a low table spread out with lacquer boxes of food, a platter of fish, tangerines, and a bowl of hot rice.
Kintaro puts Peyton down on the tatami. He disappears into another room.
I sit down next to my friend. He’s a strange pale color now, no longer whitish, but somewhere between blue and green. I touch his face. It feels like a Popsicle. “Peyton?”
His eyelids flutter, and blue-green irises focus on me like a slow-working camera. “Dude.” He pats my cheek clumsily. “Thanks for getting me out of the forest.” A smile wafts across his face. “I dreamed about a giant spider. Well, more like a nightmare, but it’s a start.”
My throat fills with a lump. No use telling him the truth. I have to find this Angry Lord person first thing in the morning. “Go back to sleep, Peyton. We’re safe now. We have a climb tomorrow.”
He doesn’t have to be told twice.
I lean back with a groan. If we were on a street, we’d be standing on the corner of Desperation and Hopelessness. “How are we ever going to get him to walk on two feet, let alone up the rest of this mountain?” I ask Jinx.
Jinx eyes P
eyton, her mouth working as if she’s processing a whole bunch of emotions—sad, sulky, scared. Finally, she settles on determined. She crosses her arms. “We’ll find a way, Xander. That’s all.”
At least one of us is optimistic. Somehow, I half believe her. Jinx isn’t the kind of person to say that unless she was sure she could do it.
Kintaro appears with a round lacquered container. “You could leave Peyton here with me, if you like.”
Jinx raises her head, a smile breaking her face. “Now that’s an idea!”
“Wait.” I hold up my hand. “What’s the catch?”
“Why do you think there’s a catch?” Jinx elbows me.
“There is no catch, as you say.” Kintaro bends over Peyton, then meets my gaze. “But you must let me know before dawn.”
I look at my friend. I don’t want to leave him here, with this guy I just met a minute ago, but maybe there were worse things in the world. “I’ll think about it. I guess.”
What happened to never leaving your friend behind? Peyton and Dad wouldn’t do it. Heck, I doubt Jinx would, either. Except she probably wants an excuse to return and visit Kintaro again.
Kintaro strides over to the table, puts down the container, and lifts the lid off. It holds small, steaming white towels. He picks one up with a pair of tongs and offers it to me. “To cleanse your filthy hands.”
Nice of him to point out that my hands are filthy. I take one and almost drop it—it’s scaldingly hot—but I manage to wipe my hands quickly.
Jinx is already kneeling at the table, dishing portions of rice into bowls. Even one for Peyton. Then she opens the lacquer boxes and, using a long pair of hashi—chopsticks—deftly serves their contents on square plates. Somehow, despite all the time she spent in the wilderness, she looks pretty darn clean and presentable. I consider waking Peyton but decide to save his food for later instead.
“Tell me about your life in the other world, Jinx,” Kintaro says.
Jinx begins describing my house and Inu and my family. I notice she says nothing about her own relatives, but why would she? Kintaro tosses his used towel into a basket across the room, so I do the same—except, of course, I miss. With a sigh, I get up to retrieve it.
Xander and the Dream Thief Page 11