Danny felt Wendell slip, felt his own grip fail—and then, before he could even panic, he was rising up on—a cloud?
It was the giant crane.
Wendell was sprawled across the great bird’s back like a lizard in a featherbed. Danny felt himself start to slide on the slick feathers and grabbed for the bird’s neck as it banked into a turn. Hot air rising from the mouth of the volcano caught the bird’s feathers and lifted it high into the sky, until Suki and the ninja frogs and the shocked figure of the oyabun were tiny specks on the edge of the volcano.
“GET THEM!” roared the oyabun as the crane wheeled overhead. “Stop them! Shoot that bird down!”
“We have to go back!” Wendell yelled, crawling forward across the feathers. “We can’t leave Suki!”
Whether it understood English or not, the crane seemed to agree, because it pulled its wings in and spiraled downward toward the volcano.
“Shoot them!” the oyabun yelled again, but nobody seemed to be shooting. In fact, except for the oyabun, nobody was paying attention to such trivial matters as a gigantic, potentially frog-eating bird swooping down from the sky.
“Master!” cried one of the ninja frogs as the crane swept low. “Master, the geckos are attacking!”
“Suki!” yelled Wendell. “Suki, JUMP!”
Whatever else one might say about Suki, girl or not, ninja or not, Danny had to admit one thing.
She had guts.
The salamander wrenched loose of her distracted captor, dove under the belly of the oyabun—and threw herself into the volcano.
The crane dove too. Wendell shrieked again, and Danny let out a noise that he would later claim was a whoop of victory. The whole world skewed sideways, the crane practically stood on its head in the air, and Danny and Wendell stared directly into the lava.
Suki smacked down hard on the crane’s back, nearly flattening Wendell. Danny grabbed for the back of her dress, Wendell got part of her tail, and the three of them somehow clung to the back of the crane’s back as it soared up from the volcano.
“Did the geckos really come? ” Suki panted.
Wendell pointed downward as the crane leveled out and began flying, with broad wingbeats, back across the forest.
“Look for yourself,” he said.
OUT OF THE BAMBOO
The crane set them down not far from the bus stop. Whether it understood the bus system, or just understood Suki pointing down and saying “There, please!” was open to debate.
With its enormous wings folded up, the crane looked a great deal smaller. It turned its head from side to side, peering down at them, and then it fanned its tail a little and bowed.
Danny and Wendell bowed back. Suki started to bow, then stepped forward and hugged the crane’s leg, which was as high as she could reach.
“Thank you, Crane-san. You saved our lives.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “That is so like a girl.”
“What should she do, give it a handshake? ”
They stood in the woods, staring after the crane long after it had vanished. Evening was coming on, and it was getting dark. Nobody said anything as they trudged wearily toward the road.
“Why the long faces? You won, didn’t you?”
“Great-Granddad!” Danny ran forward.
His great-grandfather was leaning against the bus stop sign. He slapped Danny on the back. “Hi, Danny, Suki. Wanda, glad you made it . . .”
Wendell sighed.
“I thought I’d bring you out some tea,” said the old dragon. “Craneback riding is awfully cold.”
“How did you know? ” Danny asked.
He handed out paper cups full of steaming tea.
“Thank you,” said Suki. “Please—do you know if the frogs will leave me alone now? ”
“After that beating?” Great-Grandfather Dragonbreath grinned. “It’ll take ’em years before they dare stick their snouts out of their fortress. I think you’ll be fine.” He picked up his walking stick. “And now, since the bus is on its way, I’ll be off. Say hello to your mother for me, Danny.” He paused, glancing back over his shoulder. “You did good. Even without breathing fire.”
Great-Granddad Dragonbreath tromped off through the snow, occasionally whacking bamboo with his walking stick when it didn’t get out of his way fast enough (or at all).
The kids drank their hot tea in silence until the bus pulled up. They climbed wearily aboard.
Suki sat down next to the window, and Wendell shyly sat down next to her.
“Um.” Suki looked at Wendell.
“Um.” Wendell looked at Suki.
“Did you see that?!” Danny draped himself over the back of the seat in front of them. “When all the geckos showed up? Wasn’t that the coolest thing ever?!”
Wendell sighed. “It was pretty cool,” he agreed.
“But the coolest thing was the crane,” said Suki.
“Eh, I don’t know.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “It was awfully drafty up there.”
“I think I would have gotten seasick after a while,” Wendell agreed.
“No way!” Suki crossed her arms. “The crane was totally the best!”
The argument lasted for the entire bus ride back to the stop by Danny’s house. If there was a distinct transition between mythological Japan and the park on the way to the mall, none of them noticed it.
When the bus dropped them off—and suddenly their adventure was well and truly over—they found themselves tongue-tied again.
“Um,” said Suki. “I . . . uh . . . guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow at school.”
“Um,” said Wendell.
“Um. Yeah,” said Danny.
They all stood around, staring in different directions.
“I should get going,” said Suki. “I’m already out late, and my host parents will get worried.”
“Yeah.”
“Definitely.”
Suki started to turn away, then stopped. “Thank you, guys,” she said, and gave both of them a quick hug. Then she turned and began walking away very quickly.
“Yeck,” muttered Danny, wiping at his arms. “I suppose now I’ve got cooties. Eh, Wendell . . . Wendell?”
BACK TO SCHOOL
“So do you think the ninjas will bother you again? ” asked Wendell as he, Danny, and Suki sat at lunch the next day. Big Eddy wandered by in the distance, like an elephant crossing a linoleum savannah, but the trio was trying to ignore him. Danny hadn’t even protested eating lunch with a girl. After all, it wasn’t just any girl, it was Suki.
Besides, Big Eddy had stolen Danny’s lunch on the way out of the cafeteria line, and Suki had donated her potato chips so he didn’t go hungry.
“Well . . .” Suki set her sandwich down, glancing around to see if anyone was watching. “I found a note in my locker this morning.” She held it out.
“So that’s that, then,” said Wendell, leaning back.
“I guess so,” said Suki.
Danny laughed into his potato chips.
After a minute, he realized that both Wendell and Suki were staring at him.
“What?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Suki, narrowing her eyes.
“Oh, relax,” said Danny, waving a chip. “I’m sure you’ll be fine for a while. By the time somebody comes after you because you kebabed their great-great-great-grandmother, you’ll probably be old. Like in high school or something.”
“Oh.” Suki relaxed. “That’s okay, then . . .”
SO LONG FAREWELL
THREE WEEKS LATER . . .
“So I heard today was Suki’s last day,” said Danny as he and Wendell walked home together.
“Yup,” said the iguana. “She’s going back home to Japan.”
“You gonna be okay? ” Danny asked.
“Sure,” said Wendell. He shrugged. “She promised that she’d write.”
“That’s good.”
Wendell punched him. Danny nobly accepted this e
xpression of his friend’s grief without retaliating.
They walked in silence for a while.
1 Danny felt that this was completely unfair. His overactive imagination had a number of sources, only one of which was comic books.
Attack of the Ninja Frogs Page 5