Thank you, Mr. Beaver,I gestured, and Kiki communicated my question:Have you seen six cranes pass by?
Six cranes? Like those?He looked to the sky.
My breath caught in my throat. Soaring above us were six cranes, their crimson crowns stark against the ashen clouds.
I jumped to my feet, waving my oars. The boat jerked, and as I stumbled to catch my balance, my brothers flew on.
Brothers!I flailed.Kiki, tell them I’m here!
But Kiki’s attention was elsewhere. The beaver had disappeared, as had the butterflies. A cascade of water surged ahead.
Watch out, Shiori!
My bird rushed in front of me, shouting and shrieking words that I could barely hear. Water pounded my little boat from every direction, the waves tossing us about.
We spun, caught in an unyielding current, rushing forward toward—
A waterfall!
Terror gripped me. There were no boulders to jump onto, no shore within reach. I pulled the rudder as far as it would go to turn my boat around, but the water was too violent, propelling me forward with alarming speed and sweeping away my oars.
We careened toward the falls.
Tell my brothers I’m here!I shouted to Kiki in my mind.Hurry!
While my bird vaulted into the sky, the river became a torrent, threatening to engulf me. I gripped the sides of my boat as it rocked against the waves. The little red doll, the fishing net, my blankets—everything was washed away. I would benext.
A veil of mist obscured the waterfall, but I could hear it. I could feel it, too, the cold spray in my face, the strong current that would soon bring me to my end.
The boat teetered on the brink before shooting over the falls. My stomach plummeted, but for a moment, I was flying. I could see a rainbow at the bottom—a beautiful last sight, I supposed, with the water cascading all around.
No, Iwasflying! Strong white wings beat against my back, and flashes of crimson darted in the mist, accompanied by furious squawking.
My brothers—my brothers had come for me!
They threaded their necks under my arms and legs, biting my drenched robes as they lifted me. They soared so fast and so high that my feet dangled over the waterfall and my stomach clenched from the height.
But I wasn’t afraid. I cupped Kiki in my hands, knowing she was just as content as I was to see my brothers’ wings skim the clouds.
Finally I had found them. And they had found me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We flew until the last glimmers of sunlight sank behind the horizon and darkness stained the sky.
My brothers landed before a cave molded into the mountains, marked by a narrow ledge under a canopy of branches and leaves. Moonlight crept over the forest, and as it touched my brothers’ crimson crowns, one by one they became human again.
It was not an elegant transformation. I waited in the corner, biting down on my lip as my brothers’ limbs stretched and their muscles strained until all six crumpled in a heap, breathing as though each gasp were their last. But when they finally rose, the tears I’d held back for all these months welled in my eyes. Tears of joy and wonder and relief that we were together again.
An embrace came from every direction, and my brothers began talking at once.
“Where have you been?”
“We’ve been looking for you for months!”
“We would never have recognized you, Sister. Thank the great gods your little bird screeches like a crow!”
But one question rang louder than the others:
