Through thin gaps between bushy-leafed branches, Yukiko could barely see about twenty Tengus. She couldn’t hear them talking, as they were too far away. They seemed to be gathering around the center of their tree village. Something or someone was holding their attention. Something or someone Yukiko was unable to see. The giants peered down toward the round stage she’d noticed the day before. She hoped they were looking at her father, and that he’d come to rescue her and Pam. Hopefully, she thought, the giants hadn’t snatched him up and put him in a cage like they’d done to her.
Yukiko peeked over the edge. Far down below were the browns and greens of the forest floor. If she were to drop a coin from that height, she thought, it would take at least a minute to fall all the way to the ground. If her father were to pass by, he wouldn’t have any idea she was up there. She could scream down at him, but with so much distance between them, her voice would be too tiny to catch.
The Tengus had brought her there the night before, plucked her out of a cage, and placed her in a tree hut. She wasn’t alone. Pam, Braden, and Big Bee, too, had been captured. They were prisoners, jailed in two of four huts that had been built apart from each other, around four trees. The shape of these jail huts, not unlike that of a donut, was round with a hole at the center. And through each center was the trunk of each tree.
The jail huts all had steep roofs and round walls and plank floors. Outside and around each hut was a circular walkway—a narrow hoop of a path—where one careless step could mean falling to your death, since there was no rail to stop you from going over. In a way, the true walls of these jails was the air itself.
Yukiko was stuck with Braden in the same jail hut. Whereas Pam had the misfortune of being jailed with Big Bee in another. All of them were too far from the village to hear much of what was going on over there, or to be heard, but close enough to be constantly reminded they were captives. With a really long rope, escape might be possible. After all, there were no guards around. And Kenja and Kenza had been gone for two or three hours. But even with a rope, Yukiko figured it would be impossible to get both Pam and herself down together.
Inside each hut was a chain, hanging from a thumb-round hole in the ceiling. Pulling the chain released drinkable water, which trickled down a chute of bamboo. There were also bulky leather sleeping rolls, filled with crunchy-dry leaves and moss. Yukiko had unfurled one to sleep on the previous night, and it was reasonably comfortable. The jail huts were also each furnished with a wooden seat, with a gaping hole in the middle—a toilet for anyone brave enough to sit on and risk falling through.
Four shapes—a triangle, a star, a diamond, and a half-moon—had been cut out of the walls. From those, Yukiko could peer out in all four directions at their leafy surrounds. There was also a door-shaped, but doorless, opening in the wall, through which you could enter the hut or go outside onto the walkway.
Yukiko guessed these huts were used to imprison naughty giants. For Tengus, such a cramped space would be unpleasant—a punishment in itself—but for her, Pam, Braden, and even Big Bee, there was ample room to walk around and avoid one another.
Pam was tough for her age. And Yukiko could barely believe how fearless of heights the Happer girl was. She’d already told Pam twice not to climb beneath the walkway or up onto the roof. But Pam tried anyway, only to discover there weren’t any branches close enough to grab hold of, and the tree was too broad to shinny down.
So far, Big Bee had stayed away from Pam. He’d done plenty of cursing, though, at the trees, at the Tengus, and especially at Braden. He dangled his thick legs over the side of the walkway and was in a horrid mood, blaming Braden for their getting caught.
“This is your doing,” he raged. “You’ll be even sorrier if you don’t come up with a plan to get us down from here.”
Braden crossed his arms and kept his mouth shut. He lay flat on his back on the walkway, on the side which Big Bee couldn’t see.
“Can’t hide from me, boy.” Big Bee’s fury was never-ending. “You lost the mirror, too. You bungling embarrassment of a Bee.”
“I still have the jewel,” Braden whispered, thinking only he could hear himself. But Yukiko, inside the hut, was on the other side of the oval window, which was right above Braden. She had heard him, too.
Earlier that morning, Kenza had delivered leaf-wrapped bundles of flattened mushrooms, boiled baby bamboo slices, chewy green flower stems, and stubby white grubs. As soon as Big Bee had unwrapped his, he hurled it back at the Tengu and spat at the giant. Even worse, the brute threatened to eat Pam if the giants didn’t bring him some meat. Pam heard this and climbed onto the roof to eat her bamboo. Yukiko and Braden chewed up and swallowed what they could. The mushrooms and bamboo were salty and sweet, but the stems and grubs were bitter and gritty, and felt gross on their tongues.
Yukiko had no idea why she and the others had been brought there. She’d dropped her rucksack while fleeing the Kappas—not that anything inside it could help her now. She could throw it, but at whom?
Their best chance of escaping was by using the ropeways that ran between the trees. These vine ropes served as skyways for the Tengus, and she’d watched the giants use them to shuttle cages and lifts up and down, and outside of, and throughout the village. If she and Pam were able to reach a rope, they could scamper off like squirrels in search of a place to climb down safely. However, the closest one was higher than her jail hut roof. Even if she sprinted as fast as she could and jumped, she wouldn’t be able to spring herself that high.
The village started filling with the sounds of Tengus returning to their work—the banging of hammers, the thuds of hatchets, and the whirring of lifts, as well as the shrieks of young giants at play. Why did all of them stop for a while? Yukiko wondered. Who did they see?
The rope above suddenly tightened like a skipping rope pulled from both ends. Yukiko spotted a cage zooming toward the jail huts.
“Digger,” Pam cried out. “Yukiko, it’s Digger. Is that Corliss with him?”
“Be careful,” Yukiko warned, keeping an eye on both the cage and Pam. “Don’t fall off that roof.”
As the cage drew near, Yukiko saw the shelled creature with Digger. The Kappas and Tengus must not be working together, she assumed. Unless that one somehow angered the giants.
Kenja and Kenza were catching a ride at the sides of the cage, and the screwy one, Kenza, reached up and yanked the rope, which halted the cage by one of the unoccupied jail huts. The serious one, Kenja, then hopped down onto the walkway. After that, both giants went about opening the cage and setting Digger and the sleeping Kappa down against the hut’s outer wall.
“Digger!” Pam and Yukiko both yelled with a mixture of excitement and unease. He grabbed hold of the half-moon window and pulled himself up against the wall, wobbly from his speedy delivery, and dizzy from being so high up.
Big Bee glared at him, then spat toward the Tengus before going inside his jail hut and out of view.
“I’m all right,” Digger said. “I think.” For a second Yukiko could tell he was happy to see her and Pam, but whatever relief he felt instantly faded when he realized where they were.
“You will remain here,” Kenja told Digger as Kenza shut the empty cage.
“For how long? When can we go home?”
The giants said nothing, and after another yank of the rope, they were zipping back toward the village.
Is Digger really all right? Yukiko wondered. If he is, then why is he talking funny? “Digger, what did you say to them?” she asked. Surely he can’t speak their language. What was that mumbo-jumbo? Has he lost his marbles?
Digger chose the words that Yukiko, and Pam, would understand: “Where are we?”
“I don’t know exactly, but near the lake. They brought us here yesterday.” Yukiko looked about grimly.
“They left us on the beach—all night,” Digger said, then he pulled Slithis away from the ledge so the Kappa wouldn’t fall off if it happened to roll over.
“We were on the beach, too, but they brought us up before dark.”
“Nowhere to go but straight down.” Pam sniffled. “Where’s my brother?”
Digger shook his head, unsure of what to tell her. “I don’t know. He was at the waterfall, and then . . . I just don’t know, Pam.” He peeked over the edge and took an immediate step back. What appeared to be stones, scattered across the forest floor, were actually rocks and boulders.
“That’s a Kappa, isn’t it? Is it sleeping?” Pam asked. Digger checked to make sure Slithis was still breathing. “Kind of,” he told her. “It’s wounded. And weak. I have to refresh the water on its head pretty soon.” Just then Digger noticed Braden, who had poked his head out a triangular window. “Hey, are you okay, Yukiko?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’d rather be stuck with him than his brother, or you-know-who. Anyway, there should be water in that hut. Pull the chain. I drank some. It’s clean.”
Digger reached into his rucksack for his cup and went inside to pull the chain. A streamlet flowed down the bamboo chute. He went back outside and poured a cupful into the dip in Slithis’s head. The Kappa took in a deep breath, its hair wriggling excitedly in the fresh water.
Yukiko turned to Pam. “Corliss must have gotten away, then. That’s a good thing. He’ll go get help. Don’t worry, okay?” Pam nodded. Then Big Bee—for cruel fun—shouted out the door in his hoarse voice. “No way your nitwit brother’s gonna save us. He’s as gone as your father. Or dead.” Pam clamped her hands over her ears. At that same moment, Yukiko imagined Big Bee as a big fat pig under a smelly hat and dirty long coat. In her mind, the Kappas and Tengus were nowhere near as rude, barbaric, or dangerous as that boorish brute. And poor Pam was trapped in a tree with him. We have to get out of here. She looked over at Digger, who was lugging the Kappa inside. She then looked back at Pam, who was still on the roof, hands still pressed against the sides of her head. We’re helpless, Yukiko thought. Or hopeless? Either way, she was certain they needed to be rescued, and it would take a whole lot of luck for anyone to get them out of those trees alive.