In a sudden rush of movement, the ring cleared our heads, and the last of the redness vanished. I was again standing in front of The Hooded One, with him holding the red ring above us. We were surrounded by silence. He quietly pulled the ring to the side, and lowered it back down to a position in which he could once again lean on it for support.

  He staggered a little, as if he had just gone through a tremendous ordeal. He stepped back a few steps, and collapsed to the ground, too exhausted to stand.

  I stared at what lay on all sides of me.

  I stood in a field of grass, under a newly risen sun. To my left was a towering mountain, sloping quickly to the sky from where we stood, so that it was almost impossible to see its top. It was a green mountain, heavily wooded with occasional peaks jutting through the trees here and there. Mist hung all about the trees and rocks, enveloping the mountain in a quiet stillness. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.

  To my right was an old wooden shack, with a rickety front porch, no glass in the windows, and all kinds of plant growth invading the place. It had to be abandoned. Beyond the shack, I could see a descent into a valley, and realized that we were actually already fairly high up on this mountain.

  I looked back at my robed friend. He was in a sitting position on the ground, looking up at me, or whatever you call it when a guy points his hooded head at you so that it looks like he's looking at you.

  For the first time in what seemed ages, I spoke.

  “Mr. Hood, do you talk?”

  It didn't sound right when it came out, but I needed to say something, and I needed to know if this guy would answer questions.

  He shook his hooded head, a definite “no.”

  I lost all sense of bravery and slumped to the ground, on the verge of tears.

  “Then how in the world am I supposed to know what's going on? Am I even in Japan anymore? What was that thing? Is this a place in the Blackness?”

  I had a million more questions, but figured it was pretty pointless to keep voicing them to a guy who couldn't talk anyway, even if he did have any answers.

  The Hooded One stood and walked over to the shack.

  There were some loose boards, and he picked one up. He walked back over to where I was sitting and sat back down on the ground. He placed the board in his lap, “looked” up at me, and then pointed at the board.

  I nodded, even though I didn't know what he was doing.

  Then Mr. Hood started writing on the board with his finger.

  I never thought that in all my life I would meet a man who dressed in an old robe, didn't let people see his face, carried a magical red hula-hoop with him, couldn't talk, and could use his pinky finger as a paintbrush. But I just had.

  I don't know where the paint came from, it just appeared under his finger as he brushed it along the wood. The paint was white and bled a little, and I now knew for sure who had made the signs guiding me to the house by the river, and how it had been done.

  As the words appeared on the board in front of me, I soon forgot that he was using his finger as a paintbrush. I was learning to adapt quickly to things that were weird.

  “YOU ARE IN JAPAN. WE USED THE BENDER RING.”

  “The Bender Ring?” I asked him.

  He continued painting with his finger, this time on the other side of the board.

  “IT IS MY GIFT. I USE IT TO COMPETE WITH THE SHADOW KA.”

  The sight of those last two words sent a chill down my spine, and formed a lump in my throat. The Shadow Ka were scary things no matter which form they took—as the winged beasts in the Blackness, with their screeching cry and demented viciousness, or as controlled humans in this world, like Raspy. Either way, I was glad to hear Hood talk about competing with them. That confirmed to me that we were on the same side. Another question popped in my head.

  “Are you one of the Givers?”

  Hood was running out of room, but he had enough to write the word, “NO.”

  “Then who are you? How do you know about the Shadow Ka, and how do you have magical powers like that ring thing?”

  Hood stood up slowly and walked toward the shack. He looked back and gestured that I should follow. We walked over to a blank wall on the side of the shack and continued our strange conversation.

  “I AM A MEMBER OF AN ALLIANCE, FORMED YEARS AGO. WE HAD LEARNED OF THE STOMPERS THROUGH OTHER MEANS, BUT CANNOT DO MUCH. THE GIVERS DID NOT KNOW ABOUT US FOR A LONG TIME. BUT WE FIGHT FOR THE SAME CAUSE. WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU, JIMMY. EVERY RESOURCE WE HAVE IS YOURS.”

  He pointed a finger at me, and then resumed writing.

  “IT IS NOT MUCH.”

  “The old man on the train,” I said. “Is he one of your group?”

  “YES.”

  “Why are you guys so … different?”

  As soon as I said it, I realized that I had just said something very rude. I wanted to take it back, but I also really wanted to know.

  Hood paused, as if he were thinking very deeply. I worried that I had hurt his feelings, and was about to apologize when he started writing again.

  “AS I SAID, WE ARE NOT MUCH. WE ARE THE MEEK AND THE HUMBLE.”

  He paused again, his head hung low.

  “WE ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO WOULD BELIEVE.”

  I reached out to touch his shoulder, unexpectedly moved by his words. He flinched and pulled back, shaking his hood left and right.

  “Sorry,” I said, suddenly feeling very awkward.

  Hood reached out to the wall and began to write again.

  “TIME IS SHORT. WE MUST FIND TANAKA AND MIYOKO. THEY KNOW WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK. THAT IS THE BEST THING WE CAN DO FOR YOU NOW.”

  At the mention of a book, my heart skipped a beat. I had completely forgotten about it in the madness of the last day or so. With Dad kidnapped by Kenji and the men he called the Bosu Zoku, I had given up on the book. Dad was the only one who would know how and where to find it.

  “The book? You mean the book? The book from the Givers?”

  “YES.”

  With that, he turned and walked to the back of the shack, leaning on the Bender Ring the entire time.

  My thoughts were going a mile a minute. Slight hope flickered in my heart. If I really could be guided to the book, and get the other Gifts, maybe we had a chance. Maybe it would help rescue my family. Maybe I really was meant to be the one to stop the Stompers. I grew more excited with each thought as I followed Hood around the corner of the shack, into the wooded area behind. I stumbled when I saw the man sitting on the recliner.

  In the middle of a clearing, with plants and trees all around, with weeds actually growing up the side of it, sat a blue, cushioned recliner, the kind that is perfect for watching football with a root beer and a bag of chips. Except this chair was filthy, full of holes and covered with dirt. At the moment, it was fully reclined, with vines and ivy hanging off the footrest.

  The man sitting on the chair, lounging back like he didn't have a care in the world, had to be one of the strangest people I'd ever laid eyes on.

  He was Japanese, with long greasy black hair cascading down around his shoulders, like frayed thread. His skin was very dark, as if he'd been tanning for hours a day his whole life. He had eyebrows that just didn't seem natural. They were long and bushy, like mustaches, hanging down the sides of his eyes all the way to his cheeks. His face was also hairy, but there was no organization to his beard. It was bushy in some places, thin in others.

  Then I noticed the dress.

  At least, at first glance it sure seemed like a dress. But then I realized it was just some sort of old robe, one of the kimonos that I had seen both women and men wearing. Surprisingly, it was fairly clean.

  His feet were bare, and they had to be the dirtiest, nastiest feet on the planet. This man must not have showered in ages.

  As I stared at this strange person sitting on a chair in the middle of the woods behind an old shack, a movement by Hood caught my attention, and I was finally able to quit staring. I looked over at Hood, who was painting a new message on a tree.

  “THIS IS TANAKA. HE WILL LEAD US TO THE BOOK.”

  Then the man in the chair spoke. His voice was high-pitched and spooky.

  “That's me, Jimmy-san,” he said with a heavy accent. “Glad to meet you, my good friend. It shall be a pleasure helping you save the world. GANBARRRROOOOOO!”

  With the last word screaming from his lips, he sprang up from his chair and ran into the house that I had thought was abandoned.

  The hope that had just swelled in my heart sank back down to my knees.

  I looked over at Hood. He bobbed his head up and down a couple of times, and went to sit on some steps that led up to the back door of the house. Something about his head bobbing. It seemed that Hood had a sense of humor.

  I went over and sat by him, wondering what Tanaka was doing in the house, and what was in store for us as he guided us to wherever we were going.

  “Mr. Hood, do you have a name?” I asked.

  He spread his feet and reached down to draw on the wooden step.

  “NOT ANYMORE. I LEFT MY NAME BEHIND WHEN I WAS LEFT …”

  He suddenly stood up and walked away, his stooped walk revealing that something was tearing him up inside. I decided I better not go that direction again.

  “What about the Bender Ring?” I yelled at him, hoping to erase the soreness I had just brought up.

  He stopped and looked back in my direction. He walked back and sat down.

  He had to use the next step down for his next message.

  “I DISCOVERED THE RING'S USES, BASED ON THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN MY … JOURNEYS.”

  He looked over at me. It was weird how I could not see a face on this guy but the hood had become his face. I almost imagined eyes on it somewhere.

  He resumed writing, going to the last wooden step.

  “I COULD NEVER EXPLAIN IT WELL ENOUGH. IT BENDS THE WORLD. I CAN TRAVEL ANYWHERE WITH IT, IN AN INSTANT. IT IS UNBELIEVABLY POWERFUL, WHICH IS WHY I CAN NEVER TELL ANYONE ELSE ABOUT IT.

  “EXCEPT YOU, OF COURSE.”

  “Well,” I replied, “How did you invent such a thing? I mean, if you were to reveal this to the world, you would be a trillionaire. Not to mention the little trick with the finger paintbrush.”

  “I HAVE MANY GIFTS, SOME OF WHICH YOU HAVE WITNESSED. MANY OF THE ALLIANCE HAVE SPECIAL GIFTS. THEY ARE WHAT SET US APART, WHAT MADE US, WHAT PREPARED US TO BELIEVE.”

  He was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming from the house.

  “Jimmy-san,” Tanaka said as he stepped out onto the back landing. Hood and I both stood up to let him come down the stairs.

  I was surprised to see that someone else was with him.

  A girl.

  She was as different from Tanaka as I was from Hood.

  She looked to be about my age, with the dark hair and dark eyes of the Japanese people. She was shorter than me, but had an air about her that made her seem taller. She looked very mature, and very smart. And very serious. For every blemish that dotted Tanaka, and there were many, there were ten things about this girl that made her beautiful. But she didn't smile, and didn't seem the type to joke with. Her first words proved it.

  “This is Jimmy Fincher?” She asked, with almost no accent, and with more than a hint of disgust.

  “Yes, this is Jimmy-san, the child of the Four Gifts,” Tanaka answered.

  She stuck out her hand, with a look on her face like she couldn't believe she had to waste her time to introduce herself. I reluctantly shook her hand.

  “Nice to meet—”

  She cut me off.

  “My name is Miyoko. This is my father. How in the world you solved the riddle of the Givers is beyond me, but I guess you'll have to do. I don't want any of your childish questions or complaints as we do this, okay? My father has made great sacrifices to figure this all out, and you must do exactly as we tell you. Our hooded friend here has done his part, leading you to us. Now we are in charge.”

  She walked away from me, into the woods behind her house.

  I heard her voice from the trees.

  “Mr. Fincher, do not let my beauty root your feet to the ground. We have to go. Follow me.”

  I looked over at Tanaka, and then at Hood.

  “Is she a real person?” I asked.

  Tanaka laughed. Hood bobbed his head again. We all followed her into the woods.

  The trees grew closer together as we walked down the path, with branches thick enough to brush us as we walked. Eventually, the trail led to another rickety building, and I could soon see that it was a stable, complete with horses. As we approached the stable, Miyoko began speaking again. Her voice made me long for those few moments of sweet silence we had just been blessed with on our walk through the woods.

  “Jimmy, being from the city, I'm sure you've never even seen a horse before. You'd better learn quick, because I'm not going to be your horse servant for our entire trip up the mountain.”

  We were taking horses up a mountain?

  “Um, maybe you could tell me a little about what we're doing?” I asked.

  “We're already running late!” she yelled. “If we're not there in two days, you might as well go back to your old fancy life in America and let the whole world die!”

  I couldn't believe she was standing there yelling at me, and it must've really shown.

  Miyoko walked up to me, and looked me in the eyes. For the first time, she seemed to adopt a somewhat pleasant expression, and I could sense an apology coming.

  “Listen,” she said, “I know you already think I'm mean and you've only known me for ten minutes. But you have to understand my life. Ever since I was a little girl I've been raised among people that the world would consider as escapees from a mental institution. How would you like it if your uncle looked like that?”

  She pointed over to Hood, and he waved. He actually waved.

  “So,” she continued, “I'm sorry if I seem short with you. But we've been preparing to help you our whole lives, and now we only have two days to do it. I'm a little stressed.”

  Then, she hugged me. Now I knew why I had put off the whole girl thing for so long, even though Rusty always told me it was high time I started “liking” them. If they were all like Miyoko, I'd rather wait. Of course, Mom won't let us date until we're forty anyway, so I still had a few years. Under the circumstances, I couldn't understand why I was wasting time thinking about all this.

  Miyoko stepped back.

  “Are we on amicable terms now?” she asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” I replied.

  “Good. Get on the horse, we've got no time to waste.”

  With that, she turned and jumped up onto a black horse, with no apparent effort whatsoever. Hood and Tanaka did the same, swinging themselves up onto a pair of brown horses. The one left was also brown. It stood patiently, a saddle on its back.

  When I easily pulled myself up onto the horse and grabbed the reins, everyone looked at me in surprise.

  “Jimmy-san,” Tanaka said with his heavy accent, “You have ridden horse before?”

  “Yes. My Aunt Evelyn has horses, and I'm pretty dang good at it. Now which way are we going?”

  Tanaka let out his eerie, cackling laugh again, and Hood nodded his big head as if to say, “That's my boy.”

  Miyoko smiled. “We'll see how tough you are on the narrow path.”

  With that, Miyoko gave her horse a gentle kick, and headed off down a trail behind the stable. Hood followed, the Bender Ring hanging from his saddle.

  “I will bring up the rear.” Tanaka said, gesturing for me to go next. “I only ask one favor.”

  “What's that?” I replied.

  “No gaseous explosions, please. I have a sensitive nose.”

  As he roared his laughter, like a crazed maniac in a carnival, I raised my eyebrows and set off after Miyoko and Hood.

  Finally, I was heading for the book.

  If I had known what awaited us, I wouldn't have been so eager.

  At first, the trail seemed to be leading us deeper and deeper into a dark forest. The trees grew thicker, and as they did, the sunlight struggled to break through the ceiling of leaves, until it all but gave up. The air was filled with noise—bugs, birds, frogs, and other unidentifiable sounds. We could no longer feel the wind since it was broken by the trees all around us. Everywhere I looked, it was green. So many of my present troubles started with a simple trip to a woods just like this one, and it made me feel a little claustrophobic.

  Just when I thought we'd have to turn around because there wasn't enough room for the horses to get through, we burst out of the forest into the bright sun. The view ahead of us took my breath away.

  We were on a stone landing, with a rocky cliff shooting skyward to our left. To our right, I could see for miles and miles, all the way to the horizon, where the sun was just beginning to head for sunset. It was so amazing, I couldn't believe it was real. It seemed like a vision of paradise. Fields and forests and rivers, in all shades of color for as far as the eye could see. I wanted to sit and stare for the rest of the day.

  Miyoko wouldn't have it.

  “Jimmy, this is not a vacation. Let's go.”

  I looked over at her and realized they were all on the other side of the landing, heading up a narrow, stone path that led off further up the mountainside.

  “I'm coming,” I said reluctantly. But she was right. This was no time for lollygagging. We had rather important things to take care of.

  I clicked my tongue and wiggled the reins, and the white horse trotted over to the pathway. He was hesitant once he got a better look at it, and so was I. But he obeyed me and moved forward. Again, Tanaka took the rear with that clownish smile beaming all the time.

  Miyoko wasn't lying when she said it was a narrow path. It skirted the mountainside, gradually ascending up the side of it in what looked like a small part of a gigantic curly-que. The path itself looked to be about six or seven feet wide. To the left of the trail, a towering cliff. To the right, a heart-stopping fall. I was sweating bullets just looking at it. One bad slip and I'd be hang gliding without a hang glider.