Then it came back to me. Quickly, I looked around, and sure enough, just above me, hovering in the air, was the Sounding Rod, following along. I wanted to scream when I saw that ominous cone on the end of it. How in the world did it follow us through our journey with the Bender Ring! I hated that thing, and felt sicker knowing that The Shield was not going to protect me if I fell off the dang mountain.

  My poor horse wouldn't fare too well either in such a fall.

  After riding for a while on the treacherous trail, I decided to name the horse.

  “Hey, Miyoko,” I yelled out, “Does this horse have a name yet?”

  “Yes. His name is Baka Ga Ue.”

  For some reason, Tanaka snickered. I looked back at him and he quickly tried to wipe the smile off of his face.

  “Hello, Jimmy-san. Nice day, don't you say?” he said mockingly.

  “What does Baka … whatever-she-said mean?” I asked.

  He replied, “It means, ‘He who rides my horse, is very smart man.’”

  His laughter howled through the air again, and I couldn't help but finally laugh. I hoped he didn't realize I was laughing at him, not with him.

  “Well,” I finally said, “I don't care what it means, I'm going to use it. Baka it is. Come on Baka, let's go, boy.”

  That made Tanaka laugh even harder, which I didn't think possible.

  He was cut off by the sound of trickling rocks from above.

  We all looked up, and noticed small rocks here and there falling from a small crevice in the cliff face. I wondered if it was an animal or something, or maybe just a natural shifting. While looking up, I saw a rather large chunk coming right for my face, and I didn't have time to jerk my head away. In that split instant, I forgot The Shield was gone.

  The rock smacked me in the middle of the forehead. Stunned, I lost my grip on the reins. My feet slipped from the stirrups, and I slid out of the saddle, too dazed to grab onto anything. I fell to the ground, toward the edge of the path, toward the edge that began the long descent below.

  Right before I hit the ground, one thought flashed through my mind.

  Life stinks without The Shield.

  I landed on my back, the edge of the path digging into it like a blunt axe. My momentum kept me moving outwards, and my flailing arms did nothing to help. I rolled off the path and slid down the steep mountainside, feet first. A desperate glance told me that the slope soon turned into a sheer drop, with nothing but air beyond. In a panic, realizing that without The Shield I was a dead man, I screamed and tried to grab anything. Rocks and roots and dirt came loose and slid with me as I tried to take hold of them.

  My feet went over the edge, and I felt nothing but empty space down there.

  My hand caught a sharp rock, and it held. I slammed my other hand onto the same rock, and gripped it with all my strength. It didn't budge, and I stopped sliding. A last assortment of rocks and dirt continued to slide past me, over the edge and into nothingness. I couldn't hear anything landing below me, so it must've been a long way down.

  After a few seconds, everything was still again, and the only sound was me, breathing like a sprinter right after a race. My heart wouldn't stop pounding and I couldn't calm down. I was three feet from death, my feet dangling in open air.

  I looked up, and I was about ten or fifteen feet from the edge of the path above. Miyoko, Tanaka, and Hood were all staring down at me.

  “Are you okay?” Miyoko cried, and I couldn't help but think what a stupid question that was.

  “Uh, not really. Do you have a rope or something?” I yelled back, trying not to make my voice too cynical.

  “Of course I do, Jimmy. Who would climb a mountain without a rope? Hold on.” Her voice made it sound like I had done this on purpose or something. She was gone for a few seconds, and then her face reappeared.

  “Here it comes. Don't worry, my father is very strong.”

  As Tanaka began lowering the thick, white rope, he yelled out to me.

  “Ah, Jimmy-san, bad time for playtime, neh? You should be more careful!” Then he barked his familiar laugh.

  “Yeah, Mr. Tanaka, next time I won't do this on PURPOSE!”

  The rope slid down until it was right next to my hands. I realized that I didn't really want to let go of the rock. I was too scared of slipping.

  Holding as firmly as I could onto the rock with my left hand, I let go with my right and grabbed the rope. I twisted it around my hand a couple of times to make sure I had a solid grip, then grabbed it with my left hand as well. As soon as I did this, I slid down another foot or so before the rope jerked to a stop.

  “Hey!” I yelled, “What're you guys doing up there?”

  “Sorry, Jimmy-san,” said Tanaka, “I was just cutting my toenails and I forgot all about you!” Again, the insane laugh.

  I made no comment and started climbing. It wasn't much of a slope—it was almost straight up and down—but it was enough to make the climb possible. I lifted my legs until I could put the flats of my feet onto the ground in front of me, and then I used the strength of my legs to help me slowly inch my way upward.

  I made it about halfway before the world began to shake.

  Earthquakes are not fun under any circumstances. Clinging to a rope while hanging off of a massive cliff with a crazy man named Tanaka as your only hope during an earthquake—that is downright terrifying.

  I'd experienced tornadoes and hurricanes, but never an earthquake. It was the strangest sensation. Suddenly the mountain seemed to be made of liquid, and waves of power were surging through it in all directions. When those waves crashed into each other, the jolt was thunderous.

  Everything around me shook. Rocks and other debris rained down from above. I had to squint to keep dust out of my eyes as I looked up toward my three companions. None of them were looking at me anymore. I could envision them cowering against the cliff face on the other side of the pathway. Thankfully, Tanaka was still holding onto the rope.

  Worried that it might be only seconds before he'd let go, I quickened my pace to get back to the path. It was like trying to climb up a ladder on the back of a big van while the driver alternated slamming on the brakes and stomping on the gas. I was sure the whole mountain was going to collapse any minute.

  I held the rope with a grip of iron, and kept moving. Rocks were pelting me, raising bruises, and my feet kept slipping as the earthquake jarred the dirt and rock loose all around me. I didn't give up, praying that Tanaka wouldn't either.

  I was three feet from the edge.

  The rope came loose. I didn't know what happened to Tanaka, but whatever he was doing, he wasn't holding the rope anymore.

  Time seemed to freeze, just like it does in the cartoons when the character runs off a cliff and looks down before he finally begins to fall. Since my legs were pushed against the cliff, with me leaning back, holding onto the rope, the momentum of my body made me begin to fall backward, with no way for me to grab anything on the mountain to stop my fall.

  Some sort of strange instinct took over. In an absolute split second, I made the decision to actually kick out with my legs. As I did so, I swung my arms as hard as I could over my head and back toward the ground. The force of my leg-kick combined with the swinging of my arms caused me to do a back flip. My legs swung over my head and back down. My arms and head spun until suddenly I was facing the mountain again.

  I only had one chance.

  The same rock I had caught before was right in front of my face.

  I reached out and grabbed it.

  My body slammed against the cliff.

  I held on.

  Gasping in air, I couldn't believe what I'd just done.

  The mountain continued to shake.

  Now I felt like I was on the inflatable tube behind the boat at the lake, my dad constantly going over his own wake to try and shake me off. Somehow, someway, I held on to that sweet, blessed rock.

  Abruptly, the earthquake stopped. Debris trickled down all around me, slowly dying out. Then all was still.

  The silence that followed was deafening.

  I looked up.

  Tanaka's face appeared. For the first time, his face didn't have a smile on it. He looked like he'd just been through a terrifying earthquake.

  “Jimmy-san! Jimmy-san! Thank the Maker you still alive! I'm so sorry, Jimmy-san! I'm so sorry! A rock hit me in the head!” His frantic voice was filled with relief that I wasn't a pile of goo at the bottom of the mountain. Even when terrified, his voice sounded funny.

  “It's okay, Mr. Tanaka. It's okay.” I was barely able to get the words out, and I didn't even know if he'd heard me.

  “I will get my rope!” he yelled before disappearing again.

  We went through the same process again. He dropped the rope. I grabbed it, and once more started my ascent. I had almost no strength, but there was no other choice. Somehow I held on, and somehow I climbed.

  When I was just a couple of feet from the top, four hands reached down, grabbed my shirt, and hauled me up onto the path.

  I landed on my back, panting, and stared up at three faces (well, two faces and a droopy hood).

  “Thank you,” was all I could get out.

  It was then that we heard the thundering sound.

  It came from directly above us—a rumbling roar. Everyone forgot about me and looked up toward the noise. We could see a gathering cloud of dust way up in the air, on the mountain, and it seemed to be rushing our way.

  The shrill sound of Miyoko's scream suddenly filled the air around us.

  “MUDSLIDE!”

  The others reacted immediately, and I decided I'd better follow suit.

  They ran to their horses, jumping on and kicking them into action. No one worried about the few things they had bothered to unpack. Although exhausted, I ran to my horse and scrambled for the stirrup. The dreadful sound of the mudslide tore through the air, sounding like a massive thunderstorm falling from the sky.

  Kicking Baka into action, I looked upward as my horse began galloping down the path.

  An enormous mass of rock and mud were right above us, coming down like a huge arrow, with its point almost on us, its sides gradually declining behind it up the mountain. I looked back ahead of me. To go this fast on such narrow, shaky ground was incredibly dangerous, with death waiting for us just a few feet to the right.

  But an even more certain death was coming from above, so we had no choice.

  I leaned forward in my saddle, standing on the stirrups, urging Baka to go faster. I was about thirty feet behind Miyoko and the others, all of us pushing our horses to the limit, hoping they didn't stumble on the rocky ground.

  The roar of the slide was deafening. It was on us.

  Behind me, I heard a loud boom as the front point of the mudslide slammed into and obliterated the path, gaining more ammunition for its deadly descent. I risked a look behind me, scared it would be my last glimpse in life. Where was my Shield? I screamed inside my head.

  The slide was crashing into the path in a wave, just like a big surfer's wave gradually falls into the ocean in all the movies. After the arrow point crashed into the outcropping path, its trailing sides crashed into it soon after, in an orderly fashion, like a wave extending from the place where the point hit. It was like a giant was walking along the mountain above us, slowly pouring out mud and rock from a huge cup as he walked along. That torrential downpour of destruction was heading for us, coming faster than our horses could gallop. No matter how hard we pushed, it would be on us soon.

  I looked forward, trying to make the horse faster by thinking it could go faster.

  It didn't work.

  My horse was running with all his strength. I could hear his heavy breathing even amidst the thunderous sound of the mudslide. I was thankful my aunt had taught me how to hang onto a horse so well.

  I looked back again. The crashing wall of rocky mud was getting closer and closer. I looked down at the ground and I could see that the force of the slide was already starting to spread forward and wreak havoc on the trail under me. It was shaking and cracking, dust and rocks spitting up from the ground.

  All I could hear was the roar of the mudslide, the crashing of rock against rock, the pounding of the destructive wave gaining on us. The others were well ahead of me, their horses quicker than mine. I screamed at Baka to run faster, screamed to the others, screamed for no reason other than out of fright.

  A big rock whisked past my head, just missing me. Globs of mud and dust pelted me. Another rock flew past, then another. The dust was cutting off the light.

  I looked back.

  My vision was filled with a wall of earth.

  In a last fit of panic, I prepared to die.

  And then, something unbelievable happened.

  A small, insignificant thing. A thing that happens to all of us from time to time. A thing that almost seemed absurd. A thing that saved my life.

  I sneezed.

  Suddenly, nothing was hitting me. There was a strange hollowness to the sound of the mudslide. I looked up.

  Rock and dirt were falling on top of me, crashing down with enormous force. But just above me, the mudslide was parting and then going around me and the horse, like we were in an invisible bubble.

  The Shield was back.

  Thank goodness, The Shield was back.

  It expanded to protect the horse, just like it had in the past for my family when they were in contact with me. Baka kept moving forward, at a full gallop, The Shield forming a protective bubble around us.

  Having lost confidence in The Shield now, I still leaned forward, scared, knowing if The Shield gave out again I was dead.

  The mudslide was still moving forward in its wave, fully on top of us and ready to pass on by. If it got ahead of us, I didn't know what would happen. Would it push dirt out of our way? Would the slide take the path with it, making me go through another long fall, hoping I'd bounce to safety at the bottom?

  I would never know.

  Just as the falling earth reached the point of Baka's nose, it began to lessen, and before we knew it, it had died out, and it was all over. Bursting completely clear of the debris, we surged ahead, not stopping. I wanted to put as much distance as I possibly could between the landslide and me.

  We galloped on for another couple of minutes, rounding a bend in the mountain, until I could see the rest of the group ahead of us, resting on the trail, looking back with anxious worry to see if we were alive. The looks on their faces brightened with relief when we turned the corner that had hidden the last tense moments from their view.

  Baka reared to a stop right in front of them, nostrils flaring.

  My last ounce of adrenaline spent, I fell from the horse, exhaustion overcoming me.

  Tanaka's famous laugh didn't even faze me.

  I was asleep before I hit the ground.

  Later, somewhere in that world between sleep and wakefulness, my thoughts spun. I thought of several things at once.

  Kenji told me that the Sounding Rod would only release its power when I did something to set it off. I assumed, then, that I also had to be the one to make it stop.

  I knew it had gone off once, on the train. And then it had stopped sometime when I was on top, escaping. Then, despite the lack of sound, it had obviously gone off again back in the woods by the mansion.

  That awful sound—I had not heard it since leaving the train.

  The swooshing sound. The breaking glass. The dogs barking. Somehow it was all related.

  Finally, the sneeze. It absolutely could not be a coincidence. The Shield had expanded around Baka and me immediately after I sneezed. Immediately.

  I tried to think of the train. What happened on the train? Did I sneeze? Did I sneeze while on top of the train? Did I—

  Yes. I remembered sneezing when I fell on the path in those woods by the river.

  Could it be possible? I knew my life had gotten a bit outrageous, but this was …

  Sneezing. Kenji's smart aleck comment back at the hotel came to mind, when he said not to look at the sun. Mom had always told me that that when you have a feeling like you need to sneeze, but can't quite get it out, look at the sun, and that will make you sneeze.

  It had to be. The thing that set off and stopped the Sounding Rod was me. Every time I sneezed. But what about the terrible, piercing sound …

  With these thoughts cycling and bouncing around like a pinball in my head, I drifted back into a deep sleep.

  I awoke to the sound of hyenas and the smell of feet.

  After a few seconds of grogginess, I realized it was just Tanaka.

  He was gently nudging me, urging me to wake up. He muttered that we needed to get moving. It turned out that we had all taken a rest for a couple of hours, which was much needed after what we'd just been through. After a short meal, courtesy of Miyoko, we were off again.

  The trail that hugged the mountain got steeper and steeper. Eventually, we came to a small clearing, and Miyoko proclaimed that we would have to leave the horses there and hoof it ourselves. I'd grown so attached to Baka, I was saddened by the thought. We cleaned them a bit, left tons of food for them, and said our good-byes, even though horses don't talk.

  After another short rest, we started up another trail, this one winding its way straight up the mountain. It was more climbing than hiking. We constantly had to lean forward to grab rocks and plants and pull ourselves up. My arms and legs were burning from the effort, and I frequently looked up, hoping that the awful slope would level off soon. Hood had strapped the Bender Ring to his back with some loose cloth.

  After two solid hours of hiking, our trail finally flattened out into an even area of outcropping rock. We all crumpled to the ground and looked off to the horizon. The sun was already so far down that we could only see the remnants of its light. Night was upon us.

  Tanaka and Miyoko had brought some blankets, but most of them were left behind in our scramble to escape the mudslide. Miyoko told us that we would be rising way before dawn, because we just didn't have much time. So, we made do, and settled down for a few hours of sleep. In my condition, I don't think blankets or pillows would've made the slightest difference. Once again, I slept.