The province in which we lived- live, I should say- is pretty far out from most of the big cities, though there's some decent-sized towns. The reason for that is it's mountain country- the land is stable, apart from the occasional rock-slide, but it isn't easy to build in the mountains, so the area remains more or less suburban. I dunno if it's anyone else or just me, but I always notice the mountains whenever I walk out of the house. They're always there, no matter what else goes on, like old friends, reliable and loyal. And they're beautiful; a few of them are tall enough to have snow on their caps all year long, and they turn all kinds of colors when the sun sets. Their shadows fall over the land when the sun comes up every morning, so they're the brightest things around and the sunlight outlines them and makes the snow gleam. They're carpets of green in the summer and patchwork blankets in the fall.

They're sneaky, though; they have this trick of looking like they're closer than they actually are. From my street, it looks as though an hour's walk would bring you to the foot of the closest one, but actually, it's a day-long drive. The best you can do in my neighborhood is to walk north and a little west and get into the hills outside of town. They're average mountain hills- I mean, they aren't smooth, rolling hills all covered in grass. They're rough and stony and there aren't any trees, or much vegetation at all, really. 

The point to all this being: it was my favorite place to go, and after we got back from the Grandfather's, I spent a lot of time there. 

Ma got over being disappointed in me faster than my father did. She rationalized that though I had done something wrong in showing that expensive ornament to Baby, still, breaking it had been a pure accident. The thing might well have rolled off the shelf on its own, and it should have been secured on a stand, or even behind glass, to prevent that from happening. And she told me that, too, which helped me feel better. 

My father, on the other hand... I don't know for sure because he never actually said how he felt about it. But I think he was not just angry and disappointed that I had disobeyed; he also felt bad that he couldn't do anything about it. I had made him look bad in the eyes of someone he greatly respected, and he couldn't even offer restitution for the damage. So things between us were pretty sour, seeing as I was still pretty pissy about getting, as Cye says it, sent to Coventry. I did my best to avoid him, but that wasn't as easy as it had been, since he was spending more time than usual at home. I'm still not sure just what he was doing there, but I had the feeling it had something to do with that blasted jade thing. 

So I split and hiked off into the hills almost every day for a while.

It happened just two days before school was due to start up again, and less than two weeks before my eleventh birthday. There must be something about eleven, something significant... Anyway, I had taken something to eat and gone off to the hills again, ducking out of the house before anyone happened to ask if he could go with me-

I guess it was maybe a little selfish, but I considered the hills my territory, the one place where I didn't have to share anything with anyone. Privacy wasn't a word that got much use in our family, but that didn't mean I didn't want some, now and then. Ma seemed to understand, because she never asked where I went or why, just told me to be back before supper and to be careful. And she never made me take either of the brothers along, though they were both curious enough about my 'disappearing act' to get pretty pesky. Sister seemed to get it, too; she told me that she'd kept a certain hyper-pest from following along behind me a couple times. I was grateful for that, but also pretty annoyed that it was necessary for her to do it, and started being more stealthy about when I was leaving. I suppose I could have threatened to tie him to something, but I would've had to actually follow through on it and I didn't think Ma would be too happy with me if I did. Sneaking out saved everyone a lot of fuss and bother. 

I remember that I was unusually restless that particular day. Normally I went in a straight line: down our street, left turn, three blocks out, right turn, leave the pavement and ten minutes' walk over bare, rocky ground to the ridges I usually climbed. This time I wandered around a lot, looking for a new and different route. I did see some new things along the way, but the significant thing was that when I got where I was going, I was some hundred yards or so to the right of where I usually arrived, looking at a less-familiar portion of the hill. I started to walk back down to my regular climbing place, but then changed my mind, practically in mid-step. I was bored with the old places, I wanted something to explore that I hadn't seen a hundred times already, so I turned back around and started walking the other way, keeping the hills on my left until I found something worthy of interest.

I wasn't sure I'd succeed at first, since the hills I was walking past were hardly worthy of the name- not much more than a couple boulders piled together- but after maybe ten minutes I spotted something off to the left that looked very promising. I changed direction, scrambled over a couple of boulder-molehills and stopped a few minutes at the foot of what I immediately named the rockpile. Because that's more or less what it was, one large stone formation with a couple tons of boulders and smaller rocks scattered on, over and around it. 

Perfect. Exactly what I wanted, and I didn't waste any time getting started. The top of it was maybe a hundred feet up and kinda resembled a needle, but there was a ledge a few feet below it that I was determined to reach. I hopped over a big crack between one boulder and another, found some good hand-holds, and was off. 

I imagine a pro climber would get to the top of my rockpile in about a minute and a half, but for me at age ten it was a marvelous challenge- not too hard, but not nearly as easy as my boring old haunt. There were lots of loose stones and niches, the kind that'll turn your ankle in a flash if you're not careful; there were little hollows where the wind or water had worn the stone away, tiny caves that wouldn't shelter a squirrel. There were long crevices to hold on to and rounded boulders to brace against and narrow cracks that made decent foot-holds. There were two nearly-sheer inclines that I had to find ways around, and there was a very startling moment when I thought my foot had got stuck for good in a crack that was wider than I thought it was. 

At last, breathless and hot and scraped all over, I scrambled onto the ledge, my goal, and stood there feeling totally triumphant. The view was fantastic- I had never climbed so high before- but best of all was the sense of solitude. The houses and cars looked like they belonged in Sister's old doll-house, and I could only just see any people. No one was anywhere near me. It was a wonderful feeling, being alone without being lonely, seeing humanity with no particular need or desire to rejoin it. The only thing that might have made it better would have been to have someone I could say, 'guess what, I climbed that- all the way to the top!' to, but you can't have everything. Anyway, it would have to be someone who was impressed, not someone who would say, 'well, so?'- or worse, 'don't you ever do that again you could have got killed you're so reckless...' Nope. And since those were the two most likely reactions...no way, nothin' doing. I'd just keep my adventure to myself! It was best that way.

It took me a while to notice how hungry I was, but once I did, I also noticed that there wasn't any shade up there. So I turned my back to the sun and sat down to eat my lunch. That view was even better; the wide-open space, the complete absence of anything man-made, and the distant foothills rising up to the snow-topped mountains. 

I think I have to blame, or maybe thank, the wind. I had just finished eating and was shoving the little empty plastic bags into my pack/pouch/whatever you call that thing, when the wind caught one of them and blew it off to the side. I had to get up and scramble over a few feet to grab it, and that was when I noticed sunlight reflecting off something nearby. Curious, of course, I scooted over and looked down at what I first thought was a marble. A large orange marble. I picked it up, wondering who would have brought a marble up here and what for- and it flashed, a kanji at the center of it glowing all orange-gold. 

For some reason, I didn't drop it. I don't know- it wasn't that I was used to things glowing when I picked them up or anything, it was just that I didn't seem to find it anything to be alarmed about. But it definitely wasn't a marble, or not any kind that I'd ever seen before. It was warm to the touch too, which I guess wasn't so surprising for something that had been lying in the sun, but I had a feeling the sun didn't have much to do with it. The kanji read gi, justice, and I sat looking at it for a while, turning it over in my hand and admiring it, and feeling...odd. Not so much content as just...right. Like- well, like it belonged to me. Like I'd found some missing part of myself. I didn't know what it was, but I knew I was keeping it. 

I didn't notice how much time was passing until the sunlight started to fade and I sort of snapped out of it and realized I needed to get home. It wasn't really too late, but the days were already shorter and climbing in the hills in the dark is not generally a good idea. And being late for supper, in my house, is generally not a good idea either. So I got up and made sure I had all my lunch stuff and hurried over to the edge of the hill and did a truly stupid thing. 

I started climbing down with the orb still in my right hand.

Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly, or maybe I was in too big a hurry...or maybe I just didn't want to let go of it yet. Whatever. I found out, though, that this, too, is generally not a good idea. The hard way. Halfway down, my left hand slipped and there I was hanging on with my right hand, and the orb making that a very perilous grip indeed. It was between my palm and the rock, only the tips of my fingers actually on the rock.

And of course, I slipped.

I really thought I was dead. I don't remember the falling part so much as I remember thinking..well, I don't remember thinking, either, actually, I just remember pure terror. I don't think I got any of that 'life flashing before me' stuff, or if I did I don't remember, and I didn't have any coherent last thoughts or regrets or worries or anything. Just the one big one, which was mainly, ARRGGHH! Or maybe HELP!! 

And then there was this bright flash and this tremendous crash-bang and I was lying on my back, staring up at the sky and, well, basically, spazzing out. 

It took me a couple minutes to decide that I wasn't a ghost- trying to catch my breath did that for me- but it was a few more minutes before I tried moving. I found I could move my arms and legs, without pain, and that got a question or two going; namely, what the hell was going on, and how? Not that I was objecting! Not at all. But I was extremely confused. I managed to sit up okay, but it took a few tries to get to my feet because I was shaking so hard. 

Somewhere in there I noticed something weird about my arms, but it didn't really catch up with me until I let go of the side of the rock and took a step forward. That was when I noticed the boots. Orange boots. And white, and more orange and I sat down again with another, softer thunk and decided that was what had made that noise. A bunch of metal hitting the ground is pretty noisy. The fact that I was in it at the time was a complete mystery, though, and I sat there staring at my hands, no longer particularly scared but extremely puzzled. Curiosity does that to me- but this was something more than basic curiosity. It was a miracle, I supposed, but it was an extremely odd one!

Mysteries with no answers are frustrating things. I sat there for a while longer, not so much trying to figure things out as trying to figure out where I should start. Not where had it come from, but what was it, and why had it providentially come to me right then, and ...oh yeah, how was I supposed to take it off? I didn't know how Ma would react if I came home wearing orange and white body-armor, but-

The orange suddenly connected with something else and I looked around for that orange glowing ball. I wasn't too surprised not to see it, and thinking about it, I remembered that the flash around me had been orange. So obviously the orb and the armor were connected. I frowned at the metal for a moment, wondering how glass- if it was glass- could turn into steel, then shrugged and said, "Turn back into the orb." 

Nothing happened, so I said a little louder, "Turn back!" and imagined the justice kanji glowing orange. 

That time it worked. I sighed as the metal faded away and the orb appeared on the ground before me, the glow slowly dying out. I sat looking at it for a while, feeling like I'd gotten into something that I wasn't too sure how to get out of it. Or whether I even wanted to. At last I picked it back up, and this time, put it into my pocket. Then I got up again and started walking for home, wondering what on Earth was going on; why; how; what it all meant; whether it would happen again; whether I was supposed to do something; whether I should tell anyone, and whether they would believe me or not. 

I didn't get any answers for a long time. At least, not any that I recognized as answers. I mean, in hindsight it makes a lot more sense and it definitely was information- 

See, something else did happen, the day before school started, that had another big effect on me. Pop came home unexpectedly a little before lunch, and the Grandfather was with him. I was in the kitchen, helping Ma, when the door opened and they walked in, startling us both. Grandfather bowed to Ma, then came right over to where I was standing and bowed low to me. "One has come to apologize to the fine grandson," he said so humbly that I just stood there with my mouth open. 

"Um..." I looked at my father, who seemed very embarrassed and said nothing at all. 

Grandfather straightened up. "A dealer was consulted- a dealer in jewels and fine work. This family has been sadly decieved. That which was broken was not genuine. It was glass, mere glass, painted and coated with a common varnish to make it resemble true jade. It is worth no more than a broken glass; it is a false artifact from the East India Company. There were many such, so many that not even the age of the item could give it redeeming value. This fine young man was punished for nothing, and this hasty one deeply regrets this thing." 

I was getting pretty used to that 'knock the breath out of you, not sure how to react' feeling. So instead of being speechless with amazement, I heard myself say, "I actually didn't touch it. Baby picked it up and was looking at it while I was distracted, and when I took it from her and put it back, it fell. But it was my fault, I should have watched her closer. And- and I didn't want anyone to- be angry at her."

My father turned away; Grandfather's eyes widened. "You are a good boy," he said approvingly. "It was a noble thing you did. The shouldering of responsibility is not easy, but you did it as a man. You will be a very good man- one is proud to call you Grandson." 

It helped, a little- helped damp down some of my furious anger at learning that the stupid thing I'd been punished for breaking was just a fake. "Thank you, sir," I said softly, looking down. "I will try to continue to be someone to be proud of."

"I must apologize too, my son," Pop said suddenly, but I didn't look at him. "I was too harsh, even if the thing had been genuine. And I too am pleased and proud that your first thought was to take responsibility for your small sister." I don't really remember what I said to that- some nonsense about being well-taught, probably. One of those conditioned things you don't really think about, just say when it seems necessary to be polite. I certainly wasn't going to undo their newfound respect for me by being discourteous...or maybe I mean, by being honest. Anyway, I didn't know what I really wanted to say, so BS'ing worked just fine. 

I guess there was a little more talk until gradually the topic was worn out and everyone's attention shifted to less serious things. What bugged me was that Dad and the Grandfather stayed for lunch and I really wished they hadn't. I wanted to go off somewhere and think things through. But since that wasn't possible, I just went through the routine, sort of on autopilot. Dissembling is pretty difficult for me; I can do it, but only if I keep my mouth completely shut and think about other things. So I suppose I was kind of distracted and quiet during lunch, but no one commented on it.

I got half my wish after lunch, when my father left to go back to the restaurant, but the Grandfather stayed to visit for a while. I had the sinking feeling he was going to stay the night and it took some effort not to glower as I took Princess to the girls' bedroom for her nap. (My sisters shared a bedroom, just as the little boys did; I was the only one with a room to myself. One small privilage of being eldest, and I do mean small, since it was the smallest bedroom in the house.) I stayed in the bedroom for a while, making sure my baby sister went to sleep instead of pretending to sleep and then getting up to play when I was gone- and then I stayed a bit longer, trying to find a good excuse to go to my own room. If school had been on I could have claimed studying, but that obviously wasn't going to work today. Finally I sighed and got up and went back towards the living room, meeting Ma along the way. 

"Oh, there you are," she said softly. "I was wondering."

"Princess isn't used to visits," I remarked, letting her think the baby had been restless. 

"Ah, true." Ma gave me a sort of significant look and then we both went back out. I'm pretty sure she knew how I was feeling, but there wasn't much to do about it. We had a guest to entertain, after all. 

I wasn't at all prepared for what I saw when I walked back into the room: the Grandfather, sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa, one of my brothers on either side of him, talking animatedly about...samurai. And not just any samurai, either, apparently. I sat down on the arm of the sofa- couldn't sit ON the sofa with the three of them leaning against it- and listened, curious in spite of myself.

"It was in days long ago," the Grandfather was explaining. "You see, the old stories say that there is another world, and on that world there are found creatures of great power, that we call demons. They are cruel and very clever, and they can do many things that we cannot. One of these things is to open a door between their world and ours, and this legend says that one great demon did just that, long ago, in the land that would one day be called Toyama."

"Toyama, really?" Sprout asked, interested. "You weren't there, were you?"

The Grandfather chuckled. "This was long before my grandfather's grandfather's time. Well, this demon opened this door and came through and he brought his evil army with him, to conquer the world."

"Not Gundams, though, right?" my irrepressible brother inquired.

"Close; they were robots. Robots as big as a big man; evil robots with demon powers and weapons. The legend says they caused terrible damage: they shook the earth as they walked, and they made things explode just by looking at them! What do you think of that?" 

"Like lasers! Eye lasers, that's cool."

The old man chuckled. "And more than that; there were ghosts, too, evil spirits that made strange red lightning, and blew powerful winds that knocked homes down. And they controlled the water, drying up many rivers and lakes and wells and flooding others."

"What did the people do?" First Brother asked uneasily. He never liked spooky stories. I leaned down and patted his shoulder and he turned and snuggled a little against my legs.

"The people tried to fight, but they were no match for the robots and the ghosts- until there came a great Warrior, a man with a golden sword and special powers of his own. He fought the Demon General who had brought all those evil beings in, and struck him down and sent him and all his hosts back through their door and slammed it shut behind him. So the battle was ended and the people were pleased and grateful and called the man a hero; but the great Warrior was concerned. He knew that the place where the Door had been was weakened now by the magic the Demon General had used. He said that if that Demon or another took it in their head to try again, that was where they would work their magic, and it would succeed, because it's always easier to open an old door than to make a completely new one. The Warrior knew he could not keep the Demons from doing that, but he found a different way to keep the world safe. He created five great armors, out of the power of the elements-"

"Captain Planet!" Sprout shouted.

"What?" Grandfather blinked.

I explained about the American cartoon.

"Oh. Not exactly like that. He chose earth and air, fire and water- and light, because light is one of the demons' greatest weaknesses. He gave one element to each armor, and then he gave each armor a true virtue. The orange earth armor was justice-"

That there was a huh- whaaaaat?!? moment of very large proportions for me. Earth armor? Orange armor? Justice? Did that mean...what it sounded like it might mean? But no, Grandfather was just telling a legend, a story. There weren't really demons, there couldn't be. ...But if there were, and if that orb was meant to give me a way to fight them- then I'd fight 'em, for sure! 

I think I sealed my fate with that thought. Maybe not; maybe it was already decided and that was why it came to me. The Ancient would know, but we never really got a chance to ask him about it. Too much other stuff going on.

"The green light armor was wisdom," Grandfather went on, "the soft-blue water armor was trust; the dark-blue air armor was the force of life; and the red fire armor was jin itself. Seeing them together, the legend says, was like looking at a rainbow, for they glowed with the colors of their elements. Then the Warrior searched until he found the right men to wear them, men who were wise, or trusting, or had great reverence for life, or loved justice, or had benevolence in their hearts. And he gave them the armor and told them that if the Demons ever returned, their armors would make them able to prevent the destruction and send the Demon armies back again. The Water armor would make sure no rivers dried up again, the Earth armor would keep the ground from quaking, and the Fire armor would not let things be blown up. And all together, their virtues would defeat the evil and banish it and close the doors on it."

"Did it work?" First Brother asked, straightening up a bit.

"No one knows," the Grandfather said mysteriously. "The legend says only that after he made the armor and gave it to the Five Samurai, the great Warrior disappeared and wasn't seen again. And neither have the Five Samurai been seen- nor any demons. But it says that if the time comes, if the Earth is ever covered in the great shadow of Evil, the Five will come to save it."

"Wow," Sprout said, thoughtfully. "Tomorrow?"

"Not tomorrow. It's school tomorrow, not the Demon world," I told him.

"Aw," Hyper-boy grumbled, and then he turned and pounced on First Brother. "Graaah, you're a demon, I'm sending you away back!"

"Are not! You should be the demon, you make more trouble than me!"

"Quietly, quietly," Ma said, smiling. "The baby is sleeping." 

"I'm not bein' no demon, I wanna be samurai, sky samurai, and fly!"

"Maybe eldest brother could be the demon," Sister suggested from where she was sitting in the big chair. "Then second brother can be samurai too- water, maybe?"

"No way, there's two of them and only one of me, so they'll have to be the demon army and I'll be the samurai- the Great Warrior with the gold sword-"

"You would be earth," my quiet brother disagreed.

"Um, why?" I asked, taken off guard.

"Well, you like stones and rocks and stuff, and geology..."

For some reason I still don't know, I didn't agree. Maybe I just thought they were getting too close to the truth, though I hardly knew what the truth was myself. "Nah, fire's better," I decided. "I'll catch the robots and cook 'em good with my fire- and then I'll crack 'em open and see if there's any baked lobster inside."

Sprout had hysterics, squeaking about evil robot lobsters; Brother joined in with something about giant nutcrackers as weapons. Ma and Sister went into gigglefits- and the Grandfather threw back his head and laughed like I'd never heard him before. I had to laugh too, it was such a ridiculous image, and I felt a lot better- if still pretty confused. 

It became sort of an inside joke in the family, that evil robot lobsters thing, but after certain things happened, I didn't find it nearly so funny anymore.

Anyway, I kinda tuned out for a little while, thinking about the gi-orb I'd found and wondering in a muddled way if there really was any connection between it and that legend, and if so, what to do about it and how to find out for sure and all kinds of brain-bending stuff like that. When I tuned back in, Ma and Sister were going into the kitchen to get dinner ready and the brothers were going to clean up their room so that Grandfather could sleep in there over night. That gave me with a perfect opportunity to ask him more about the legend, and I had just decided to show him the orb and see what he thought, when he suggested we go outside for a little while. So we did, and we ended up talking quite a lot, but none of it had to do with legends or justice or armor or samurai. I'm not gonna put it all down, 'cause it was pretty private, but the general thing was that by the time we'd done talking I had A) decided that if he wasn't actually our grandfather, he'd do fine as a substitute, and B) completely forgotten about the orb. 

In fact, I know it sounds impossible, but I didn't remember it for a couple months. I'd stuck it in a drawer under some papers so no one would find it accidentally, and between talking with Grandfather and starting up school the next morning, it went clear out of my head. It wasn't until the beginning of winter, when I got a really wicked case of food poisoning (and I wasn't the only one, either; it was on the news about the market near our place selling some bad meat) and had to stay home from school that I found it again. I was actually looking for a comic book, if I remember right.

Funny how the day after I re-discovered the gi-orb in my drawer, I felt so much better that I was able to go back to school... Sound familiar, Rowen? Yeah, I thought it might.