Excited at the prospect of finding a crane, Shota followed the Fox-woman's directions. Though he was tired, he knew ten cho wasn't very far just over a kilometer or about two-thirds of a mile in the Western reckonings he now did automatically and the hope of locating a crane gave him a burst of energy. He shot into the air and flew over the stream in the direction the Fox-woman had indicated. Here, the forest sloped down steeply. Hinoki cedars, a few pines and the occasional grove of bamboo clung to the rocky banks.
"Whoops," he cried as he suddenly lost his supporting air and dropped over the edge of a long waterfall. He flapped his wings strongly and caught an updraft. Below the falls, there was a pool, and then another, as the water flowed down the gorge to form a large pond and spre
