“It's Forrest's business to think of it,” Imbri said. “He must be right. We have seen how much there can be on a seemingly tiny moon.
Ptero is such a moon. Pyramid is another, and there could be anything at all there. Including someone who wants to take over Ptero. Your evil Wizard.”
“It could be,” Dawn breathed. “That would explain everything. But what can we do about it?”
“We can go to Pyramid,” Forrest said.
“But can we?” Imbri asked. “You and I came here by leaving our bodies behind, and letting our souls become solid. But our souls wouldn't fit on Pyramid. And what of Dawn & Eve? Their souls are mostly tied up in their living year in Xanth. How could they go?”
Forrest pondered. “Dawn & Eve must have small soul fragments here-maybe about the same amount as we have, relative to Ptero. Enough to animate their bodies on Pyramid.”
“That's true,” Dawn said. “Souls are living, so I know. We have just that much. But what of you two, who are all-soul here?”
“We'll just have to leave most of our souls behind,” Forrest said. “And use just enough for Ptero. It should be similar to what we did in Xanth, leaving our bodies lying in the Tapestry room.”
The other three nodded. “I think we shall have to go to Pyramid,” Imbri said. “But first we'll have to tell the others.”
“Mom's not going to like this much,” Eve said darkly.
“But she'll get used to it,” Dawn said brightly. “She always does.”
Forrest and Eve stepped back across the margin, and the four of them walked back toward Castle Roogna. Forrest was pleased with the progress they had made, but nervous about what might be in store for them. This mission had just become more complicated than he had expected.
“You want to go where?” Electra demanded, appalled.
“Mother, we already explained,” Dawn said, as if the woman were slow in intellect.
“It's the only way to deal with the marginalization,” Eve continued.
“The margins are coming from Pyramid, so we have to go there to stop them.”
“But it's just a decoration spinning around Princess Ida's head!
How could any of you fit there?” But the question was rhetorical, because her next question was “Suppose you don't return?”
“I fear it is a risk they will have to take,” King Ivy said. “The alternative is to allow ourselves to be marginalized out of existence.
Remember, they are going to succeed.”
“Forrest Faun will succeed,” Electra said. “That says nothing about my daughters.”
“But his mission is to advise them how to accomplish it,” Grey said. “So if he succeeds, so do they.”
“Yes, I'm sure they will,” Ida agreed. “And I confess to being curious about who lives on Pyramid.”
Electra seemed to have some continuing misgivings, but she knew that the alternative was just as bad. They went up to the Tapestry room with Ida, and the four of them lay down on beds there. “I will guide Dawn,” Imbri said. “And Forrest will guide Eve. It will be somewhat strange at first, but that will settle down once we are on Pyramid.”
“It should be fun,” Dawn said bravely, but she looked a smidgen uncertain.
“If nothing goes wrong,” Eve agreed, looking two smidgens uncertain.
Forrest was not at all certain that nothing would go wrong, but he didn't care to say that. He hoped that Ida's belief in their success would make it true, but he had not seen her talent in action. So he proceeded with the program. He sat up, dug out his bottle, and took it to Dawn. “Sniff this,” he said, hoping that it worked the same way as it did in Xanth. He pulled out the stopper.
Dawn sniffed. A strange look spread across her features. She closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
Forrest brought it to Eve. She sniffed, and faded similarly out. Then he lay back on his own bed, the same one he had used in Xanth, and sniffed it himself.
Soon he was floating, as before. But this time it wasn't his soul leaving his body, exactly; it was a tiny part of his soul detaching itself from the main mass, and carrying his awareness with it.
“This way.” It was Imbri's voice, directing Dawn. She had not had to use the elixir, perhaps because she was long accustomed to soul form.
Forrest concentrated, and formed his own eye and ear and mouth.
He oriented on Eve, who was lying there with a haze drifting above her.
Rather, she was the haze, floating above her unused body. The body was dark and lovely, but looked dead. “Form an eye,” he told her. “Pull yourself together.”
The mist quivered and coalesced. A bulbous eye developed in its top.
“That's it,” he said encouragingly. “Now form a mouth and ear.”
Slowly these things formed. “This is weird,” the mouth said.
“It will become familiar, once we land on Pyramid,” he told her.
“See if you can form your own shape as we go. In a moment we'll join Imbri and Dawn, and fly to that world.”
She shaped up, getting the hang of it, and became a somewhat tenuous naked woman.
“You can use your substance to make clothing,” he told her, realizing that she was now going into what amounted to full-soul status. “Just concentrate on it the same way.”
“Oh.” A clumsy dress formed around her.
“Now follow me.” He made sure her eyeballs were aimed in his direction, and started moving toward Imbri and Dawn.
Dawn had made similar progress. Her form was lighter in color, with an ill-fitting white dress, but her face was recognizably her. When Eve caught up, the two gazed at each other-and burst out laughing.
“Easy,” Forrest cautioned them, as they threatened to fragment into cloudlets.
The two managed to stifle their mirth. Actually it was probably a good thing, because it meant they were adapting to their situation.
“This way,” Imbri said. She was in her mare form. She started trotting up a steep invisible hill.
They followed, using their legs to run up the same hill. “Make yourselves smaller as you go,” Forrest said, doing it himself. “Keep condensing.”
Soon Pyramid came into sight above and ahead. It looked like a distant moon with a sharp triangular outline. It expanded as they contracted, until it resembled a close planet. Then it looked like a huge turning world. Each of its faces was a different color: blue, red, green, and the bottom was gray.
“This is wild,” Dawn remarked appreciatively.
“And perhaps fun,” Eve agreed.
They oriented on the middle of the triangle they were headed for: the blue face. “Forrest, maybe you should use the obscurity spell again,” Imbri suggested.
Good idea. He reached back into his knapsack and brought out the can.
“Invoke,” he said. Nothing happened, but it was probably working. Now no evil wizard would notice their landing, maybe.
“ooooh, we're falling!” Dawn cried.
“But we can control it,” Imbri said. “Just focus on slowing, when you wish to.”
They came down onto a land that was surprisingly ragged, considering the evenness of the outline. There were mountains and ravines and tilted plains, with lakes splashed between. But what was Most remarkable was the color: it was all in shades of blue. Forrest hadn't marveled about it before, being too distracted by the problem of landing safely. But now he realized that even the clouds they had passed were blue. So this was no special effect, like the blue sky of Xanth; it was the color of the substance of this world on this side.
“I don't think we're on Ptero any more,” Dawn murmured. “That isn't the blue of North; it's all over.”
“The magic of Pyramid must be different from Ptero, just as Ptero's magic is different from Xanth,” Forrest said. “It may take us a while to adapt.”
“I'm getting dizzy,” Eve said. “The idea of not knowing the direction by color is awful! How will we know From and To?”
“There may not be an
y,” Forrest said. “Age and geography may not be linked, on this world.”
“oooh, ugh!” Dawn said.
“I hope I don't get sick,” Eve added.
“You may be feeling blue,” Forrest said.
Both girls glanced at him sharply, and he realized that he had said something funny. He had been thinking of the loneliness of leaving one world and trying to adjust to another, but he doubted that they would believe that.
They had landed on a field between mountains. It was covered with blue grass and blue flowers. It was also tilted: when they stood, they were at an angle to the plain. But they were safely down. Imbri retained her mare form; evidently she had enough soul mass to assume her natural mode on this world. She was a glistening blue-black, with a sleek hide and nice mane and tail.
Dawn knelt to check the grass. “This is natural and friendly,” she reported. “It will produce seeds for us, if we're hungry.”
Dawn got down beside a rock. “This is natural and friendly too,” she said. “It will make itself soft if someone wants to sit on it.”
So far, so good, Forrest thought. Given a choice, he preferred friendly things.
Then a horde of little creatures came charging across the ground toward them. They were like squirrels, except that they ran on their hind two legs. They were light blue.
“Are they friendly?” Forrest asked, worried.
“The grass says no,” Dawn said.
“The rock says yes,” Eve said.
Forrest made a quick calculation. “Does that mean that they eat grass and don't eat rocks?”
“Yes,” they said together.
Then the creatures were upon them. They formed circles around each of the four visitors, chirping avidly. They all stood perpendicular to the plane, in contrast to the visitors.
“These are lings,” Dawn said as she touched one. “A variety of a broad species that appears in many places. There are Earthlings, Xanthlings, Pterolings, and Pyramidlings. They can make the impossible possible.
They are widespread on Pyramid. They noticed us because we stand skew and aren't blue.”
Forrest was impressed. Her talent went beyond what he had imagined.
“Maybe we need to change, so that we aren't immediately obvious to folk we might not want to be obvious to,” he said. “Also, I had better renew the spell of obscurity; it must have worn off.”
“But if the magic is different here, the spell won't work,” Imbri pointed out. She didn't use her mouth; she used a dreamlet. Evidently she was able to do multiple dreamlets here, having more than enough soul to go around, so they could all hear her at once.
“Unless the lings really can do the impossible,” he replied. “Can they make us blue?”
“Yes,” Dawn said after a moment. “And they can make us tilt with the land, the way they do. But there's a cost.”
“There always is,” Imbri muttered.
“What cost?” Forrest asked warily.
Dawn touched the lings again, trying to understand. “Whoever gives anything away, on this world, gains equivalently.” She looked up. “Does that makes sense? It seems impossible.”
“And they are creatures of the impossible,” Forrest said. “So it must be true. So maybe we don't want to accept anything until we understand its consequence. If the giver gains, what does the receiver lose?”
Dawn's brow furrowed as she concentrated on the little creatures. “The receiver gets smaller,” she said. “The giver gets larger.”
“Weird,” Eve said.
“How much larger and smaller?” Forrest asked.
“Not a lot. But some. For an individual gift. Those who give a lot can become giants, eventually. But those who accept a lot can get rather small in time, and even disappear.”
“Then let's choose carefully,” Forrest said. “I think we do need to merge with the natives, and if the obscurity spell doesn't work-” He paused. “Can they fix that? It seems impossible, so-”
“Yes, they can,” Dawn said.
“Then let's accept three things from them: the ability to stand at right angles to the terrain, as they do, and blue color, and a working obscurity spell. I don't think we need more. After all, Dawn's & Eve's talents are working, so maybe our direct personal magic isn't lost.”
“They'll do it,” Dawn said.
The lings closed in around the four, and suddenly they all changed color and tilted to conform to the terrain. The lings looked a size larger-and maybe the four visitors were a size smaller.
Forrest brought out his canned spell and invoked it. Then the lings lost interest, roaming on across the field, nibbling on stalks of grass.
So the blanket of obscurity was working again.
The four surveyed each other. Their tilt did not seem odd, because now they matched the lay of the land. But their color was something else.
Dawn's red hair was now purple, and her white dress was pale blue. Eve's black hair was midnight blue, and her dark dress was perhaps two hours off midnight, while her skin was light blue. Mare Imbri was also midnight blue. Forrest was medium blue, his furred legs darker than his upper torso, and his hoofs darker yet.
,”Actually, we don't look bad,” Dawn said, smiling. Her teeth were metallic blue.
“And now we fit in,” Eve agreed. “This isn't so bad, so far.”
“So far,” Forrest agreed. “But we know there are mean folk here, because of what they're doing to Ptero, and we don't know their full powers. That's why I felt it was worth a price to become halfway anonymous.”
“So now that we're halfway anonymous, what next?” Imbri asked.
Forrest found decision making awkward, but that was his job now, so he pondered briefly. “We need to find the source of the margins.
I think the blue ones must come from this side of Pyramid. Maybe the center.
Dawn nodded. “Makes sense to me. So let's go to the center. Do we know which way that is?”
Eve knelt down and touched the ground with one hand. “Yes. That way.”
She pointed a direction.
“You can tell direction by feeling the ground?” Forrest asked.
“I can tell anything about anything inanimate. The ground is inanimate.
So I just selected for its orientation. The center of this face is that way.”
“You girls really do have formidable talents,” he said. “I didn't realize how useful such magic could be.”
Eve looked at Dawn. “He appreciates us. Shall I blush, or shall you?”
“It's my turn, I think,” Dawn said. Whereupon she turned as red as her hair. But since her hair was no longer red, but a shade of blue, her blush was blue too. However, it was a redder shade than the rest of her.
Forrest wasn't sure whether they were teasing him again, and decided not to inquire. They might decide to make him blush again. They were being helpful now, but they remained mischievous girls.
They set off for the center of the blue triangle. However, they soon encountered a body of water. It was on the slope, and it sloped the same way, but this no longer seemed odd, because the four of them were oriented at the same angle.
“Oh, good, I'm thirsty,” Dawn said. “Is it safe to drink?”
Eve lay down at the edge of the water. She touched its surface with one finger. “How come you got to be the one to blush?” she demanded suddenly. “I'm sure it was my turn.”
Dawn was evidently surprised. “Well, you can have the next turn. I didn't realize-”
“And how come you rate the bright red hair and green eyes, while I'm dull shades of black?”
“Well, we're both blue now, but-”
“And how come you always get to speak first, and I always have to be second? Ever since we were children-”
“Eve, I don't understand-”
“The water!” Forrest exclaimed. “It did something to her.”
Dawn nodded. “Eve, what's with the water?”
Eve concentrated. “This is the jealous sea. It makes an
yone who drinks it or touches it jealous.” Then she heard herself talking, and was startled. “Oh, no!”
“Oh, yes,” Dawn said. “That's why you're suddenly jealous of me, when you never were before. That water's no good.”
“Right,” Eve agreed. “Still, I don't see why you-” Then she stifled herself, realizing what was happening.
“We had better not drink this water,” Forrest decided. “We'll walk around it. There's bound to be other water.”
“This way,” Imbri said in a dreamlet, and trotted around to the side.
Soon the jealous sea gave way, and they came to another large body of blue water.
“Should I try this first?” Dawn asked.
“Oh, now you're trying to do my work,” Eve grumped. She squatted at the edge and touched the water.
Then she stood. “I feel like doing something new,” she said. “Forrest, look at this.” She pulled off her blue blouse. She dropped it, and it dissolved into soul substance as it left her hand. She was left wearing a blue bra that hardly seemed up to the chore of containing her bosom.
“That must be the Indecen Sea,” Imbri said, catching on to the symptom.
“You bet it is,” Eve said, pulling off her skirt and letting it dissolve similarly. She wore a blue slip that seemed hardly better than nothing.
Forrest had been slow to react, but now he turned to face away from her.
He had had enough trouble when Imbri was in girl form; the last thing he needed was trouble with an indecent princess.
“What, don't you like me?” Eve demanded, coming up behind him. “Let's do something really outrageous.”
“Let's go find another sea!” Dawn cried.
“Why? I like this one.” Eve put her arms around Forrest from behind.
“Hey, I asked you a question, Forrest Faun.”
“I think you're beautiful,” Forrest said, struggling to free himself.
But the more he struggled, the tighter she clung to him, and the more her body flattened against him. She wasn't small, the way Imbri had been on Ptero; she was almost his own height, and almost his mass, but the distribution was way different.
“Let go of him, sister dear, or I'll-” Dawn started, tugging at Eve.
“You'll what, sister dear?” Eve demanded challengingly.
Faun & Games Page 21