Faun & Games

  Dawn went from tree to tree, touching their trunks. “This is a tea tree,” she said of one. “It grows all kinds of teas: Mediocri, subversi, adverse, propensi, versatili, priori, supertori, monstrosi-”

  “We get the point,” Eve said. “We won't be drinking any of those.

  Dawn circled around it. “And on this side it's a Tree Tea,” she announced. “When enemies meet here, they can make a peace agreement.”

  “There's a house,” Eve said. “Maybe we can stay there.”

  “How long has the blanket been invoked?” Imbri asked.

  “Over an hour,” Forrest said. “But what we want is friendly accommodation. So if we find that, we won't need the blanket.”

  “So who inquires at that house?”

  “I will. We all have our own value, so none of us are more at risk than the others.”

  “But we love you,” Dawn said. “We don't want anything to happen to you.

  “And I don't want anything to happen to any of you.” He glanced at Imbri. “If an ogre or something answers the door, throw a bad dreamlet at him to distract him until I can get away.”

  The others nodded, realizing that this was probably sufficient protection.

  He went up to the blue house and knocked on the door. A young woman with blue hair answered. She reminded him of someone. “Hello,” he said.

  “I am Forrest Faun, from another world, and I and my friends need a place to stay the night. We wondered if you-”

  “Another world?” she asked. “Do you mean Ptero?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. We are on our way to the red face, and-”

  “You are welcome. We haven't had visitors from there for a long time.

  In fact, we've never had them. I am Ilene, and this is my brother Gerrod.” She indicated the man who came up behind her. He looked familiar too.

  “Don't you want to meet my companions, to be sure-”

  “Certainly. Bring them in.”

  Forrest turned and beckoned the others. They came to the house.

  “You look familiar,” Ilene said, looking at the twins.

  “I am Dawn.”

  “I am Eve.”

  “We are the twin daughters of Prince Dolph and Princess Electra.”

  “That's it!” Ilene cried. “You are our cousins! We are the children of Grey and Ivy.

  “Oh, more cousins,” Dawn said. “How nice.”

  “Do you have Magician caliber talents?” Eve asked.

  “Of course. I control storms, and Geffod communicates with water.”

  “Fascinating,” Dawn said. “I know about living things.”

  “And I know about inanimate things.”

  “Let's compare notes,” Ilene said.

  Soon Gerrod and Eve were telling each other about all manner of aspects of a cup of water, and it was clear that their talents were genuine.

  Similarly Ilene and Dawn were demonstrating storm clouds and information about living things. Then they all settled down inside, including Imbri, for a nice supper and more talking. Forrest realized that on these worlds, where the might-he's resided, it was easy for them to accept alternate folk. Dawn & Eve knew all their cousins on Ptero, and Ilene and Gerrod knew all their cousins on Pyramid. They considered it a fair exchange of information, and no one gained or lost size. Imbri paid her way by demonstrating her ability to project dreamlets, and Forrest brought out his panpipes and played a merry melody for their hosts. So it was a good night.

  In the morning, refreshed, they set off again. Ilene and Gerrod did not know what was to be found on the red face; it seemed that the folk on one face kept pretty much to their own color, and those who tried to cross over stood out like sore big toes. But Geffod gave them several packaged storms to use in case of need. Imbri accepted them, and did lose some mass, but it seemed worth it.

  As they progressed, the ground tilted. It didn't bother them, since they tilted with it, but they were aware that they were getting near the edge of the blue triangle.

  When they reached it, the demarcation was striking. The border was like the ridge of a mountain range, blue on one side, red on the other.

  “We'll have to change color,” Forrest said.

  “Maybe not,” Imbri said. “With the blanket of obscurity, we may not be noticed.”

  He hadn't thought of that. “Then let's go ahead. You can ask directions with dreamlets that show the correct color.”

  They crossed the ridge-and abruptly their tilt was wrong. It was geared to the blue face, which was sharply different from the red face. They were now at a steep angle to the terrain. In fact their heads wanted to collide with the ground at a slight angle, while their bodies wanted to point slightly into the air.

  “We are oriented ninety degrees to the blue face,” Imbri said.

  “The red face differs from the blue face by a hundred and twenty degrees. We shall have to crawl on our hands. I don't feel comfortable with that.” Indeed, she was lying on her side with two feet in the air.

  “Maybe I can figure it out,” Eve said. She touched a finger to the red rock. “Aha! There's a colony of lings near the edge. We can make a deal with them.”

  That was a relief. They crossed back to the blue face and walked along the edge until they were near the lings. This happened to be by the shore of a blue lake that went right up to the boundary, bent around the corner, and became a red lake at the new angle. Then they waited for the obscurity to wear off, so that Forrest could crawl to the lings camp. But as the spell faded, a large canine creature loped toward them from the blue side.

  “What is it?” Eve asked, concerned.

  “That looks like a dire wolf,” Dawn said. “Get well away from it!“

  “Maybe I had better invoke the blanket of obscurity again,” Forrest said, taking it out of his knapsack.

  . “No, just cross to the red side,” Dawn said urgently. She and Eve were already doing so, while Imbri stood warily by.

  A deep bass note sounded from the lake, almost under Forrest's elbow. He jumped-and the can flew out of his hand. It splashed into the water, where a big fish swallowed it.

  “Oh, no!” Dawn cried. “That's a largemouth bass. It swallowed the can.”

  Meanwhile the dire wolf was coming close. Forrest quickly brought out a storm package and opened it. Dark clouds swirled out, making sheets of rain and peals of thunder. The wolf got a blast of spray in the snoot, reconsidered, passed close by them, and ran on, not attacking. “Of all the bad luck,” Forrest said.

  “That's the thing about a dire wolf,” Dawn said. “Wherever it goes, disaster follows. That's why we had to get away from it.”

  And he hadn't done so, not realizing what she meant. Now their main protection from hostile interest, the blanket of obscurity, was gone. If only he had understood in time!

  There was nothing to do but dry off and proceed with their mission, hoping they could get along without the obscurity. Forrest crossed to the red and crawled to the place where the lings were. They were easy to deal with; they flocked to the edge, and treated each person as she crossed. Imbri was the one who made the actual deals, so she lost several more bits of her substance and became a smaller horse. But now they were able to walk at the correct angle. They were also red; they had had to deal for that too. Things were looking better, but they were paying a price. If only they hadn't lost their main protection! Maybe they were blundering because of the prior loss of the Good Magician's list of words.

  Dawn touched the plants, and Eve touched the objects, and soon they had a notion where a sleep-talented woman had been. They followed her trail, being watchful for any dangers, and in due course located her.

  Except that when they found her, they couldn't see her. There was her nice little red brick house, but no woman. They had not wanted to be sneaky, but their awareness of danger made them careful, so they peeked in a window first. And saw nothing.

  “But she's there,” Imbri insisted. “I can feel her fleeting dreams.”

&
nbsp; Then Forrest made a connection. “She's the daughter of Graeboe Giant.

  Is he an invisible giant?”

  “Not any more,” Imbri said. “He's a winged goblin now.”

  “But he has the invisible heritage. She's invisible!”

  Eve touched the house. “Why so she is! This is the house of an invisible woman.”

  “So maybe we should just knock on the door and introduce ourselves,”

  Forrest said. “Instead of generating our own complications.”

  The others, abashed, agreed. So Forrest knocked-and in a moment a red-cloaked woman answered. “Yes?” she inquired from the depths of her cowl.

  “I am Forrest Faun. I have come to ask a favor from Ghina.”

  “I am she. I am glad to give favors, for they increase my stature.

  What is your wish?”

  “My friends and I need your help to nullify the four Wizards of Pyramid.”

  “Oh, my!” she exclaimed. “That is a very dangerous undertaking.

  “Yes. But if we succeed, the tyranny of the Wizards will be ended, and you will be free.”

  “Free? We're free now. The Wizards have done a great many favors for us.”

  Ooops. He had forgotten that though the Wizards were oppressing the folk of Ptero, it was the opposite for the folk of Pyramid. Ghina might not want to cooperate.

  He pondered as swiftly as he could, and decided that the truth was best, though it was dangerous to utter. “We are from another world. The Wizards are harming that world, in order to do favors here.”

  She considered. “Are any of my friends being harmed?”

  “They could be. There are many might-be folk there, and surely some of them are relatives of yours.” He wasn't quite sure what system there was, as there seemed to be might-he's on all the worlds, but it seemed a safe assumption that there were invisible giants, goblins, and harpies on Ptero. So her ancestry was surely well represented.

  “Well, then, I suppose I had better help. And if I am helping my relatives, it isn't really a favor to you.”

  “It's a fair exchange of favors,” he said, relieved.

  “Very well. I'll help.” She stepped out the door.

  “But don't you have to close up your house, or anything?”

  “It will keep until Mom and Dad fly home. Or until my brother Geddy walks home; he's out charming the ladies with his songs. Where are your friends?”

  “Here they are.” The three others were stepping forward. “This is Mare Imbri, who speaks in dreamlets.”

  Imbri sent a dreamlet of a winged goblin girl. “Hello.”

  “And these are Dawn & Eve Human, whose talents are to know all about living and inanimate things.” The twins in red jeans nodded. Forrest noticed, irrelevantly, that Dawn's hair color had returned to its natural flame hue, while Eve's hair was now midnight red. Both girls remained infernally attractive.

  Ghina's cowl looked thoughtful. “Are you related to Magician Trent?”

  “He's our great grandfather,” Dawn said.

  “Now rejuvenated to his twenties,” Eve said. “So he's not much older than we are.”

  “That's the one! Mother knew him.” The cowl looked down, as if blushing. “In fact, Mother rather liked him. If he had been willing, she would have ordered me from the Stork Works with him, instead of with Graeboe, and I might have been visible. Not that I have any objection to Graeboe; he's a fine father. It's just that sometimes I wonder what I might have looked like.”

  “Like this,” Imbri said. In the dreamlet, her human figure conjured a bucket of red paint and flung it at the cowled Ghina figure. The paint splashed all over, washing off the cowl and leaving a red winged goblin girl.

  “Oh!” Ghina cried, delighted. “I'm pretty!”

  “Just like your mother,” Imbri agreed.

  They started off. “I suppose we should do the Red Wizard first, since we're here,” Forrest said. “Do you know where his castle is?”

  “It’s in the center of the red triangle,” Ghina said. “But I don't know the best way there. I'll ask the chess nut.”

  “Chestnuts talk?” Forrest asked.

  She must have smiled. “You're funny.” She led the way through the forest to a glade wherein stood assorted life sized redwood figures of men, women, horses, towers, and children. The floor of the glade was marked in squares: light red and dark red. As they approached, a figure of a light red man with a pointed hat slid across a diagonal and grabbed a dark red child figure. It tossed the child to the edge of the glade, where it joined a tumbled collection of figures.

  “Uncle Kerby!” Ghina called.

  There was a stirring. “Yes, Niece Ghina,” a voice came from the air.

  “Oh-an invisible giant, of course,” Dawn murmured.

  “From her father's side of the family,” Eve agreed.

  Imbri made a dreamlet showing the glade with its wooden figures, and the outline of an invisible giant standing over them, ready to move another piece. The giant seemed to be of about average size for his type, with unruly brown hair and green eyes. Apparently his invisibility allowed him to be normal colors, instead of shades of red.

  “Where is the center of the triangle?” Ghina asked.

  “All paths lead to it,” Kerby replied, moving another chess piece.

  “Thank you, Uncle!”

  “But we're forgetting something,” Dawn said.

  “That's right: Jfraya,” Eve agreed.

  So they were. They needed both people to do the job. “We'll have to go to the green face first,” Forrest said with regret.

  Kerby overheard him. “That will be a harder trip.”

  “Uncle, could you help us?” Ghina asked.

  “I could, but I don't want to take any mass from you, sweet thing.”

  “I will trade you this smile,” she said, turning her invisible face in Kerby's direction.

  Forrest couldn't see the smile, but the glade brightened. The giant must have seen it, being also invisible.

  “Climb on,” he said.

  Imbri's dreamlet showed a huge hand being laid on the ground before them. They climbed on and took hold of the fingers, and Imbri lay in the palm. Then the hand lifted above the trees, and the red terrain whizzed by below.

  It didn't take long. Kerby lowered them at the corner between the red and the green faces. “Actually I could reach across, if you know where your friend is,” the giant offered.

  “Let me touch a tree,” Dawn said. “Maybe she walked past it once.”

  “Let me touch the ground,” Eve said. “Maybe a path leads to her home.”

  They scrambled off the invisible hand. They had the usual trouble with the changed angle of the green face, but crawled to a green tree and green stone.

  Soon they returned. “Someone once opened a door near here,” Dawn reported. “The trees were astonished, for it was a door into the ground.

  “And the ground knows of other doors that opened in it, in that direction,” Eve said, pointing.

  “I will reach as far as I can in that direction,” Kerby said.

  The girls scrambled back onto his hand. Then they rode way out across the green terrain, until the giant's reach reached its farthest reaches, and he lowered them to the greensward.

  “Thank you, Uncle!” Ghina called, flashing another glade brightening invisible smile as they slid to the ground.

  “Welcome, Niece,” he called back, as he started back toward his chess game, his voice sounding lower because of the special magic of Doppler.

  It occurred to Forrest that Doppler must have been an interesting Magician, though it wasn't clear why he wanted to fool with sounds.

  Now they had to struggle with the terrain. It was possible for them to walk erect, if they clung to trees and other features of the greenscape, but not easy. There seemed to be no lings in the vicinity. So they were stuck in the greenery, being both red and grounded.

  “Maybe we can brace each other,” Dawn gasped. “So we can walk m
ore or less upright.”

  “Or tie ourselves together,” Eve added. “So we can be braced without using our hands.”

  They found some greenbriar vines, but they were too thorny to use. Then they saw a green rope leaping around. Forrest managed to snag it as it jumped over him. The rope struggled, wanting to be free to leap some more, but the girls grabbed hold of its ends and subdued it. “It's a jump rope,” Eve gasped. They wound it around, and tied themselves into a clumsy mass. It worked, not well, but better than nothing, and the rope's natural inclination to jump helped. Imbri was the center, and the other four clustered around her, their feet bracing outward. It was uncomfortable, but feasible, for now.

  Forrest was wedged against Ghina, because there needed to be two people to a side and the twins couldn't agree which one of them would get to press against the faun. Ghina was invisible within her cloak and cowl, and quickly shed those so as to be entirely invisible and less noticeable. But her body was solid. Forrest felt her wings brushing him every so often, and he was aware of other parts of her. He realized that he was in close contact with yet another healthy young woman. How did he keep getting into these situations?

  “She's that way,” Eve said, after touching the ground for information.

  “Not far.”

  So they trundled along in that direction. Forrest had no idea what they would do if something unfriendly spied them. They weren't in any condition to fend anything off. Maybe another storm package would drive it away, but maybe not.

  “Say, I never realized that fauns were so interesting,” Ghina murmured.

  “Do you suppose we could-?”

  “Unfeasible,” he said. Was there any point trying to explain about the effect faunish contact had on females?

  “Oh,” she said regretfully.

  They half dragged, half jumped onward until they came to the greenhouse residence that Eve indicated was the one. Rather than knock on the glass door, and possibly freak someone out, they decided to let Imbri contact the woman with a dreamlet.

  “Jfraya!” Imbri's joint dreamlet called, showing Imbri's human form in a green dress, properly upright. “May we speak with you?”

  A woman appeared in the dreamlet. She was of course green, especially her thumbs, and carried a green watering can. “Who are You?”