Faun and Games (11 page)

odd.
 
His hair seemed longer than usual, and his body felt different.

His feet felt oddest of all.
 
What was the matter?

He looked down, and saw his legs and feet.
 
He stared.
 
They were human!

They had five toes, and were fleshy, with solid heels.

Then he traced the lines of his legs upward.
 
They were human, with far

more flesh than his goat legs ever had had, and got really fleshy near

the tops.
 
And above that"Oh, my," he breathed, appalled.
 
"I'm a

nymph!"

"It seems that the reverse wood reversed your nature," LA said.

"You are now a fine looking female."

"But I don't want to be a nymph!" he (she) protested.

"Then take off the sandal."

That made sense.
 
He tore off the sandal, threw it across the room, and

felt his body reverting to normal.
 
He was himself again.

"I guess I'll have to do without the sandal," he said.
 
"I'll use my

spare pair." He removed the other sandal, put it in his knapsack, drew

out the other pair, and put them on.

"You may still have a problem," LA remarked.

"Not if I stay well clear of that reverse wood.
 
I'll just step on into

the main castle, leaving it behind." He paused.
 
"Unless it makes things

too difficult for you."

"Have no concern about me.
 
I'm here for the duration, regardless. My

job is here; I'm a prisoner of this chamber.
 
Your visit has helped

relieve the boredom."

Okay.
 
Then I guess it's farewell, and thank you." Forrest walked to the

doorway into the rest of the castle.

But as he passed through it, sudden terror gripped him.
 
He reeled back

into the chamber, and the fear faded.

Then he realized what had happened.
 
"The spell is reversed.
 
Now the

chamber is fine, but I'l-n afraid to leave it."

"I know the feeling," LA said.

"But how can I see the Good Magician, if I can't leave the room, and you

can't change the reverse wood""

"It is a question."

A question he had to answer for himself.
 
So he walked around the

chamber, pondering hard.

"What, stuck again'?" D.
 
Sire inquired mockingly from the doorway

leading out to the tracks and moat.

He had had enough.
 
He ran to the reverse wood sandal, picked it up, and

hurled it at her.
 
In the course of that action he felt himself

changing, and changing back.

The wood passed right through her.
 
"oooh, that smarts," she cried,

flapping her hands to bow the smoke away from a sandal-shaped hole in

her- mid-section.

The sandal splashed into the water of the- noat beyond her.
 
The water

shuddered and turned to fire.
 
There was a scream of outrage from the

moat monster, who must have had to scramble to land.
 
A little reverse

wood in the wrong place could be a lot of mischief.

But Forrest's problem had been solved.
 
The chamber was now normal, and

so were his emotions.
 
"Thanks for your help, demoness," he called out

one doorway, then walked out the other, into the main castle.

A young woman greeted him in the ball.
 
"Hello, Forrest Faun," she said.

"I am Wira, the Good Magician's Adaughter-in-law.
 
He is ready to see

you now."

"Just like that?" He was surprised to have such ready acceptance, after

the complications of the Challenges.

"He has been most interested in your progress.
 
This way, please."

Magician Hunifrey had been following his case?
 
The Challenges had

seemed designed to confuse or discourage him.

Forrest followed the woman through dull passages and up a dark stairway.

He wondered how she could be so sure-footed, in such poor lighting.

Soon they were at a study so gloomy that "dingy" would be inadequate to

describe it.
 
Within it a gnome sat hunched over a huge tome.
 
"Forrest

Faun is here, Good Magician," Wira said.

The gnome looked up.
 
"Thank you, dear." It was probably illusion, but

there almost seemed to be a nuance of affection when he spoke to her.

"Send him in."

 
Wira turned to Forrest.
 
"Go on in," she said.
 
There was something odd

about her gaze, which did not quite meet his own.

Then he realized what it was: she was blind.
 
That was why she was

indifferent to darkness.

Embarrassed for no reason he could settle on, he walked on into the

Magician's crowded study.
 
"My Question is-"

"Yes, yes, of course," the Magician said impatiently.
 
"Imbri will be

here in a moment."

"But how can you Answer, if you don't hear my Question?"

"I am not going to Answer, because I won't charge you a Service.

Now stop wasting my time."

Forrest experienced an unusual emotion.
 
After half a pause he

recognized it: anger.
 
"You mean I took all this trouble to come here,

and to brave your Challenges, for nothing?"

"Not for nothing.
 
For the Solution to your problem.
 
That requires

neither Question nor Answer.
 
The mare will clarify it in due course."

"But how can I get a Solution, without-?" He stopped, because he saw

that Humfrey was paying him no further attention.
 
The grumpy old

Magician was lost in his tome.

Wira reappeared.
 
"Come on downstairs.
 
It will be all right.
 
It always

is."

"This isn't what I expected."

"It seldom is."

So he followed her back through the dusky passages.

Hello, Fat.
 
Are you the one I am to guide'?

Forrest looked around, startled.
 
No one was there.

You ('a i'l see me, the voice said.
 
I am M(ire Imbri, the day male.

I c n speak to you only in daydreams.

"In my dreams?" he asked, surprised.

Wira turned.
 
"Oh, she's arrived?
 
Good.
 
Sit down here and talk with

her.
 
I will return when you need me."

Distracted, Forrest entered the room the woman indicated, and sat in a

comfortable chair.

I was once a night mare, but I lost my body and became a day mare.
 
I am

invisible.
 
Would it help if you could see me?

"Yes."

Then close your eyes and make your mind blank.

Forrest did as asked, bemused.
 
In a moment a horse appeared in his

mind, a black mare with white socks on her hind legs.
 
Or perhaps if I

assumed girl her voice said.
 
The horse twisted and changed, becoming a

pretty young human woman.
 
"Is this better?" she asked.

"I can hear you!" he exclaimed.
 
"That is, I could before, but now it

seems more like speech."

"Yes, it is easier to imagine a human form speaking.
 
It is your own

mind doing it; I merely send the thoughts.
 
This is a day dreamlet.
 
You

don't need to speak aloud, either; I can hear you if you just imagine

yourself speaking.
 
I can use speech balloons, if you prefer."

"Speech balloons?" he said aloud, then caught himself, and resolved to

speak silently next time.

A cloud appeared above the young woman's head, with part of it pointing

down at the woman image.
 
IN THIS MANNER, the words in the balloon

wrote.

"Regular speech will do," he said.
 
Then caught himself again, and added

without moving his lips: "But tell me, what is this about guiding me?"

The dreamlet girl frowned prettily.
 
"I must perform a Service for the

Good Magician.
 
That Service is to guide you to Ptero, and safely

through it."

"I don't know where Tero is."

"Ptero," she said, spelling it in a speech balloon.

"Wherever.
 
In fact I don't know anything about this.
 
I came to ask the

Good Magician a Question myself, but he wouldn't even listen to it.
 
I

have gone to all this trouble to try to help a tree, and he won't even

listen!
 
"

"The ways of the Good Magician are often inscrutable to ordinary folk,"

she said.
 
"Tell me more of your situation."

So he told her the whole story.
 
She was a very good listener, even

making dreamlet scenes to illustrate what he described.
 
That way he

knew she understood, because he could see the details, and make

corrections when they erred.
 
"So here I am," he concluded.
 
"Ready to

ask the Good Magician how to find a companion spirit for the clog tree,

and I guess he's mad because for some reason he can't use me for a

year's Service, so he won't talk to me at all."

Imbri shook her head.
 
"Humfrey is old and grumpy, but he doesn't waste

energy on anger.
 
He always has some obscure reason for what he does. We

simply have to figure it out.
 
Obviously he has something in mind for

you, because he informed me that my Service is to help you.
 
We just

have to understand what you are doing."