Faun and Games (20 page)

Imbri, his steps more confident now that they were protected by the

sandals.

They passed a big turtle.
 
"Hey, watch where you're going!" the creature

snapped.
 
It was of course a snapping turtle.

"My apology," Forrest said politely, though they really hadn't gone that

close to it.

They passed a big tree with a bee sitting on its lowest branch. Suddenly

Forrest felt his eyes watering.

"A bay-bee," Cathryn cried.
 
"It makes you cry." Again, he had already

discovered that.

Now he was stumbling despite his sandals, because the ground was getting

marshy from the tears of those who had gone before.
 
He lurched past a

large plant and almost tripped over one of its square roots.
 
"A

polynomial plant," Cathryn said.
 
"Attila really did his worst this

time."

Then several creatures charged toward them.
 
Their bodies looked human,

but their heads were closed fists.
 
On some the thumbs were on the

right, and on others on the left.
 
All of them looked vile.

"Knuckleheads!" Cathryn said.
 
"They're not the smartest creatures, but

they're mean.
 
Run!"

They ran toward what looked like a hanging curtain made up of thin

slices of wood.
 
"Avoid those!" Cathryn cried.
 
They tried to duck down

under it, but as they did, they slid into deeper swamp and got bogged

down.

"I can't see!" Forrest cried.

"Those were Venetian blinds," Cathryn said.
 
"They made us-"

"I get it," Forrest said.
 
"How do we get our vision back?"

"I think I saw some see weed.
 
If we can find that-"

They blundered about, making big splashes.
 
"You won't find it that

way," a voice came.

"Who are you?" Forrest asked, hoping it wasn't a knucklehead. "I am the

anonymous turtle you passed without notice.
 
I can direct you to the see

weeds, though I haven't seen them in days."

"Then how can you do it?" Forrest demanded.

"I have turtle recall."

That did seem to make sense.
 
"What do you want in exchange?"

"Something nice to recall.
 
I'm tired of recalling abysmal puns."

"I'll do it," Imbri said.
 
"I will give you a dream of sweet turtle

doves."

"Bear to your left.
 
You were headed for the see-an-enemy, which is more

trouble than you would care for at the moment.
 
Keep going. There: the

see weed is right before you."

Forrest couldn't see anything, but in a moment he heard a pleased

exclamation from Imbri.
 
Then she came to him, and touched him with the

see weed, and suddenly he could see again.
 
She touched Cathryn. Then

she went to do her service for the turtle.

But more B's were flying by.
 
One stung Cathryn.
 
"Well, you took long

enough to get to it," she said crossly.
 
"In fact you didn't do it at

all!
 
You just stood there stupidly while your friend fetched the see

weed."

"Well, yes, I suppose-"

"Not that you ever were much of a creature," she continued.
 
"I don't

know why I'm even bothering to help you in your stupid quest. You-" Then

a second B stung her.
 
"Oh, you wonderful friend!"

she exclaimed, suddenly hugging him.
 
He would have liked it better if

she had been at her mature stage.
 
"You're just so great to have around.

I don't know how I ever survived without you."

Then something stung Forrest on the leg.
 
He looked down and saw it was

a tic marked TAC.
 
He pulled it off, but it was already having its

effect.
 
He was realizing how to manage things better.
 
Those B's were

from a Have; their stings made folk B-have differently.
 
One must have

been a B-little, and the other a B-friend.

A third B was already stinging Cathryn.
 
She pushed Forrest away.

"B-gone!" she exclaimed.

"Tell it to the B's," he told her.
 
"Loudly."

Comprehension crossed her face from upper right to lower left.
 
She

turned to face the remaining milling B's.
 
"Begone!"

The B's buzzed rapidly away, heeding the voice of authority.

Cathryn turned back to him.
 
"Oh, thank you.
 
I really didn't mean those

things I said; it was just that-"

"You got stung," he said.
 
"Fortunately I got bitten by a tactic, so I

figured out what to do."

Imbri returned.
 
"The turtle is satisfied," she reported.
 
"Now we must

move on; the glow is flickering again." She plunged on ahead.

They followed-and suddenly they were out of the comic strip, and the

dreadful puns were gone.
 
Ahead of them was a tree twisted into the form

of a pretzel.
 
"We are in ogre territory," Cathry said nervously.

Shapes loomed in the sky.
 
"And the dragons are still hunting us,"

Forrest added, just as nervously.

athryn Centaur glanced at the sky.
 
"I'll throw a blan ket of fog," she

said, raising her hands.

"You can make another kind of blanket?" Forrest asked, surprised.
 
"Not

just security?"

"Yes.
 
My talent is blankets, not just one kind.
 
But I'm only about

eight years old now, and it won't be very big." From her hands poured

patches of mist, which spread out and sank around them.
 
Unfortunately

it sank too low, so that their heads poked out, and the dragons spied

them.
 
"This is the best I can do," Cathryn said.
 
"We'll have to duck

down in order to hide in it."

They ducked down.
 
The blanket of fog closed over their heads,

concealing them from the air.
 
Unfortunately it also made it hard for

them to see their way.

Then there was a great thudding sound.
 
"An ogre!" Cathryn whispered,

frightened.
 
Forrest realized that as a child she was much more fearful

of monsters than she would have been as an adult.

He poked his head cautiously up through the top of the cloud blanket and

peeked at the sky.
 
The dragons were circling, looking for their prey.

They were smaller than he remembered, but he realized that this was

because they were now younger.
 
As the ogre approached, huge and awful,

the dragons peered down at him.

"Stay here no, dragons go!" the ogre cried, shaking one hamfist. But the

dragons knew lie couldn't reach them.
 
They were young and foolish.
 
One

of them flew over the ogre and dropped a ball of dung. It splatted

close, and some of it flew out to speckle the ogre's hairy hide.

The ogre growled.
 
It wasn't that dirt bothered him, but he was not

'd enough not to know he was being insulted.
 
Ogres were quite stupi

justifiably proud of their stupidity, but there were limits. He stooped,

picked up a rock, and hurled it at the dragon.
 
The dragon tried to

swerve, but the rock clipped it on the tail, knocking it upside down.

The dragon gyrated desperately to prevent itself from falling to the

ground, then flew quickly away.
 
In a moment the other dragons followed;

they didn't care to tangle with an ogre in ogre territory.

Satisfied, the ogre tramped on.
 
He was evidently the border guard. It

was just as well, because the cloud blanket was thinning.
 
Soon they

would have been exposed, and the ogre wasn't a much better bet than the

dragons, as far as their safety went.
 
Cathryn could have spread her

wings and flown away, of course, but she was too courteous to do that.

Cathryn stood and reculled her blanket.
 
The wisps of cloud funneled

into her hands, and the round was clear again.

Ibri- esui-ned her determined trek.
 
"It is getting close," she said.

"That's good," Cathryn said, because as they walked she was looking more

like seven than eight.
 
It was clear that she would be unable to go

beyond her limit.

They crested a hill, and looked down on an enormous castle.
 
It had no

moat, and evidently didn't need one, because the bashed and splintered

state of the trees around it showed it to be the home of an ogre.

What else, here in ogre country?

"It's in there," Imbri said.
 
"The one who knows where the dear horn

is."

"don't think there's anything in there but the ogre," Cathryn said.
 
"I

don't think it's a good idea to go in."

" But if he's the one who knows, we'll have to ask him," Forrest said.

Ogres eat other folk, and crunch their bones," Cathryn reminded him,

shivering.
 
As a child she lacked courage.

"But that's temporary, here, isn't it?" Imbri asked.
 
"Because all folk

are just spirits, so can't be truly killed or destroyed?"

"Yes.
 
But it's awful getting crunched.
 
It hurts.
 
And if he crunches

you, you'll be gone from that region.
 
You can never return to where you

died, any more than you can go beyond your regions of delivery or

ending."

"You mean folk can die here?" Forrest asked, alarmed.

"Not exactly.
 
We can die, but it is limited."

"How can death be limited?"