Faun and Games (25 page)

Forrest tore his own eyes away, realizing that he could probably make a

better deal while Ogle was distracted.
 
"What can we do for you in

return for this information?"

Ogle considered again.
 
This time his eyeballs turned white hot. Maybe

that was mostly because Imbri was drawing off her blouse again.
 
That

might not seem like much, but the ogre probably had forgotten that there

was a halter under it, and the centaur was frowning so determinedly that

it was obvious that something truly naughty was happening.
 
"Nothing,"

he concluded.
 
"I don't need anything."

Forrest had a notion, based on what he had recently learned from

Cathryn.
 
"You like to see things," he said.
 
"Especially things you're

not supposed to see, like human pantomiming," he continued, emphasizing

the first syllable of the last word, so that it sounded as if he were

about to say the P word.
 
Cathryn's sudden shocked intake of breath

aided the effect.

"Yeah, yeah," Ogle agreed, his eyeballs bulging as if he actually had

seen the forbidden thing.
 
It was clear that being souled did not change

his fundamental nature.

"Well, the one thing you can't see is what is within your blanked out

year."

"Yeah.
 
I can see everything on this side, and everything on the far

side, but when I try to go into it, I just slide right across and my age

changes a year in a single moment.
 
It is exceedingly frustrating."

Now Imbri's shoes were coming off.
 
Forrest knew that he had to get on

with it quickly, lest she be forced to show something really naughty.

"Well, we can go there, because we aren't you.
 
We can tell you what is

happening in your forbidden section."

That prospect actually brought the ogre's eyes from Imbri, which meant

that she was able to dance without removing any more items, giving her

more time.
 
"But only souled folk can see souls," he said.

"I am souled," Forrest said.
 
"Don't you see my glow?"

"So I do," Ogle agreed, surprised.
 
He glanced at Imbri.
 
"And hers,

too.
 
That makes her even more interesting.
 
A naughty view of a souled

creature is much more effective than of an unsouled one.
 
So it seems

you can indeed go into my barred region.
 
Very well: if you will tell me

what I am doing in there, I will tell you where to find Old Ogress."

"Agreed!
 
We'll go now." Then Forrest realized that it wasn't quite that

simple.
 
"Uh, where is it?"

"R'Ight this way." The ogre led the way east.

As they progressed, Cathryn continued to grow younger.
 
Soon she was

dancing along like a yearling foal.
 
Fortunately the ogre stopped before

she hit the limit of her range.
 
"Here," he said.
 
"Right now it's when

I am twenty four years old, and moving slowly forward.
 
I don't seem to

be much changed on either side of it, but I sure am curious about what's

in there."

"We will go in and observe carefully," Forrest said.
 
"And when we come

out, we'll make a full report."

"I don't think I'd have the patience for that.
 
How about half a

report?"

"Half," Forrest agreed amicably.
 
"Or even a quarter, if you prefer."

"Wow!
 
That's great." Then a slow thought percolated through what passed

for the ogre's brain.
 
"But what will I do, with nothing to ogle?
 
My

attention span is very short."

Cathryn stepped in.
 
"I will tell you a foal's story I know.
 
"The Ogre

and the Three Bares." At my present age, it's the only one I know, but I

think it's a good one."

"I love that story!" Ogle said.
 
"I haven't heard it since I was in my

ogret range."

"I will refresh your memory.
 
Once there was an ogre who was lost in the

forest.
 
Of course he could simply have bashed all the trees to

smithereens, but of course he was too stupid to realize that."

"Of course," Ogle agreed appreciatively.

"So he stumbled about until he saw this odd house.
 
He bashed down the

door and went in, and there were three bowls of really icky gruel.
 
So

he gulped down the first, but it was too hot......

Forrest and Imbri quietly departed as the story enraptured the ogre. It

seemed that forbidden adventures were almost as compelling as forbidden

sights.
 
The story wouldn't last long, so they had to get to the center

and see what there was to be seen and get back.

As it happened, there wasn't much.
 
The vegetation was much thicker,

because it had had a chance to grow up during the year's absence by the

ogre, but since other ogres occasionally passed this way, large patches

of damage remained.
 
Forrest could appreciate how Orgy Ogre liked the

perpetually bashable walls of the castle, because it was obvious that

natural terrain simply could not stand up long to an ogre's presence.

The undergrowth gradually thinned as they progressed east, because in

that direction it had had less time to recover.

Then Forrest saw a hulking figure ahead.
 
"That looks like an ogre, sort

of," he said.

"Sort of," Imbri agreed.
 
"But it's insubstantial."

"Who ever heard of an insubstantial ogre!"

But lo, it was true.
 
The figure was bashing a small mountain into a

molehill, and they could see through its outline as well as the

mountain's outline.
 
What could this be?

"It's Ogle," Imbri said, surprised.
 
"See those bulging eyeballs."

She was right.
 
The faint image was their ogre.
 
"And that must be a

mountain on Xanth, because it's flat here," Forrest said, walking

through both ogre and mountain.

They paused to study the figure.
 
Soon the ogre stopped bashing and

stepped up on the top of the large molehill he had made.
 
He turned

around, looking in all directions.
 
Then his eyes bulged and his jaw

went slack.
 
He remained frozen in place.

"He's ogling something," Imbri said.

"I wonder what it is?" Forrest walked around the figure.
 
He discovered

that at the right angle, he could see a reflection in one of the

eyeballs.
 
It seemed to be a white square, inside of which was pink

material, bulging in two places.

Then Forrest freaked out.
 
He found himself lying on the ground with

small planets spinning above his head.
 
Imbri was kneeling beside him,

trying to help.
 
"Forrest!
 
What happened?"

He tried to speak, but his mouth had not yet recovered from the

freakout.
 
Imbri sat on the ground, picked up his head, and cushioned it

in her lap.
 
She stroked his forehead, her soft hand passing pleasantly

across his horns.
 
"It's all right," she said.
 
"Just relax.
 
You don't

seem to be physically hurt."

He finally got his tongue unfreaked.
 
"How could I be, in soul form?" he

asked.

"Forrest!" she exclaimed.
 
"You're recovering!" She leaned down and

kissed him.
 
It was a surprisingly nice kiss, and the way her soft yet

resilient blouse nudged his face enhanced the effect.

"I am getting good care," he said.
 
"I can't remember when I've been so

comfortable."

She hugged him, in her fashion, and that bordered on delightful. "I was

concerned.
 
You were looking at the ghost ogre, and then you abruptly

collapsed.
 
What did you see?"

Then he remembered.
 
"I saw the reflection of what he saw.
 
What he was

ogling in Xanth.
 
It was-"

I 'Yes?"

"A panty.
 
In a window."

Imbri dumped Is head on the ground.
 
"You're not supposed to look!
 
"

"I'm sorry," he said, as he waited for another tiny planet to clear

away.
 
"I didn't know what it was, until I saw it.
 
And it was just a

reflection, not the real thing."

"Well," she said, faintly mollified.
 
"Just don't do it again."

He sat up, then made his way back to his feet.
 
The ogre was still

standing like a statue.
 
"I guess now we know why he was bashing down

that mountain.
 
It was to make a platform so he could see something

better, inside that house.
 
When he saw in the window-"

"He saw a woman changing her clothing," Imbri finished, disapprovingly.

Suddenly the ghost ogre fell off his platform.
 
He lay on his back, and

ghost planets spun over his head, just as they had with Forrest. The

woman must have moved away from the window, breaking the freakout view.

"We have more than enough to report, I think," Forrest said. "Let's go

back, before Cathryn runs out of story."

"Yes," she said tightly.
 
She was becoming more like a woman and less

like a mare in attitude as well as appearance.
 
Forrest wasn't sure that

was a complete improvement.

They left the ghost ogre to recover on his own, and hurried back west.

They emerged just as the centaur foal was finishing:

"And so the ogre bashed his way out of that house, and never went there

again.
 
And he never ate icky gruel again, either."