Faun and Games (45 page)

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 any," 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,

Prerolings, 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