Faun and Games (58 page)

your mind, I would be free to offer an opinion, which you would be free

to ignore.
 
So there would be no actual service.
 
Would that do?"

"Yes!'

"Then we shall do that.
 
Let's take a little walk into my house."

The two went into the house.
 
The remaining three looped a glance

around.
 
"What do you think she saw?" Eve asked.

"It must have been something that one of us knows, or maybe has seen and

not realized its significance," Imbri said.

"She knows just about everything I know," Eve said.
 
"So I don't think

it's me."

"I have seen too many things to remember," Imbri said.
 
"In the course

of my delivery of bad dreams.
 
So one of them could relate. But why

wouldn't she tell us, or at least Forrest?"

"All I know I learned in the vicinity of my tree," Forrest said. "This

adventure has shown me more new things than I ever saw before.
 
So

unless I saw a faun in passing and didn't realize it-and why wouldn't

Dawn tell me that?"

"She said it wasn't a faun, but maybe better," Eve said.
 
"But that

still doesn't explain why she's so confused."

Dawn and Ida emerged from the house.
 
Dawn looked radiant.
 
She marched

right up to Forrest.
 
"I love you as much as Eve does, now,"

she said, embracing him and kissing him ardently on the mouth.
 
He

realized that it must be so, for her passion was heating him, making him

desire her as much as he desired Eve.
 
Her body was pressing him in all

the places Eve's body had, just as urgently.
 
"So we're even, again."

She gave him a final squeeze, and turned him loose.

He reeled, and would have fallen, had not Imbri alertly intercepted him

and supported him with her solid shoulder.
 
"We had better complete this

mission soon," Imbri said in a dreamlet.
 
"Those girls are too much for

you."

True words!
 
He put his arm across her shoulder, gradually regaining his

equilibrium.
 
"I'm just not used to this sort of thing," he said.

"But what favor did you do him?" Eve was asking Dawn.

"Sister, I can't tell you.
 
And I can't tell you why I can't tell you.

But believe me, you would do the same, in my situation."

"I don't understand!"

"I know.
 
I'm sorry.
 
But so it must be, for now."

Eve looked at Ida.
 
"So it seems it must be," Ida agreed.
 
"And now I

think you are ready to return to Pyramid and complete your mission."

"But how can she have done me a favor, and I not know it?"

Forrest asked, as perplexed as Eve.

"In time you will understand."

Forrest exchanged a glance of mottled frustration with Eve.
 
"Don't you

hate it when someone says that?" Eve asked.

"Yes.
 
It makes me feel like a teenager."

"Exactly," she agreed.
 
Then she came across and kissed him on the

mouth.
 
"If Dawn can do it, so can I."

"But I didn't get to press my bare body against him in the water," Dawn

retorted.

"How do you know about that?" Eve demanded.

"When we held hands, I fathomed everything."

"Including what you're not telling us."

"Yes," Dawn said smugly.

"It's time to go," Forrest said, before it could erupt into a sisterly

fight.

"Yes," Imbri agreed, her dreamlet figure sounding no more pleased than

Forrest or Eve.
 
"Time to go."

"Let's hold hands," Eve suggested.

"Just to be sure no one gets lost," Dawn said.

At another time Forrest might have objected.
 
But at the moment his main

concern was that they make a safe return to Pyramid before anything else

happened to confuse the issue.
 
So he didn't argue.

Eve took hold of his left hand, and Dawn took his right hand, and the

two of them caught Imbri's mane on either side with their other hands.

Each of the girls squeezed his fingers with knowing implication.
 
They

were even, all right-but what of him?
 
Then all of them diluted their

bodies.

"This is impressive," Ida remarked as they expanded and thinned. "I wish

all of you the very best.
 
Give my regards to Ida of Pyramid."

Then they became too diffuse to hear her.
 
They were drifting up into

the sky, which was the hole in the center of Torus.
 
They had to move

out of it, so as not to collide with the world again as they continued

to expand.

The lakes, forests, fields, and mountains spread out below and around

them as they went.
 
Forrest peered at the inner side of the dou,hnut,

until he located the Sarah Sea, with its island in the center. He hoped

Ida wasn't lonely.
 
It would not have been a bad place to reside.

They moved well clear of Torus, growing impossibly large.
 
Then Forrest

saw a far larger shape beyond, and realized that it was Ida's head.
 
Ida

of Pyramid.
 
They would have some interesting things to tell her, too!

It became easier as they oriented on the larger world.
 
They were too

diffuse to continue holding hands; their substances passed right through

each other.
 
But now there was no danger of getting lost.
 
Still, one

nebulous figure clung to his left extremity.
 
That would be Eve. Or was

it?
 
What was he to do about her, whichever one it was?
 
When the two

girls had been equally interested, it had been awkward, and worse when

Eve was more interested, but now it was worse yet. Because now he was

wishing that the mission could be finished, so that he and they could do

whatever they had in mind.
 
He would have to play no favorites, but that

would be a lie; Eve had become his favorite.
 
She had aroused emotions

of a scope and complexity he had not before experienced.
 
Yet Dawn had

the capacity to even it up, as her last embrace had shown.
 
Just what

had she done, to increase her emotion?

When their own monstrous bodies came into view, they separated, each

descending toward his or her own.
 
Even Eve's empty body intrigued him

now; it looked lovely in its dark perfection.
 
He would have to

dissipate that feeling, if he could.

Mare Imbri was the first to reach her body.
 
She landed on it with her

hoofs and sank in.
 
So that was how it was done!
 
Forrest moved his own

feet toward that landing.
 
But he hung back somewhat, wanting to make

sure that the others docked successfully before he did. He didn't know

what he would do if anything went wrong, but he felt it was his

responsibility.

He saw Dawn reach her body.
 
She elected to swan-dive into it, her

soul-self assuming the form of the bird just before it disappeared into

the flesh.
 
Actually her whole body was condensed soul, but that didn't

seem to matter in this circumstance.
 
Her head faced him at the last

instant, and winked.
 
What did she know?

Then Eve reached her body.
 
She assumed the form of a perfect image of

herself, only without the clothing, and sank down on her back.
 
She

glanced lingeringly at him as she disappeared, and smiled. Oh, yes, she

remained aware of him!

Then it was his turn.
 
He dropped in feet first, trusting Imbri's

technique, and felt his feet and legs encounter slow resistance.
 
He

arranged himself and lay down across his body, sinking in.

Then it became stifling.
 
He was suffocating.
 
He wanted to pull out, to

escape, to win free, but couldn't.
 
The body had hold of him, and was

sucking him into itself, in all its solid parts and aspects.
 
But he

reminded himself that this really was his body, in this world, and that

he would like it as soon as he truly got back into it.
 
It merely felt a

bit corroded from disuse at the moment.

Then the melding was complete.
 
He opened his eyes.
 
Around him the

others were stirring.
 
"What an experience!" Dawn said.
 
She looked at

Forrest as if pondering experience of another kind.

"Yes indeed," Eve agreed.
 
Then she sent a sultry glance in Forrest's

direction.
 
"In more respects than one."

For sure.

da helped them reorient.
 
"Are all of you all right?" she asked.
 
"You

were gone for several hours."

Forrest looked at the tiny Torus orbiting her head.
 
So much had

happened there!
 
"Yes, I think we are, physically," he said.

Both girls laughed.
 
"Emotionally, we changed," Dawn said.
 
"The two of

us fell in love with him, and he became fascinated with us."

"But we learned what we need to know," Eve said.
 
"Your persona there

was very nice."

"And now we will share it with you," Forrest said.
 
"We will tell you

all about Torus."

"I'm so glad," Ida said, bringing a plate of cookies.

And for the next two hours they told her everything they could remember

that they deemed important or interesting.
 
Ida was fascinated,

especially with the revised rules of services and emotions there, and

with the information about the other Ida's come moon.
 
"How I wish I