Faun and Games (61 page)

The girls scrambled back onto his hand.
 
Then they rode way out across

the green terrain, until the giant's reach reached its farthest reaches,

and he lowered them to the greensward.

"Thank you, Uncle!" Ghina called, flashing another gladebrightening

invisible smile as they slid to the ground.

"Welcome, Niece," he called back, as he started back toward his chess

game, his voice sounding lower because of the special magic of Doppler.

It occurred to Forrest that Doppler must have been an interesting

Magician, though it wasn't clear why he wanted to fool with sounds.

Now they had to struggle with the terrain.
 
It was possible for them to

walk erect, if they clung to trees and other features of the greenscape,

but not easy.
 
There seemed to be no lings in the vicinity.
 
So they

were stuck in the greenery, being both red and grounded.

"Maybe we can brace each other," Dawn gasped.
 
"So we can walk more or

less upright."

"Or tie ourselves together," Eve added.
 
"So we can be braced without

using our hands."

They found some greenbriar vines, but they were too thorny to use. Then

they saw a green rope leaping around.
 
Forrest managed to snag it as it

jumped over him.
 
The rope struggled, wanting to be free to leap some

more, but the girls grabbed hold of its ends and subdued it.
 
"It's a

jump rope," Eve gasped.
 
They wound it around, and tied themselves into

a clumsy mass.
 
It worked, not well, but better than nothing, and the

rope's natural inclination to jump helped.
 
Imbri was the center, and

the other four clustered around her, their feet bracing outward.
 
It was

uncomfortable, but feasible, for now.

Forrest was wedged against Ghina, because there needed to be two people

to a side and the twins couldn't agree which one of them would get to

press against the faun.
 
Ghina was invisible within her cloak and cowl,

and quickly shed those so as to be entirely invisible and less

noticeable.
 
But her body was solid.
 
Forrest felt her wings brushing

him every so often, and he was aware of other parts of her. He realized

that he was in close contact with yet another healthy young woman.
 
How

did he keep getting into these situations?

"She's that way," Eve said, after touching the ground for information.

"Not far."

So they trundled along in that direction.
 
Forrest had no idea what they

would do if something unfriendly spied them.
 
They weren't in any

condition to fend anything off.
 
Maybe another storm package would drive

it away, but maybe not.

"Say, I never realized that fauns were so interesting," Ghina murmured.

"Do you suppose we could-?"

"Unfeasible," he said.
 
Was there any point trying to explain about the

effect faunish contact had on females?

"Oh," she said regretfully.

They half dragged, half jumped onward until they came to the greenhouse

residence that Eve indicated was the one.
 
Rather than knock on the

glass door, and possibly freak someone out, they decided to let Imbri

contact the woman with a dreamlet.

"Jfraya!" Imbri's joint dreamlet called, showing Imbri's human form in a

green dress, properly upright.
 
"May we speak with you?"

A woman appeared in the dreamlet.
 
She was of course green, especially

her thumbs, and carried a green watering can.
 
"Who are You?"

"I am Mare Imbri, from another world.
 
My friends and I need your help

to stop the Wizards."

"But the Wizards haven't done us any harm," Jfraya protested.

"But they are doing others harm, by stealing from another world," Imbri

responded.
 
"We have in our group two people from that world, whose

people are sorely suffering."

"What makes you think I can help?"

"Ida of the world of Torus said you could."

"Ida?
 
But she's confined to an island on the blue face."

"Yes.
 
She's Ida of Pyramid.
 
The Ida I mean is on the world of Torus,

which orbits her head." Imbri made an image of blue Ida and her doughnut

shaped moon.

"This is too complicated to argue," Jfraya said.
 
"So I suppose I'd

better help you."

"Very good.
 
I think your world will be better off without raiding other

worlds.
 
After all, you wouldn't want other worlds raiding yours.

"I suppose."

Then Imbri introduced the others of their party, in the dreamlet.

"But why are they all tied together?
 
Are they prisoners?"

Imbri explained about the difficulty of walking on this face.

"Oh, I can fix that," Jfraya said.
 
"Where do you want to go?"

"To the Green Wizard's castle, first."

Jfraya stepped outside her greenhouse.
 
"Open this door," she said. She

brought out a large pen and drew a crude door on the ground, with hinges

on one side and a handle on the other.
 
Then she went back into her

house to finish watering her plants.

The group trundled up.
 
For-rest reached down for the drawn handle. To

his half surprise, he caught hold of it.
 
He hauled on it, and the door

opened, folding out of the ground.
 
Below was a passage slanting down.

It had a floor, a ceiling, and two sides.
 
There was a faint green glow,

so that it did not become dark deeper in.
 
"You know, we could walk on

one of the walls," Forrest said.

They untied themselves, one by one, and climbed down into the passage.

Dawn went first, and stood on the slanting wall, which was about right

for her orientation.
 
Then Eve joined her.
 
Their upper bodies were

pointing slightly downward, so the wall was close to right angles to

them.
 
Their four dainty feet were aimed almost directly at Forrest.

"Say, we'd look good in skirts," Dawn said.

"Yes, considering the angle," Eve agreed.

Their red jeans fuzzed and became flaring red skirts.
 
Forrest quickly

clapped a hand to his eyes before he saw very far beyond their four nice

knees.
 
"Stop it!" he cried.

"Aw," they said together, laughing.

"I wish I could do that," Ghina murmured.

That intrigued him, though he knew it shouldn't.
 
"Couldn't you, if you

put on stockings and panties?"

" No.
 
They're too close to my body.
 
They turn invisible.
 
Only the

thicker material can retain its opacity."

"I'm sure it's for the best," he said insincerely.

"Their jeans are back," she informed him.

He ventured a look.
 
Sure enough, it was safe.
 
And probably the

mischievous girls had not really let anything show.
 
They knew that the

mission wouldn't get far if they freaked him out in the middle of it.

Now he and Ghina climbed down into the hole and stood on the wall.

Finally Imbri rolled over and in, and they were all there. Fortunately

it was a large passage, with room, though there wasn't much clearance

for their heads.

Then Jfraya emerged.
 
"I think my greens have enough water for a few

days," she said.
 
She entered the passage, standing in its floor. This

was awkward, because she was about at right angles to them, and their

upper bodies were at cross purposes.
 
But they would just have to give

her space and make do.

They walked along the passage, giving each other sufficient room. "This

goes to the Wizard's castle?" Forrest asked.

"It should.
 
But I should warn you that one never can be quite certain

what one will find along the way."

"But if you made this passage, there shouldn't be anything else along

it, should there?"

"I made the door, not the passage.
 
I made a door into a passage that

goes to the Wizard's castle."

"Oh." That meant that they might not be safe, after all.
 
"Are there

likely to be dangers?"

"There could be.
 
But I could make another door, to escape the passage."

Eve touched the floor, which was her wall.
 
"This is a goblin tunnel!"

she exclaimed.

"Why yes, so it is," Ghina said.
 
"I should have recognized it, from my

goblin heritage."

"But it is deserted," Dawn said.

"Good," Jfraya said.
 
"I tried to pick an empty one."

They proceeded onward with greater confidence.
 
In due course the

passage opened into a series of galleries.
 
In one some metallic green

plants grew, with fierce straight spikes.
 
"A steel plant!" Eve

exclaimed.
 
"They make swords from these." She touched one of the

spikes.
 
"Too bad we delicate girls don't know how to use swords."

They knew how to use whatever else they had, though, Forrest thought

darkly.

The next chamber was encrusted with green gems.
 
"Now these we might

use," Eve said, touching one.
 
"They are strata-gems, from the

stratosphere.
 
They help folk devise plans."

Forrest agreed.
 
"Let's harvest some and keep them for use when we need

them."

So they pried several of the gems free, and each person put one in purse

or pack.