Part V -- Gap
It was miserable business slogging through Xanth's wild lands to get to the Good Magician's castle. Jenny was going hoarse from explaining the land of Xanth and the game aspects to Vader and Luke; indeed, horsish nickers and whinnies were beginning to slip into her speech. Metria spent more time in dragon, ogress, or tangle tree form than human form in order to frighten away various beasts. Vader had run afoul of a stinkhorn plant, and everyone was keeping their distance from him until they could reach a stream where he could wash. Luke had discovered and eaten some gooseberries before Jenny or Metria could identify them, and now he honked annoyingly every time he tried to speak. Sammy, exhausted from the trek, hung limply over his mistress' shoulders like a fur collar. Everyone was tired, hungry, dirty, and looking forward quite longingly to the end of their journey.
"Explain to me why the game was created in the first place," Vader asked, carefully skirting around a snarling tiger lily.
"The demons formed the game," Jenny replied. "It was originally made to settle a bet between two of the mighty World Demons -- Demon X(A/N)TH and Demon E(A/R)TH. Now that the gamble is settled, the game is only called up when a Mundanian Player wants to play. It's a sort of gateway between Xanth and Mundania, so Mundanians can experience our world."
"I see. Now you keep referring to our world as Mundania. Why?"
"Because your land's so mundane and dull," Metria said with her characteristic tactlessness. "You don't even have magic!"
"Simply because we have no magic does not mean you are superior," Vader said sternly, shaking a cautionary finger at Metria.
She didn't reply, only made her nose disappear as his motioning waved stinkhorn reek her way.
Luke tried to say something. "Honk!"
"What was that?" asked Jenny.
"Honk honk!" he insisted, growing frustrated.
"Is there a cure for this?" asked Vader.
Jenny shrugged. "Unless we find a healing spring along our way, there's really not much we can do except wait for it to wear off."
"Campsite askull," Metria announced.
"Don't you mean ahead?" asked Jenny.
"Whatever."
There was indeed a clearing marked "Game Campsite" ahead. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief -- except Vader, who sighed every time he took a breath anyway.
"There's a spring nearby where you can wash," Jenny told her Companion. "And there's a pole vault full of poles and a tarp-pit full of tarps so we can make tents. The demons really planned this out!"
"Better make sure the spring's not enchanted," Metria suggested.
"Sammy, find the nearest unenchanted spring," Jenny told the cat.
He walked two steps and sat down at the edge of the camp's spring. It was safe.
"If it were a healing spring, we could have repaired Luke's folly," Vader noted.
"But it could have been a hate spring or a love spring," Jenny pointed out. "If we had drunk from a hate spring, we would all hate each other and go our separate ways, which could be dangerous. But a love spring's even worse. Most of Xanth's crossbreeds result from people and animals misusing love springs. Would you like to fall in love with a dragoness?"
"Point taken," Vader replied.
Luke and Metria set up the tents while Jenny harvested breadfruit, jellybeans, butterflies, and milkweed pods for supper and Vader found a soapstone to scrub away the stinkhorn smell. Luke indicated through gestures that it might be a good idea to start a fire in case it got cold during the night, and once everyone was through with their tasks they set off in pairs to find kindling.
"Good," Metria whispered once Vader and Jenny had disappeared in the other direction. "Now that we're alone, I can show you some true demonly fun." She reached purposefully for Luke.
"Honk!" he protested, holding up his hands.
"Oh do relax!" she ordered. "I know what I'm doing!"
"Honk!"
"Look, you're obviously old enough. So am I. It's perfectly all right."
"Honk honk honk honk!"
"Why are you so worked up over this? Most men would do anything for a chance to see a demoness' panties!"
"Honk honk honk!" He gestured wildly toward the bushes.
"Those two won't see or hear us, so stop worrying..."
"Honk honk!" he insisted, shaking his head.
"Honestly, what's your problem?"
"Hello there!" someone called.
"Honk!" Luke replied, pointing at the two old women emerging from the brush. They carried baskets full of pine needles and pincushion plants, items necessary for sewing and mending.
"Travelers," the first woman noted, nodding. "What might a dashing young man and a lovely woman be doing out here so late?"
"Need we ask?" the second said with a wink before Metria could reply. "We may be old, but we're not that far from our panty-flashing days."
Luke's ears became a brilliant crimson.
"I'm Demoness Metria, and this is Luke Skyscraper Mundane," Metria introduced. "I'm his Companion in a prey."
"A what?" the first woman asked.
"Quarry, target, hunted, entertainment, sport..."
"Game?" suggested the other.
"Whatever."
"It must be some game," said the first woman. "I'm Auntie Freeze, and my talent is thawing things that have grown cold."
"I'm Auntie Dote, and my talent is healing people who have eaten things they shouldn't have," introduced the other. "We're collecting supplies for our nephew Taylor, whose talent is conjuring cloth so he can make fine clothes."
"Why make clothes when you can gather them from trees?" asked Metria.
"Oh, its a hobby of his," Freeze explained. "And he makes much nicer things than you'll find on any tree."
"Honk!"
"What is it, son?" asked Dote, peering at him. "Have a problem?"
"He ate some gooseberries, didn't he?" Freeze asked.
"Honk!" Luke replied, nodding.
"I can fix that," Dote replied. "Hold still, lad." She put a hand against his chest. "There, that's better."
"I didn't feel anything," Luke protested. "Hey, I can talk!"
"Next time you'll be careful about what you eat, won't you?" Freeze asked.
"I sure will," he replied. "But what's this about talents?"
"Every human in Xanth -- and on occasion, certain crossbreeds -- has a talent," Metria explained. "It can be something as small as the talent of conjuring a colored spot on a wall, or as powerful as changing one living thing into another."
Luke considered. "Something like the Force."
"The Force?" all three women repeated, with Metria adding "What the bleep's the Farce?"
"The Force is a form of magic that we practice in Mundania," Luke explained. "It controls and can be controlled. I'm a Jedi; I use the light side of the Force. Our traveling companion Vader is a Sith; he uses the dark side of the Force."
"What does it do?" asked Freeze.
"Here, I'll show you." He reached out and tried to call a nearby stick into his hand. But instead of coming to him, it leaped away.
"Hmph, not bad," said Dote.
Luke frowned. "I was trying to grab it." He tried again, but it only made another leap in the opposite direction.
"Don't think much of your Force," Freeze said.
"Try pushing it away," suggested Metria.
Luke wondered how that was supposed to help but obeyed. The effect was impressive -- the stick launched itself at him with such velocity it hit him full in the face.
"Oops!" shrieked Dote. "You all right, lad?"
"No permanent damage," Luke replied, though he was probably going to sport a black eye in a few minutes. "But I don't understand what happened there."
"You tried to pick up a stick of reverse wood," Metria explained. "It reversed your Force and did the opposite that you told it to."
"Oh, that stuff is rare!" cried Freeze. "You'd best hang onto that, dearie. It could be useful."
Luke was skeptical of this, but in the end he decided to keep the stick. It might be the key to unraveling a game challenge.
"We'd better run," Dote said. "Taylor'll be expecting us." The two women waved goodbye and left.
When Luke and Metria got back to camp, arms full of firewood, Vader and Jenny already had a blaze going. Luke noticed a long scratch crossing Vader's mask from his left eyepiece to the right corner of his "jaw," as if he'd been struck by something. A branch similar to Luke's reverse wood lay beside the tents, a safe distance away.
"Reverse wood?" Luke asked.
Vader nodded. "I see you encountered it too."
Jenny took Luke's wood and bound it to Vader's with one of her spare shoelaces, then tucked them into her pack. "There. Two pieces of reverse wood cancel each other's effect when put together. We can handle them without ill effects this way." Then she looked up at Luke. "Hey, you're not honking anymore!"
Luke explained his encounter with the two aunts. "I guess we were just lucky to be in their path."
"Few things in Xanth are 'just lucky,'" Metria corrected. "The game must have put us in their path as a challenge. Since we were friendly to them, they were friendly back and helped us."
"What I'd like to know is why you two seem to have magic," Jenny said. "Mundanians aren't supposed to have talents, yet you two can pick things up without touching them. And Vader told me you can do a lot more than that."
"It is indeed a puzzle," Vader noted.
But it was getting too late for puzzles. The Players and Jenny finished their supper and retired to separate tents for the night. Metria, being a demon and not needing food or sleep, kept watch over the camp and tended the fire.
***
"What were those?" inquired Vader.
"Oh, just some asterisks," Jenny replied. "They signify the passing of time so we aren't bored by the tedious portions of the game."
They broke camp and moved on. Their path took them straight through a thicket of curse burrs, and soon everyone's clothes were infested with the tiny hooked burrs.
"How do you get these off?" asked Luke, yanking at one unsuccessfully.
"Why do you think they're called curse burrs?" asked Metria. "It takes a curse to get them off."
Jenny covered her ears.
"Okay," Luke said unsurely. "Uh, stang."
A burr leaped off his sleeve.
"Sithspawn!" Vader tried. Two more fell off his cloak.
"Let's speed this up a little," Metria suggested. "$$$$!"
Her shout blackened all plants within a three-meter radius, left scorch marks on the ground, and reddened Luke's ears until they glowed. But the curse burrs flew in all directions.
"What's this?" asked Luke. For they'd come to an enormous canyon whose depths were shrouded with mist.
"The Gap Chasm," Jenny replied. "It separates northern Xanth from southern Xanth. At the bottom lives the Gap Dragon, Stanley Steamer."
"Vicious?" asked Vader.
"Definitely. He'll chomp you in three-quarters of an instant."
"The path leads right to the edge," Luke observes. He peered warily over the brink. "But it doesn't lead down."
Metria vanished with a pop. For a moment she reappeared as a tiny dot on the other side of the Gap. Then she reappeared on their side.
"The path resembles on the other side of the Gap," she reported.
"It what?" asked Jenny.
"Looks like, copies, imitates, continues, repeats..."
"Resumes," corrected Luke.
"Whatever."
"So there must be a way to cross the chasm here," Jenny guessed.
"Another game challenge," Vader mused. He stepped to the edge of the cliff, mulled over the situation a moment, then extended a foot.
"Watch out!" Jenny called out in warning.
"It's all right," he assured her, putting the foot down. As he expected, something invisible to his eyes but most definitely solid took his weight. "There's an invisible bridge."
"I'm not sure I can trust something I can't see with my life," Luke said warily.
And the boy calls himself a Jedi, Vader thought amusedly.
"I'd better go first," Metria said. "I don't much care if Vader and Jenny fall off, because they're our competition, but if Luke falls and washes out I'm in for it with Grossclout."
"This Grossclout must be some demon," Luke observed.
"One of the most powerful and feared, aside from the World Demons," Jenny agreed. "But he doesn't go out of his way to hurt people, just intimidates them as he meets them."
Metria changed her form to that of a dust bunny and hopped onto the bridge. Clouds of dust rose from her sand-colored fur as she went, coating the planks and ropes of the bridge so it was visible in an eerie, ghost-like way.
Suddenly the bunny disappeared. She had leaped right through a massive hole in the bridge. Moments later she reappeared, in human form, on their side of the chasm, looking flustered.
"Who went and messed with the bridge like that?" she demanded.
Jenny blushed, Vader averted his gaze, and Luke's eyes went wide.
"What?" Metria snapped.
"You're not wearing anything," Jenny pointed out.
"So? What's the problem?"
"Put -- your -- clothes -- on," Vader ordered menacingly.
"It's not like your son's underage or anything," Metria huffed, though her dress reappeared.
"Don't call me his son," hissed Luke.
"Let's just focus on crossing the Gap," Jenny said quickly, sensing an altercation about to begin.
"How?" asked Luke. "The bridge is out."
"And I don't think it's wise to take the ground route," Vader added.
"I can turn into a roc and fly you over," volunteered Metria.
"If this is a game challenge, I think the Players need to solve it," Luke replied. "But thanks for the offer."
"Jenny," Vader requested, "ask Sammy to find the closest being who can repair the bridge, or at the very least help us across."
She didn't have to ask. The cat had heard his request and was already off. Everyone followed, but they didn't have to go far. About twenty meters from the bridge, Sammy stopped at an odd-looking house and sat down.
"It looks like its made from cheese," Luke noted.
"A cottage cheese," Jenny replied. She knocked cautiously.
A woman with metallic skin answered. "Yes?"
"I'm Jenny Elf," Jenny introduced. "These are my friends Sammy Cat, Lord Vader Mundane, Luke Mundane, and Demoness Metria. We're trying to cross the Gap, but the invisible bridge is damaged."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she replied. "Do come in. I'm Bria Brassie."
They entered the house. A young man adding wood to the fire waved hello.
"Esk dear, we have guests," Bria told him. To the others she said "This is my husband, Esk Ogre."
"You don't look like an ogre," Metria replied tactlessly.
"Metria!" Luke snapped.
Esk just laughed. "Actually, I'm a crossbreed. My mother was Tandy Nymph, and my father was Smash Ogre. But I can become ogrish if you like." He grinned mischievously.
"That's not necessary," Luke replied quickly. "We were wondering if you could help us. The bridge across the Gap is out of order."
"I'm not very good at fixing things," Esk confessed.
"Brassies are first-rate working with metal and machines, but wood's beyond our talents, especially magic wood," said Bria.
"Oh," Luke replied, disappointed.
Vader frowned. Had Sammy made an error?
"You may sit down," Bria invited. "We're expecting company, but you're quite welcome to share supper with us, as our guest won't be eating."
"You're sure he won't be hungry?" asked Jenny.
"Quite sure," Esk replied as someone knocked on the door. "That must be him. I'll get it." He opened the door to admit a skeleton.
"Oh, I see!" Jenny exclaimed. "Skeletons don't have to eat. You must be Marrow Bones!"
"That I am," the skeleton replied, nodding politely.
"Yes," Vader mused. "You were one of the Companion choices."
"I owed Grossclout a favor," Marrow replied. "But since I was not chosen as a Companion, I'm participating in your game as a side character."
Introductions were made as Bria served wry bread with butterflies and honeycombs, key lime pie (they had to remove the keys first), Golden Delicious apples (metallic-looking but otherwise normal-looking fruit), and milkweed pods. Metria and Marrow, not needing to eat, talked nearby while everyone else dined.
"If it's not rude of me to ask, why do you wear a mask?" asked Bria.
"I suffered an accident that damaged my lungs some time ago," Vader replied. "Where I come from, we must rely on technology instead of magic, so I required this mask to allow me to breathe."
"At least it lets you eat," Esk pointed out.
"I always wondered how you ate," Luke noted, taking a bite out of a slice of pie. "I didn't realize you could open your mask."
"For a limited time," Vader said. "And don't talk with your mouth full, Skywalker."
Jenny, between bites, explained the nature of the game. Bria and Esk listened attentively and nodded.
"My father mentioned it to me," Esk said. "He'd volunteered to help with the game and was one of the available Companions, but no one chose him."
"My friends, we're in duck!" Metria announced.
"What?" asked Bria.
"Water fowl, goose, drake, fortune, chance, coincidence..."
"Luck," Bria corrected.
"Whatever. Marrow has volunteered to help us across the Gap! All he asks for in exchange is half a soul."
Everyone paused. Vader swallowed a mouthful of fruit so he could answer. "And why would he want half a soul?"
"Skeletons are of the gourd realm, which is the realm of dreams," Marrow replied. "By nature we lack souls, like the demons. Our only purpose is to work with the ghosts, brassies, night mares, and other denizens of the gourd to create and deliver bad dreams. But when Esk here looked into a gourd and entered the dream realm, he rescued Bria and me from the Lost Path and endless wandering by bringing us to Xanth proper.
"But we are gourd beings, unable to exist long outside our realm. Bria was able to become one of this realm's beings by falling in love with Esk and obtaining half a soul from him. I, meanwhile, have come to know the skeleton Grace'l Ossein, who was expelled from the gourd realm, and we have two children. But we have not been able to find anyone willing to share their souls with us."
"Pah, who wants a soul?" Metria humphed.
"Is it painful to share one's soul?" asked Luke.
"Of course not," Esk answered. "And a half soul eventually grows into a full soul."
"I'm not sure if Vader or Luke are authorized to give their souls," Jenny said. "They're Mundanian, after all."
"And I don't think it's safe for Jenny to share hers," Bria added. "She's still technically a child, and children's souls are still growing."
"That's unfortunate," Marrow replied. "Then I must present a challenge to these Players before I can help them. Grossclout's orders."
"What sort of challenge?" asked Vader.
Marrow turned to Esk. "Kick me."
"Certainly."
Vader watched, astonished, as Esk kicked Marrow hard in the tailbone. The skeleton flew apart, only to reassemble as a latticework of bones across the doorway. His skull spoke from the center of the bone web.
"If you can leave this house, I will help you across the Gap. If you cannot escape by sundown, you must forfeit the game."
"Wait a minute!" protested Jenny. "The game isn't supposed to interfere with non-Players. How are Bria and Esk supposed to get out?"
"Don't worry," Esk told her. "We have no reason to leave the house before sundown."
Metria vanished, only to pop back on the other side of Marrow. "One down, four to go."
"Sammy, find a way past Marrow," Jenny told her cat.
Immediately Sammy rushed to Marrow, found a gap between a femur and a rib, and squeezed through.
"You forgot to specify a way for the rest of us to get past Marrow," Vader groaned.
"Maybe there's a loose spot somewhere," Luke suggested.
Vader grabbed a shin bone and wrenched at it with all his strength. It slipped out of place slightly, but not nearly enough. He stepped back a moment, trying to find a clue in the pattern of bones. Nothing.
"Can you use your lightsaber?" asked Jenny.
"It would most likely damage Marrow beyond repair," Vader replied.
A wet hiss interrupted him. Luke had picked up a bucket of water and was using it douse the flames in the fireplace.
"What are you doing?" asked Vader, puzzled.
"Marrow said we had to get out," Luke replied, waiting for the damp embers to cool down. "He didn't say we had to get past him, just out. And there's more than one way out." With that, he ducked into the fireplace and began climbing up the chimney.
Vader smiled. Impressive. Young Skywalker could actually use his head. Perhaps he would be a more worthy ally to the Sith than he'd first assumed.
"Have a good trip!" Bria exclaimed in farewell. "Good luck!"
It was filthy, hot, cramped work, but eventually the three of them managed to scrabble up the chimney and down from the roof. Metria had finished reassembling Marrow, and they proceeded toward the invisible bridge.
"Good work on your challenge," Marrow said approvingly. "Where is the gap?"
"Right in front of you, bone-head!" Metria replied.
"Metria!" shouted Luke and Vader at the same time.
"I meant the gap in the bridge," replied Marrow, unruffled. Metria's insult had no effect on him, since it was common knowledge that all skeletons had bony heads. It was like calling a Gungan "big-ears."
Metria became a dust bunny again, hopping across the bridge and halting at the edge of the hole. Then she popped a ways farther and located the other side of the hole. The gap was about five meters wide, and once the dust settled it was obvious that someone had come along and pried up a section of the invisible boards.
Marrow walked to the very edge of the gap. "Kick me."
Vader came up behind him and gave him a good solid kick in the seat. The skeleton flew apart, then reassembled as a bone bridge, covering the space left by the missing planks.
Metria went on ahead, her dust trail revealing the bridge. The group pressed on, avoiding looking into the Gap Chasm's dizzying depths. Frequently a faint bellow would reach them as the Gap Dragon made his presence known.
At last they reached the other side of the canyon. Luke and Vader helped Metria reassemble Marrow into his proper skeleton form before thanking him, and Marrow and the group went their separate ways.
"Shouldn't we tell someone the bridge is out?" asked Luke.
"The Gap Goblins are in charge of the bridge," Jenny replied. "They'll repair it. But we'd better get going to the Good Magician."
It was miserable business slogging through Xanth's wild lands to get to the Good Magician's castle. Jenny was going hoarse from explaining the land of Xanth and the game aspects to Vader and Luke; indeed, horsish nickers and whinnies were beginning to slip into her speech. Metria spent more time in dragon, ogress, or tangle tree form than human form in order to frighten away various beasts. Vader had run afoul of a stinkhorn plant, and everyone was keeping their distance from him until they could reach a stream where he could wash. Luke had discovered and eaten some gooseberries before Jenny or Metria could identify them, and now he honked annoyingly every time he tried to speak. Sammy, exhausted from the trek, hung limply over his mistress' shoulders like a fur collar. Everyone was tired, hungry, dirty, and looking forward quite longingly to the end of their journey.
"Explain to me why the game was created in the first place," Vader asked, carefully skirting around a snarling tiger lily.
"The demons formed the game," Jenny replied. "It was originally made to settle a bet between two of the mighty World Demons -- Demon X(A/N)TH and Demon E(A/R)TH. Now that the gamble is settled, the game is only called up when a Mundanian Player wants to play. It's a sort of gateway between Xanth and Mundania, so Mundanians can experience our world."
"I see. Now you keep referring to our world as Mundania. Why?"
"Because your land's so mundane and dull," Metria said with her characteristic tactlessness. "You don't even have magic!"
"Simply because we have no magic does not mean you are superior," Vader said sternly, shaking a cautionary finger at Metria.
She didn't reply, only made her nose disappear as his motioning waved stinkhorn reek her way.
Luke tried to say something. "Honk!"
"What was that?" asked Jenny.
"Honk honk!" he insisted, growing frustrated.
"Is there a cure for this?" asked Vader.
Jenny shrugged. "Unless we find a healing spring along our way, there's really not much we can do except wait for it to wear off."
"Campsite askull," Metria announced.
"Don't you mean ahead?" asked Jenny.
"Whatever."
There was indeed a clearing marked "Game Campsite" ahead. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief -- except Vader, who sighed every time he took a breath anyway.
"There's a spring nearby where you can wash," Jenny told her Companion. "And there's a pole vault full of poles and a tarp-pit full of tarps so we can make tents. The demons really planned this out!"
"Better make sure the spring's not enchanted," Metria suggested.
"Sammy, find the nearest unenchanted spring," Jenny told the cat.
He walked two steps and sat down at the edge of the camp's spring. It was safe.
"If it were a healing spring, we could have repaired Luke's folly," Vader noted.
"But it could have been a hate spring or a love spring," Jenny pointed out. "If we had drunk from a hate spring, we would all hate each other and go our separate ways, which could be dangerous. But a love spring's even worse. Most of Xanth's crossbreeds result from people and animals misusing love springs. Would you like to fall in love with a dragoness?"
"Point taken," Vader replied.
Luke and Metria set up the tents while Jenny harvested breadfruit, jellybeans, butterflies, and milkweed pods for supper and Vader found a soapstone to scrub away the stinkhorn smell. Luke indicated through gestures that it might be a good idea to start a fire in case it got cold during the night, and once everyone was through with their tasks they set off in pairs to find kindling.
"Good," Metria whispered once Vader and Jenny had disappeared in the other direction. "Now that we're alone, I can show you some true demonly fun." She reached purposefully for Luke.
"Honk!" he protested, holding up his hands.
"Oh do relax!" she ordered. "I know what I'm doing!"
"Honk!"
"Look, you're obviously old enough. So am I. It's perfectly all right."
"Honk honk honk honk!"
"Why are you so worked up over this? Most men would do anything for a chance to see a demoness' panties!"
"Honk honk honk!" He gestured wildly toward the bushes.
"Those two won't see or hear us, so stop worrying..."
"Honk honk!" he insisted, shaking his head.
"Honestly, what's your problem?"
"Hello there!" someone called.
"Honk!" Luke replied, pointing at the two old women emerging from the brush. They carried baskets full of pine needles and pincushion plants, items necessary for sewing and mending.
"Travelers," the first woman noted, nodding. "What might a dashing young man and a lovely woman be doing out here so late?"
"Need we ask?" the second said with a wink before Metria could reply. "We may be old, but we're not that far from our panty-flashing days."
Luke's ears became a brilliant crimson.
"I'm Demoness Metria, and this is Luke Skyscraper Mundane," Metria introduced. "I'm his Companion in a prey."
"A what?" the first woman asked.
"Quarry, target, hunted, entertainment, sport..."
"Game?" suggested the other.
"Whatever."
"It must be some game," said the first woman. "I'm Auntie Freeze, and my talent is thawing things that have grown cold."
"I'm Auntie Dote, and my talent is healing people who have eaten things they shouldn't have," introduced the other. "We're collecting supplies for our nephew Taylor, whose talent is conjuring cloth so he can make fine clothes."
"Why make clothes when you can gather them from trees?" asked Metria.
"Oh, its a hobby of his," Freeze explained. "And he makes much nicer things than you'll find on any tree."
"Honk!"
"What is it, son?" asked Dote, peering at him. "Have a problem?"
"He ate some gooseberries, didn't he?" Freeze asked.
"Honk!" Luke replied, nodding.
"I can fix that," Dote replied. "Hold still, lad." She put a hand against his chest. "There, that's better."
"I didn't feel anything," Luke protested. "Hey, I can talk!"
"Next time you'll be careful about what you eat, won't you?" Freeze asked.
"I sure will," he replied. "But what's this about talents?"
"Every human in Xanth -- and on occasion, certain crossbreeds -- has a talent," Metria explained. "It can be something as small as the talent of conjuring a colored spot on a wall, or as powerful as changing one living thing into another."
Luke considered. "Something like the Force."
"The Force?" all three women repeated, with Metria adding "What the bleep's the Farce?"
"The Force is a form of magic that we practice in Mundania," Luke explained. "It controls and can be controlled. I'm a Jedi; I use the light side of the Force. Our traveling companion Vader is a Sith; he uses the dark side of the Force."
"What does it do?" asked Freeze.
"Here, I'll show you." He reached out and tried to call a nearby stick into his hand. But instead of coming to him, it leaped away.
"Hmph, not bad," said Dote.
Luke frowned. "I was trying to grab it." He tried again, but it only made another leap in the opposite direction.
"Don't think much of your Force," Freeze said.
"Try pushing it away," suggested Metria.
Luke wondered how that was supposed to help but obeyed. The effect was impressive -- the stick launched itself at him with such velocity it hit him full in the face.
"Oops!" shrieked Dote. "You all right, lad?"
"No permanent damage," Luke replied, though he was probably going to sport a black eye in a few minutes. "But I don't understand what happened there."
"You tried to pick up a stick of reverse wood," Metria explained. "It reversed your Force and did the opposite that you told it to."
"Oh, that stuff is rare!" cried Freeze. "You'd best hang onto that, dearie. It could be useful."
Luke was skeptical of this, but in the end he decided to keep the stick. It might be the key to unraveling a game challenge.
"We'd better run," Dote said. "Taylor'll be expecting us." The two women waved goodbye and left.
When Luke and Metria got back to camp, arms full of firewood, Vader and Jenny already had a blaze going. Luke noticed a long scratch crossing Vader's mask from his left eyepiece to the right corner of his "jaw," as if he'd been struck by something. A branch similar to Luke's reverse wood lay beside the tents, a safe distance away.
"Reverse wood?" Luke asked.
Vader nodded. "I see you encountered it too."
Jenny took Luke's wood and bound it to Vader's with one of her spare shoelaces, then tucked them into her pack. "There. Two pieces of reverse wood cancel each other's effect when put together. We can handle them without ill effects this way." Then she looked up at Luke. "Hey, you're not honking anymore!"
Luke explained his encounter with the two aunts. "I guess we were just lucky to be in their path."
"Few things in Xanth are 'just lucky,'" Metria corrected. "The game must have put us in their path as a challenge. Since we were friendly to them, they were friendly back and helped us."
"What I'd like to know is why you two seem to have magic," Jenny said. "Mundanians aren't supposed to have talents, yet you two can pick things up without touching them. And Vader told me you can do a lot more than that."
"It is indeed a puzzle," Vader noted.
But it was getting too late for puzzles. The Players and Jenny finished their supper and retired to separate tents for the night. Metria, being a demon and not needing food or sleep, kept watch over the camp and tended the fire.
***
"What were those?" inquired Vader.
"Oh, just some asterisks," Jenny replied. "They signify the passing of time so we aren't bored by the tedious portions of the game."
They broke camp and moved on. Their path took them straight through a thicket of curse burrs, and soon everyone's clothes were infested with the tiny hooked burrs.
"How do you get these off?" asked Luke, yanking at one unsuccessfully.
"Why do you think they're called curse burrs?" asked Metria. "It takes a curse to get them off."
Jenny covered her ears.
"Okay," Luke said unsurely. "Uh, stang."
A burr leaped off his sleeve.
"Sithspawn!" Vader tried. Two more fell off his cloak.
"Let's speed this up a little," Metria suggested. "$$$$!"
Her shout blackened all plants within a three-meter radius, left scorch marks on the ground, and reddened Luke's ears until they glowed. But the curse burrs flew in all directions.
"What's this?" asked Luke. For they'd come to an enormous canyon whose depths were shrouded with mist.
"The Gap Chasm," Jenny replied. "It separates northern Xanth from southern Xanth. At the bottom lives the Gap Dragon, Stanley Steamer."
"Vicious?" asked Vader.
"Definitely. He'll chomp you in three-quarters of an instant."
"The path leads right to the edge," Luke observes. He peered warily over the brink. "But it doesn't lead down."
Metria vanished with a pop. For a moment she reappeared as a tiny dot on the other side of the Gap. Then she reappeared on their side.
"The path resembles on the other side of the Gap," she reported.
"It what?" asked Jenny.
"Looks like, copies, imitates, continues, repeats..."
"Resumes," corrected Luke.
"Whatever."
"So there must be a way to cross the chasm here," Jenny guessed.
"Another game challenge," Vader mused. He stepped to the edge of the cliff, mulled over the situation a moment, then extended a foot.
"Watch out!" Jenny called out in warning.
"It's all right," he assured her, putting the foot down. As he expected, something invisible to his eyes but most definitely solid took his weight. "There's an invisible bridge."
"I'm not sure I can trust something I can't see with my life," Luke said warily.
And the boy calls himself a Jedi, Vader thought amusedly.
"I'd better go first," Metria said. "I don't much care if Vader and Jenny fall off, because they're our competition, but if Luke falls and washes out I'm in for it with Grossclout."
"This Grossclout must be some demon," Luke observed.
"One of the most powerful and feared, aside from the World Demons," Jenny agreed. "But he doesn't go out of his way to hurt people, just intimidates them as he meets them."
Metria changed her form to that of a dust bunny and hopped onto the bridge. Clouds of dust rose from her sand-colored fur as she went, coating the planks and ropes of the bridge so it was visible in an eerie, ghost-like way.
Suddenly the bunny disappeared. She had leaped right through a massive hole in the bridge. Moments later she reappeared, in human form, on their side of the chasm, looking flustered.
"Who went and messed with the bridge like that?" she demanded.
Jenny blushed, Vader averted his gaze, and Luke's eyes went wide.
"What?" Metria snapped.
"You're not wearing anything," Jenny pointed out.
"So? What's the problem?"
"Put -- your -- clothes -- on," Vader ordered menacingly.
"It's not like your son's underage or anything," Metria huffed, though her dress reappeared.
"Don't call me his son," hissed Luke.
"Let's just focus on crossing the Gap," Jenny said quickly, sensing an altercation about to begin.
"How?" asked Luke. "The bridge is out."
"And I don't think it's wise to take the ground route," Vader added.
"I can turn into a roc and fly you over," volunteered Metria.
"If this is a game challenge, I think the Players need to solve it," Luke replied. "But thanks for the offer."
"Jenny," Vader requested, "ask Sammy to find the closest being who can repair the bridge, or at the very least help us across."
She didn't have to ask. The cat had heard his request and was already off. Everyone followed, but they didn't have to go far. About twenty meters from the bridge, Sammy stopped at an odd-looking house and sat down.
"It looks like its made from cheese," Luke noted.
"A cottage cheese," Jenny replied. She knocked cautiously.
A woman with metallic skin answered. "Yes?"
"I'm Jenny Elf," Jenny introduced. "These are my friends Sammy Cat, Lord Vader Mundane, Luke Mundane, and Demoness Metria. We're trying to cross the Gap, but the invisible bridge is damaged."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she replied. "Do come in. I'm Bria Brassie."
They entered the house. A young man adding wood to the fire waved hello.
"Esk dear, we have guests," Bria told him. To the others she said "This is my husband, Esk Ogre."
"You don't look like an ogre," Metria replied tactlessly.
"Metria!" Luke snapped.
Esk just laughed. "Actually, I'm a crossbreed. My mother was Tandy Nymph, and my father was Smash Ogre. But I can become ogrish if you like." He grinned mischievously.
"That's not necessary," Luke replied quickly. "We were wondering if you could help us. The bridge across the Gap is out of order."
"I'm not very good at fixing things," Esk confessed.
"Brassies are first-rate working with metal and machines, but wood's beyond our talents, especially magic wood," said Bria.
"Oh," Luke replied, disappointed.
Vader frowned. Had Sammy made an error?
"You may sit down," Bria invited. "We're expecting company, but you're quite welcome to share supper with us, as our guest won't be eating."
"You're sure he won't be hungry?" asked Jenny.
"Quite sure," Esk replied as someone knocked on the door. "That must be him. I'll get it." He opened the door to admit a skeleton.
"Oh, I see!" Jenny exclaimed. "Skeletons don't have to eat. You must be Marrow Bones!"
"That I am," the skeleton replied, nodding politely.
"Yes," Vader mused. "You were one of the Companion choices."
"I owed Grossclout a favor," Marrow replied. "But since I was not chosen as a Companion, I'm participating in your game as a side character."
Introductions were made as Bria served wry bread with butterflies and honeycombs, key lime pie (they had to remove the keys first), Golden Delicious apples (metallic-looking but otherwise normal-looking fruit), and milkweed pods. Metria and Marrow, not needing to eat, talked nearby while everyone else dined.
"If it's not rude of me to ask, why do you wear a mask?" asked Bria.
"I suffered an accident that damaged my lungs some time ago," Vader replied. "Where I come from, we must rely on technology instead of magic, so I required this mask to allow me to breathe."
"At least it lets you eat," Esk pointed out.
"I always wondered how you ate," Luke noted, taking a bite out of a slice of pie. "I didn't realize you could open your mask."
"For a limited time," Vader said. "And don't talk with your mouth full, Skywalker."
Jenny, between bites, explained the nature of the game. Bria and Esk listened attentively and nodded.
"My father mentioned it to me," Esk said. "He'd volunteered to help with the game and was one of the available Companions, but no one chose him."
"My friends, we're in duck!" Metria announced.
"What?" asked Bria.
"Water fowl, goose, drake, fortune, chance, coincidence..."
"Luck," Bria corrected.
"Whatever. Marrow has volunteered to help us across the Gap! All he asks for in exchange is half a soul."
Everyone paused. Vader swallowed a mouthful of fruit so he could answer. "And why would he want half a soul?"
"Skeletons are of the gourd realm, which is the realm of dreams," Marrow replied. "By nature we lack souls, like the demons. Our only purpose is to work with the ghosts, brassies, night mares, and other denizens of the gourd to create and deliver bad dreams. But when Esk here looked into a gourd and entered the dream realm, he rescued Bria and me from the Lost Path and endless wandering by bringing us to Xanth proper.
"But we are gourd beings, unable to exist long outside our realm. Bria was able to become one of this realm's beings by falling in love with Esk and obtaining half a soul from him. I, meanwhile, have come to know the skeleton Grace'l Ossein, who was expelled from the gourd realm, and we have two children. But we have not been able to find anyone willing to share their souls with us."
"Pah, who wants a soul?" Metria humphed.
"Is it painful to share one's soul?" asked Luke.
"Of course not," Esk answered. "And a half soul eventually grows into a full soul."
"I'm not sure if Vader or Luke are authorized to give their souls," Jenny said. "They're Mundanian, after all."
"And I don't think it's safe for Jenny to share hers," Bria added. "She's still technically a child, and children's souls are still growing."
"That's unfortunate," Marrow replied. "Then I must present a challenge to these Players before I can help them. Grossclout's orders."
"What sort of challenge?" asked Vader.
Marrow turned to Esk. "Kick me."
"Certainly."
Vader watched, astonished, as Esk kicked Marrow hard in the tailbone. The skeleton flew apart, only to reassemble as a latticework of bones across the doorway. His skull spoke from the center of the bone web.
"If you can leave this house, I will help you across the Gap. If you cannot escape by sundown, you must forfeit the game."
"Wait a minute!" protested Jenny. "The game isn't supposed to interfere with non-Players. How are Bria and Esk supposed to get out?"
"Don't worry," Esk told her. "We have no reason to leave the house before sundown."
Metria vanished, only to pop back on the other side of Marrow. "One down, four to go."
"Sammy, find a way past Marrow," Jenny told her cat.
Immediately Sammy rushed to Marrow, found a gap between a femur and a rib, and squeezed through.
"You forgot to specify a way for the rest of us to get past Marrow," Vader groaned.
"Maybe there's a loose spot somewhere," Luke suggested.
Vader grabbed a shin bone and wrenched at it with all his strength. It slipped out of place slightly, but not nearly enough. He stepped back a moment, trying to find a clue in the pattern of bones. Nothing.
"Can you use your lightsaber?" asked Jenny.
"It would most likely damage Marrow beyond repair," Vader replied.
A wet hiss interrupted him. Luke had picked up a bucket of water and was using it douse the flames in the fireplace.
"What are you doing?" asked Vader, puzzled.
"Marrow said we had to get out," Luke replied, waiting for the damp embers to cool down. "He didn't say we had to get past him, just out. And there's more than one way out." With that, he ducked into the fireplace and began climbing up the chimney.
Vader smiled. Impressive. Young Skywalker could actually use his head. Perhaps he would be a more worthy ally to the Sith than he'd first assumed.
"Have a good trip!" Bria exclaimed in farewell. "Good luck!"
It was filthy, hot, cramped work, but eventually the three of them managed to scrabble up the chimney and down from the roof. Metria had finished reassembling Marrow, and they proceeded toward the invisible bridge.
"Good work on your challenge," Marrow said approvingly. "Where is the gap?"
"Right in front of you, bone-head!" Metria replied.
"Metria!" shouted Luke and Vader at the same time.
"I meant the gap in the bridge," replied Marrow, unruffled. Metria's insult had no effect on him, since it was common knowledge that all skeletons had bony heads. It was like calling a Gungan "big-ears."
Metria became a dust bunny again, hopping across the bridge and halting at the edge of the hole. Then she popped a ways farther and located the other side of the hole. The gap was about five meters wide, and once the dust settled it was obvious that someone had come along and pried up a section of the invisible boards.
Marrow walked to the very edge of the gap. "Kick me."
Vader came up behind him and gave him a good solid kick in the seat. The skeleton flew apart, then reassembled as a bone bridge, covering the space left by the missing planks.
Metria went on ahead, her dust trail revealing the bridge. The group pressed on, avoiding looking into the Gap Chasm's dizzying depths. Frequently a faint bellow would reach them as the Gap Dragon made his presence known.
At last they reached the other side of the canyon. Luke and Vader helped Metria reassemble Marrow into his proper skeleton form before thanking him, and Marrow and the group went their separate ways.
"Shouldn't we tell someone the bridge is out?" asked Luke.
"The Gap Goblins are in charge of the bridge," Jenny replied. "They'll repair it. But we'd better get going to the Good Magician."