Disclaimer: Xanth isn't mine, its Piers Anthony's

Chapter Four

Magic Talent

She had come too far to back out now, besides they probably had guards blocking the exits. She closed her eyes and rummaged through the contents of the bowl until she found a paper she liked.

"Unfold the paper and read it." the centaur instructed her.

She fumbled the paper open then, after turning it upside right, read aloud "' MAKING HEAVY OBJECTS, SUCH AS ROCKS AND STONES, FLOAT'"

"An Excellent Talent!" said Chim "My own is similar. I am able to move heavy object from side to side at their current level. Observe." He looked at the counter "MOVE!" he commanded it. The counter moved three feet to the right. "MOVE!" he commanded again and it moved back. "Unfortunately I can not use it to lift things." He looked at the scrape marks it had left on the wooden floor.

"That's incredible!" she admitted.

"Yes," he said "that's why I was exiled from Centaur Isle."

"But why would they exile you if you can do that?" she asked.

"They consider magic in Centaurs to be obscene." He informed her.

"Doesn't seem right to me," she frowned

"Yes, well," he looked at her "you are not a Centaur.

"Obviously not," she said, turning her head to look at her own derriere, to emphasize the point.

The centaur did not look amused by her little pun. "Perhaps you should try your talent before you enter," he offered gesturing to the counter.

"Why not" she thought, then commanded it "Up!"

Nothing happened.

"You have to believe it'll work." said the centaur trying to be helpful

She knew she was making a fool of herself but she closed her eyes and concentrated on doing something she had never done before, believe in magic. She opened her eyes and tried again.

"UP!" she commanded it. It lifted up a fraction of an inch and then slammed back down.

Chim had to jump back to avoid having his fore-hoof crushed. "It's a start," he offered.

"I want one more try," she said, then commanded once again "UP!" The counter began rising off the floor. It continued to rise until it bumped against the ceiling.

"Wonderful" he said "now bring it down."

"Down?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied "we're going to need it."

"Oh, Sorry" she apologized, then looked up and said "Down."

"It's supposed to be a command not a request." he laughed. "Be forceful."

"DOWN!" she ordered.

The counter came crashing down and burst into splinters as it hit the floor.

"Maybe not that forceful." said Chim.

"Oops," she grimaced "sorry about that."

"Don't worry," he shrugged "all the furniture here has a self repairing spell on it." And indeed the counter had begun putting itself together. Kassie couldn't help but stare. A guy painted red and a centaur were one thing. But self-repairing furniture; now that was something else.

Chim suggested she give her talent a few more tries since it was still well before noon and she couldn't enter until that time. Besides, she didn't want to send things up through the O-zone, or break everything she brought back down, did she? She discovered she could make objects rise at different speeds, or as Chim said 'at varying velocities.' She was able to make them stop anywhere she wanted and float in mid air. However she could only order objects which she had caused to rise herself to come back down. They decided to try using their talents together and had fun rearranging the furniture. As a final test, Chim poured a glass of water and put a pebble in it for her to float. Sure enough she could float things on water too, the pebble bobbed at the surface of the water as if it had no more weight than a cork.

"Five minutes." said Chim looking at two eyes painted on his wrist, after she had reversed the spell on the pebble. "Let me give you your starter kit and explain to you how to use it."

He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small canvas bag. Inside was a manual titled 'Xanth: A Mundanes guide', she had decided to stop asking about their usage of the word 'Mundane'. There was also a stick, which Chim informed her was a water testing stick, with instructions, a vial which had a label reading 'healing elixir, another manual titled "Flora and Fauna of Xanth: The eats, do not eats, and be eaten by's of Xanth. Curious, she pulled this last item from the back and opened it. The page it fell to was a picture of a lovely tree.

"Oh, a weeping willow," she said before reading the page "how lovely." Chim gave her a strange look. She didn't understand why. Then image began to move. A woman, who looked a lot like Kassie, walked onto the page and right up to the tree. The branches of the tree grabbed the woman and stuffed her into a giant maw in its trunk which began chewing.

"Ew!" screamed Kassie as she slammed the book shut.

"Tangle tree," Chim informed her "you want to stay away from those."

"I'll say!" she gasped.

The last item in the bag was a small badge, which had fallen out when she removed the flora and fauna manual. It was decorated with little hearts and played a little tune when tapped. HELLO: MY NAME IS KASSIE MUNDANE it read.

"Do I really have to wear this?" she asked Chim as she held up the badge.

"Well, it was made by the three little princesses," Chim explained.

"If I meet them I'll wear it." she said unceremoniously tossing it back into the bag.

Somewhere a clock chimed twelve times, and the turnstile gave a small click.

"Oh good," said Chim "It's noon. Are you ready to enter Xanth?"

She might as well humor them. After all they had gone to the trouble of printing out two books and putting on a magic show for her, and all for free.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she smiled.

"Then please proceed through the turnstile," Chim motioned her toward the turnstile.

"Don't I get a stamp or something?" she asked.

"There is a stamp tree, just down the path." he informed her "My own Filly collects stamps and shows them off at the local 'stamp-eed'." She decided not to pursue that comment further.

"Well," she said checking her hip-pack "here I go." She walked over to the turnstile and looked outside.

It was definitely an abandoned amusement park. She would step through, wander about as if amazed for about a minute, then come back out again. Chim would then tell her she had only been gone for a moment, and she would reply 'it had to have been at least a few hours.' Then she would go have the word 'GULLIBLE' tattooed on her forehead.

She pushed against the turnstile handle and moved forward. As soon as she was through, it was apparent that something had changed. She was in the middle of a large path with several trees growing in the middle of it. In front of her was a sign which read 'WELCOME TO XANTH: FOR YOUR SAFETY PLEASE KEEP TO THE MAGIC PATH.' 'This must be the magic path, I'm on right now.' she thought looking at the path at her feet. She walked on, and before long became aware of someone following her. Remembering Meanor, she spun around to see who it was. Chim was trotting along the path with something in his hand.

"You forgot this," he said when he reached her, handing her the Xanth starter kit.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." she said taking the bag from him.

"You probably should take this too," he handed her the can of d. R.

She laughed "Thank you Chim."

"Glad to help," he laughed back "I must return to the point of entry" and with that he galloped back the way he had come.

Kassie turned around, and screamed.

"Hi, Cutie," said D. Meanor "You were thinking of me?"

She decided to try out the d. R.

Authors Notes

1. This is the other half of that split chapter. Please tell me if you like the shorter chapters better.