"Oh."
"Smash, I'm not part of your world. But maybe I see something you don't. Those girls like you."
"And I like them," he admitted, voicing the un-ogrish sentiment with a certain embarrassment. How was be ever going to find his Answer in life if he kept losing his identity? "They're nice people. So are you."
Again she coppered. "I like them, too. I never knew flesh people before. But that's not what I mean. They--they're not just friends to you. It's hard for me to say, because my own heart's made of brass. They're female; you're male. So--"
"So I protect them," Smash agreed.
"Because females aren't very good at surviving by themselves.
I'll help as long as they are with me and need protection."
"That, too.
But it's more than that. Tandy, especially--"
"Yes, she needs a lot of protection. She hardly knows more of Xanth than you do, and she's not made of metal."
The brass girl seemed frustrated, but she kept smiling. Her little teeth were brass, too. "We talked, some, while you were in the gourd--that's funny, to think of my whole world as a gourd!--and Tandy told us why she left home. I may be violating a confidence, but I really think you ought to know."
"Know what?" Smash asked. His Eye Queue informed him he was missing something significant; that was an annoying part of the curse. A true ogre wouldn't have worried!"
"Why she left home. You see, there was this demon, named Fiant, who was looking for a wife. Well, not a wife, exactly--you know."
"A playmate?"
"You could call it that. But Tandy didn't want to play. I gather a demon is like an ifrit, not nice at all. She refused to oblige him. But he pursued her and tried to rape her--"
"What is that?" Smash asked.
"Rape?
You actually don't know?"
"I'm not made of brass," he reminded her. "
There's
lots I don't know. There is a kind of plant in Xanth by that name that girls shy, away from--"
She sighed. "The Siren's right. You are hopelessly naive. Maybe all males worth knowing are. But, of course, that's why females exist; someone has to know what's what. Look, Smash--do you know the way of a man with a woman?" Her brass face was more coppery than ever, and he realized this was an awkward subject for her.
"Of course not," he reassured her. "I'm an ogre."
"Well, the way of an ogre with an ogress?"
"Certainly."
What was she getting at? She paused. "I'm not sure we're communicating. Maybe you'd better tell me what
is the way of an ogre with an ogress
."
"He chases her down, screaming, catches her by a rope of hair, hauls her up by one leg, bashes her head against a tree a few times, throws her down, sets a boulder on her face so she can't get away, then--"
"That's rape!" Biythe cried, appalled.
"That's fun," he countered. "Ogresses expect it, and give back little ogres. It's the ogre mode of love."
"Well, it isn't the human mode of love."
"I know. Human beings are so gentle, it's a wonder they even know what they're doing. Prince Dor and Princess Irene have taken four years trying to get around to it. Now, if they had a little more ogre heritage, four seconds might be enough to--"
"Ah...yes," she agreed. "Well, this demon tried to--to make ogre love to Tandy--"
"Oh, now I understand! Tandy wouldn't like that!"
"True. She's no ogress. So she left her home and sought help. And the Good Magician told her to travel with you.
That way the demon can't get her."
"Sure. If she wants that demon smashed, I'll do it. That's my name."
"That's not exactly what she wants. You see, she does want to marry--someone other than the demon. And she has a lot to offer the right male. So she hopes to find a suitable husband on this journey. But--"
"That's wonderful!" Smash said in the best un-ogrish tradition. "Maybe we'll find a nice human man, just right for her."
"You didn't wait for my but. Smash."
"Your butt?" he asked, looking at her brass posterior.
"Where your dent is?"
"But, B U T," she clarified.
"As in however."
"However has a dent?"
She paused briefly. "Forget the dent. However she likes you."
"Certainly, and I like her. So I will help her find herself a man."
"I don't think you understand,
Smash
. She may not want to go with her ideal human man, if she finds him, if she likes you too well first."
He chortled. "Nobody likes an ogre too well!"
The brass girl shook her head doubtfully. "I'm not sure. You are no ordinary ogre, they inform me. For one thing, they told me you're much smarter than most of your kind."
"That's because of the curse of the Eye Queue. Once I get rid of that, I'll be blissfully stupid again. Just like any other ogre.
Maybe more so."
"There is that," Biythe agreed. "I don't think Tandy would like you to be just like any other ogre."
The room stopped moving, after a jolt that bounced her off his knee. "Well, here we are at the paper world," she said.
The elevator opened onto a literal world of paper. Green-colored fragments of paper served for a lawn; brown and green paper columns were trees; a flat paper sun hung in the painted blue sky. At least this world had color, in contrast with the monochrome of most of the rest of the gourd.
"This is as far as I go," Biythe said as
Smash
stepped out. "If it's any comfort, I think that in some ways you're still pretty stupid, even with the Eye Queue."
"Thank you," Smash said, flattered.
" 'Bye
, ogre." The door closed and she was gone. Smash turned to the new adventure that surely awaited him.
Paper was everywhere. Smash saw a bird; idly he caught it out of the air in a paw, not to hurt it but to look at it, because it seemed strange. It turned out to be strange indeed; it, too, was made of paper, the wings corrugated, the body a cylinder of paper, the beak a stiffened, painted triangle of cardboard. He let it go and it flew away, peeping with the rasp of stiff paper.
Curious, he caught a bug. It was only an intricate convolution of paper, brightly painted. When he released it, the paper reconvoluted and the bug buzzed away. There were butterflies, also of paper. The bushes and stones and puddles were all colored paper. It seemed harmless enough.
Then a little paper machine charged up.
Smash had seen machines during a visit to Mundania and didn't like them; they were ornery mechanical things. This one was way too small to bother him seriously, but it did bother him lightly. It fired a paper spitball at him.
The spitball stung his knee. Smash smiled. The miniature machine had a name printed on its side: TANK. It was cute.
The ogre stomped on. The tank followed, firing another damp paper ball. It stung
Smash
on the rump. He frowned. The humor was wearing thin. He didn't care to have a dent to match that of the brass girl.
He turned to warn the tank away--and its third shot plastered his nose.
That did it. Smash lifted one brute foot and stomped the obnoxious machine flat. It was only paper; it collapsed readily. But an unexpended spitball stuck to the ogre's toe.
Smash tromped on, seeking whatever challenge this section offered. But now three more of the paper tanks arrived. Burp--burp--burp! Their spitballs spit in a volley at the ogre, sticking to his belly like a line of damp buttons. He stamped all three paper vehicles flat.
Yet more tanks arrived, and these were larger. Their spitballs stung harder, and one just missed his eye. Smash had to shield his face with one hand while he stomped them.
He heard something behind. A tank was chewing up his line of string! That would prevent him from knowing when he crossed his own trail, and he could get lost. He strode back and picked up the tank, looking closely at it.
The thing burped a huge splat of a spitball at him that plugged a nostril. Smash sneezed--and the tank was blown into a flat sheet of paper. Words were printed on it: GET WITH IT, DOPE.
Funny--Smash had never learned how to read. No ogre was smart enough for literacy. But he grasped this message perfectly. This must be another facet of the curse of the Eye Queue. He pretended he did not fathom the words.
He turned again--and saw a much bigger paper tank charging down on him. He grabbed the tip of the cardboard cannon and pinched it closed just as the machine fired. The backpressure blew up the tank in a shower of confetti.
But more, and yet larger, tanks were coming. This region seemed to have an inexhaustible supply! Smash cast about for some way to stop them once and for all.
He had an idea. He bent to scoop through the paper-turf ground. Sure enough, it turned to regular dirt below, with rocks. He found a couple of nice quartz chunks and bashed them together to make sparks. Soon he struck a fire. The paper grass burned readily.
The tanks charged into the blaze--and quickly caught fire themselves. Their magazines blew up in violent sprays of spit. Colored bits of paper flew up in clouds, containing pictures and ads for products and all the other crazy things magazines filled their pages with. Soon all the tanks were ashes.
Smash tromped on. A paper tiger charged from the paper jungle, snarling and leaping. Smash caught it by the tail and shook it into limp paper, the black and orange colors running. He dipped this into a fringe of the fire and used the resulting torch to discourage other paper animals. They faded back before his bright-burning tiger, and he proceeded unhampered. Apparently there was nothing quite
so
fearful as a burning tiger. If this had been a battle, he had won it.
Now he came to a house of cards. Smash knew what cards were; he had seen Prince Dor and Princess Irene playing games with them at Castle Roogna, instead of getting down to basics the way ogres would. Sometimes they had constructed elaborate structures from the cards. This was such a structure--but it was huge. Each card was the height of Smash himself, with suit markings as big as his head and almost as ugly.
He paused to consider these. At the near side was the nine of hearts. He knew what hearts were: the symbol of love. This reminded him irrelevantly of what the brass girl had told him about Tandy. Could it be true that the tiny human girl liked him more than was proper, considering that ogres weren't supposed to be liked at all? If so, what was his responsibility? Should he growl at her, to discourage her? That did seem best.
He entered the house of cards, careful not to jostle it. These structures collapsed very readily, and after all, this might be the way out of the paper land. He felt he was making good progress through the worlds of the gourd, and he wanted to go on to the last station and meet the Dark Horse.
The inner wall showed the two of clubs. Clubs were, of course, the ogre's favorite suit. There was nothing like a good, heavy club for refreshing violence! Then there was the jack of diamonds, symbolizing the wealth of dragons. His curse of intellect made symbolism quite clear now. He remembered how many of the bright little stones the Dragon Lady had had; this was probably her card. Then there was the two of spades, with its shovel symbol.
The suit of farmers.
In the center of the house of cards was the joker. It depicted a handsomely brutish ogre with legs that trailed into smoke. Of course! Smash pushed against it, assuming it to be his door to the next world--and the whole structure collapsed.
The cards were not heavy, of course, and in a moment Smash's head poked above the wreckage. He looked about.
The scene had changed. The paper was gone. The painted sky and cardboard trees existed no longer. Now there was a broad and sandy plain, like that of the nightmares realm, except that this one was in daylight, with the sun beating down hotly.
He spied an object in the desert. It glinted prettily, but not like a diamond. Curious,
Smash
stomped over to it. It was a greenish bottle, half buried in the sand, fancily corked. He found himself attracted to it; a bottle like that, its base properly broken off, could make a fine weapon.
He picked it up. Inside the bottle was a hazy motion, as of slowly swirling mist. The cork had a glossy metallic seal with a word embossed: FOOL.
Well, that was the nature of ogres. He was thirsty in this heat; maybe the stuff in the bottle was good to drink. Smash ripped off the seal and used his teeth to pop the cork. After all, he was uncertain how long it would be before he came across anything potable, here in the gourd. But mainly, his action was his Eye Queue's fault; because of it, he was curious.
As the cork blasted free, vapor surged out of the bottle. It swelled out voluminously. Too bad--this was neither edible nor potable, and it smelled of sulfur. Smash sneezed.
The vapor formed a big greenish cloud, swirling about but not dissipating into the air. In a moment, two muscular arms projected from it, and the remainder formed into the head and upper torso of a gaseous man-creature about Smash's own size.
"Who in the gourd are you?" Smash inquired. "Ho, ho, ho!" the creature boomed. "I
be
the ifrit of the bottle. Thou
has
freed me; as thy reward, I shall suffer thee to choose in what manner thou shalt die."
"Oh, one of those," Smash said, unimpressed.
"A bottle imp."
He now recognized, in retrospect, this creature as the figure on the joker card. He had taken it to be an ogre, but, of course, ogres had hairy legs and big flat feet, rather than trailing smoke.
"Dost thou mock me, thou excrescence of excrement?" the ifrit demanded, swelling angrily. "Beware, lest I squish thee into a nonentitious cube and make bouillon soup of thee!"
"Look, ifrit, I don't have time for this nonsense," Smash said, though the mention of the bouillon cube made him hungry. He had squished a bull into a bouillon cube once and made soup with it; he could use some of that now! "I just want to find the Night Stallion and vacate the lien on my soul. If you aren't going to help, get out of my way."