The girl shook her head. "No."

"Your elm must be far from civilization!"

"What's an elm?"

"A tree, of course."

"We don't have many trees in the World of Two Moons. At least, not ones I can see well." She looked around, blinking. "Are those trees?"

"Yes, of course. It's all forested here. But how can you not have an elm? All elves—"

"I don't have an elm, not even a wolf friend, though I think one day I will be with Lone Wolf. So right now I just have a cat," the girl said, "who finds things, but gets lost, which is how I met him, because there aren't any others like him in our world—and this time I think I'm lost too, because this is a very strange place."

"But all elves are associated with elms!" Chex protested. "Where did you say you were from?"

"My holt is at—"

"Your what?"

"My holt. It's—"

Chex realized that something was not merely odd, it was decidedly strange, just as Grundy had said. "I think we had better start over. Let's introduce ourselves. You are.?"

"Jenny of the World of Two Moons."

"And I am Chex Centaur of Xanth. Now I think we should—" She broke off, because she had noticed something even stranger. "Are those your ears?"

The child touched her left ear. "Yes. Is something wrong?" "It's pointed!"

Jenny was perplexed. "Aren't yours?"

"No. Can't you see?"

"Your head is sort of fuzzy, from here."

So it was true: the elf could not see well at a distance. "My dear, we must get you some spectacles," Chex said. It was as if she had to mother someone, while her foal was missing. "We have a spectacle bush here, and we haven't harvested any of its fruit, so there are plenty." She led the elf to it. "They correct vision, and fit magically, of course. Here, try this pair." She picked it and set it on Jenny's face, carefully. It was rather big for her, but the side pieces closed around her head and hooked behind her phenomenally pointed ears. Her hair had masked the effect somewhat before, but now there was no doubt. There were no ears in Xanth like that! Not on humanoid folk.

Jenny's eyes grew even bigger than they naturally were, magnified by the spectacles. "I can see everything!" she exclaimed, amazed.

"Well of course. That's what spectacles do. They enable you to see every spectacle in sight. I'm surprised you didn't have a pair before."

"There are none at home," Jenny said, lifting a hand to touch the amazing device.

Chex was surprised yet again. "Your hand—you're missing a finger!"

Jenny looked at her hand. "No I'm not. All four are there."

"But other elves have five fingers!" Chex protested. "All humanoids do. See, I have five." She held forth her hand.

Jenny stared. "How odd!"

"You're really not from Xanth!" Chex said, realizing why the girl was confused. "You look like an elf, but you're quite different in detail."