Jenny shrugged. "I guess you can call me an elf if you want," she said. "I'm just a person, really."

"Yes, of course. But here in Xanth you are considered an elf. How did you get here?"

"I didn't see." Which made sense. How could she have seen where she was going, if she could not make out details of the landscape as she passed them? She was as lost as Che!

"I think you will have to stay here until we find out what happened," Chex decided. "You are here looking for a feather, and I am looking for the one that feather came from, my lost foal, Che. Now perhaps we should—"

But she broke off, because at that point the little cat came alive and bolted for the forest. "Sammy!" Jenny cried, running after him. "Wait for me! You'll get lost again!"

"Jenny!" Chex cried in turn. "You'll both get lost! That forest's dangerous!"

But cat and elf were already disappearing into the jungle, heedless of the danger. Chex realized that they must have come through it, somehow escaping the predators.

"We'd better find her," Grundy said. "Maybe it's coincidence that she appeared right when Che disappeared, but maybe not."

Chex hadn't thought of that. Could her foal have been turned into—? No, impossible! But it was true that this was a remarkably strange business.

She trotted to the center of the glade, spread her wings, and leaped into the air as she smacked her body with her tail. In a moment she was climbing up past the trees. She flew over them in the direction the elf girl had gone, but the canopy was too thick and she could see neither the ground nor anything on it. They were gone.

"We can alert the others about the elf," Grundy said. "If she really is from elsewhere, she can't stay hidden long."

Chex agreed, but remained disquieted. Why should a strange elf girl show up here, right at this time?

She looped about and glided back to the glade. She had better things to do than loop helplessly around the forest! She had to find Che and could not afford to waste her time or energy pursuing strangers. But it was certainly a curious encounter!

Chapter 2. Jenny's Journey

Jenny ran after the cat. "Wait for me! You'll get lost again!" But of course Sammy didn't listen; he never did. He wasn't trying to run away from her, he just got so caught up in whatever he was chasing that he lost track of everything else and often got himself into trouble. She couldn't let that happen; they were already in a very strange region, and if it got any stranger they might never find their way out!

Sammy plunged into the thickest foliage of the jungle. Jenny had no choice but to plunge in after him, though the brush threatened to ruin whatever remained of her clothing. It was bad enough getting her hair all tangled in a knot from burrs and things in her desperate effort to keep up. If she ever lost sight of him, she might never catch him again!