"You've got a point," Grundy said. "The goblins and the harpies have been fighting so long that there hasn't been any interbreeding in centuries. But I guess there used to be, in the early days. I wonder if there are any winged goblins in the Brain Coral's pool?"

"The Brain Coral's pool!" she exclaimed. "I never thought of that! Oh, I wonder if it could be so? Maybe there's a man for me in there!"

"Who knows?" Grundy agreed. "Maybe you should go and ask the Good Magician."

"Maybe I should! After we rescue Che."

"You know, Che faces the same problem," Grundy said. "He's another winged monster, with no other of his kind. You might go together, and maybe one Question would answer you both."

"Maybe it would! Oh, Grundy, you've given me something to look forward to!"

The same applied to Cheiron. He had worried about the fate of his foal, knowing that there were none for him to mate with; even if there were one year a sister-foal, she would not do. If the species was to become established, they needed to find other winged centaurs—and as far as he knew, there were none in Xanth. He had looked for years, before Chex appeared. Only if there were other cross-breedings would there be others, and centaurs as a class were too conservative to permit that. Cheiron's own genesis had been because of a chance meeting of a centaur and a winged horse, both of whom had come unwittingly to drink at a love spring. They had mated involuntarily, then remained together long enough to see to the survival of the offspring. The equine element had been retained, and the other aspects had manifested, so that a winged centaur had resulted. The mare had suckled it until it could be weaned, then departed forever. The centaur had taught it in the centaur fashion, until it could pursue its own further education, and similarly departed. Thus Cheiron had been alone, more so than a normal orphan. Short of tricking centaurs and winged horses into drinking love potions together, he saw no way to bring others of his kind into being. Chex was unique in that her parents had not taken love elixir. But the normal centaurs shunned her and her mother, for bearing her.

But if there had been similar breedings in past centuries, as there well might have been, and the foals had been hidden away in the Brain Coral's pool—that was something that ought to be checked. Maybe that chaos that threatened the dawning species of winged centaur could be abated.

So Cheiron flew on, his thoughts drowning out the dialogue between the golem and the goblin. Rescuing Che was the immediate thing, but promoting the continuation of the species was the long-range thing. How wonderful if a feasible way was found to do that!