"Not precisely," Che said. "Inertia can be used in either the social or the physical sense. I mean that your body has the same mass as ever, but feels light, so you can jump higher. But if your head hit the ceiling, it would be like landing on the floor head first."

"Oh," Gwenny said. "I wouldn't like that. I'll be careful. But maybe if you flick me again, I could just float. That would be fun."

"Not in that dress," Jenny cautioned.

"Why not?"

"Someone might see your panties."

"Oh!" Gwenny flushed, which was impressive on her dark face.

Jenny had underestimated the seriousness of the warning. She had not meant to embarrass the girl like that. "I thought of another thing to try," she said, hauling Gwenny down.

"Another thing?"

"Try my spectacles." Jenny removed them from her face and put them carefully on the goblin girl's face. They looked funny on her, but they curved around to fit her head.

"Oh!" Gwenny exclaimed. "I see you!"

"So they do work," Jenny said, satisfied. "Except—"

"Except that I don't dare been seen in them," Gwenny said, taking them off.

Jenny accepted them back. She had been just about blind. She had gotten used to the spectacles, and now felt lost without them. "Maybe we can do something else," she said quickly. "Like telling stories."

"Oh, I love stories!" Gwenny agreed. "They are the only way I can travel."

Jenny realized that with her own magic talent, which she had discovered with Che, she might help the girl travel in a very special manner. But right now she thought that a regular story was enough. "Let's settle down, and I'll tell a tale," she said. "Then you can tell one, and Che can."

"Oh, how nice!" Gwenny cast about, finding scattered cushions with her feet and picking them up to form into a pile. She covered quite a bit of territory, but somehow never encountered Sammy, who was sleeping in the very spot that she didn't go. She piled them up in a corner, and they plumped down on them, Che lying on one side, Jenny on the other, and Gwenny in the center.

What tale should she tell? Jenny had heard a number of nice tales of the history of her folk, such as the ones about the former chiefs and their friends, but she wasn't sure a goblin of Xanth would understand these. For example, there was the one about Prey Pacer and Softfoot, who was lame. Gwenny might think she was being mocked. There were the tales of the wolf friends, but Jenny didn't know whether there were wolves in Xanth, and she was pretty sure that if there were, they did not have riders, so that might only confuse the girl.

So she settled on one that was more like Xanth, adapting the terms to fit. Instead of High Ones she could have—what? She wasn't sure what in Xanth would fit.