"It might be because of the cookies," he replied, pointing.

She looked, and saw toadstools growing on the bank. But as the raft drifted closer, she saw that they were indeed cookies, or something with a very similar appearance. She reached out and took one, fearing that it would be no more edible than the cherries had been, but it turned out to be what she called a sandie, sugary and crisp. She sat on the raft and ate the rest of it, savoring it.

The centaur picked one himself and tasted it. "Very sweet," he commented. "That's probably because of the sugar sand."

"The what?" "The sugar sand. It is found throughout much of Xanth, and is excellent for growing sweets. Sometimes I eat it straight, but my dam doesn't like that."

"But sand isn't sweet!" she protested.

He glanced at her, surprised. "You, an elf, do not know of sugar sand?"

"There is no such thing, Chay!"

His brow furrowed. "Are you addressing me?"

Jenny borrowed a notion from the foal's mother. "I think we had better start over. Let's introduce ourselves. You are.?"

"Che Centaur of the winged monsters of Xanth," he replied promptly.

"Che? I thought it was Chay! I'm sorry."

"Quite all right. And you are.?"

"Jenny of the World of Two Moons. Where I come from the sand is made of crushed rock or something; we can't eat it."

"Crushed sugar crystal," he said. "From the big Rock Candy Mountains, I believe. I gather you are not a local elf. Where is your elm?"

"What's all this business about elms?" she demanded. "I never saw an elm!"

"But all elves are associated with elf elms," he said. "They never stray far from them, because their vitality is inversely proportional to their distance from their home elm. If you are far from yours, you must be feeling quite weak now."

"I'm not associated with any elm!" she said. "No elves I know are! I'm tired, yes, but not weak because of any tree!"

He pondered. "I assumed your land of two moons was merely one that my dam had not yet educated me about. Do you mean to say it is beyond Xanth? In another land where there are doubled moons?"

"Yes. My world is nothing like this one! I never heard of Xanth before, and I find it impossibly strange. All these magic things like cherries that explode and man-animals that fly—" She paused. "Oh, no offense."

"None taken. Centaurs derive from the stock of the human folk and the horse folk—and of course my kind derives also from bird folk, ultimately. My grandsire was a hippogryph."

"A what?"

"You would call it a horse with the head of a bird."

Jenny shook her head. "If I weren't right here talking to you, I think I wouldn't believe any of this. But I did see your mother fly."

"Yes, my dam makes herself light by flicking her body with her tail; then she can fly. But my wings are as yet insufficiently formed for that, so I have to content myself with leaps when necessary."