"You're very quiet, Dolph."

He jumped. That was Nada's voice!

He looked—and there was Nada standing beside him, at the shore of a tiny island. He had not been paying attention where he was going and had just sort of followed the demoness. "How—?" he asked, agog.

"I thought I would stop by to see how you were doing," Nada said dulcetly. She stepped in close to kiss him. "Perhaps, since we are here alone, we should settle down to some serious romancing." Her arms went around him, drawing him close. Her gray-brown hair fell down around her face and tumbled about her shoulders as her brown-gray eyes gazed into his. She had been taller than he, when he first knew her, when she was in her normal human form; that was no longer the case. She was the loveliest creature he could imagine.

Then something percolated through the unwilling recesses of his mind. How could Nada be here? She couldn't fly! She would have had to assume snake form and swim, and before that she would have had to get through the Region of Fire. It seemed unlikely. Meanwhile, what had happened to the demoness? "I don't think—" he started, half mesmerized by her beauty.

She frowned prettily. "Well, if you prefer." Her features fuzzed, then coalesced, and it was Electra in his arms. She wore the same dress, but it was loose on her where it had been tight on Nada. "I can do it too, you know," she said. "Maybe not as lusciously, but—"

"Metria!" he exclaimed. "I should have known!"

"You should have," she agreed, her features becoming those of the demoness. She remained embracing him, and her dress was tight again. "I'm ready to show you about the stork, now. But perhaps it will be better without clothes." The dress dissolved into smoke and drifted away.

"It's done without clothes?" he asked. Somehow he wasn't really surprised.

"Usually. So let me get yours off." Her hands began to work on his buttons.

He looked down. Her body was completely bare. She wasn't wearing any panties. Rats! The demoness had been too canny to ignore them; she had dissolved them away with the rest of her clothing. He had hoped for a moment that she would forget, and he would finally catch a glimpse of the forbidden article. Even on a demoness, it could have been quite a sight. No such luck.

But that decided him. He knew she wouldn't really show him the stork's secret; she would just tease him with faint suggestions of it, until he burst from unrequited curiosity. Then she would laugh herself into smoke and drift away. She had already teased him with the panties, which she had never intended to show him. There was no trusting a demoness!

"No," he said, determined not to give her the satisfaction of making him burst. "I'm going on with the search."

"But the foal's not here!" she exclaimed. "I told you, he's at the With-a-Cookee River with the goblins."