Ogre, Ogre (Xanth Book 5) by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780345454348
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2002-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9. Gourmet Gourd

He woke in Xanth, where Tandy had taken away the gourd. “I never know how long to give you,” she said. “I’m very nervous about leaving you in there.” She lifted the Gap Dragon’s Ear. “I kept listening in this, and when it got pretty quiet, I thought maybe it was time to bring you out. I wasn’t sure it was you I was listening to, but since your health is relevant to mine—”

Smash took the Ear. He heard a guttural voice, saying, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, pass this fist or take a fall,” followed by a tinkling crash.

“It’s not quiet now,” Smash reported. “Sounds like me talking.”

She smiled. “Talk all you want, Smash. You’re my mainstay in this strange surface world. I do worry when you’re gone.”

Smash put his huge, hairy paw over her tiny human hand. “I appreciate that, Tandy. I know it would be bad for you if you got stranded alone in wilderness Xanth. But I am learning to handle things in the gourd, and I am getting stronger.”

“I hope so,” she said. “We all do need you, and not just for protection from monsters. Chem says there seems to be a mountain range to the north that we can’t scale; the dragons are to the east, and the air storm to the south. So we’ll have to veer west, back through the Region of Earth—and that volcano is still spewing hot lava.”

“We shall just have to wait till the lava stops,” Smash said.

“Yes. But we don’t know how long that will be—and it will have to cool so we can walk over it. I guess we’re here in the melon patch for a while yet.”

“So be it,” Smash said. He released her hand, lest the inordinate weight of his own damage it. “Did you say these gourds are edible?”

“Oh, yes, certainly. You can eat all you want. We’re all full; they’re very good, just so long as you don’t look in the peephole. Funny thing is, there’s no sign of any world in there, no graveyard or anything.” She handed him a gourd, peephole averted.

Smash took a huge bite. It was indeed good, very sweet and seedy and juicy. It did seem strange that something that could affect his consciousness could also be such good eating—but, of course, that was the nature of things other than gourds. A dragon could be a terrible enemy—but was also pretty good eating, once conquered.

“That gourd I just looked into—” Smash said between gulps. “Why didn’t it return Blythe when she looked?”

“We discussed that while you were out,” Tandy said. She was the only one of the girls who remained awake; the others were sleeping, including the brass girl. Smash wondered briefly why a person made of metal needed to sleep, then realized this was no more remarkable than a person of metal becoming animate at the punch of a button. “We concluded that she is merely a representation, like you when you’re in the gourd.

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