Free Ogre, Ogre (Xanth 5) by Piers Anthony Page B

never let any monster back me off again!"
    "That was cruel," Tandy said. "She shouldn't have cursed you."
    "Cruel? Of course not. It was ogre love, the only kind our kind understands. She cursed my father once, and it was two days before he recovered, and the smile never left his face."
    "Well, I don't know," Tandy said, and she seemed unusually sober. Did she have some connection to the cursefiends? Smash filed the notion for future reference.
    They walked around a portion of Lake Ogre-Chobee, trying not to attract attention. There were no ogres in evidence, and no traces of their presence--no broken-off trees or fragmented boulders or flat-stomped ground.
    There seemed to be no threats, either; the entire lake was girded, as far as they could see, by a pleasant little beach, and the water was clear and free of monsters. Evidently the curse-fiends had driven away anything dangerous.
    "Look at the noses!" Tandy cried, pointing across the water. Smash looked. There were scores of nostrils swimming in pairs toward the shore, making little waves. As they drew near, he saw that the nostrils were the visible tips of more extensive snouts, which continued on into long reptilian bodies.
    "Oh--the chobees," the Siren said, relaxing. "They're mostly harmless. Chobees aren't related to other kinds of bees; they don't sting. Once in a while one strays up to my lake."
    "But what big teeth they have!" Tandy said.
    "They're imitation, teeth, soft as pillows."
    A chobee scrambled out onto the beach. It had short, fat, green legs and a green corrugated skin. The Siren petted it on the head, and the chobee grinned. She touched one of its teeth, and the tooth bent like rubber, snapping back into place when released.
    But Smash had a nagging doubt. "I remember something my father said about the chobees. Most of them are innocent, but some--"
    "Oh, yes, that's right," the Siren agreed. "A few, a very few, have real teeth. Those kind are dangerous."
    "Let's stay away from the bad ones, then," Tandy said. "What do they look like?"
    "I don't know," the Siren admitted.
    "They look just like the nice ones," Smash said slowly, dredging his memory.
    "But then any of these could be a bad one," Tandy said, alarmed.
    "True," Smash agreed. "Unless the curse-fiends got rid of them."
    "How could the curse-fiends tell the difference, if we can't?" Tandy asked.
    "If a chobee eats a curse-fiend, it's probably a bad one," the Siren said, smiling obscurely.
    "Do we need to tell the chobees apart the same way?" Tandy asked worriedly.
    The Siren laughed musically. Her voice was only a shadow of what it must have been when she had her luring magic, but it remained evocative. "Of course not, dear. Let's avoid them all." That seemed easy enough to do, as the three of them could walk faster than the reptiles could. Soon the chobees gave up the chase and nosed back into the water, where they buzzed away toward the deeper portions of the lake. Tandy watched the wakes their nostrils left with relief.
    At one point the lake become irregular, branching out into a satellite lake that was especially pretty. A partial causeway crossed the narrow connection between the large and small lakes. "I'll wade across!" Smash said, delighting in the chance to indulge in some splashing.
    "I don't know," Tandy said. "The nice paths can be dangerous." She had learned from her experience with the tangler and the ant-lions; now she distrusted all the easy ways.
    "I will explore the water," the Siren said. "I will be able to tell very quickly whether there are dangerous water creatures near. Besides, I'm hungry; I need to catch some fish." She slid into the small lake, her legs converting to the sleekly scaled tail, her dress fading out.
    "If you find a monster, send it my way," Smash called. "I'm hungry, too!"
    She smiled and dived below the surface, a bare-breasted nymph swimming with marvelous facility. In a moment her head popped up, tresses glistening. "No monsters here!" she called. "Not