Free Demons Don’t Dream by Piers Anthony Page A

back west now."
    "I don't think so," Jenny said cautiously.
    "Oh, come on; let's go see." Kim found a path and forged along it
    "No, no!" Jenny cried. "It's not safe!"
    But Kim was being willful again. She knew it but also knew that she was tired of walking down the river. She wanted to see the Water Wing—or the Earth region, to verify that her map was correct.
    She came abruptly to a line of demarcation. The trees of the forest were reasonably normal—and then there just didn't seem to be anything much. It wasn't exactly a wall or precipice; she just didn't seem to be able to focus on it How odd!
    "Stop!" Jenny cried from behind. "Don't take one step farther!"
    "Oh, don't be silly," Kim retorted. "I can't take a step here anyway; I'm just looking at it through the screen." Except that she wasn't exactly looking, she was just well, trying to look.
    So she moved forward. Suddenly there was a scene ahead: a gently sloping valley, with lush green turf and pretty little flowers of several colors sprinkled throughout. Pleasant puffy clouds drifted above, delicate columns of mist hovered over a lake, and the air was sweet. "Oh, this is nice!" she breathed.
    Then the view jerked and turned sideways. The terrain spun horrendously. "Hey!"  Kim cried. "What's happening?'
    There was a change of scene. Suddenly there was Jenny Elf, her arms spread wide, hands clenching on something. The lovely landscape was gone.
    "What are you doing?" Kim demanded. "I saw a really beautiful place, and I want to go back there."
    "I'm hauling you out of the Void," Jenny said. "You're lucky I managed to catch hold of the back of your screen. Otherwise you would have been gone. Because nothing can cross out of the Void, once it is past that boundary."
    "But I was just looking!" Kim protested. "I'm immune to getting caught, because it's just a picture, to me."
    "Well, your screen was getting caught!" Jenny retorted. "And what happens to your role as a Player if you fall into the Void?”
    That sobered her. "I lose," she admitted. "And I have to start over again, with the hazards at least as bad. That's no good. Even if I do lose, the first time, I want to get just as far as I can, so I know what to look out for next time. Thank you, Jenny; you did the right thing."
    "That's all right," Jenny said. But she looked shaken, and Kim knew why: it was now twice that Kim had willfully gotten them into trouble.
    “I’ll try to behave better, really I will," Kim said contritely. But Jenny still looked wary.
    They returned to the river and moved on south. Suddenly a huge bird took off ahead of them, perhaps startled by their approach. "That must be a roc!" Kim exclaimed. But then she saw that it had four legs with hooves, and the head of a horse. "No—it's a winged horse!"
    "An alicorn," Jenny said. "I never saw one of those before!"
    "A what?"
    "An alicorn. A winged unicorn. There aren't many, but sometimes a griffin and a unicorn will meet at a love spring—well, I don't know what happens, but then we have alicorns."
    “What do you mean, you don't know what happens?” Kim said sharply. "I read about how you were inducted into the Adult Conspiracy at age fourteen, and you must be fifteen now. Only a year younger than me—and I know what happens."
    "You're Mundane," Jenny said. "Mundanes have funny ideas about things. But for the purpose of this game, I'm still a child, with the limits of a child. Professor Grossclout decreed it. So I can't know anything that's in the Adult Conspiracy, even if I might know out in real Xanth."
    "Why should you be defined as a child?" Kim asked, surprised.
    "So I will have the innocence of a child. That's an advantage, in some situations. I may be able to help you get somewhere, or do something, that an adult couldn't"
    "That would be interesting," Kim said. "Very well: we won't discuss how alicorns come to be. They get delivered by the stork, or whatever."
    "Yes.”
    They moved on. Kim never did get to see a water dragon, but