Free Geis of the Gargoyle by Piers Anthony Page A

the midsection hadn't eased.   Maybe his soft human body was just getting tired.
     
    They came to a campsite.   "We might as well stop here," Iris said.   "The day is getting late."
     
    "Yes," Gary said.
     
    She glanced at him.   "You look uncomfortable."
     
    "I am.   But I'm not hungry."
     
    Iris considered.   "You haven't been a flesh creature before? You didn't have to eat?"
     
    "Yes, I didn't."
     
    "Then maybe I can guess what else you didn't have to do.   You had better go to that toiletree over there and do it."
     
    "Do what?" he asked.   "I really don't feel up to anything very energetic."
     
    "Precisely.   Just go there and maybe you will figure it out." Then she thought of something else.   "But maybe you should take off your clothes before you do."
     
    "What has my clothing to do with it?"
     
    She shrugged, and her shoulders stayed in proper place.   "Maybe you will have to find out on your own."
     
    So Gary went to the toiletree, stepped behind it, and pulled off his awkward clothing.   He still felt quite uncomfortable.
     
    Then he saw something floating by.   It seemed to be a dot.   It was followed by a second dot, and then a third dot.
     
    •    •    •
     
    "Are you feeling better now?" Iris inquired as he rejoined her in the main section of the camp.
     
    "Much better." And he did.   But the curious thing was that he couldn't remember what had happened by the toiletree.   He had seen the three floating dots, and then he was here, dressed and in good order.   Apparently those dots had made him forget about whatever happened, if anything had happened.
     
    "Then you must have seen the ellipsis," she said.
     
    "The ellipsis?"
     
    "The three dots.   They cover up anything that's unmentionable, such as stork summoning or natural functions.   That makes it possible for us to live without perpetually blushing."
     
    That explained it.   But now Gary was hungry again.   Fortunately there was a pie tree growing at the camp, with many kinds of pies, and there were milkweeds too.   They had everything they needed.
     
    As the sun set, they made piles of pillows and blankets harvested fresh from their bushes, and settled down for the night.   Gary had never seen the purpose of pillows before, but now that he was flesh he took great comfort in them.   He lay relaxed-and found himself in a weird other realm.
     
    "Yo!" he cried, startled.
     
    "What now?" Iris asked sleepily from her bed nearby.
     
    "I was somewhere else, and everything was in fragments and confused."
     
    "Oh.   You were dreaming."
     
    "Dreaming?"
     
    "It's what living folk do when they sleep."
     
    "But I was seeing things, and doing things.   I was awake."
     
    "You were awake in your dream, but asleep in real life.   When you dream, your soul enters the gourd realm and you get the dreams they make for you.   Just forget them when you wake."
     
    "Forget them? You mean they don't matter?"
     
    "Not in ways we need to remember.   So you can ignore anything that happens while you are sleeping.   Most live creatures do."
     
    That was a relief.   Gary settled back down on his bed of pillows, and if he dreamed again, he didn't remember.   It was possible to get along, as a flesh creature, once he learned the knack of it.
     
    "What was that?" Gary asked, alarmed.
     
    "What was what?"
     
    "That hurtling whatever that just went by."
     
    "Oh, that.   Just a time break," Iris explained.   "It's so we don't have to go into boring detail all the time.   It's like the ellipsis, only moreso."
     
    "Oh." He relaxed.   He realized that he had seen similar things before, but hadn't paid attention.   Now that he was in vulnerable flesh form, every detail bothered him until he knew it was safe.
     
    They ate breakfast, used up another ellipsis or two, and resumed their trek.   The Demoness Mentis wasn't in evidence; apparently she was quickly bored when things were dull, so faded out.   Gary was