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introduce ourselves. You are...?”
    “Che Centaur of the winged monsters of Xanth,” he replied promptly.
    “Che? I thought it was Chay! I'm sorry.”
    “Quite all right. And you are ... ?”
    “Jenny of the World of Two Moons. Where I come from the sand is made of crushed rock or something; we can't eat it.”
    “Crushed sugar crystal,” he said. "From the big Rock Candy Mountains, I believe. I gather you are not a local elf. Where is your elm?''
    “What's all this business about elms?” she demanded. “I never saw an elm!”
    “But all elves are associated with elf elms,” he said. “They never stray far from them, because their vitality is inversely proportional to their distance from their home elm. If you are far from yours, you must be feeling quite weak now.”
    “I'm not associated with any elm!” she said. “No elves I know are! I'm tired, yes, but not weak because of any tree!”
    He pondered. "I assumed your land of two moons was merely one that my dam had not yet educated me about. Do you mean to say it is beyond Xanth? In another land where there are doubled moons?''
    “Yes. My world is nothing like this one! I never heard of Xanth before, and I find it impossibly strange. All these magic things like cherries that explode and man-animals that fly—” She paused. “Oh, no offense.”
    “None taken. Centaurs derive from the stock of the human folk and the horse folk—and of course my kind derives also from bird folk, ultimately. My grandsire was a hippogryph.”
    “A what?”
    “You would call it a horse with the head of a bird.”
    Jenny shook her head. “If I weren't right here talking to you, I think I wouldn't believe any of this. But I did see your mother fly.”
    “Yes, my dam makes herself light by flicking her body with her tail; then she can fly. But my wings are as yet insufficiently formed for that, so I have to content myself with leaps when necessary.”
    “You can make yourself light?” she asked, surprised.
    “I can make anything light,” he said. “But of course I don't do it indiscriminately. That would not be polite.”
    “I wish you could make me light!” she said. “Then maybe I wouldn't be so tired!”
    “As you wish.” Che flicked her shoulder with the tip of his tail.
    Immediately Jenny felt quite light. She got up—and almost sailed off the raft! “I really am light!” she exclaimed.
    “Certainly. But be careful, because I cannot make you heavy again. My magic is one-way. But the effect slowly fades.”
    Jenny felt her mind spinning, and not because her head was light. There really was magic here, practiced by ordinary folk instead of High Ones, and it worked on her! That explained a great deal.
    “I remain unclear how you came to Xanth if you are from a foreign region,” Che said.
    “I'm unclear on that myself! I was following Sammy, and when he found what he was looking for—which was one of your feathers—we were here.”
    “Oh, that explains it. Sammy's a magic creature.”
    “No, he just has an uncanny ability to find whatever he looks for.”
    “Isn't that magic?”
    Jenny reconsidered. “I suppose it is. Certainly it is now, because he's finding things much faster and better than he used to.”
    “Do you have a magic talent of your own?”
    “Me?” She laughed. “I can hardly do regular things, let alone magic ones! I'm fortunate just to see straight, thanks to these nice spectacles your mother gave me.”
    “Do you mean to say you have not tried?”
    Jenny was intrigued. “You mean you really think I might have some magic? Like making things light or heavy or something?”
    “It seems possible. Human folk all have talents, and some other creatures have them too, if they have human lineage. Elves as a general class seem to be content with their tribal magic associated with their elms, but if you are not of that type, perhaps you conform to the human mode.”
    “I wonder what mine could be?” For the first time she had found a