Demons Don’t Dream (2 page)

Sort of like getting a free pass to another game. Dug shrugged. He didn't care much about fantasy anyway, so this wasn't much of an inducement. He was beginning to get bored with this, so he touched 5.

Grundy frowned. "I was hoping you would decide to stay with me. I can speak the languages of animals and plants, and learn things that others can not." Then he smiled. "But maybe you still will choose me. Here are the six other Companions from which to choose." He pulled up another scroll.

This contained six names: Goody Goblin, Horace Centaur, Jenny Elf, Marrow Bones, Metria Demoness, and Nada Naga. Dug recognized the last name: the luscious creature of the cover. He didn't need to check the others. He highlighted Nada Naga, and her description and a picture appeared.

NADA NAGA, PRINCESS OF THE NAGA FOLK OF XANTH, WHICH ARE HUMAN/SERPENT CROSSBREEDS, CAPABLE OF ASSUMING EITHER FORM OR ONE IN BETWEEN. AGE 21, UNMARRIED, INTELLIGENT, NICE, BEAUTIFUL. ASSETS: MATURITY AND ABILITY TO ASSUME FIGHTING FORM. LIABILITIES: PRINCESSLY LIMITATIONS.

Being a princess was a liability? Dug had to laugh. He was prepared to cope with it. What fun it would be to have such a woman as his Companion! Without hesitation, he touched RETURN.

The picture expanded, and Nada Naga stepped out onto the main screen. "Thank you, Grundy," she said in a dulcet voice. Actually it was print in a speech balloon, but Dug could almost hear it. "I shall take it from here."

Grundy sighed and walked off-screen. Nada turned to Dug. "Please introduce yourself," she said appealingly. "Just type your name and description, so that I can relate to you."

Eagerly he typed. DUG. MALE. AGE 16. So she was five years older; who cared? This was only a game.

"Why, hello, Doug," she said. "I am sure we shall get along very well."

Oops. DUG, he typed. NO O. IT'S NOT SHORT FOR
DOUGLAS, EITHER. IT'S JUST DUG.

She lifted one dainty hand to her mouth, blushing prettily. "Oh, I apologize, Dug! Please forgive me."

Actually, if she wanted to call him Doug or Douglas, let her do it. From her it would sound just great.

NO NEED, he typed quickly. I NEVER MET A PRINCESS BEFORE. It was a game, but it had become an interesting game, and he wanted to play it for what it was worth. He realized that he was losing his bet with Edsel, but he no longer cared. He just wanted to continue playing.

"It is a liability, being a princess," she said. "It was nice of you to select me anyway. I shall try to be an effective Companion for you."

I'M SURE YOU WILL BE PERFECT, he typed, speaking the words at the same time, really getting into it

"Dug, may I give you some advice?" she asked prettily.

"Anything you want," he said, his fingers flying to keep the pace.

"It will be easier if you get into the scene with me. So that we can relate to each other more readily. Do you know how to do that?"

"I'd love to get into the scene with you," he agreed. "But you're on the computer screen, and I'm out here in real life." So maybe it was a foolish business, getting emotionally involved like this, treating her as if she were a real person, but it was fun. He was amazed at how responsive she was.

"This is true. But though I can not come out to join you, you can in effect come in to join me. You have to suspend your disbelief a bit, and refocus your eyes."*\

“I’ll try." He wished he could forget this was a fantasy game, and just live the fantasy: himself with this lovely woman.

"You see, the screen looks flat to you because you are focusing flat. But if you will try to focus your eyes on something behind the screen, as if it were a window to another world, you will find that it becomes rounded. See if you can do it."

Rounded. She was already so nicely rounded that he hardly cared about the rest But he obligingly tried to focus his eyes beyond the screen. The image of Nada fuzzed somewhat; that was all. "I don't see to be getting it," he said.

"See the two dots at the top?" she asked, pointing. Now he saw them, hovering just above her speech balloon. "Try to make them become three dots. Then you will be in the right range. It may not happen right away, but once it does, you will know it”

"Okay," he typed. He was glad that he could do it by touch, so that he could answer her without taking his eyes from die screen. He refocused his eyes, trying to make the two dots into three. He didn't really believe that anything would come of this, but he wanted to give his best try to whatever she asked him to do.

The picture blurred, refocused and blurred again. The two dots became four, then bobbed a bit and fused into three. And then, quietly, the third dimension came.

Dug stared. Literally. The picture was now 3-D! He wasn't wearing colored glasses or using one of those two-picture stereo dinguses; it was just the computer screen. But now the screen had become like a pane of glass, a window opening to a scene beyond. Nada Naga stood in the foreground, with the grass of the glade behind her, and the fantasy jungle in the background. It was all so real he was stunned.

"That's better," Nada said smiling. "I see you in rounded form now, Dug."

She saw him as rounded? She was the most delightfully rounded woman he could imagine! But he did not type that in. Instead he made a safer statement "It's amazing! How did it happen?"

She frowned prettily. "I don't suppose you would believe me if I told you there's some magic involved?"

He shook his head. "I don't believe in magic."

"That's too bad. That is the second, and greater step. When you manage to do that, you will truly be in the game."

"Suspension of disbelief," he agreed. "I really wish I could! But I'm a skeptic from way back. As they say, I'm from
Missouri
."

She looked blank. "I thought you were from Mundania."

Mundania. Cute notion. "I think
Missouri
is a state in Mundania. The people there always have to be shown something before they believe it. So if you show me magic, I'll believe it. Otherwise—"

She smiled. She made a sinuous ripple, and suddenly she was a snake with her human head. "This is my naga form, which is natural to me. My magic enables me to assume human form, or full serpent form." She became a coiled python, whose reptilian eyes fixed on him as it slithered from the fallen garments. But he was not revolted. He could take snakes or leave them; he knew they were beneficial creatures, so he just left them alone. This one did not dismay him at all. He knew it was Nada, in the context of the fantasy game. It would be useful to have such a reptile on his side, if some game threat materialized, as was sure to happen when he really got into it

"I realize there is magic in a fantasy game," he said carefully. "Things happen all me time in movie cartoons and such. People get flattened by steamrollers, and then pumped back into round with a shot of air, and they are normal again. So you might say that I believe in magic in such a context But never in real life."

The snake slithered behind a screen, carrying the woman's piled clothing in its mouth. In a moment the human form reappeared from behind the screen, decorously dressed. "But if you come into Xanth, then magic will work. If I went to Mundania, I would not be able to change form; I'd be just a little helpless snake." She frowned. "I know; it happened once. But here we follow our rules. So when you can manage to believe, then you will experience magic."

"When I believe that, I’ll be crazy," he said sourly.

"No, you will just be in another realm. But you don't have to believe, to play the game. Just remember that our rules govern here."

"I'll do that" Dug said, surprised by her responsiveness. It really seemed as if she were a real person, communicating through the barrier of his disbelief. "How do I play this game?"

She smiled again. The glade lighted when she did that, it really did become brighter, as if a slow flashbulb had gone off. So it was a foolish technical effect; he still liked it She was just such a beautiful woman that he could bask all day in her smiles.

'Take my hand," Nada said, "and I will lead you into it." She extended her lovely hand to him.

Dug reached for the screen, then caught himself. He typed I TAKE YOUR HAND.

The scene expanded. Now he seemed to be in the glade, and Nada stood beside him, about half a head shorter than he. She turned to him, her bosom gently heaving, her brown-gray eyes complementing her gray-brown tresses. Suddenly brown-gray was Dug's favorite color. "Thank you, Dug; it is so nice to have you here."

"It's so nice to be here," he said, discovering that disbelief was getting easier to suspend, at least in this context. He knew he would never get close to a woman like this in real life, so he might as well do it this way. Certainly the way the scene had come to life was amazing.

"Now, this glade is a safe haven," Nada said. "But the moment we go out of it, we're playing the game proper, and there will be challenge and trouble. So while I don't want to bore you with too many explanations—"

"You aren't boring me," Dug said quickly. She could have been delivering the world's dullest lecture on Shakespeare's most boring historical play (which was a fair description of a normal English class session), and still have fascinated him. He was satisfied just to remain in this glade and watch her talk. Because she seemed to be genuinely interested in him. That was surely the fakery of the game programming, but it was excellent fakery. He remembered a challenge that was ongoing: companies were trying to build a computer that could maintain a dialogue with a person so effectively that the person would not know it was a computer. The computer would be in a sealed-off room, so the person couldn't see, and would have to guess whether there was a computer or a person in there. So far no computer had fooled the experts, but it was getting close. Nada Naga, as an animated projection for such a computer program, was awfully close. She seemed so alive, and not just because of her appearance.

She smiled again, as he had hoped she would. “Thank you, Dug. I need to be sure you understand what is happening, because it is my job to take you as far through the game as possible, and if you fail to win the prize, it won't be through any fault of mine. But my ability is limited, and in any event the decisions are yours; I can only answer your questions and advise you. I myself don't know the winning course. But I do know Xanth, and so I will be able to guide you away from most of its dangers." She paused, glancing at him. "Are you familiar with Xanth?"

"Never heard of it," he said cheerfully. "I'm not a fantasy reader. I gather it's a hoked-up fantasy setting, with beautiful princesses, ugly goblins, walking skeletons, and smoky demonesses." He had picked that up from the list of alternate Companions. "I presume I'll have to cross mountains and chasms and raging rivers, and fight off fire-breathing dragons, and find special magic amulets to enable me to get into magically sealed vaults where the treasure lies. And that there are so many threats lined up that the chances are I'll be wiped out early, and then I'll have to start over, knowing a little more about what to avoid. Frankly, I'd rather just stay here and talk with you." His glance fell to her bosom, and bounced away, because when he was standing this close to her he could see right down inside. He loved the sight, but didn't want her to catch him staring. She might put on a jacket, ruining the view.

"You do seem to have a good notion of the game," she agreed. She inhaled, and he almost bit his tongue. "But you can't win it by staying here. So soon we shall have to «start the trek. Normally the best first step is to go to ask the Good Magician Humfrey for advice. Unfortunately he Charges a year's service for a single Answer to a Question. Since that isn't feasible for you—"

"Right. No point in going there. Let's talk. Do you ever date Mundanes?”

"Date? Do you mean one of the Seeds of Thyme? We might find one of those if we go to the right garden."

He laughed. "I mean, do you ever go out with Mundanes?”

"I am about to go out into Xanth with you, to show you the best route to—"

"I mean like doing something together. Seeing a show, having a meal, talking. Having fun."

Her lovely brow almost furrowed. "We shall be pursuing the quest together, and we shall see what Xanth has to show along the way. We shall talk as much as we need. I hope this is not unpleasant for you."

She just wasn't getting it So he tried once more. "Like maybe dancing together, and kissing."

Nada gazed at him, a peculiar expression crossing her face. She was finally getting it! "I think not. I am here to be your Companion. I am not your romance. Please do not try to kiss me."

Dug laughed again, but it was to cover up embarrassment She had told him no plainly enough. If he tried to kiss her, she would turn into a serpent and chomp him. "I was just asking. So what else do I need to know about the game?" Because if he had to play the game to keep her with him, it was worth it

Then he had to laugh at himself. Nada was a game figure on his computer screen! He couldn't kiss her anyway. Yet here he had gotten all interested, in the faint hope mat she might agree to do it He really was getting into this. But wouldn't it be great if it were possible, and she were willing! She was so much better than the girlfriend he had just lost to his friend. So foolish as it was, he was going to try to please her, in the hope that eventually she would agree to kiss him, even if it could be in name only. Nada got down to business. "It is almost impossible to win the prize directly, because we don't even know where to look for it So we shall have to go see the Good Magician, and hope that you can make some kind of deal with him for his advice. I know the way there, so will guide you. However, the path is dangerous in places, and we don't know what might happen, so we shall have to be very careful. There are enchanted paths, but those are for the regular folk of Xanth. We shall have to go crosscountry." She glanced up, smiling briefly. "That means we will encounter those mountains, chasms, rivers, and dragons you described, and may not even get as far as the Good Magician's castle."