More than that, he had never as a child liked gum-balls that well. He had seen others liking them, but he had not understood why. Now he wanted one so badly-and was suspicious of this change in himself.
Dor woke in turmoil. Jumper was hanging near him, several eyes watching him with concern. 'Are you well, friend Dor-man?' the spider cluttered.
'-just a nightmare,' Dor said uncertainly.
This is an illness?'
'There are magic horses, half illusion, who chase people at night, scaring them,' Dor explained. 'So when a person experiences something frightening at night, he calls it a night-stallion or a night-mare.'
'Ah, figurative,' Jumper agreed once he understood. 'You dreamed of such a horse. A mare-a female.'
'Yes. A-a horse of another color. I-I wanted to ride that mare very much, but wasn't sure I could stay on that golden mount-oh, I don't know what I'm trying to say!'
Jumper considered. 'Please do not be offended, friend. I do not as yet comprehend your language well, or your nature. Are you by chance a juvenile? A young entity?'
'Yes,' Dor replied tightly. The spider seemed to understand it well enough.
'One beneath the normal breeding age of your species?'
'Yes.'
'And this sleeping female of your kind, her with the golden silk-she is mature?'
'I-yes.'
'I believe your problem is natural. You have merely to wait until you mature, then you will suffer no further confusion.'
'But suppose she-she belongs to another-?'
'There is no ownership in this sort of thing,' Jumper assured him. 'She will indicate whether she finds you suitable.'
'Suitable for what?'
Jumper made a chitter-chuckle. 'That will become apparent at the appropriate occasion.'
'You sound like King Trent!' Dor said accusingly.
'Who I presume is a mature male of your species-perhaps of middle age.'
On target. Despite his confusion and frustration, Dor was glad to have such a person with him. The outer form hardly mattered.
Millie stirred, and Dor suffered a sudden eagerness to halt this conversation. It was dawn, anyway; time to eat and resume the trek to Castle Roogna.
Dor got bearings from the local sticks and stones, and they set off for the Castle. But this time they encountered a large river. Dor didn't remember this from his own time-but of course the channel could have shifted in eight hundred years, and with the charmed paths he might not have noticed a river anyway. The water was quite specific in answer to Dor's question: the Castle lay beyond the far side, and there was no convenient way across the water.
'I wish I had a good way to pass this river,' Dor said.
'Ill see to it,' the ring on his finger said. 'Just give me a little time. I got you to sleep last night, didn't I? You have to have patience, you know.'
'I know,' Dor said with half a smile.
'Gnome wasn't built in a day, after all.'
'I could balloon us across,' Jumper offered.
'Last time we ballooned, the Hoorah nabbed us,' Dor pointed out. 'And if it hadn't, we would probably have been blown right out of Xanth anyway. I don't want to risk that again.'
'Ballooning is somewhat at the mercy of the winds,' the spider agreed. 'I had intended to fasten an anchor to the ground, before, so that we could not be blown too far and could always return to our starting point if necessary, but I admit I reckoned without the big bird. I had somehow thought no other creatures had been expanded in size the way I have been-in retrospect, a foolish assumption. I agree: ballooning is best saved for an emergency.'
'In my stockade, we use boats to cross water,' Millie offered. 'With spells to ward off water monsters.'
'Do you know how to make a boat?' Jumper chittered. The question was directed at Millie, but the web on Dor's shoulder translated it anyway. Inanimate objects tended to become more accommodating when they associated with him for prolonged periods.
'No,' she said. 'I am a maid.'
And maids did not do anything useful? Maybe she simply meant she was not involved in masculine pursuits. 'Do you know the anti-water-monster spells?' Dor asked her.
'No, only our stockade monster-speller can do those. That's his talent.'
Dor exchanged glances with several of Jumper's eyes. The girl was nice, but she wasn't much help.
'I believe your sword would proffer some discouragement to water predators,' Jumper chittered, 'I could loop their extremities with silk, and render them vulnerable to your sharp edge.'
