The Color Of Her Panties by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online

putting her cat down on the sand.  Because this was an island, she didn't need to worry as much about his getting lost.
    Sammy bounded toward the center of the island.  They followed.  And there, suddenly, they spied a tent.
    “That looks familiar,” Che said.
    “It certainly does,” Gwenny agreed.  “It's almost as if we have been here before.”
    “Playing in the sand,” Jenny agreed.
    Then it came to them.  “This is the Isle of View!
    Gwenny exclaimed.  “Where Prince Dolph married Electra!”
    “And that tent is where they summoned the stork, Che agreed.
    “So well that the stork brought them two babies,” Jenny added.
    “Dawn and Eve,” Che said.
    They looked at each other.  A naughty thought flitted between them.  “Do you think-” Gwenny started.
    “That if we spent the night here-” Jenny continued.
    “That we might learn the secret of summoning the stork?” Che concluded.
    “Let's find out!” Gwenny said.
    So it was that they spent the night in comfort, using the same pillows that Dolph and Electra had left.  They had a fine pillow fight, for there was no adult to tell them no.
    But they didn't learn the secret of summoning the stork.  It seemed that Dolph and Electra had taken it with them.
    They had joined the dread Adult Conspiracy.  What a pity.
    In the morning they lightened the raft again, hauled it to the east shore of the island, and paddled it across to the mainland.  A sea monster poked its head out of the water and eyed them, but a huge roc bird just happened to fly by, and the sea monster ducked out of sight.
    Gwenny realized that the winged monsters were indeed keeping an eye on them.  That left her with mixed feelings.
    She wanted to make it on her own, but still it was comforting to know that they would not be gobbled by a monster.  So maybe this was a reasonable compromise:  the three of them were being allowed to proceed without interference from either hostile or friendly creatures.  Maybe they would have less need for protection as they gained experience.
    They found a magic path and followed it inland.  It would lead to Castle Roogna, because all the paths of the region did.  Gwenny had visited the castle once, with her companions after Dolph and Electra's wedding.  It was an impressive edifice.  Much nicer, if the truth be confessed, than Goblin Mountain.
    Suppose she just came to Castle Roogna, and didn't leave it?  Then she would lose her chance to be lady chief, but she would be safe.
    She shoved away the temptation.  It wasn't that she wanted to be chief, it was that she had to be, so as to change the course of goblin history, and therefore Xanth history.  It was her duty and her destiny.  She dreaded it, but she could not flee from it.
    Then she realized something.  She had been making decisions.  She had thought of a good idea that got them to shore.  She was learning how to be a leader.  She might not be very good at it, yet, but she was getting better.  Maybe, just maybe, by the end of this journey, she would have learned it well enough.  So there was a scintilla, or perhaps even two iotas, of hope for her.
    So, resolutely, she proceeded on toward Castle Roogna.

Xanth 15 - The Color of Her Panties
    Chapter 3
    Okra's mind tended to keep pace with her body.  Since that was now rowing hard, she was thinking hard, but since there wasn't much to think about at the moment, she thought about her past, seeming almost to relive it.
    She had been delivered by the stork fourteen years before, to a small community of ogres still living beside Lake Ogre-Chobee.  It seemed that they had gotten turned around during the migration to the Ogre-Fen-Ogre Fen and returned here without quite realizing.  After a few decades they had caught on, but by then it was too late to catch up to the main party, so they had remained.
    Okra's ogress mother, disappointed by Okra's pipsqueak size, had tried to compensate by giving her a name to grow into:  Okra Cordata