Nevertheless, Nada was sure they were going to get along.

Chapter 8: BUBBLES.

Kim had been enjoying the game. Now she was enjoying it more. She liked having the handsome merman along, being satisfied that he was not trying to marry her. For one thing, he knew this Water Wing well, so they would surely make excellent progress through it, without running afoul of whatever threats it offered. For another, he was excellent company. He was mature, clever, polite, and generally nice. What more could a girl ask?

They started at the eastern fringe of the Water Wing, and floated west in a water boat that sought and followed the various currents going their way. It was slow but comfortable. Each of them had packs with supplies, provided by the merfamily. Cyrus showed them how to fish, not for food but to attract exotic specimens to the lure. There were rainbow trout, their semicircular bands of color making the surrounding water beautiful. There were the tiny white specks of light that were starfish, and one that was too bright to look at a sunfish. A swordfish playfully feinted at the boat, and a sawfish made bulging eyes at them: it saw them.

But after a time this palled. They were on a seemingly endless expanse of water, going somewhere but not fast. Kim was getting bored; this wasn't exactly her idea of adventure.

Then she saw a glimmer in the air. It wasn't a bird, it was a bubble. A shimmering soap bubble, perhaps, just floating innocently by, the light glinting iridescently from its surface. Where had it come from? Where was it going? Who had blown this pretty little bubble? Kim didn't know, and didn't much care; it was just interesting to watch.

It was followed by another bubble, a bit larger and shinier. Then a third. In fact, there was a chain of bubbles, drifting along on a vagrant eddy of wind, pa.s.sing the boat and moving on. Each was larger and brighter than the one before it, as if the bubble blower were growing and gaining experience.

Then a bubble seemed to have something in it. Kim strained to see, but could not make it out; just a reflection, maybe. Yet a peculiar one.

The next bubble was empty, but the one following that definitely had something in it. Kim peered closely, but still couldn't quite make it out. So she reached out and caught the bubble.

It popped the moment she touched it, and the object fell into her hand. It was a twisted paper clip, not readily usable. How had it gotten inside the bubble? How had the bubble managed to remain floating, with this weight inside it? This was such a curious matter. She hadn't realized that paper clips even existed, in Xanth; they were Mundane.

She tried to bend the paper clip back into shape, but it was beyond redemption. She considered dropping it into the water, but she didn't want to be a litterbug. Finally she hooked it into a b.u.t.tonhole as an impromptu decoration.

Meanwhile the bubbles were still drifting by, and still getting larger. There seemed to be a loose chain of them crossing the lake, coming from who knew where and going to who knew where else. When she looked behind, she saw the diminishing line of them disappearing in smallness. When she looked ahead, she saw the line maintaining its size, but realized that was because the bubbles were still growing, so that their size balanced perspective. There must be some pretty large bubbles at the end of that line!

She peered at each pa.s.sing bubble. Now a number of them definitely had objects inside them. They were all different, but there was something similar about them too. What was it?

One bubble carried a worn clothespin. Another had a chipped cup. Another had an empty bottle. And so on: a torn picture, a worn shoe, a stopped clock, a book with the cover torn off, a pair of socks with holes in the toes. Everything was in some way defective or useless. These were all throwaways! Things Mundane people no longer wanted. That explained the twisted paper clip.

She worked it out as the bubbles moved on by. This was a magic land, so it had magic problems and magic solutions. Maybe even punnishly literal, she thought with a smile: somewhere there would be a solution that was a magic solution: a drink or elixir. These bubbles were like trash bags: just put your junk in them and let it float away. A disposal network. The bubbles were probably going to a central dump, where they would pop and deposit their refuse. No fuss, no muss, no bother. Wouldn't it be nice to have something like that at home! Somehow this stuff must have strayed into Xanth, so was being conveyed away.

The bubbles continued, still growing larger. One had a broken bicycle. Another had a stuffed chair with the stuffing leaking. A kiddy car with the steering wheel gone. A large, old, worn dog. A- Wait a minute! Kim snapped back to the dog bubble. What was a living creature doing in the trash? Because the dog was alive; it was lying there with its nose on its paws, breathing slowly and gazing out without much interest. It was nondescript, mostly shades of brown with some white around the edges. A mongrel, undistinguished.

And that was why, of course. With no special pedigree, and well beyond the fun of puppyhood, she was no longer a desirable pet. Maybe she was ill. So she had been thrown away. Kim had heard of this sort of thing. Sometimes people would just dump their pets off on country roads and drive away, hoping someone else would take care of them. Of course usually that didn't happen; instead the poor pets expired of starvation and exposure, never understanding how they got lost. That just made Kim so mad! But she had never had a pet, so maybe she didn't know how it was. Maybe she would have a different att.i.tude, if she had had the experience of keeping in an aging or sick pet, but she doubted it.

The bubble was drifting on behind. The dog lifted its head and gazed at her. It gave its tail half a wag, then sank back into hopelessness. It knew it was doomed.

Kim reached for the bubble, but it was now too far away. And what would she do anyway, with a tired old dog? It probably had fleas. It was better just to let it go. It would soon be dead anyway. No one would care.

"No!" she cried. She stood up and then leaped for the bubble. Her hands touched the shimmering surface, and it popped, and her arms closed around the dog. But she was falling, because she had leaped from the boat. Splash! They fell together into the water.

"Help!" she cried. She could swim, but not while holding a large dog in her arms. And she was not about to let go of the dog, because she didn't know if it could swim.

Then Cyrus was there, swimming extremely efficiently with his tail. He caught her and the dog and heaved them back into the boat, where Jenny Elf helped them get untangled. "What happened?" Jenny asked, amazed. "Did you fall out of the boat?"

"No, I leaped out of the boat," Kim explained. "To catch the bubble."

"The bubble?"

"Didn't you see the line of bubbles floating by?"

Jenny shook her head. "No."

Cyrus heaved himself back into the boat, keeping his tail. "There were no bubbles," he said. "It must have been a daydream. I think I caught a glimpse of Mare Imbri. She must have brought you that nice dream."

"No bubbles?" Kim asked. "Then what about this?" She let go of the dog, who was now sitting in front of her.

"A dog!" Jenny cried. "It's been so long since I've seen one of those!"

"A b.i.t.c.h," Cyrus agreed. "You found her in the water?"

"What do you mean, a b.i.t.c.h!" Kim retorted. "She's a perfectly nice dog!" Then she remembered that this was what a female dog was called: a b.i.t.c.h. Just as a female horse was called a mare, and a female pig a sow.

"Oh, I'm sure she's nice," Jenny agreed, extending her hand. But the dog shied away fearfully.

"It's all right," Kim said, stroking the dog's damp back. "Jenny's my Companion." The dog relaxed, accepting Jenny's touch.

Then Sammy Cat stepped forward. Kim was worried, but then realized that the little cat would not step into danger, and he knew how to find what he wanted. Sure enough, the two animals sniffed noses. Then Sammy walked away, satisfied. He was Jenny's cat, and Jenny had been accepted, so Sammy was accepted too.

Cyrus extended his hand, but the dog retreated from him too. She didn't growl, she just grew nervous. "She's your dog," Cyrus said. "I never heard of a daydream turning real like that, but it must have happened."

Kim looked around. There were no longer any bubbles in sight They had vanished. They couldn't all have drifted away so quickly. So maybe it had been a daydream. But the dog was real. As real as anything in this game. Had it been a challenge, to rescue the animal?

"What do you call her?" Jenny asked.

"My bubble dog? I don't know." Kim turned to the dog. She noticed that the dog's mouth was marked with black and white so that she seemed to be smiling, though it was merely a color pattern and not true emotion. "I think someone was-was throwing her away. Because she'd old. All the bubbles had old, worn, or broken things. But when I saw a living animal, I-I just couldn't let it happen."

"Perhaps you should check to be sure she is healthy," Cyrus said diplomatically. He knew that the chances were that the dog was not.

Kim seized the opportunity. "Bubble dog, let me see if there is a tag on you, or something," Kim said. There wasn't; probably such identification was unknown in Xanth. "Let me get you dry, while I'm at it" She brought out a towel and rubbed the dog's fur, at the same time checking for mange, fleas, or broken bones.

But the bubble dog turned out to be surprisingly healthy. She was solid-perhaps seventy pounds-but not fat, and her fur was so thick it was like dense carpeting. She was very quiet, not growling, whining, or barking, and did not try to get away. Her teeth were clean, and there were no signs of infestation. She was healthy, just old.

"Maybe she's magic," Jenny suggested. "There are very few straight dogs in Xanth. She might be a werewolf, or something."

"Are you magic?" Kim asked the dog. The dog just looked at her, not seeming to understand.

"Perhaps she was dumped because she was not magic," Cyrus suggested.

"Well, I won't dump her!" Kim said firmly. "She's a nice dog, and I like her, and I don't care if she is nonmagical, so am I." But then a nasty thought occurred. "But I'm only visiting here. What happens to her when I go home?"

"I would try to take care of her," Jenny said. "But I don't think she likes me."

"Nonsense," Kim said. "She just doesn't know you." Yet Kim herself was almost as new to the dog as the other two were. Why should the dog accept her?

She knew the answer: she was the one who had rescued the dog from the bubble. Thus she had earned a special place in the dog's affection. That was all right, as long as the dog did not attack the others.

She couldn't just keep thinking of her as "the dog." There had to be a name. "All right, you're officially the bubble dog," Kim said. "Bubbles for short. Okay?"

The dog did not object. She lay down in the bottom of the boat and went to sleep.

"Bubbles it is," Cyrus said. "I wonder if I could daydream of floating bubbles, and find one with a thrown-away young beautiful mermaid?"

Kim laughed. "Who would throw away a young beautiful mermaid?"

"Unless she had a terrible temper," Jenny said, smiling.

"Mermaids do not have hot tempers," Cyrus said somewhat stiffly. "The water keeps them cool and calm."

"Except when there's a storm?" Kim asked mischievously.

"Merfolk dive below when there are storms."

"Maybe she's hungry," Jenny said.

"How can she be hungry, when we haven't found her yet?" he asked. Then he shifted streams of thought. "Oh, you mean the dog. Perhaps so."

They did not have any dogfood in their supplies, but they did have water crackers. Kim took one and offered it to Bubbles. The dog sniffed it, considered, and finally accepted it. She settled down to eat it, slowly.

The boat moved on. The slow progress soon became boring. Jenny and Cyrus slumped, snoozing, and so did Kim.

Until a sharp bark woke them all up. Kim's eyes popped open-and there was a head looking over the boat She stifled a scream, afraid that it would merely provoke the monster.

Jenny was doing the same. "It's a water dragon!" she whispered, frightened. "And we're way far from land!"

But Cyrus did not seem to be worried. "That's just Plesio," he said. "He's friendly."

"That's a plesiosaurus!" Kim exclaimed. "From the Age of Dinosaurs." For she had at one time been fascinated by the dinosaurs, and had learned a number of the forms of the age of reptiles. This extremely long-necked, flippered creature fit the description.

"Yes, he really likes to please people," Cyrus said. "He must have seen us poking along, and decided to help speed up our journey." He unshipped some rope, tossed out the end, and the creature caught it in its mouth. Then it swam briskly ahead, pulling the boat swiftly along.

"But Bubbles couldn't have known it was all right," Kim said, stroking the dog's head. "She tried to warn us of danger."

"Yes she did," Jenny agreed. "We can sleep safer with her along."

Now their progress was rapid. The surface of the lake fairly whizzed by. A sh.o.r.e appeared ahead, and soon they reached it Plesio halted and dropped his end of the rope. "Thank you," Cyrus called as he coiled the rope.

They took out water paddles and moved the boat into shallow water, and then into a broad marsh. "But I thought we were going to a river," Kim said.

"The With-A-Cookee River," Jenny agreed. "It flows from the Half-Baked Bog. So first we have to get through the bog."

Oh. Now she remembered the map. "Why is it called Half-Baked?" Kim inquired.

"Because half of it is next to the Fire Region," Cyrus said. "That's not my favorite place, but the best channel pa.s.ses close by there, so we'll have to use it"

All too soon Kim saw what he meant. There was smoke on the horizon, billowing up from what looked like a wall of fire, and the channel through the marsh led toward it The green plants along the bank turned white with the increasing heat, and then brown. "Why, that looks almost like marshmallow!" Kim explained.

"Yes, this is the Mallow Marsh," Cyrus agreed. "If you are hungry, you can eat the toasted mallow plants."

Kim reached out and pulled off a mallow. It was crinkly brown on the outside, but gooey white inside. She tasted it, it was toasted marshmallow, sure enough.

Jenny ate some too. Then Jenny offered a mallow to Bubbles, but the dog would not take it so she handed it to Kim, and Kim offered it, and this time Bubbles took it. This was a one-girl dog, without doubt.

The wall of fire loomed closer. Kim realized that the reason the channel was so close to the fire was that this was the only place too hot for water plants to clog.

"We shall have to move rapidly," Cyrus said. "I shall enter the water and pull the boat, as Plesio did. That will protect me from the heat and speed our travel. If the two of you are able to paddle-"

"We'll try," Kim said bravely. That firewall was now impressively high and hot Her clothing had long since dried out. She dipped her hands in the lukewarm water and splashed herself wet again. The water itself was warm, but did help cool her. Jenny, understanding, did the same. It would help them survive the fire. As an afterthought, she splashed some water on Bubbles, who glanced at her but did not protest.

Jenny paddled near the front of the boat, and Kim paddled near the back, on the other side, trying to time her strokes to match the elf's. Cyrus pulled by holding a short length of rope between his teeth and swimming vigorously. The boat moved well, but still the high flames were ferocious. Both girls had to pause frequently to splash more water on themselves and on the dog. Near the wall of fire the water was boiling, but it seemed to be cooler below the surface.

Now the source of the flames was apparent: a row of burning trees. Somehow they seemed to maintain their height and ma.s.s and foliage, despite burning up. How could that be?

"That's firewood," Cyrus explained.

Well, that made sense, in this magic land, Kim had always known how punnish Xanth was; she just tended to forget when under stress.

Kim heard growling. It wasn't Bubbles; indeed, the dog heard it too. Her floppy ears perked up. It was coming from the firewall! But how could there be any living tiling mere?

"Firedogs," Cyrus gasped. "Pay them no heed. They live in the hot steel and iron section, and hara.s.s pa.s.sersby, but they can't leave the Fire Region."

Kim's fevered mind wondered whether there was a pun buried there: steel and iron. Steel and iron-same as a fire-dog back home. She kept paddling, though she feared that her hands were blistering.

The growling faded, but was replaced by a heated hissing. "Firedrakes," Cyrus explained. "Very fierce birds."

But the drakes, too, were confined to the fire. Then there came a hot buzzing. "Don't tell me," Kim gasped. "Let me guess: firebugs."

"Right."

The channel began to veer away from the firewall, to Kim's great relief. Then there was a fiery neigh. That would be a firehorse. Sparkling insects flew out and danced above the water fireflies.

Bubbles barked. Kim started to rea.s.sure the dog, then realized that the dog might have smelled something. She looked around-and spied a serpentine form writhing across the surface of the water toward them. Suddenly she knew what it was. "Firehose!" she screamed.

Cyrus lifted his head and stared. "That will burn through the boat!" he said, alarmed.

"Then we'd better hurry!" Kim gasped, doubling her effort The boat went faster, but she saw that the firehose was going to touch it.

Jenny saw the danger. She stood up and whirled her paddle. She brought it down across the firehose, making a great splash of water and fire. The hose, startled, pulled back for a moment-and the boat slid by, untouched.

There was an angry cry. Kim looked, and saw the flaming outline of a man, standing before his firehose, shaking his fist at them. "Sorry, fireman, you can't burn us this time!" she called as the boat put distance between them.

A flaming human female form appeared. She held some kind of firestick. She pointed it at the boat. Bubbles barked.

"Duck!" Kim cried, throwing herself down.