Part 37 (2/2)
”Xanth learned it. I can learn it. Teach me.”
Justin cast about for some way to clarify it for an ent.i.ty that had no emotion other than the one implanted by the Swell Foop. ”My own understanding is imperfect. I cannot describe it. But perhaps if I give an example of our interaction, that will suggest its nature to you. You might picture it as something you are doing, and try to gain the feeling thereof. Then, possibly, you will understand.”
”An interaction of love?”
”Yes. Of the way Breanna and I relate. I think you have not seen her. She is a young female human being with-”
”I have seen the human body Fornax is using. Is that similar?”
”That would be Jaylin. Yes, in the broad essentials, though they are quite different people. For one thing, Breanna is of the-”
”Jaylin will do. I can picture her in your scene.”
That suited Justin. He wasn't at all sure he wanted the Demon Earth picturing Breanna as his own love object. That might be foolish jealousy on his part, but at least Jaylin was neutral. ”Very well. Since you can experience the emotion of hope, think of love as an intense variant of that, with a person as the object.”
”Present your example.”
”Well, it happened soon after Breanna insisted that I convert from tree to human form. I was as yet a bit unsteady on my feet, after about seventy-six years with a trunk instead of legs. She said she didn't mind-” As he spoke, he visualized the scene, and the Demon Earth watched that picture.
Justin tripped and almost fell, but Breanna caught him, hugging him to her. She brought her face to his and kissed him. This was the first time, and it made him dizzy, so that he might have lost his balance again, but for her firm clasp.
”I apologize for my infirmity,” he said. ”It is merely that-”
”If you don't get steady, I'll kiss you again,” she said as she let him go.
He essayed another step. ”If you intend that as punishment, it is misdirected. I-” He started to fall.
She caught him again, and hugged him, and kissed him. ”It is not intended as punishment,” she said. ”But as encouragement. I figure a few hundred kisses should do it.”
”A few hundred!”
She made a cute frown. ”I'm willing to go a thousand, if necessary. But you had better make some progress.”
”A thousand!”
She glanced quizzically at him. ”You don't get it, do you?”
”Get what?” he asked, perplexed.
”I'm teasing you.”
”Teasing me? I thought you were helping me to walk.”
”That too. What I mean is, I'm pretending that you don't like to be kissed, so you will hurry to walk well.”
”Oh, Breanna, I don't regard-”
”Or that you are a very slow learner.”
”I apologize for that.”
”It's a bleeping pretext to kiss you!” she snapped.
Justin was momentarily stunned by the bad word from her dear lips. Then she kissed him again, and he began to understand. ”Tease me some more,” he said blissfully.
”That's more like it.” Then she saw something ahead. ”What's that?” Her moods were mercurial, s.h.i.+fting from romance to practicality in a fraction of an instant. He liked that about her. But of course he liked everything about her.
He looked where she was looking. ”That is a suit tree,” he said, for he knew trees well. ”It grows flight suits.”
”Flight suits! You mean they fly?”
”They enable those who wear them to fly. Would you care for a demonstration?”
”Sure. Maybe flying'll be easier than trying to walk with you.” Then, before he could misunderstand again, she kissed him once more.
They donned flight suits and flew up over the forest. The flight suits made it easy; all they had to do was think high, and they lifted, and think forward, and they moved that way. But then they began to lose alt.i.tude.
”I fear the magic energy of the suits is being expended,” Justin said regretfully. ”They are not intended for long flights. Just far enough to get their seeds spread a reasonable distance.”
”That's okay.” She flew into him, grabbed him, and kissed him as they descended.
And their descent stopped. But when the kiss ended, they dropped down again. ”Your kiss made me light-headed,” he explained. ”So the suit was able to sustain me.”
She laughed. ”You know, every so often I still forget how literal Xanth can be.”
They landed beside a tangle tree, and kissed again, as Justin was still a trifle unsteady. A tentacle reached out to wrap around Breanna's leg. ”Oh yeah?” she demanded, drawing her sharp knife.
”Stop!” It was a wood nymph with tangled green hair. ”Don't you dare hurt my tree!”
”Who are you?” Breanna demanded.
”I am the nymph of this tree.”
”Tangle trees have nymphs?”
”Indeed some do,” Justin said. ”Note her matching hair.”
”Then tell it to un-tentacle me,” Breanna said.
The nymph touched the tentacle, and it unwound. ”That's good,” the nymph said, speaking to the tree. ”We mustn't eat people who are in love.” She patted the tentacle, and it formed into a heart shape.
”Everybody loves a lover,” Justin said, as the memory scene concluded.
The Demon Earth was not quite convinced. ”All you did was kiss.”
”Yes. That was all we wanted to do. That is the way of love.”
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