Here's another little piece of the next book. They just escaped from a group of Froygen; frog men who took a liking to what because she's green.

The sun was just breaking when the princess woke up. She was jouncing up and down on something broad and uncomfortable. She kept her eyes shut tightly. “Just let me sleep… Just a little more sleep…”

Jack’s voice floated from somewhere to her left. “Sorry, next time I’ll just let you be imprisoned in peace, shall I?”

What sat up and opened her eyes. She sat very still for a minute, looking around, before she spoke.

“Jack…”

“Yes, princess?” There was laughter in his voice.

“Why am I riding a horse on a rainbow without the asses over the bog we were just traveling through?”

A snort of laughter slipped out of him before he could stop it. “I…. I thought you might be wondering that. Princess, I’d like you to meet Charlie.”

What looked around, but it was just the two of them and the horse on the rainbow.

“Charlie?”     

Jack grinned. “You’d think that you’d learn, after the asses.”

What tried to make her stupefied brain start working again. “Um… The horse?”

Jack frowned and said “Not quite.”

The glummest voice that What had ever heard spoke, originating from the horses head. “It’s all right Jack, I’ve been called worse.”

What’s brain caught up. “Oh! I’m so sorry! It’s nice to meet you, Charlie. I’m sorry, I’ve never meet a talking horse before.”

Jack rolled his eyes and Charlie said “Oh, to be a full horse.” He came to a halt and, great head drooping, let out a huge sigh. “Alas, I’m only a pegahorse.”

What frowned. “A what?”

Jack was shaking his head and motioning for her to stop, but Charlie just said “Half-horse, half-Pegasus. Stuck in the middle, never part of either world, that’s me. Not even a part of the worser world.”

What was about to ask if a Pegasus wasn’t all ready half-horse, but Jack cut in.

“And you have been very useful to us. We would have been imprisoned and possibly dead by now if it weren’t for you, so we should say thank you.”

Unsteadily What clambered down off of the Pegahorse and looked around. The rainbow was high up, about seven feet wide, and nearly touched the clouds, which there were few of. The sun had just risen and the day was all ready warm. The rainbow felt smooth, soft, and cool under her, and far below was the swamp. It continued off before and behind as far as she could see. A couple of ducks wheeled over head, and What… Well, ducked, but that was the only sign of life besides themselves. No village, no Froygen, no magical talking donkeys.

What sat down.

“All right boys, let’s talk.”

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Right… The story behind this…”

She kept her face very still, her voice under perfect control. “Yes, the story. Tell it, please. Now.” It wasn’t the order of princess to vassal, it was the order of an angry green woman to a man who was going to regret it very much if he didn’t tell her. Now.

He told her.

“I said that there was something wrong in the village. Shush, I won’t say ‘I told you so.’ But I did.

“I fell asleep as soon as I blew out that foul candle last night. I could feel that something wasn’t right. I was too tired, I couldn’t think clearly. In any case, I was asleep and I must have been really out of it. Good Ass had to bite me just to wake me up. Here, look.” He held out his arm for evidence, displaying a set of teeth-shaped bruises. “I could hear people shouting and Good Ass told me that we had to get you up and out of there, fast.

“My brain was fuzzy, it felt like someone had stuff it with moss and soaked it in brine for a while. I kept just asking ‘What? What’ like an idiot, but in the end it got through to me that this was urgent. I hauled you out of bed and draped you over Good’s back. You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I did and I thought… I… Well, I panicked. There was all this yelling and braying and sound outside of the hovel. As I tried to get you to stay on Good Ass told me that they had put some kind of sleeping spell on us. You, especially. They had been kicked out of the village, but they watched and saw what was happening. Wise knew enough magic to figure out what was going on, so they came in and surprised everyone to save us.

“It was havoc. All of the Froygen were surrounding the asses, trying to grab them so that they could hold them down and tie them up. We started out for the swamp, but Ga’anish was standing out of the fight watching everyone and bossing the Froygen around. He saw us and yelled for the others to grab us.” He shook his head. “There were more than enough to overcome us. They wore us down and surrounded us. Ga’anish came forward, that big ball of slime, and explained that he hadn’t wanted to hurt us. In fact, he said, he had simply wanted to preserve you because you were so precious, and we could leave in peace if we left you behind.

“Obviously, that wasn’t about to happen. We were all ready to make one last-ditch effort to get out; with you.

“Just then the rainbow appeared out of the middle of nowhere, right in the middle of the battlefield. Charlie was on it. All the Froygen stopped and stared at it, and Good, Wise, Smart and I all made a break for it. We knocked out a good eight and injured another six.

“Charlie didn’t know what was going on, but luckily for us he isn’t too fond of the Froygen. I started yelling for help and he came over right away and I loaded you up. About that time the Froygen, who had run away, all came back. I guess they really liked you, they were doing their best not to let you go. In any case, they tried to get you, but the asses formed a line in front of us and told us to run.” He smiled. “We did. After we were on the rainbow the asses escaped into the woods. I told Charlie here our story as we’ve been walking.”

The pegahorse was standing by them, taking a chunk out of the rainbow. He listened to the story as he chewed.

“So… I slept through all of that?”

Jack grinned. “Yes, snoring heartily the whole time. The spell gradually wore off the further we got from the villiage.”

“Oh.” She thought for a minute, then turned to the horse who had just swallowed his mouthful of red. “Charlie… How did you manage to show up at exactly the right time?”

He looked at her morosely. “Just bad luck. The rainbows play tricks on me once in a while.”

“Well, you were just eating bits of one. Hmm… I never knew that it was possible to walk on rainbows. Hang on! If we’re up here, why aren’t the Froygen chasing us? Are they afraid of heights or something?”

Charlie shook his hors-ey head sadly. He was tall and trim, all gray except for a white patch on his muzzle that was shaped like a pair of wings, and what looked like bronze hooves. “They can’t walk on it unless I say so. Of course, real  Pegasus can just fly, but I have to use stupid rainbows. I make them where I want to go. Jack can walk on here because I want him to.” He sighed and his great head drooped. “At least I’m not alone up here. Again.”

“Oh. Well, thank you Charlie. Umm… If you don’t mind me asking, where are we going now?”

Jack was the one to answer. “Rainbow travel is twice as quick as normal land travel, some kind of magic, but from the sounds of it we need to hurry. Charlie’s going to lead us to someone who can get us to the Crone even faster.”

The pegahorse gave another forlorn sigh. “Yeah. Someone will always be better at everything than I will. Well, except for that one thing that I can do with my ears.”

            “Your ears?” They looked normal enough to her.

            “Yes. I flick them and whoever I’m looking at gets incapacitated by cramps. They Froygen tried to get me a couple years back, that’s why I don’t like them, but I did that to get away.” He sounded marginally more cheerful, so What smiled.

            “That sounds like a useful talent to have!”

            “Yeah. Well, except that all the other Pegasus foals were jealous. They’d corner me in my stall and call me names. ‘Charlie Horse, Charlie Horse’ they used to chant.” He looked like he was going to start crying soon.

            “Oh. I’m… Very sorry, Charlie. If it makes you feel better, my name is What Gruman and I’m green, so I know how you feel.” She didn’t really, but maybe it was better to make the attempt. Not that it was going to work, not on him.

            “Yeah, but you’re a princess.” Charlie looked very upset now. Luckily Jack was there.

            “In any case, Charlie, you saved us both. That seems pretty lucky to me. But we should get going.”

            “Okay.” Said the Pegahorse. He took a deep and stabilizing breath and What stood. “We just reached the downhill part of the rainbow, so we can slide down the rest of the way. Just watch me and be careful not to fall off.”

            Jack and What watched side by side in amazement as Charlie lowered his front half carefully and clumsily to the ground. Then he pushed off with his back legs.

            He started to slide down the long curving slope slowly, then picked up speed as he went until he was just a gray blur slipping gracefully along the rainbow. Jack and what turned to look at each other. He smiled.

            “Ladies first!”

Chapter Twelve

            If you had been standing down below just then and happened to look up you would have seen a gray horse zipping across the downside of a rainbow at blurring speed, front half lowered and back half kicking to give him speed. Behind the horse would be two blurs, one of which looked remarkably like a green woman in a tattered and stained dress, curled into a ball as she slid, mouth opened wide in a silent scream. The man behind her would have been hooting and waving his arms back and forth through the air, while sitting up straight, apparently enjoying himself.

            Not knowing that they were a half-goblin princess with a  peculiar name, a Pegahorse named Charlie with a talent for cramps, and a Mann named Jack running from a group of evil bog-dwelling frogmen, you would probably go home immediately home and lay in your bed in the darkness swearing off of drinking for life until your mother found you there and coaxed you down to dinner. You would then spend the rest of your life wondering if you were crazy deep down inside.

            Since you weren’t there, however, that wouldn’t happen.