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doubted it; spirits normally didn't waste time with simple trees. Mainly she was afraid of poisonous serpents or other hungry wild things that would be lurking to gobble Sammy or her. Yet she had to keep going, lest Sammy be lost.
    She ran and ran, her vision blurring as she struggled to keep up. All she saw was Sammy's fleeting tail, and bits of scenery whizzing by. She was better at seeing motion than things; otherwise she wouldn't have had a chance to stay near Sammy. Then, suddenly, the cat went over a ridge, and she followed, and discovered that there was no other side to it. She flailed in air for a moment, too scared to scream. Then her feet touched ground again; it had only been a slight drop, shrouded by fog. She ran on, still barely keeping the cat in sight.
    But now the scenery was strange. She didn't have time to stop and examine it closely, but she knew this wasn't like anything she had seen before. She would have to come to this forest some time when she wasn't chasing her cat to see just what there was about it that was so different.
    Sammy skirted an odd green tree. Jenny ran by it—and the tentacles snapped up and tried to grab her. One hung on to her flaring dress, and as she tried to pull free others grabbed her, but she drew her knife and sliced the awful green things and was able to pull free. Unfortunately, her knife got caught in the last tentacle, and she lost it. That was her first experience with the aggressive tree, and the confirmation that she had wandered into a very strange region.
    Then Sammy scampered into a clearing in the forest and stopped. He had finally found what he was looking for: a big white feather.
    “You dragged me all the way here for a stupid feather?” she demanded, not really angry with him, but having to exclaim about something to someone before she burst. The truth was that she was frightened by the strangeness of this region, and still shaken by the way that tree had grabbed for her. She had never even heard of a kind of tree that did that! But now she realized that this business had started with her, because she had teased Sammy about tickling him with a feather. He had oriented on “feather” and gone in search of one—and what a feather he had found!
    A shadow had descended, and the amazing animal-bird-lady came down. She seemed almost as surprised to see Jenny as Jenny was to see her. She said she was a checked centaur, or something, and talked about elms. Jenny learned that an elm was a tree; she wasn't sure why the centaur thought she should have something to do with it.
    The centaur lady was looking for her lost foal, called Chay. But Jenny hadn't learned any more, because Sammy had suddenly taken off again, and she had had to follow. She hoped it wasn't going to get even stranger, because she wasn't at all sure she could find their way back as it was.
    Now Sammy slowed. Maybe he was approaching what he sought. Maybe it was another feather, and she could carry it for him, and they could go home. No, not another feather, because he never looked for the same thing twice in a row. Maybe a—
    Jenny paused, amazed. There ahead of them was a little winged centaur! That must be the foal! The centaur lady had said she was looking for it, and Sammy had taken off to find it, just like that.
    But the poor thing hadn't just wandered away. He was a captive. There was a rope around his neck, and his hands were tied behind his back, and his legs were hobbled so that he could hardly stand. He was fluttering his wings helplessly, and he looked very unhappy. That was all Jenny needed to see; she knew she had to help Chay get back to his mother.
    However, there were mean creatures around the foal. They looked a bit like people and were her own size, but their heads, hands and feet were larger and knobby. They were dark, and their scowls were darker. There were three of them, evidently guarding the foal. They weren't doing anything to him, but it was obvious that they would if he