Episode 7: Chapter X: Sorceress Coridon

        Blu Flyer glared across the table at the other Aliroos. She looked back to her cards, and removed two of them. She placed them on the table. The purple Aliroo to her side drew them up and drew two new cards. Blu replaced them in her hand. She kept her disappointment sealed. Just my luck, she thought sarcastically.

        She looked around the table to Lance, and then to Boomer and Strype. They kept their faces blank as well. Should she bluff? Or fold? She looked at her assortment of cards again. Then she looked at the table and considered the ante. Money, passes to assorted worlds... One of which she wanted dearly.

        Because of the number of Aliroos throughout Space, passes were beginning to be handed out by the High Council for the more popular planets. Phaze, Proton, PokéWorld, the Lylat System, and the one she wanted to go to: The planet Earth, home of the Starfleet Academy. Blu needed the pass to get to Earth, she wanted desperately to enter the Academy and add an Admiral Rank to her score in the Game. To young Aliroos, the whole of Space was a Game. They traveled to the assorted planets and earned the highest ranks possible. Blu had already won out in Lylat, she held the highest rank of them all in Corneria's Alliance. In Proton/Phaze she had risen to Citizen/Adept class. She had beaten the Elite Four and turned down an offer from Lance, her "close male-associate," as Boomer put it, (Trixxy had renamed the term, "Boyfriend" and everyone else called them an "Item") to take a title of her own in the Best of the Best. He hadn't turned the offer down, currently he returned to PokéWorld to battle young Pokémon Trainers as Leader of the Elite Four.

        So is had come to this: Now she was playing a Poker game to get a pass to Earth.

        She then considered what she would be losing if she folded; She had entered her ownership of a Mansion on Risa, the vacation planet in the same Dimension as Earth. She also had bet her pass to the planet Shador, and a Dragonair from PokéWorld.

        After reviewing her hand, she realized they were waiting for her. She put on a confident face.

        "Raise." She pushed a piece of cyber-candy into the ante. She sighed inwardly; that would've been a nice treat after the game if she lost.

        Trixxy grinned, Strype and Boomer folded and Lance grimaced. Then he folded. Blu turned to look at Trixxy.

        "Umm....Okay..." Trixxy stood up and dug around in her jean pockets. Jeans? Of course. The Aliroos didn't want to be gambling passes on the Homeworld in System One. That would just be stupid. They had D-hopped to D-11, Dimension of Earth and Proton and many other nifty planets. They had taken board on a human-majority space station and had settled for an old-fashioned game of Poker. They could have played Aliroo Prelude, or perhaps even gone to Katina in the Lylat System to play the course at the Base. But, nooooooooo, they had decided to go to D-11 and play Poker.

        Blu looked at the ante, and back to Trixxy. Trixxy had never been great at Poker. She had a bad Poker face. Blu sighed. To Dark with it, I'm bluffing. She grinned girlishly and almost giggled. She never giggled. That would have tipped the other Roo off.

        Trixxy glared at Blu as she folded.

        Blu laughed out loud and stood up in triumph. She showed her cards. The rest of the group groaned. Except for Boomer. Good ole' Boomer. He knew lil' sis would share her passes. He patted her heartily on the back so hard she almost choked her cyber candy.

        Blu showed her pass to the security guard at the Earth post. Earth was one of the most popular Aliroo planets in D-11. It was so popular, in fact, that the Aliroo High Council had had to set up an Embassy in orbit of the Sun. There was an undetectable post orbiting the Earth, where all Aliroos had to show passes. Only so many passes were written each century, to keep the Aliroo population down.

        Blu pushed a button on her Trans-Dimentional Transporter. As she stepped through the Portal, she shifted her form to her pre-defined human form. Her human form reflected her Aliroo relative age; In Aliroo years she was well over sixty, but relatively she was about sixteen. She had settled on dark black hair. Actually, it was blue. But the people of Earth didn't except that as a natural color; she didn't want to stand out. She already had to monitor her strength and endurance. She reminded herself of one of her acquaintances, a certain Prince Corwald or something. Corwin. Yeah. He was from Amber. He thought he had it made, being able to shift shadow. His shifts through dimensions was extremely slow. He had to travel through each dimension at a time, while she could use her TDT to flash into a planet five hundred dimensions away.

        She was dressed in modern blue clothes, fitting to the time. She paused in between portals, adjusting her hair so it didn't look too perfect. She sauntered out of the portal, expecting to be in a busy area of Earth called a Space-Dock. Supposedly for the most advanced space ships in the area. She laughed at the thought.

        She stepped out, and found herself in quite different surroundings than she had suspected. A swamp? Surely this wasn't a space-dock. She looked to the sky, which was clean and blue. She then examined her surroundings.

        There were a number of trees, full with swampy foliage. To her right something skittered, and she investigated the skittering, and found a small lizard. She sighed, and looked at the creature. It was small, gray. It looked like an iguana, except...Well, it had a chicken's head and claws. And it was ferociously glaring at her. She glared back at it and turned away, simultaneously taking her TDT from it's invisible place on her belt. She unhooked the invisibility spell and looked at the coordinates:

Blu Flyer ICF: 000080

Please Wait...

Coordinates: D-11 planet: 3/9

Blu grimaced and wondered whoever had decided the TDT would be hard to read. She pressed a button on the TDT for more information on her location.

Loading....

...

Planet: Earth

Hemisphere: Northern

Continent: Northern

.. Would Blu Flyer like to see native definitions of location ?

Blu tapped the "Enter" button. Native information, no matter how odd, was better than nothing.

...Please Wait while information is downloaded from the Embassy....

Native Location Information on Earth:

Country: USA

State: Florida

City: Miami

Blu glanced around. This was not Miami. She had wanted to transport to the Miami Alpha Space Port.

        "TDT, list exact coordinates of my location."

Please Wait...Processing information...

ERROR! Electro-magnetic field not found! Unable to process exact coordinates! Does Blu Flyer want approximate coordinates?

        Electromagnetic field "not found?" How weird was that?

        "Yeah, okay."

Please Wait...

Latitude: 24

Longitude: 80

        "What?" If that was right, the space port should be around her.... Or at least in sight! "TDT, is it possible to transport out of here?"

No malfunctions detected. D-hopping facility operating within minimal operation standards. Does Blu Flyer wish to transport?

        "No, no." Blu folded up the TDT and returned it to her belt. If she could transport, she might as well figure out where in Space she was. For some reason, this planet seemed familiar. Then she realized what it might be. She took out the TDT again. Thank the Universe it was also a computer.

        "TDT, analyze magic content of planet 3 of 9 in this system."

Please Wait...

Magical content analyzed. 90% atmospherical magic content.

        "Locate the source of magic."

Please Wait...

Source not found!

        "What?? What do you mean 'Not found?' There's a source somewhere! "

Required access blocked.

        "Blocked? By what?" This was beginning to be irritating. No one had ever told her of this magical planet in D-11. For a Dimension so far away from True Space it was quite magical.

Unknown. Recommended strategy: Ask local population.

        "Where is the local population? And what are they? And no way am I going to the Embassy. They'd think I was abusing my privileges; I only got my TDT a year ago."

Please Wait...

Local population: DNA scan complete.

Species 8730-D-11 Centaur

Centaurs can be found on numerous planets in D-11. Many exist in strictly magical environments. Carbon-Based, quad-pedal life forms. Human intelligence.

        Which didn't say much.

        "Continue."

Travel south to islands. Does Blu Flyer wish to transport?

        "Yes." Blu aimed the TDT and a portal opened. She stepped through and found herself on a small island. Suddenly a centaur was in front of her, aiming his bow with an arrow nooked. Blu did her best to look frightened, but the truth was, an arrow like that probably wouldn't penetrate her skin. But a new person to the island would be scared.

        "Halt, intruder!" The centaur said menacingly. "What do you here?"

        "I come for..." Blu paused, "..Uh, information. Yup. I need to know where the local authorities are."

        The centaur looked her up and down. She tried to look harmless. Which was hard because she could bench press an Arwing.

        "You are human." Understatement of the century. "If you wish to seek authority, you must visit the human King in central Xanth."

        Xanth? Ah! she had a name.

        "And, um, how do I get there?"

        "Travel North and you will find it. Most magical paths lead to Castle Roogna."

        "Okay, thanks." She turned and tried to look nonchalant as she opened a portal in front of the stallion. She waved and laughed at the look on the centaur's face as she stepped through the portal. She paused in between exits of the portal. "Open into the largest stone construction in Central Xanth."

        The portal opened. She stepped through and walked onto a quaint path. Up ahead was a castle with a moat. This must be Castle Roogna. She approached the castle, ready for bombardments of arrows. One can never be too cautious.

        As she approached the moat a creature rose out of it. It was vaguely snake-like and it slobbered. Blu ignored it and passed the drawbridge. As she came upon the bridge, the monster crossed to intercept her. She cuffed it on the snout, and it whimpered and backed off. Some castle defense.

        She entered the castle and was met with a large bipedal carbon based life form. It was big and hairy.

        "You pass first test without even no rest!" It said enthusiastically.

        "Uh huh." This would be tough; the life-form smelled bad and it was in front of the door.

        "Now you pass me, me challenge you see."

        "Challenge, eh?" Blu said, sizing him up. She didn't want to get dirty. She looked around the room. There were numerous plants. Some seemed to have pies.

        "So...What's your name?" She asked to break the silence as she looked around.

        "Me Whack with dirty back."

        "Dirty back? You're dirty all over."

        The creature's face faltered. He started making a guttural noise.

        "Dirty back is what me own, clean face be of what me moan."

        Blu looked closely at the creature. His face was pretty clean. Relatively speaking, that is.

        "And that's a problem?"

        "Whack need be ugly to win girl named Bugly."

        "Bugly? What kind of a name is that?"

        "Bugly be ogress of me dreams, but she like only dirty ogres it seems." Whack looked almost sad.

         "Aww. That's too bad," Blu said. She began examining the plants. In fact, ALL of them seemed to be growing pies. Pies of all sorts. She found one that smelled bad. Was it rotten? She looked closely. Then she realized she could use it to her advantage.

        "Hey Whack, there are mud-pies over here. Maybe if you put them on your face Bugly will like you..." Blu wrinkled her nose at the notion. Ogre love? Ugh.

        "Hey, say?" Whack said. He moved to where she was standing. It was all she could do keep from running away.

        "Yeah. Put these on your face and go home. And, uh," Blu began edging towards the door as the ogre began messing with the pies messily, "Don't worry, you smell bad enough as it is."

        The ogre smiled, a truly horrendous thing that made Blu run the rest of the way through the door.

        She was then greeted with a human lady with a scarf over her face. The lady had snakes writhing around in her hair, and a low-cut dress.

        "That's not very practical, ma'am," Blu said, referring to the scarf and the dress. "Where's..." She was about to ask where she could find the King of Xanth, when suddenly the woman lifted the scarf. She had a nice face, for a human. Blu's movements slowed somewhat, and her skin turned a shade grayer. But after a few minutes it returned to it humanish tan color and she could move at her normal speed. The woman looked astonished.

        "What was that??" Blu asked, angry. Of all the nerve! Some sort of weak paralysis spell, she guessed.

        The woman stuttered. Instead of saying anything, she closed her mouth and pointed up the stairway. Blu nodded cautiously and edged up the stairs eyeing the stuttering woman. There was something strange about her.

        Blu climbed the stairs and entered a small room. A small room, with a small man and a huge book. The small man did not look happy. He was grumbling and muttering.

        "Excuse me, are you the king of Xanth?" Blu asked.

        "No."

        "Then could you tell me where to find him?"

        "Yes. I could."

        "Oh, and by the way, I was wondering what's wrong with that lady downstairs." She opened her mouth to ask another question, when finally he glared at her.

        "Do you realize that you've dug yourself into a very deep hole, young woman?" He asked irritably.

        "How so, aged man?" Blu asked, irritated.

        "You just asked me three questions! I'm sure you have better things to do than spend three years here."        

        "What in Space are you talking about? I'm not spending three years here. Where's the King already?"

        The man looked at her. He riffled through the pages of his book. He growled. He flipped through them again, as if desperatly searching for something. Every once and again he would look up at her. After a few minutes it seemed obvious he could not find what he was looking for. And he had a look of mixed emotion on his face; Suprise, Anger and Fear.

        "All right, I'll let you get off with no Time if you answer one thing. And you do understand that's me being generous with you. Mind you, you're lucky, I rarely let queries go without a service at all." He looked truley regretful as he screwed his face up into a strange controtion. "What are you?" Asking the question seemed to cause him actual pain.

        Blu laughed.

        "I'm Blu Flyer, Aliroo of the True Space, Planet ¤, Blue Country. I'm looking for the King of Xanth, but he's just a side-track, it would be fine to know how I can get to the Miami Space Port. If you could just let me know, that'd be great. I seem to have the wrong castle."

        The man stared at her.

        "Okay. If you're not going to help me, I guess I'll be on my way." She took out her TDT and opened a portal.

        "Wait! Before you go, drink this." The man handed her a vial.

        "Why are you giving this to me?" Blu asked, drinking it. Her system could take almost anything, including a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Anything this man dealt out she could take. She shot it down while waiting for his answer.

        "Because, by stating your name, you have opened up an entire chapter in my Book of Answers."

        "Is that so?" Blu asked. The liquid had no taste.

        "Yes. Now, go through your..." the man fingered through his book. "Trans Dimensional Portal. The coordinates of your destination are here." He handed her a number on paper.

        Blu nodded. Finally someone was making sense. She entered the number into her TDT.

        "So, what does this stuff do?" She handed him the empty vial.

        "It will allow you to have an alibi in Xanth. Don't tell anyone that you're an Aliroo. Tell them you're a human with the talent of conjuring what people are thinking about."

        "I can conjure, but I don't have mind-reading abilities like Lance."

        "The vial will allow you to see what people are thinking about when it is appropriate."

        "Oh. Okay...." Blu nodded. Just as she was stepping through the portal, she heard the man yell,

        "And don't use your real name! Its not Xanthian!"

        Blu nodded. The funny little man didn't seem to be making sense, but he was a native, so she considered his advice. She followed through the portal and found herself in a Glade. She looked around; This wasn't a castle or a space dock. He had given her fake coordinates! She looked around. She found a vacated spot nearby and whispered to her TDT,

        "Where are we?"

        No Coordinates found, The computer whispered back as it was programmed to do.

        "Can I open the portals?"

        Affirmative.

        "Okay." Blu wandered around. She was met by many people who seemed to be milling about and discussing the philosophy of Xanth.

        When asked what her name was, she hesitated. What to say? She mixed a Prince of Amber and a dinosaur.

        "Coridon."

        Methinks I'm going to like it here, she thought to herself. One more planet to play in. It sure as Dark wasn't the space port, but a magical sub-dimension that had never before been discovered by Aliroos? This was the chance of a lifetime!

        The Sorceress Coridon peeked out from behind the invisible wall in the air. She opened up the Magical Mysteries Door completely and stepped out. She searched around, looking for a certain parody. Muffyroth, a cross between villains, had claimed to be Pure Evil, and Coridon had sent out to set him straight. She came out, and scanned the area. Finally, she spied him. Now, whenever she looked at anyone, she could see what they were thinking about, if the thing they were thinking about was a person or thing. It would float above their head like a ghost, and then she would pretend to invoke her "talent" and conjure what it was.

        To make her talent seem plausible, she put restrictions on her "talent..." The person couldn't tell her what they were thinking about. She could make a hint. But it had to be solely their thoughts that were conjured. So far, only a very few selection of the Glade inhabitants had a clue of what she was. One of them was Neelix, a talaxian from the Delta Quadrant, also in D-11. They had gotten to chatting and Blu couldn't help but blab about her Admiral Rank in Starfleet. Which might have been a bad thing. Mostly because it was a breach in protocal. But it seemed to be harmless. Others included Jax Mandrake, who had a fascination with the transforming beings from D-12. Those beings had limited D-hopping abilities; so far their kind spanned across three Dimensions. Which was good for a minor species. The Alliance was closely monitoring their technological advancement, soon the transformers would be joining the Alliance.

        Then there was the Lady Blue. With whom she had had long discussions on various things that amounted to little but the revealing of the Sorceress Coridon's secret past. So that made three. To everyone else, Coridon was a young, happy-go-lucky sugar fanatic who was obsessed with pixie stix. Blu kept in close contact with the Alliance; after two Earth years they were already sending other Aliroos to Earth. Blu had found that the magic in a random transport to Miami would result in the transportation into a minor sub-dimension, an extremely small dimensional pocket in space. The pocket had been packed with magic when the Universe had continued to unfold. The pocket was so close to Earth that it had developed identically, only with higher magic content.

        Coridon unhooked her gravity gun from her belt, and aimed at Muffyroth, mumbling to herself.

        "The hunter sees her quarry and readies her chosen weapon. In the camouflage of the jungle...Erm....Glade, she stalks, and then, she FIRES!" Coridon aimed and fired with uncanny accuracy. Muffyroth shot into the air with a yowl. Suddenly, a petite woman in a green dress shot out from behind a nearby tree and snatched Muffyroth from the air.

        "Hey! Ha! Thanks, Cor! thought you could get away from me, eh?" Ideal Chlorine said as she hugged Muffyroth so hard he choked. Coirdon grinned. That hadn't been the initial plan, but it served him right. She walked up to Muffyroth.

        "You see me, friend, after you meet the Pillsbury Doughboy and drink a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, THEN tell me who's Pure Evil." Coridon, satisfied, opened her Magical Mysteries Door and popped through to Pony Land, where she was scheduled for a game of Volley Ball.