"I love a man who can appreciate a good rhyme," Puck was saying, in his smaller form, floating along high at Fezzik’s shoulder.

"Well, I do get them some of the time."

"Please," Aeris said. "I’m begging you. No more."

"No need to be so sore," Puck told her.

The giant and the Fae had hit it off perhaps a little too well for Aeris’ tastes. They had been rhyming fairly steadily for the past two hours, chatting back and forth like mad poets as the three of them walked together under the Fae starlight, on the way into Fantasia at Oberon’s allowance. At first, Fezzik had been undeniably fascinated by Puck’s incessant rhyming, but reluctant to join in…after all, that was his and Inigo’s game. But Puck had easily drawn him out, and now they were rhyming like champs. It had never mattered to Fezzik whether or not the rhymes made sense, but he was especially delighted by the fact that all of Puck’s did, and now he was completely enthralled. And Aeris was beginning to get a headache.

"I’m not!" Aeris insisted, ironically frowning in her first show of good humor since her brush with the witch. "Hmph," she said, tossing her head.

Puck had decided the best course was to go by foot, conserving as much magic as possible. He never said why, but it seemed reasonable to assume that it was because he intended to help as much as he could. Puck was leading them into Fantasia, which was connected to the Underground in the Fae and Fey kingdoms by a suspension bridge—over what, Puck hadn’t said. They had left the treeline only a few minutes ago, breaking out into the night. Now Puck reached out and pulled Aeris a little more closely to his side. It was dark still, even with the starlight on their faces, and they listened to him carefully when he spoke. "Use caution here. The bridge is near."

Aeris thoughtfully peered into the darkness. "Puck, I don’t see anything…"

He smiled at her with uncharacteristic nervousness. "Well, it’s very near, I must admit…Actually, Herald, you stand on it."

"Oh, why didn’t you say…" At that point, Aeris looked down.

Puck had said suspension bridge, but it had only been half the story. What he should have said was actually suspension of disbelief bridge…but it sounded quite ridiculous and would have wreaked havoc on his rhyme pattern. He had assumed that he could get Aeris and Fezzik over it easily enough, by not even telling them what was happening until they were over. But Aeris had wandered a little too close to the side of the bridge, and he had thought it was the appropriate time to break the news to her. He had unfortunately underestimated her practicality, and watched in dismay as her eyes grew impossibly wide with horror.

She stared down into a void of darkness, where starlight glittered on a river, running through a black canyon. She took a huge breath and screamed piercingly into the night, the sensation of standing on something solid suddenly leaving her. There was a funny sort of feeling in her stomach, one most of the Aboveground world would associate with a car going over a hill, or being in an elevator. And then she was really falling.

Fezzik reached out easily and grabbed her hand, stopping the fall at the last possible moment. She went right on screaming, her fright turning to fury. "You little Fae freak!" she was shrieking at Puck. "When I get my hands on you I’ll make you sorry you were ever born—or whatever it is you were!" Her feet kicked at the air, her eyes blazed.

Puck sighed and explained the bridge as Aeris dangled over the side. He knelt, giving her a patient, infuriating look. "Herald Aeris, this bridge is decidedly strange, but not beyond what your mind can range. To keep the unenchanted from entering this land, it’s creator installed the bridge where we stand. One must have faith to cross its length. If not, well…" He spread his hands, indicating her rather desperate situation. "You were lucky to have Fezzik’s strength."

"You mean I have only to believe it’s here and it is?" she cried. "But that’s so…simple…" She stopped, realizing that she had not managed to accomplish it. "Fezzik is still standing, though," she said. "He must not have heard."

"No, he did. He just took me at my word."

She frowned. "Alright. Can you pull me up now?"

Fezzik did as she asked, taking her in his arms as if she weighed no more than a feather. "You really ought to be more careful," he told her. "You get into more trouble than even Inigo."

"I’m sorry," she said, meaning it. Then she glanced at him. "Inigo?’

Fezzik chuckled. "I will tell you all about him, if you want. We have had many adventures since we left you."

"I’d like that," she said immediately, her eyes lighting up at the prospect.

Fezzik set her down carefully, letting her test the bridge that wasn’t there. She didn’t look down. Instead, she looked at Fezzik, standing tall and easy in midair, and pushed her mind over into believing that she could. It was an easy trick for her, really. It was rather like staring into the Escher Room for a long time. There was that first horrible moment where the angles and perspectives hurt the eye and mind, and then there was that slow adaptation to it, and then the inevitable acceptance of walking upside-down. Aeris could feel herself adjusting to the new idea much the same way.

"You see? It’s as simple as one, two…"

Aeris had momentarily forgotten about Puck in her philosophizing about the bridge and her eagerness to hear about Inigo. She promptly remembered him, and on the heels of that, how angry she was with him. She grabbed his odd little ears, stopping him in mid-sentence.

"If you ever even consider doing something like that again, I’ll—"

He sprang suddenly to human size before her, and she was holding onto the ears of a man a good foot taller than she. Her arms were well above her own head. "You’ll what?" he asked calmly.

She didn’t want to be intimidated, and that was probably why her mouth kept running. But she had the distinct feeling that she was getting in over her head with this ancient, and probably very powerful, Fae. "I’ll tie these pointy ears of yours under your chin," she snapped, inwardly bemoaning her wayward mouth.

She had expected him to lash out or possibly even laugh sardonically at her threat. He smiled gently, and reached up, removing her hands from his ears. He put them down at her sides and then—of all things—patted her head.

Then he walked forward, shrinking as he went. "There’s still a very long way to go. Can’t stop here, I’m sure you know."

Fezzik shrugged to Aeris, his face mystified.

She fumed. Somehow it was worse than getting into some kind of confrontation on the invisible bridge. It was worse than him mocking her with a laugh. It was even worse than not dignifying her with a response. He had treated her threat as one would the ravings of a child in a tantrum. And that stopped her cold.

Here she was, thirty-six and her temper under no better control than it had been when she’d first become Herald. He’d treated her exactly as she’d behaved, and it stung. She was silent, crossing the bridge after Puck through the darkness.

Her short fuse was renowned, and she had always been a bit uncomfortable with it. She was easily the most likely to lash out in an adverse situation. But the storm always died out as quickly as it had come, and she was not necessarily impatient or violent. It didn’t excuse her behavior, though.

No one had ever reacted that way to one of her sudden leaps from gentle to furious. And there the Fae was, walking ahead, pretending as if nothing had happened. But he’d forced her to take stock of just what those leaps were accomplishing, and she had never done that before. She was grateful, and a little unnerved by how easily he’d done that. She knew one thing for certain: She would never threaten him again.

"Don’t take it too hard," Fezzik said, patting her on the shoulder. "You would have really scared me," he said helpfully.

She grinned at him as they walked on, feeling a little charged and determined by her revelation. "Thanks, Fezzik. You really saved my life back there. I would have died without you."

He ducked his head almost bashfully. "Well, when you’re so much bigger and stronger than everyone, you have a duty to people smaller than you. You have to protect them."

"That’s a very noble way of looking at things." Aeris was quiet and thoughtful for a moment. "You feel bad about what happened to Inigo, don’t you? You know it wasn’t your fault, right?"

"No," he said quickly. Too quickly. She caught her breath at the obviously false reply. "It wasn’t my fault. It was just too strong for me."

"You protect Inigo from a lot, don’t you?"

His face brightened. "Inigo is my best friend in the world. He would treat me just the same if I was a little weakling."

"You mean he sees the real you. The person behind the strongman."

"Exactly," he said, pleased to have her putting it into words. "Inigo knows I like to rhyme. He never laughs at me, unless I mean for him to. And he knows my favorite color. And my birthday."

She smiled. "I’ll bet most people have never even asked you those things."

"No," he said firmly. "All they wanted to know was how many men I could fight. And they were never happy with the answer."

She studied him in the darkness. He was such a huge figure beside her, ambling along with careful grace, so conscious of his size and the way it affected the world around him. He sought to protect all the people smaller than him. One had to do no more than to ask his help to receive it.

"Inigo and I have had lots and lots of adventures. And sometimes we got very scared, but Inigo never gave up. Like the time we went into Humperdink’s Zoo of Death to find the man in black…"

And so, Fezzik began to tell her the story of their long, dark descent through Humperdink’s bizarre, underground preserve, from the first to the fifth level, where they found the man in black dead.

Puck instructed they make camp shortly after they crossed the bridge, and he produced some sort odd little tent for them, and then left them inside, going out into the night, playing watchman. He needed no sleep.

And even though Fezzik and Aeris did, they talked on into the night, Fezzik telling her about the Zoo, and how Inigo had killed the bats for him, and had been so wonderfully brave.

When Aeris dropped off to sleep that night, she dreamt of Inigo, chained in the darkness, and bats with red eyes that seemed to fly soundlessly around him…and a familiar, horrible laugh she could not place, would not remember.