The unmistakable sound of a whip captured Nan Mercy's immediate attention.

"Dinbee! What are you doing?!' She watched increduously as the sprite strolled across the polished expanse of a maple coffee table, twirling a tiny whip for another display. "I KNEW I shouldn't have let you watch Indiana Jones again last night." She shook her head as the sprite let loose with one more strike of the whip, before coiling it and hanging it at the belt of his new khaki slacks.

"I have no idea what you mean, Nan... " The impish face was lit with self-satisfaction. "I have long been an afficianado of the art of whippery."

Nan laughed. "Whippery!!!... You just made that word up!" She accused, while giggles fought their way clear of her rosy lips. "You have no clue what it is really called!"

Dinbee crossed his arms defiantly over his chest, causing his worn leather jacket to bow away from his lean waist. "And I suppose you do?" he queried.

"Not the foggiest!" Nan choked out between gasps of glee. "But I know playacting when I see it!"

A snap of his fingers created a rakish fedora to settle on his glistening black hair, and with a wink for his appreciative audience, he fashioned a scene from the movie he'd enjoyed so much, complete with jungle river, and dart-blowing natives. Nan watched with fascination while he worked his way through his pretend jungle to a cave under the candy bowl. She discovered that his simulated natives had a real bite, when one of the tiny darts struck her knee.

"Ow Dinbee!!! These things hurt!" she said as she rubbed the spot where the dart had hit. "You be careful..."

"Still calling it playacting?" He was starting to sweat as he climbed through the tangle of vines to the ruins of some unknown idol. This is a novel sensation, he thought. I'd no idea perspiring could feel so stimulating.

Nan reached down and plucked him from his trials, releasing the coffee table from its humid enchantment. As she gently touched his cheek, a tiny pearl of moisture gathered on her finger. "If you feel this strongly about having an adventure, let's go to that park we saw yesterday... where the forest is big enough for me to walk through." She grinned. "They have a riding stable there... and you know that 'Indy' rode a horse in at least one of his stories..."

"You may think you are hoodwinking me into agreeing to a bout of equestrianism, but Nan, as I have said before, riding around on the back of some large odorous animal is not my concept of a pleasant diversion."

"You're chicken..." Nan smirked.

"All right, the gauntlet has been thrown... I accept your challenge. We shall see who is chicken!" With that, he swooped up and dropped a mass of feathers over her head. She choked and sneezed her way clear of the featherfall, then surprised him by whipping up a casing to catch the rain of plumage. "I've been wanting a feather pillow." She said smugly. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Dinbee."

"You've been practicing..." he said with a slow grin.

"I have..." she answered, her deep green eyes shining with pride. He sent a rainbow of twinking stars over her, leaving her no doubt just how delighted he was.

The bay gelding nodded his head and snorted softly through his nostrils as Nan gently stroked his neck. She bent forward and breathed back at him, whispering quietly while he familiarized himself with her scent. Dinbee remained silent, and invisible, having for once decided that Nan would be more knowledgable than he in this situation.

"Are you gonna ride, or kiss ol' Boxer?" The wrangler laughed uproariously at his own quip. "He'd like that, ol' Boxer would..."

"Do tell me your name isn't Boxer..." Nan looked the man up and down, stealthily keeping an eye peeled for spritish rejoinder. "I'd really rather kiss this horse." She hoped her response would satisfy Dinbee's sense of honor.

The wrangler's mouth dropped open, then he laughed all the harder.

"Nah, my name's Danny... " He offered a grimy hand to shake. "Are you ready to ride, Ma'am? I can take you out now if you want..."

Nan nodded and reached to untie ol' Boxer from the hitching post. She quickly bridled him, checked the tightness of the girt, then pulled the stirrup leather out to check for length. She decided that the last person to ride the gelding must have had legs as long as Rapunzel's hair. She efficiently shortened the stirrups to her more petite frame, then swung into the saddle with a satisfied sigh. Danny nodded for her to take the lead as they followed the trail out of the corral. "Reckon you've ridden a time or two, huh?" Danny stated. He smiled appreciatively at the rounded backside swaying in time with ol' Boxer's movements. "I'm 'sposed to get you mounted, but I could see you didn't need my help."

Nan smiled back over her shoulder at the young man. "I hope you won't get into trouble... I am used to doing this for myself..."

"You don't really care if he gets into trouble, you are just showing off!" Dinbee's voice echoed into her ear.

Nan ignored Dinbee's taunt, she just nudged her horse into a snappier walk. Her heart lightened at the familiar feel of a good horse going places she'd never been. In all the time spent in the Fourth Kingdom, she had never once had a chance to ride, and it was a pleasure she truly missed. Early in their trek, when she had questioned Wolf about riding, he'd looked at her like she was demented. "Wolfs walk or ride in carts." he'd said. "Only royalty rides horseback." Her musings returned to her surroundings as the horse turned up a small embankment. She glanced at the ground, noting that the trail did follow the incline, and then turned her eyes to follow the tell-tale sparkle of Dinbee's presence. He apparently would rather float along above the horse than set himself down on the gelding. Nan smiled to herself, Dinbee was frightened of horses! She was sure of it!

"So... where ya from?" Danny intruded on her thoughts with his query.

"A place far far away.." she answered with a chuckle. "There are princes and castles and wizards and dragons, or at least there used to be dragons..."

"Wa'al honey, if you don't want to tell me where ya come from, then ya don't have to... I was just being sociable." Danny looked a little hurt at her response. He leaned over and spat on the ground as his horse came closer to Nan's. Nan's eyes widened with alarm when a shower of purple stars suddenly appeared above the hapless cowboy. "What's that?!" she shouted as she pointed off to her left. Danny stopped to look, and the stars fell to the ground. She growled a breathy "Cut it out!" to her unseen champion, hoping the wrangler wouldn't see the tiny twig that stood where a large maple had just been. Deciding that a further distraction might be needed, she bumped her horse into a rapid trot, and Danny's concentration was taken up with her accelerated gait through the woods.

"Be careful!" He hollered. "You don't know the trail!"

"Do you know where you are going, NanMercy?" Dinbee materialized just over her gelding's bobbing head.

"Not really." she replied as she asked the horse to canter. "But I am quite certain that Boxer knows the trail... and the shortest route back to the stable!"

Dinbee matched his flight to the motion of the horse and then gently lit on the waving mane. Boxer flicked an ear back at the unexpected tug, but continued at an even pace through the trees. Their erstwhile guide soon disappeared behind them, and Nan relaxed a bit as she realized he wasn't trying very hard to catch up.

She loped on a while longer then bumped the bit and asked her mount to slow to a walk. Boxer half-heartedly pranced, before resigning himself to the requested gait.

"I am beginning to see why you find this activity so enjoyable." Dinbee grinned back at Nan over his shoulder. A small burst of light surrounded him, then Nan laughed to see a tiny saddle strapped to a mane-hair pony with a small cowboy smartly dressed in miniature batwing chaps and hat aboard.

"Not fair," she cried. "That's not a 'real' horse!"

Boxer took the opportunity to shake his neck and head, causing quite a wild ride for the littlest buckaroo . Before Dinbee could go sailing off his magic steed, Nan tenderly caught him in her hand, and brought him to her shoulder. "I think you'll be safer here, Dinbee the Kid..." she chortled.

"Tell me you weren't concerned." Dinbee sounded intrigued by the idea. "Have you ever seen me in a situation that overpowered me?"

"Hmmm, well... yes... there was the time you got sucked into the magic pollution from Woeisme's intervetion... and by your own admission, you got caught in a giant spiderweb, where Wolf had to save you..."

Dinbee snorted inelegantly. "Both instances required assistance from my self-deprecating friend... do you detect a pattern here?"

Nan pulled Boxer to a halt, and turned her head to peer at her wee companion. "Are you saying you purposely put yourself in danger to create situations where Wolf could save you?"

"It behooves me not to answer that question affirmatively." Dinbee winked. "Let us just acknowledge the concept of meritorious service."

"Real cowboys don't talk like that." Nan could think of nothing else to say, she was too busy taking in the depth of Dinbee's commitment to his long-time chum, Wolf.

"Wa'al, Little Lady..." he drawled. "I'm not gonna answer your question." He tilted his hat back, allowing a shiny black lock to fall over his eye.

"I just done my best to make him feel needed."

"I really dislike repeating myself, Nan, but do you know where you are going?" Dinbee asked the question as Nan continued to guide her mount through a tangle of brush. "I fail to see a path of any sort here... and even this beast seems perplexed by your objective."

Ol' Boxer seemed to nod his head in agreement with the sprite while hesitating at a particularly dense growth.

Nan kicked the horse a little harder... and forced him through the sprouts, breaking into a large clearing that swept downhill toward a distant river.

"There. You see... the stable is just down to the..." She broke off in confusion..."It should be over there!" Rising in the stirrups, she stared in dismay to where she thought the stable should have been.

"Obviously, your sense of direction is no better on horseback, than it is on the ground..." Dinbee offered.

"Dagnab it!" Nan dropped back into the saddle. "Okay... I am lost... again." She wiped a hand over her sweaty brow. "Do you think you could find the way back?"

"Yes."

"Then will you please tell me where I should go?"

Dinbee's light flared as he swooped high above the trees, creating a dazzling show for the forest denizens. Nan smiled secretively to herself, glancing back at the trail marker she'd noted off to her left. Watching for Dinbee to come zipping back down from his reconnoiter, she rearranged her face to a worried frown. Ol' Boxer kept trying to turn back to the left, where he knew his oats were waiting, and she had to keep a stiff rein on him to prevent his moving towards home on his own.

"Rescue is at hand!" Dinbee crowed as he pointed... "You must needs turn your steed that way, and you will soon find yourself in a more familiar circumstance."

Nan smiled to herself as Dinbee continued with his chidings about her inability to be safe without him...

Uh huh, meritorious service indeed! she thought. Two can play at that game.