Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Lynn Asprin

I glanced at Glenda again. For a moment I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Then I remembered she had stranded me in this world with no thought of ever coming back for me, and the feeling-sorry emotion left quickly.

“So how did you survive the night?” Tanda asked.

Harold just shrugged. “The same way I have survived every full-moon night for more years than I want to think about. I turned into a cow, ate grass, and slept standing up.”

“Oh,” Tanda said. “You going to explain that to us in the rest of your story?”

Harold laughed. “It’s a part of it.” Then he looked around. “This is a pretty amazing room, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Aahz said. “We learned some interesting history from some of these books.”

I noticed that Aahz didn’t say anything about the ceiling map, and I sure wasn’t going to either. I wondered if Harold even knew about it.

“Good,” Harold said. “That will give you some more background on what happened with me, and how we got like this. Shall we go back out into the sunlight?”

“What about her?” I asked, motioning toward the sleeping Glenda.

Harold shrugged. “She won’t wake up as long as the rope is on her. She’ll be fine right there.”

We followed him out into the main room. It felt great to see light again. Spending the night in a dusty room worrying about what might happen at any moment wasn’t my ideal evening.

“Anyone like something to eat?” he asked, moving into the kitchen area. We stood around the counter, watching him.

“Anything but carrot juice,” Aahz said, smiling at me.

“Not funny,” I said.