Myth-Ing Persons by Robert Asprin

something? Something to remember you by until I see you again?"
    She hesitated, then pulled a gossamer-thin scarf from somewhere inside her outfit. Stepping close, she tucked it into my tunic, then rose on her tiptoes and kissed me softly.
    "It's nice of you to ask," she said. "Even if I don't mean anything to you at all, it's nice of you to ask."
    With that, she turned and sprinted off down the road into the darkness.
    I stared after her.
    "You're letting her go!?"
    Suddenly Massha was at my side, flanked by Guido.
    "C'mon, Boss. We gotta catch her. She's your partner's ticket off death row. Where's she goin'?"
    "To meet up with her partners in crime," I said. "Including a surprisingly lively guy named Vic… surprising since he's the one that Aahz is supposed to have killed."
    "So we can catch 'em all together. Nice work, Hot Stuff. Okay, let's follow her and…"
    "No!"
    "Why not?"
    "Because I promised her."
    There was a deathly silence as my assistants digested this information.
    "So she walks and Green and Scaly dies, is that it?"
    "You're sellin' out your partner for a skirt? That musta been some kiss."
    I slowly turned to face them, and, mad as they were, they fell silent.
    "Now listen close," I said quietly, "because I'm not going to go over it again. If we tried to follow her back to their hideout, and she spotted us, she'd lead us on a wild goose chase and we'd never catch up with them… and we need that so-called corpse. I don't think her testimony alone will swing the verdict."
    "But Boss, if we let her get away…"
    "We'll find them," I said. "Without us dogging her footsteps, she'll head right back to her partners."
    "But how will we…"
    In answer, I pulled Luanna's scarf from my tunic. "Fortunately, she was kind enough to provide us with a means to track her, once we recruit the necessary were wolf."
    Guido gave my back a slap that almost staggered me. "Way to go, Boss," he crowed. "You really had me goin' for a minute. I thought that chickie had really snowed you."
    I looked up to find Massha eyeing me suspiciously. "That was quite a kiss. Hot Stuff," she said. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that young lady is more than a little stuck on you… and you just took advantage of it."
    I averted my eyes, and found myself staring down the road again.
    "As a wise woman once told me," I said, "sometimes you have to do things you don't like to support your partner… Now, let's go find these Woof Writers."

Chapter Nine
    "My colleagues and I feel that independents like Elf Quest are nothing but sheep in wolves' clothing!"
    -S.LEE
    THE Woof Writers turned out to be much more pleasant than I had dared hope, which was fortunate as my werewolf disguises were some of the shakiest I'd ever done. Guido was indeed allergic to werewolves as feared (he started sneezing a hundred yards from their house) and was waiting outside, but even trying to maintain two disguises was proving to be a strain on my powers in this magic-poor dimension. I attempted to lessen the drain by keeping the changes minimal, but only succeeded in making them incredibly unconvincing even though my assistants assured me they were fine. No matter what anyone tells you, believe, me, pointy ears alone do not a wolf make.
    You might wonder why I bothered with disguises at all? Well, frankly, we were getting a little nervous. Everyone we had talked to or been referred to in this dimension was so nice! We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. All of our talks and discussions of possible traps had made us so skittish that we were now convinced that there was going to be a double-cross somewhere along the way. The only question in our minds was when and by whom.
    With that in mind, we decided it would be best to try to pass ourselves off as werewolves until we knew for sure the Woof Writers were as well-disposed toward humans as Vilhelm said they were. The theory was that if they weren't, the disguises might give us a chance to get out again before our