Gutbucket Quest by Piers Anthony

them, but he isn’t looking to get connected with her just yet.”
    Nadine drove the pickup to what looked like a group of domes that had grown from the earth. Instead of wood or concrete, they were covered with soil and grass and wildflowers, surrounded by the oldest trees of all. They were huge, but not imposing.
    “Reference stop,” she said. “Everybody out.” She was still laughing, and Slim couldn’t figure out why.
    They walked through a doorway in the nearest dome, pulling a buffalo-skin cover aside, and were in a small bare room.
    “Take your clothes off,” Nadine said.
    “ What?"
    “Take your clothes off. No clothing allowed in Tralfaz.” Nadine was already undressing, so Slim did so as well. He had a difficult time because he couldn’t take his eyes off Nadine. She seemed totally at ease and, as she slipped her panties off, she stood and turned to look at Slim.
    “Come on,” she said, still smiling wickedly. “Get them off.”
    Slim took his pants off, and as he wore no underwear, was exposedto view. The sight of Nadine’s small breasts, her legs, her stomach, her puss, had put him into an embarrassing condition. He knew he had a nice face, and women had told him many times that he had a beautiful dick, but there wasn’t any other part of his body that he felt was attractive and this casual intimacy both excited and disturbed him. He wished adamantly that he could exert control over the single part of his body he knew it was useless to try to control.
    Nadine, however, was looking him over carefully, unselfconsciously as he stood there wondering what to do with his hands. She spent, he thought, an inordinate amount of time looking at his protruding dick, but there seemed to be a look of approval on her face.
    She walked up to him and patted his stomach. It made him jump.
    “Don’t worry,” she said. “I like big men. Come on, now. Let’s go see Mother Phillips.”
    She walked through another door. Slim followed, which did nothing to abate his embarrassing condition. It made it, in fact, even worse. But she had said she liked big men. That meant he had a chance. At least his rotundity wouldn’t stand in the way. Now, if only he could overcome his personality, he might have it made.
    He’d heard that people who spent time in nudist colonies soon got over the immediate sexual attraction. But as long as a naked Nadine was around him, Slim thought it highly unlikely that that condition would ever occur to him. As long as he could see— everything —it just got more desperate.
    They walked through several doors and buildings, following an increasing scent of earth and water, but Slim couldn’t have said what, if anything, the rooms contained. His attention was totally focused on Nadine’s shoulders, back, ass and legs and the way they all seemed to move so gracefully together. So he was unprepared when she stopped. He almost ran into her, which he thought could have been a wonderful disaster. When he was together enough to look around, he realized he was in a large, dome-shaped greenhouse. It was filled with youngtrees, plants, flowers and naked people who paid no attention to him and Nadine beyond an initial identifying glance. Most of them were working with the plants. Some were playing. The energy and attention seemed to circle around a very short, wrinkled old woman who sat on a small grassy hummock just ahead of them.
    The old woman looked up at them. She dismissed a little girl she had been talking to and stared at Slim as appraisingly as Nadine had. Then she smiled widely and genuinely. It made Slim uncomfortable in a way Nadine’s smile hadn’t. This old woman had power. He could feel it, but he didn’t understand it. It didn’t frighten him, but it was discomfiting.
    “Nadine” the old woman said with delight. “Welcome. Welcome. Who’s your handsome friend here?”
    “This is Slim Chance, Mother. We’ve come for an important thing.”
    Mother Phillips stood up easily and