Whatever had them hemmed in wasn't intangible. It was real. His foot had touched it. It had felt cold and gave slightly. Jarl Gare brought the foot up and looked at the toes. They looked unharmed, but seemed numb. He pinched them and felt no more sensation than if they had grown numb from loss of circulation. They were cold to his touch. Was that force thin-skinned like a balloon or solid as a plasticine ball? "Waltk," he said, "Break me off a good-sized branch." The Jovian slid farther out on the limb, snapped off a branch the thickness of his wrist and about three feet long and brought it to Jarl Gare. "Watch it closely," he ordered Waltk. He dropped the heavy branch. It fell about twenty feet, and stopped abruptly. Then slowly, like a ruptured duralloy canoe, it started downward again, but gaining speed. It struck the ground, but neither Waltk nor Jarl Gare could hear it strike. Then the force wasn't solid. He became aware that the foot which had touched the force was beginning to tingle. The power it released to numb was only temporary then. Jarl Gare chuckled. Their bodies might be numbed for a while, but they would be free of the force. Quickly, he slid down the branch again. At approximately the same spot where he'd stopped before, he halted again and reached out tentatively with his toes, touching the numbness. He looked back at Waltk. "Follow me," he ordered. Then Jarl Gare jumped. It was like leaping into frigid water from a steaming shower bath. The shock wiped the consciousness from Jarl Gare, but not before he felt his body falling freely. He didn't feel the lesser shock as his body struck the spongy sward of the jungle. * * * * * Awareness that his face hurt came to Jarl Gare first. It was a recurring pain. First it stung, then the pain retreated. Then it stung again.... He realized that someone was methodically slapping his face. He opened his eyes. Waltk stopped slapping him. The big Jovian was grinning. "It is all above us now," he said. Jarl Gare stood up, and almost fell down again, staggering, feeling no sensation in his legs. Waltk supported him. "It will leave. My body is tingling only pleasantly now." Sensations came back quickly. Even Jarl's eyes began to tingle in harmony with the thousand prickles that coursed over his body. Finally he could limp along and as the power returned to his muscles he began to step out briskly. "What was it?" Waltk asked. Jarl Gare shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but it must have been some sort of thin force field--able to resist concerted pressure, but not quick, sharp shocks like our leaping bodies." The tangled jungle finally dwindled away and the pair were striding across fields rich with vegetation. "It is beautiful," Waltk declared. "Such bright colors shining like jewels through this fog."