Guenhwyvar

[Larry_OHF]

GUENHWYVAR


there were many. Several prominent families, and not just the Starym, were outraged by the immigration of peoples that many haughty elves considered to be of inferior races. There were even a few mixed marriages~, elf and human, within Cormanthor, but any offspring of such unions were surely ostracized.
“My people will come to accept Eltargrim’s wise council,” the elf said at length, determinedly.
“I pray you are right,” said Anders, “for surely Corman-thor will face greater perils than the squabbling of stubborn elves.”
Josidiah looked at him curiously.
“Humans and halflings, gnomes and, most importantly, dwarves, walking among the elves, living in Connanthor,” Anders muttered. “Why, I would guess that the goblinkin sa-vor the thought of such an occurrence, that all their hated enemies be mixed together into one delicious stew!”
“Together we are many times more powerful,” the blade-singer argued. “Human wizards oft exceed even our own. Dwarves forge mighty weapons, and gnomes create won-drous and useful items, and halflings, yes, even halflings, are cunning allies, and dangerous adversaries.”
“I do not disagree with you,” Anders said, waving his tanned and leathery right hand, three-fingered from a goblin bite, in the air to calm the elf. “And as I have said, Eltargrim chose correctly. But pray you that the internal disputes are settled, else the troubles of Cormanthor will come tenfold from without.”
Josidiah calmed and nodded; he really couldn’t disagree with old Anders’s reasoning, and had, in fact, harbored those


12

[Larry_OHF]

R.A. Salvatore

same fears for many days. With all the goodly races coming together under one roof, the chaotic goblinkin would have cause to band together in numbers greater than ever before. If the varied folk of Cormanthor stood together, gaining strength in their diversity, those goblinkin, whatever their numbers, would surely be pushed away. But if the folk of Cormanthor could notsee tefrwayt sudi a dayofunity
Josidiah let the thought hang outside consciousness, put it aside for another day, a day of rain and fog, perhaps. He looked back to the panther and sighed even more sadly, feeling helpless indeed. “Treat the cat well, Anders Beltgar-den,” he said, and he knew that the old man, once a ranger, would indeed do so.
Josidiah left then, making his way more slowly as he re-turned to the elven city. He saw Felicity again on the bal-cony, wearing a slight silken shift and a mischievous, invit-ing smile, but he passed her by with a wave. The bladesinger suddenly did not feel so much in the mood for play.
Many times in the next few weeks, Josidiah returned to Anders’s tower and sat quietly before the cage, silently com-muning with the panther while the mage went about his work.
“She will be yours when I am done,” Anders announced unexpectedly, one day when spring had turned to summer.
Josidiah stared blankly at the old man.
“The cat, I mean,” said Anders. “Whiskers will be yours when my work is done.”
Josidiah’s blue eyes opened wide in horror, though Anders interpreted the look as one of supreme elation.

13

[Larry_OHF]

GUENHWYVAR


“She’ll do me little use,” explained the mage. “I rarely venture out of doors these days, and in truth, have little faith that I will live much more than a few winters longer. Who better to have my most prized creation, I say, than Josidiah Starym, my friend and he who should have been a ranger?”
“I shall not accept,” Josidiah said abruptly, sternly.
Anders’s eyes widened in surprise.
“I would be forever reminded of what the cat once was,” said the elf, “and what she should be. Whenever I called the slave body to my side, whenever this magnificent creature sat on her haunches, awaiting my command to bring life to her limbs, I would feel that I had overstepped my bounds as a mortal, that I had played as a god with one undeserving my foolish intervention.”
“It’s just an animal!” Anders protested.
Josidiah was glad to see that he had gotten through to the old mage, a man the elf knew to be too sensitive for this pre-. sent undertaking.
“No,” said the elf, turning to stare deeply into the pan-ther’s knowing eyes. “Not this one.” He fell silent, then, and Anders, with a huff of protest, went back to his work, leaving the elf to sit and stare, to silently share his thoughts with the panther.

14


End

[Daniel]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Larry_OHF:
<font color=skyblue>Here it goes...I could not copy off of the Adobe Print Master, so I printed, scanned to Word, and then copyied here. And for the guy that posted just now before this message...take note that this document was made by R.A. Salvatore (after) the Crystal Shard...so it is either a mistake in the book, or Salvatore changed his mind...either way, the following is the most recent story.</font>

GUENHWYVAR
R. A. Salvatore

Josidiah Starym skipped wistftilly down the streets of Cormanthor, the usually stem and somber elf a bit giddy this day, both for the beautiful weather and the recent devel-opments in his most precious and enchanted city. Josidiah was a bladesinger, a joining of sword and magic, protector of the elvish ways and the elvish folk. And in Cormanthor, in this year 253, many elves were in need of protecting. Gob-linkin were abundant, and even worse, the emotional turmoil within the city, the strife among the noble families—the Starym included—threatened to tear apart all that Coronal Eltargrim had put together, all that the elves had built in Cormanthor, greatest city in all the world.
Those were not troubles for this day, though, not in the spring sunshine, with a light north breeze blowing. Even Josidiah’s kin were in good spirits this day; Taleisin, his un-cle, had promised the bladesinger that he would venture to Eltargrim’s court to see if some of their disputes might per-haps be worked out.
Josidiah prayed that the elven court would come back to-gether, for he, perhaps above all others in the city, had the most to lose. He was a bladesinger, the epitome of what it meant to be elven, and yet, in this curious age, those defini-tions seemed not so clear. This was an age of change, of great magics, of monumental decisions. This was an age when the humans, the gnomes, the halflings, even the bearded dwarves, ventured down the winding ways of Cormanthor,

1

[ 03-02-2002: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]<hr></blockquote>

Thanx Larry.

[ 03-04-2002: Message edited by: Daniel ]</p>