Tailchaser's Song: Chapters 2 and 3

The second part of I have no idea how many parts of Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams

Chapter 2 opens with a flash back into the early life of our hero, Fritti Tailchaser. Fritti was the second youngest kitten in a litter of 5 with 3 boys and 2 girls. His mother, Indez Grassnestle (6) thinks there may be “something special about him, as if he may have a great destiny” and feels this in her whiskers. She reconsiders because it turns out that Fritti is kind of a spaz. His father, Brindleside (meh) was a great Hunter of the Folk but Fritti is too little to ever be a great Hunter. EVER! Remember, these are housecats. Fritti's mom would take the kittens from their home in a pile of rubble in an empty lot to the nearby fields and forest for hunting practice. This is a mental image of kittens playing that I always appreciate. KITTENS ARE ADORABLE. Fritti continues not focusing and his mom thinks he's a goofball cat and not at all as great as she originally thought which I think is pretty damn harsh for a young kitten. But I'm not a cat.

When Fritti and the kittens are three months old, they get to go to the Meeting to get their NEW NAMES at The Ritual. Cats get three names: the heart name that their mother gives them, the face name that all cats may call them by, and the TAIL NAME which is a secret spiritual name not many cats ever find out. This is the point where I realized that the cats are getting the Noble Savage stereotype which is kind of neat but also reaaaallllly generic, but hey, 80's fantasy with cats, so I'm just going to roll with it. VIKINGS KITTIES. Fritti goes before the Elders of his Nose-meet (which again, I love the mental image of a kitten “nose-meeting” other cats) to be given his face name. The Elders, Bristlejaw (7), Snifflick (8), and Earpoint (9) “smell something special” about him and chuckle mysteriously! They then exclaim “he wants his tail name before his face name!” and then name him Tailchaser which, OK, I think that's kind of clever. The newly dubbed Tailchaser is off like a shot because he's a kitten and adorable!

Later, Fritti is playing in a field by himself when up comes a rather fetching young fela named none other than Hushpad! She says she saw him at the Ritual and wanted to get to know him. I'm pretty sure 13 year old me who really wanted a girl to come up and want to get to know him would have really loved this part. They romp and play as only kittens can and talk about lots of stuff. Fritti begins to develop strong feelings for Hushpad that go beyond what normal cats feel for each other and may lead to a “joining” which I guess is cat marriage? Ooooookay.

Tragedy strikes! Fritti returns home one day to find THERE IS NO HOME. His rubble pile is gone and so are his siblings and mother! Honestly, this part made me tear up some because he runs around all scared and not knowing what to do. There are no scents that he can detect and he flees into the woods where he can't catch anything due to his grief and collapses after a few days. No other cats help him because they are cats and dicks. But salvation comes in the form of M'an which I feel is the stupidest damn made up word so far. He is caught and put in a box and nursed back to health where they leave food and water out for him and let him come and go as he pleases. I know I'm supposed to be identifying with the cats but I feel like the people are really irresponsible not fixing him if he's an outdoor cat. This would also ruin the story so NO MORE THINKING.

Fritti find Hushpad and apologizes for freaking out over his family disappearing and she apologizes for not going to console him because she's a cat. We then jump forward to the night before the Meeting in Chapter 1 where Fritti and Hushpad have a date and Fritti sings this weird song about always being together that Hushpad just listens to. They part ways with “an unspoken promise between their commingling whiskers.” Poor Fritti Tailchaser.

Chapter 3:

Jump to back after the meeting in chapter 1! Fritti waks up and proceeds to paw swat a dandelion. Then he remembers that HIS GIRLFRIEND IS MISSING and remembers that he swore to find her. He heads to her dwelling in a M'an nest and thinks that they may have not let her out since they are “capricious.” He approaches the nest... screw it, he approaches the house only to find that it is empty! Fritti can't understand why if the humans left that Hushpad wouldn't still be there which strikes me as incredibly dense even for a 5 month old kitten. He spends three days looking for her before finally giving up and turning to Thinbone for consolation. Thinbone tells him that she's gone and that's that before leaving to go play with other cats. But Fritti won't just forget about it since he's lost his family and birthplace and won't lose his kitty girlfriend too!

He investigates the hedge that he and Hushpad played “Roll-and-Pounce” when he is approached by Slowstretch (10), a mighty Hunter of the Folk. While trying to bob his head respectfully to the bigger cat, Fritti scratches his nose on a branch and mews! SO CUTE! Slowstretch asks him if he is still looking for Squash-pod (which is a pretty hilarious cat name to me) and tell Fritti that he should come to the next meeting of elders and hunters. There have been other disappearances and they will be discussed by committee just like cats normally do!

Flash forward to the Nose-meet: Mudtracker (11 and hilarious) is another cat from a different colony (what?) who is complaining that the mothers aren't fun to be around since kittens have been disappearing! Jerk! Fritti watches the older cats scratch themselves in puzzlement and begins to wonder if talking about the problem isn't enough! A few other cats tell their stories of missing kittens and then Slowstretch says that Tailchaser has something to say. Fritti screws this up as only a kitten can by stuttering in embarrassment and pretends to chew on a flea. The strangely democratic council of cats asks for ideas on how to deal with missing kittens! These are shouted out: “Alert the clans! Post sentries! MOVE AWAY! STOP HAVING KITTENS!” which the last one makes the cat Jumptall (12) also pretend to chew on a flea. Old Snifflick gets things back to business by laying out the problem in a reader friendly manner: 1) An unusually high number of the Folk have gone missing. 2) They have no idea who or what is causing this. 3) The best and wisest of them don't have any idea what is going on. He decrees that they will post guards and also send word to the Court of Harar and THE QUEEN OF CATS!

Shock and awe runs through the crowd of cats! Mudtracker says that no one from the Folk of Behind-Edge-Copse has been there in 20 generations! Which makes me wonder how long a generation is for cats. I mean, for humans it's about the time for a human to reach sexual maturity so about 20 years but what is it for cats? 2 years or so? So 40 years total? Which is guess is still a long time, I'll shut up. But now we have an adventure to bravely go to the court and ask what they should do! How... heroic? It is asked who will go which causes an uproar that makes Earpoint “shoot his claws and wave them around purposefully” which made me cackle while picturing. Snifflick the elder says that he is oldest and will go! His mate Twitchnose (meh) says no, he's an old mouse-gummer and accuses him of wanting to go so he can find some slender young fela! So cats get jealous, I guess. Bristlejaw agrees that Snifflick shouldn't go since it's getting close to winter and that younger cats should go. Earpoint as the youngest Elder is selected leader and Jumptall also goes. Finally, Streamhopper, a three year old hunter, is the third emissary but WHAT ABOUT FRITTI?????

No one knows the way but they have songs that say where the court is. Just to reiterate, they are going to go find the Court of Harar to ask for advice about what they should do. Fritti gets upset that no one cares about Hushpad but him and they won't think to tell the Court that she's missing! He has what I can only think of as “An American Dream” moment where he looks up at the moon and imagines that Hushpad is also looking at that same moon. He then swears to the moon, “By the Tails of the Firstborn, I will find Hushpad, or my spirit will fly my dying body! One or the other!” Tiny furry viking geas oath! Then like a true kitten, Fritti shivers in the cold and we end Chapters 3.