Free Monsters and Magicians by Robert Adams

or talked to for hundreds of years, Puss?" demanded Fitz.
    "They have ways of communicating, old friend," was the cat's reply. "Mostly they enter into the sleeping minds of the Dagda and other Sheedey, to explain and advise and teach, as they taught the hybrids of old."
    "Why only in their sleep?" asked Fitz, puzzledly.
    "Because," he was answered, "the Elder Race discovered, scores of millennia ago in the first generation of hybrids, that the minds of the Sheedey are most receptive, most porous, most retentive when generally unconscious to outside stimuli or influences. Also," the feline added, dryly, "in such a state, the pupil only hears, sees, smells and sometimes feels and tastes. He totally lacks the ability to ask endless questions, so the time of the teacher is not wasted in framing responses to trivia."
    "Oh, really?" beamed Fitz. "Then if the pupil cannot ask any questions, how does the teacher know

    that the lesson has been properly and understandably conveyed?"
    The tail lashed really hard, hard enough to cause a degree of pain in Fitz's legs even through the thickness of the insulated bag. "The Elder Ones know, as do all the Sheedey who are in full possession of their mature powers ... as you will know too, if you will but hurry on to find the Dagda and be fully invested by him. He alone, of all the Sheedey in this world or the other, can render you fully awakened, can invest you with your full powers and thus see you become that to which you were born. Moreover, he needs you, he needs you soon; there are still many tests you must survive and precious little time remains.
    "As soon as it is light, you must set out. Go east, go west or go north, but go."
    "Not north, Puss," replied Fitz. "I tried that, only to end up at what looked like a bastard cross between a rain forest and the great-granddaddy of all swamps. The look of the place would've been daunting enough, but after checking with Cool Blue who said he'd been into it once, I decided there was just no way the three of us, a single Norman knight, a baby-blue lion and myself could handle the monsters Cool Blue says live and hunt in that place."
    Once more the tail lashed. "There will be dangers, deadly dangers to threaten you in any direction you go. They are mostly tests and unavoidable, and they are assuredly deadly, but if you are to win to the Dagda's side and reclaim your heritage, you must meet and overcome them. Perhaps I erred in selecting the ensorcelled Hon as your guide, but it is done

    now and soon, in any case, if you survive a few more tests, I will be able to place a second guide with you, as well as direct you to a place wherein you will be able to take possession of certain objects which will serve to increase those powers of which you are already aware and alert you to others you do not know you own."
    "Fine," said Fitz, "but I can't start out in the morning, not unless Sir Gautier de Montjoie is back by then. He's gone off looking for his retainers. Besides, Cool Blue hasn't had good hunting and I more or less promised him I'd go down into the glen south of here and shoot him an antelope or four, in The morning. Oww! Damn it, Puss, take it easy with that tail of yours, will you? You break one of my leg-bones with it, and I'll be here a hell of a lot longer than just a few days."
    "That man-became-lion," beamed the panther-sized feline, "thinks entirely too much about keeping its belly overfilled. He should know, as long as he's lived here in Tiro-na-N'Og, that no creature—from the greatest to the least—ever truly hungers for long here. Food abounds and all are provided their needs. Think, have you seen any emaciated creatures here?"
    "No." Fitz unconsciously and unnecessarily shook his head. "Every beast I've seen or killed or butchered or eaten was sleek and well-fleshed."
    "Just so," said the grey cat. "The lion needs only to apply himself to his hunting . . . unless he can delude another into doing his hunting for him, of