brother, Eatbugs awakens, revealing himself to actually be Firefoot incognito. Tailchaser runs out of Vastnir at Firefoot's urging, and meets his friends, while Firefoot goes to deal with Hearteater, resulting in the destruction of Vastnir. Pouncequick, after healing from the loss of his tail, decides to return to Firsthome, the seat of the court, and stay there. Roofshadow wants to accompany him, and thus, Tailchaser is left on his quest. Firefoot appears to him in a dream, confirms that Hearteater's power is broken, and encourages Tailchaser to continue his quest for Hushpad. He goes east to Bigwater (Qu'cef) and sneaks into a boat, which seems to him like a large nut-husk. A man approaches and rows across, taking him to an island called Villa-on-Mar. There he finds none other than Hushpad, herself. Hushpad wishes to stay, though, so Tailchaser, too, stays for a time. Gradually, Tailchaser realizes that he is still a feral cat, and does not want to live with man. He begins to see that being domestic has made Hushpad fat and lazy. Realizing that he does not belong, Tailchaser sets out to return home, to see his Meeting Wall friends, to hunt, to see Pouncequick and Roofshadow once more. The ending may be seen only as the beginning of a longer saga, but, to date, Tad Williams has yet to revisit his feline homage to Tolkien with additional writings. Folk and folklore The cats of Tailchaser's Song have a well established system of songs, poems, and godly figures, such as Meerclar the Allmother and her Two, Harar Goldeneye and Fela Skydancer, and the three Firstborn cats. The cats, as one brethren, call themselves 'the Folk'. The novel contains a developed system of cat speech and style as well, to go with their customs; very similar to what the reader finds in written editions of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Language and pronunciation Tad Williams has come up with a very large variety of terms, called the Higher Singing, used by the cats to express themselves and explain things. Included in the book is a complete glossary, as well as a character 'directory' and a map of Tailchaser's world. Also included are Williams' notes on pronunciation, which apply not only to spoken words but to first names as well (such as Fritti, Harar, or Meerclar): "'C' is always pronounced 'S': thus, Meerclar is pronounced 'Mere-slar.' In