Tailchaser - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Fritti Tailchaser, a young ginger tom cat, sets out to stray from his home and clan, the Meeting Wall Clan, in search of his catfriend Hushpad after strange disappearances of the Folk have been reported. The kitten, Pouncequick follows him, and eventually catches up. Together, they set out on a long journey to visit the feline royal Court of Harar, with the intention of finding out the mystery of the disappearances. They meet a rather crazy cat named Eatbugs, who travels with them for parts of the journey to the court. Soon they run into some Firstwalkers, cats who live in the wild, who are of a direct bloodline from Goldeneye and Skydancer. Their Thane (leader), Quiverclaw, fights with Tailchaser, but it is more a ceremonial fight and there are no disagreements. Soon, they must part ways. They make their way to Firsthome and the Court, but are treated there with relative indifference. They pick up a new friend, Roofshadow, and go northwest. They are captured by a group of evil cats called the Clawguard, and taken to Vastnir, an enormous mound far to the north, where the evil Grizraz Hearteater enslaves cats to take over the world. Tailchaser needs to alert Prince Fencewalker and Thane Quiverclaw about his evil doings. Soon, Roofshadow creates a hole from above ground, and Tailchaser manages to escape, and races to Ratwood, where he asks the Rikchikchik (squirrels) to alert them for him. He feels guilty with Pouncequick, Eatbugs, and Roofshadow trapped in Vastnir because of him. He returns to the dreadful mound, where, thankfully, the Thane and Fencewalker come to the rescue. Lord Hearteater (they call him the Fat One) unleashes the Fikos, a dog-like monster of terrible power. Tailchaser takes advantage of the chaos to rescue Pouncequick, Eatbugs, and Roofshadow. They go through the havoc of Vastnir, and lose Eatbugs, the mad cat, on the way. Roofshadow and Pouncequick escape while Tailchaser goes back to find Eatbugs. He goes into a crevice and sees Eatbugs an a near-death-like state, and feels dazed and confused. Upon uttering a prayer to Lord Tangaloor Firefoot, one of the firstborn cats, 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. After healing, Pouncequick decides to return to Firsthome, and stay there. Roofshadow wants to accompany him, and thus, Tailchaser is left on his quest. He goes east to Bigwater (Qu'cef) and sneaks into a large nut husk (boat) A man approaches and rows across, taking him to Villa-on-Mar. There he meets Huff-so-Gruff, a Growler (dog), and sneaks in an open window. There, in the room, 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, unable 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.