[Imladris]

I licked my golden fur as my master, Faran, dashed boldly into the two-legged fray to put out that dastardly fire. I, most sensibly I might add, hid in the bushes. Fire was a devouring monster and would not hesitate at the chance to gobble down a princely cat as myself.

Let me introduce myself: I am Goldwine and accompanied Faran to this inn. I don’t really know what our previous destination was or if we even had one so I suppose this inn is as good as any. I frowned: we were wanderers, he and I: Faran by choice, I by loyalty imposed duty. I wanted a haunt, I wanted a place that could be called my own, but was I granted it: certainly not. My only haunt was Faran’s shoulders. That, at least, was not denied me.

The wind brought forth a stench so pungent that it made me gag. I could feel the mephitis fume travel through my twitching nostril and pass over my tongue. My stomach heaved wretchedly and I wanted to throw up, which I couldn’t: dignity would not allowed that. I observed Faran speak with a woman with a border collie and I could tell that he didn’t care for the redolence of death that floated by him either. I watched him breathe deeply and I was proud of him: I, at the very least, had taught him to be impervious to such a minor thing as this.

I did feel sorry for the poor horses, though, and I wondered if any had died. I shrugged. What were horses to me? The only thing we had in common was that we ate grass - and that we had four legs - and that we had the same organs - and that we would both suffer the same fate in the end. I sighed. We weren’t so different, the labouring brutes and I.

I still noticed that Faran and the girl were still speaking to each other, and that the border collie as weakly hiding her sense of smell in the girl’s hand. I snorted disdainfully: stupid dogs. Emerging from the bushes, I minced towards the canine, my gold eyes glittering. I tried to decide how to best annoy the creature: most dogs enjoyed it when we felines teased them, scratched them, hissed at them. I tended to avoid hissing because my relatively small fangs drew unwanted attention from the dogs who had substantially larger ones. The dog did seemed to be much attached to her mistress, the girl, and therein, I deemed, was her weakness.

Subtly changing course, I neared the girl, but -- what’s this? She was leaving upon the arms of another man! My ploy was failing! I gasped and trotted quickly after all, and studied him. Drat him! Foiling me and all my well laid plans! I wouldn’t let her go and the chance to annoy such a dog as that collie go by so easily. With a mighty leap I flung myself onto her shoulders and steadied myself, letting my tail curl about her chin. Humans have a weakness for that: it nearly always makes them like me.

[ November 23, 2003: Message edited by: Imladris ]