Tales
Volume 2

KENDER, GULLY DWARVES, and GNOMES

Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

featuring "Wanna Bet?"
by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Interior Art by STEVE FABIAN
PENGUIN BOOKS

Foreword
www.9jaonline.mobi

"Tas? Tasslehoff Burrfoot!" we shout sternly, peering
down the road. "Come back with our magical time-traveling
device, you doorknob of a kender!"
"I'll come out," shouts Tas, "if you tell me some more
stories!"
"Promise?" we ask, peering behind bushes and into
ravines.
"Oh, yes. I promise!" says Tas cheerfully. "Just let me
get comfortable." There is a tremendous sound of rustling
and tree-branch cracking. Then, "All right, I'm ready. Go
ahead. I love stories, you know. Did I ever tell you about
the time I saved Sturm's life - "
Tas goes on to tell US the first story in this new
anthology set in the world of Krynn. "Snowsong," by
Nancy Varian Berberick, relates an early adventure of the
companions. Sturm and Tanis, lost in a blizzard, have only
one hope of being rescued - Tasslehoff Burrfoot!
"The Wizard's Spectacles," by Morris Simon, is a "what-
if" story. Tas always SAID he found the Glasses of Arcanist
in the dwarven kingdom. But what if ...
A storyteller tells his tales not wisely but too well in
"The Storyteller," by Barbara Siegel and Scott Siegel.
"There's a lesson you could learn from that!" we yell to
Tas, but he ignores us and goes on to relate "A Shaggy
Dog's Tail," by Danny Peary. It is a kender favorite,
undoubtedly passed down from generation to generation
although Tas, of course, swears that he knew EVERYONE
involved PERSONALLY!
Next, we hear the TRUE story of the demise of Lord
Toede in "Lord Toede's Disastrous Hunt," by Harold Bakst.
The minotaur race is the subject of "Definitions of Honor,"
by Rick Knaak. A young knight of Solamnia rides to the
rescue of a village, only to discover that his enemy
threatens more than his life.
"Hearth Cat and Winter Wren," by Nancy Varian
Berberick, tells another of the Companions' early
adventures in which a young Raistlin uses his ingenuity to
fight a powerful, evil wizard.
"All right, Tas!" we call. "Will you come out now? We
really MUST be going!"
"Those were truly wonderful stories," yells the kender
shrilly from his hiding place. "But I want to hear more
about Palin and his brothers. You remember. You told me
the story last time about how Raistlin gave Palin his magic
staff. What happens next?"
Settling ourselves down on a sun-warmed, comfortable
boulder, we relate "Wanna Bet?", Palin's very first
adventure as a young mage. And certainly NOT the type of
heroic quest the brothers expected!
Still sitting on the boulder, we are somewhat startled to
be suddenly confronted by a gnome, who thrusts a
manuscript at us. "Here, you! Tell the TRUE story about the
so-called Heroes of the Lance!" the gnome snarls and runs
off. We are truly delighted to present for your enjoyment,
therefore, "Into the Heart of the Story," a "treatise" by
Michael Williams.
"Now, Tas!" we call threateningly.
"Just one more?" he pleads.
"All right, but this is the last!" we add severely. "Dagger-
Flight," by Nick O'Donohoe, is a retelling of the beginning
of DRAGONS OF AUTUMN TWILIGHT as seen from a
weird and deadly viewpoint - that of a sentient dagger!
"Tas, come out now!" we shout. "You promised."
Silence.
"Tas?"
No answer.
Looking at each other, we smile, shrug, and continue on
our way through Krynn. So much for kender promises!

SNOWSONG
Nancy Varian Berberick

Tanis let the hinged lid of the wood bin fall. Its hollow
thud might have been the sound of a tomb's closing. Hope,
cherished for all the long hours of the trek up the mountain,
fell abruptly dead. The wood bin was empty.
A brawling wind shrieked around the gaping walls of the
crude shelter, whirling in through the doorless entry and the
broken roof. The storm had caught Tan-is and his friends
unaware at midday. Far below, in the warmer valleys, the
autumn had not yet withered under winter's icy cloak. But
here in the mountains autumn had suddenly become
nothing more substantial than a memory. Esker was a day
and a half's journey behind them. Haven was a two-day trek