

My first impression was that of a rush of wind and a great snapping sound, as if a giant might be snapping an enormous towel or scarf then I was cowering, awestricken, in a great winged shadow, and an immense tarn, his talons extended like gigantic steel hooks, his wings sputtering fiercely in the air, hung above me, motionless except for the beating of his wings. It is said that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and that those who are not die in this first meeting. It is a matter of blood and spirit, of beast and man, of a relation between two beings which must be immediate, intuitive, spontaneous.


The Goreans believe, incredibly enough, that the capacity to master a tarn is innate and that some men possess this characteristic and that some do not.
