Belgarath the Sorcerer by David Eddings

direction of the twins’ tower. Not much ever ruffled Belmakor - at least on the surface.
    Since speed was important, I decided to change into the form of an eagle and fly north, which proved to be a mistake. I think I’ve already mentioned the fact that I don’t fly very well. I’ve never really been able to get the hang of it. For one thing, I’m not all that comfortable with feathers, and for another - wings or not - the sight of all that empty air under me makes me decidedly uncomfortable, so I flap a great deal more than is really necessary, and that can become very thing after a while.
    The major problem, however, lay in the fact that the longer I remained in the form of an eagle, the more the character of the eagle became interwoven with my own. I began to be distracted by tiny movements on the ground, and I had fierce urges to swoop down and kill things.
    This obviously wasn’t working, so I settled back to earth, resumed my own form, and sat for a time to catch my breath, rest my arms and consider alternatives. The eagle, for all his splendor, is really a stupid bird, and I didn’t want to be continually distracted from my search for Belar by every mouse or rabbit on the ground beneath me.
    I considered the possibility of the horse. A horse can run very fast for short periods, but he soon tires, and he’s not very much brighter than the eagle. I decided against taking the form of a horse and moved on to other possibilities. An antelope can run for days without tiring, but the antelope is a silly creature, and too many other animals on this vast plain looked upon him as a food-source. I didn’t really have the time to stop to persuade every passing predator to go find something else to eat. I needed a form with speed and stamina and a sufficiently intimidating reputation to keep other creatures at a distance.
    After a while it occurred to me that all the traits I was looking for were to be found in the wolf. Of all the creaturesof the plain and forest, the wolf is the most intelligent, the swiftest, and the most tireless. Not only that, no sane animal crosses a wolf if he can possibly avoid it.
    It took me a while to get it right. Beldin had taught us all to assume the form of a bird, but I was on my own when it came to putting on fur and paws.
    I’ll admit that I botched it the first few times. Have you ever seen a wolf with feathers and a beak? You really wouldn’t want to. I finally managed to put all thoughts of birds out of my mind and came much closer to my idealized conception of what a wolf ought to look like.
    It’s a strange sort of process, this changing of form. First you fill your mind with the image of the creature you want to become, and then you direct your Will inward and sort of melt yourself into the image. I wish Beldin were around. He could explain it far better than I can. The important thing is just to keep trying - and to change back quickly if you get it wrong. If you’ve left out the heart, you’re in trouble.
    After I’d made the change, I checked myself over rather carefully to make sure I hadn’t left anything out. I’d imagine that I looked just a bit ridiculous groping at my head and ears and muzzle with my paws, but I wanted to be certain that other wolves wouldn’t laugh at me when they saw me.
    Then I started across the grassland. I soon realized that my choice had been a good one. As soon as I got used to the idea of running on all fours, I found the shape of the wolf quite satisfactory and the mind of the wolf most compatible with my own. After an hour or so, I was pleased to note that I was covering the ground at least as fast as I had when floundering through the air as an eagle. I quickly discovered that it’s a fine thing to have a tail. A tail helps you to keep your balance, and it acts almost like a rudder when you’re making quick turns. Not only that, when you have a fine, bushy tail, you can wrap