““Look." He held out the piece of roughly carved walnut. "What will this be?" "I see a wing," Cerinthe said. "No - maybe a fin?" Old Skolla squinted. "At first a skylark seemed waiting in the wood. SO my knife carved, seeking that shape. But soon a different shape called to me, a dolphin - and after all that work on the skylark." He clicked his tongue. "To seek the new shape, Old Skolla had to let the old one go." Cerinthe frowned. "What if the new shape isn't as good as the old one?" "Aye, it would have been a good skylark, that's certain," he said. "But if the skylark stays, the dolphin's lost - or never found. So which would you rather? A good skylark forced upon the wood or a dolphin that sings out from the soul of the grain?””
