My Sutcliff Swap Story

sutcliff_swap story creators have been revealed, and thus I can link to my story, My Lords' Hound, a Silver Branch story, the kernel of which was the question What the heck is up with Cullen?

Cullen is a jester-slave who wears a tail attached to his belt. He plays an instrument which is a bronze stick from which hang nine silver bells - the Silver Branch referred to in the title, which is an illusion to a mythical instrument in a medieval Irish epic. How on earth did Cullen, a slave and the son of a slave, come by such a thing?

The thing that makes Cullen so interesting is that he is so inexplicable; and I wanted to explore his character, and explain him a little bit, without losing that sense of mystery.