A small, fuzzy-feathered, meat-eating dinosaur; 1 kilogram, 1 meter long. Native to Alemania, but common throughout the Empire, and indeed on many continents of Paradise, apparently introduced by traders and travelers, as pets or simply stowaways. Sly and shy, it feeds on tiny animals such as lizards, frogs, and mice. —THE BOOK OF TRUE NAMES “I’m happy here,” Melodía said. She walked with Pilar beneath ash trees, beside a stream which meandered between fields of ripening beans and grapevines on stakes south of the Garden villa to the River Bonté that ran through Providence town. It was a placid late-summer morning. The birds and fliers were still in the early heat. The drowsy buzz of insects mostly drowned the rustle of leaves in the light breeze. The sun shone hot through a thin covering of clouds when they passed from shade to light. “Oh, yes,” Pilar said. “I’ve found certain satisfactions here as well.” Her smile—and now that she let herself notice, or bothered to, Melodía had discovered her friend had a lovely smile—had an oddly dreamlike quality to it.
