A

Altatl: a spear throwing tool

B

Belts: the Inner, Middle, and Outer Belts are the three great roads that encircle the New Land. The circumscribed spaces within the three belts are referred to, in similar fashion, as the Inner, Middle, and Outer Ranges.

Bissawaste: a canyon south of Briggs Land from which there is no escape, apart from following it all the way down to the sea

Bolls: fearless carnivorous lizards, with powerful claws and teeth, large enough to carry adult djereem; untamable for riding, unless raised from the egg; the adults bolls are blue, except for the fuff, which is red; the blue adults travel in herds and burrow together in deserts, then bring homage periodically to the fuff, the greatest of their kind and the one who guards the hill where the eggs are layed; when a blue boll eats the head of the red fuff, it grows enormously, molts to change its color, and becomes the next red fuff; the young offspring are yellow, and they ride on the backs of the blue adults

Bbboojesh: a great beast with a shell; she is the hope of the travo-turav-an

Briggs Land: ruled by King Seth; a dark-skinned people; due west of Looster and the Forbidden Spring; family structure of two women for every man; access to fish; they hunt with pigs

C

Cete: the djereem family unit, consisting of one boar and many sows; the first sow has more rights than the others

Chain-ja: turav-an word for puberty

Commemoration Day: a great celebration of sport in Looster, corresponding with the lunar anniversary of the Crumble, the Honcho’s way to forget the Crumble ever happened

Crisscross land: a grooved zigzag terrain, in which it would be easy to get lost

Crumble: the periodic collapse of all constructed things on the Prized Earth

Crypt: the fissure within the Mesa, which can be entered only from above; it contains excellent water, as well as innumerable dry underground rooms

Cubit: distance from the King’s elbow to the tip of his longest finger

D

Dark Trolls: trolls that cannot tolerate direct sunlight, except in their stony form

Death Promise of True Honor: a severe oath, famously kept by none other than Darius the Briggs, at the cost of his life; a promise made to safeguard a secret of the utmost importance

Deetrick Forest: a dense forest in Briggs Land containing stump stone; the home of the flecken; high openings into the forest, as named by Pravo and Diasic, include The Notch, The Hut, and The Platform

Dividing Wall: an array of enormous black walls crossing the Prized Earth; a series of barriers established from the beginning to protect Little Creatures for as long as the Crumble endures

Djereem: a fierce and hairy people with strong claws; they refer to themselves as klawsen and pride themselves on their cruelty

Drinksie: an immensely addictive beverage, controlled by the Only One, which gives rapid healing, increased strength, and tremendous amplification of purpose

Drog: a dry fog that may fall quickly upon the ground, stay for a day, then leave just as fast as it came; tremendously drying and impossible to see through; it even penetrates underground

E

Eber: the river that flows around the eastern boundary of the Middle Range; it flows just inside the eastern half of the enormous circular road known as the Middle Belt

Elyks: a great bird, carnivorous, particularly fond of djereem; elykses come in two varieties, the greater and the lesser; they tend to fly in diamonds of eight or twelve for hunting; they carry twenty missile birds apiece under their wings, homing missiles they can use to attack; if they fire their last missile bird before restoring their supply, they die; to reconstitute their full supply of missiles, they must eat a live missile bird belonging to some other elyks

F

Fire Keep: in Briggs Land, the one entrusted to preserve the community fire at all costs

Fisherman’s Camp: site of the salmon harvest in Briggs Land; a three day’s run north of Briggs Land

Fisherman’s Willow: a tree with branches that work well for catching fish; there is a wiggly lure and a sharp hook at the end of every droopy limb

Fire Wolf: a large red wolf with a black stripe on its back and yellow unblinking eyes; afraid of fire, but nothing else; also called a zygit

Fissure: a barrier for Chalan reaching the Forbidden Spring from Looster

The Fist: a rock formation near the Ran-som-day Bridge, useful for group gatherings due to excellent acoustics

The Fizz: in Looster, the formal term for death; also a Loosterin poem for the dead

The Flats: a desert land north of Briggs Land, where there are cacti with cone nuts

Flecken: a small people, very team-focused, no bigger than a hand, with exceptional verbal skills; they prefer to live in the Deetrick forest, where they can leap with abandon and do carpentry; both males and females have pouches, and both take their turns carrying the young

Forbidden Spring: the waters beneath the Dividing Wall west of Looster and east of Briggs Land

Forest Trolls: verlacks; if they are trolls at all, it is only due to their tough skins; they have many legs; pincers front and back; the crawling body is twice the length of a tiger but shaped like an earwig; the sharp-toothed head is centrally located, attached to a vertical stem; they can travel fast with a tumbling motion, by curling the body into a circle around the central torso and head; females are generally larger and stronger than the males, with thicker pincers; the males move faster

Frut-a: the turav-an word for children

G

Game Keep: in Briggs Land, the overseer of the King’s animals

Garrott: a high and difficult mountain pass northwest of Briggs Land

Greater Rock: a smooth black rock with golden flecks, part of the Forbidden Spring

H

Hedge: a day’s run north of the Forbidden Spring is a tunnel through the Dividing Wall; a thorny hedge encircles the tunnel on both sides of the wall, making a protected open space inside

Heefa: the ruler of the djereem

High Fire: the most important meeting place in Looster

Honcho: the title for the ruler of Looster and for many other human tribes; a King

Honeycomb: a complex natural rock formation, full of pits, used by the Only One for his zoo; part of the Vistatrace Canyon

Horn Trolls: large trolls, comparable in size to snow trolls, with a single forward-curving horn on the very top of their heads and crisscrossing spikes down their backs; unlike snow trolls, they have no trouble with daylight

Hornet Grass: a tall, thick vegetation, loaded with hornets year-round, that only grows near the Dividing Wall; vicious against all living flesh, prone to ripping the hides off man and beast alike

J

Jackhounds: wild dogs that always hunt in pairs

Jute: a strong fiber, made from plant stems, especially good for ropes; the steps required to make quality jute include soaking, curing, and drying

L

Labyrinth: a vast rocky plateau riddled with underground passageways, located two days’ journey south of Looster

Lamellae tree: a unique tree, found only in swampland, with an invaluable blue bark; sheets of the bark can be harvested in springtime, without killing the tree; after drying, the bark sheets can be divided into many thin and durable layers, called lamellae, which are ideal for writing

Liege: the title given to a Celestial Musician who takes on a furry male body for his duties on the Prized Earth as overseer of the Little Creatures

Life Promise: a pledge to care for someone else’s child or children

Looster: tribe ruled by the Honcho; a fair-skinned people; due east of Briggs Land and the Forbidden Spring; family structure of Greater and Lesser Circles; access to grain

M

Marah: the honored shimta, who is responsible for the distribution of food

Mesa: the high plateau that contains the Crypt; located in the middle of a desert

Mighty River: the greatest of the known rivers, flowing along the western end of the Shimtal Forest all the way south and west to the Great Water

Missile Bird: an exploding weapon fired by the elyks; a live creature with wings, the male offspring of the elyks, which can home in on its target once fired

Mommora: a grandmother

O

Oogaloo: an intelligent bird with an abdominal pouch, camouflage feathering (colors that shift to match its surroundings), and powerful talons; it is loyal to its masters, even unto death, and for its masters alone, it brings healing in its wings

Opal Wood: a rare yellow wood, hard as stone

Ova-Pass: a crossing over the Dividing Wall between Looster and Briggs Land, generally constructed simply of dirt, rocks, and stumps piled haphazardly, due to the destructive effects of the regular Crumbles which make more elaborate efforts pointless

P

Pathfinder: a four-legged beast with extraordinary speed; a tusked animal, similar in build to an enormous dog; runs with purpose stops abruptly for rest at night, and cannot overcome some obstacles

Pellet Birds: finger size birds found in the flats that fly in dense flocks

The Pit: a deep hole in Looster, full of refuse and exposed to weather; site of severe punishments meted out by the Honcho

Pixel Deer: a deer with colorful spiral horns, a stiff spiral tail, and markings on both flanks, like the three-fingered handprint of the travo-turav-an.

Pottered Floor: strange ground at the Hedge, sharp and hollowed out, like open-mouthed clay pots stacked close together; ultimately useful, with the addition of cork plugs, for the storage of dry seeds

Poison Field: north of the Honeycomb, a flatland full of lethal plants: including 1) an ankle-high layer of greenery with a shimmer of purple flowers and 2) a yellow grass, shoulder high, highly irritating to the skin

Provision: a nutritious and healing green leaf that travels through the air, a gift from the Voice of the Spring that points the way for those few who can see it; a portion must be saved each night, then eaten afresh the next morning, if the consumer hopes to see the leaf again the following day

R

Ran-som-day Bridge: A bridge in the New Land across the Webber River, south of the flowing boundary of the Middle Range; named by Chalan in honor of Ran-som and Som-day–famous travo-turav-an–to help with the remembrance of all those still in bondage

Rhyming Song: a rhyme of sixty verses composed for Chalan by her mother—instructions on how to travel from Looster to the Forbidden Spring

Roon: seven days exactly, they cycle of the red moon

Rot Root: a brown globular tuber, slimy and dripping, with prickly purple leaves that can survive the harshest of environments; it tastes terrible, beyond comprehension, but may sustain the cold and desperate traveler, if it can be found; rot root never freezes

Rays: the twelve roads that radiate out from the mesa to divide the New Land into twelve similar-size pieces.

S

Saber-Tooth: a tiger.

Saw-legs: giant scorpion legs of red and blue varieties, very sharp and durable, useful for cutting wood

The Shave: an order for all in Briggs Land to shave their heads

Shimtal: a people of the forest with tree climbing skill, long strong arms, and great forked tails; hairy on the back; hairless on their dark faces; hairless on their pink hands, feet, and loins

Shunam’s Bower: an overhead compartment in a home, a private space

The Silent Hope-pa: ancient turav-an song of deliverance by the Bbboojesh, a chant which predates the djereem captivity

Skin to skin: an oath of commitment between a male and a female

Snow Trolls: large carnivores with thick skin; they walk upright and are very hard to kill; the largest of the dark trolls

Sparking Stones: two stones which cause thick enough sparks, when struck together, to start a fire from nothing; stump stone works well in combination with troll stone or a fragment of Dividing Wall; Chalan’s blade, likewise, can produce fire from nothing when struck against troll stone or Dividing Wall

Spear Wall: the King’s palisade, in Briggs Land

Spike Hut: A triangular wooden housing, common in Briggs Land, large enough for one to two people, strong enough to protect against most predators, but not heavy enough to kill the occupant in the event of the Crumble.

Spike Root: a strong tree root, very sharp, the size and shape of a carrot

Stump Stone: stone chips from a petrified tree stump, first identified in the Deetrick Forest, with marvelous properties

Swevin: a vision of great significance, a dream while still awake

T

Travo-turav-an: a people with two sets of knees; the males, known as travos, have white skin and white hair; in old age, their hair turns dark; the females, known as turav-as, have dark skin and golden hair; in old age their hair turns white; built into the very word turav-a is a vocal hesitation, an ever-present awareness of the place within her, where she might carry a child

Treading of the Waters: Gift of the Baker to Chalan and Diasic, for producing streams of Spring water wherever they run with fingers outstretched

Troll Stone: a chip of rock from a troll that turned to stone; like Dividing Wall, troll stone can be used in combination with stump stone to make thick sparks for starting fires

U

Unscalable Tree: a landmark near the Fissure in Looster, an unusual tree with slick yellow bark

V

Veldt: a red spongy soil, perforated and very tough

Verlack: see Forest Troll

Vistatrace Canyon: site known for competitive foot races, free trade between species, and the Honeycomb Zoo

W

Waymaker: a finger-size creature that awakens to the scent of a beast, then relentlessly pursues; as it marches, it digests every living thing set before it, enlarging greatly in both size and number; in its wake it leaves an extraordinary trail, both wide and soft; it stops the moment it catches up with the beast it follows; if it lacks food, or if it rests throughout the night, it melts away, shrinking all the way down to its original size

Webber: the river that flows around the western boundary of the Middle Range; it flows just inside the western half of the enormous circular road known as the Middle Belt

Wormage: beetles and insects collected by child-gatherers in Looster

Y

Yoon: twenty-eight to thirty days, the cycle of the yellow moon

Z

Zygit: see fire wolf