Page 85 of The Neverfear

Borometz

Also known as the ‘veget able lamb’, the borometz grows from a green stalk, to which it is tethered by a tendril. The lamb reaches one foot in height; its skin is green and its wool is white. If the lamb eats all the grass within the reach of the tendril, both the lamb and the plant will die. For this reason, many people in the Archipelago carry seeds to plant around the borometz’s stalk if they see one. Their wool, given freely to those they trust, makes the softest cloth in the known world; cloth which lasts hundreds of years, and smells very faintly of the earth.

Caladrius bird

Also known as the snowbird, the magnificent white-plumed caladrius can cure many forms of sickness. The bird looks the sufferer full in the face, often nipping at their lip or cheek, subsuming the illness into its own body – then it flies off towards the sun, where the sickness is burned clean away. This does not work for hangovers or common colds, for which no cures have yet been found.

Carbuncle

A small wildcat with luminescent fur and a ruby in the centre of the forehead, the carbuncle has a furious mistrust of adults; only children can approach them. They bury their treasure, and unscrupulous humans occasionally follow them with a view to stealing it. This is a strategy with very uncertain results, as sometimes a carbuncle’s treasure will be gold but more frequently it will be a much-cherished portion of decaying rat.

Centaur

(female: centauride)

Centaurs have the body of a horse and the torso and head of a human. They are skilled artisans and inventors, from blade-smithing to music to confectionary. It was a centaur who devised a way to forge dragon obsidian into swords; it was a centaur who invented the airbonbon, which allows the eater to float in the air as they chew. There are very few things a centaur cannot make, should they wish to.

Centicore

Also known as the yale, the centicore varies in size from that of an antelope to a small goat. They are keen and excessively inquisitive, eager to smell and chew and digest all that they encounter, whether it be a bush, a flower or your trousers while you are wearing them – but they can fight fiercely if provoked. Pliny the Elder wrote that their horns ‘are moveable; in a fight the horns are used alternately, pointed forward or sloped backward, as needed’. A centicore’s milk is the freshest drink imaginable, and gives comfort and strength to those who taste it.

Cerberus dog

The Cerberus is a giant three-headed dog. Each head is a different breed, and each head is capable of killing instantly. A Cerberus was once used to guard the underworld until it was retrieved by Hercules, who bred them as hunting dogs. Its whiskers are made of living gold and are immensely valuable to unscrupulous collectors. They are extremely rare, and are now found only on the island of Great Caruta.

Ceryneian

The Ceryneian hind hind is a deer of exquisite beauty; it has golden antlers, bronze hooves and large, intelligent eyes. It is one of the fastest mammals in the world. Some subspecies breathe fire. Its nature is wildness itself, and it cannot be truly tamed; if captured, it is likely to die of misery and vexation within a year.

Chimaera

The chimaera resembles a lion but has a second head, that of a goat, and a tail which ends in the face of a snake. These three faces all have individuated brains, nervous systems and strong opin ions. This makes it difficult for the chimaera to achieve as much havoc as it other wise might, as it gener ally fails to agree with itself as to what to do next.

Dragon

There are thirty-seven species of dragon in the Archipelago. The largest – the red-winged dragon, which is black with a scarlet under-wing – is as large as a cathedral. The smallest, the jaculus, can sit comfortably on the joint of your thumb. The yellow dragon, slim-winged and long-tailed, is the fastest in the sky, while the bronze-tailed aquatic dragon is able to breathe under water, and has been known to spend its entire adult life beneath the ocean, erupting to the surface only to hunt occasional sailors. The silver dragon, which can live up to four thou sand years, is thought to be the oldest creature in the world. It is unpredictable in temper, as befits one who has seen so much.

Dryad

A tree spirit, the dryad has access to the ancient wisdom of forests; they know a great deal that humans do not yet understand. The oak dryad will be eight or nine feet tall, a sapling dryad as small as a child. Wood freely given from a dryad’s tree has remarkable properties and will never decay. A fruit tart made with the apples, peaches and apricots of a dryad tree is one of the finest foods this world has to offer.

Firebird

The firebird is literally aflame; its wings are hot to the touch and glow with perpetual sparks. Firebirds occur in more than a hundred different shades of red – maroon, scarlet, crimson, rose, ruby. They have an exceptional sense of smell. A firebird can smell green shoots before they break through the soil, it can smell a human fart from half a forest away, and can be trained to detect the faintest trace of poison.

Gagana

The gagana is a large, crow-like bird; its black feathers are iridescent, and in different lights shimmer from deep red and emerald to darkest navy. The common gagana has copper claws and an iron beak. Royal gaganas, found only on the island of Dousha, have silver claws and beaks of solid gold. Their beaks are sharp enough to take the finger off a grown man with a single snap, but the birds are capable of extraordinary and lasting love. The regard of a gagana is hard-won, but once gained, it is gained for life.

Great Carutan giant

[added by Christopher Forrester and associates]

The giants of Great Caruta stand up to ten times the height of the average man. The glimourie in the soil of Great Caruta has allowed the giants to breed their crops and forests to be hugely bigger than average, and the air gives visitors of all species a giant appetite. Carutan giants rarely leave the island, finding the atmospheric conditions restrictive on the lungs. They are harsh people, frequently at war among themselves, and they have been known to eat humans. They are, however, incredible cooks. Their custard is particularly good.

Griffin

Griffins have the body, tail and back legs of a lion, and the head, wings and front claws of an eagle. Though they do not speak aloud, they learn astonishingly fast, and can under stand the entirety of a human language within days. When fully grown, their wingspan is broad enough to shelter a child underneath it. In cold weather, their bodies radiate warmth. The griffin is more reliant than any other creature on the glimourie in the soil and the air; they are among the world’s most magical creatures. [Addendum by Frank Aureate: For the last five years, griffins have become rarer and rarer. The reason is unclear, but it is possibly connected to a fading in the glimourie. Their status now is believed to be near-extinct.]