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There were human cultures that taught an afterlife of the blessed on mountaintops or in clouds, in caverns or oases, but she could not recall any in which if you were very, very good when you died you went to the beach.

“Do Buddhists believe in God, or not?” Ellie asked on their way to have dinner with the Abbot.

“Their position seems to be,” Vaygay replied dryly, “that their God is so great he doesn't even have to exist.”

the size of a world

can't get out

spindly-legged, long-necked dappled

thinning hair. Life was better up here

newborn-puzzlement perhaps

Shall brush my wing

Humans are good, she knew, at discerning subtle patterns that are really there, but equally so at imagining them when they are altogether absent.

Humans are good, she knew, at discerning subtle patterns that are really there, but equally so at imagining them when they are altogether absent.