Tara Duncan and the Forbidden Book (53 page)

Arachne
: A spider-like animal from Smallcountry, like the spalendital. Gnomes ride arachnes, and their silk is famous for its strength. They have eight legs and eight eyes, and an unusual scorpion-like tail with a poison stinger. Arachnes are highly intelligent and enjoy challenging their future prey to solve riddles.

Baaa
: Sheep with beautiful white wool, baaa are adapted to OtherWorld's extremely variable seasons and can shed their wool or grow it in a few hours. Baaa herders take advantage of this peculiarity at shearing time. They make their flock think the weather will turn very hot, and the animals immediately shed their fleeces. OtherWorld residents often say, “As credulous as a baaa.”

Ball orchid
: A beautiful flower that owes its name to its green-and-yellow root ball. Ball orchids are parasites that grow very fast and can kill a tree in a couple of seasons. Then, by moving their roots, they can attack another tree. OtherWorld trees secrete corrosive substances to deter ball orchid attacks.

Bizzz
: A large red-and-yellow bee that has no stinger, unlike earthly bees. The bizzz's only defense is the secretion of a toxic substance that poisons any predator that eats it. Bizzz make an incomparable honey from OtherWorld's magical flowers. OtherWorlders say, “Sweet as bizzz honey.”

Blood fly
: A cattle fly whose sting is extremely painful.

Brill
: A delicacy that grows in sheltered parts of the magic Hymlia Mountains. The dwarves who harvest brill don't eat it. Instead, they sell it at fancy prices to OtherWorld merchants. The dwarves find this amusing because in Hymlia brill is considered a weed.

Brrraaa
: Huge cattle with thick wool, which giants make into clothing. Brrraaas are very aggressive and will charge anything that moves. As a result you often encounter brrraaas exhausted from chasing their own shadows. OtherWorld residents say, “Stubborn as a brrraaa.”

Camelin
: A fairly rare plant with the unusual property of changing color to match its environment. In the Mentalir plains, its usual color is blue; in the Salterian deserts, it turns pale yellow or white, and so forth. This property is retained when the plant is harvested and woven into a fine cloth that changes color according to its setting.

Cantaloop
: A voracious, carnivorous plant that feeds on insects and small rodents. Its garishly-colored petals have sharp spines that harpoon their prey. Cantaloops are considered a delicacy, but they are aggressive and grow to the size of a large dog, making them hard to harvest.

Chatrix
: Chatrixes are big, black hyena-like animals with a poisonous bite. They hunt only at night. Though fierce, they can be tamed and trained. In the Empire of Omois they are sometimes used for guard duty.

Cruditor
: A small, lemon-yellow rodent much like a rabbit. Because the OtherWorld environment is so colorful, cruditors can easily escape their predators. Their flesh is bland, but will feed a starving traveler or a patient hunter. Cruditors are also raised in captivity.

Crouicc
: Large, blue, omnivorous mammals with red tusks, crouiccs are raised for their delicious meat. Famed for having difficult personalities, wild crouiccs can tear up a field in a couple of hours. OtherWorld farmers often protect their crops with anti-crouicc spells.

Drago-tyrannosaurus
: A relative of dragons, but lacking their intelligence. Drago-tyrannosauruses have tiny wings and can't fly. They are fierce predators and will eat anything that moves and often whatever doesn't. They live in the warm, damp Omois forests, making those parts of the planet especially unsuitable for tourism.

Gambole
: An animal often used in sorcery. A small rodent with blue teeth, the gambole burrows so deep into the OtherWorld soil that its flesh and blood become impregnated with magic. When dried and ground, gambole powder makes the most difficult magical operations possible. It also produces hallucinations, and some spellbinders use it for personal consumption. This practice is strictly forbidden on OtherWorld, and gambole addicts are severely punished.

Gandari
: A rhubarb-like plant with a slight taste of honey.

Glurp
: A green and brown saurian with a small head that lives in lakes and swamps. It is extremely voracious. It can spend hours underwater without breathing, waiting to catch an unsuspecting animal that has come to take a drink. It builds nests in hiding places along the shore, and stores its captures in underwater holes.

Kalorna
: A beautiful forest flower with pink and white petals whose slightly sweet flavor is enjoyed by OtherWorld herbivores and omnivores. To avoid being eaten into extinction, kalornas have evolved three petals that work like eyes. These can detect the approach of a predator and allow the flowers to quickly hide underground. Unfortunately, kalornas are also very curious. They often stick up their petals too soon and are promptly eaten. OtherWorlders say, “As curious as a kalorna.”

Kax
: A plant used to make an herb tea so relaxing that it's best only to drink it when you're in bed. On OtherWorld, it's also called relax-kax, because of its action on muscles. The sentence “You're a real kax” refers to someone who's very soft.

Keltril
: A luminous, silvery metal that the elves fashion into breastplates and armor. Light and very strong, keltril is practically indestructible.

Ko-ax
: A two-toned frog that is the glurp's main food. Glurps locate them easily because of their particularly annoying croaking: “Brek-ek-ek-ek-ex, ko-ax, ko-ax.”

Kraken
: A gigantic octopus with black tentacles. It is found in OtherWorld's oceans, but can also live in fresh water. Krakens are a well-known danger to sailors.

Looky-look
: A giant golden turkey that constantly struts around, gobbling. It is very easy to hunt. OtherWorld residents often say, “Dumb as a looky-look” or, “Vain as a looky-look.”

Manuril
: White, juicy manuril shoots are a very popular OtherWorld side dish.

Mooouuu
: A two-headed stag without antlers. When one head is feeding, the other watches out for predators. Mooouuus walk sideways, like crabs.

Mrmoum
: A fruit that is very difficult to harvest, because mrmoum trees are huge animated plants that can cover as much area as a small forest. As soon as a predator approaches, mrmoum trees sink into the ground with the characteristic sound that gives them their name. It can be startling to be walking around and see an entire forest of mrmoum trees suddenly disappear, leaving only a empty plain.

Mud Eater
: Inhabitants of the Swamps of Desolation on Gandis, Mud Eaters are large, hairy creatures that feed on insects, water lilies, and the nutrients in mud. The primitive Mud Eater clans have little contact with the planet's other inhabitants.

Newsrystals
: OtherWorld's newspapers, which spellbinders and nonspells read on crystal balls, tablets, or smart phones.

Nonspell
: Nonspells are humans who lack spellbinder powers.

Pegasus
: A winged horse that is about as smart as a dog. Pegasi don't have hooves, but instead claws, in order to perch easily. They often build their nests at the top of steel giants.

Popping peanut
: Popping peanuts get their name from the characteristic sound they make when you open them. They produce a scented oil widely used by OtherWorld's greatest chefs.

Puffer sardine
: A fish that blows itself up when attacked. Its skin then becomes so taut, it's almost impossible to pierce. On OtherWorld, people say, “As tough as a puffer sardine.”

Red banana
: Just like an Earth banana except for its color.

Sacat
: A large, flying, red-and-yellow insect that produces a honey that is much sought after on OtherWorld. Sacats are poisonous and very aggressive. Only dwarves can eat sacat larvae, which they consider a delicacy. Elves and humans would wind up with a swarm of them in their stomach, because their digestive juices can't dissolve the shell of the larvae.

Scoop
: A small winged camera, the product of OtherWorld technology. Possessed of rudimentary intelligence, the scoop lives only to film and transmit images to its crystalist.

Snaptooth
: An animal originally from Krankar, the land of trolls. Snapteeth look like fluffy, pink plush toys, and it's hard to tell their front from their back. They are extremely dangerous. Their extensible mouth can triple in size, allowing them to swallow practically anything.

Soothsucker
: The fortune-telling lollipops, also called prophesicles, created by the playful P'abo imps. Licking away the candy's outer layers reveals the prediction in the center. Even if you don't understand it, the prediction always comes true. High wizards of many nations have studied these mysterious candies to understand how they work. But the P'abo guard the secret well. All the wizards got for their pains were cavities in their teeth and extra pounds on their hips.

Spalendital
: A giant scorpion from Smallcountry. When domesticated, they are ridden by the gnomes, who also work their very tough hide. Gnomes practically wiped birds out from their country, which opened an ecological niche for insects. Since these no longer have any natural enemies, they keep growing larger and more numerous. As a result, Smallcountry is overrun with giant scorpions, spiders, and millipedes.

Spellbinder
: Literally “someone who knows how to bind spells.” Spellbinders have the gift of magic. They chant or recite spells to focus their thoughts and materializing their wishes. Some very rare spellbinders don't need spells. Their power is so great that it manifests itself without chanting. Earthlings corrupted the term after the spellbinders left for OtherWorld, and refer to them as sorcerers and sorceresses.

Steel giant
: Enormous trees that can grow to 600 feet high, with trunks 150 feet around. Pegasi often build nests in steel giants to keep their progeny safe from predators.

Stridule
: Similar to an earthly cricket. When they travel in swarms, stridules can be very dangerous, devastating all the crops in their path. They produce very fertile saliva that is commonly used in magic.

Tatchoo
: A small yellow flower whose pollen, used on OtherWorld as pepper, is extremely irritating. Sniffing a tatchoo is guaranteed to unclog any nose.

Traduc
: A large, smelly animal raised by centaurs for their meat and wool. “You stink like a sick traduc” is a widespread OtherWorld insult.

T'sil
: A worm found in the deserts of Salterens, a t'sil hides in the sand and waits for an animal to pass. It jumps on it and burrows into the skin or carapace. Its eggs then enter the host's blood stream and spread throughout its body. About a hundred hours later the eggs hatch and the t'sil worms eat through their victim and emerge. Death by t'sil is one of the most horrible on OtherWorld. This explains why few tourists go trekking in the Salterian Desert. An antidote exists against the common t'sil, but none against the golden t'sil, whose infestation is inevitably fatal.

Tzinpaf
: A delicious carbonated apple-orange cola beverage that is both refreshing and stimulating.

Vlir
: A small golden prune much like a plum, but sweeter.

Vrrir
: A six-legged, gold-and-white feline, a favorite of the Empress of Omois. She cast a spell on her vrrrirs so that they don't realize they are imprisoned in her palace. Instead of furniture and sofas, they see trees and comfortable stones. The courtiers are invisible, and when vrrirs are stroked, they think it is the wind blowing through their fur.

Whaloon
: A huge red whale, two-and-a-half times the size of an Earth whale. Its extremely rich milk is traded by liquidians, like tritons and mermaids, to solidians, who live on dry land. Whaloon butter and cream are sought-after delicacies.

Yumm
: A kind of large red cherry the size of a peach.

S
ophie Audouin-Mamikonian
is not only the most widely read fantasy writer in France, she's also the crown princess of Armenia. Sophie was inspired to start writing the Tara Duncan series after reading Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1987. Seventeen years later, in 2003, she published Tara Duncan in France and eventually in eighteen countries.

Born in southern France in 1961, Sophie was mainly raised by her grandparents, who spoiled her with candy and carefully chosen French classics: Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo along with Corneille and Molière. Possibly as a result, Sophie started writing stories at a very young age. Stuck in bed by a bout of appendicitis at age twelve, she picked up a pen and hasn't put it down since. Before earning her living as a writer, she earned a master's degree in diplomacy and strategy, and worked in advertising with Jacques Séguéla at the Publicis agency in Paris.

Sophie is the niece of author and director Francis Veber, who wrote the screenplay for the movies Dinner for Schmucks and Three Fugitives. She is also the granddaughter of Pierre Gilles Veber, who wrote the script of the original 1952 film Fanfan, la Tulipe, which was remade in 2003 with Penelope Cruz.

Tara Duncan has been adapted for television by Moonscoop–Taffy Entertainment (Casper, the Friendly Ghost; The Fantastic Four) in co-production with the Walt Disney corporation and can be watched on Kabillion Channel. It is already broadcasted in twenty countries.

The Tara Duncan Show will begin on September 1, 2013, in the Gymnase Theater, and Sophie is scared to death because she will play a part in it! When not writing, Sophie divides her time between her husband, her two daughters, and the medical organization Pain Without Borders.