One Moment

In Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire, Targovi, a Tigery, converses with Rihu An, a Cynthian, on the planet Daedalus. Rihu An is a lieutenant in the Terran Navy and their common language must be English-derived Anglic. Thus, a conversation between beings from two planets meeting on a third is affected by beings from a fourth, Earth. (Targovi was born on Imhotep to a refugee from Starkad.)

Despite this scene's triple alienness, an Imhotepan Tigery and a Cynthian on Daedalus, Anderson conveys its immediacy as Targovi becomes alert to minute sensory inputs:

"...he relaxed his body utterly, opening every sense to the fullest, until he caught the least whiffs of dust and smoke in the air, the least early-morning traffic murmurs from the town."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 332.

Anderson has already described the mostly Cynthian town of Lulach:

buildings under trees;
plants on roofs and flowering vines on walls;
many houses hidden in the branches of enormous Cynthian trees;
a few compact vehicles on the narrow, twisting turf streets;
squirrel-like Cynthians preferring to travel in the trees;
larger buildings, including "...a rambling timber inn..." (p. 326), the Inn of Tranquil Slumber, on the riverbank.

Thus, traffic sounds from the town mean something when we are told that Targovi hears them as "...murmurs..." from within the station house. We are there with him in that moment. It is good to pause when rereading the novel and no longer needing to hurry on to find out what happens next.