Dead Leaves And Drows

"...three dolmens. Folk feared those giant-works from an age forgotten and left offerings to slake whatever drows haunted them."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book One, Chapter VIII, p. 321.

"...drows..." is one of those words that sounds familiar and that can be understood in a general sense from its context. However, it is good to check it.

Gunnhild and her ally, with guards far enough behind not to overhear, are walking in a borderland between cultivation and wilderness. We should look out for references to at least three senses:

"The sky was an unbounded blue overhead,..." (p. 320)

 - sight and color -

"...full of wings between strewn clouds,..." (ibid.)

- more sights and maybe the wingbeats are audible? -

"...the calls of wanderbirds blowing down..." (ibid.)

- in any case, the calls can be heard -

"...like dead leaves off branches." (ibid.)

That was unexpected. Here is an image, of falling leaves, but Gunnhild is not seeing the leaves. They are a metaphor for the bird calls.

"A breeze drifted to and fro,..." (ibid.)

- so she feels the air moving -

"...a touchy chilly,..." (ibid.)

- in fact, she feels cold -

"...smelling of wet earth." (ibid.)

- and a fourth sense is addressed, with hints of wetness and earthiness.

The descriptive passage continues with wan sunlight and shimmering fjord but we have already found more than three senses.