Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Avalonian Scenery III

See Avalonian Scenery II.

The injured Ythrian, Ayan, sprawls against a chasuble bush at the bottom of a deep slope, surrounded by ripped branches and fallen tree trunks. Sunset light shines through leaves of green or gold and "...the shimmering, glittering purple foliage of iron-leaf." (p. 317) (For full reference, see Silences.)

Iron-leaf draws metal from soil and concentrates pure particles. Its shining leaves attract insects and absorb radio waves. Ayan has a transceiver but is lying under iron-leaf.

Human and Ythrian colonists tend to live apart because they need to maintain separate ecologies.

When Ayan is in hospital, his window opens onto a lawn, Avalonian king's-crown, Ythrian windnest, Terrestrial oak, distant snowpeaks and sunlight. And that is as much as I can squeeze from this one story about Avalonian scenery.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I would expect colonists to introduce plants and trees from their home worlds, both for aesthetic reasons and because they would need them for one reason or another. And some planets with only primitive plants would have them displaced by more advanced terrestrial trees and grasses, as we see on Altai and Nike.

Sean