Five Senses On The Caithness Coast

The Merman's Children, Book Four, II.

Shadowed wavelets are dimly silver. Reflected sunlight warms the cliffs. Roasting seal and auk smell good. Guts growl. When eaten, the food is savoury. When night falls, crackling flames flicker red, yellow and blue with a coal-glow core and the smoke is pungent. (Five senses.) 

When Tauno follows his sister's spoor, an upward footpath reveals heather sloping down towards gray moorland whitened by snow patches and rime. The trail enters a dale sheltering a croft with oats, barley and sheep. Hayricks and buildings huddle before a Viking grave-mound and a Pictish keep. Dogs bay but flee from the scent of a merman. (Three senses.)

OK. I have passed over interactions first between Tauno and Eyjan, then between Eyjan and four men, because I have been focusing on the colours, bodily sensations, odours, tastes and sounds in which Poul Anderson's text is rich. However, Eyjan's feline yowling and a man's shout convey a different kind of sensation.