Christopher: Why is it called pantherfruit?
Mal: Because it looks like a panther's head. You know — they're mythical — black, with claws — they run as fast as the wind? You must have heard of them.
Christopher: Panthers aren't mythical.
Mal: Yes they are! Huge cats, that outrun horses?
Christopher: They're real! I've seen one, in a zoo. And they didn't look particularly like fruit.
Naravirala: It's true, Malum, that panthers exist. Humans have always travelled between the Archipelago and the Continents, but there is still ignorance on both sides. People have always disbelieved travellers — particularly when they return, windswept and wild-eyed, and not quite in control of their tongues.
There are many here in the Archipelago who believe that your story of Henry VIII is a metaphor, or a parable: a warning to little girls, not to get involved with kings. And your panthers, your hedgehogs, your giraffes, your swifts: they all sound just as improbably and mythic to the Archipelagians as unicorns do to you. You humans must take care that they do not become so in reality.
Mal: Because it looks like a panther's head. You know — they're mythical — black, with claws — they run as fast as the wind? You must have heard of them.
Christopher: Panthers aren't mythical.
Mal: Yes they are! Huge cats, that outrun horses?
Christopher: They're real! I've seen one, in a zoo. And they didn't look particularly like fruit.
Naravirala: It's true, Malum, that panthers exist. Humans have always travelled between the Archipelago and the Continents, but there is still ignorance on both sides. People have always disbelieved travellers — particularly when they return, windswept and wild-eyed, and not quite in control of their tongues.
There are many here in the Archipelago who believe that your story of Henry VIII is a metaphor, or a parable: a warning to little girls, not to get involved with kings. And your panthers, your hedgehogs, your giraffes, your swifts: they all sound just as improbably and mythic to the Archipelagians as unicorns do to you. You humans must take care that they do not become so in reality.
