"They are a little larger than usual, are they not?" agreed Temeraire, craning his neck back to look at the fungus dotting his back. They were not very prettily shaped, perhaps, but he had to concede there was something pleasing about the way they glowed.

"But I was not expecting mosquitoes at all," he added, "or even plants. Are we quite sure this is even the realm of Death? It does not look anything like what I saw the last time I was here."