“Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”
“Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?”
“Most of all he felt sorry for his dog, because he could see the bugs landing on and settling all over him, and probably getting into the dog’s lungs, as they were in his own.”
“Miyax knew when to stop dreaming and be practical. She slid down the heave, brushed off her parka, and faced the tundra. The plants around the pond had edible seeds, as did all of the many grasses. There were thousands of crane fly and mosquito larvae in the water, and the wildflowers were filling if not very nourishing. But they were all small and took time to gather. She looked around for something bigger.”
“Each of them had brought something to put in the cauldron. This is what they put in: a frog, a beetle, a worm, a bat and a spider. They all stirred the cauldron as they chanted their spell.”
“Whenever the tiny bear was feeling frisky and ready for fun he flipped pebbles around as if they were boulders just to scare the wits out of the grasshoppers, the beetles and caterpillars. From a bug’s-eye view Bruce was a great big hairy-scary horrible brute of a beast.”