silver

We could also all plan to meet up in Budapest!

Totally! I think that's the easiest solution really :D

(I've been to Budapest the once, vs a bunch of times to CZ and CK, and it's a gorgeous city. It was a little Eastern Bloc still in its vibe when we were there, and a lot of the pretty sights were still undergoing restoration, but I'm hoping we'll get to go back at some point and see how it's come along in that time.)

Some things are just ordinary animals here, some are completely made up, some are analogous to real animals, some are our made up mythical animals

Yeah, it's a really interesting mix. I don't remember where I saw this, but teckla are this one very specific species of mouse (salt marsh harvest mouse), and some animals are like "this earth animal with this added bit" -- like lyorn and tiassa -- and then you have completely ??? stuff like iorich and jhegaala. I'm pretty sure it's such a wild mix intentionally.

and sometimes Vlad is like "this is ridiculous" at things that are completely ordinary earth things. :D :D

Yes! I love Vlad being weirded out or earnestly explaining Earth things to the reader.