“Having sipped the bitter potion, Chrysanthi noticed a pulsing glow around her. Next, eyelids fluttering, she sensed giant legs towering above her, giant in height, not in breadth. There were four of them, fine and narrow and elegant, bent at the knee. Her eyes travelled upward.

Hovering over her head was a pair of folded arms, slightly furry, notched all along. She saw a bulbous abdomen, a long neck. Everything was imbued with luminescence, as if a glow came from within. Fanned out above the abdomen were two giant gauze wings, an intricate webbing woven from the finest silk thread, filaments of neon-green, aquamarine-blue, lilac, silver, all shimmering iridescently.

Chrysanthi’s head snapped back, startled, as she found herself staring into two massive diamond-faceted eyes. It was almost as if she could see disjointed fragments of herself reflected back at her. Above the eyes, two long feelers twitched and swivelled. “Mantis!” she breathed inaudibly to herself.”

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“Idunn is staring at the branches of a birch tree, only just starting to unfurl its summer leaves so the gigantic eagle perched there is difficult to miss. It stands a metre tall, massive wings folded, curved beak sharp as the blade of a scythe, glowing red eyes trained on Idunn. Watching, Lysandre’s heart skips a beat. He has never seen a bird of that magnitude. Ever. There is something immensely threatening about it, it seems to exude evil into the air around it. He shivers at the burning gaze, glad it’s not trained on him. Instead the eagle’s eyes are locked on the golden-haired goddess.

She inches slowly, slowly, backwards through the water. She reaches the edge of the pool, steps out of the water, and sweeps up her tunic and her box of apples in a move to run. But it’s as if a cloud has crossed the face of the Sun. A great shadow slides across the copse, darkens the air.

It is Thjazi, transmogrified into a giant eagle. On massive wings he swoops, snatches up in his giant razor-talons Idunn and her box of apples, and carries them up into the air and away.”

“A flame of fire blasted over their heads in dazzling colours … orange, red, green, blue … searing their faces with devastating heat. A massive shadow, as if thrown by a gigantic cloak, drew over Pharaoh Amenemhet and jackal-headed god Anubis, guide to the dead. The sky (which couldn’t quite have been a sky because this was the Egyptian Underworld) was now completely blotted out. A second blast of fire hurtled through the air, almost knocking them off their feet with its force and intensity.

Suddenly there was a gargantuan monster, all sharp angles and webbed extrusions and jagged points, exposing in its open jaw hundreds of filed razor-teeth. Scales shimmered and shone down its back like liquid mercury. Eyes were green as papyrus backlit in the sun, tiny flames leapt in their depths. That burning stare was hideous.”