MURK

MURK

"What were those flying out of it? Bits of incinerating building? They looked like bats. Demons." 

"It was a large black bat. And it was clutching her wallet, her glasses in their hard green case, and Udide's Book Of Shadows in its strong sharp claws." 

"Murks look like tiny bats and dwell in pools of darkness-under a fallen tree in a lake, beneath houses, under beds, whatever." 

"'Murks like to slap, ' Chichi said. 'Their wings feel like hot steel.'" 

Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Warrior

GHOST HOPPER

GHOST HOPPER

"'What the hell is that?' she asked. It looked like a red grasshopper the size of her hand.

'It's a ghost hopper,' Orlu whispered. 'They're harmless.'"

"It sat on her bed staring at her with its large orange compound eyes. Sunny wasn't afraid of grasshoppers, not even their strong flicking legs. But this creature was the size of an American football. It turned and, with a soft hum, hop-flew across the room, landing on the wall."

Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch

GLOWING SPIDER

GLOWING SPIDER

"Tower 4 was a concrete flower that housed suicidal birds called phoenixes, shape shifting monkeys, glowing spiders, lightning birds, cheetahs with deformed tails who drooled and ran fast as airplanes."

Nnedi Okorafor, The Book Of Phoenix

NTU NTU BUG

NTU NTU BUG

"The dry yellow grasses there had been cut low but still were occupied by hopping ntu ntu bugs, their brilliant orange-pink pigmentation eye-catching in the sunlight."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: The Night Masquerade

SNAKE-LIKE SHARK

SNAKE-LIKE SHARK

"Something huge and snake-like leaped out of the water. It arched in the air, twisting in a spiral and noiselessly dropping back into the depths. At least ten grey shark-like fins all in a row surfaced not far from short. They - or it - sharply turned and headed farther out to sea."

"Then Adaora saw something below Hawra swimming up, quickly. Something huge, black, with too many fins. She could see the thing more clearly now. A mouth. Opening. Full of teeth."

Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon

PIG-LIKE BEAST

PIG-LIKE BEAST

"I was in the forest digging up clay to make my otjize when a large piglike beast came running at me. I twas too late to make a run for it, so I froze and looked it in the yes. The beast stopped, sniffed me with its wet snout, rubbed its rough brown furry rump against my arm, lost interest and walked off."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: Home

TREE-LIKE INDIVIDUAL

TREE-LIKE INDIVIDUAL

"He'd immediately struck up a conversation with the dorm's elder, a treelike individual who spoke in a series of cracking and creaking sounds."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: Home

JELLYFISH-LIKE CREATURE (MALE)

JELLYFISH-LIKE CREATURE (MALE)

"Over the last year, I'd learned (well, brashly been told) that the females of this group of people had the long antenna with the yellow eyes. The males simply had a large green eye on their dome, no antenna."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: Home

JELLYFISH-LIKE CREATURE (FEMALE)

JELLYFISH-LIKE CREATURE (FEMALE)

"She was a creature somewhat like Okwu, jellyfish-like and the size of a storage shed, except her dome was a deep shade of black and she had antennae at the center with a large yellow eye."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti: Home

TUNGWA

TUNGWA

"'Tungwas are just things that dwell in Leopard Knocks,' Orlu explained. 'Floating bags of teeth, bone, meat, and hair. They explode when they're ready.'"

Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch

"Round and large as a basketball, its thin brown skin grazed the tip of a flower."

Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Warrior

MEDUSE

MEDUSE

"The Meduse were hovering less than a foot away."

"I could hear the others, their near substantial bodies softly rustling as their transparent domes filled with and released the gas they breathed back in. They were as tall as grown men, their dome's flesh thing as fine silk, their long tentacles spilling down to the floor like a series of gigantic ghostly noodles."

"The thing that tore through was like a sword, but thin as paper...and grasped like a finger. I saw it pinch and hook to the flesh near his collarbone."

"The Meduse followed me, their tentacles caressing the floor as they floated. They had no eyes, but from what I knew of the Meduse, they had scent receptors on their tentacles."

"I could see its solid white stinger within the drapes of hanging tentacles."

Nnedi Okorafor, Binti