Beasts of Prey: "The Boy from the West"–Chapter 27

by Ayana Gray
Koffi, a sixteen-year-old indentured worker at the Night Zoo, joins forces with Ekon, the son of a decorated hero, to hunt down a dangerous creature that is threatening their home.

This list covers "The Boy from the West"–Chapter 27.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cohort
    a group of people having approximately the same age
    It isn’t that I mind talking about boys—gods know there are more than a few very handsome ones in my daraja cohort—but all anyone has been talking about for the last week has been this boy.
  2. poised
    in full control of your faculties
    I want to be like the other girls in my year who know how to do their own hair and make clever conversation. I want to learn the beauty of being poised. The problem is, I’m not poised at all.
  3. rendition
    the act of expressing something in an artistic performance
    In this rendition, the god of death is sculpted to look like a cunning old man, his hippo familiar by his side.
  4. precipice
    the brink of a dangerous or potentially disastrous situation
    Once again, he felt like he was on the precipice of something, about to leap into an unknown.
  5. rudimentary
    being in the earliest stages of development
    Ekon was up before the sun, cleaning their rudimentary campsite and reviewing the map.
  6. trifle
    something of small importance
    Her head began to pound mercilessly. It made that sharp pain in her stomach seem a trifle in comparison.
  7. explicable
    able to be made clear or comprehensible
    There was no explicable way she knew it, but she sensed this woman was the leader of this peculiar group, its matriarch.
  8. acquiescence
    agreement with a statement or proposal to do something
    “Can you teach me?”
    The old woman regarded her for several seconds, as though evaluating her, before nodding in acquiescence.
  9. traipse
    walk or tramp about
    She was traipsing toward them with the grace of a dancer, the wrinkles once covering her face vanished.
  10. temporal
    characteristic of this world rather than the spiritual world
    It is a raw, natural power. My brethren, sistren, and I were born of it, and we Six used it to build the temporal world as you know it to be now.
  11. spectral
    resembling or characteristic of a phantom
    Where did spectral caretakers of a magical jungle go?
  12. inconsequential
    lacking worth or importance
    “It is fluid, ever changing. A single drop of rain is inconsequential, but one million drops of rain creates...”
    “A monsoon,” Koffi finished.
  13. pervasive
    spreading or spread throughout
    The splendor is a spiritual energy similar to the air you breathe—it is constant, pervasive, vital to all living things.
  14. conduit
    a passage through which water or electric wires can pass
    As a daraja, your body is uniquely equipped to draw it from the earth itself and redirect it. In doing so, you act as a physical conduit between the mundane and the divine.
  15. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    The splendor manifests for each daraja slightly differently. To discover how it manifests within you is one of our objectives today.
  16. inkling
    a slight suggestion or vague understanding
    Some inkling of truth touched her.
  17. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    “What my brother tricked Adiah into doing to Lkossa nearly a hundred years ago was...cataclysmic, an unprecedented violence against the innocent.”
  18. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    Make no mistake, child, he believes his cause just, and he will pursue it until he has destroyed any semblance of the earth you know.
  19. endeavor
    a purposeful or industrious undertaking
    He seeks to introduce a new world order, the manifestation of his arrogance, and he will stop at nothing to see that endeavor through.
  20. veneer
    an outward appearance that is deliberately misleading
    The first time she’d seen Badwa for what she truly was inside the hut, she’d thought her glorious, the most beautiful being she’d ever seen. In a way, she still was, but behind that veneer, Koffi caught a glimpse of something else, something older and far cooler.
  21. nuance
    a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
    According to the goddess, in older times darajas had begun their formal training with the splendor around age ten, and spent an additional decade learning its nuances under the tutelage of several masters.
  22. tutelage
    teaching pupils individually
    According to the goddess, in older times darajas had begun their formal training with the splendor around age ten, and spent an additional decade learning its nuances under the tutelage of several masters.
  23. expedite
    speed up the progress of; facilitate
    Koffi didn’t have several masters, or a decade of time to play catch-up, so she was getting the expedited experience.
  24. respite
    a pause from doing something
    It felt strange when, on the third day, Badwa told them their lessons were concluded. On the one hand, Koffi was grateful for the respite; the splendor had a distinctly fatiguing effect after a while.
  25. misgiving
    doubt about someone's honesty
    Whatever misgivings he’d previously had about them seemed to have been abandoned, because he was fastidiously studying Nkrumah’s journal while two little girls decorated his curly hair with flowers.
  26. fastidious
    giving careful attention to detail
    Whatever misgivings he’d previously had about them seemed to have been abandoned, because he was fastidiously studying Nkrumah’s journal while two little girls decorated his curly hair with flowers.
  27. livid
    furiously angry
    My best friend is livid.
  28. scathing
    marked by harshly abusive criticism
    “I trust myself not to be fooled by a deep voice and some shallow compliments,” Tao says scathingly. “I used to think you were smart enough not to be either.”
  29. smattering
    a small number or amount
    Ekon didn’t sleep well their last night at Badwa's camp. It wasn’t for lack of trying or want; above him the sky was stunning; a smattering of silver-white stars more vivid than he’d ever seen in Lkossa.
  30. intermittently
    in a manner of stopping and starting at irregular intervals
    By no means was it the first time he’d reflected on it; thoughts of the Sons of the Six had invaded his mind intermittently since he and Koffi had set foot in the jungle.
  31. moot
    of no legal significance, as having been previously decided
    He hadn’t planned to keep the information about the hunting party from her forever, just until they were far enough into the Greater Jungle to make it a moot point.
  32. sentient
    endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness
    Once again, the jungle felt massive, dense, and even sentient.
  33. pallor
    an unnatural lack of color in the skin
    The skin of the thing that had once been a little girl took on a horrid grayish pallor.
  34. distend
    swell from or as if from internal pressure
    Its distended arms were outstretched, and there was a wild hunger in its gaze.
  35. reprieve
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    She closed her eyes and tried to visualize it, a cup filling to the brim. A cup that wasn’t allowed to spill so much as a drop. She couldn’t take it all, but she could take this much, she could hold on to it for a little while, offer some reprieve.
  36. platitude
    a trite or obvious remark
    Silence, and then the apologies, the platitudes. Everything happens for a reason.
  37. flourish
    a showy gesture
    Ekon laid out two giant leaves with a flourish. “A feast fit for gods.”
  38. dappled
    having spots or patches of color
    The sky above them was dappled with more stars than he could count, a thousand diamonds dropped into an inkpot.
  39. facade
    a showy misrepresentation to conceal something unpleasant
    Behind his charming façade, Ekon saw a trace of real concern.
  40. nonplussed
    filled with bewilderment
    Behind her, Ekon’s voice interrupted the silence. Koffi and Adiah both turned, nonplussed.
Created on Wed Apr 20 08:41:58 EDT 2022 (updated Mon Apr 25 13:18:07 EDT 2022)

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