This is Pearl’s first Encyclopedia article. She will be adding more as soon as they are available with full-color illustrations! We will be listing these in alphabetical order like a real encyclopedia from the library.

Pearl made many alarming discoveries as she searched for Shadowy Specters. This was an area in which The Songbirds of The Living Library had very little information. Even so, with each discovery, there were Songbird Pages to record the details that she had discovered.The Songbird Pages hoped that this would help prevent The Absence of Love from destroying their beautiful Garden Home and preserve the Creation of The Great Gardener.
This is Pearl’s hope as well.Of all the Shadowy Specters which Pearl found, this one was particularly concerning because it resembled a very large chicken and also hunted for people to kill. Pearl loved people and would not want to see any of them hurt—not even the very worst ones—but she would enjoy being huge and stomping around and hunting for chicken predators. She would especially enjoy giving them a taste of their own medicine.The Alcalica is a Shadowy Specter from Boliva in South America. Normally it is a very large bird that can transform itself into a beautiful woman. Once transformed, the Alcalica lures men into the forest and then kills them.My chickens were saddened to see that anything resembling a bird would ever harm people.

Even before transforming from bird to woman, the Acalica is truly beautiful. Its green feathers in the sunlight stand out even against the greens of the South American rain forests and were accented by the golds and oranges in its horns and beak and the shiny decorations stolen from the its victims.

Although no one has ever lived to tell about seeing an Acalica transforming itself, we can only make our best guesses based on what we know about birds who disguise themselves, native Bolivian folk art, and our own imaginations.

We are unsure exactly how an Acalica enhances its strength and power, but we know it must do so in order to follow the bidding of The Absence of Love as all Shadowy Specters do.Likely it is through some lightweight and portable object similar to an amulet from ages long past given to it by The Absence of Love.

Just as Acalica is able to enhance its strength and power, it is also able to enhance its illusion of beauty, except this is done using the ordinary tools of people.Evil often disguises itself as something beautiful and desirable, but the end result is never good when guided by Evil.As my chicken will warn any who will listen: Beware of illusions. They can often be deadly traps. (This is like gummy worms. They may look like and wiggle like tasty worms, but no chicken likes to eat them!)If you only remember one lesson from the Acalica, this is a good lesson: What is projected from the Heart can never be covered or disguised. No heart is hidden from God.

When viewed side-by-side, two Acalicas will appear quite startling, especially if one is before transforming and the other is after transforming. For completely different reasons, each is fearfully mesmerizing. Neither is anything that my chickens would choose as a partner for playtime.

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The Unabridged Dictionary of the Chicken Language by author and lexicographer Nathaniel Elliot may be treated as a companion book to the series The Dictionary of Curious Words by author and illustrator J. R. Spiers. It uses notebooks and sketchbooks found in a shoebox bearing the word “Gracie” in the Author’s attic. He did his best to reconstruct the story of how the lives of six amazing hens and one amazing rooster had transformed the life of the one who loved them.

The Dictionary of Curious Words explains the story behind this compilation of all known words in the Chicken language. It also includes additional notes to encourage appreciation of this rich and ancient language. It does contain additional narrative about how the author and lexicographer, Nate Elliot, came to learn and appreciate the Chicken language so that there will be no doubt to the authenticity or accuracy of the curious words found in The Unabridged Dictionary of the Chicken Language.