Granny Doulè is a very gaunt, narrow-shouldered dwarf whose body seems to have been folded inward by years of damp, hunger, and solitude. Her skin has the dry gray-brown texture of old river clay, yet her palms are unnervingly soft and warm. She moves with a dragging, birdlike stoop until she reaches water, where she becomes quick and balanced, stepping across floating leaves as if they were floorboards. Her beard is sparse and silver, braided into three thin cords that she knots together whenever she lies. The unexpected contradiction is her smile: when danger appears, her expression becomes almost maternal, while ordinary kindness makes her bare her teeth like an animal deciding whether something is edible. Her hut stands on the enormous exposed skull and rib cage of a prehistoric alligator, its bones supporting the floor like pale beams.