Urus smiled and nodded. ‘Well now, my compliments also to Her Imperial Majesty. I presume the imperial emissary has already notified you regarding the agenda of this summit?’

Craning her neck in the direction of the dinosaur emperor towering before her, Queen Lassini inclined her antennae and gave her answer in the form of a pheromone. When the commanders in the front row received the chemical signal, they swiftly relayed the instructions to the phalanx behind them. The disciplined soldiers of the word corps changed formation like a well-oiled machine, arranging themselves into the queen’s words in the blink of an eye: ‘The aim of this summit is to settle the religious dispute between our two worlds. This problem has plagued us since the reign of the late emperor, and now it has become the most serious crisis yet faced by the dinosaur–ant alliance. I expect Your Majesty is aware that Earth stands on the brink of disaster as a result.’

Urus nodded again. ‘I am indeed aware of that. No doubt Your Majesty is similarly cognisant that the resolution of this crisis presents us with a considerable challenge. Where do you propose we begin?’

The queen thought for a moment before she replied, and the word corps rearranged themselves across the marble floor at lightning speed: ‘Let us begin with the point we are agreed upon.’

‘Very good. Dinosaurs and ants are agreed that this world can have only one God.’

‘Yes, that’s correct.’

Both rulers fell briefly silent, then Urus said, ‘We should discuss what God looks like, even though we have been over this a thousand times before.’

‘Yes,’ Lassini said, ‘that is the crux of the conflict and the crisis.’

‘God undoubtedly resembles a dinosaur,’ said the dinosaur emperor. ‘We have seen God through our faith, and God’s image embodies all dinosaurs.’

‘God undoubtedly looks like an ant,’ said the ant queen. ‘We have also seen God through our faith, and all ants are reflected in God’s image.’

Urus smiled broadly and waggled his mammoth head. ‘Queen Lassini, if you were the least bit logical or had a smidgen of common sense, this problem would be sorted in a jiffy. Do you truly believe that God could possibly be a dust-mote speck of an insect like you? That such a God could create a world as vast as this?’

‘Size does not equal strength,’ Lassini replied. ‘Compared with mountain ranges or oceans, dinosaurs too are mere “dust-mote specks”.’

‘But the fact is, Your Majesty, that we dinosaurs are the fount of original thought, the purveyors of creativity. And when all is said and done, you ants are nothing but tiny cogs in a highly efficient machine.’