        The creature’s reaction surprised her—it began laughing.  It repeated the motion, touching itself and saying the same two words, then pointed to her.  She suddenly realized it was introducing itself.  That was its name, or what kind of creature it was, possibly both.  It was very short—pony names tended to be two or more syllables long—but that could be attributed to cultural differences.  Diamond Dog names were rarely more than a syllable, if they even had a name: since they relied so heavily on scent, parents rarely felt the need to name their offspring.