Creatures 901 - 903 - Mottled Python, Danaus + Peleides Cyon
Posted: June 27th, 2018, 12:29:09 am
New Creatures in the Stream:
Mottled Python
This multi-colored egg has a soft shell.
Hatchling:
Adult:
General:
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Peleides Cyon
This pale blue egg is slightly wet.
Hatchling:
Adult:
General:
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Danaus Cyon
This solid orange egg is rather warm.
Hatchling:
Adult:
General:
Thanks NyxNoire
Mottled Python
This multi-colored egg has a soft shell.
Hatchling:
Spoiler
A hatchling python fills its shell, and emerges hungry. The mother stays with the eggs, wrapped around them for protection and shivering to keep them warm, but she plays no part in rearing the young afterward. The little creatures are quite strong for their size, apt to wrap their coils around anything they come across, not to feed on it, but for support. They hunt using heat-sensitive pits on their upper jaw, and will lash out as an incoming rodent or shrew that isn't beyond their weight. The young snake then coils around its miniscule prey until the prey ceases to breathe, then the hatchling consumes it whole. They possess the ability to unhinge part of their jaws to allow them to swallow prey larger than their head, though they seldom take anything greater than the largest girth of their body. Larger distant relatives of the mottled python may grow many times longer than a man and consume prey as large as antelopes, but the mottled pythons themselves seldom pursue prey larger than a medium-sized rat.
Spoiler
A sort of puppy among snakes, mottled pythons are known well for their rounded appearance and general good nature. Though sometimes picky eaters, especially when about to shed their skin, these snakes are perfectly content to sit on one’s lap in the warm sun or lounge lazily across one's shoulders for the bulk of the day. Come nighttime, when the snakes are more active, they will explore their environment with a forked tongue sensitive to the faintest smells, and wedge themselves into any cranny their corpulent bodies can manage. Oftentimes, they are poor judges in this skill, and because of their tendency to become unintentional escape artists, their Foenaran caretakers will often settle them in beautiful glass containers hand-blown from many colors and adorned with intricate designs on the edges. Some such enclosures are even inlaid with silver and gold. These containers much be kept out of the sunlight for they heat up quickly, and when outside or travelling, the pythons are most often kept in tightly-sealed baskets or simply around their owner's neck.
Spoiler
It is not at all uncommon in Turril to see these small snakes coiled around a person’s upper arm or worn around the neck as a piece of living jewelry. Indeed, these snakes are so prized that a great number of color variants have arisen, indicating the animal’s lineage and by extension its worth. Wealthy Foenarans may keep several of these serpents at home, picking certain individuals of high breeding standard to wear for special occasions just as a Synaran might pick out cufflinks or earrings. By temperament, these pythons are quite gentle and perfectly content and capable of latching onto their owner’s arm and remaining there for the duration of a social dinner. They are calm around children and easy to feed on a diet of grassland mice and rats, provided they have a suitable hiding spot in which to sleep. The snakes grow no larger than three feet, most reaching barely two, with females growing slightly larger than males. They are perfectly harmless to humans, and are rarely known to bite unless placed under severe stress. The gift of a mottled python egg is a generous token in Foenara, especially when given to a foreigner.
Peleides Cyon
This pale blue egg is slightly wet.
Hatchling:
Spoiler
These cyon hatchlings are wary and secretive, staying close to their mothers at all times. A peleides cyon hatchling's coat is duller than that of its parents to aid in camouflage in the gloom of the jungle floor. They have not yet learned to properly use their hypnotic abilities, but thankfully it is weak at this stage. Peleides cyon hatchlings need a great deal of water and at the Keep care must be taken to ensure that they never run out.
Spoiler
Peleides cyons possess a more sinister ability than their desert cousins: hypnosis. Looking into a peleides cyon’s eyes is a death trap; the cyon will hypnotize the prey into walking right into its jaws. At the Keep, they must be carefully trained not to use this ability. These cyons stalk the nights, wandering far and wide under the glow of moonlight, spending their time hunting for prey. They have quite a varied diet, eating everything from insects and frogs to large mammals. Peleides cyons require humid environments and plenty of water to survive, so they thrive in tropical jungles.
Spoiler
Both species of cyon share some traits, including distinctive stiff, upright manes, but the similarities end quickly, and the two species never associate with one another. Danaus cyons live in family packs and detest being alone. They are also migratory, travelling from the interior of the desert to the edges of the jungle during the breeding season so their young will have plenty of food and water. Nightfall in the jungle brings out the peleides cyons. These blue-pelted cyons are solitary and mute, communicating only through body language when they must socialize at all. Peleides cyons get their color from a butterfly they eat and if unable to get them, their pelts will slowly fade to grey.
Danaus Cyon
This solid orange egg is rather warm.
Hatchling:
Spoiler
From the moment they hatch, danaus cyons are bursting with energy. Too small to be dangerous yet, their tendency to chase anything that moves is nonetheless a nuisance at the Keep. Unlike some other creatures, they never seem to get too hot. They have a great dislike for cold weather and are unusually susceptible to the maladies that come with it, so great care must be taken never to let them get too cool.
Spoiler
In the blistering heat of a midsummer day in the Etain desert, mirages are common, but not always natural. Danaus cyons are skilled in creating illusions. They will create the illusion of an oasis to lure in potential prey, pouncing when it gets close enough. The cyons themselves are supremely adapted to the hot, dry desert and can survive on little food and water, although they will not hesitate to gorge themselves when prey is plentiful. Danaus cyons are very noisy except when hunting, constantly calling to one another with yips, barks, and howls.
Spoiler
Both species of cyon share some traits, including distinctive stiff, upright manes, but the similarities end quickly, and the two species never associate with one another. Danaus cyons live in family packs and detest being alone. They are also migratory, travelling from the interior of the desert to the edges of the jungle during the breeding season so their young will have plenty of food and water. Nightfall in the jungle brings out the peleides cyons. These blue-pelted cyons are solitary and mute, communicating only through body language when they must socialize at all. Peleides cyons get their color from a butterfly they eat and if unable to get them, their pelts will slowly fade to grey.
