MagiStream

This is easily the strangest piece of fruit you have ever seen. It squawks when you pick it up and although it smells like a nice tropical drink, it has made clear its reluctance to be eaten. Even touching the thing results in it releasing a strange substance from its skin which makes your fingers itch and must be washed off. You think the substance might be trying to digest you, which makes you even more suspicious of the fruit creature. Eventually, you put it into a planter and hope that it grows into something more useful.

Your ripe athenanas is coated in tough spines that are quite sharp on their edges, but if you're gentle, it accepts pets from a finger or two. It is not a highly mobile creature, preferring to nest in your sock drawer all day and chirp at you when you return from classes, but it produces such a pleasant smell that you don't mind. You need to be attentive, even caring for a creature that is basically a piece of fruit; when your athenanas grows angry, it can exude small traces of an acid-like substance that will eat away whatever it touches. You can keep your creature complacent by cleaning its spines with a small brush and providing a pot of loose soil for it to sleep in when it isn't digging through your clothes.

Athenanas are not quite fruit but certainly not animals either. Unable to fly, they are similarly slow on the ground, though they can walk and climb when needed. Most of the time, they prefer to hide and rely on their natural coverings for defense. Where a bird might have feathers, an athenanas has tough scales and spiny leaves sprouting from their heads. Females even carry their single hatchling in these spikes to protect them. Most would-be predators think twice after taking a bite -- athenanas exude digestive enzymes filled with tiny crystalline needles that can irritate anything it comes into contact with. That doesn't stop humans from trying to eat them, of course, though in places like Synara, they're more often used as expensive household ornaments. In fact, athenanas are so rare up north that many wealthy Synarans will pay to borrow them for fancy dinner parties. They're cherished both for their unusual appearance and their pleasant smell.

Hatchling lanoura spend most of their early life in shallow pools of water, hiding among rocks and disguising themselves as fallen leaves. They're watched over carefully by their parents, as once they get old enough they must be removed from the water and brought to an area of clean dirt where they can bury themselves to undergo metamorphosis into their adult forms. Hatchling lanoura don't do much or seem to have much personality, but fortunately they spend only a short time in hatchling form.

An adult lanoura can fit into the palm of a magi's hand but their small size belies a large appetite and an even larger sense of curiosity. When not watching over any hatchlings, lanoura enjoy exploring, especially if it means they can go swimming. Some cooks raise lanoura and allow them to swim through juices and wines in order to impart the sweet flavour of their skin to the liquid. Other magi simply skip that step and go directly to licking their lanoura, though this is frowned upon.

Magi seeking to raise lanoura should ensure three very important things: they live in a tropical area, they have a pond with areas for lanoura hatchlings to hide, and they have access to a garden area where the lanoura hatchlings can be planted. Lanoura are usually most prevalent in the summer months, and in some places are considered a delicacy to be eaten during the hottest parts of the day. In most areas, however, lanoura are considered good first creatures for older children and treated with care.

Despite its name, your covisflower is not a flower at all but a small sheep. The name actually refers to the little flowering buds that coat its body and form its plant-like fleece. They have not yet come in to give it the full-bodied fluffy appearance of the adults, but young covisflower grow quickly and yours will be fully-grown within a few months. In the mean time, it seems to enjoy running around the Keep grounds and frolicking among the Keep's various gardens. You have to watch it attentively, though; while they resemble vegetables and have an edible fleece, they're not above sneaking a nibble of their produce lookalikes.

Adult covisflowers are small compared to other sheep, even the big ones hardly the size of a dog. They're gentle creatures, unable to do much to defend themselves except hide in bushels of cauliflower and run if their garden is invaded by hungry rabbits. Though it contains plenty of fiber, the fleece is far too stiff and brittle to turn into any sort of fabric. It gets sheared once per year nonetheless. The crunchy coat is edible when washed and as it will simply shrivel up in the cold once winter comes, it is trimmed off and used in delicious salads during the Harvest Festival. The creatures suffer no ill effects from their annual shearing and in fact seem to enjoy all the attention. Come springtime, their fleece will start to bud again and grow new morsels for a future feast.

No one is quite sure where covisflower came from, but a popular nursery rhyme tells of a kindly farmer who opened up the leaves of one of his cauliflower plants and found a sheep there instead of the usual crop. In all likelihood, covisflower were bred from existing sheep and at some point imbued with magic to make them more like vegetables. Or perhaps they were created from enchanted vegetables by farmers tired of having cauliflower that couldn't stand up to even the slowest snails. Regardless, these creatures make lovely companions and are favored by vegetarians. Although they look fluffy from a distance, their fleece is actually made of stiff but edible plant buds. While not the softest creatures, covisflower fleece comes in many colors and breeders work hard to create new and vibrant colors to enter into shows.

Despite its name, your covisflower is not a flower at all but a small sheep. The name actually refers to the little flowering buds that coat its body and form its plant-like fleece. They have not yet come in to give it the full-bodied fluffy appearance of the adults, but young covisflower grow quickly and yours will be fully-grown within a few months. In the mean time, it seems to enjoy running around the Keep grounds and frolicking among the Keep's various gardens. You have to watch it attentively, though; while they resemble vegetables and have an edible fleece, they're not above sneaking a nibble of their produce lookalikes.

Adult covisflowers are small compared to other sheep, even the big ones hardly the size of a dog. They're gentle creatures, unable to do much to defend themselves except hide in bushels of cauliflower and run if their garden is invaded by hungry rabbits. Though it contains plenty of fiber, the fleece is far too stiff and brittle to turn into any sort of fabric. It gets sheared once per year nonetheless. The crunchy coat is edible when washed and as it will simply shrivel up in the cold once winter comes, it is trimmed off and used in delicious salads during the Harvest Festival. The creatures suffer no ill effects from their annual shearing and in fact seem to enjoy all the attention. Come springtime, their fleece will start to bud again and grow new morsels for a future feast.

No one is quite sure where covisflower came from, but a popular nursery rhyme tells of a kindly farmer who opened up the leaves of one of his cauliflower plants and found a sheep there instead of the usual crop. In all likelihood, covisflower were bred from existing sheep and at some point imbued with magic to make them more like vegetables. Or perhaps they were created from enchanted vegetables by farmers tired of having cauliflower that couldn't stand up to even the slowest snails. Regardless, these creatures make lovely companions and are favored by vegetarians. Although they look fluffy from a distance, their fleece is actually made of stiff but edible plant buds. While not the softest creatures, covisflower fleece comes in many colors and breeders work hard to create new and vibrant colors to enter into shows.