Faveba[]
Physical Characteristics[]
Favebas are a four-legged mammal with one meter long ears and a thick coat of fur. Their heads have small snouts with two nostrils and two forward facing eyes. Beneath their chin is a serrated bone protrusion that extends down and out by 10 centimeters at a 30 degree angle.
The fur is very fine, yet also grows in dense. It is very well insulated from the daytime heat or the night cold. Its ears contain many blood vessels to help regulate the daytime temperature. A faveba also has very good hearing, and can notice sounds of predators from many miles away. Its eyes are less spectacular, specializing in seeing in the dark.
A Faveba has large flat-toed feet which it can use to dexterously navigate sandy terrain to escape from danger. When running they can match horses, and outrun anything on the sand. Because of their broad feet, a faveba can turn quickly to escape hunters. When in motion, a faveba will use its ears to balance and turn.
Favebas have slender bodies with muscular legs. Its legs bend backwards around its knees as it runs, and can rotate giving it fluid movement. Though it does not have a tail, it has longer hair on its rump to cover its anus and genitals. They are generally grey-skinned with white, light brown, or gold fur. Some breeds have black or grey in their fur as well, but these are only found in domestic breeds.
Behaviour[]
Favebas use magical energy to seep water into its mouth, making drinking uneccsary. Their diet consists mainly of desert leaves, dry roots, fruit, and cacti (which is uses its bone protrusion to pry open).
Favebas are very cautious around strange creatures, and are very reactive to sounds. The noise from a city will stress a faveba, so they tend to stay far from large civilizations. They can recognize the call of a shepherd from up to 5 kilometres away.
If a shepherd provides food, shelter, and a home, a faveba will not object to sleeping at night near to small groups of mortals, who can shear them and milk them. They are friendly and will play with and socialize with their shepherds. With each other, favebas are playful and intelligent. They will communicate and cooperate to get food or outsmart predators. They are not aggressive and will seldom fight each other.
If threatened, a faveba will try to escape over loose sand. If cornered or trying to protect its den from predators, a faveba will fight with the bone protrusion, trying to injure and allow its family to escape.
A faveba can produce a variety of growling sounds. They can also click to alert nearby friends of danger. At night, they will also stand up and and whistle to communicate over long distances with each other if separated, or to ensure that other favebas to not graze too close to their den.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
A faveba lives with a family of four to eight – two parents and their litter. Mates will stay together for life, and if one partner dies the other will generally follow soon after. If separated, faveba mates will often be stressed as they try to return to their partner.
A faveba family will find a single den to dig out, and will often remain in the same den for their entire lives. A pair will dig a den, store food, and mate. Pups are born on their own or in pairs. They are initially blind and hairless, so they must stay below ground. Pups take two years to grow to full size, and will stay at home until they are five years old.
When a pup reaches sexual maturity at five years old, they leave home and travel across the desert, whistling to find other favebas. If two favebas meet, they will interact, but only about half of the time will they mate. When two favebas do settle down, they repeat the cycle of making a new den. Favebas will live to be fifteen years old.
Favebas are domesticated and grown for their fur, water, and meat. Shepherds to not contain their flocks, and usually only have one family at a time, making their herding a difficult process, and their fur an expensive luxury. Some people who live away from cities and have money to spend will buy favebas at pets. Because of the stress of living away from the desert, few favebas reproduce in captivity.
Sun Ray[]
Physical Characteristics[]
Sun Rays are inactive animals made of very light materials that allow them to float in the air with minimal effort and a friendly wind. Their brain is within a translucent dome 2-50cm in diameter. From this dome extends eight tendrils – muscled arms 1-20cm in diameter which are connected via a thin, opaque layer of skin. Where the legs connect is a flat sac which is its stomach, reproductive organs, and heart.
The central dome is the nervous cavity, but it is not reinforced with bones – it is instead able to tense up and become rigid when experiencing trauma. When tensed, it is as durable as hide. The Sun Ray has a globule of gelatinous tissue below the surface of the nervous cavity called a receptacle. Using the receptacle a Sun Ray may see light, colours, and detect general forms. It cannot see any more clearly than rough approximations of objects, nor can it move the receptacle without moving its entire body.
The eight tendrils are muscled near the top, and the first half is thickest. Using hydraulics, the Sun Ray may pull blood into its nervous cavity and heart to cause individual legs to contact, propelling its movement. The legs are non-prehensile, but it does have mouths on the end which it will soak in water to gather nutrients and algae.
Sun Rays do not age, and will continue to grow larger and larger until their deaths. However, if a Sun Ray is injured it will take a long time to recover, and as they grow larger they also become slower. This limits their lifespan in its own way, although some Sun Rays have lived for centuries, growing to be dozens of meters across and blocking out the sun as they pass overhead.
Behaviour[]
To fight off predators, the Sun Ray may discharge bright waves of radiant energy. Though rarely lethal, it may blind or distract while the Ray takes flight. Once airborne, Sun Rays can spread their tendrils wide to allow the wind to push them as high as the Emerald Mountains.
Sun Rays use photosynthesis to breathe and gather nutrients from the sun while in flight, and eat algae at night. The skin between their tendrils acts as receptors for the suns light – storing it in chemical batteries for use later, photosynthesis, or immediate use.
Sun Rays are unintelligent and will not react much to the presence of mortal races unless being hurt or bothered. Because even large blooms of Sun Rays are harmless though, they are seldom bothered.
Reproduction and Lifestyle[]
Sun Rays are able to breed by mating as hermaphrodites. Two Rays will meet in the water and join together. After a few minutes they will separate and depart, each pregnant. They will drop their eggs into the water of a stagnant lake where they will emerge three to four weeks later.
Sun Rays are solitary and do not communicate or cooperate with other Sun Rays.