-Fey-
You know, waking up in the middle of nowhere is already incredibly concerning.. But walking up to a bunch of tiny people crawling on you is just down right mind boggling.
The Bensu
Some information has been retconned from the previous post on Bensu as I've worked on them more.
The Bensu are a small humanoid race, average around 4-5 inches in height. They possess a range of animalistic features, with short velvety peach fuzz covering their small bodies in shades of lavender, leaning towards purple, blue, or pink. Their hair grows longer on certain parts, like their heads, tails, arms, and chests. Normally Bensu will have two pattern types, most commonly they will be covered in white speckles, and a secondary less seen pattern will be white stripes, or the stripes will take on their darker hair colors.
Bensu have digitigrade legs with clawed and padded feet, allowing them to climb vertical surfaces effortlessly. Their hands are similar, with retractable claws, aiding in their climbing abilities. Thanks to their springy legs, they can move quickly and jump impressively high relative to their size. They possess a flexible and agile body, often compared to squirrels due to their ability to take on impossibly high falls with relatively no damage (with exceptions to landing on hard surfaces).
On their backs, below the neck, the Bensu have a group of black striped quills controlled by specialized muscles. Additionally, they have six more quills, known as blood quills or pin feathers, which can be moved independently. These quills serve as a defense mechanism, communication feature, and aid in balance while dashing through trees. Air passing through the quills creates a distinct whistle noise.
In combination with their feathers, Bensu use shrill clicks, whistles, and chirps, along with body language, as their primary means of communication. Most clans or colonies will use variations of these in their language.
The most prominent feature of a Bensu is the single horn that grows out from their foreheads, just above the brow, although there is the rare occasion that a Bensu won’t ever grow one. The Bensu’s horn is linked to a sort of telekinetic ability that they use in many tasks, be it carrying something while climbing and keeping their hands free to move, or using it to carry and keep track of children, while farmers or foragers in clans might use it to carry crops and herbs; same goes for fighters or scouts carrying weapons for defense or offense. They can also use their telekinetic signatures to identify each other, as well as slow the descent of a fall if their ability is strong enough (the more skilled with this ability may even use it to lessen their own gravity to gain more distance in jumps).
The size and shape of the horn determines the strength of their telekinetic ability, with larger and forked horns indicating greater power.
A strong well trained telekinetic ability can be enough to carry another full grown Bensu or other heavier objects, but on average the heaviest thing an untrained telekinesis could carry would probably be a pebble the size of their own head.
On another topic, concerning the physical differences between both genders of this race, females and males alike don’t have many differences. The only outward difference would be in the women, this being tufts that grow out from the tips of their ears, but aside from this if a female Bensu trims her tufts there would be no outward difference aside from sex organs or what the Bensu might consider feminine clothing or adornments. And because Bensu don’t have breasts due to not being breast feeding mammals, that is an even more difficult distinction to make.
And while on the topic of gender, the Bensu struggle with a high gender ratio imbalance. Males outnumbering females 10 to 1. This shows strongly in their culture, but surprisingly not in the ways one might think. That is a topic deserving of its own post entirely.
The Bensu are a shy race of people, their societies are often hidden from sight. They are in constant danger either from magic hungry goblins, alchemists looking to use them as an essence source, or predatory animals in general. Its a tough world for a race so small.
Despite their adversities they actually do really well for themselves, as they've cultivated societies all over Adra.
