#laseraw

After hatching, female Enssamo infants stay with their mothers until their third cycle and up to the fifth in the case of males.

Long enough for their eye sight to be completely developed. Quietly staying secluded under the sticks and mud of the finely camouflaged riverbed nests carefully constructed by their mothers months before the eggs are laid.

Although one of natures sharpest eyesight and able to see color gammas beyond the Lem spectrum, complete darkness is crucial for young Enssamos; their developing conical eyes must remain unexposed to direct light sources for enough time, so that the corneas are able to endure it. Paradoxically, their characteristic protruding eyes provide Enssamos with a panoramic field of view, while such high sensitivity demands to build up a strong tolerance, an endurance training period, that if ignored could make them blind and unable to sustain themselves in the wild.

Even if as adults the Enssamos become some of the most effective hunters in the rainforest, this developmental condition renders them blind for the first few cycles of their life.

The Otomn in its Floral stage is a voracious predator. Consuming most sorts of fauna it comes across in the Loop Rainforest. Its natural camouflage and amazing versatility of speeds place it ahead as the most lethal hunter in the area. The Otomn movement can go unnoticed at both ends of the velocity spectrum. Becoming so still and purposeful in its movement when prey is unaware of its presence, becoming practically invisible. And then moving a lightning speed as it attacks its victim, which mostly remain oblivious until impacted by its jaws or claws.

After the hunt is secured, although rarely perished, the Otomn secretes powerful fluids through its four frontal appendixes that quickly erode enough of the outer layer of their prey to penetrate beneath it and dilute the innards of the creature, which the Otomn will rapidly aspirate, avoiding all solid and indigestible elements.

Towards the end of 3 to 4 cycles that the Floral stage lasts the Otomn must have consumed enough nutrients to build enough strength to generate the chrysalis that will see it evolve to its maturity, the Aerial stage.

The Ellmizho is often believed to be a carrion feeder, and while opportunistic findings of carcasses, as well as unsupervised eggs on momentarily empty nests, are a large part of its diet, there is a seasonal aspect to the nutrition of the female of the species.

During the estrous period and throughout their pregnancy, female Ellmizho’s turn to hunting live prey and consuming solely fresh meat and eggs, if they can find them. Completely abandoning the consumption of carrion.

This remarkable shift in their nurture comes as the cycle begins, in the first days of hormonal rearrangement, their side effects cause a severe purging of most digestive flora regularly used throughout the rest of the cycles. Leaving the animal with the bare basics for digestion and an instinctive appetite for plain but highly nutritious, low toxicity sources.

The clear inflammation and the abundant markings caused through the purging process signals males the launching of the mating cycle and suitors are attracted to engage the females attention.

To achieve this and although they would never consume it, due to its low odor and bare taste, compared to the fermented and rotting meats they mostly consume, some males will hunt down live prey and present it to receptive females as offerings.

This dietary pattern is carried on throughout the pregnancy by Ellmizho mothers, although their nomadic mates absent themselves after the estrous cycle concludes.

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Although Marhn has been tending to this Horned Ollies for 8 cycles he still finds them mesmerising. How such large, mighty creatures can move so gently across the terrain. He can barely hear them if he closes his eyes.


For Marhn it’s hard to believe this natural wonders could one day cease to be. They seem as much a part of the landscape of the Elyanno plains as the Cobb Mountain Chain or the Sawff river. 

As a child Marhn had seen Horned Ollies in the old docu rolls and encyclopaedic archives of his units knowistry. Ollies were his favourite and loved to depict them on the simulators whenever teaches gave them task free access. He knew them by heart and was one of the best among his classmates at emulating them. His sims could even make sounds, emote and make eye contact. Loop copies of Marhn’s sims were often shared around by classmates and they even got to impress the students of higher grades that saw them. He was a natural. 

Around Marhn’s 2nd cycle, brief but ghastly reports of the plea of the Horned Ollie started to emerge. Sadly as he grew older, colonies grew smaller and foreseeable extinction was in the horizon. It only got worst and worst. All conservation efforts failed as the environment of the Lacla continued to degrade. Nutrient scarcity and the irreversible toxicity of the ground were too severe for the remaining Ollie population, already weakened and massively stressed. Reproduction numbers had thinned like the quality of the environment and the precious few new births faced a dire prospect.
 
At the time Marhn volunteered into the Assisted Migration Program, he did it only as a brief aside, something to help during a 3rd of the cycle at most and return to his position in the Ella Department of Analysis. It was his career after all. Once there, he worked on managing and strategy which felt closer to his profesional expertise.

When the recruitment notice for ground positions came up in the internal boards, he felt his skin rise with electricity. He hadn’t even considered it. He had come there just to help. Being actually close to the Ollies had not occurred to him. See them in person.

Soon after he applied for the position and was transported to the Elyanno plains, Marhn saw them for the first time. This environment was as new for Marhn as it was for the Ollies. Feeling of doubt, fear and trepidation whenof facing the unknown landscape. He felt that within him as much as he saw it in them. He felt synched to them. This changed Marhn for good. It became clear he would not go back to an office. Not as long as he could afford to be out in the open. Out with the Horned Ollies.

The Rudd is an often misunderstood member of the fauna that populates the vast Loop rainforest.

Its parsimonious attitude and the very low level of activity it exhibits day to day, make it seem disengaged, disinterested in anything around him. Mature Rudds may remain in one spot moving at an glacially slow pace, absorbing nutrients from the soil beneath them and softly filtering fluid particles from the air.

They only become noticeable during mating season, when they produce loud snorting sounds and their sweat glands inflate and become externally visible on their body, making the particular odor that characterizes their sexual availability.

There are so very few of them and they have such dilated life cycles, many rarely get to reproduce, since finding one another becomes so extremely unlikely.

The Rudds role is essential in one of they characteristics of the Loop Rainforest, the mega flora that populates it. Since after feeding from it the mucus trail Rudds leave behind regenerate the soil to an incomparable degree, overpowering its carbon potential and oxigenación levels so much that the seeds fortunate to grow on it can do so in at 4 times the regular speed and 8 to 10 times the size. Thus this barely noticeable creature is instrumental on one of the most iconic features of this unique environment.

Allophs carry large amounts of fluid weigh within the fat cell matrixes that fill their many bulging bladders.

They cross over the Willby Valley to load up on the mineral gel that slowly pours out of the cracks on rock walls and crevasses. By firmly pressing against the walls with the hardened frontal region of their craniums, adult Allophs increase mineral gel secretion from the rock face, which they absorb through small organs within the seams of their cranial sutures. Once a crack is bared of gel they move their search to a different area and begin the process again, until the girth of their bulges has expanded enough in size that they feel their skin tighten, which will trigger a satiety response. Making the Alloph feel full; Depending on the cycles season, a satisfying fluid loading can take from 4 to 5 hours on damp periods, to over 3 or 4 days of hard stone pressing on dry periods.

On their return journey Allophs excrete the abundant mineral salts derived from processing the gel. The salt deposited on their pathways is abrasive to the voracious Toll mollusks that populate most other areas of the Willby. This exemption makes the pathways, created by Alloph pilgrimage through the ages, a unique environment in which to find several types of flora that is simply unable to thrive elsewhere in the valley due to the ubiquitous presence of the Tolls.

Once back on their safe nesting regions Allophs reunite with their offspring. The weary travelers kneel or lay down on their sides. Eager with thirst the younger members get their fill of fluids by pressing their developing foreheads against the bulges of the exhausted adult, rapidly absorbing the precious liquid through their cranial seams. The fluids they ingest were fully processed by the adult previously and are immediately digestible and highly nutritious for the cubs who enthusiastically push each other for a spot to drain.

Nowadays Laplam lizards feed mostly Guyitts, invasive rodents species that the early settlers used as experimental subjects for development of multiple acclamation medical treatments, serums, vaccines and antibiotics. During the first 35 cycles of the arrival the breeding and use of Guyitts was so widespread that 3 full farming facilities were operative.

During the wind wall of 682 one of them got destroyed and the surviving Guyitts made it out into the wild. Batches of scientifically pre acclimated varieties were ideally designed to thrive in the environment and quickly became invasive.

Thanks to their astounding birth rates and exponential growth, Guyitts presence quickly displaced the native Polsat, a flightless bird that occupied the same area, which is now almost extinct. On the other hand Laplam lizards populations have tripled since records are kept and have double their size. 


Mondhols are some of the most extraordinary pack hunters in the Lonmar Steppe. With their unrivalled stamina, a small pack of 4 or five Mondhols can chase down a large Elamond 20 times their size. Both their persistence and their tracking abilities are second to none.

Mondhols have no specialised respiratory apparatus since they breathe cutaneously, allowing them for a constant exchange of carbon dioxide for oxygen, leaving them unconcerned with thermoregulation. The absence of breathing organs not only helps with their extreme lightness, but breathing through the skin also provides them with a full body scent sensory organ. One of the sharpest know to exist; Mondhols dynamic olfatometry can reach between 10 and 88 on the odor prism. 

Highly territorial, Mondhols packs always return to the moister regions within the Lonmar to replenish fluid reserves on their dorsal sacs, depleted after their feats of hunting endurance, and recover by bathing on the pools that keep their skin moist.

This makes them specially vulnerable to the environmental changing conditions the Steppe has seen in the last 12 cycles. The Mondhol populations and specific packs have dwindled to a third of the earlier records and forecasts are not auspicious. 
The Mondhol, such an extraordinary predator, unrivalled on so many fronts, may soon be extinguished through merely remaining on its native habitat.