#snowpet

Snowpets! You love ‘em! You hate ‘em! You bury Sora in them every year! You may have heard some rumors, you may have some questions, so let’s dive right into the three species of Snowpet and what makes them tick.

The first thing anyone learns about snowpets is how fast they multiply, so that’s where we’ll begin. Snowpets enter a breeding frenzy once a year, around the time of the snow festival, and have incredibly short maturation periods. To celebrate the Snow Festival, many wild snowpets are captured by the Tigereye Peak government and given out to anyone who wishes to participate. It’s very important that these progenitors are wild-caught, because after the breeding period ends, tamed snowpets will never re-enter estrus. They can only ever breed again if released back into the wild, and to start a captive breeding program, they must be caught during their breeding period. They are also quite difficult to capture, since they’re hard to spot and detect and much craftier than they seem.

To keep things interesting, the Tigereye government distributes a new species of snowpet every year. Capturing snowpets on one’s own is usually too difficult to be done, and also generally frowned on by other villagers because of snowpet reproductive rates. If they’re going to be drowning in snow butts, it may as well be a hip and trendy snow butt that’s government-sanctioned!

Snowpets are actually covered in a thick shell of snow that naturally sticks to their bodies. This covering actually serves two purposes, the first being quite counter-intuitive; warmth. This tightly packed layer of snow actually traps heat inside like an igloo, and keeps them very warm even in the most frigid of temperatures. Even if the snowpet is frozen in a block of ice, it can survive by entering a stasis while its snow layer keeps its true body from freezing. The second use is to highly sophisticated camouflage. Several monsters in Tigereye Peak are able to “see” heat, which makes snowpets completely invisible to them. This snow layer is so tightly packed that no heat escapes. Dirty snowpets are generally what happens when a snow layer hasn’t been replaced in a long time, they’ve been in areas with a lot of dirt, or simply as a mark of experience. Dirty snowpets are usually much more clever than their white cousins, and in the wild are often pack leaders.

The snow layer can drop off and get thinner in times of great stress, allowing the snowpet to run faster to escape from an enemy, or to wiggle out of a trap. On rare occasions, snowpets bred during snow festivals have a hard time forming a thick snow layer, revealing their natural color. These are called “melted snowpets” and they have no chance of surviving in the wild. Not only are they easily detected by predators, but they’re also ironically prone to hypothermia because they have no insulating layer that traps their heat inside. While some villagers like the hardiness and cleverness of a snowpet for companionship in exploring, melted snowpets are too delicate to bring on long expeditions and are mostly kept as house pets. They’re perfectly fine and healthy as long as they have access to a warm shelter year-round!

So, what’s the opposite of a melted snowpet? A decorated snowpet. These hardy creatures can create an extra thick snow layer, thick enough to carry decorations such as rocks and holly branches. In the wild, a decorated snowpet will adorn itself with festive decorations to impress others of its species, but in captivity, decorated snowpets are sought after for many reasons. Explorers desire them for their survival skills and intellect, animal collectors value their rareness, artists find them to be a stunning living canvas. There's even a story about an explorer who pushed a message in a bottle into their decorated snowfox’s snow covering, and the snowfox ran 100 miles to get help and save their master.

While the snow layer and breeding season is a defining characteristic of every snowpet, the three species are very different in their behaviors, and often serve different functions in domestication.

Snowbunnies live in high altitudes around the Tigereye Peak area. They live in truly massive warrens, dug in inaccessible locations such as the sides of cliffs, or monster-infested areas. Since they can move undetected by certain giant monsters, they often crowd around them for protection like a big bunny cloud, taking care not to touch the monster’s feet. They’re almost never seen alone, and form small groups (called fluffles) that do everything together, to the benefit of the warren. These ‘fluffles’ act somewhat like bees to the warren’s ‘hive’, bringing food back to their home, expanding the burrows, and even sacrificing their lives to protect their homes from attacking monsters. Disturbing a snowbunny warren is a terrible mistake that can cost an experienced warrior their life. One snowbunny is not a problem, but a thousand angry ones sure is.

 Domesticated snowbunnies favor their master first and foremost, but still form a bond with other members of the town (typically their master’s close friends and family). They’re fast, cunning, and will sacrifice their lives to save someone they love, but being so small and weak on their own, they aren’t often used by explorers. They’re more often given to children, because of their friendliness with the whole family and intense loyalty that keeps children safe from minor dangers.

Snowfoxes are not eusocial like snowbunnies. After the breeding season is done, snowfoxes will break up into “small” skulks of about 5 - 10 individuals and go their separate ways. Over the course of the year, these skulks usually thin down to 2 - 3 members, because of members dying, groups breaking away from lack of food to support a large skulk, or simply from in-fighting. However, they are only ever alone if something terrible has befallen their skulk or partner. They’re predators, mostly targeting snowbunnies and snowphoenixes, but also eating whatever is small and unlucky enough to fall into their jaws. Since snowfoxes and snowbunnies are both undetectable by certain monsters, there can be fights to the death between skulks and fluffles right between a monster’s legs!

Snowbunnies are intelligent, but snowfoxes are smarter. A snowbunny is only a threat in numbers, but snowfoxes have power on their own. Extremely quick and agile, a snowfox can assist its master in battle by attacking a monster’s weak points and dodge just as the monster makes a move at it. They can’t take down a monster alone, but they can distract a monster long enough for the master to make a killing blow, or to make a safe getaway. A skulk of snowfoxes can kill an entire fluffle of snowbunnies or take out a weaker monster, such as a common silver.

They bond deeply with a master who treats them well, and can’t stand being left alone. They’re perfectly content to follow their master from a distance, watching over them and making sure they’re not in danger. They aren’t particularly affectionate or emotional, but even when they’re unseen, they’re usually somewhere nearby. They hate being caged and kept away from their owners, and if separated, they can travel great distances trying to find them. They’re almost like a mix of cat and dog, behaviorally speaking.

Snowphoenixes aren’t nearly as social as other snowpets. After the breeding season, they promptly break away from the group and go back to living solitary lives. They mostly eat fish and the occasional small mammal such as a pika, and flock around frozen rivers and lakes. They’re much lighter than they seem and their wide feet make it very easy for them to stand on thin ice. They peck holes in the ice with their beaks, and catch fish by dunking their entire head in. 

Despite their beautiful wings, their feathers are covered in a thick layer of snow that makes them too stiff to fly properly. When they do take flight, they have to drop their snow layer, which reveals their stunning orange plumage, and this gives them the appearance of bursting into flame. The name ‘snow phoenix’ likely comes from early explorers who accidentally startled these birds and watched them take flight. Even though they can fly, they aren’t very good at it and often fall prey to snowfoxes and other predators that stalk the mountain.