Pembrick's Creaturepedia

by Andrew Peterson

  WEAKNESS: Portraiture.

  TASTE: Like selbril.

  DEMEANOR: Self-conscious. Snappy.

  Snapping Diggle

  DRAGONMOLE

  CLASSIFICATION: hatcher/scraper

  A pleasant walk through the Plains of Palen Jabh-J will yield many surprises both pleasant and un-. It was late summer, I recall, and the day was pleasantly hot. I was pleased to discover a brook running with water pleasantly cool, and stopped for a respite and a sugarberry bun (most pleasant!). At once I smelled scorched earth and unbathedness, a sure sign either of a Strander smoking a mudpipe or of a dragonmole. I experienced a nudging beneath me, which was neither pleasant nor unpleasant, and gave me cause to stand and inspect the brookside bank. There I saw not a mudpipe Strander but the slow and steady rumpling of the ground itself—where I had been sitting! Across the brook I leapt and laid flat on the opposite bank, where I besmeared myself with dirt and lay perfectly still, sketchpad in hand. The dragonmole emerged, snuffled, scraped, smoked (not a mudpipe! I mean its very nostrils!), then laid seventeen eggs of a pleasant azure hue! It reentered its tunnel and left the eggs to the elements—elements that were, as I said, most pleasant. I waited on the brookbank for two days without food, holding ever still for the moment of hatching, and was rewarded by the sight of the seventeen little dragonmolelings greeting the world. How foolish I was! Baby dragonmoles have voracious appetites, and they prefer toes to anything else. I limped on, unfazed.

  WEAKNESS: Underbelly. Music.

  TASTE: Charred.

  DEMEANOR: Casual. Deceptive. Pleasantly unpleasant.

  Dragonmole

  FAZZLE DOVE

  CLASSIFICATION: flapper/gooter/hoodler

  The fazzle dove is peaceful in the extreme—until it is beset, at which point it becomes peaceful in moderation. In addition to its mad gooting and hoodling when under attack, it emits a malodorous smell, which usually reminds one of an uncle or a grandfather after a large meal. Other than the beany stench, the fazzle dove’s only defense is flight.

  WEAKNESS: Bread crumbs. Beans. Everything.

  TASTE: Like henmeat.

  DEMEANOR: Nervous. Oblivious.

  Fazzle Dove

  FENDRIL

  CLASSIFICATION: soarer/glider/slicer

  The fendril is perhaps the most beautiful of Aerwiar’s large gliding birds. Its wingspan can reach up to two mengths (the length of two men lying down), which was the case with the one pictured here. I know because I happened to be napping in a meadow near Bytroph when I awoke to a strange, furry disturbance at my feet. I woke in that lonely meadow to discover that I was not alone! Another traveler, having chosen that very same meadow for his nap, reposed lengthwise with his head at my toes! I exclaim this to you with many exclamation points that you may know the shock and repulsion I felt when my solitude was violated and my toes benustled with the sleeping man’s hairy noggin! But, as one learns when one is an adventurer, the strangest occurrences often provide the happiest discoveries. We were unwittingly, the man and I, measuring out exactly two mengths in the meadow, which was to my advantage when a fendril, thinking us perhaps mere corpses in the field, landed beside us and spread its wings to a measurement I was able to verify with only the slightest tilting of my head: two mengths. The fendril flew again and glided over the meadow long enough for me to sketch it. The man slept on, heedless of the monumental documentation to which he had given aid.

  The lone fendril, on the other hand, is a mystery. It must be larger (four mengths, perhaps?) because it is visible among the highest clouds at the turning of each season. People of every culture, community, city, and race look for its coming at the beginning of each new season. No one knows why it is so, and many believe the Maker set the lone fendril in motion and sustains it in the high winds by his good pleasure. I did not bother to sketch the lone fendril, because everyone sees it four times a turning and I believed it to be a waste of precious time and skill. Also, the lone fendril flies so high that any sketch would be blotchy at best.

  WEAKNESS: Arrows. Nets. Mean people.

  TASTE: Like fazzle dove.

  DEMEANOR: Majestic. Inquisitive.

  Fendril

  FERNO LIZARD

  CLASSIFICATION: dragger/winder/human-hater

  If one wishes to remain uneaten in North Glipwood Forest, one is wise to avoid the ferno lizard. It prefers humans to almost any meat, not because of its discerning taste but because it despises us. I am convinced of this because one of these very beasts chased me for seven hours when many other edibles were present and might have been easily chewed. Ferno lizards nest in the lower boughs of willow trees, and their dwellings are usually buttressed with bones, which I suspect to be human fingers and toes fed to their young. I escaped the ferno only because a horned hound (which was being pursued by a gunkee, which was being pursued by a bomnubble) ate it whole.

  WEAKNESS: Horned hounds.

  TASTE: Like fendril.

  DEMEANOR: Spiteful. Ravenous.

  Ferno Lizard

  FLABBIT

  CLASSIFICATION: dasher/hopper/flesheater

  “Look at the cutesy-wootsy ears!” the little children say at the festivals and fairs. “Graggle its stretchy back skin!” they exclaim. But when a flabbit is full grown, no zookeeper or traveling cageman would ever let a child near it. The flabbits dash, jump, dart, and even burrow in their haste to escape the presence of a human. But the moment the flabbit is cornered, it will turn and make you its business. Its teeth (long!) will bite, and its claws (sharpish!) will claw, and you will not have your dinner if you’re not careful because the flabbit is having his. And that dinner is you. Or part of you. As it was me. My elbow flesh. Avoid the flabbit.

  WEAKNESS: Flight instinct. Stretchy skin. Funny looking.

  TASTE: Like skonk.

  DEMEANOR: Cowardly, then freaky.

  Flabbit

  GAMBLOAT

  CLASSIFICATION: muncher/stabber

  How fortunate I was, while dozing in the crook of a glipwood tree’s sweeping limbs, to behold not one but seven gambloats munching the mulch of the forest floor. Although not particularly aggressive, gambloats are extremely dangerous if standing directly beneath you when you wake and nearly fall and are nearly impaled on their crown of horns. I kept my composure and managed this sketch.

  WEAKNESS: Anywhere but the top of the head.

  TASTE: Like ferno lizard.

  DEMEANOR: Bored. Loping. Indifferent. Frustrated when trying to dislodge impaled creatures from their horns.

  Gambloat

  GARGAN ROCKROACH

  CLASSIFICATION: lurer/lurker/creeper

  Avoid the gullies and sinkholes of Glipwood Forest at all costs. It is commonly known that the gargan rockroach sets its trap in such places. But the gargan rockroach lying in wait beneath the leaves and limbs gathered at the bottom of the gully is only one of the dangers to the oblivious gully crawler. The sweet scent emanated by the female gargan rockroach sends some animals into a temperbolic trance and draws them, unable to resist, unto the waiting rockroach. It is not uncommon to find gathered in the gully any number of deadly creatures trapped and awaiting the gargan rockroach’s return from deeper in the earth, where it tends its young. I myself was dazed and drawn to one such den, and I found myself surrounded by cows, hounds, diggles, and blats, all brainlessly waiting to be gobbled. I escaped by sheer force of will, hiding beneath a pile of bones to sketch the beast for your protection and education.

  WEAKNESS: None.

  TASTE: Unknown.

  DEMEANOR: Unfeeling. Hungering. Clickety (of mandible).

  Gargan Rockroach

  GEEF

  CLASSIFICATION: buzzer/gazer/stinger

  I slept soundly for three nights in an abandoned digtoad hole, too afraid to strike a match. Each morning I
woke with a tiny hole burrowed into my flesh, which itched madly for half the day and left me wondering what manner of creature was crafty enough to nibble me unawares. On the third night, I exposed my fleshy belly and feigned sleep. I heard the geef buzzing about in the hole, then felt its prickly feet upon my squishy gut. “Aha!” I said, and struck a match. What I saw, I show you here, lest you disbelieve my testimony. The geef apologized after an unsettlingly long gazing contest, then buzzed away. My belly itching was a small price for such a discovery.

  WEAKNESS: Can be lured by tummies.

  TASTE: Unknown.

  DEMEANOR: Deferential.

  Geef

  GLIPPERFISH

  CLASSIFICATION: leaper/swisher/lurker

  Glipperfish congregate mainly at the base of the Skreean cliffs, visible in multitudes at certain times of the year as a silvery slice of light at the base of Fingap Falls (thundering!). Little is known about glipperfish habitats, but they are easily caught with nets and/or nobblings, and they taste delicious. A single glipperfish is docile and even cordial, but a school of them has been known to nibble swimmers quite to death.

  WEAKNESS: Nobblings. Nets. Seastags. Giant lobsters.

  TASTE: Like gambloat haunch.

  DEMEANOR: Fishy.

  Glipperfish

  GROBBLIN

  CLASSIFICATION: lie-in-waiter/leaker/wrencher (of innards)

  A sentient race, grobblins are similar in many ways to ridgerunners, but ridgerunners might find that notion offensive in the extreme. Grobblins are notoriously difficult to espy, and even more difficult to capture. Difficulty has never deterred me, however, so I present to you the only known image of a grobblin. I sketched it with great trepidation while wearing a costume that made me look exactly like a nightstand. For long hours I hunkered beside the bed in a vacant cottage in Warren Downs, balancing the lantern on my back and holding a brush and several old coins in my drawer-like arms, before the grobblin crept into the house. It doinkled about in the shadows, snuffling and squelching as it sought its loot of hand towels and spoons. Where it went, I cannot say. No one has ever come upon a grobblin tribe. However, they seem to have a rare affection for spoons and hand towels, for which reason I was grateful not to have included either in my end table costumery.

  WEAKNESS: Thievery.

  TASTE: Unnecessary.

  DEMEANOR: Mysterious. Doinkly.

  Grobblin

  GRYFENDRIL (Horned)

  CLASSIFICATION: flapper/glider/clawer

  Although similar to the fendril in shape and manner, the gryfendril is much smaller. Where the fendril is majestic, the gryfendril is severe; where the fendril is wise, the gryfendril is shrewd; where the fendril is two mengths, the gryfendril is but a single dogth (the length of a dog). They are birds of prey (females have a single spiky spike) and are the known enemy of the snickbuzzard. I drew this one from a perch near the summit of Mog-Balgrik, just before a snickbuzzard attacked my right shoe.

  WEAKNESS: None.

  TASTE: Like daggerfish.

  DEMEANOR: Severe. Shrewd. Self-confident, with a dash of envy.

  Horned Gryfendril

  GUGGLER

  CLASSIFICATION: finder/spitter

  Uncle Bahb told me about gugglers, but I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe that they were armless, or that their noses were on sideways, or that their heads and bodies were but one globulous rotundity. I didn’t believe that they traveled in packs or that they could climb trees (armless!) faster than a mustachioed thwap or that they had flowy hair or that they barked like diggles. Then I saw one, deep in Glipwood Forest, near the foamy rush of the Mighty Blapp, lying on a rock where it serenely sunned. (Uncle Bahb told me they sunned on rocks near rivers, but I didn’t believe that, either.) I gasped, withdrew behind a fallen plumyum tree, and sketched in disbelief.

  WEAKNESS: Thorny bushes. Sticks. Pointy stones. Strings. Tacks. Punches. Angry glances.

  TASTE: Like gulpswallow, roasted and braised.

  DEMEANOR: Lazy. Ticklish. Defiant.

  Guggler

  GULPSWALLOW

  CLASSIFICATION: gulper/flapper/swallower

  Perhaps the most hortubinous of all of Glipwood Forest’s birds, the gulpswallow is also the funniest. They are known to fall asleep in the branches and then plop to the ground to doze the night away, cutely snoring and blissfully unaware of the great danger around them, not unlike some residents of Aerwiar I have known. The vast number of gulpswallows in Skree is the only reason the species has survived. They are known as the buffet item of the forest because so many of the creatures therein subsist on gulpswallows for much of the year. These poofs of birdish beauty don’t seem to mind, however, and they are only too willing to propagate themselves by the squillions. They eat noisily (worms! bugs!), but the gulping and swallowing sounds are nearly as cute as their snores.

  WEAKNESS: Everything.

  TASTE: Like gryfendril.

  DEMEANOR: Sleepy. Submissive. Good humored.

  Gulpswallow

  GUNKEE

  CLASSIFICATION: climber/trickster/slapper

  How I longed to see a Skreean gunkee! When I was a boy, tales abounded of Manbeast, a human boy raised by gunkees in the eastern reaches of Glipwood Forest. Manbeast and Dwack, his gunkee companion, swung through the viny boughs of the wood, getting into all sorts of rascally cahoots together. My favorite was Manbeast and the Knittery Riot, wherein Dwack stole a spool of yarn and slapped it repeatedly, thinking it a rather long, fuzzy worm. His noble intent was to protect the knitters from infection, infestation, or attack (gunkees are sensitive to germs). Ah! Such a rollick! Manbeast laughed and laughed when the adventure was over, and so did I as a boy, longing for a gunkee companion like Dwack with which to engage in tomfoolery all the day long. When at last I laid my eye upon a gunkee, that very eye gave birth to a single joyous tear. We were fast friends. We cavorted for an hour in the trees before realizing our friendship was doomed from the start. Gunkees are rigidly local, refusing to leave the general area of their birth. I, on the other hand, am an adventurer, a wanderer, a documenter. We bade farewell (sad!), the gunkee and I. Then I bade farewell to my dream of a gunkee friend. I wish him well.

  WEAKNESS: Unwillingness to travel.

  TASTE: If someone ever ate a gunkee, I would prosecute him to the full extent of the law.

  DEMEANOR: Joyful. Companionable. Rapscallious. Helpful.

  Gunkee

  HOUND (Horned)

  CLASSIFICATION: stabber/growler/howler/chaser

  “Do not light a fire near Glipwood Forest, not if the rangers have not ranged.” Thus begins perhaps the most important poem ever written about survival in Skree. The saying is especially true if there are horned hounds about. They are drawn to fire as surely as toothy cows. These dogs are as big as a colt and will eat (with mouth), stab (with horn), chase (with speed), and disobey (with arrogance) any living thing, especially if that living thing is minding its own business beside a fire. I drew this one whilst peeking out from beneath a fire, safely concealed in a device of my own construction, which I plan to reproduce and market upon my return.

  WEAKNESS: Climbing. Obliviousness (to sketchers hiding under fires).

  TASTE: Like guggler.

  DEMEANOR: Seething. Ravenous. Disrespectful.

  Horned Hound

  HOUND (Saggy)

  CLASSIFICATION: flopper/bounder/licker

  The saggy hound differs so drastically from its cousin the horned hound, one wishes there were no relation at all. The saggy hound is happy, obedient, engaging, and endlessly fun if one likes slobber and stretchy, fuzzy, soft wads of dogflesh. While the hound poses little danger to the traveling human, its folds contain all manner of rodential hazards and buggish threat. I once discovered a family of yimps who seemed to have lived quite comfortably for yea
rs in a fold beneath the saggy hound’s elbow. Pet with trepidation.

  WEAKNESS: Snaggy branches. Itching.

  TASTE: Unknown.

  DEMEANOR: Jocular. Effusive.

  Saggy Hound

  HUPPITOUS GLEEZE

  CLASSIFICATION: grazer/grunter/stampeder/hatcher

  They travel in flocks, these gleezes so huppitous. While “flock” may imply something birdish, the beast is far from flappy (as you can see from my sketch). It does, however, lay eggs in a nest constructed of little twigs, though that nest is seldom (never!) in a tree. The gleeze (huppitous!) is a peaceful being except when its nest is pilfered by bomnubbles or trolls (the only creatures brazen and big enough to attempt a swipe of an egg so gargantuous). The huppitous gleeze pictured here was days away from laying.