Hiirinaga

“Power is hidden in the most dangerous place that only a few brave souls can reach.”

A warning merchants and artisans share with those looking for magical gems capable of offering them powerful abilities. These gems, once turned into artifacts, are capable of generating elemental abilities to all wearing them. Such stones can only be found in the most secluded places of Animus. Very few get to ever find such gems, with even fewer getting back alive. That is unless one possesses the need to find them.

Such as the Hiirinaga, also called the mouse dragon. Such small creatures can be found in warm climates near volcanoes. With their forked tongue, they can smell and find different magical gems that are difficult to reach. They are known to suck the magic from such gems once in a while to use as self-defence against predators. Thus, making them capable of producing magic to counter-attack any who would dare see them as a snack. Even going as far as to melt the predator from within in a worst-case scenario for our little rodent.

Domesticating such creatures is mostly impossible to do. The Hiirinaga hate being handled and even more, being locked up. They also need an extremely hot environment so that they don't get sick which not many occupied areas have. They are also picky eater, only liking rare gems which are very costly and fruit found in very high places where the air is thin.

The worst side of domesticating this mouse, however, happens on the new moon when the magical abilities of gems increase in power. The Hiirinaga at that time succumbs to the gathered magical essence within them, transforming into a winged beast a hundred times its size. This new form has a mind of its own, attacking all who would try to stop it from flying away, even its master.

Free to do what it wants, the creature will seek to find something to hunt. Chasing and teasing potential prey until they find one to their liking. Once this winged mouse has found its target, it will chase and play with the poor prey with glee, looking at it running in terror frantically away from it. When caught, the bat will surround the prey with its wings, locking it in place. The prey, struggling for dear life in this prison of flesh, will slowly be smothered into slumber.

While unconscious the bat creature will start swallowing the prey whole, taking its time savouring its catch. Giving time for the prey to wake up before the final descent, enjoying the screams and struggles of the prey as it scrambles for freedom. Once the corrupt Hiirinaga has trapped the last of its prey in its jaw, it will start shifting its body left to right, sliding the prey to its chest and trapping it there into a tight little ball.

Such acts of cruelty hide the real purpose of the mouse dragon, which is to decrease the surplus of essence trapped within its chest. By making the prey produce fear and terror, it will make the prison wall free the extra essence which would then be absorbed by the prey itself little by little. Such a scene lasts all night, ending with the prey falling asleep at some point in the night.

Before the sun rises, the bat will release the prey safe and sound unconscious and find itself a hideout when it turns back into its normal form so that it doesn’t become lunch itself.