Momimake

“Do not be fooled by envy with what you don’t need, or death is what you will bring.”

An old saying shared between tribe gatherers when entering the forest to remind them of the danger of blindly taking unnecessary resources away from it.

One such resource being mysterious, giant pearls found near water where the ground is warm and moist. Such gems that could be seen as valuable and luxurious have a terrible secret. Only by touching them, will the truth of these pearls be unveiled. Starting with its maker, the Momimake, or otherwise called the poison pearl.

The Momimake is a humanoid type of frog that live in warm forest near muddy waters. This amphibian is normally pretty shy and prefers hiding in vegetation, ambushing small prey unfortunate enough to venture too close. During mating season, however, the frog’s behaviour changes dramatically.

The Momimake, unlike other type of amphibian species, can only have one clutch every millennium. Which is why it is very protective and would go as far as to attack predators bigger and stronger than itself to save their babies. It is the responsibility of the female to protect the eggs until being born.

To do so, the female will hide her eggs below pearl-like rocks to fool predators and bury them out of sight. Most predators finding her hideout would be fooled by the non-edible objects and leave the nest alone. But for those curious enough to look deeper, poison is what would be awaiting them.

The pearl-like object, being coated with poison, will slowly paralyze the predator at contact. Once the predator has become defenseless and incapable of fighting back, the mother would grab the predator and swallow it whole.

The amphibian will completely digest the predator in a few hours leaving nothing but bones that are melted and compacted into a small shiny ball. It is then added to its nest for more protection.