Days have passed. The journey continued through the cool, autumn forests of the approaching north. The carriage pulled and traversed the Marigold Hinterlands, and the wind grew colder as they drew nearer to the icy wilds. Days passed, and the unconventional found family camped here and there wherever they found safe. Sekai continued to practice the arts of the Sombre under Tenebrosia's strict guidance, with each session being more intense than the previous day. Focusing on the practice of agility and honing the boy's response to incoming attacks with his newfound power through the talisman, Tenebrosia sought to perfect this for Sekai's own good, no matter if she hadn't said the danger lying ahead.
"Again," Tenebrosia ordered, firing another spectral at the Padomas boy. Sekai avoided it with flawlessness, but the spectral rushed in again from behind– the boy avoided it. Another spectral was added, increasing the tempo of Sekai's training. Days of training refined how the Padomas boy was able to show a fine quality of reflexes. Combined with Sekai's new magical abilities and inherent abilities as a Padomas, the boy was both on the offensive and defensive, thwarting the two spectrals away. With a sharpened breath, Sekai landed on the ground with a flip– his boots barely making a sound. "Bravo," the Maiden chuckled lightly, clapping her hands twice before walking forward and patting the head of the Padomas boy. "You've grown strong," Tenebrosia said, lifting her hand and moving her eyes from the smaller Sekai to the view that oversaw the trees below as they camped on a hill. "The glacial plains are going to be harsh, are you sure you truly by your heart… to continue?" Tenebrosia wandered off, hip in hand and the other fixing her rosy glasses with the other.
"What do you mean, miss?" Sekai asked, walking slightly and standing right beside the taller Maiden. "Of course, I do! I'm doing this as an apprentice– I want to be like you someday!" The boy replied with a tone of hope and enthusiasm. Tenebrosia only smirked back, continuing to watch the scenery with Avioses flying through the skies. However, beneath the Maiden's confident and strong stance and expression, the dread of getting Sekai harmed consumed her secretly. Hell was rapidly approaching, but how could she say it in the face of a hopeful child? Who has lost everything and everyone? Tenebrosia doesn't know what to make of it; the Maiden didn't desire to have Sekai lose each piece of his optimism just as much as she did in an age like his. Tenebrosia caught on that she and the beast were his found family after whose only family perished in a tragic assault years ago.
Shaking the fear, Tenebrosia looked at the night sky. Glimpses of auroras float around, but not enough for them to manifest entirely– an indicator that they are nearer to the harsh, frozen wastes. "Get some rest, little one," Tenebrosia said. "It's a long and harsh journey tomorrow." She continued. "Alright, miss," Sekai replied with soft joy, before turning and grabbing his staff and lantern, illuminating his way back to the carriage. The Mayuno slept entirely throughout their discussion. The campfire cracked lightly at Tenebrosia's back as she heard the carriage door close with a barely audible creak and a yielding slam. The Maiden didn't move an inch, continuing to observe the auroras through her rosy glasses– finally reconsidering how she would keep Sekai safe in the face of danger. Suddenly, another remnant of time came flooding into her head, as flashes of a clearer past began to unfold.
…
The Maiden's house burned, and the young Tenebrosia saw a black silhouette about to wear a mask in the flames. The fire's maw began eating away at the residence, as Tenebrosia successfully led the other children away. Before Tenebrosia could squint to see who the figure was, a flaming, wooden pole.
A white flash transitioned to a clearer memory.
"Taralon is missing. Where is she?" Ragena's voice was heard throughout the new Maiden's residence at the heart of Windstew; a large villa meant to house the nine remaining Maidens of Darkness and the orphaned children, including Tenebrosia, after Ragena became Director of the Sombre Arts. "Perhaps we should ask the Conjuration Parliament to commission a search?" Malika replied. However, Ragena wasn't convinced. "No, Taralon has resentment towards anyone who isn't us. Having a party to look for her that isn't us? It would cause nothing but unnecessary death." Ragena replied, her elegant black and ruby-colored patterned robes dragging on the porcelain floor. The orphans they had taken care of were mostly in their younger adult years, including Tenebrosia, some of whom were still in the midst of their adolescence; however, all of them were asleep in their respective quarters, except for Tenebrosia, who was seemingly eavesdropping. "We've built our damaged image from the ground up, building tolerance for years… I can't just risk it. I will find her." Ragena's words cause the other eight– including Malika- to gasp. Tenebrosia, hiding behind a wall upstairs, gasped, but covered her mouth. "Sister! You can't just go out there! You're at a position where an entire nation regards you as high! Risking all this for some woman we used to call sister under the name of the Maidens will prove no more than sending a party! We'd be blamed if you get yourself in harm's way!" Malika frets, trying to stop Ragena, but to no avail. "Don't worry, sister. I'd be back," Ragena only replied before rushing out with her robes still attached, flying to the night sky with magic.
A flash yet again.
"You're an excellent child," a familiar voice surrounded a younger Tenebrosia, nightmarish vocals that felt like the Maiden's head was being shredded to pieces. "But you'd be of greater purpose than that buffoon who refuses to shape us into what we are meant to be as Maidens." In the vision was a young Tenebrosia wrapped in a magical seal, as a familiar silhouette of someone she once knew held a barely glowing orb. "You'd remember this someday, and you'd thank me. You should." The silhouette then held out her hand and cast magic for the orb to be absorbed by Tenebrosia. The surroundings of the house were somehow there, still in optimal condition… before it was burned?
Another flash. Returning the Maiden to the presence.
…
Tenebrosia widened her eyes awake, her voluminous hair swaying gently in the wind alongside the cyan boas that were dangling from the bangles on her wrists. She looked back at the carriage, and it was still. The Maiden squinted and sighed, almost paranoid that an ambush would be sprung; the dread still haunted her. Tenebrosia guarded their mobile abode, sitting on top of it by jumping silently high and landing with grace. As she sat down, her eyes moved at the sleeping Mayuno, and she even heard the soft, muffled snores of the boy below the insides of the bogie. Tenebrosia's eyes shifted to the surroundings– the orange trees swayed in the evening's breeze, cold and dry. The mildly chilling temperatures didn't faze the Maiden.
However, the harsher temperatures of the cold north would bother Sekai and likely freeze him to death. Tenebrosia cupped her chin with her index finger and thumb, thinking of what to do with a paradoxical calm. A cape made of thick fur would be optimal. Perhaps she could do something while the boy was asleep. Tenebrosia once again embarked on her own, on an unintended secondary objective she hadn't thought of from the start. She took Sekai in, but an objective necessary for the boy if he were to survive the glacial lands. Tenebrosia gently hopped off the carriage's roof, trying not to shake the mobile home with minimal effort, in fear of waking Sekai up. As the Maiden's heeled-white boots touched the dry grassy ground, she summoned another spherical barrier as a means of protection for the boy and the beast.
…
Tenebrosia wandered the Marigold Hinterlands quickly, having more flexibility to use her Sombre powers, with any wandering passerby absent to fear her due to the Maiden's darker abilities. Hopping from tree to tree as a shapeshifted black owl, Tenebrosia sought to hunt a beast with thick fur to craft a cape that would keep Sekai warm through the arctic barrens. As the Maiden flew silently amongst the other nocturnal critters of the night, Tenebrosia, in owl form, heard screams just beyond the trees. Smoke soared through the skies as orange hues illuminated a considerable distance, piercing through the dark woodlands. This causes Tenebrosia to be interested in what was happening, not that she was interested in restoring what was already destroyed. The Maiden flew through each tree, being furtive and daring not to make a sound. As Tenebrosia landed at a branch of one of the gargantuan trees, she finally saw what was burning. A makeshift camp of tribal Padomi and Paragosi are being ruthlessly mauled by eight female figures of women clothed in black and veils, proceeding to absorb their souls and magic through spells. "Kill the rest of the absconders! Harvest their souls and magic! The Lady-Master demands their righteous, pitiful death!" Yelled one of the female figures, her voice was garbled and sounded like she was corrupted. The way the barely-surviving injured bodies of the Padomi and Paragosi people, only dressed in loose and broken fabrics, instantly decayed and turned gaunt and gray the moment their essences were stolen from their bodies. This caused Tenebrosia, who was still taking form as an owl, to widen her avian, round eyes and internally gasp. The magic they've used is eerily similar to that of the Sombre used in malicious ways.
The female figures laughed maniacally as they harvested each single one of them of their life and magic. However, they spared the children and those in their adolescence. But, not out of kindness, but of further malice. The eight women rounded the younger ones into a cramped magical cage. "Keep the children alive! They'd be used as one of us," snarled one of them. This causes the children to back away to the already small, confined cages they are in. Suddenly, the crowns of the trees swayed uncontrollably– a move from Tenebrosia herself. The eight women clearly heard this, even amongst the silent cries of the children and the crackling flames that swallowed the camp. "Quiet!" One of them shrieked at the hopeless little ones, causing their weeping to be short and be more like silent hiccups. "Half of you, take the children away, half of us we'll stay… someone is here." Four of the women nodded, their veils moving slightly from the movement of their heads before swiftly escaping the travesty they've left. "Show yourself, you pathetic dullard! Or it would cause you more than your life if we discover you first!" One of the four yelled through the trees, but behind them was Tenebrosia, who had dropped her disguise in the middle of her fall, who landed graciously. "I guess I discovered you first, that means your lives are in danger, then? My, hypocrisy at its finest." The Maiden's voice was laced with sarcasm and wit. Tenebrosia's voice alone causes the four to swiftly turn around, revealing that each was holding different weaponry. One was holding a mace, a scythe, a sword, and a spear. One of the figures came first, licking her dry, bloody lips, and the four proceeded to laugh in absolute insanity. The one in front spoke in a voice of a mind pushed to its limits– a madness of no return. "You… you are the missing piece! The Lady-Master told us about you!" She spoke in a tone of lunacy. One of the unknown women beside her moved forward to speak– as if they were in sync with one another. "Your life is very precious! Oh, we were tasked with hunting the boy, too! That angel and demon failed to do so–oh, no, no, no! We'll do it so much better than them, and way more brutal!" She gleed fanatically. "I don't give a shit about who you are and what you are going to do with my apprentice. But if you are so kind enough to use your mouth for something other than useless blabber, I suggest using your remaining voices as all of your final words." Tenebrosia simply replied. The Maiden's snarky comment immediately turned the women's smiles into frowns, bruising their ego and causing Tenebrosia to smirk– clearly aware this hurt the pride of the four unknown ladies. Suddenly, all four snarled at Tenebrosia, then one of them shrieks so loud that it causes nearby trees to sway lightly and birds to fly away forcefully. "Capture her!" The four charged with each shriek, and the Maiden fixed her glasses in one hand. Summoning Chateau Scapegrace on the other, she too charged.
A battle of furious flashes of magic and physical barrages rattled the surroundings, creating powerful pulses of wind as a result of the clash against Tenebrosia and the four women. The one holding the mace tried flanking the Maiden; however, Tenebrosia caught this from the corner of her eye and proceeded to ram her with Chateau Scapegrace through several trees at unimaginable speeds, leaving the other three black-clothed ladies to chase after her. As Tenebrosia continued to push through several gargantuan trees, causing a depth of soil and eradicating a long row of trees in a straight line, she finally crashed onto a boulder, causing the woman to shriek in pain and be covered in her own blood. However, Tenebrosia quickly ended her life by slamming her absurd architectural weapon at the woman's skull– instantly flattening it. As the other three black-clothed women caught up to Tenebrosia, the Maiden grabbed a tree's trunk and proceeded to stylishly rotate around it before plummeting herself sideways through the three women with her heels. Although the three of them quickly dodged, Tenebrosia managed to get the woman holding the scythe by the heels, causing the latter to shriek in madness. "You will pay for–" before she could continue, Tenebrosia stopped her projection through the air and landed on the ground, causing the veiled lady to gasp, before Tenebrosia slammed the woman to the ground and opened the doors of Chateau Scapegrace. It revealed a cannon, which quickly blasted directly at the head of the woman. Blood splattered the ground, and what remained of her head was nothing more than a pile of unrecognizable flesh.
Shrieks of the two remaining women– those who held the sword and the spear- charged at the Maiden. Both of them were enraged and way more aggressive, causing Tenebrosia to dodge gracefully. However, with the two striking together, Tenebrosia kicked the right side of the woman's head who was holding the spear. This caused the latter to plummet, hitting the woman beside her who was holding the sword, and plummeting to the side. The veiled woman who held the spear was dead, the right side of her head splattered, revealing fragments of skulls and flesh. The woman holding the sword, however, survived.
As Tenebrosia looked at the sole survivor, the veiled woman limped forward, gasping with a heavy breath. However, she halted and pointed the sword directly at Tenebrosia. She spoke in a nightmarish voice– this time, the voice was demonic. Deep and distorted, a mix of human and demon. "You thoughtless, filthy whore!" The woman raised her sword to the skies, and it tore a rift. It illuminated red and lavender, with beams furiously wrapping around the sword and eventually the woman herself. The beam then continued to surround the unknown veiled woman rigorously, and the corpses of the other three began floating towards her. Tenebrosia continued to watch in silent horror. All this magic… It resembles that of the Maiden's practice of the Sombre Arts, but she realized this was perverse and twisted. A fusion of power… into literal. A flash of red and black blinded the Maiden as the rift in the sky closed, and when Tenebrosia finally opened her eyes once more… a horrifying amalgamation of flesh, eyes, and tendrils at a considerable height stood the fused-in-flesh women. The three corpses of the women were trapped in both flesh and infernal shards at the amphibious lower torso of the quadrupedal abomination, their bodies seemingly melting to the mass itself. It had a tail of poison that reeked of rotten flesh, sharp claws made of bones, and it even had eyes on it. However, the woman who held the sword, now perched on top of the quadrupedal lower torso, was beyond mutilation. Her face was still covered by the veil, and she no longer held the sword, for it was stabbed right into her chest. Loose and broken fabric surrounded her barely covered, mutilated flesh– red and pulsing of black. Veins ran down her fingers, and tendrils pierced and wrapped themselves around her; some were wriggling on her back.
She maniacally laughed. "This is the power of a bona fide titan of hell!" The woman shrieked, her voice both deep yet sounding so human. She pointed an accusing finger at Tenebrosia, her tone angry yet arrogant. "You have humiliated me and disrespected me, you brood of a bitch! It is time you discover death, whether the Lady-Master wants you alive… or DEAD!" She shrieked once more. However, refusing to back down, Tenebrosia snapped from the horror she witnessed and stylishly– and audaciously– struts and flings her hair, still holding the Chateau Scapegrace. "I do hate the uglier things in life, and I usually make arrangements to get them gone. I would do the same to you." Tenebrosia snarled with pettiness.
Tenebrosia charged at this abomination, rapidly firing cannons, but to no avail. Bludgeoning the sides of the lower quadrupedal torso of the disgusting amalgamation, the abominable woman finally retaliated by trying to slash Tenebrosia with a swipe of one of the lower torso's claws. The Maiden dodged, however, the amalgamation charged in a speed rivaling that of Tenebrosia. "Die! Die! Dieeee!!!!" She shrieked, the woman charged, and continued to be on the offensive as the Maiden dodged with flawless style and glory. The woman roared, "Why won't you just die?!" She screamed before trying to use her venomous tail to try and stab Tenebrosia. The Maiden avoided this and immediately grabbed her tail, lifting it before rotating her once and flinging her at a considerable distance. This caused a gargling roar from the abominable veiled lady as she crashed onto a large boulder. Before the abominable feminine horror was to retaliate, Tenebrosia charged through the cloud of dust that blinded the demonic woman with Chateau Scapegrace placed on her front. The ram itself, which struck her chest, caused the abhorrent beast-lady to gargle in pain before being pushed again. However, the angered abomination halted herself from the continuous flying with the heavy claws of her lower torso. "I will end you, you pathetic insect!" She began charging furiously, rumbling the ground with her gargantuan weight as her lower torso sluggishly flailed and its clawed hands ripped and pushed everything in its way to Tenebrosia. "I will bite down your neck, piss on your bloody carcass, and slaughter that boy limb from limb with my own claws!" She maniacally yelled as she continued to charge. As the female amalgamation went nearer to an idle yet confident Tenebrosia, she began laughing like a fanatic with the mind of the damned.
As the disgusting mass of flesh was nothing but a few meters in front of the Maiden, the revolting monster lifted its own body as a way to slam the Maiden whole. However, the underbelly revealed something; it opened a hidden maw– a gargantuan slit of crooked yet sharp, yellow teeth, and it dripped off sickening, thick saliva, as well as exposing her organs. A tentacle-like tongue wriggled through the organs that lay just behind the maw, and it tried to wrap itself around the Maiden at incredible speeds. However, the Maiden had other plans in mind.
'MACALGE!" Tenebrosia yelled as she positioned herself in a summoning pose. Electricity-like veins wrapped themselves around Tenebrosia, illuminating colors of lavender and rose. Below the abominable woman, who was occupied trying to capture Tenebrosia, was a portal, and the fist of Mistress Hecate punched the underbody of the repulsive monstress, punching through her maw and bruising its guts behind. The tongue that had almost touched Tenebrosia with a few inches of distance left retracted as the revolting beast-woman gagged, before being thrown right to the sky as she roared in distorted anger. Hecate proceeds to fully manifest, immediately chasing after the demonic-shaped woman that began to fall from the sky. However, the transformed veiled woman isn't going to back down so easily. She immediately positioned herself correctly and charged at the giant Hecate, their size rivaling one another. A battle of giants ensued in the heavens.
Within the seconds before the two hit the ground, Hecate and the abhorrent woman began fighting and clawing each other with equal strength. The latter tried to stab Tenebrosia's infernal partner; however, Hecate caught this and then proceeded to stab the sharp end of her tail right through her chest. The repulsive monstress screamed in agony as Hecate positioned the beast below her. As they were about to hit the ground, Hecate placed her heeled boots right on top of the underbelly of the beastly woman. When they finally hit land, gravity made its work as Hecate's heels crushed and pierced the lower torso of the transformed woman, flattening her lower parts to a degree that it looked flat as bones pierced themselves right through– most were cracked, but some were fully intact. This causes the monstress to scream in agony and be unable to move. Hecate backed herself and stood behind Tenebrosia, satisfied with the pain she caused the enemy. The demoness Tenebrosia summoned made herself unmanifest, leaving the Maiden alone.
The disgusting demon-fused woman was still breathing for air, gasping, but her voice distorted in nightmarish degrees. Tenebrosia walked around her flattened, demonic lower torso, avoiding the appalling mass of flesh and the pool of dark velvet blood that began to surround the paralyzed beast. "All bark, no bite, are we?" Tenebrosia condescendingly spoke, looking down at the veiled woman. "Curse… you…!" she spoke in humiliated anger, still gasping for air. Tenebrosia, curious about who this woman is, unmasked her by kicking off the veil. The woman's face was now exposed. Despite being mutilated behind recognition due to the forceful transformation, some of her face was still human. Albeit, bumps that dripped pus and blood surrounded her neck and some parts of her face. The Maiden recognized the woman: Malika.
Such a sight causes Tenebrosia to have inner flashes of memories. How could the kindest and soft-hearted Maiden she knew from her blurry past turn so horrifyingly evil and corrupt? Tenebrosia snapped from the glimpses of memories that rushed through her, staring at the woman below. Her red, diluted, and glaring eyes pierced right through Tenebrosia. And she began laughing in a manner of insanity. "You… will pay with your life for this! You… will DIE!" She laughed once more before Tenebrosia moved backwards as the gates of Hades opened beneath her dying body. Infernal hands began to drag her as the mutated Malika laughed. Until she was no more, when the portal closed.
Tenebrosia was shaken. How? Who could do such a thing? The Maiden didn't cry or mourn the killing of a caretaker she once knew during her younger years; however, she felt something. She couldn't describe the emotion, but it was almost as if guilt consumed her. Not of sealing and sacrificing her soul to the realm of Hades itself, but because Sister Malika would've never done such a thing as far as Tenebrosia knew her during her time of being raised by the Maidens– if Tenebrosia knew who she was earlier, she could've helped her snap from her madness. But the Maiden knew something of trouble behind all of this. A kindhearted woman wouldn't simply forget an orphan she helped raise, nor would she even hurt somebody, especially someone the now-deceased woman knew.
The Maiden took further steps backward, pondering. Her eyes were visibly shaking, and her pupils felt like they had gotten smaller. She halted, her boots crunching the dry leaves below. But as for her style, Tenebrosia snapped out of this. "Who could do such a monstrous thing…" she questioned herself, swaying the fear away. Tenebrosia gripped a side of her head with one of her hands, trying to remember Malika's features and analyze what had happened to her. She looked… gray, and her eyes were devoid of life– as if life was forcefully placed inside a dead body. Her skin was akin to the recently deceased. "Necromancy," Tenebrosia finally uttered the words. "Whoever, or whatever sickening bastard did this to her must've murdered her first, then turned the poor woman into an obedient henchman. Knowing her, she wouldn't have been converted into a fanatic without a fight." However, they did leave all four of their fur capes behind. Though they were bloodied and covered in dirt, cleaning all of it and stitching them together with minimal magic should be enough for Sekai to travel through the north without the issue of getting frozen by the harsh glacial winds; the act of killing a great beast for a cape is now out of the picture, with the objective somewhat accomplished.
…
A new day has begun, and dawn pierced the dark skies. Sekai began to stir slowly, then lifted his body to sit. A yawn escaped his mouth as he stretched. After his stretch, Sekai slowly got out of his bed and reached for his half-empty flask containing its remaining cold water. Refreshing himself made him more awake; however, this didn't stop him from rubbing his eyes. Rays of yellow, fuzzy light pierced through the carriage's windows, signifying that the sun had made itself known to the skies. The Padomas boy fixed his tail and his hair before quickly fixing the settee, which he slept on. Sekai grabbed his staff and tucked the talisman he was given by Tenebrosia on his belt before getting out of the carriage itself. He opened the doors and quickly descended the small case of stairs; his brown boots stepped on the grassy, soft ground with a soft thud. As he turned his head, Amma was already awake, eating on a small pile of freshly picked fruits. The beast noticed the boy standing there, and its eyes gazed at him with a lazy yet gentle look. The Mayuno let out a small trumpet, as if it was telling Sekai to eat breakfast, before turning its head and eating the laid fruits with its trunk once more. Then, Sekai finally noticed Tenebrosia, sitting on a log while petting a Dunkawu, which sat on her lap. The small black and white critter was eating nuts on the Maiden's other hand. "Good morning, little one." She spoke. The Dunkawu squeaked adorably, eating its nuts with its little paws. "This charming varmint was hiding under the carriage all night long, poor thing." Tenebrosia continued.
Sekai ran with excitement to his taller pedagogue, eager to interact with the Dunkawu. "Can I pet it? Please!" "Treat it gently, Sekai," Tenebrosia replied, nodding and approving of his insistent begging. The Padomas boy did, and gently ran his hand through the entire back of the Dunwaku. Its fur was soft, as if it was freshly bathed– or it was always like that. "Can we keep her, pleaseeeee?" Sekai yet again insisted, and Tenebrosia raised an eyebrow. However, the sparkly eyes of the adorable boy caused the Maiden to sigh. She couldn't refuse it; her heart softened too much for the boy. From the perspective of the Maiden, time slowed down incredibly– using her magic to secretly amplify her own speed to have some time to think at the moment. It's going to be dangerous in the north, she thought. All hope he will have would shatter, she thought. That woman speaking to me… that monstrous lady who forced Malika to serve under her… she would turn him like the children that were captured, she thought. If I were to be defeated, if I ever… no. I will finish what I have started. That gargantuan demon the Governing Council wants me to eliminate… Have I complicated my initial task by bringing Sekai? I'm going to keep his innocence, no matter if I die trying. I am going to solve this objective no matter what. I'm his only hope if Windstrew is revealed to be under a conspiracy.
…
"Fine, but you take care of this critter on your own, understand?" Tenebrosia finally replied, the flow of time becoming normal once more. Sekai nodded furiously. "Yes, yes! I understand!" Tenebrosia handed the Dunwaku to the arms of the boy, the critter eagerly hopping at Sekai. "By the way," the Maiden spoke again, "I crafted you a coat for the harsher north." From her side revealed a thick make-shift coat, black and smelling of spices, was thrown onto Sekai's shoulder perfectly. "We'd still train on the snow terrains. Do wear it frequently instead of relying on the heat of fire." Sekai looked at her with widened eyes and shrugged his shoulders before sitting on a log while holding the Dunwaku. "What are you planning to call her?" Tenebrosia asked. "...Aiwa." The boy said, then a pause. "So, what's for breakfast?" Sekai spoke once more, his stomach audibly growling.
"You're impossible," Tenebrosia simply replied before pulling out a ration again, throwing it into Sekai's side.
–
SUZUNA'S BIOLOGY BOOK
[Dunwaku]
The Dunwakus are cute-sy herbivores who are known to eat nuts and seeds! Featuring long slender bodies with incredibly agile paws with dexterity, a short spherical tail, soft fur, a cute broad nose with whiskers and canine-like ears while coming in colors of white, brown, black, or even oranges! (though rare!), these adorable little troublemakers will truly melt a heart– even those that are frozen cold! (Tried showing it to my great aunt Doyenne, but she was… say, appalled that I even showed a wild Dunwaku I hid in my backpack when I went home from my expedition. So… might scratch that statement.)
They are known to be pretty intelligent and use tools to craft basic homes under trees– or even carve a home within a tree by using stones they sharpened by bashing and smoothening it out in rivers! That said… they're at the bottom of the food chain of the colder regions. The Dunwakus are natives to the Marigold Hinterlands down to the harsher climates of the Graupelwind Plains; even so far as to be observed to frequently migrate from one place to another for food or for… snow. They love to play with snow, then come back to their homes further down south back at the auburn forests. (High efforts for just temporary fun– wish I could be like them.)
They're very popular pets back here in Windstrew, even so far as being partners or mascots… or even just wandering the streets alongside dogs, cats, and others… even if they can't speak. Only squeak. Squeaky rascals.