Cloudtusks
Cloudtusks are one of those animals that are just weird. I'm pretty sure that they shouldnt be able to fly, and seeing one feed up close is quite possibly the most awe-inspiringly terrifying consumption of plants that nature has conceived.I dont know if pod is the right word, but it is what I shall use due to their similarity to whales. Watching a pod of cloudtusks is an almost zed like experience. They are so graceful for their size. They drift and float through the air, the younger cloudtusks playing around the old. Then, at some unspoken signal, they dive. Sometimes a pod of as much as 20, forming into a wedge that any cavalry would be proud of. They level off and their mouths open, large enough to swallow a member of the aforementioned cavalry whole, and as a result their tusks lowered. And they flow along the top the the savanah, reaping the top one or two feet off the grasses into their mouths and taking any small insects or animals unfortunate enough not to flee to the ground with it. Then as one the pull back up into the sky
Basic Information
Anatomy
Most resembling a giant manta ray crossed with an elephant, Cloudtusts are herbivores. They are little more than a mouth with tusks protruding from the center of the bottom jaw and sweeping forward and out, and wings.
And a Gas bladder. That is important. Like many other large herbivores they produce large amounts of methane. This is probably how they are able to maintain flight despite being, well, whale sized. The gas bladder is also probably why dragons dont hunt them. Dragons main hunting method involves corralling their prey with their fire breath. For obvious reasons, this doesn't work on creatures that are giant bags of flammable gas.
This bladder is perhaps the most muscled portion of Cloudtusks, exceeding even their wings, which is unusual in a flying creature. "Vents" go to the bladder form the stomach and intestines, filling it with the gasses released from the digestion of plant matter. The bladder is lined by cords of extremely elastic muscle and the surrounding skin is also extremely elastic. This is because the bladder can expand to up to 10 times its compressed size in volume. The 2 vents from the bladder are located in the rear of the could tusk.
This ability to compress and expand a gas lighter than air, as well as vent it if needed, gives cloud tusks a surprising amount of maneuverability in the air. They are also capable of brief but large bursts of speed. This can help them avoid their only know natural predators, Rocs, and packs of Jaccast on the eastern edge of the plains near The Ruby Bridge.
Genetics and Reproduction
Cloudtusks migrate to the Sapphire Sands once every 7 years to mate. No one knows why as unlike whale breeding grounds, there is little for them to eat. It probably has something to do with the World tree located there. And magic. After all the migration brings much needed rain, not just to the Sapphire Sands, but to all of the Myrdhor Desert. How it brings the rain is up for much debate, but is best summarized by "magic." There is a wizard that claims that they are called cloudtusks because they are capable of consuming and regurgitating clouds, and they have tusks, but there is no basis for that outside of rumor and legends.
But back to reproduction. In one of the other miracles of nature, Cloudtusks, in keeping with the whale comparison, live their entire lives in the sky. They never land. This means that there must be some way for mothers to fill the gas bladder of their young, as otherwise when they are born they would simply fall from the sky. Instead, they float, not having the muscles to control the compression of their gas bladder yet. and their mothers bring them food.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Food is gotten by using their tusks to harvest the tops of grasses in the savanna of the Cloudtusk Plains. This also usualy catches them small animals and insects that are the main source of protein. how they get water is up for debate, as "consuming a cloud" is just ridiculous. Have you ever tried to drink fog? You will die of thirst. I dont care how big their mouths are its not possible. Plus I have seen them fly though clouds. The cloud is still there afterwords.
Geographic Distribution
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