Flaflanu (fl̠äfl̠än̼ʉ)

Winged snakes are highly prized for their medicinal purposes, and are considered sacred animals to the drakekin, who call them Flaflanu. They are thought to bring messages from the divine beasts, and to be chosen - adopted - by a flaflanu is to be marked for greatness. Most tribes immediately induct anyone chosen by a flaflanu into their religious practices and teach them the ways of the shaman.

Though capable of true flight, winged snakes are clumsy in the air and prefer to use their wings to guide diving attacks made from high perches. They subsist primarily on insects and small rodents, with flying squirrel being a particularly favoured prey.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Flaflanu are two-limbed reptiles with a venomous bite. Their limbs are a pair of feathered wings mounted roughly 1/3 of the way down their bodies. They also have feathers on the tips of their tails, used for steering in the air. Like many venomous snakes, they prefer to swallow prey whole, using venom to paralyse and begin predigestion of larger prey. Like most snakes, they are capable of dislocating their jaws if necessary to do so.

Biological Traits

Flaflanu are difficult to sex, as both males and females favour camouflage over mating displays, are of a similar size, and are similarly shy. The easiest method is to examine the tails. Like other snakes, male flaflanu have a thicker section behind the cloaca where the hemipene are stored, while females taper more evenly. More experienced snake handlers prefer the popping method.

Genetics and Reproduction

Male flaflanu enter a passion stage shortly after reaching sexual maturity at about eight months of age. They are driven to travel and mate with as many females as they can before claiming a territory. This passion stage can last as long as five years, since it does not end until the flaflanu finds a sufficiently large territory that has not been claimed.

Females mate with multiple males during both genders' migratory stages. Migrating females store the fertilised eggs using a growth-inhibiting hormone that prevents them developing until the female has found a territory to claim. For females, claiming a territory involves not only finding a sufficiently large, unclaimed stretch of jungle but also finding a gravid bee queen who is also looking to establish a nest. The bees emit a pheromone that triggers the flaflanu's nesting instinct.

Established females will usually mate with between five and ten males before beginning to lay scent markers that deter further mating attempts. They return to their established nests to lay their eggs.

Females build nests in the lower canopy out of leaves, sticks, feathers, and other soft, insulating lining materials. At the same time, they mark the nest with pheromones that attract a species of jungle bee to their nests. The bees build hives around the flaflanu nests, insulating and warming the nests as well as protecting them against ovipredation.

The female then lays a clutch of between three and five eggs in the nest. The eggs range in colour from white to pink, and are about five centimetres long.

The bees also provide food for the freshly hatched flaflanu in the form of non-viable egg cells, which are passed towards the top of the hive and into the nest through specially made tunnels.

Growth Rate & Stages

Flaflanu eggs are left to the care of the bees. While the mother protects the nest from afar, she returns frequently to regurgitate partial meals into the nest. This is for the bees' benefit rather than the eggs. The eggs hatch after a two-month-long gestation period, hungry and near-blind. Their eyes have not yet finished developing, although their pit organs are fully formed. The bees swiftly clean the hatchlings, grooming their down and scales and breaking down the egg shells to carry away and consume. The hatchlings swiftly learn to eat only what the bees offer them, as the drones are perfectly happy to bite if a flaflanu hatchling gets too greedy. They only sting if the hatchling does not get the message the first time. This is an important stage in the flaflanu's life, as this is when it learns to recognise the bees as friends rather than food.

Newly hatched flaflanu weigh about 40 grams, although they double this in the first week. Hatchlings' wings are covered in fluffy white-brown down, which is shed and replaced by true feathers by twenty days as their eyes finish developing. Flaflanu first fly about a month after hatching, although they return to the nest after each attempt by climbing, rarely reaching the ground during these early test-flights.

They begin to hunt roughly two weeks after these first flights, once they have developed strong enough flight muscles to gain height independently. They continue to live with the bees for another month, however, until they reach sexual maturity and enter their passion stage.

Both male and female passion stages involve mating repeatedly and travelling outwards from their mothers' territory. The male passion stage lasts until they find a suitable territory to claim, at which point they mark between two and five sleeping spots and establish themselves. Sleeping spots are marked with scent markers that indicate whether a sleeping spot is active or open. The active sleeping spot is the one the flaflanu returns to each night. Open sleeping spots have not been used recently, and are often used by migratory flaflanu as rest spots. The situated flaflanu changes which of his rest spots is active on a monthly basis as he moves between hunting grounds. The male passion stage lasts until he finds a territory more than a day's travel away from any sleeping spots or nests, at which point he settles down to establish his own.

The female passion stage lasts until she has mated with between five and ten males, depending on the female in question. They then enter a wanderlust stage in which they continue to search for a territory, but refuse further advances from males. The female will continue to search until she has found a roving bee queen with which to establish a hive-nest.

Once a flaflanu has claimed a territory, they rarely leave it unless driven out by a larger or more aggressive flaflanu. Such territorial disputes are rare, however, and usually occur between wanderlusting females, as the males will move on rather than engage in dominance battles.

Ecology and Habitats

Flaflanu prefer to sleep in the lower canopy, safe from ground-bound predators and shielded from the predatory birds in the upper canopy and sky by the trees.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Flaflanu are primarily insectivores, although they will happily eat anything they can fit down their throats such as small rodents and gliding lizards. Eggs are a particular favourite, including those of other flaflanu when they can be obtained - which is rare due to the bees.

Biological Cycle

The southern continent is rarely cold enough to trigger brumination, although flaflanu brought to the north often enter torpor and even brumination if they get too cold. They are notoriously difficult to bring out of brumination, and most who enter this state eventually starve.

Behaviour

Flaflanu are curious creatures, although they prefer to observe from a distance for some time before approaching an unknown entity. Once observation has established that a creature is safe to approach, they will lick it repeatedly to learn more, and if it meets sufficient criteria they will attempt to fit their mouths around it to see if it is edible.

Female flaflanu occasionally adopt sophonts in their territory, and have been known to travel with them voluntarily if they leave. They only do this if misfortune has befallen their hive-nest, however. Male flaflanu exhibit similar adoption behaviour during their passion stage, although this is significantly rarer.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Flaflanu are usually solitary as adults, with young adults entering a migratory phase during early adulthood during which they seek out a new territory.

Domestication

Flaflanu have yet to be domesticated, but individuals occasionally choose to bond with mont!aar and anoli shamans and healers.

The main barrier to domestication is that they refuse to breed in captivity. The flaflanu's mutualistic relationship with the jungle bees has not yet been discovered by the civilised peoples, and so attempts to breed in captivity go nowhere due to the lack of the pheromonal signal that signifies the presence of a gravid queen bee.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Shed flaflanu feathers are considered good luck charms, and used extensively in jewellery and as part of drakekin nest-linings. They are also given as gifts to seal friendships.

Flaflanu venom can be used to create a potent sleeping toxin, or alternatively a wide-spectrum antivenin. It won't completely counteract other venoms, but will give the body a fighting chance.

The most valuable flaflanu byproduct, however, is their blood. Flaflanu blood carries mystical healing properties when ingested, although consuming it in large quantities can cause uncontrolled cell growth that leads to various cancers. It is safest when used as part of an alchemical or ritual process to enhance the effects of other ingredients.

Fortunately, they are very difficult to catch as they keep to the upper reaches of the canopy when they can.

Facial characteristics

Flaflanu faces are distinctly marked by a series of photosensitive pits along their lower jaw and on the tips of their noses. Their eyes are covered by hard scutes rather than movable lids. They have a 'frill' of feathers around the backs of their skulls.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Flaflanu are distributed across the mid to deep jungle of the southern continent. They are rarer towards the coasts.

Average Intelligence

Though occasionally slow to react, especially in the early mornings before they have had time to bask, flaflanu are about as intelligent as crows. They have been known to recognise individuals of other species even after several years, and have been known to exhibit an understanding of delayed gratification.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The eyes of a flaflanu are considerably more developed than those of other snakes, and are augmented by the light-sensitive pits on their noses. These pits are capable of percieving both infra-red and visible light, an adaptation from the purely infrared-sensing cells on other snakes.
They also have a developed sense of smell, using their forked tongues and jacobsons' organs to detect prey and predators outside their visual range, as well as to assist in finding mates.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Flaflanu exist in a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship with a species of jungle bee. The bees protect flaflanu nests, while the flaflanu feed and protect the bees.

Lifespan

Flaflanu have been known to live for up to fifty years in captivity.

Conservation Status

Endangered

Average Weight

1000-1500 g

Average Length

Most flaflanu are between 2 and 3 feet long.

Average Physique

The body of a flaflanu is powerful, especially around the chest where their powerful flight muscles are anchored. Their tails are comparitively lightly muscled compared to ground-bound snakes to conserve weight, however, and their striking speed is significantly compromised by this.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Flaflanu come in a variety of different colourations, which tend to be inherited along bloodlines. Coastal flaflanu are often pale white-blue, with eye spots on the undersides of their wings which they use to imitate and intimidate larger predators. Deeper into the jungle, they are usually camouflaged by colourations that match their environment. Their backs and the upper surfaces of their feathers are often green and dappled, which helps hide them while basking on tree tops.

Geographic Distribution

• Deep Jungle