Flap-flap
Summary
Flap-flaps, also called sky whales, flying snakes, and winter harbingers, are an extremely docile, permanently airborne species. Having long adapted to such a lifestyle, they live, eat, breed, and die in the sky, constantly following the winds wherever it takes them. Their prominence the world over has impacted every culture, stirring legends and mysterious awe around their enigmatic existences. Being filter feeders and mana absorbers, they walk a very fine line between nutritional plenitude and starvation. They tend to primarily exist in the warm equatorial zone, where life is plentiful and both their needs are met. Some subraces have been known to do arctic migrations, though, becoming unusually heavy and fat to survive such long voyages. In recent times, the most notable event with the flap-flaps was one of vandalism. Someone, who remains unknown, had written slang and offensive phrases targeting their 'neighboring town' on the underside of the flap-flaps. As the herd migrated across, a number of towns and cities devolved into hostilities, blaming one another for the vulgar message and the desecration of wildlife. Based on the written text, it started and ended somewhere in Aerthen, and the same herd was eventually found all the way over in Sa-kemet, much to their confusion. The titular 'flap-flap' is owed to children and how often they refer to the creatures by the flapping sounds they make.Basic Information
Anatomy
The main body of the flap-flap is a long, tubular vessel not dissimilar to a snake's in nature. At the forward and rear sections of the creature, extremely large and rounded 'wings' grow out of it, covered in a kind of leathery skin, interjected with crystallized mana veins. Very fine, short feathers grow across the creature, giving it a fuzzy appearance, though not one particularly soft.
The mouth, situated at the front of the creature's tubular body, is a long, frill-filled passage, primarily designed to filter microorganisms out of the air. The four wings coming from its body siphon free mana from the air, and both supplying the creature with most of its nutritional needs.
Biological Traits
Literally Always Flying – Flap-flaps fly constantly, being born in the sky, and dying in a finale plummet to the ground. They can even achieve full sleep cycles by having one half of their brains rest while the other keeps them going.
Lightweight – Despite their impressive size, they are relatively lightweight. Given that their flight manners have adapted to this, they are terribly poor as aerial transports of any kind, though small and lightweight creatures have been known to hitch a ride on them.
Genetics and Reproduction
Males and females mate in the springtime, in a long, circular flying manners. Offspring are born around three years later in a summertime period, flight-capable and ready to feed on the rich air.
Growth Rate & Stages
Flap-flaps grow slowly, but live long lives. That said, there is no great leap in differences save size and feeding ability. The very nature of their lifestyles demands fully functionally young, or they'd drop to the ground.
Ecology and Habitats
They live across the world in virtually all the skies imagineable. The only real dangers they face are predators, bad weather, and lack of food.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Microorganisms.
Biological Cycle
Their overall cycles are remarkably stable, and see little variation. Given how precarious they live, falling out of their ideal environments is a fairly quick end.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
With their great height in the sky, there isn't much to do with the flap-flaps themselves. When they die, however, their corpses crash into the veltron with a mighty force. The local wildlife is usually quite thrilled with such a feast. For people, however, their remains are often very useful for wind magic and wind mind in general.
Average Height
Giant
Average Weight
Enormous
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