Thwippit (th - wip-pit)

Written by Kbignell

The Thwippit is a beast of burden used in the cliffs region of the highlands of the kingdom of Malimnar. [\p]

Twippits are medium sized, four-legged ruminates native to the highlands. Their sure-footedness and balance allow them to climb the cliffs of their native region with ease, often seen clinging to the sides of a shear cliff where almost no other creature could reach. They eat the lichen, small grasses and poisonous mushrooms that grow in the cracks and crevises of the rocky cliffs. They are symbiotic to the small, thorny acradious (a-cray-di-us) Acradious Bush/Fruit  bushes that grow only here on these cliffs in the highland mountains of Malminar. The bushes provide the thwippits with cover and protection from the wyverns and eagles that roost on the cliffsm and the thwippits provide manure for the bushes to grow in. [\p]
Thwippits are naturally gray and brown, but as they mature and consume the glowing purple poisonous mushrooms found here, their wiry fur becomes a deep purple color that matches the leaves of the acradious bushes they shelter in. They have four horns on their head, two short, sharp, forward facing and two larger horns that curl up and back from just in front of their fairly large ears. They are covered in a curly mass of wirey hair across their back and the top of their heads, with their lower sides and undeside covered with soft, curly wool. Their legs are long and very strong, ending in sharp, small split hoves that cling to the rock with ease, but do make their walking on flat surfaces difficult, like a child on tip-toe. Their bulging eyes can rotate in their sockets independently allowing a thwippit to look up and down simultaneously and their eyesight is fantastic, allowing them to see great distances with great clarity.
Thwippits were domesticated thousands of years ago with the express purpose of harvesting the fruiit of the acradious bush. The fruit is prized for its use in making a highly cafinated drink desired by many across the continent. Since these bushes grow only on the eastern face of the mountains separating Malminar from the rest of the contnent. The thwippits possess the unique ability to climb the cliffs easily as well as the very specific abilty to harvest the acradious fruit at the peak of ripeness. As the thwippit moves through the thorny bushes, the ripe fuit that has developed a small mass of curly extrutions on the end farthest from its stem tangle in the wirey fur on the thwippits back, at the peak of ripeness, these curly wires tangle in the curly hair and pull the ripe fruit from the plant. The heavy, ripe fruit bend their stems to the perfect hight to ensure it is pulled off by passing thwippits. Domesticated thwippits return to their masters each evening, bringing with them their harvest of acradious fruit, which is then harvested by their keepers and shipped to processing area further down the mountains. Thwippit kids have soft, wool-like fur all over and don't devlop horns, or the ability to expel a toxic gas until much later in life and as such are a favorite snack of both wyverns and eagles, when they can be snatched from the shear cliff sides.