Ghyll:Double Headed Glass-Eaters
Double headed glass-eaters, often just "glass-eaters", belong to the By-Quezlar-It's-Frightfully-Big family in standard Kmuppens' Taxonomy. Reaching up to half a kunanit in length, these rare reptiles range in color from dusky red to khaki. The double headed glass-eater is so named for several reasons:
- It has a ragged maw of crystalline teeth which, when it chews, resembles a mouthful of glass. Also, the glass-eater is an omnivore in the strictest sense of the word. In the wild, they subsist mostly on five-o-clock tea plants, fefferberry bushes and noxious weeds. Captive specimens have been known to eat all manner of unpalatable and downright hazardous material with no apparent trouble.
- The glass-eater has a large, lumpy protuberance at the end of its tail bearing an uncanny resemblance to its head. So striking is the similarity that it is not unknown for one glass-eater to attempt conversation with another's tail, or even its own.
The mysterious Alezanians are said to have ridden glass-eaters into battle. Notably, glass-eaters feature in the account of the Battle of Barnum Stones but it is unclear which side used them.
Once found in abundance, glass-eaters have been driven to the brink of extinction, hunted for centuries. The Looliers are known to have used various glass-eater organs for smilching. Glass-eater meat has been valued as a delicacy since ancient times, used by many a Speedish Chef. Most recently, the extremely hard teeth were used in the production of Qulirian Energy Converters.
However, in the last two decades, a stigma has cultivated around the killing of glass-eaters. This can be attributed to a campaign by Turboduck and their famous anthem "Gloddy the Glass-eater”, incorporating a traditional Shepenorian Glass-eater Dance rhythm. Glass-eaters are sacred in Shepenorian folklore, and feature prominently in the town's music.
Citations: Five-o-clock tea plant, Kmuppens' Taxonomy, Shepenor.
--Larj Zyquon 07:16, 12 Jun 2005 (EDT)