Since mankind first learned how to preserve and stuff animals for display,
taxidermists have turned their talents to improving upon Nature, creating a
number of mythical creatures from ordinary animal parts: mermaids, griffins,
even dragons. Some were
intended to mimic a specific animal (which the makers may well have believed was
real), while others were intentional hoaxes, created for sale or the
taxidermist's own practice/amusement. Many of these chimerical
beasts still
exist in private collections, curiosity shops, and museums around the world.
Jackalopes, a jackrabbit with pronghorn (or antelope) horns, were an American
contribution to the field, dating back to the 1800's. Though the jackalope, combining two New World species, is a
relatively recent invention, examples of European horned or antlered rabbits
exist in antiquity shops and old woodcuts, so the idea has evidently been around
for some time. Even today, one can find jackalopes across
the American West, popping up on postcards or other tourist items.
Origins
Jackalopes have been sighted on a number of worlds throughout history, but
are actually a Tiriallean native with an unusual penchant for crossing
dimensional barriers (see Magical Traits, below.) The pronghorn jackalope, about
the size of a Terran jackrabbit, is the most common, but in some corners of
Tirialle live colonies of larger deer jackalopes. The giant elkhorn
jackalope, an aggressive wolf-sized ancestor known from ancient writings and
cave art, is thought to be extinct. Bucks (males) and jennys (females) are
virtually indistinguishable by outsiders.
Habitat
Their horns prevent jackalopes from dwelling in thickets and burrows like other
rabbit relatives. They prefer meadows, grasslands, semi-arid desert, and
sometimes even open forest fringes. Jackalopes are found throughout
Tirialle, but are most common in the west.
Feeding
Jackalopes feed on leaves, buds, and grasses, much like ordinary rabbits.
They cannot run quite as fast or as long as their hornless relations, but their
sharp horns give them added defense against predators, and when all else fails
they usually can find a wyrmrift to duck into (see Magical Traits, below.)
Life Cycle
Jackalopes breed throughout the year except in deepest winter, producing litters of eight to
twelve young, of which only half to a quarter survive to adulthood.
Initially hornless and confined to the shallow-scraped nests of the jennys, they develop their first hornbuds within two
weeks, at about the time they start exploring the land beyond their nest.
By
two months they are weaned and out of the nest; three months after giving birth, jennys
are ready to mate again. By the time they are six months old, they have their adult
coloration and the prong of maturity on their horns. They live in loose
colonies of up to a hundred members, within which is near-constant striving for
rank and mates. Like rabbits, they can be quite aggressive with each
other, but usually only bite and kick other jackalopes, with bucks sometimes
locking horns for shoving matches; jackalopes who intentionally gore rivals with
their horns are
driven out of the colony, a strange habit as jackalopes who kill through normal
fighting methods are rarely if ever treated thus. In most
circumstances, they live for about ten to fifteen years.
Temperament
Jackalopes are more bold than most rabbits, but can be startled easily.
For obvious reasons, it's best not to corner a frightened jackalope; their horns
can do serious damage at close range, especially when backed by the force of
their powerful haunches.
Magical Traits
Jackalopes are adept at locating natural "wyrmrifts," dimensional
rifts between various times and worlds (once referred to as wyrm holes, after
the Great Wyrm Ouroboros whose coils encompass all universes and times.) Their horns are sensitive to the ripples in reality around such
gaps, though some scholars believe that the jackalopes themselves can create
temporary wyrmrifts. Powdered jackalope horn is the main ingredient of
most wyrmrift detection and transportation spells, powders, and potions on the
market today. In additon to finding wyrmrifts, they also seem to be able to pass through them with
few ill effects. Most living beings or creatures suffer from
disorientation and memory loss as they pass from one world's physical and
magical laws to another's, often experiencing a physical transformation as their
body takes on a form suited for survival in their destination; the return trip
doesn't necessarily undo what was done. Jackalopes, aside from slight
variations in appearance, can pass through wyrmrifts with ease, and even seem to
have no troubles dealing with offworld food (a notoriously troublesome issue for
most wyrmrift travelers.) On other
worlds, one can find stuffed jackalopes among several taxidermy collections,
though most natives who are unaware of other dimensions scoff at them as hoaxes;
some, indeed, are fakes, created by frustrated witnesses who couldn't get their
hands on a real jackalope before they slipped back to Tirialle.
Other Notes
Those who manage to trap and cook a jackalope are very disappointed; the meat is
almost inedibly bitter and tough, and can even be poisonous owing to their tough
constitution and habit of world-jumping. (In different dimensions, the most
ordinary things can take on startling properties; even the groundwater of some
parallel worlds can be dangerously tainted, almost as if the inhabitants
deliberately poisoned the land beneath their own feet. Jackalopes seem
oblivious to most of these shifts, drinking the waters of countless parallel
dimensions with almost maddening complacency.) Their skin, however, is also
exceptionally tough, especially when exposed to the rigors of transworld travel;
most wyrmrift travelers use jackalope-skin bags to carry anything they don't
wish to be transformed by the effects of cross-dimensional travel.
The Skyhaven Adoption Hunt and related text and
images were created by TBW 2007
Only the awards and the adoptable creatures/beings are to be taken
E-mail: tbweber (at) comcast (dot) net or tbweber (at)
brightdreamer (dot) com
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Hunt in the Subject line!)