Category: Flora and Fauna

Popplebumps!

On By JeanNadiraIn Flora and FaunaLeave a comment

I’ve been exploring the swamp and marsh around BrineWater Market, and I’ve found some delightful little frogs that the natives call popplebumps. The have sweet chirps, like song birds, and fill the evening with their songs. I’m told mating season only lasts a few weeks in spring.

Spring? What happened to winter…?

Anyway, popplebumps are bright green, though some species have bright red, orange, or yellow spots – which always means Danger! Those are highly poisonous, like poison-dart frogs back home. I’ve even seen a group with bright blue spots, and I’m intrigued. Even here, blue pigments are rare. I’m going out to investigate them further. In the meantime, click the link to read what I’ve learned about the local popplebumps.

The beautiful photograph is by Chloé Lam on Unsplash

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Erde’s Shape-Shifters

On By JeanNadiraIn Erde, Flora and FaunaLeave a comment

I had made the climb to the Bright Mother’s Fountain, and this gave me the right to be there.  But I was still uncomfortable in this company.  Not because they are predators – a bunch of my family are cat-people, or dog-people.  We’ve even got a family of dolphin shifters.  No, it’s because this was clearly a sacred place to them, and I was very much an outsider.  So, although I was invited to join them around the Fountain and be part of the Ritual, I politely declined.  Instead I wandered the plateau and talked to people.  And I discovered they were terrifying and fascinating, lovely and terrible, haunted and driven, kind-hearted and killers.  Their power is seductive.

I miss my family.  I think after this I’ll go home for a bit.

Click here to learn a little more: The Shape-Shifters of Erde

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Black Locust Worm

On By JeanNadiraIn Flora and FaunaLeave a comment

During my research I found several accounts of travelers who were afflicted with worms burrowing beneath their skin. #shudder  This creature lives in forests where the black locust tree grows, and it resembles the seed pods of that tree.  I also found that there are other species that mimic the seed pods of other trees.  I am going to be much MUCH more careful about setting up my camps from now on.

Click the link to read more: The Black Locust Worm

 

 

 

Creative Commons License This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Photograph by Jean Headley.