Name:

Bardwyrm

Origin:

The offspring of a Red fairy and an Olive fairy

Nature:

These amphibious creatures make their nests on the beaches of Orange, the Olive Isles, and the Blue Kingdom.  They appear snakelike during most hours of the day and night, and when in their snake forms, they work together to create massive, beautiful, intricate patterns in the sand.

These patterns are carefully studied carefully by Orange scholars, who have worked out that there are at least four completely different alphabets used by Bardwyrms. The creatures are poets, and their primary subjects are the wind and the water, which are an inexhaustible source of joy to them. Humanity is occasionally the subject of their poetry, and their insightful observations on human behavior can be both wonderful and embarrassing for humans to read.  

At sunrise and sunset, Bardwyrms’ snakelike bodies unfurl like long scrolls and they are carried by the wind into the sky above the ocean, where they sail and write their poetry in bright streaks against the horizon.  It is not clear whether they are only capable of sailing at dawn and dusk, or whether they choose only to sail at those times because of the exultant beauty of those hours.  

In their snake forms, they can issue painful but nontoxic bites, but they only do so if interrupted in the middle of writing, or if tightly coiled in the shade, which means that they are thinking.  If they are relaxed and basking in the sun, they are happy to be stroked and will gladly curl around the arm or along the neck and shoulders of willing sunbathers.  

Though they are rarely created, Bardwyrms can lay as many as 30 eggs in a clutch, and since they and their babies live under the protection of the academics who study them, they are a thriving species.

Trivia:

Jack dreams of one day watching Bardwyrms write their poetry in the air.