Far beyond our tiny planet, on the edges of our Galaxy, a place of predators, war and ice lies. Unknown for thousands of millions of years, finally this planet has been found. By no means can you go there, as any life would freeze within kilometres of it - or so scientists thought. I bring you the Chronichals of Xeena, a planet so far from the sun that it is millions of degrees below zero, yet still plays home to an advanced eco-system of life. Sledge-tails, frost-fowl, Xeenian bander and worst of all: the Ice-raptors, whose intelligence out-thinks even the brains of the futruristic humans. Welcome to Antartic hell.
2nd Febuary 3001, Tuesday, Xeena robo-cam_Holly Stormare connected
"Our first report from our robo-cam has come in: unfortunatly, nothing more than a few frost-fowl on the ice-sheets so far, though we have anough hour of footage to watch, so fingers crossed for something a bit more exciting than fluffy pom-poms on legs! Meanwhile, i'm working on the complete map of Xeena. So far i've calculated the area of the ice-sheets (a long stretch of thin ice-layers covering a lot of the planet) and plotted them out, now i'm working on the a range of glacier mountains, so my assistant is programing a new course into robo-cam, pointing it towards there. I'm excited about this, as i've got an idea that the ice-raptors may breed there - but who knows?!"
"Robo-cam had picked up some find of animal's sound. We followed the sound till a spectacular scene appeared. The Ice-raptors are gathering on glacier cliffs. They too can here distress calls from the ice sheets. A round-footed Mallilian calf has become stranded on the thin ice-covering, it's body half-suberged in freezing, black water. It's herd are absent and i suspect it will soon freeze to death. The raptors are beggining to close in on the calf."
Frost-fowl
Class: bird
weight: Adult males are about 1kg, whilst females slightly under.
Build: medium - though small, they are fairly strong for there weight-range.
length: 30cm give-or-take
Intellegence rating: 10% stupid.
Weapons/defense: Frost fowl will tuck there chicken-like legs in and simply roll over the ice-sheets. They may also peck at each other.
Speed: they usually waddle around pecking at the scarce shrubs, though at there top speed, they can reach 1.5 mph
Killer-rate: Vegaterian, so 0/10
life-span: 2 years at most, but they'll probaly be eaten by then.
litter-type: eggs, whiteish grey in colour, so they look like stones.
litter-size: 20-30 eggs
breeding season: Autumn
genstation period: 2 months
colouration: Females are dull shades of grey, sometimes with an odd brown streak, whilst males are pure, glossy white. In the breeding season, an emrald or teal blaze appears on a male's chest, which will fade after-wards.
Appearance: basicaly, a very fluffy puff-ball with considerably long, chicken-like legs. They have little claws on their feet, to give grip on the ice. They have short little beaks, which are slightly hooked, and eyes on either side of a little portruding puff - their head!
Diet: Anything vegatarian.
breeding ritual: females pick the male with the most eye-catching chest-blaze. There is not much fighting or competion when it comes to Frost-fowl.
"The round-footed Mallilian calf has managed to pull itself out of the water, but it's in a bad state and very weak. The Ice-raptors are werey of such a heavy and strong beast, but i think they are aware of it's state, as they keep getting closer. The raptors hunt in packs, so it's intresting to see how they work together. Two raptors go forward on right and left side of the calf and begin circling it. Further back, a couple of raptors patrol steadily. Now one raptor, a particularly large male rushes in onto the calf. It struggles to get up but it's legs are to weak. The pair of raptors on either side soon follow before the patroling raptors begin running in and taking a pot-shot at the calf before running back out again. The large male - a male is a bull in raptor terms - is weighing the calf down, and now he brings down his jaws round the calf's neck. All the raptors go in, and the body is covered in blood and beast."
Ice-raptors
Class: reptile
weight: 33 pounds rouhly
Build: light-weight. An agile and quick predator
length: 6 feet females, males about 8.
Intellegence rating: 98% Incredably intellegent
Weapons/defense: Like it's phrestoric look-a-like, a 9cm claw on it's foot was a deadly weapon, aswell as sharp teeth and pure speed.
Speed: 11mph very fast indeed
Killer-rate: 9/10, some animals are too large to take-on
life-span: 20-30yrs, as even a Xeenian bander would think twice about attacking one.
litter-type: eggs. white and black speckles
litter-size: 4-6 eggs
breeding season: Spring
genstation period: 7 months
colouration: Females are brown/black/white speckled, with usualy blue or brown eyes, whilst males are shades of blue and grey spots. In the breeding seasons, the crests on male's arms become either red or neon blue.
Appearance: Their bodies are quite long, as well as their mecks. Raptors are covered in silky fur, except for arms, legs, head and tail. The head is dragon-like, with a pair of horns and spines along their nose and cheeks in male. It's arms are bare flesh with three clawed-fingers. Males have small crest underneath their arms which are colourful in the breeding season. Legs are long and equipted with three long, clawed-toes and a retracting claw, typical to raptors, on the upper foot. The tail is long for balance, and bare flesh. The tail-skin is very tight, so the bone shape is very clear along it.
Diet: Frost-fowl and hopping sprites are the favourites, but anything will go down well.
breeding ritual: The breeding ritual of an Ice-raptor is complexed. First, the males (bulls) will heat up in the few hours of pale light in the morning, and their arm-crests will became either red or neon blue. Next, all raptor packs gather somewhere in the glacier mountains - which is also the nesting-area - and the bulls begin to duel. First, a bull will challenge for a female, and the amount of bulls wanting the female will fight. Some bulls will back-down if others have brighter crests, but usualy it's fisty-cuffs. Bulls use their horns on their snout and cheeks to peirce the enemy's skin. Sometimes, fights will be to the death, but the winner will get the female. If a losing bull attempts to mount a female, she will throw him off and leave him to the other bulls. Once the winner is established, the female will access him. If she is unpleased, she'll reject him and a new fight will begin. How-ever, if she does accept him, the male will mount her. A male may cover serveral females in just one day.
5th Febuary 3001, Friday, Xeena robo-cam_Holly Stormare connected
"No life so far. We are beggining to get close to the glacier mountains, and as you read above, it's soon coming into the ice-raptor breeding-season! The map is going well, and i've discovered some more information about Round-footed Mallilain, thanks to the remains of the ice-raptor's kill. I'll soon have a profile up about them, as i have the raptors and frost-fowl."
"Robo-cam has just got off the ice-sheets, and we've begining to climb into mounds of high-piled snow - foothills. Now that we're off bare ice, i've spotted a couple of tracks already, one looks like a paor frost-fowl, but the other two i can't identify. Oh! And i've finished the Round-footed Mallilian profile - here it is:"
Round-footed Mallilian
Class: mammal
weight: 5-6 tonnes
Build: Very heavy - a huge, compact beast
length: 7-8m
Intellegence rating: 28% Quite dumb
Weapons/defense: Huge beaver-like teeth, and sheer weight and strength
Speed: 1-2mph
Killer-rate: 1/10, as it might quash the odd unluckly victim.
life-span: 40-50yrs - a good length
litter-type: Live birth
litter-size: 1 calf, or very rarely 2
breeding season: Spring
genstation period: 18 months
colouration: As adult mallians have very few to no animals liable to attack, they have no need for camoflauge, so browns and blacks are often seen on a mallilian. How-ever, calfs may be at risk, so they have a white coat which changes as they age, before fading to white as they get very old and weaker.
Appearance: Mallilians have a broad, fat body with short, stumpy, wide legs. They have three toe-nails and stone-like lumps on their back, and no tail. The head is a mass on fat and mane, with bushy eye-brows, large eyes and huge beaver teeth for eating trees. It has a thin, wiry coat over it's body, but you can still see the skin.
Diet: The fast-growing trees in the frozen forests are the only food-source!
breeding ritual: As you could imagine, it's diffucult trying to dance to impress a cow (female) with such small legs, but Mallilians do try there best! A mallilian bull (male) will perform a dance, which includes rearing up on the hind legs, twirling round in circles, hopping from one foot to another and even belly-flopping!! If a cow is impressed by the bull's dancing, it's a happy ending
