Amphista - Amphisbaena (Ahm-Fist-Uh)
According to Greek mythology, the amphista was spawned from the blood that dripped from the Gorgon Medusa's head as Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with her head in his hand. In ancient times, the supposedly dangerous amphista had many uses in the art of folk medicine and other such remedies. Pliny notes that expecting women wearing a live amphista around their necks would have safe pregnancies; however, if one's goal was to cure ailments such as arthritis or the common cold, one should wear only its skin. By eating the meat of the amphista, one could supposedly attract many lovers of the opposite sex, and slaying one during the full moon could give power to one who is pure of heart and mind.
The Amphista is a cunning, dangerous creature. It burrows into the sands of the desert it inhabits, eating on small bugs, scorpions, snakes, and when the odd traveler goes astray, human flesh. It can smell blood from over two miles away, stalking and cornering its prey by using it's magical venom to create a mist that resembles a mirage. The creature lays large eggs, usually buried in iron-rich sand, and the females coil themselves around it, protecting their nest for 90 long days. When the eggs finally hatch, the amphista born are automatically female, changing to male as as is needed when they start to mature. They are clear, silvery when born and then when they mature, the females are almost twice the size as the males. The colors vary, depending on their environment. Some are beige and yellow and others are more red or purple. Like chameleons, they easily adapt their color in their reflective scales.
Syres encounters one in his wanderings across the Syrian Desert after the sixth crusade and again in Northern Africa during his time with the Islamic Caliphate of Cordoba. The first encounter was from a distance, and it was warded off by a Berber shaman who used his own kind of earth-based magic to confuse and frighten the young lone creature. The second was drawn right to Syres after he had cut himself while herding goats for the Bedouin tribe in Syria. Usually pack animals, Syres was able to fight off the large female and take her eggs to be sold for passage to India.
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