Burrowers

One of the strangest committees of the valturo is the Burrowers. Unlike their fellow valturos, they are not roaming the skies or hunting for fish and sea mammals in the endless oceans but burrowing into the Cutter. Although everybody can do everything within the committee, there are three distinguished branches: the miners, the scavengers, and the hunters.

The miners are the ones who are constantly looking for ore, crystals, and the byproduct of the vangola digestive system, the intal. They are the ones who bore the most routes in Cutter because they have time.

The scavengers are looking for vangola carcasses to take back to the nests for food. They are also responsible for finding young vangolas and domesticating them as much as possible.

The hunters are the fighting force of the Burrowers. Usually, they receive elite fighting training at the Beak. They hunt for vangolas who are close to the age when they go insane and kill everything and everybody in sight.

The vehicle all three branches of the Burrowers use is called the Egg. Domesticated vangolas pull it. And although it is called the Egg, its shape is much closer to a clam because it is made mainly from vangola shells. It is just outfitted differently for different purposes. Navigating these vehicles is extremely hard inside the mountain. It requires years of training the innate ability of the valturo to feel the magnetic field of Tacillia.

The Burrowers central point of operation is also stranger than the other nests. Located inside the Cutter, it is called Subterran. Burrowers spend as much time as they can in the darkness to get used to the sights and sounds of a world inside a mountain.

Becoming a Burrower is a calling rather than the only place for those overlooked for other roles.

When I grow up, I want to be a Harpy or a Burrower

— valturo chick