Feixiyi
I didn’t assume that we would find anything living there. The hordes had trampled down the walls and what had been left standing had been burnt by the empress. Off course I was wrong.
Lumeng was a strange, abstract artwork, made of ash and coal. It was black in black and there was no way to say what used to be a man, a woman or a child. There was no way to distinguish between people and chairs for that matter. But I think it would have been better, had it only been the black vastness of ash. Instead, there was color everywhere.
Creatures, smaller than my hand, were flittering through the air. Their wings had that soft hue of lilac that used to be so popular in Zhongyang, a few summers back. They flittered from one ashy mound to the next or they hang from their tails, swaying in the breeze like an especially strange wind chime.
Some of their wings changed colors. It was fascinating. I saw Lumeng on their wings, how it had been before, saw the masses of laughing people, carnivals and lectures and parades and these strange, intimate moments between two people, that are so private, that it feels wrong just knowing about them. I took one step, but Kahaan hold me back. There was a silent terror on his face.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“You know what they are?”
“Feixiyi.”
“They don’t look dangerous.”
“And one of them would not be.”
I would – much later – visit Kahaan’s hometown. He showed me people that had been stumbled into a swarm of Feixiyis. They had been eaten dry, their own name a strange echo that held no meaning for them. Never have I been more grateful for this friend of mine.
Ji Bohai
Basic Information
Anatomy
Feixiyi are about the size of the head of a tablespoon. The majority of them consists of lavender wings, each consisting of two nearly perfect circles. The wings are attached to a thumbnail-sized round body. The body is jet black. The compound eyes extend over the entire belly of the feixiyi. These creatures have no legs, but can use their tails to hang from trees, so they sleep like bats.
Their wings sometimes show the memories they have eaten.
Genetics and Reproduction
They lay their eggs in the dreams of living beings. When the feixiyis hatch, they are already capable of flight, but are much smaller than their grown counterparts. They are regurgitated from the host as a swarm. If the same host is used too often, it will be afflicted with depression and fatigue.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The main food source for Feixiyis are memories. They can settle on living beings and take memories from them, but it is a painful process and they are often slain while feeding. As a result, they feed mainly on ghosts. They live in swarms in places where many spirits bypass - battlefields, the sites of massacres, cursed forests.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Feixiyis are being used as a treatment for trauma. Patients are being exposed to some of them, the hope being, that the creatures will eat the memory that is hurting them.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Feixiyis have no sense of smell or hearing. But they can see very well, in a range of about 300°.
They sense strong emotions and seek them out.
Comments