Rivka the Owl

^{"Unmoving and silent she looked down on me,
Its silvery eyes full of blazing moon,
Its stare as cold as death in brilliant glow.
I greeted her respectfully... and slowly backed away."}

Archibald H. Blondebeard's encounter with Rivka the Owl

Summary

Though rarely encountered by civilized folk, the existence of Rivka is a commonly accepted truth; however, the origins and nature of this owl are subject to much speculation, for Rivka is by no means any ordinary owl. Her eyes are alight with arcane power, and her feathers are covered in glowing runes. The most popular theory is that Rivka was once the familiar of Percival Cornelius Hopgood, the Highport wizard who's magic lifted the city above the clouds, and later perished in the creation of the Mythals that sustain the Beastlands.
There have been several expeditions that encountered Rivka by chance and tried to capture her, in all accounts the survivors state the creature unleashed a terrible magic upon her assailants... and looked quite smug while doing so.

Variations & Mutation

There are some scholars who believe Percival Cornelius Hopgood himself had created a fail-safe that would transfer his consciousness into Rivka upon his death. The only basis for this theory is a handful of scribbles from the wizard's notebooks concerning his thoughts on the matter of "extending ones life once the body fails at such a mundane task as living".