"Not-beast" is the generic name for any of the many monsters that lurk in
the Forest. All of them were once ordinary animals, but they are not those creatures anymore.
Not-beasts happen when an animal ingests sap from a
bloodsap tree. This could be directly, such as insects, birds, or small mammals that lap up the sweet sap that oozes out of the trunk. Larger animals become infected by eating animals that have recently fed on the sap. Only about half of animals that ingest the sap are affected by it, but the number of non-mutated animals remaining in the Forest dwindles each year.
Technically,
uhaaki are a type of not-beast, specifically they are what happens when sap affects humans. They are unique in their intelligence and danger, however, so are usually categorized separately. Just as all humans become uhaaki, all bears become
Reaper
Aberrants
The exception to the rule are aberrants. These are animals that mutated in strange and unexpected ways. The exact line of when a not-beast goes from being "unusually large" to "an aberrant" is fuzzy, because usually witnesses are too busy running away to give a thorough description of the creature. Aberrants could be anything from a not-lynx that drools bloodsap, to a many-limbed monstrosity that hardly resembles whatever it once was.
Not-Fish
Of all creatures that could become
not-beasts, fish are the least worrying. Because they live in water, their connection to the Forest is already weaker than terrestrial not-beasts, who avoid leaving contact with the land whenever possible.
Furthermore, the unnatural aggression other not-beasts display is linked to extreme territoriality. Trespassers in the Forest are hunted down, and harming a tree draws all nearby not-beasts to attack. Not-fish encounter humans when they are still on the water, and not a threat to the Forest, so their behaviour is barely changed from a healthy fish.
The biggest threat of not-fish is the risk of passing their infection on, is practiced on all fish, just in case. If any are pulled up that are obviously infected, they are killed, set aside, and fresh hooks used.
