Aygera: Timid Trinket

Basic Information

Anatomy

The aygera has four limbs, each ending in three claws, around a small, spherical torso. To each side of the aygera's underbelly are two pouches. These are organs that the aygera uses for storing nutrients over long periods of time, often fatty tissue and fat-soluble vitamins but also water and water-soluble vitamins.

Ecology and Habitats

Aygera usually burrow two homes for themselves. They have one home in the north, which is small and well hidden, to stay temporarily during their migration north. The second, in Tat'ra, is significantly larger and more accommodating, since predators can't reach the aygera there. Due to the small number of species living in Tat'ra, there are very few territorial disputes among members of the species.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The aygera's muscles are configured such that the meat of the aygera provides fewer calories for humans than the amount necessary for consumption. Even so, certain grounded predators in the north of Tuhra can prepare and digest the aygera such that it can be a net benefit with regards to nutrients.

The aygera has very little natural protection against these predators, but they need certain nutrients from the cereal grains in the north of Tuhra to survive. Every so often, they venture north to feed on the nutrient-rich grasses, then move back south. They can't live on the grasses of Tat'ra alone, but the grasses of Tat'ra can hold them over until the next journey to the north. This way, aygera can live for months in Tat'ra, while the predator that pursues them can only last days.

Additional Information

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Partly because of the lack of species in Tat'ra, aygera don't carry insects or diseases that are particular nuisances to humans. Further, the aygera doesn't typically steal from most Tuhrans, both because of the aygera's weakness and because of mutually exclusive diets. As a result, they are tolerated by humans. Some aygera are kept as pets, though almost always due to taming rather than domestication.

Geographic Distribution

• Tat'ra: South Tuhra Plains