Flesh Screamer

Flesh Screamers have long belonged to the realm of myth, a ghost story Atherian fathers tell their children to get them to behave. They're said to live on the peak of Mt. Impri, above the treeline, where they wait for unwary travellers to happen by so they can eat them--alive.
The Flesh Screamer is said to be over seven feet tall, covered in equal parts fur and a hard, thick carapace, and with jaws that unhinge so they can better devour their victims. The calling card of a Flesh Screamer is the horrific sound they emit -- if you hear it, it will be the last thing you ever hear, for the screech will paralyze you from head to toe. Your blood will freeze in your veins as the creature bears down upon you, opening its ever-famished maw to devour you whole....

Basic Information

Anatomy

Skeletal structure and musculature: a Flesh Screamer's skeletal structure is vaguely similar to a primate's, though it's unlikely they're related to any species of ape. They have two legs, with a long femur bone and two bones on the lower half of the leg. Their pelvis is narrower than a human's but otherwise looks familiar. Their spine connects to a rib cage that protects their internal organs.
However, that is where the similarities end. Flesh Screamers have four arms, not two, and the accompanying extra shoulder blades. Their spine is ridged along the back, and their upper shoulder blades have an extra protrusion where their wings grow.
The skull is most interesting. Flesh Screamers have two lower jaws, one they are able to unhinge in order to eat their prey. The other lower jaw is located within the mouth, and its purpose is speculated though not known. The unhinging jaw has very sharp fangs, and the secondary jaw has blunter molars. It's possible the secondary lower jaw is for chewing plant life and lichen that the Flesh Screamer will supplement its diet with.
Their olfactory canal is large, with many divots within it, where scent organs fit. The skull has two very small eye sockets, thought to be vestigial as Flesh Screamers do not have eyes.
The skull is smaller than a human's, fitting a smaller brain. There are no holes for auditory canals, so Flesh Screamers translate sound differently. The base of the skull meets the top of the spine and fuses to it with a strange, cartilage like substance that acts almost like glue. It's very hard to separate a Flesh Screamer's skull from its body. Breaking their neck is nearly impossible.
On top of this very strange skeleton rests the musculature of the Flesh Screamer, which is formidable indeed. Flesh Screamers have a large amount of muscle, keeping them warm in the chilly temperatures of the mountain. This also makes them a good source of meat, if one were foolish enough to try to hunt them.
Fur, wings, claws, and carapace: the outside of a Flesh Screamer is covered in a combination of fur and insect-like carapace. Both are white, blending in with the snow on the mountaintop and affording the creature natural camouflage.
Flesh Screamers have two iridescent, beetle-like wings on their back. It's thought they exist to give the creature greater balance when shifting between running upright and on all sixes. The wings are retractable and sturdy so long as they are attached to a living Flesh Screamer. Without a blood supply, they quickly disintegrate.
Each of a Flesh Screamer's four hands has six fingers, each tipped with a long, vicious claw, used to disembowel their prey. The claws are retractable, and the fingers on each hand are long and multi-jointed. It's thought Flesh Screamers retract their claws and fold in their fingers when running on all six limbs.

Genetics and Reproduction

by Me + Wombo

Mating: once every three years, Flesh Screamers will feel the urge to mate. It's a physiological change, and it causes certain pheromones to emit from the creatures. Other Screamers also in the mating cycle will smell the pheromones and track their source.
Often mating happens without issue, but sometimes two females will catch the scent of one male. In this case a fight to the death ensues, with the victorious female mating the male.
Once mating has begun the two are stuck together, as the female has barbed hooks that will latch onto the male and not let go until mating is successful (she has conceived).
Pregnancy: after a successful mating, the female is pregnant and must gorge and then hibernate. The male will help by bringing the female many kills so she can gorge as much as possible. He brings these kills to the cave she has selected, and then once her gorge is over and hibernation begins, he marks the cave with a warning scent telling others to stay away. The male then leaves, and has nothing more to do with the female or offspring.
Female Flesh Screamers will hibernate for the length of their pregnancy, which is 39 days (or one month in the Atherian calendar). Birth: despite being partially insectoid, Flesh Screamers have live birth like mammals. Unlike mammals, they have no mammary glands, and newborn Flesh Screamers will instead suckle on their mother's blood for 21 days.

Ecology and Habitats

Flesh Screamers live on Mt. Impri, above the treeline, where it's cold and wintry year-round. They are mostly unaffected by the cold and tend to bed down in snow drifts or on rock ledges. When pregnancy hibernation is needed, they'll find a cave in which to bed down.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Flesh Screamers are omnivorous. They will eat whatever is at hand in order to continue living. Their favourite, of course, is fresh meat.
Newborn Flesh Screamers need mother's blood for the first 21 days, at which point they are ready to begin to consume small creatures and whatever else is around.

Biological Cycle

Flesh Screamers live in the cold year-round, so they do not hibernate in the winter. However, a pregnant Flesh Screamer will gorge herself on meat and then hibernate for the rest of her pregnancy and the first 21 days of her child's life. After this point she will need to replenish her own stores, and she will emerge from her cave with her child and begin to teach it how to hunt and take care of itself.

Behaviour

Towards Each Other

Flesh Screamers are largely loner creatures. They do not hunt each other, and they mostly leave each other to their own territories, which it's thought they mark by scent.

The exception to this rule is when it comes time to reproduce. Flesh Screamers come together for mating, and once mating is over, the female Flesh Screamer will become a mother. As newborn Flesh Screamers are helpless for 21 days, and continue to need care for the next six months, a mother Flesh Screamer will spend time with her baby, teaching it how to hunt, & protecting it until it is ready to find its own territory.

Towards Prey

the Scream:

this is the main way Flesh Screamers hunt their prey. The sound is created by their throats, which are large and able to be manipulated to create the sound. At first it will sound like a sighing on the wind, a woman's voice. Then the scream will become a keening, at which point the victim will become paralyzed. Flesh feels as stone, and you are unable to do anything as the Flesh Screamer bears down on you and then rips your organs out and begins feasting.

Indiscriminate Killing Machines:

Flesh Screamers have never been known to show mercy towards humans for any reason, but when it comes to other creatures they seem to have a sense of timing, at the very least. Flesh Screamers will be careful not to eradicate their food sources, and it's said that a Flesh Screamer coming upon non-human food sources that are within the cycle of raising the next generation of young will leave that food source alone so as not to deplete the numbers.

This denotes some level of intelligence, though whether it's higher thought or simply instinctual is unknown.

Additional Information

Domestication

I suppose you could try but it seems like a good way to get yourself killed.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Flesh Screamers are a good source of meat, and their skin, carapace, and fur can be used to create clothing. Their claws can be turned into weapons as well.

Facial characteristics

Horrifying.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Mt. Impri, above the treeline. Unknown if elsewhere.

Average Intelligence

Instinctual at least. Unknown if capable of higher thought.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Sight: Flesh Screamers lack eyes as we know them, but they do have some sense of sight in the form of reading heat signatures through organs that rest within their vestigial eye sockets.
Scent: Flesh Screamers have an excellent, pronounced sense of smell. It's said they can smell the hot blood coursing through the veins of a mammal from a mile away. Their olfactory canals are built to contain their multiple scent organs, and their nostrils have flaps that can cover the holes to protect the insides from the cold air if needed.
Hearing: Flesh Screamers have no external ears and no hole in their skull for an auditory canal. Their sense of hearing is vibration based. They are also immune to their Scream, so it's likely their lack of external ears accounts for this.

Flesh Screamer Artist Rendition

by Me + Wombo

Artist's rendition of a Flesh Screamer. Not truly accurate, but terrifying all the same.

Scientific Name

ululatus viscera

Lifespan

unknown

Average Height

2.5 meters

Average Weight

110 kg

Average Physique

Densely packed muscle.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Flesh Screamers are all white. Their fur, carapace, and flesh are the colour of snow. Their wings are iridescent, and their gums are blood-red.

Early Artist Rendering of Flesh Screamer

by Me + Wombo

Created before it was known they had four arms and two legs.

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