Feral Mali'ker Study Notes

[Hanrahan 2983]

Feral Mali’ker  Study Notes

 

By Charles Napier, Dean of Naturalism

(( Creds to Decolamb for any sketches. ))

 

 

"After hearing strange and unexplained reports about some sort of 'giant wolf' in the forests around Haelun'or and Malinor, I have decided to investigate, research and observe this mysterious subject myself. I packed up, and made my way there with due haste. With two or three days of wandering, questioning and searching, I came across a sleeping dark-Elf who had chosen his spot of rest to be under a tree. However, what at first appeared to be 'The wolf' was creeping quite close to him in the underbrush - I yelled out to the fellow to wake and move, hoping it would also spook the animal. What happened next caught my attention completely - the 'wolf' moved in such a way no quadruped has ever been observed to move, almost displaying a bow-legged gait of sorts. The Elf quickly left my sight, only to pop up a few moments later with 'the wolf' in hand. At that moment, it struck me the creature was not any canine at all, but a fully grown woman, wearing the rough skins of a wolf over her body, and very little else. What I have witnessed seems to be a case of complete ferality in a sentient, civilized being. This bears much further investigation and time."

 

Appearance

5'5 at approximate estimate, could be 1-2 inch variation.

Very primitive clothing, mostly fur, only covering 'sensitive extremities.'

Covered in scarring and general skin conditions, clearly not peak of health.

Amber hued eyes.

Silvery hair, two or so feet long.

 

Behavior

Canine activities and behavioral patterns in all acts of living, crawls on hands and feet, rarely stands, uses teeth, not hands. Heavy investment in sniffing and tasting things before use, or further inspection.  Mainly displays emotion through facial expression, leverage of ears and vocal noises. Aggressive, even to apparent mate. Aims for tendons and soft spots, obviously learned in proper areas to strike.

 

Subject exhibits similar behavior to that of most pack-oriented canines, with a few nuances. She moves in a quadrupedal fashion, using a bow-legged gait to move with speed around, and uses her palms as a sort of 'paw'. For manipulation of her environment, she uses her teeth, not her hands, and so far lacks complex motor function. She displays emotion through a mix of facial expressions, movement of ears and vocal noises. The subject is very aggressive, even to her 'mate'. When observing her hunt, she is quick to bite the sensitive areas of, for example a deer - aiming for tendons, and the neck, as well as the soft stomach.

 

 

Diet

She is entirely carnivorous. She exhibits a natural curiosity in most new objects, curious to see if there is a new food source. As proven with experiments, if it isn't edible, it has very little use to her. Due to her limited diet, I'm positive she will have a host of ailments and troubles, the foremost being intestinal worms, and scurvy.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Hanrahan

[Hanrahan 2983]

Day One

"I entered the den, whereupon I was accosted by the two subjects. The Male was not the main aggressor, but the female instead, suggesting an Alpha-Female mentality in the duo. In testing her 'fears', so to speak, I struck a flint in the dark of her cave, illuminating it with a shower of harmless sparks. She reacted to this with great apprehension and fear, fleeing to the back of her dwelling and pressing herself up against the wall. Later, she similarly reacted when a bout of thunder rolled through 'her' valley, causing her to once again flee into her cave. The Similarities between Canine fears and her fears are quite astounding in their closeness." "The male that I have seen dwelling, and even mating with the feral subject seems to be on a higher cognitive level then the female partner, capable of speech, critical thinking and tool-use. This leads to several more questions, which I shall continue to explore over the duration of my fieldwork in the Valley."

"Their den, formed from natural caverns underneath a large oak tree is quite similar in nature to that of any predators earthern den - windy, dark and cramped. Vines and leaves coat the walls and floor, perhaps as a padding of sorts, perhaps simply as naturally blown-in debris. The smell is interesting - it, does not smell as terrible as one might imagine; smelling more of any old musty cavern then the cesspit one might imagine. This implies that not only do the subjects /not/ defecate in their dwelling, they also make a habit of not leaving food, particularily perishable food inside to go raw.

"The natural geography around the cave is fitting for the subjects purposes; a small hidden valley covered by thick grasses and shrubs of numerous sorts, flanked by large pines and oaks on the valley hilltops. Underbrush is not manicured and cut away unlike most of the rest of the Elven forests, giving the subjects, particularily the more feral and agressive female better natural cover and camoflauge then most other areas would. Footnote; Many animal bones bearing teeth marks lie not outside the cave, but near a tree around a dozen yards away from the cave entrance. Shards of Antler and a semi-whole deer skull also lie at the base of the tree, implying that she is fully able to crack bone without the aid of stone tools."

"Upon the night of the second day, I was in my tent when I heard hear begin to howl at the moon - a personal aside, a very haunting, yet beautiful sound. She made the same pitched and toned howl several times, before looking anxiously at a direction in the woods, then releasing several more howls. She repeated this cycle three times, before sagging in her form, and padding back into her burrow with, if I can say, a feeling of dejection. I theorise this is a telltale sign of isolation, and that she at one point, did belong to a pack of wolves, and as I record this, been seperated from them for at the very least, one to two months.

"During the third day in the early afternoon, I made a disasterous blunder that turned out to have some merit in the long term. My observation glass was perched rather haphazardly upon a hillside, and I knocked it down into the valley. The female subject was quickly on it, first sniffing it, then biting it. As one can only asume, she found the object very curious, and took it to her male partner. I must confess a small amount of confusion on the sudden urge of ownership that came over the two subjects, as the object had no merit in a survival sense to their animilistic natures. It was not edible, nor could they use it properly to gain food better. But, in the end, the female and the male still fought each other over possetion of the item, the female going as far as to bite the male and draw blood. In victory, she took the glass over to the tree with the deer skull, and buried it in the ground."

"When dawn occurred on the first day, the male subject returned to his dwelling after a great period of activity in the late-night area. This suggests, that although the male subject may not be biologically Nocturnal, there is a nocturnal component in his thought-process. The female however, does not exhibit the same behavior of adapted nocturnal-ism as the male - so contrary is her behavior, that she exhibited strong signs of confusion at the male subjects retreat into the darkness. After her confusion, she sat at the mouth of the cave, making noise that I believe to be affectionate. I theorize this was an attempt to coax the male out; alas, it did not work, and she then too entered the den.

"I stayed up through the night, intrigued by their behavior. I wasn't able to hear very much, but by dawn, the growls and howls were more than audible, and the female limped outside, appearing to have been in a fight of some sort, stumbling and weaving, before finally collapsing. The male, I'll note at this point, was standing; he picked her up with surprising gentleness, taking her back inside."

"I thought up a little test for the female subjects motor skills, and general intelligence. I took a screw-top jar, and placed a scrap of raw beef inside of it. To allow for the scent to get out, I punched three holes in the top - hardly large enough for any sort of tool to be used to open it, but enough to do it's job. To open the jar and get the meat inside, the female will have to figure out how to twist the lid to open it. The only trouble with the test, is that the more sophisticated male subject may open it for her. We shall see what happens."

 

[Hanrahan 2983]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by Hanrahan

[Hanrahan 2983]

(Res)

[Hanrahan 2983]

(Res)

[Shalashask 1112]

Svadus throws up in his mouth a little upon reading the notes.

[monkeypoacher 8055]

Quenthel Daevion'lyr recoils, his face contorted at the voyeuristic display. 

[Elad™ 560]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.