Tilghe

Tilghe TILL-geh pl. tilghes
Fact File
Classification:	Reptilia
Frequency:	Rare
Size:	Medium
Lifespan:	80-100 years
Domesticated?:	No
Diet:	Omnivore
Biome(s):	Caves, Desert, Tropical Rainforest

Creatures resembling wyverns of terra myth, they are approximately a foot in length, 2/3rds body, 1/3rd neck and head, at adulthood (not including their tails, which are slightly longer than their bodies & neck combined) and their wingspan reaches upwards of four feet. They are scaled creatures, but are surprisingly warm-blooded - they don't require sunlight or another heat source to warm themselves. Their bodies provide their own heat.

They don't sweat much, however, and as such, they have frills several places on their bodies with which to cool themselves down. Blood can be pushed into the webbing, and when exposed to the cooler air, cools down the blood, therefore cooling down the body. These frills around found behind their ears, on their neck, down their back, and at the tip of their tail, like a fan. These frills are adorned with spikes, which while sharp enough to stab, are controlled by the animal's musculature and can be raised or lowered to lie flush with the body.

They have two wings, and two hind legs, which are highly muscled. They are capable of carrying twice their own weight for considerable distances. They weigh approximately 30lbs (13.6 kilos). Their wings are basically their arms — the start of the pinions of their wings have three fingers, imitating a thumb and two fingers, while the remainder 'fingers' are wing bones, with stretchable webbing between each finger, and last finger and body.

A tilghe's color varies, depending solely on what element it represents. Fire, earth, water, air, time, dark, and light. Each has their own special attributes. As a show of their elemental control, both male and females carry Fronima-induced flames, much like pendragon males, the bright fire on the three tips of their tails. When working magic, their entire bodies glow with a flaming aura, not just their tails, signalling their power and magical prowess, for such a little creature. The color of the flames never strays far from the color of the tilghe itself. (A blue, cryokinetic, tilghe, will not have a pink tail flame, for example.)

Elemental Differences & Temperments

Pyrokinetic (fire) tilghes are shades of orange and red. The tilghes are very calm creatures, and very slow to anger. This gentle personality makes them perfectly adept at controlling the combustible element. Once they do become angry, however, it's akin to a volcano erupting, and because they control fire, the result will be something similar. These gentle tilghes tend to live near places of intense heat - deserts and volcanoes, as some examples.

Biokinetic (earth) tilghes are lush greens and browns. These tilghes are very shy creatures, they prefer living amongst their element, hidden away from the world. Coaxing one out is near impossible unless they feel an acute affinity with you. They are capable of altering their appearance and the texture of their skin to mimic tree bark, and other plant life, to remain hidden from prying eyes. It's near impossible to ever anger this type of tilghe, but when you do, they will deal with the offender slowly - exacting revenge over time. Like the slow blossoming of plants, and even slower creation and destruction of mountains, expect torture — starvation - as the means to your end, rather than a quick and painless death.

Cryokinetic (water) tilghes are hues of deep blue. The water-controlling tilghes are moody creatures, and are easy to offend. However, instead of attacking, they hold grudges, and refuse to assist whenever the offensive party requires help. This is their way of revenge - letting someone or something else do the dirty work for them. Cryokinetic tilghes are common near bodies of water, and those that favor ice, are found to the northern and southern polar caps.

Aerokinetic (air) tilghes are the color ranging from light ash to bright white. The fun-loving aerokinetic tilghes spend their days high in the sky, flitting from one continent to another. Abnormally strong breezes are said to originate from these elemental tilghes, who simply want a fun ride to wherever their latest destination should be. Being happy go lucky creatures, they tend to forgive and forget slights. But should the offence be great enough, the power of the wind is at their command, and any death resulting in either a long drop, or asphyxiation, can be attributes of the revenge style of the aerokinetic tilghe.

Electrokinetic (electricity, energy) tilghes are generally a brilliant gold with pale pink or purple highlights to their scales. Electrokinetic tilghes are fun loving creatures, with amazing senses of humour. They are quite known as the clowns of the tilghe family because of their ability to make others smile by nearly any means. They love to please, and keep feelings happy and carefree. Should they be angered, however, they are quite capable of stopping ones' heart — they do, after all control electricity to a T. In society, they make themselves useful by way of engineering. While they enjoy being clowns, they, too, are suited to working with machinery.

Atrakinetic (dark) tilghes are black with highlights of purple. These dark tilghes are incredibly mischievous, and often nicknamed imps among the tilghe family. They work with dark magic: illusions and deception, feeding off fears, and toying with minds, though not to the extent of the telekinetic tilghes. While impish, they are more playful than truly mean, but should you find yourself on their bad side, they will quite literally scare you to death.

Telekinetic (light) tilghes are gentle shades of yellow and white. The telekinetic tilghes control the mind to extremes — they can lift much more their own weight by the use of their mind, and enjoy sneaking around other life forms to read their minds. They are the scientists of the tilghe family — or perhaps just very nosey - they want to know what everyone else thinks at every given moment, and they are exquisitely capable of such mental snooping. Because they have such a fascination with other life forms, they nearly never kill. Angry, yes, but their anger will simply lead them to greener pastures (and more willing minds) not to the point of murder.

Temporikinetic (time) tilghes are the rarest, and their colors are difficult to define. Each pendragon will see this tilghe as a different hue. Many consider it a 'rainbow', but actually, it's base color is clear, and most often seen as white. Its' scales act as a prism, breaking up white light and reflecting all the colors at once, so depending on your position relevant to the position of the sun and the tilghe, it will be a different color. They are rather aloof beings, seeing as they control time — therefore time, as we see it, is irrelevant to them. They can go forward and backward, and experience centuries in a few hours if they wanted to — and usually do. Which is why they're so rare. It's quite literally possible for the temporikinetic tilghe your great-great-grandmother saw will be the very same tilghe your great-great-grandson will see. When something frustrates them, they don't bother resolving it — they just jump into another place and time. Leaving is their means of conflict resolution.

Diet

Tilghes are basically omnivores: they feast on both meat and fruit with their 36 teeth. (18 teeth upper and lower) Their teeth include forward fangs and incisors, along with rear molars for grinding. Generally they make smaller mammals and avians than themselves their main prey, but they are not beneath scavenging, if they can come across a fresh, large kill. They also enjoy fruits and nuts, though tend to stay away from grasses or wheat products. (unless attempting to ward off an ill stomach) Some tilghes, however, have learned to enjoy breads baked by pendragons (although this is not part of their normal diet).

All tilghes, when bound to another (be it tilghe, or pendragon) are fiercely loyal and protective. They are double protective to their young, until the babes are near fully grown. Then it's time for them to start their own lives.

Tilghes live long lives, eighty to a hundred years, barring good health and a will to live. (Anything broken hearted won't live long at all.) After copulation (which in and of itself, is the result of an arduous display of superiority by the chasing party - male or female, it doesn't matter) they bear eggs. Gestation lasts a season inside the female, and then two seasons for the eggs before they hatch. Most pairs mate during summer (Tria) or autumn (Tessera) seasons, for this reason. They bear small clutches, usually three to five eggs per clutch, one or two of which are usually duds, in the very late winter (Mia) season into early spring (Dyo) season. The young take about ten ramathian years to mature fully, and they won't have another clutch until the current chicks are grown, which leaves parents having an average of 8 clutches throughout their life span.

While tilghes control different elements, they are not separate species, and the element they control is not decided by genetics. A pyrokinetic tilghe and an telekinetic tilghe can clutch any type of tilghe, not just their own elements. It's said that Tanastlasei herself decides as the eggs develop what element they will control, based upon the character and nature of the soul of the young. This theory is demonstrated by scientists inability to accurately map a tilghe's DNA in addition to the coloring of the eggs: the eggs are lain as a pale peach, but will brighten to the color the tilghe's element will be when it hatches. (Red for pyro, black for atra, etc) No one knows what a temporikinetic's egg looks like, as only one has ever been in a wide span of recorded history - and for all anyone knows, it is probably the same tilghe.

Mental & Emotional Capacity

These rare creatures are intelligent, almost as intelligent as a pendragon. Being nearly fully sentient beings, they do enjoy the presence of certain pendragons, as they enjoy other intelligent company. Some have even become close friends with certain pendragons, who either control the same element as they (which feeds a strong spiritual connection they desire) or those who are devoid of strong magic, or seemingly possess no magical talent at all, to give them a bit of a jump start. In this sense, they are not "pets" which require protection and food, but rather companions, who are capable of looking after themselves.

Not only do tilghes control their element to perfection, but they can assist the spells and workings of another tilghe or pendragon or other magical beast, should they so desire. They act as a battery, adding power to casted spells. A fleet of tilghes is an extremely rare event, but even two tilghes together have more magic in their little claws than a handful of mage pendragons.

Culture & Language

They have wonderful trilling voices of many ranges (and actually make excellent accompaniments to pendragon musical ensembles when you can coax one to consider it) and sing long, lyrical, nonsense songs when they so choose. They require no instruments, and as a result have not made any; their voices can mimic practically any instrument they desire - woodwinds, strings, percussion, all.

If one can't hunt for themselves, they find a tilghe family group to take them in until they heal. (Usually couples with chicks will take in a sickly tilghe, because the adult being cared for will watch the chick while the parents are out. There is no fear of tilghes murdering chicks - they're rarely malicious against their own kind, even during breeding season.)Family groups consist of a male and female couple and their offspring for the ten years. Most male and female couples will pair for the approximate ten years it takes to raise their young, and then go their separate ways. They may pair again later in life, or for the rest of their lives, if they enjoy each other's company enough. But until the pair wish to spend another ten years raising another clutch, tilghes live in solitude.

They have two languages, a clicking guttural language, which is very primitive, and a 'verbal'. The guttural is akin to a mix between a dogs' range of whining and growling, though at almost a bird's twittering pitch, and a dolphins echolocation. (Though tilghes do not echolocate, themselves.) This language does very little by way of flowery, expressive language - it's more a quick way to assert your authority, or plead an apology, than to hold lengthy and in-depth conversations. Each click, whine, growl, and bark, expresses something different based on pitch. (As coined by their discoverer: "The higher the happier, the lower the loathing.")

Their second language is one of words, which they carry usually telepathically with whom they choose, as their voice boxes cannot handle speech as we know it, at very fast speeds. This language has been 'broken' by some of the more dedicated linguists, and a course can be taken to learn their language. However, be prepared to be laughed at by the tilghes for being "slow" should you ever come upon one and try to speak to it. Even if you spoke at your fastest, you couldn't match their speed, which takes great concentration to pick up, and understand, to the untrained ear. Considerate tilghes, generally those who either have an affinity for pendragonkind, or those who have decided you're good enough to be a friend, will slow their own speech to make it easy on our ears.

Frequency

Common numbers, but witnessed rarely (by choice — they only interact with whom they choose to). Even so, they are heavily surrounded by both fact and myth, and are known enough that even a child would recognize one if they saw one. (Just as an Earth human child would have known a dinosaur if they saw one.)