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Changling — Description
Everyone knows the tales of creatures that come in the night and steal children from their cribs. People have blamed elves and fairies for these acts, when it is actually the work of a single species, simply known as Changlings. Changlings prefer to live in dark caves and tunnels, hiding in the darkness during the daylight hours. Their thin limbs allow for agile movement and superb climbing, in which they can climb on the rocky walls and ceilings. Their large, binocular eyes can see with even the faintest amount of light, and their oddly porous body cushions them from impacts with rocky, sharp surfaces. But the most notable trait of changlings are their diet and method of hunting. Their sharp proboscis and clawed limbs may suggest a diet of hunted flesh, but they actually rather frail and do not participate in harsh combat. Instead, they hunt more easy prey. Children to be exact. When needed, Changlings will leave their caves at nightfall and travel to nearby towns and villages. There they will execute their first stage of the hunt: harvesting. With agile, silent movements, they will sneak up upon prey and jab them with their barbed tentacles. These inject a fast acting tranquilizer that will knock out prey in seconds. While the victim is unconcisous, they will use their proboscis to suck a small amount of blood. Once they have what they want, they swiftly leave the scene , leaving the victim to walk up minutes later with no memory of what happened. Once the Changlings have taken blood samples, they will return to their cave and begin the next stage: decoy making. Changlings are asexual creatures, and thus any one of them can take on the role of male or female. Select few will take the DNA from the blood and mix it with their own to create a fast fertilizing, quick growing embryo. A cocoon will form within their body, which will bud off and turn into an external womb. Within it, the embryo will use the two sets of genes to create a hybrid that has the appearance of prey. Babies that hatch from these cocoons will look like the offspring of the target species, but have the genes of both. After the few days that require the procreation of the decoys, the Changlings will take the decoys and return to town. They will then find accessible homes that have babies in them, and find a way in. They will inject the child, take it from its crib and replace it with the decoy. With prize in hand, they will scurry off into the night. The decoy will serve as the replacement for a couple of weeks, but the genetic build up of them will begin to degrade. And at some point in time, the false child will sicken and die, their death blending in with the other children who perish from disease and malnourishment at an early age. The stolen child will be taken back to the caves, where they will be kept alive on cave moss and small critters while the Changlings feed on their fluids bit by bit. The life span of stolen children varies, mainly depending on how many Changlings feed on them. Some children have been known to live for years within these caves, before they succumb to the feedings. To prevent accidental death, Changlings create a kind of cage/cocoon from their secretion that holds the babies in place. Once the children die, they must return to town for another food source.

For children who are stolen, the odds of retrieving them are small. First, the parent must be aware of the fact that their child was taken. The decoy is hard to spot, and sadly child deaths are all too common in this age. Second, they must find the nest, which is tucked deep within the caves and tunnels. Due to their climbing prowess, their nests are usually in hard to reach spots, high up cliffs or down in pits. Thirdly, they must find the child before too much time has passed. Trapped in darkness and restricted in cocoons, the babies will become blind, their eyes useless, and their limbs will not correctly develop. Too much time before rescue will result in a child that can hardly move and cannot stand the light of the sun. At that point, sadly, death is a more merciful escape.

As they are asexual, Changlings do not split to reproduce, but they make their offspring in the same type of cocoons as the decoys. When procreation time comes, the Changlings will feed on each other, each one taking a bit of genetics from the others. A few will then create offspring with the stew of collected genes, insuring that inbreeding or cloning does not occur, and that their population stays healthy.

The Knights of the Wrong Table have had a few run ins with Changlings. Some of it has been accidental, but some have been on purpose. Due to Natali's nightly errands and small size, there have been times where she has spotted the shady creatures moving about in the night. From there the Knights can ride in to save the day. Due to their wide variety of skills, they can navigate the maze of caves and find the nests. Changlings can put up a decent fight, but they are not meant to attack and kill prey. The nest will be broken up and the salvageable kids will be saved. Unfortunately, there have been times where the order has been caught by other knights toting these rescued children. Despite protesting the fact that they had saved these kids, the human knights and locals will believe that they were the ones who stole them in the first place, and were trying to return them to look like heroes.