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Fanged Licker — Description
The Fanged Licker is a mammalian species that is found in the vast caverns of the Underworld. Those from the surface world can probably tell at a glance that this creature shares many similarities with anteaters, though it has lost and gained different traits to adapt to life in the Underworld. The first thing you may notice is that the Fanged Licker has traded the anteater's long, stiff hairs for tough, dermal armor. Its skin is like hardened leather, and bony plates and knobs have formed on its limbs and back. This armor serves the same function as the thick hair it has lost, protecting it from stinging insects and also from predators. The Fanged Licker has also lost its eyes, as its darkened world has made them useless, especially when it is armed with a sensitive tongue and a keen nose. These senses are what it relies upon when traveling and searching for food, tasting the air for the scent of a meal.

As you may imagine, Fanged Lickers are insectivores, using their long sticky tongues to capture bugs and larvae. While ants and termites up above live in obvious, centralized colonies, the many chutes, tunnels and hollow veins that pepper the Underworld make this search a bit more difficult. Colonies and hives are more spread out, and are capable of forming in hard to reach places. To combat this, the Fanged Licker is an adept climber, using the thick claws on its forelimbs to latch onto rocky walls, with the help of its highly flexible digits. With their strong arms and legs, they can scale cavern walls in search of food, and smaller specimens have been spotted hanging completely upside down! As they climb, they probe the many holes and openings with their long tongues, trying to pick up a trace of insect activity. While there are tasty morsels to be found in these open rock tubes, many insect species seal the entrances to their hives and colonies in order to keep out such hungry intruders. Anteaters above face a similar challenge, which they conquer by using their powerful claws to tear open hives. Down below, though, the Fanged Licker's arms are preoccupied with keeping the creature secured to a rock wall. Releasing its grip to scrape away at these sealed colonies would surely cause them to lose their holding and plummet to the stone floor below. In order to avoid such a messy fate, the Fanged Licker possesses a tool that gives them their namesake.

The "fangs" of a Fanged Licker are indeed canine teeth, but they have developed quite differently. These two canines are the only teeth this species possesses, and they form on the outside of the mouth. The coating and toughness of these "fangs" makes them more like tusks, actually. They are not set in the jawline of the skull, rather, they are completely separate. They grow on these muscular, finger-like growths that allow them to move freely. These "fangs" are what they use to tear open colony seals, allowing them to keep all limbs secured on their precarious perch. They scratch open these entrances, and then send in their sticky tongues to lap up the insects inside. These blue tongues of theirs are actually capable of glowing, which helps them lure in more tasty bugs.

While their "fangs" are primarily used for opening up nests, they do serve as decent weapons! When faced with predators, Fanged Lickers use their claws and "fangs" to fend off attackers. Their thick armor helps resist claw and tooth, giving them an opportunity to dig their own claws in! When faced with a threat, the Fanged Licker will rear up on its hind legs, using its thick tail for balance. It will hold its clawed arms out like it is about to give a hug, but I wouldn't recommend accepting that offer! It will tilt its head back as well, stretching its "fangs" out to lethal lengths. If the predator dares to dash forward to attack, it will swing its arms in and bury its claws into the foe's side. It will bring its head down with uncanny strength and plunge its "fangs" into the attacker's back. With such weaponry and tactics, a Fanged Licker can easily kill a predator that underestimates them. Even if the foe tries to keep out of hugging range, the Licker will do a move that sort of looks like a belly flop. When it does this drop, its fangs will come down in a slashing motion, slicing through flesh if the attacker does not back away fast enough. So effective are these tools, that demons and shades recommend keeping your distance from this species. While Fanged Lickers can be trained and kept as pets, wild ones do not like being approached, and will interpret such movements as hostile. I played it safe and studied them from a distance. It is a lesson I have learned quite a few times: Nothing spoils an expedition like deep lacerations!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian