Morbis (Mor-biss)

The men watched the Morbis silently from behind the roadside ferns. The yellow and black striped creature picked and clawed at the loose stones making up the rural pathway. It sniffed at the ground with forward head, while it's rear head snaked in the air and listlessly watched the leaves ruffle in the wind.   "Try not to make noise. It'll be easier to wait for it to leave," the ranger whispered to his client.   "What? It's just a Morbis. I see them back home all the time. Just toss off some food and it'll ignore us," the younger replied.   The ranger shook his head and sighed, "That might work on a city morbis, but we're in the jungle, my friend. And that," he pointed his finger at the creatures muscled back, " is a jungle morbis."   "W-whats the difference?" the young man pressed his lips together and looked away from the ranger to hide his ignorance.   "He's tougher and hungrier, and that's all that matters."

 

Shapes, Sizes, and other Disguises

  What makes a morbis special is not the striking colors of its plush fur, but its remarkable intelligence and shapeshifting ability. An individual morbis can grow and shrink in size to best suit its surroundings. Indeed, Morbi have shown themselves to be quite capable in assessing a situation on the fly to determine how best to get what it wants. A morbis can stretch their limbs and inflate themselves to larger than a horse one moment then in the next flatten themselves enough to slip under a door.   These mercurial creatures can morph their heads, legs, and body to resemble many different animals, yet a few features always remain the same. A morbis always has two heads. The first is where you would normally excpect one to be, but the second at the end of their tail. Their legs can shift between tiny cat like paws to prehensile, monkey-like hands. However, despite all these changes, their bodies will always be covered in goldenrod colored fur with black verticle stripes.  

Did you see where it came from?

  The origins of the morbis remain a mystery. People don't know how they breed, or even if a baby morbis has ever existed. Speculation and folk tales say slip through from Ebon through the dreams of children like an imaginary creature taken form. The morbi that have already been spun into existence primarily live in jungles and along lush, tropical coastlines in Akaris and Coormarra. Morbi are mostly solitary creatures, prefering to stay away from its own kind not out of aggression, but purely selfish desire to have more to itself. If they feel it would benefit themselves in some way, morbi may pair together breifly.   Morbi actually pre-date the towns and cities where they are most often seen. They hung around in those areas after the civilization came, and they adapted to urbanity. Fast and nimble, morbi are known to be mischievous, picking the pockets of unaware travelers and stealing from homes and garbage heaps.  

The morbis finally looses the stone it had been working at and morphs its front claws into delicate hands. It scrapes away at the layer of dirt to reveal a brightly colored yellow and blue worm. The morbis toys with the worm letting it wrigle in its fingers, squeezing and stretching it just enough to make it writhe.

  Despite their appetite for civilized foods, most morbi still live in wild, tropical jungles. The morbis's instincts allow them to find food by foraging, digging, and most horrifcally, hunting. A jungle morbis will not hesitate to prey on Humans, Elves, or Tabxi that stray too far from their villages, and if hungry enough it may enter a village to steal away a child or Tabaxi.  

But couldn't we bargain with it?

 

The worm, finally taken as much abuse as it can, releases a plume of gas from its end causeing the morbis to drop it immedietly. The morbis sneezes in a fit and tries to get the irritant out of its nose by probing its nostrils. Tears forming in its forward eyes, the snake-like tail bows over to console its partner.   "No-one see," it flicks its forked tongue. "It okay."   The younger man stifles a laugh while the ranger rubs his temple and whispers. "Just keep quiet. It'll run off soon."

  Though they may seem simple minded or clumsy, morbi are quite intelligent. They are capable of somewhat stilted speech and even bargaining for what it wants. A city bound morbis is content with stealing food and collecting baubles from peoples homes instead of foraging in the wilds.   Though most people will find morbi a nusance, morbi are not stranger to helping other species should they benefit in some way. If a morbis finds itself unable to get something it desires on its own, it will approach a citzen to strike a bargain. In exchange for whatever the morbis desires the other party may have the morbis steal on their behalf, track a item or person, or even rid a home from vermin.   Morbi can be quite keen to other species emotions and voices. They are extremely skilled at recalling faces. As a survival mechanism, the morbis needs to know which creatures its alreay crossed so they don't attempt the same trick twice. Further more, a morbis can intuit when they are being lied to. It's unknown how they are able to accomplish such a feat, but some theorize that it's related to their supposed origins from the world of dreams. However it is accomplished, the morbis's limited vocabulary prevents it from explaining how it knows who is lying.