Bark Striders

Adult bark striders are massive creatures coming up to be about 70 ft (21 m) at the shoulder, with their head reaching to heights of 150 ft (45 m). These slow moving giants spend the majority of their time gnawing on the sweet upper branches of trees. The top of their head and down their spine and tail is crested with thick leafy foliage. The appearance of this foliage and their bark-like hair is seemingly influenced by whatever the bark strider has been eating providing it with some natural camouflage. Its thick hair forms a wiry bark-like surface that creates channels for water to run off them. Some of the ridges in the hair forms pockets where water collects providing for smaller creatures that live on and around it. These massive creatures stand on four thick legs and have a stout body. Their long legs and neck make up the majority of their height.

Infant and adolescent bark striders look very different from their parents, more closely resembling adult giraffes. They are dark brown with lighter brown patches that resemble light filtering through trees onto a dark area believed to help them camouflage. While they do possess spines going from their head down their spine to the tip of their tail, these spines are soft at first and become stiff with age in preparation of their metamorphosis. It is thanks to an elven scholar that we know infant/adolescent bark striders are what they are and not an unusual sub species of giraffe. Prior to their groundbreaking research there was debate on if bark striders reproduced at all.

While the details of their reproduction are largely a mystery, the monolithic creatures slowly congregrate one spring every fifty years. Once this rare season is in full swing, the foliage on a bark strider will burst into brilliant large blooms. During this reproductive time is the fastest bark striders are ever seen moving as they rush to brush against each other. Which bark strider is fertilized seems to be random as they do not appear to have distinct sexes, but one or both striders' flowers will close soon after. These flowers, regardless if they result in a bark strider reproducing, will turn into fruit that will nourish their surrounding ecosystem. Seven years later, a new bark strider is born which provides the thought experiment: "If a bark strider is born in a forest but no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?" An unfortunate scholar seeking to study these creatures made a first hand discovery that bark striders are in fact placental mammals, though thankfully it is quick to break down and is extremely nutritious for the forest ecosystem it is passed in.

When bark striders are born, though they are still massive, their hair is very soft and they're prone to injury and damage. The slow nature of their parent means they're vulnerable to predators. Baby bark striders make up for this vulnerability by being surprisingly agile, weaving in and out of their parent's legs. As they grow older, their hair begins to grow wiry and firm, developing the furrows and channels it'll need later on. Around twenty three years of age, halfway through their adolescence, the young bark striders are possessed by a need to make their way to an ancestral glade. Originally this glade was either the Meadow of the Moondrinker or the Sky's Mirror in The Seloswyld, but when the Undoing split land masses, some bark striders were isolated necessitating a new ancestral glade be established.

All adolescent bark striders will make this journey around the same time and it is a sight to behold when they gather in these ancestral glades. Prior to a kind elf documenting and sharing these changes, it was widely believed that adolescent bark striders were of a different species entirely. When the adolescents make it to their ancestral glade, they will tilt their head up to gaze at the sky. Root-like tendrils come up from the soil and wind around their legs rooting them to the spot. They will stay in this position until Night's Day arrives, then under the intense glittering moonlight, flowers and foliage engulf them. What happens under this leafy cocoon is unknown, but when the sun rises once more, they emerge from their cocoons 20% bigger than they were when they went in. Their hair coat has turned fully bark-like and wiry matching whatever they have most recently been eating. The barren spines are now adorned in full leafy foliage. As they continue to age and grow, they will become slower and slower until they reach their full adult size.

Bark striders are primarily found deep in forests untouched by civilization. These slow moving giants eat surprisingly little for how large they are, their slow motion resulting in a slow metabolism so a little goes a long way. Smaller creatures around bark striders greatly benefit from them. Their towering height provides shelter for other animals, the furrows in their bark-like hair collect and provide water, small fruits grow in their foliage crest year-round (though the best fruits come from their semicentennial breeding seasons). Their foliage also provides a lot of shelter to various critters. From the fallen fruit attracting terrestrial herbivores and then terrestrial carnivores, to the foliage providing safe grounds for boreal creatures to reproduce and thrive. Even birds are known to nest in their leaves as they move so slowly that the maybe 10 miles (16 km) they move each week is easy to track.

As seasons pass, bark striders change with their environment. In spring, small flowers bloom and pollinators can induce them to produce fruits. While each bark strider generally has their own preference for food, it's not uncommon for their foliage to frequently change during spring with all of the fresh new growth. In summer, pollination continues and striders usually maintain one foliage. Towards the end of summer some fruit will begin to mature. In fall, bark strider fruit reaches full maturation and much of their foliage begins to wither and decay like the surrounding trees. If evergreens are available, bark striders will transition to this food source. If this happens they'll shed their withered leaves and grow fresh evergreen foliage. In winter, if alternate food sources are available, bark striders will take advantage of them. Otherwise, they'll lay down and enter a deep hibernation to survive the winter. Unknowingly, small children love using the snow covered giants to slide down.

Bark striders have a symbiotic relationship with the orchis weasels that live in their foliage crest. The weasels get food and shelter from the bark strider, while the bark strider has something to take care of the parasitic insects that would otherwise plague it.