Snerk

Written by Skay

The Snerk are a race of strange, semi-intelligent animals that live in the tall mountains of northern Adylheim.

Appearance
Snerks look a lot like satyrs, they stand on two backwards-bent legs and have two hands. Their legs end in hooves, whereas their hands have strong eagle-like claws. Their whole body is covered in fur, mostly brown in summers and mostly white in winters. Their head, unlike satyrs' resembles that of deer, with bright yellow eyes and large brown, black or white antlers. Unlike normal deer, snerks don't lose their antlers each year and instead grow them all their life. The loss of an antler results in the snerk going into depression, when he stops eating and therefore dies in a couple of weeks or a few months.

Habitat and behaviour
Snerks are herbivorous, they feed upon grass, leaves, moss and tree bark when food is scarce. The creatures habit the Northern lands of Adylheim and are found primarily in Starkwater, Nevros and the Ribs further away from human life. Snerks are timid and non violent creatures that take their solitude from other beings but themselves and other smaller animals. The creatures can usually be found living alone or in groups up to three and at most four in one large vicinity. Snerks mate once every three or five years, producing no more than two offsprings. Unfortunately, a lot of young snerks die due to their dangerous habitat. An interesting part of a snerks lifestyle is its everyday labour. When a snerk isn't sleeping, eating or otherwise occupied, from morning to late evening they climb a mountain up and down carrying large boulders on their antlers to a certain high place in the mountain. They create piles of boulders which eventually crumble down the mountain destroying a few days, weeks or even months of the snerk's labour. When the rocks crumble down snerk can be found in depression for a couple of days and then they start their work all over again. Snerks change their rock piling location after the third or fifth avalanche or if they sense too much human or other being presence. Why snerk pile rocks in high places of mountains is a mysterious and unknown reason.

Value
Snerk fur in quality and use is as valuable as that of a normal deer. Even so some people like hanging it on walls or demonstrating the fur in other ways. Snerk meat is edible, however tasteless, therefore most of the time it is not used. The antlers on the other hand have a high value, not only for their beauty, but also for their strength. Snerk antlers are larger and more beautiful, even though similar to deer antlers. The antlers do not break under big weight and are hard to damage or remove from the body in general. Due to the hard to get to habitat that snerks live in and their scarce population they are not a popular hunting animal.