The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: The Horrible Beaver

This post is part of the Immortal Naturalist's Guide series. The explanation for that series can be found in this post.

    Although it is in the nature of beavers to dam up rivers and flood small areas, there is one that seems to do so maliciously. The Horrible Beaver is a native of the lower Ashy Drain and is believed by many to be the ultimate cause of the wetlands surrounding the river. Why the regular flooding of the Ashy Drain is blamed on a creature, it is worth noting that no such explanation exists for any of the other rivers close to the Horrible Beaver's home. Rarely seen due to the difficulty of traversing the wetlands and the amount of time it spends in its lodge, legends say that the creature is able to build new dams and flood entire villages in a single night. Allegedly, the Horrible Beaver will then move into the flooded houses to feed on any poor souls left behind in the water. I am unsure how much of this is true, as I only ever saw the creature feed on tree bark from the ashy willows it builds with. 

    A diet of ashy willows seems to be the reason for the Horrible Beaver's condition, make it twice the size of a normal beaver, abnormally intelligent, and particularly long-lived. While certainly somewhat hostile to other living things, I would hesitate to assign malicious intent to the creature's dam construction. Its increased intelligence and size seems to allow it to build larger and faster than any known beaver, leading to the unintentional flooding of many areas at a fast rate. Residents along the Ashy Drain generally fear the Horrible Beaver and the idea of needing to move their entire community, but a small group of carpenters have begun to revere the beast. Seeing its skill in constructing dams and other things from wood, these carpenters have begun wearing beaver-shaped amulets and making prayers to the Horrible Beaver to try to channel some of its skill. Another key feature of this veneration is the belief that people can ward off the beast by clearing their immediate area of ashy willows and leaving them as a tribute to the Horrible Beaver. While I do not think it changes the beast's plans, this practice does generally mean that the Horrible Beaver has little reason to be near settlements and is less likely to flood them. This does, however, mean that even fewer people have the chance to ever see the beast.

    Given its distaste for other animals, the difficulty in encountering it seems to work just fine for the Horrible Beaver, which spends much of its time not foraging or building in its lodge in the middle of a large, shallow pond. Something interesting I noticed is that the Horrible Beaver has a habit of smearing a thick oil produced in its skin glands around its territory. This oil smells strongly of butter, is very difficult to collect, and seems to contain some of the magical powers of longevity the the Horrible Beaver gets from its diet. While it does not grant immortality, regular use of this oil can grant significant longevity and youthfulness. Not really something I have an interest in, but I imagine most people would pay quite a bit for such a commodity.