The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: Dwayne the Roc

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

    Living on the windy coast of the Titan's Ring is a massive bird large enough to carry off an elephant known as Dwayne the Roc. Dwayne spends most of his time flying high above the clouds, so high up that he appears to be the size of a normal bird from the ground. Because of this, tales of Dwayne are often dismissed as fantasy even by the residents of the island. The Roc uses this to his advantage and makes a habit of attacking small groups of travelers who are far away from help. Baiting Dwayne for observation really was as simple as wandering into the wilderness by myself and preparing some kind of protection against his attack. As it turns out, this bird is able to talk, and he was able to go into great detail about how he uses his wings and teeth to rip prey to shreds. According to Dwayne, he spends all of his time either sleeping in his nest on the eastern coast or soaring high above the clouds, hunting for food. 

    Dwayne is able to hunt from such heights due to his supernaturally powerful eyesight. He is able to see just about every detail of the ground even at the highest altitudes, allowing Dwayne to make the best decisions when hunting. If the bird is to be believed, he is even able to see in such detail without light, making him truly difficult to hide from. One issue with this, however, is that Dwayne only ever sees things from above. If one wants to avoid him, they just have to blend in almost perfectly with the ground from above. The lizard folk of the island have developed several techniques to make themselves look like trees and bushes from above, but most people on the island are unaware of such tricks.

    For those brave enough to go looking for Dwayne's nest, there is quite the reward. Dwayne's feathers are some of the warmest in the world to keep him safe when he is flying high up in the air, and he sheds them periodically. These feathers litter the ground around the nest and there are a great deal inside the nest itself. These feathers could easily be used to create some of the warmest clothing one will ever wear, they just need to go collect it.