The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: The Quiffleromper

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

    Chickens, and more importantly, roosters, are not really found in the bog lands of Squee, making the sound of a rooster exotic to the area. Bog people, however, seem to have legends of a terrible creature from well before their knowledge of roosters which makes an identical sound. This creature is the Quiffleromper, the legendary protector beast of all quiffle bushes. According to legend, this flightless bird stands about ten feet tall, has a whip-like tail which can shatter bones, and a razor-sharp beak which can sever limbs. The Quiffleromper, as its title suggests, will attack anyone who attempts to pick the fruit of a quiffle bush, preceding the attack with its rooster-like call. In reality, the Quiffleromper only attacks those it sees picking quiffle fruit, which is very few people. Regardless, bog people have a cultural taboo against picking the fruits, which is probably for the best. Quiffle fruits, while not being particularly nutritious, have an addictive quality that its consumers attribute to its unique flavor. 

    Aside from being protective of the bushes, the Quiffleromper also has the ability to instantly travel between quiffle bushes by stepping into one and magically stepping out of a different bush elsewhere. This ability seems to come from a lifelong diet of nothing but quiffle fruit, a feat that would be difficult for any other creature to accomplish. Bog person legends speak of one way to ward off the beast, however. If one wishes to safely pick quiffle fruits, all they have to do is coat themselves in a paste of mint, onion, garlic, and ginger. The strong scents are distasteful to the Quiffleromper and will keep the creature at bay for as long as the paste remains potent. 

    Oddly enough, the Quiffleromper maintains a nest, deep in a massive thicket of quiffle bushes. I was able to get to it by sneaking up on the Quiffleromper itself and walking under it while it transported through a quifflebush, repeating the process as a way to observe the creature until it happened to take me to its nest to sleep. Here, I discovered that the creature passes the large pits of the quiffle fruits without breaking them, and it actually alters the pits in the process. After having been swallowed and excreted by the Quiffleromper, quiffle seeds become explosive. When broken, these altered seeds erupt into a massive ball of flames, a discovery that took me by surprise. Of course, once I learned this I grabbed several of these altered quiffle seeds for self defense, which I recommend anyone else with the opportunity do as well.