The Nalim (or, Nahleem) are creatures which are supposedly the offspring of a piranha and a hyena. The early fairy Gwen Lin wrote this description in his legendary work, 'Beyond the Gates of Oden':
'Like a piranha, it has a huge and terrifying jaw and a slim, finned body, the rest of it being in all ways equipped as that of a hyena, including fur and legs armed with claws. On the ground, they have a distinctively bear-like gait, but usual they prefer to use their magical gifts to swim through the air, much like their fishy ancestors. They are distinguishable by their spotted fur coats, from which we derive their name: nah, meaning furred, -lim, meaning fish.'
Nalim tend to travel in groups of over twenty or so individuals, and if one somehow finds itself alone it will swiftly go mad, turning its frustration at being isolated in on itself, eventually chewing itself to pieces. They have short front legs and longer back ones, like hyenas, which trail below them when they fly, as they are propelled as fish, partially by magic and partially by the movements of their bodies, and thus have little use for them. Their plentiful teeth are more like those of a hyena in individual shape, but are arranged like those of a piranha - by organising their teeth so that the bone-crushing premolars do not interfere with the meat-slicing carnassials to the rear, nalim can crush bone without blunting the carnassials' blades. They are inexplicably given to chewing off only small portions of their prey, but their practice of travelling as a group means that this can be effective and lethal to even large groups of people. They are opportunistic feeders like hyenas, with the ability to process and obtain nutrients even from skin and bone. As a group they are notable for their patterns of dominance, co-dependence and submission. Their general appearance is like that of a shoal of misshapen fish, except that they are in the air. They have two magical abilities: the first is being able to fly, the second is to control their size, and so, although they are usually quite small, about the size of one's hand, which is the smallest they can go, they can grow to be the size of a large dog. To defend oneself it is necessary to wear heavy, tough amour, shield oneself effectively, or take arms against them - it is also rumoured that they are put off by the scent of lavender.
Created by Starshine
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