Natara

    The Natara are one of the most interesting of forms in it’s class (this is large flying, warm blooded creatures, the Panatrak are another example). The original genus had a few forms but mostly the same in design. The general structure of the animal consists of three parts.

     The first part is the main body of the animal, which is roughly elliptical, being about 1-1.5m in length (when fully grown) and being about 30cm-40cm in width (when fully grown). The body is covered with a thin leathery skin, or a thin fur, the body is colored lighter on the underside and darker on top, the general colours either brown, black, light grey (polar species) and a light tan (hairless), though many more forms of the animal now exist after its domestication.

     At the back of the body there are two vestigial legs, which can be extended from the main bodies elliptical shape, there function is to allow the animal to roost.

    The main sensory organs are attached to the main body, these consist of three large eyes at the front of the body (two smaller eyes either side of the body which give colour, and a large central one for use in night conditions), it also has a strip of light sensitive cells along its side. It has no properly based system for hearing though it has the ability to detect sound between about 10-2000Hz (mechanoreceptor chambers as crude ears, evolution is poorly understood to this day in new continent species)

    At the front end of the animal lies the second major part, this part can be best described as an array of tentacles (which has a passing resemblance to that of the squids). However, the structure of these tentacles is quite different, they mostly consist of muscle, which is attached to a long line of bones, which resembles a similarity to the human spine, though it has about the same degree of flexibility to the tentacles of a squid. At the end of each of these tentacles there is an extended spine which projects from the tip of each tentacle (the spine is roughly conical, about 10cm long and about 3cm wide and keratinaceous in nature)

    An average adult animal will possess about ten of these tentacles arranged around its mouth (species dependent). Juveniles have smaller tentacles in proportion to adults, females (default state) have tentacles about 80cm long with a thickness about 10cm at base, and males will have tentacles a little longer, at almost one metre long. The tentacles are attached to the front end of the body, and when the animal is in flight, are swept beneath the body, the tentacles take up about 15-20% mass of the whole animal.

     The third part of the animal are the wings, these are exceptionally well evolved. The wing is composed mostly of a thin skin membrane, which is similar to the rest of the skin on the body. The wing is often furred, as the large surface area will quickly cool the body to the temperature around it, though this mechanism is used to cool the animals at the equator, and so have furless wings. The wings are of a great area they are supported by several long bones in the wing, which allow the animal to stretch out the membranes to allow flight, an adult's wing is about 1.8m across, with a total wingspan of about 3.7m. The structure of the wing allows it to change its profile, enabling it to hover and go backwards, as well as many different maneuvers and of course normal flight. The wings are attached to the top part of the thickest section of the main body, as this houses the muscles that keep it aloft.

    The animal can travel up to speeds of 50km/h but has range of only about 200km a day; it has to frequently stop to recuperate and to eat. The diet of the Natara is fairly varied; they will for preference, go for meat, and use their tentacles to catch game and fish. They will also eat some fruits, these to are acquired using the tentacles, fortunately for the ancient peoples of Galos they have only ever rarely managed to make it to the other continent, and have never established themselves there. Most modern species are omnivorous, and many of the domesticated species are used to harvest and maintain varied fruit orchards from which they take their own share of the fruit.

    They are fairly intelligent animals and often work in small family groups, though it is not unknown for these animals to flock if there are sufficient amounts of food available to them. There are many wild species still out in natural habitat, but past hunting of the more dangerous species has somewhat reduced the number of the surviving species of the original genus. The Natara have also featured heavily in mythology and folklore of the Galen and are as close to scared animals that an atheistic society can get.