Kizi look like giant caterpillars or brown feather boas.

Two feet in length when contracted, they can stretch up to four feet and use hundreds of tiny sucker-like feet to crawl across virtually any surface.

Native to the jungles of Chinyelu?, they can blend easily against the branches and tree trunks they climb.

From a top-down view, as is the usual perspective when spotting a kizi as it climbs or crawls, they look identical at both ends so it can be difficult to tell which is the front or back. However, when latching on to its prey, the kizi raises the front end to reveal a gaping, vertical mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. At the other end is a set of pincers not normally seen but most definitely felt.

Behaviour

Kizi are predatory parasites capable of travelling and camouflaging themselves to seek out and stalk prey. They are aggressive and tend to view anything living as either prey or a rival, so they are proactively destructive.

Diet: Kizi feed on the nutrients they absorb from their host. They seek out animals large enough to sustain them (including humanoids) and latch on at the nape and tailbone with the mouth and pincers. Removing them is difficult as they can release toxins which kill the host if they sense interference.

Habitat: They are adapted to live in any jungle environment but are native to, and currently only found in, Chinyelu?.

Breeding: Mystriders have observed kizi mating twice a year. As distinction between male and female is impossible to the human eye, how exactly they procreate is unknown. Numbers of the parasites flood a chosen tree (perhaps marked by chemical scent by the first to arrive) and form writhing 'kizi' balls. Two hours later, they separate and the individuals go their separate ways, presumably for the females to lay eggs.

Special Information

Strengths/Abilities:

• Kizi can release toxins which can kill their host.
• They have excellent camouflage against their native environment.

Weaknesses:

• Kizi are weak to salt water, an element they rarely (if ever) encounter in the freshwater streams of the jungle. Mystriders believe the only way to remove a kizi once attached to a host is to bathe both parties in a near-scalding saltwater bath.

Uses:

• Kizi themselves are useless. However, the mutant vosa are prized in some circles for their telepathic ability. In short, male kizi could be used as breeding partners for a female vosa.

Origin: Unknown.

Other Info: Vosa are identical to the kizi in every way but for their colour and a unique low-grade telepathic ability. The mutation is passed down from the mother.

Creator: Emma?