Blood Brothers
From The Pardusian Chronicles
After travelling to the farthest reaches of the known universe, I have seen many strange and wonderful sights, like the Popping Hod of Ericon.
It is a small insectoid, which when it is threatened or reaches the age of death, it internally combusts and pops. This seemed a very drastic reaction for any being to have when feeling threatened, as it certainly wasn’t gaining anything from the action. Or so we thought.
A few years back the respected Human biologist, Prof. Tam Gangood, tried to research them. After several failed attempts of catching a hod, Gangood returned to his lab to rethink his strategy. Two days later as he was about to set out again, he put on his research suit to find several maggots crawling across it. Further examination revealed that they were indeed the larvae of the popping hod. His later research showed us that as the hod exploded and vaporised, the ‘pop’ noise was the egg sack bursting, scattering their spawn across a relatively large area.
However, nothing, for me at least, has been a stranger sight than the symbiotic lifestyle of the noguh (pron; no-goo) and the awaetgh (pron; a-weet), living on the class M planets of Olphize and Ayargre. The awaetgh is a reptilian that grows to approximately the size of a Keldonian, (note: there are some similarities and I am looking into the origins of the awaetgh, however many records were lost in the great war) and although is omnivorous, rarely eats anything but fruit and small insects. The noguh is a plant, or more precisely a parasitic vine. The main problem the noguh has its tendency to drain the localised soil of the specific mineral needed for its survival. So the noguh has developed a way of becoming mobile, and that is to attach itself to an awaetgh.
At first I thought the noguh was taking a free ride. It clung to the awaetgh moving from place to place, draining minerals from the soil at every stopping point. In fact the vine actually went as far as slowing the awaetgh down. But it didn’t take me long to notice how the symbiotic relationship worked. Although slightly slower with the noguh attached the awaetgh was still fast enough to catch its staple diet of insects, but with the added weapon of camouflage. The vine covered approximately half of the body and so allowed it to hide in dense vegetation relatively easy.
The noguh also had other properties as well. The vine has an incredibly tough skin, killing them has always been a problem, as chemicals don’t seem to work through the outer layers. The awaetgh, like most reptilians has a tough skin also, except for the soft underbelly. The noguh actually helps protect the awaetgh from subterranean creatures that would normally sneak up and kill it with a blow to its underbelly.
There are many lessons to be learned from the natural world. From this we can see that everything has strengths and weakness and it is utilising the strengths to help other’s weaknesses that will help all to triumph.
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