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Description
For a contest by , the hot air balloon mammal Llaona!

---

Name: Aerostatis humus (the "ground hot-air balloon")
AKA: Llaona

Gender: Female
Type: Mammal
Alignment: Passive
Diet: Omnivorous
Size: Slightly larger than average

Powers:
- Hot air balloon-like body
- Monstrous strength in all eight limbs
- Great durability
- Sheering fangs/tusks and bunt claws
- Concussive burst of scalding air from 'mineral secretion' gauntlets
- Quick burst of flames from maw
- Concussive blast of hot air from mouth
- Puncture wounds in air-filled body will ignite and cauterize shut
- Earthen gauntlets can be reformed through consumption of rocks and soil
- Potent furnace-like digestive track capable of burning through anything, even poisons and venom
- Excellent climber
- Extraordinary jumper

Weaknesses:
- Slow terrestrial movement
- Puncture wounds will allow air pressure to escape, hindering movement and sapping strength
- Forearms will slowly leak air if not covered by rocky gauntlets
- Must limit air attacks to maintain body tension
- Must consume raw material to maintain body tension
- Body is flammable

PHYSIOLOGY

Living Air Balloon :

The sole individual of species Aerostatis humus- known informally as Llaona- is an odd specimen of mammalian life. She is quite literally a living hot air balloon, containing little more than a supportive skeletal frame and a single organ. The rest of her interior is heated air, held in only by a thin pelt, a thick hide, and a dense layer of muscle. She can be thought of as a particularly durable airship, kept 'afloat'- or supporting the weight of her hefty bones and muscle- with a huge volume of hot air. This is not to say that she is a light creature though. The opposite is true, in fact. She is a bulky, heavy beast. Her air-filled body is not to make her light-footed or airborne. It is to make her light enough to move at all. A healthy body tension also makes her a tremendously strong creature. Striking her at full tension is like striking a football or basketball. And the pain only increases when she strikes back.

Like any hot air balloon, Llaona only needs one thing to stay taunt- a good fire. And she needs to feed this fire accordingly. Instead of eating to gain nutrition, Llaona eats only to feed the fire that rages in her gut. This blaze is contained within a sort of compacted ribcage. Her only body organ- a leathery esophagus resistant to high heat and flames- leads directly into this internal furnace, like the chute to an incinerator. This fiery core makes her fur and flesh warm to the touch, but the sheer thickness of her hide prevents her outer layer from becoming too hot. In the case of complete deflation, Llaona will not be able re-inflate herself by eating for obvious reasons, but there is another, if a rather grisly, alternative. Another advantage of her flammable musculature, she can actually burn portion of her own body to create just enough tension to stagger towards food. And luckily, she can eat literally anything. Sustenance is everywhere for her, even within her own body.

Skeletal System :
[link]

The skeleton of the singular Aerostatis specimen can be summed up in few words- simple, solid, and stained. Llaona's bones are huge, making up the vast majority of her weight. They are the very reason she must be swelled with warm air just to move. The bones of Llaona are nearly indestructible. They are composed of an unknown mineral that can withstand intense temperatures of both cold and heat, resist fracturing from even the greatest of pressures, and even appear to heal any scratches or cracks they may suffer. It would take an insanely powerful creature such as Scython to truly damage these bones. They are the basis of her great endurance. It is fortunate for the other inhabitant of Tarrun that the rest of Llaona is not as invulnerable. Truly, it is not as much as a matter of damaging Llaona as it is immobilizing her. Without the hot air that fills her, she would not be able to support her own skeletal girth. The sturdy bones do their fair share of work to make this living airship work though. They absorb the ash and smoke generated by Llaona's bodily fire, purifying the rest of her from smog or pollution. This is why they appeared to be stained or smeared with a dark substance. The ashen bones both suspend and clean the anatomy of the odd mammal, an all-in-one support system.

Air Expulsion :

Because she is only a thick-skinned balloon, Llaona does have one glaring weakness- she can be deflated ([link] ). This is not as easy as it sounds though. The one Aerostitus in the world has a number of defenses against being rendered flat. Instead of a proper balloon, her hide is fitted naturally around her fully swelled shape. It is not stretched out when she inflates, it is merely stretched taunt. She cannot be popped like a plastic balloon. She can only have holes punched in her. And these holes do not last long. Llaona's tough flesh is flammable, and violently so. If she is punctured, the heat of the air rushing out is enough to set fire to her flesh and cauterize these wounds shut within a few seconds. This minimizes the amount of tension she looses with each piercing injury. Of course, these leave her form with a distinct weakness to high heat and flames, but it is a necessary sacrifice to ensure she stays as inflated as possible. To keep both her mobility and strength, she must have suitable air pressure.

In battle, it is really on a matter of time before Llaona looses enough pressure to become harmless, but her anatomy does all that it can to stretch out this precocious period. Battling the round mammal is not a test of skill or power, but a challenge to the endurance of a foe. It is not about subduing her. It is about outlasting her without being clobbered into submission first.

On the opposite hand, Llaona must also prevent becoming too engorged with air. Although she functions best while firm and taunt, she must have some slack in order from her muscular hide to manipulate the pressure within her to operate her limbs. She moves by shifting the air in her, and with no space, there can be no movement. She can expel air in two ways- from her mouth and from her stony gauntlets. Llaona has no vocal cords. All of her 'vocalizations' are actually air leaving her mouth. While usually closed tight by a dense pallet, she can control the air exiting her throat to make the equivalent of hisses and roars by peaking it open. Not only do these sounds intimidate potential threats and make foes aware of her mood, they also maintain the necessary spare space within her bulbous form. This escape of air can even be weaponized. There are grooves in the roof of Llaona's mouth that store the ground remains of the organic material she consumes- wood, vegetation, and even brittle flesh. If she allows enough air to leave her maw, the heat of it will set fire to the ground material and be whipped in a massive fireball. This wall of flames from her mouth is more a tool of fright and surprise than anything else, as it can only be used once and lasts for just a moment. Once the ground material is gone, there is nothing more to set aflame. She must east again to 'reset' this weapon. But even without flammable material, the blast of air can be quite dangerous, slamming with the force of a concussive blow and the heat to set volatile substances on fire.

The second way Llaona can release pressure in through the large pores on her earthen gauntlets. These rocky structures are made from mineral secrete from the rock and soil she eats, and can be regrown with any large meal of stone and dirt. These stone structures are pressurized with air by the permeable nature of Llaoma's bulky forearms. There is a certain bone mechanism ([link] ) in her wrists that acts as a trigger from the large pores in the gauntlets. They are usually 'capped' tightly by tough sinews, but these fleshy strands are attached to two thin rods of bone in the beast's arm. When she makes a first, these tendons are stretched tight. A blow to the curled fingers- typically a punch by the bulky mammal- is then enough to open the pores and unleash explosive blasts of air much like the ones from her mouth. These air-assisted punches add to Llaona's already great strength and allow her to blow monsters back for many hundred of feet.

These are not abilities she uses excessively though. They release a good deal of tension, so she must be careful in her use of them. They are only skills to fall back on when her brute by itself strength fails.

BEHAVIOR

Temperament :

Llaona is a beast that desires solitude, but is not afraid to throw her substantial weight around to get it. When left alone, she is perfectly peaceable. She will even tolerate the near presence of both man and monster as long as she is not directly bothered. But when she is pushed, she pushed back twofold. Llaona is not a creature to start fights, but she will not hesitate to end them. To anger her is to ensure a long, painful experience, because she is never one to back down or leave something be. If an offender goes out of its way to annoy her, she will go out of her way to beat it silly. Once she is enraged, there are only two ways for the feud to end- her immobilization or the defeat of her foe. Whether this victory is through incapacitation or retreat, she cares not. She only craves to teach those that would dare mess with her a lesson-

Don't do it again.

While she is not a fast or agile beast, very little can slow her in pursuit of an enemy. Obstacles are either torn down or scaled. In peace, she is simply a part of the environment. In war, she is an unstoppable force for retribution.

Diet :

Llaona eats not to sustain herself, but to maintain the fire within her gullet. Because of this, there is literally no limit on what she can consume. Her bodily fire is of such high temperature, it can eventually work through anything. So, everything is on the menu. She is the ultimate omnivore. She eats anything that burns, and everything burns when hot enough. Her powerful jaws and tough teeth are built to crush and crunch anything she decides looks good.

While she greatly prefers rocks and vegetation, Llaona can gorge upon flesh as well. This means she is a potential danger to human populations, although only when severe deflated and desperate to regain body tension. She has even been recorded 'drinking' from a natural gas well on a few occasions.

Movement :

Although the biological double of an airship, she is not a match in motor skill. Llaona is quite the slow, lumbering beast. She moves likes something between a gorilla and bear. She usually sticks to knuckle-walking or tromping about on all fours, but can also rear on her hind legs for brief periods. Although not impressive moving over flat land, Llaona is quite the capable climber. Her powerful limbs and blunt claws allow her to scale even vertical surfaces with relative ease. And with eight separate limbs to grip surfaces with, she is surprisingly mobile while climbing, able to whirl and rotate like a great furry spider. She often uses this arboreal ability to conquer mountains and enjoy the especially succulent boulders and stone slabs at their peaks.

Another manifestation of her greater mobility off of the ground, Llaona is capable of massive leaps high into the air. She accomplishes these jumps by slamming her fists into the earth and being launched by the resulting blasts of air. Her great round bottom is a effective pad for the rather inelegant, earthquake-like landing she makes. In an alternative to this form of locomotion, she can curl into a ball and roll like a monstrous wheel. This furry orb is self-propellant, as it applies just enough pressure to her clenched digits to unleash pushing gusts of air. Like with her offensive air-based abilities, she must apply these powers with hesitation to conserve tension of the hide.

Habitat :

Llaona, although technically an 'all-environment' creature, she prefers rocky places such as mountainsides and deserts. For some reason, she treks between all of these areas on Tarrun instead of dwelling in just one. This means she is almost always on the move, going from desert to mountain to rocky beach. She stays away from humanity and other monsters on these journeys towards her next meal. She also shows a particular preference for moving through forest or jungle areas while traveling. Perhaps they simply offer a wide variety of trees, stones, and soil to snack on, or maybe Llaona actually enjoys the change in scenery- gray to green, rocks to leaves.

Trivia:
- Llaona enjoys sedimentary rock over all other stones because of the layered taste and gritty texture
- Although she shows consistent disdain for all other forms of kaiju life, Llaona has an unusual tolerance for the presence of Big Bertha; it might even be said that she enjoys the saurian's company, although 'enjoy' is probably too strong of a word
- Jagerdon is the one creature in all of Tarrun that Llaona dislikes most, as he is a competitor for both dwelling space and food sources; he is the single soul she will actively chase after without provocation

---

Llaona here is a bit of a reversal of the usual 'living hot air balloon.' Instead of light, airy creature of the sky, she's a tough, solid beast of the earth.

Started with a simple idea- a round, mammalian air balloon- and put as much thought into it as I could stand. I think it turned out well. I really like this girl. Why are all my contest monsters so damn awesome? It makes me want them for myself.

Heh, even managed to sneak in two of my favorite among the Savage Destiny crew- Big Bertha and Jagerdon.

Hope you like 'er, DH and rest!

Description
For a contest by , the hot air balloon mammal Llaona!

---

Name: Aerostatis humus (the "ground hot-air balloon")
AKA: Llaona

Gender: Female
Type: Mammal
Alignment: Passive
Diet: Omnivorous
Size: Slightly larger than average

Powers:
- Hot air balloon-like body
- Monstrous strength in all eight limbs
- Great durability
- Sheering fangs/tusks and bunt claws
- Concussive burst of scalding air from 'mineral secretion' gauntlets
- Quick burst of flames from maw
- Concussive blast of hot air from mouth
- Puncture wounds in air-filled body will ignite and cauterize shut
- Earthen gauntlets can be reformed through consumption of rocks and soil
- Potent furnace-like digestive track capable of burning through anything, even poisons and venom
- Excellent climber
- Extraordinary jumper

Weaknesses:
- Slow terrestrial movement
- Puncture wounds will allow air pressure to escape, hindering movement and sapping strength
- Forearms will slowly leak air if not covered by rocky gauntlets
- Must limit air attacks to maintain body tension
- Must consume raw material to maintain body tension
- Body is flammable

PHYSIOLOGY

Living Air Balloon :

The sole individual of species Aerostatis humus- known informally as Llaona- is an odd specimen of mammalian life. She is quite literally a living hot air balloon, containing little more than a supportive skeletal frame and a single organ. The rest of her interior is heated air, held in only by a thin pelt, a thick hide, and a dense layer of muscle. She can be thought of as a particularly durable airship, kept 'afloat'- or supporting the weight of her hefty bones and muscle- with a huge volume of hot air. This is not to say that she is a light creature though. The opposite is true, in fact. She is a bulky, heavy beast. Her air-filled body is not to make her light-footed or airborne. It is to make her light enough to move at all. A healthy body tension also makes her a tremendously strong creature. Striking her at full tension is like striking a football or basketball. And the pain only increases when she strikes back.

Like any hot air balloon, Llaona only needs one thing to stay taunt- a good fire. And she needs to feed this fire accordingly. Instead of eating to gain nutrition, Llaona eats only to feed the fire that rages in her gut. This blaze is contained within a sort of compacted ribcage. Her only body organ- a leathery esophagus resistant to high heat and flames- leads directly into this internal furnace, like the chute to an incinerator. This fiery core makes her fur and flesh warm to the touch, but the sheer thickness of her hide prevents her outer layer from becoming too hot. In the case of complete deflation, Llaona will not be able re-inflate herself by eating for obvious reasons, but there is another, if a rather grisly, alternative. Another advantage of her flammable musculature, she can actually burn portion of her own body to create just enough tension to stagger towards food. And luckily, she can eat literally anything. Sustenance is everywhere for her, even within her own body.

Skeletal System :
[link]

The skeleton of the singular Aerostatis specimen can be summed up in few words- simple, solid, and stained. Llaona's bones are huge, making up the vast majority of her weight. They are the very reason she must be swelled with warm air just to move. The bones of Llaona are nearly indestructible. They are composed of an unknown mineral that can withstand intense temperatures of both cold and heat, resist fracturing from even the greatest of pressures, and even appear to heal any scratches or cracks they may suffer. It would take an insanely powerful creature such as Scython to truly damage these bones. They are the basis of her great endurance. It is fortunate for the other inhabitant of Tarrun that the rest of Llaona is not as invulnerable. Truly, it is not as much as a matter of damaging Llaona as it is immobilizing her. Without the hot air that fills her, she would not be able to support her own skeletal girth. The sturdy bones do their fair share of work to make this living airship work though. They absorb the ash and smoke generated by Llaona's bodily fire, purifying the rest of her from smog or pollution. This is why they appeared to be stained or smeared with a dark substance. The ashen bones both suspend and clean the anatomy of the odd mammal, an all-in-one support system.

Air Expulsion :

Because she is only a thick-skinned balloon, Llaona does have one glaring weakness- she can be deflated ([link] ). This is not as easy as it sounds though. The one Aerostitus in the world has a number of defenses against being rendered flat. Instead of a proper balloon, her hide is fitted naturally around her fully swelled shape. It is not stretched out when she inflates, it is merely stretched taunt. She cannot be popped like a plastic balloon. She can only have holes punched in her. And these holes do not last long. Llaona's tough flesh is flammable, and violently so. If she is punctured, the heat of the air rushing out is enough to set fire to her flesh and cauterize these wounds shut within a few seconds. This minimizes the amount of tension she looses with each piercing injury. Of course, these leave her form with a distinct weakness to high heat and flames, but it is a necessary sacrifice to ensure she stays as inflated as possible. To keep both her mobility and strength, she must have suitable air pressure.

In battle, it is really on a matter of time before Llaona looses enough pressure to become harmless, but her anatomy does all that it can to stretch out this precocious period. Battling the round mammal is not a test of skill or power, but a challenge to the endurance of a foe. It is not about subduing her. It is about outlasting her without being clobbered into submission first.

On the opposite hand, Llaona must also prevent becoming too engorged with air. Although she functions best while firm and taunt, she must have some slack in order from her muscular hide to manipulate the pressure within her to operate her limbs. She moves by shifting the air in her, and with no space, there can be no movement. She can expel air in two ways- from her mouth and from her stony gauntlets. Llaona has no vocal cords. All of her 'vocalizations' are actually air leaving her mouth. While usually closed tight by a dense pallet, she can control the air exiting her throat to make the equivalent of hisses and roars by peaking it open. Not only do these sounds intimidate potential threats and make foes aware of her mood, they also maintain the necessary spare space within her bulbous form. This escape of air can even be weaponized. There are grooves in the roof of Llaona's mouth that store the ground remains of the organic material she consumes- wood, vegetation, and even brittle flesh. If she allows enough air to leave her maw, the heat of it will set fire to the ground material and be whipped in a massive fireball. This wall of flames from her mouth is more a tool of fright and surprise than anything else, as it can only be used once and lasts for just a moment. Once the ground material is gone, there is nothing more to set aflame. She must east again to 'reset' this weapon. But even without flammable material, the blast of air can be quite dangerous, slamming with the force of a concussive blow and the heat to set volatile substances on fire.

The second way Llaona can release pressure in through the large pores on her earthen gauntlets. These rocky structures are made from mineral secrete from the rock and soil she eats, and can be regrown with any large meal of stone and dirt. These stone structures are pressurized with air by the permeable nature of Llaoma's bulky forearms. There is a certain bone mechanism ([link] ) in her wrists that acts as a trigger from the large pores in the gauntlets. They are usually 'capped' tightly by tough sinews, but these fleshy strands are attached to two thin rods of bone in the beast's arm. When she makes a first, these tendons are stretched tight. A blow to the curled fingers- typically a punch by the bulky mammal- is then enough to open the pores and unleash explosive blasts of air much like the ones from her mouth. These air-assisted punches add to Llaona's already great strength and allow her to blow monsters back for many hundred of feet.

These are not abilities she uses excessively though. They release a good deal of tension, so she must be careful in her use of them. They are only skills to fall back on when her brute by itself strength fails.

BEHAVIOR

Temperament :

Llaona is a beast that desires solitude, but is not afraid to throw her substantial weight around to get it. When left alone, she is perfectly peaceable. She will even tolerate the near presence of both man and monster as long as she is not directly bothered. But when she is pushed, she pushed back twofold. Llaona is not a creature to start fights, but she will not hesitate to end them. To anger her is to ensure a long, painful experience, because she is never one to back down or leave something be. If an offender goes out of its way to annoy her, she will go out of her way to beat it silly. Once she is enraged, there are only two ways for the feud to end- her immobilization or the defeat of her foe. Whether this victory is through incapacitation or retreat, she cares not. She only craves to teach those that would dare mess with her a lesson-

Don't do it again.

While she is not a fast or agile beast, very little can slow her in pursuit of an enemy. Obstacles are either torn down or scaled. In peace, she is simply a part of the environment. In war, she is an unstoppable force for retribution.

Diet :

Llaona eats not to sustain herself, but to maintain the fire within her gullet. Because of this, there is literally no limit on what she can consume. Her bodily fire is of such high temperature, it can eventually work through anything. So, everything is on the menu. She is the ultimate omnivore. She eats anything that burns, and everything burns when hot enough. Her powerful jaws and tough teeth are built to crush and crunch anything she decides looks good.

While she greatly prefers rocks and vegetation, Llaona can gorge upon flesh as well. This means she is a potential danger to human populations, although only when severe deflated and desperate to regain body tension. She has even been recorded 'drinking' from a natural gas well on a few occasions.

Movement :

Although the biological double of an airship, she is not a match in motor skill. Llaona is quite the slow, lumbering beast. She moves likes something between a gorilla and bear. She usually sticks to knuckle-walking or tromping about on all fours, but can also rear on her hind legs for brief periods. Although not impressive moving over flat land, Llaona is quite the capable climber. Her powerful limbs and blunt claws allow her to scale even vertical surfaces with relative ease. And with eight separate limbs to grip surfaces with, she is surprisingly mobile while climbing, able to whirl and rotate like a great furry spider. She often uses this arboreal ability to conquer mountains and enjoy the especially succulent boulders and stone slabs at their peaks.

Another manifestation of her greater mobility off of the ground, Llaona is capable of massive leaps high into the air. She accomplishes these jumps by slamming her fists into the earth and being launched by the resulting blasts of air. Her great round bottom is a effective pad for the rather inelegant, earthquake-like landing she makes. In an alternative to this form of locomotion, she can curl into a ball and roll like a monstrous wheel. This furry orb is self-propellant, as it applies just enough pressure to her clenched digits to unleash pushing gusts of air. Like with her offensive air-based abilities, she must apply these powers with hesitation to conserve tension of the hide.

Habitat :

Llaona, although technically an 'all-environment' creature, she prefers rocky places such as mountainsides and deserts. For some reason, she treks between all of these areas on Tarrun instead of dwelling in just one. This means she is almost always on the move, going from desert to mountain to rocky beach. She stays away from humanity and other monsters on these journeys towards her next meal. She also shows a particular preference for moving through forest or jungle areas while traveling. Perhaps they simply offer a wide variety of trees, stones, and soil to snack on, or maybe Llaona actually enjoys the change in scenery- gray to green, rocks to leaves.

Trivia:
- Llaona enjoys sedimentary rock over all other stones because of the layered taste and gritty texture
- Although she shows consistent disdain for all other forms of kaiju life, Llaona has an unusual tolerance for the presence of Big Bertha; it might even be said that she enjoys the saurian's company, although 'enjoy' is probably too strong of a word
- Jagerdon is the one creature in all of Tarrun that Llaona dislikes most, as he is a competitor for both dwelling space and food sources; he is the single soul she will actively chase after without provocation

---

Llaona here is a bit of a reversal of the usual 'living hot air balloon.' Instead of light, airy creature of the sky, she's a tough, solid beast of the earth.

Started with a simple idea- a round, mammalian air balloon- and put as much thought into it as I could stand. I think it turned out well. I really like this girl. Why are all my contest monsters so damn awesome? It makes me want them for myself.

Heh, even managed to sneak in two of my favorite among the Savage Destiny crew- Big Bertha and Jagerdon.

Hope you like 'er, DH and rest!