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Talzhemir1 — Special Delivery

Published: 2005-05-15 08:01:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 806; Favourites: 5; Downloads: 369
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Description (pencil; 2005)

Looking like impossibly beautiful composites of different species, the Faerie Furres can escape notice by shrinking down to the size of a doll. When in this form, they are known as "Kitterwings". Their mischief ranges from trivial and annoying to brutal and devastating.

Tiny Lady Distel Herz (Thistle Heart) of Rhein Gericht, uses spider silk to carry a stone with a bubble. Inside it is a baby. A baby?! But-- fairies can't have children. So where did this butterfly-winged baby come from? Ahhh, well, this is some poor mortal furres' infant, transformed and shrunken down and placed in the safety of the crystal.

The anatomy of this figure is peculiar. She has four ears. The ears were inspired by the story of Lilly, a real kitten born with four ears.
[link]
(Before Lilly, there were also four-eared NeoPets cats called Aishas.)

'Extra bodyparts' is a fairly common mutation in animals with arthropod ancestry, which includes mammals. Insects have six legs; centipedes and millipedes have many more. I wonder if perhaps the tale of Sleipnir, the eight-legged Norse horse, was based on a real incident of a horse with extra legs.
[link]


P.T. Barnum had a 5 legged calf and a six legged sheep. Jacob's Sheep often have two horns, or four, or six, or even eight. Considering that horn was once a very useful and valuable material, it's likely that they were bred by shepherds to pass the trait on.

Sometimes the extra bodyparts aren't the result of mutation, but rather, an accident in which identical twin embryos get jumbled up together. The DNA is identical, so one twin's parts graft onto the other twin's body. The result may be a "teratoma": a tumor made up of random body tissues. The resulting limbs may be controllable by the possessor; Frank Lentini, the Three Legged Man, could move all his toes.
[link]

Mutants like Lilly the Four-Eared Cat often survive to healthy adulthood because the arthropods evolved to be flexible. I don't mean they were supple (although jointed creatures like worms and shrimp and lobster are.) I mean that there's a certain amount of resilience, and creatures without this tolerance for error didn't do as well. It's the variable body plan of the insect and other chitinous critters that's the key to their success. Flies have two wings; butterflies have four.

So, Herrin Distel Herz has six.
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Comments: 4

AlfredArgitos [2008-10-11 23:32:17 +0000 UTC]

Now THIS is art.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

shadowsilk [2007-04-08 01:10:26 +0000 UTC]

That's so beautiful.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Hynt [2006-06-21 18:30:40 +0000 UTC]

Wow...this is amazing...You did an excelent job <3

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

mashed-taters [2006-04-08 22:55:13 +0000 UTC]

Wow. o: Awesome.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0