Sentient Plants
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Some rare species of vegetal on Felarya possess a sort of sentience or semi-sentience that put them apart from other plants and into their own category.
Ephemerale
Ephemerales are a curious and unique mix of a plant and a sentient being. They have insect like, glowing wings that reflect sunlight,very noticeable antennae, and a small tail of sort that bend down and outwards from their body. Their wings appear to not be hampered in any way by being wet, being waterproof. - they can dive and easily emerge and start flying again. They really look like fairies, although they are always small, lacking the shrinking and growing magic common to fairies
Ephemerales are found in large numbers around ponds, lakes, swamps and sometimes rivers, specifically around a particular flower, which they have a complicated symbiotic relationship with. Some would say they *are* the flower. It has been determined that the inside of this flower’s long petals, which stretch upwards, is where Ephemerales eggs are to be found. Ephemerales eggs always hatch in the morning, when the flower’s petals lower to allow more sunlight. The fact that they are numerous and unable to grow has made them a favorite treat of various small predators, from small nagas to nekos, or mermaids.
What was at first most confusing about this species is that they live for only one day. Within the span of one day they rapidly mature, already being adult by the time they leave the flower in the early morning. They are sexually mature by then and mate and lay eggs within the flower from which they were born. The Ephemerale then returns to near the same flower in the evening, their wings lose their glow as the sunlight fade, and they crumble to dust. The next day, the whole process continues again, the Ephemerale rapidly developing overnight in their eggs. Ephemerales seem unawares of their fate and are, in fact, especially cheerful and playful even compared to fairies, living a totally carefree existence, even treating being hunted like a game. They eat sweet berries that grow from the flowers where they were born, play and frolic and make love, before the day ends.
Curious Negav scientists took some of the Ephemerales Flowers and planted them, around a created pond and studied a series of day cycles. Their data was remarkable, showing very close resemblance between Ephemerales parents and their offspring who emerge the next day, even having exact DNA! The truth was revealed when they began to focus on the similarities, some scientists noticing Ephemerales who looked and acted almost identical to Ephemerales in the last cycle. Though the Ephemerales “die” at the end of the day, the Flower seems to be able to store their DNA, passing it on to the eggs. Thus, the set of Ephemerales reborn in a colony is actually exactly the same set of Ephemerales born the day before! As well, the females seem to know exactly how many eggs to lay to keep the population at pretty much a precise level. Ironically, these creatures that live for one day are technically immortal. However, they do not remember any of their countless past lives – these fairies are “stuck” forever in constantly living one, new, exciting day. On Felarya, there could be worse fates.
- Credits to Jaette-troll for the Ephemerales
