#okalivember

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 20; Kulla!

The damjilkulla is a small, colorful, and very active insect-eating kulla. With a hovering flight that emits a surprising amount of noise for its size, it's quick to spot and pounce on its prey.

The wenlieta is a mid-sized active omnivore, feeding on a great variety of berries, mushrooms, and small animals. It lives in steppes and is mostly diurnal, and it has a habit of falling asleep in the first comfortable tuft of grass it sees when night falls.

The mubikulla is rather large and lives on the coast, and hunts various invertebrates within tidepools. It has a mutualistic relationship with a species of bivalve that anchors itself in the kulla's mouth.

The jari is long and agile. It lives in deep, dark forests, and the light blue stripes on its sides emit light using magic. They use different light patterns to communicate with one another.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 21, patterned!

The square-spot eyed worm is small and arboreal. It wriggles up the trunk of trees with very textured bark and makes a small net out of silk to hang out in while it eats leaves.

The jedayani is a terrestrial crustacean that hangs around in rock formations on beaches and gathers up dead organic matter in the open to bring back to its hiding spot to eat.

The many-spotted nudel digs in the leaf litter for its prey. They mostly go for soft-bodied animals such as slugs or caterpillars, and are immune to many of their defenses, such as urticating hairs.

The grassfield jazki swims in large, deep rivers. Mostly bottom-dwelling, they graze on algae and other aquatic plants. Their color can vary quite a bit between individuals, going between bright greens and deep blues.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 22; nests!

This is the nest of a turik, a type of eyed worm. It is made out of blades of great nalken grass, stuck together with the sticky black silk typical of these worms.

This is the nest of a kistruzi, a small kulla. It's made of dried grasses tightly woven together, with thorny twigs strongly stuck within the structure as protection. These can take several weeks to weave, and all three parents work on it.

The hive of an araken, a social insect. Made of wax, with rows of comb to house the eggs of workers, there is a curious cavity in the center; this houses the araul, a tiny kulla they have a mutualistic relationship with. The warm nest incubates the egg and keeps the chick safe, and the adult eats many of the hive's predators.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 11, parasitoid!

The alarikti, or "comet wasps", are a diverse family of colorful parasitoid wasps.

The twin-tailed alarikti preys on a species of moth, and more specifically its caterpillar. It digs little holes in sandy soil where it drags its prey into after paralyzing it.

The sunset alarikti lays its eggs in the larvae of beetles inside dead, rotting wood. It spends a lot of time inspecting any dead tree it finds until it finds a suitable host.

The darling-faced alarikti is named after its large, cute golden eyes, with pseudopupils that seem to follow you around. It preys on aquatic fly larvae.

The fallen-star alarikti dwells in leaf litter, rarely flying and preferring to hunt on the ground for its larva's meal; a ground beetle.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 10, mimicry!

The aralawirsin is a large, parasitoid wasp with a painful sting. It paralizes its prey and drags it into a cavity it has found such has a tree hollow. The prey will then be food for its larvae.

All the other animals mimic its coloration, but are harmless!

2. The waterfall jelganitar is an insect whose larvae grow in water, affixing themselve to stone or wood in rapidly-flowing rivers and grabbing food that passes by them. 3. The kovizarala is a large beetle whose larvae are detritivores. Scuttling along the leaf litter, their mimicry of the wasp helps them not look as appetizing to predators. 4. The telinudel is a small member of the nudel clade, and for the first couple months of its life, the vulnerable hatchlings take on this threatening-looking coloration. When they are bigger, they will become entirely green. 5. The kokisjiko is a large, scavenging beetle. It digs holes in the ground, and drags a piece of carrion down there, before laying eggs on it. They stay near the entrance of their hole, and by looking like the aralawirsinu, they avoid getting dislodged by these very wasps who would very much like the burrow for themselves.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 1, Blep!

The Kamablep, who lives in rocky coastal areas and sunbathes in large groups.

The Gladiblep, who uses its fangs to pierce the bark of plants to drink the sap.

The Jantublep, who is known for feisty behavior and angrily squeaking at anything that bothers it.

The Otablep, a tiny blep that lives in tropical reefs.

The Aliblep, the largest species of blep, whose loud calls can be heard over the tundras.

The Teriblep, who digs in leaf litter for worms.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 3, siphonophores!

In the world of Okali, they may also be called a jejoti.

The blue winged Jejoti, which can grow to be 30 meters long!

The red-tailed clustered Jejoti, which occurs in warm waters near the equator.

The plum Jejoti, which floats on the surface of the ocean, following the currents.

The efflorescent Jejoti, long thought to be a sailor's legend as they only come anywhere near the surface at night, far away from the shore.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 15, desert dwellers!

The northern kokislieta is a large carrion-eating kulla, and its diet even includes bones! It has en excellent sense of smell.

The zviaruvost is a tiny arthropod that comes out of its hiding spot under the sand only at dawn. The small droplets of morning dew gather in the bristles of its tail, and it quickly drinks them before they evaporate. It hunts by ambush.

The vodnimek grows in the open, its dark color protecting it from being burnt by the sun while still being able to photosynthesize. The two dark purple leaves are thick and can store water and nutrients.

The mistalka is a nocturnal animal, who is more often heard than seen; it has a peculiar call like a squeaky whistle that allows it to find others of its kind easily.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 9: Abyssal!

The new moon yani is an elusive crustacean, that usually spends its time on the seafloor. But on the rare occasions that all three moons are new, leaving the sky all black, they come up onto shore.

The many-eyed reksirg is a totally blind, translucent jawless fish that scrapes microorganisms off of deep-sea surfaces. The "eyes" they are named after are actually bioluminescent spots.

The siglalmi is a detritivore nudibranch that floats around in open water, eating whatever particles pass close enough.

The deep nerifabi is an active hunter of the abyss, luring prey close to itself with the electric blue, glowing spots on its arms and shell.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 6, metamorphosis!

The caterpillar (a), chrysalis (b), and imago (c) of the Twelve-Moon Moth. Its caterpillar grows large and fat on the leaves of the Kipnapi tree.

The caterpillar (a), chrysalis (b), and imago (c) of the kipnapi leafminer worm. The common name is in reference to the tiny, rather featureless larva that eats shapes into the leaves and tends to be seen a lot more than the shy, short-lived adults.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 16, Monochrome!

The gopakulla is small and lives in dense forests. It feeds mainly on certain varieties of mushrooms, mollusks, and worms.

The usenienok is a coastal fish that lives in rocky areas, where it blends into the many smooth stones of the beach. It can somewhat crawl on land, though inelegantly.

The written talmi is an ectoparasite specific to a species of nudel. Its patterns help it blend into a similarly-colored lichen that grows in its habitat.

The shining filessar is a large insect with a beautiful purple shine to its wings. While its larvae eat the seeds of a local tree, the adults feed on nectar.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 4, Camouflage!

The fern whorl moth, which hides itself in the center of ferns, looking like young leaves.

The lichen eyed worm, which lives in crevaces between rocks in rather dry areas.

The pink petal bualmi, which lays dormant most of the year, until the bushes it lives on flowers. Then, it can hide among the blooms.

The greater bark nudel, whose complex patterns help it hide when laying in wait on tree trunks for bugs to pass near enough to eat.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 19, decomposers!

The feather-winged rurebe hides under rocks and logs, chewing at rotten leaves and mycelium.

The arboreal atizo tends to climb up into tree hollows and feed on dead wood. On a healthy tree, there might be two or three, but on a dead one, they'll multiply like crazy.

The lesser patakoviz eats slime molds as an adult, after spending three years undeground as a larva, eating roots.

The slate bualmi tend to eat mostly mushrooms and molds. In drier weather, they bury themselves underground to stay cool, and they're able to wait until wetter weather for months at a time.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 13, spirits!

Lokaap is a spirit formed from a kuyin. It can control currents in the water surrounding itself, and is a rather playful creature.

This spirit was formed from a turik. It's rather ravenous and ill-adapted to its current environment, but it shall be moved to somewhere nicer.

Iliali is a spirit alikulla. She dwells on a mountaintop, and gazes at the stars and other celestial happenings. A whole observatory in herself, she has learned to communicate with people through her own form of sign language, and likes to tell people of coming eclipses!

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 14, cultivars!

The sarisaram is a small plant known for its variegated leaves. It makes soft, edible fruit that is often eaten cooked.

The zujipirempk is a vine that's often grown on roofs so it can get as much sunlight as possible. Their fruits have a tough outer skin that's inedible, but the flesh inside is soft, sweet, and has an iridescent sheen to it.

The dokilzujim is a hardy plant, it'll grow in a variety of soils and temperatures. Nearly everything in this plant is edible, but the best part is the dark berries. Their juice is even used for dyes, as it stains really well.

The bisko is a dark-colored cereal that grows rather late in the year. Very drought-tolerant, it's a favored crop in arid regions.

[wanderingokali]

Okalivember day 7- Seeds!

The Fastiwe is a plant that's only ever found in barren, rocky environments before anything else has grown there. Their seeds stray far and wide with the wind, and they can stay dormant for years waiting for a landslide to create the right conditions to grow in.

The common jelwenzara grows on the edge of clearings in forests, sprouting in humid beds of moss. Their feather-like seeds float on the wind, and can also stick to animals for dispersal.

The seeds of the marsh emeyaga tree float on the water for days, and many small animals use them as a platform to follow the currents effortlessly.

The reseluk's seed is covered by a small sheath filled with magical energy; if an animal touches it to try and eat the seed, the magic will convert to electricity, giving a small but nonetheless unpleasant zap. To produce all this energy, the plant will grow some new leaves extremely fast after it has been pollinated.

The pisitana is a thin and fragile-looking plant, with brittle leaves thinner than paper. Its seed pods disperse by exploding when they dry out, and the seeds flying out can make lots of tiny holes in the leaves, giving the plant a dissheveled appearance.

The janlaldi is a tiny, coastal plant that is highly tolerant of salt, being underwater for long periods of time, and can even survive being uprooted by the currents as long as it ends up on some appropriate substrate. The nuts it produces, while many are eaten, can float on the waves until the wedge themselves in rocks to sprout.