Dragontoads
Dragontoads start as normal tadpoles, but they mature much slower.
This is good, because otherwise they would eat all the other tadpoles.
This does mean they stay meal-sized for longer ...
But that's okay, because all dragon toads are ✨magic✨
Some dragon toads have smaller magics, like camouflage, or spikes, or being very quiet. Others have bigger magics, like having croaks that momentarily make you forget what you're doing, or controlling the rate at which lobsters die.
Any frog can lay an egg that will grow into a dragontoad.
This includes frogs that aren't toads. The dragontoad always grows up to be part toad, even if its parents are not. Science people are generally more puzzled by this than the fact that the dragontoad is part dragon, which is a little odd, I must say.
A dragon tadpole will grow magics when its fellow tadpoles begin to grow legs. Once the other tadpoles crawl up on land, the dragon tadpole begins growing hind legs. Right before breeding season begins again, the dragontoad has arms and legs and wings that it will use to get the hell out of dodge, because momma frog knows that a dragontoad will eat all her tadpoles, so she will make an effort to eat the dragontoadlet first.
Frogs are a little more resistant to dragon toad magic than everyone else.
The dragontoad will now proceed to eat anything that moves and can fit in its mouth, and grows quickly. Full grown adults range from big, to arguably too big, to undeniably far too big.
Dragontoads cannot maintain flight, but they can perform mighty jumps and glide with their wings. They will absolutely use this ability to catch and eat flying birds.
Scary.
A dragontoad can breed with other frogs, but they do not create more dragontoads. The offspring will instead be magic frogs.
Stingerella
Out of all the misunderstood animals in the world (of which there are many), none do I have as personal relationship with as the noble wasp.
Who else has been targeted so fiercely by respectability politics? Because it can fight back against things so much bigger than itself and not die, it is considered “evil” and an “asshole”, even though, when treated gently, they are gentle creatures with so much sweetness in them. Bees are beloved, and they die when stinging. Do you have to die in order to defend yourself and still be considered ‘good’? Isn’t it enough to simply allow yourself, unapologetically, to exist?
I want to be like a wasp: small, fragile, elegant, with the power to make grown men cry.
I have often thought to myself, how many problems would be solved if I was best friends with just a fuck-off huge wasp. The biggest motherfucker imaginable. Unable to be swatted by any newspaper, the biggest unit. Who would dare mess with me then? It would be awesome.
Wasps don’t come in that big. The biggest ones are still quite crushable which is really a flaw on evolution’s part if I can be honest for a second. So, I made one myself!
This is Stingerella. She’s about one and a half small hands long, made out of purely recycled materials save for the steel wire, thread, and glue used. Her legs and feelers are wrapped with scrap leather, her body is made from old leggings and a sock stuffed with scrap fabric from other projects, the buttons are second hand and the stinger is made from a charm on an old necklace. The patch on the butt is part of an old leather bag, and the wings is made out of an old tablecloth. Her stripes are fabric gift ribbon from a fee christmasses ago, and embroidery. She has a safety pin on the underside, so she can be worn as a brooch if you have some really really durable clothes because she is heavy.
She is my friend, and I love her.