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hen the world was freshly made
the Long-Ear was a lovely animal roaming the grass plains of the northern
Ráhaz-Dáth. Its fur was softer than any other of the beasts around, and the
patterns pleased every eye. They played merrily with each other and not few gods
stopped to observe them. It was loved dearly by some of the gods, especially
Jeyriall, who had created them. But they had no more intelligence like any of
the other beasts around. And so they were hunted - not only by the canny ju‘bat
and other predators, but also by the aguia of the mountains. But Jeyriall loved
her creation so much, that she didn‘t want to allow it vanish from Caelereth. So
she asked Arvins, God of the Hunt, if he couldn‘t do anything about it. The
hunting had to stop, otherwise there would be no more Long-Ears soon. But Arvins
only raised his eyebrows, and Jeyriall knew, that he wouldn‘t do anything.
Jeyriall asked Baveras for help, and the watergoddess created some springs and
wells, so that part of the Northern desert could carry trees and some bushes
with fruits. And so the Long-Ear changed from the Tibbar roaming the vast plains
to the Tree Tibbar, his numbers increased again and for now its extinction
seemed avoided.
But when the races arrived in the Ráhaz-Dáth during their migration to the
south, all seemed to have been in vain. The numbers of the Ky‘mon Tibbar, as the
humans called them, decreased so rapidly, for everybody valued their tender meat
and their soft hides.
Jeyriall was desperate, and this time Baveras was of no help either. But out of
the desperation an idea was born. What the Tree Tibbar needed to survive the
attacks of the new predator was a trait of these very predators - and that was
intelligence. So Jeyriall blessed her creatures with a small amount of
intelligence and enabled them to use it to evade persecution, she even gave them
the ability to use some tools to defend themselves against their predators or to
gain food more easily.
Sharp tongues say, Jeyriall took the intelligence they gave their beloved
animals from those of their - human - hunters.
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