The Blestemat Beastiary: Vol 3
Researched and Written by Urma Tulpina
*Cover*
Property of the Lioteca Library
Failure to return this book to the royal castle will lead to fines of five silver for each day it is not returned. If this price exceeds twice the cost of the book, you will no longer be charged for each day but your ability to borrow from the library will be taken away from you. If you cannot pay the fee, you may be liable for up to ten years in prison.
*Inside Cover*
**Myths and Legends**
As we approach the end of this series of 'encyclopedias', we approach the more elusive and mythical creatures that are more rumours than true facts. From this page onward, it is advised that all information is taken with a grain of salt; without any conclusive evidence or confirmation, the creatures and monsters here only exist in the form of eyewitness testimony or suspicious corpses.
Without further ado, I present the mythical and legendary creatures of the Asupri kingdom.
*Page 142*
**The Fierar**
With the first sighting of this creature being in the twelveth century, the fierar is a creature that many believe to be immortal and one of a kind, serving as a religious leader figure in the forest of blestemat. It's stature is tiny, always being sighted as less than twenty centimetres tall, with a ball-like shape covered by dirty white fur. The creature seems to be covered in soot at almost all times, no matter the situation, although the amount does vary. It has two beady eyes and a tiny mouth which it rarely uses. It has two stubby, avian, webbed feet and two hands which are mismatched, one being rectangular like a hammer and another hand with three spindly fingers.
This creature is described as being the blacksmith of the forest, crafting strange objects for the denizens of the forest in exchange for food, specifically meat. This meat can be from any source, but the price of the object will vary based on how large or powerful it is. There are some rumoured exceptions to the rule; the rings around the ears of Lipsit are rumoured to be crafted by the fierar at birth, with no confirmed exchange taking place. Despite seemingly having the ability to make anything, the fierar seems to rarely take requests; most of the time, it simply creates something, forces it upon people in need and then demands compensation.
Although the fierar is normally docile, it can be dangerous when agitated, using its sharp fingers and hammer to potentially cripple the legs of a human to prevent them from escaping. What is even more dangerous about this creature is that it has the strange ability to call upon the creatures around it for help almost instantaneously; from a few eyewitness accounts, this led to friends, partners and strangers being ripped apart in seconds once they were unable to escape by the fifty or so rampaging animals of various sizes. These creatures seem to never go against the fierar's wishes, although if this is voluntary or not is difficult to say.
This creature is most commonly spotted around the centre of the blestemat forest, near the Mijloc tree. It is believed by some that the tree grew to the enormous size that it did because of the fierar's interference, but it is impossible to prove or disprove.
*Page 143*
The first sighting of this creature was told through journal by a deceased researcher known as D.A. Falin, who had gone on a risky expedition into the forest with two other comrades. In his journal, he describes his journey into the forest with great excitement, while noting the chance that it could be his last expedition if he wasn't careful on multiple occasions. On the twenty first day, he had the first sighting of the fierar, which he described as 'an abomination of evolution, distinctly hideous in its lack of balance' for his first impression. Over a few days they would follow the creature around and observe its daily routine, going as far as to follow it to its burrow which seemed to be a hastily made hole around roots of a normal tree. After four days the creature would approach the three with a hand sized telescope-like object which was reportedly 'enlarged the image of what was seen through the object with an unprecedented amount of clarity and magnitude'. One of the three offered the creature a unspecified of the preserved meat they carried for their expedition before they agreed to move on. The creature followed them for around five minutes holding the meat in its spindly fingers before beginning to growl. They stopped out of concern, but after another five minutes of confusion, the creature attacked the researcher who had given it the meat, allegedly 'breaking his ankle in one swing of its hammer-like fist'. The journal goes on to describe the grisly details of the attack from the many creatures of the forest before the fierar dragged the mutilated body of their comrade away. The rest of the journal documents their escape from the forest, the two remaining researchers coming to the conclusion that they were no longer emotionally stable enough to continue with the rest of their fifty day expedition. The telescope-like object was confirmed to be enchanted with some sort of magic and was purchased by a member of the Parator family where it has seemingly remained since.
About two dozen sightings of the fierar have occurred between D.A. Falin's expedition and today, all of which have come from a variety of credible and questionable sources. However, without any conclusive evidence, the fierar remains a myth.
*Page 144*