Adult Female
Name: unnamed
Species: Athenanas
Birthday: Monday, April 22, 2019
Owner: crimsondragonflame
Element: Neutral 
Your ripe athenanas is coated in tough spines that are quite sharp on their edges, but if you're gentle, it accepts pets from a finger or two. It is not a highly mobile creature, preferring to nest in your sock drawer all day and chirp at you when you return from classes, but it produces such a pleasant smell that you don't mind. You need to be attentive, even caring for a creature that is basically a piece of fruit; when your athenanas grows angry, it can exude small traces of an acid-like substance that will eat away whatever it touches. You can keep your creature complacent by cleaning its spines with a small brush and providing a pot of loose soil for it to sleep in when it isn't digging through your clothes.
Athenanas are not quite fruit but certainly not animals either. Unable to fly, they are similarly slow on the ground, though they can walk and climb when needed. Most of the time, they prefer to hide and rely on their natural coverings for defense. Where a bird might have feathers, an athenanas has tough scales and spiny leaves sprouting from their heads. Females even carry their single hatchling in these spikes to protect them. Most would-be predators think twice after taking a bite -- athenanas exude digestive enzymes filled with tiny crystalline needles that can irritate anything it comes into contact with. That doesn't stop humans from trying to eat them, of course, though in places like Synara, they're more often used as expensive household ornaments. In fact, athenanas are so rare up north that many wealthy Synarans will pay to borrow them for fancy dinner parties. They're cherished both for their unusual appearance and their pleasant smell.
Sprite art: Jrap17 (adult) | Description: PKGriffin