Male Hatchling
Name: unnamed
Species: Rone Elona
Birthday: Sunday, December 29, 2019
Owner: Katnilb
Element: Neutral 
Juvenile elona are skittish little lizards, born ready to hunt and with no dependence on their mothers. The youngsters may spend time together in creches for protection while they are very young, but once they get hungry they may start to nip at each others' tails and toes, so the wiser individuals will quickly abandon these creches to forage on their own. There are plenty of small insects to eat in their tropical homes, but the forests of the islands are also full of predators that would make a quick meal of a small lizard. They rely primarily on camouflage for defense, hiding among leaves or grass and hoping predators fail to notice them. However, this does not protect them from creatures like snakes and mammals that rely on scent to track their prey, so elona have a special ability they use when confronted with sharp-nosed predators: they can take on the scents of various things they have encountered. The lizards can use this ability to blend in with the surrounding vegetation, or, if detected, they can make themselves smell like burning wood, rotten meat, and other unpalatable things.
Elona are small creatures but surprisingly voracious, tackling insects half their size and venturing into the lairs of spiders to steal a bite of the occupants' catches, or possibly the occupant themselves. They are among the most populous vertebrates on the planet, with different species endemic to islands around the globe, each with a slightly different behavior and appearance. Their small size makes them expert stowaways, and as long as they avoid the attention of ship rats, they can make their way to new islands and far inland. The Keep's population is largely the result of stowaway elona hitching rides in bushels of fruits from the Callisto Islands, and they have been known to make it as far north as the Last Stop Inn purely by accident. This can actually be a problem, as elona can easily become invasive species, and larger varieties have been known to compete with and prey upon smaller species of elona. As one of the largest of the elona, the Rone variety is also one of the most common in the Callisto Islands, despite being fairly rare in its native habitat.
Sprite art: Jrap17 (hatchling) | Description: PKGriffin