The Whole Thing

Platicorn

Platicornus Prodigalis

Introduction 

The Platicorn is a peculiar creature that, to this day, few have ever seen and lived to tell of it. It is a hybrid, with 50% Platypus, 33.3% Unicorn and 10% Eagle, and 6.7% Dragon, an amazing and hardly credible mix that humans are still to this day wondering about. It is a warm blooded carnivore, and highly dangerous, because of its poisonous horn. It is said to live in swampy areas, mostly in warm places. Because of their huge territories (up to 18 acres squared) that males protect with their lives; there are said to be less than 150 specimens left in the wild.

A  Platicorn habitat.

Description

The Platicorn is an amazing creature, being as big as a school desk without counting the bill or the tail. It looks like a Platypus with bird wings and a horn. It has a very strange tail: like a mule tail attached to a beaver tail. Before mating, its horn is black, because of the poison, but after matting, the poison will be gone, and it will turn gold.

An picture view of a pre-mating horn

Mating

The mating season starts in March and ends on the final days of April. It is a very complex ritual that biologists are just barley starting to understand the motives and the whole scheme of.

Biologists think a male of around ten years of age will go up to a female of its choice and tap her horn with his poisonous black horn and injects the poison, causing the female to get pregnant with eggs. (Platicorns are mammals, but like the Platypus, they lay eggs) The male then shoos the female away, being left vulnerable without his deadly poison.

1-2 months later, the female will lay the eggs and die about one week later, because of the poison. After about ten days, the eggs will hatch and the hatchlings battle each other. The strongest and the healthiest will then will eat the other dead siblings. It will then go on to eat the body of the poisoned mother. Babies are immune to the poison till the age of two, but they are still far from safe.

Habitat

Platicorns live in swamps in North and South America, Parts of Europe, Australia, and Reunion Island. They love sun and heat, but also enjoy the cold because it sharpens their senses and distracts their prey. They often sleep in rot away logs and holes in fallen trees. Males will never let other males in their territory, especially during the mating season. If other males enter, horrible fights will occur, usually ending in death. Their huge territories are often in danger also because of pollution and other human causes.

Diet

The Platicorn is a fierce carnivore, eating an average of 50 pounds of meat daily.  They love to eat humans when they can.  They also eat animals such as Alligators, Pigs, Jaguars, other Platicorns, Dogs, and other small prey. However, they are very adaptable. During tough times, they will eat long dead bodies and sometimes vegetation. There has been a record of a hungry, stray Platicorn taking down an African bull elephant in Nigeria.

Hunting

        

The Platicorn will survive by hunting only once a week. Its hunting techniques are very effective, since they are perfectly adapted to his surroundings. It hunts by using its magnificent wings to fly above the canopy so that it can see its prey, but the prey doesn’t see him. From up in the air, it singles out its prey with its very evolved eyes, and then it dives down horn first into the desired prey. It then holds the prey still as it injects the poison into it. When the prey dies, the Platicorn then brings the dead prey to its barrow to eat in privacy. In the occasion that it doesn’t finish it. The predator saves some for another time by burring it in mud.           

Limiting Factors

Platicorn have a lot of limiting factors, ranging from natural factors to human caused ones. The Platicorns are very picky and violent animals. Territory is everything for them. They find a piece of land they like, and then they push out the occupying male by killing it. With the territory, they also acquire the right to any female that wonders in the territory, and to the recourses in the land. The territories are usually about 18 acres squared, but can be more. The males protect these immense territories with their life, and are always ready to die before letting another male take them. They will not move into the territory of a deceased male unless they have killed the old occupier themselves. However, to make matters worse for the species, humans are always destroying the lands, polluting them, or turning the rainforests or swamps into grassland for cattle. As far as biologists know, no other animals except Platicorns themselves hunt Platicorns, because they are far too dangerous, but fierce predators such as the jaguar will still attempt to prey the hatchlings in times of hunger. Platicorns are not very vulnerable to common animal diseases, but are quite defenseless to a very rare species of bacterium called Cornisemveri, which makes male Platicorns’ horns fall off.

       A male Platicorn

History

Platicorns originated from the Nile Delta as herbivores around 100,500 B.C. They then moved up towards Greece to the river Acheron for reasons unknown to archeologists in about 100,300 B.C.  They found the habitat to their liking, especially the humidity. However, they found that their herbivore needs couldn’t be met, so, over the course of around 100,000 years they became carnivores. It was now around 300 B.C., and the Greeks were desperate to get rid of these bloodthirsty animals. The Platicorns, however, fixed the situation simply: They left the land and migrated again, this time to swamps and rainforests all over Asia and Africa. At this point, most Platicorns adapted again by gaining wings and poison. Other Platicorns soon died, defenseless to the other males. The species than divided, some going to Australia, and some even braving the Pacific to go to the Pacific Islands. There, some settled, while others went to the Americas and the Caribbean. There, the Platicorns that had arrived found themselves at home. The land suited their needs perfectly, and the species grew in those lands more than ever. Most Platicorns now dwell in these regions.

Mythology

There are some legends in Greece and Macedonia that the Platicorn is said to have originated from Olympus as a weapon against the evil Titans. It was made powerful and smart by Zeus to fight monsters, which proved to be effective. Since the Gods had won. The Platicorn gained so much power and strength that he began to notice how the gods treated him inferiorly to them. He began to plot Olympus’s downfall, and, sure enough, the mighty Platicorn declared war on Zeus.  At the time, the fierce beast was blinded by rage and pride, and had no idea of how strong Zeus was, so he lost the war.  Zeus and the Olympians cast the Platicorn down to Earth as punishment, striping him of his intelligence, his immortality and his memory of his previous life. It found its way to the damp swamps and rainforest and settled in. But, even without his lost intelligence, he still held on to a memory of being wronged. He would take his anger out on life on earth, even on his own kin. 

Religion

Platiccinioun is an ancient religion, which very few people believe in today.  It originated in the Amazon; where very few temples still exist there.  Very few people still believe in this religion.  They strongly believed that man was inferior to the majestic Platicorns, and very often rowed the sacrifices into Platicorn infested swamps. The sacrifices would then be tied to logs and would be helpless from the merciless Platicorns. The Platicciniouns would do these gory rituals often, especially when they thought they had done something wrong. This grizzly “religion” has been passed on from generation to generation for a long time, but it is gradually coming to a stop as knowledge, technology and civilization is also coming to these dark corners of the human world.

An ancient Platiccinioun pyramid temple

Poison Effect

The male Platicorns’ horn is very dangerous because it is full of deadly Platicorn poison. The poison is colored black, and will bring death to a victim after a couple of seconds.  The poison has no known cure, since, in a few seconds, it stops blood flow to the limbs, destroys nerves, and destroys brain tissues. It is highly corrosive, but, strangely, pain free. Ever Platicorns poison is slightly different, and a Platicorn is immune to its own poison.  A male is immune to the poison of another Platicorn until mating time, but it is very vulnerable after the process.

This amount of Platicorn poison is enough to kill 20 grown men