The Emera and the miru
Other names:
Space rats, eyeless rats/mice, Forrian rat, space mice, Forrian mice.
Planet/realm of origin:
The emera and miru are animals that are originally from Forria, but now they inhabit more than one planet as they've been hitching rides from sapient creatures spaceships. They inhabit the living realm of the Agalorix universe, and it is unknown if they inhabit the other 9 realms.
Description:
Emera are 4 legged bird mammal creatures that are usually the same size as a agalorite rat, they're most of the time neutral colors like brown, black, Grey, or white with no significant markings on them most of the time. They have no protruding ears, as their ears are on the sides of their head covered up by their fur; not unlike how a birds ears are covered up by feathers.
They have sharp beak-like mouths, and large nostrils on their faces to help them smell. Their feet have sharp little claws on them, and they have bushy ferret-like tails that help with them balance as they move. Emera have no eyes, and are blind as they get around on smell, hearing, and echolocation alone instead. Their paws are capable of manipulating things in a limited way, and use these paws to grab things. They have vulture-like beaks to eat meat with, and teeth in the back for grinding up tougher food.
The Miru are tiny creatures the size of agalorite mice, and mostly look nearly the same as emera but are way smaller with with thin cat-like tails, and have a different looking longer beak on their face.
Behavior:
Emera and Miru usually live around sapient creatures like incari aliens or humans, and like to hide or make their homes in tunnels, sewers, walls, etc. Outside of cities they make their homes in logs, burrow underground, tree hollows, under stones, etc.
They are opportunistic omnivorous creatures and will eat anything they get their paws on. If they live around cities or human areas they tend to eat trash, carrion, human food, etc. In the wild they eat carrion, seeds, fruit, grass, plants, etc.
They live in groups of several of their kind usually, and even nest with each other in one place. They interact with each other by mutual grooming, scent, and making ultrasonic sounds or cries to communicate. When they get aggressive they open their mouths very wide, and hiss at each other while sending off smells to signal the other to back off. When happy they make a purring type sound to show that they're happy, and will also jump around in a happy motion similar to what rabbits do.
Reproduction:
The Emera and Miru go into heat several times a year, and have several litters at a time during 1 year. When that happens the female attracts a male singing ultrasonic sounds to a nearby male till he notices.
While pregnant their body produces soft eggs inside their bodies, and when they develop the eggs hatch in their bodies as their offspring develops over time not unlike some species of agalorite snakes.
Their gestation period isn't very long lasting only a month, and they give birth to around 4-8 young at a time. The babies are born helpless with underdeveloped legs, hardly no senses other than smell, and their echolocation doesn't develop till later. Around 3 months they're sexually mature, and ready to leave the nest.
Relationship with intelligent beings
Both species for the most part are considered pests by most sapient creatures due to the fact they spread diseases, live around them, eat their food, decimate crops or cargo, etc. Outside of planet Forria, they?re considered an invasive species, and extermination efforts are usually made to control them. They are responsible for making many agalorite creatures extinct, or endangered due to their invasive nature.
There are however some individuals of sapient races that keep these 2 species as pets, and breed them into many different varieties of pet breed or colors not found in their wild cousins. There are even pet shows, and organizations that miru/emera enthusiasts have made to show off their wonderful pets.
Domesticated miru/emera are simply called the fancy variety or painted miru/emera due to the many colors, and patterns that were bred into the domesticated version. The history of how these creatures became pets is because of one incari alien miru/emera catcher that started to breed these creatures in nice colors for profit, others saw how pretty these painted or fancy varieties are, and bought them. Eventually others started to follow the same trend, and breed fancy/painted varieties out of interest. This eventually led to the domesticated variety of modern times in the Agalorix universe, and why there are many sapient beings that love these little creatures.
Some aliens like to eat miru/emera, and see it as a cheap source of food if said alien lives in a poor part of town. Richer aliens find it disgusting to eat these creatures due to being seen as diseased, and like looking down on the poor for eating them; in fact in some places this is even banned these animals as it's seen as that gross to eat these creatures.
Notes:
In the Agalorix universe, these creatures are cast in heroes or characters in fictional stories or tales; there?s even a large very well known entertainment company that uses a miru as a company mascot in this universe.
These creatures are intelligent, and are used in labs to test intelligence. These creatures also used to test diseases, and viruses in labs.
These creatures are also empathetic, and will even try to save another one of their species if they're in trouble.
The animals that inspired these creatures are: rats, mice, and birds.
Emera eat more meat than miru do hence why they have shorter sharper beaks than miru who have longer less sharp beaks.
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