You thought I dropped this didn't you? (joke)

***

Blurry, and red eyed Jago guided Cronk towards the Uare container glancing at the children every once in awhile with a raised eyebrow. Reaching down into the container a warm jaw clamped around his hand. A small yelp of surprise wormed it’s way from Jago’s lips, resounding towards the warehouse. When Jago calmed himself he looked down to see the small, toothless Uare clamped around his extended hand. Smiling at the sight he spoke, like someone sold him a cute puppy, “Awww, sorry buddy, but you don’t have teeth”. Jago slammed his hand, and, by extension, the Uare’s head against the container as his face contorted into a scowl. The Uare slid off of his land, and back into the water of the container. A small pang of guilt rang through Jago, he never did like hurting the animals, but the rules stated he had to provide the hint to the tester.

Yet again, Jago reached into the container, and gingerly plucked the disconcerted Uare from it’s container. Handing the Uare to Cronk, Jago explained as if reading off a script, “The test will begin shortly. The purpose of this test is to discover the participants ability to draw conclusions based on visual clues, and context. What you need to find out will be written on a piece of paper in your testing room. This test has no time limit, but once the answers are submitted the test is over”. Flashing Cronk a grin he laughed, “Don’t worry about it too much, you’ll do fine. Vigil doesn’t take anyone as his apprentice”. Seeing the children playing out of the corner of his eye he paled a little, “at least I hope he doesn’t”.

Jago lead the group to the building on the east side of the warehouse. The building was fairly bland made out simple clay bricks, and holding no windows. The insides of the building were as simple, if not simpler, than the outsider with each room being identical to the last. Jago spoke as they entered the building, “This building is called Warehouse A2 Building Two, The building on the west side is called Warehouse A2 Building One. B Two is responsible for observations, while B One is responsible for experiments, and testing.

Opening a door marked ‘9’ a single raised, marble slab table presented itself. Several large drawers could be seen protruding from multiple places on the sides of the table. “The test will start as soon as you enter the room, there is a syringe in the leftmost drawer that will put the animal into a deep sleep” Jago spoke while strolling to a stool in the rightmost corner of the room. Jago’s heart rate began to quicken as he sat down, he wanted the northerner to pass. They desperately needed pathfinders, and not many people applied because of the low acceptance rate. If nothing changed soon there would be hell to pay.

***

Cronk entered the dark room only illuminated by 5 candles, four near each of the corners of the room sitting on a metal plate connected to the ceiling by chains, and one on the table. The flickering flames lit up a pale sheet of paper resting on the table. Scanning the paper Cronk opened the leftmost draw, and pulled out one of the many synergies. Placing the syringe in the creature's neck he injected the greenish fluid into the Uare. Five minutes later it was sleeping soundly. Unsure of if he read the directions correctly he re-checked the list.

How do you think the male Uare eat?

From your previous expedition how dangerous would you say an Uare is on a scale from 1-10 to humans? One being couldn’t hurt, ten being do not engage.

From your previous expedition how dangerous would you say an Uare is on a scale from 1-10 to the animals living in the stream? One being as dangerous as grass, ten being the top consumer.

How do you think the Uare move in, and out of the water?

What is the last thing this Uare ate?

Cronk began to think back to yesterday’s events at the stream. Vigil had said male Uare didn’t have teeth, and that was confirmed when he had opened the animal's mouth. His eyes wandered to the unconscious Uare as he thought. Tentatively reaching out a hand he gently opened the creature's mouth, maybe if they didn’t have teeth they just swallowed its food whole. Reaching a finger to the back of its throat he tried to expand it, but couldn’t his brow furrowed. The Uare’s throat wasn’t large enough to eat a fish whole, and it couldn’t even expand its throat to do so. Thinking back he thought about the Uare females, Vigil said that only the females had teeth. Cronk had originally thought they were there for protecting the nest, but maybe they had a different purpose. Pushing the question aside for now he moved to the next two questions.

The next questions were much easier than the first. The Uare had completely ignored him when he was crossing the stream, if that was because he was to big to fit in it’s mouth Cronk didn’t know. A shiver thundered across Cronk as he imagined what an Uare could do if it was larger. Writing down his answers he once again moved on.

This question made Cronk actually think. Picking the Uare up he began to turn it, looking at every inch of the animals. Testing the animals flexibility he was surprised at it’s body structure it’s spine seemed similar to that of a water snake which would explain how it could swim in the water, but not how it gathered its extreme speeds. Staring at the wings he began to wonder. They looked similar to triangular sails for catching, but the Uare didn’t spend enough time out of the water for those to be useful. ‘Maybe they aren’t for catching wind’, Cronk thought back to when Vigil spoke to him about environment. Why would a Uare be so deadly in a stream? What did a stream have that was special about it? Realization hit Uare like a hammer, and he wrote down his answer.

Looking at the last question his brow furrowed, how the hell was he supposed to figure out what this Uare ate last? Rifling through the drawers he looked for some type of tool that might help him. Opening the right-most drawer a chill crept through his body, and his heart rate increased. Taking the drawer from its slot he carefully placed it on the table, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened them. When he reopened his eyes a knife sat there taunting him, turning towards the children he spoke, "You may want to leave for this next part".