N'purel

N'purel, known as the Whiskered Fish, were giant catfish from Aral Gamelain. An n'purel could eat a Kenyll'rah youth whole while those in the deeper lakes were capable of consuming an adult.Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.561-562 They were black in colour, with silvery-white bellies, spiked fins, small black or grey eyes, spiny whiskers, and broad, toothless mouths.House of Chains, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.164-166House of Chains, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.269 Once mature, the n'purel crawled onto the shore, shed their skins, and grew legs whereupon they lived on land.
When the Nascent was flooded, n'purel wound up there as well.
==In House of Chains==
Karsa Orlong and Torvald Nom found themselves clinging to flotsam in the Nascent amidst the wreckage of a naval battle in shallow water. Giant n'purel feasted on the corpses of the battle's dead forcing the pair to seek safety aboard an intact raiding vessel. One n'purel snapped at Karsa's feet as he clambered on board and Torvald Nom pierced it with a harpoon. Thinking to tire the fish and make it their meal, Nom tied the harpoon's rope to their ship's prow. But the catfish was so enormous it dragged the entire ship in its wake. As it attempted to escape it punched its way through the hull of a grounded three-masted ship and become entrapped below deck. Karsa mortally wounded it with his sword, but was struck unconscious by the horse-like kick of the dying n'purel's tail.
Later, Onrack T'emlava encountered a score of well-fed catfish drying atop the wall holding back the waters of the Nascent. These n'purel had grown legs and their skins were dried and fissured in preparation for shedding.
==In Midnight Tides==
The Kenyll'rah caster of nets, Lilac, was enslaved and brought to the Malazan world to fight in the Tiste Edur army of Emperor Rhulad Sengar. The demon was fearful to approach one of the world's rivers for fear it might contain n'purel like its homeworld. N'purel found their way to the Nascent after Rhulad diverted Aral Gamelain's Chirahd River through a rent into that fragment of Kurald Emurlahn.Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.635-638
==In Reaper's Gale==
N'purel stalked Quick Ben, Trull, and Onrack as they waded through an area of waist-deep water in the Shadow Realm. Trull and Onrack recognised them as the same species of fish they had seen in the Nascent. When a fish as large as a Napan galley bulled its way through the shallows towards them, Quick Ben opened a magical gate to allow them to escape.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.317
==Notes and references==
Category:Sea creatures