Tur-gon

A **tur-gon** is an animal native to the planet Vilavurs. Its defining characteristics are its leathery skin, its four slender wings, six short multi-jointed legs, a long, tapered tail, and its head, which contains six eyes (or eyespots) and a long snout.

## Appearance

A typical tur-gon is defined by several features: its skin, its head, its wings, its legs, and its tail.

### Skin

The integument of a tur-gon is hairless and smooth, covering the vast majority of the surface of the animal. It is leathery and thick, but it is not impervious to damage, as it can be cut or pierced by sharp objects.

### Wings

A tur-gon has two sets of two wings, one of which connects to the body just behind the forwardmost pair of legs and the other of which connects behind the third and final set. The wings themselves are almost bat-like, consisting of the main arm of several long bones on the leading edge of the wing and a thin layer of skin extending from the end of the arm to its base, just before it joins the body. Each set of wings beats downward in alternation with the other; the forward wings beat upward as the rearward wings beat downward, and vice versa.

### Head

A tur-gon's head is narrowed and tapers toward the nose, which is flattened like a soft-shell turtle's. The tur-gon's skull features a sharply defined nasal bridge, which extends from the nose all the way back to its neck and acts as an axis of symmetry for the head itself. Below the nose is the mouth, which is largely devoid of teeth and consists instead of matching ridges on the roof of the mouth and jaw for gripping food. Above and behind the mouth are six eyes or eyespots, three each on either side of the nasal bridge; they rest in pronounced recesses in the skull and are arranged in roughly a straight line leading diagonally away from the bridge toward the skull's pronounced cheekbones. The head itself is connected to the rest of the body by a long, thick neck.

### Legs

A tur-gon has three sets of thin legs positioned along the ventral side of its body. The legs' first bone extends downward, while the second bone extends inward toward the other leg in its set. Because of this, the legs work best in concert, by grasping the tur-gon's prey from above and holding it against the animal's body, the tur-gon can carry its prey away easily.

### Tail

A tur-gon's tail is slightly longer than its head and neck combined and tapers smoothly from its base to its tip. It functions mainly as a counterweight for the rest of its body.

## Discovery

Tur-gons were discovered by Group B-5 upon their arrival at Vilavurs, the first planet they used on their journey home. They discovered the creatures as they flew the *Astra* around a mountain while searching for a place to land; they nearly flew through a flock of tur-gons. The majority of the crew was terrified by the encounter: only Aries Spring and Charce Lacroix were enamored by the creatures, with Aries giving the creatures the name "tur-gon" for their apparent likeness to both a soft-shell turtle and a dragon. The crew landed the *Astra* a safe distance away from the flock, unsure as to whether they were carnivorous or not and preferring not to find out the hard way.

Later, when Funicia Raffaelli became stranded on top of a tree-poline, a lone tur-gon descended on her and nearly flew away with her, but Kanata Hoshijima stopped the tur-gon by impaling and killing it with Luca Esposito's lance. The killing of the creature provided them with an ample source of meat, which the group used to sustain themselves on the trip to Shummoor, the next planet on their journey.