The Night Feeder (character)

## Night Feeder

The **Night Feeder** was a monstrous, enigmatic dinosaur that brutally killed its victims at night and was able to attack with unnatural stealth and speed.

## Appearance

The Night Feeder was a theropod or theropod-like dinosaur that was similar in size to Fang. Not much is known about its appearance; it remained unseen for most of its episode, and its silhouette was barely visible even while being burnt alive. However, judging by its form when first shown, the Night Feeder heavily resembled the Raptors, albeit with a few characteristics unnatural to dromaeosaurids. It appeared to be a chimaera of various dinosaurs, with baryonynchine features in the snout, therizinosaurian or megaraptoran claws, and an unusually short tail.

The Night Feeder appeared to be covered in some sort of black, tar-like substance, as Fang's face got covered in liquid when she tried to bite the dinosaur. It is possible that this substance is a natural secretion of the Night Feeder, used for camouflage and/or defense, given it became visible on Fang. It seemed to have a distinctive smell that could betray the Night Feeder's presence to nearby animals, but they typically only picked up the scent when it was already in striking range.

The Night Feeder's snout has a small, scar-like marking, possibly due to Fang's attack or a previous encounter with another entity.

## Personality

From what little was seen of the Night Feeder, it had an extremely brutal nature. It killed well in excess of its dietary needs, leaving a Smilodon's corpse partially uneaten and slaughtering an entire herd of ceratopsian dinosaurs that would have likely fed it for weeks. Given how it never seemed to leave the forest it called home, it could be considered a highly territorial creature—however, it also showed signs of killing for sport instead of survival.

The Night Feeder seemed to exclusively target large and powerful creatures, letting them detect its presence before proceeding with its attack. Notably, it awakened Spear and Fang with its cries instead of silently butchering them in their sleep; while this may have been unintentional, it can also be interpreted as the Night Feeder wanting a challenge. On the other hand, it seemed to become frustrated when they proved capable of evading it for a prolonged period of time, driving it to briefly disable them with its screech so it could close in on Spear.

The Night Feeder's main weakness was its extreme photophobia. Direct sunlight, fire, or even brief sparks would make it recoil in fear at best and try to flee at worst. Continued exposure to light appeared to disorient the Night Feeder and send it into a panic, and fire proved to be supremely effective at killing it.

## Abilities

* **Speed:** The Night Feeder was one of the fastest creatures in the *Primal* series, being able to sprint at unnatural speeds. It easily caught up to a fleeing herd of ceratopsians, and Spear was only able to barely keep ahead of it with the help of surrounding trees and his natural agility. It also boasted excellent acceleration, being able to go from motionless to top speed (or vice-versa) in less than a half-second, allowing it to make sudden strikes on its prey (such as the Smilodon or the first ceratopsian).
* **Loud Screech:** While chasing prey, the Night Feeder uttered a high-pitched roar or screech, possibly serving to disorient or terrify prey while hunting. During its hunt of Spear and Fang, it amplified its screech to the point of causing physical pain to its enemies, leaving them vulnerable as it closed in.
* **Claws and Strength:** The Night Feeder possessed elongated claws that exhibited an exceptional ability to effortlessly slice through the most resilient layers of skin, flesh, and bone. As a result, this formidable creature rendered its unfortunate prey as either severely disfigured or even disintegrated individuals, all with a single, precisely targeted attack. During its second assault, the creature effortlessly divided a ceratopsian into two equal parts, from its snout all the way to its tail, without experiencing  any decrease in its forward motion. While in relentless pursuit of Spear, it exhibited its impressive power by effortlessly causing the downfall of massive trees, a few of which possessed trunks thicker than Fang's height, all with a single, swift slash.
* **Tracking:** The Night Feeder's senses were keen enough to keep up with its speed, letting it efficiently hunt prey in the darkness and navigate the forest even at a full sprint. This may have also contributed to its photophobia, as its dark-adapted eyes could not handle bright light. It could seemingly sense over truly vast distances, flawlessly homing in on creatures far enough away that it still took several minutes to close in even with its freakish speed.
* **Camouflage:** The Night Feeder's most impressive feat was its ability to become virtually invisible in poor light conditions, such as nighttime or a dense forest. This enabled it to confuse its prey and perform quick ambush attacks.
* **Skin Oil:** The Night Feeder appeared to secrete or otherwise cover itself with a viscous tar-like substance that was foul to smell or taste. The substance may also contribute to its camouflage and/or serve as an aerodynamic lubricant to increase its running speed; however, it also appeared to be extremely flammable, which proved to be the Night Feeder's undoing.

## History

The Night Feeder was first seen (from its own point of view) hunting and swiftly killing a Smilodon that had wandered into its territory. Spear and Fang later stumbled across the Smilodon's partially-eaten, horribly mutilated remains the next morning; Fang was sent into a state of alarm at the scent of the beast, possibly smelling the Night Feeder's secretions on the remains.

The following night, the Night Feeder embarked on a wanton slaughter of a herd of ceratopsians that was travelling through its forest. Hidden by its camouflage, it terrorized and cut down the large herbivores throughout the night; even their attempt to form a defensive formation proved useless against its speed and claws. Nearby, Spear and Fang overheard the panicked, agonized cries of the ceratopsians; Spear wanted to investigate, but Fang prevented him from intervening, seemingly recognizing that they stood no chance against the creature. Once again, Spear would discover the gory aftermath during his and Fang's morning hunt, being feasted on by scavenging crows.

There was a brief instance where Spear believed the beast was stalking them, but this was revealed to be a branch scraping against a rock during a windstorm. As darkness fell, the true Night Feeder seemingly began stalking them from a distance, finally getting its chance to strike when their campfire was extinguished by a sudden gust.

Awakened by the Night Feeder's screeches, Spear and Fang initially attempted to stand their ground, but as the beast sprinted closer and closer, a fierce chase ensued, with the Night Feeder catching up to the pair in the misty lowlands of the forest. After splitting them up, it turned its attention to Spear, who only barely kept ahead of it as it clawed through trees to get to him faster. This allowed Fang to ambush the Night Feeder, but it managed to escape without apparent injury; it also left Fang's snout covered in its oily secretions, briefly inciting her to panic. Watching its quarry split up in an effort to confuse it or set up further ambushes proved to be too much for the creature's patience; it let out a piercing screech of anger to deafen both Spear and Fang as it went after the former.

However, the Night Feeder's persistence would prove to be its undoing; in his desperate flailing efforts to deter it, Spear accidentally struck the ground with his namesake weapon, creating a spark that caused the Night Feeder to recoil in fear. By the time it recovered and resumed its attack, Spear had recognized its weakness; he created another spark that ignited a small flame, sending the creature fleeing in terror as its enemies began formulating a plan to turn the tables on it.

The following night, the Night Feeder found itself being terrorized by Spear and Fang, who created sparks to force it into a small clearing before surrounding it a circle of fire. With nowhere to go, the Night Feeder paced nervously before Spear threw a burning spear into its chest, causing it to erupt in flames. The creature could only futilely swipe at nothing and screech in pain before succumbing to the fire, blazing to death. ("The Night Feeder")

## Trivia

* The Night Feeder was apparently meant to initially have a completely different design in the pitch animatic for the episode it starred in. The creatures' design in the animatic is shown to have a more humanoid or demonic appearance, featuring longer arms with bigger hands, a larger, spherical-looking head, and more crooked teeth.
	+ The initial, conceptual design for the Night Feeder seems to be similar in appearance to the mythological spirit beast *The Wendigo*.
* The substance that was on the Night Feeder appeared completely visible against Fang's snout, suggesting that it was part of its ability to blend in with its dark surroundings, possibly by having light-absorbing properties like the real-world substance Vantablack. Furthermore, this liquid bears similar properties to petroleum or an oil substance, which might be a reason why it was so flammable and afraid of fire. Another reason for this creature to have an aversion to light could be because its camouflaging ability depends on the absence of light, since hunting in a well-lit area would make its dark camouflage stand out instead of hiding it.
* The identity of the Night Feeder's species is a matter of question. If it is a real dinosaur, its generally raptor or spinosaur-like design and therizinosaur-like claws may be connected to the lesser-known true theropods (such as of the family *Megaraptora)*, which are noted for their elongated hand claws and proportionally large arms. It is also possible that the creature is a unique fictional species altogether, or some kind of supernaturally-created/altered animal.
* There are similarities between the roles of the Infected Argentinosaurus in "Plague of Madness" and the Night Feeder. Both have committed intense massacres, leaving their scents in the carcasses of the victims which causes a strange reaction in Fang, both have overwhelming power with uncertain origins, and both were eventually burned to death as a result of their single-minded determination to kill their quarry. However, the Argentinosaurus was the tragic victim of a mysterious Plague that made it mindlessly violent, while the Night Feeder was a seemingly natural-born creature that was fully aware of its actions. Additionally, Spear and Fang could only run from the Argentinosaurus until it fell into a lava pit; in contrast, they managed to kill the Night Feeder themselves when Spear discovered its weakness to fire.
* The Night Feeder might be a reference to the Predator/Yautja from the *Predator* saga, since both are stealthy killers with potent hunting capabilities. Coincidentally, both are associated with massive claw weapons (natural for the Night Feeder, technological for the Predator), and both received a design change before the final showdown.
* Most of the Night Feeder's screen time was shown from its own point of view, displaying its movements and the carnage it wreaked while keeping its features hidden.
* The Night Feeder's sounds are based on King Ghidorah's sound effects from *Godzilla: The Planet Eater* and Queen Akrid from *Lost Planet 2*.
* The Night Feeder is the second villain in the franchise who lacks any redeeming qualities, predated by the ape shaman and followed by Mad-Man and The Egyptian Queen.
* In a twisted irony, the Night Feeder's death would be echoed by Spear's final fate in "Echoes of Eternity", with both being immolated by an adversary with personal reasons for hunting them. The main difference was that the Night Feeder was impaled by a burning spear and killed in seconds, while Spear was set ablaze by a supernatural fire blast and endured for some time before finally succumbing to his wounds.

## References

1. ↑ "The Night Feeder Pitch Animatic". (Video) *Adult Swim*.