The Leechleaf is a small bat, which gets is name from its habit of sleeping upside down shrouded in its wings. In this position, it appears to be nothing more than a large, shrivelled brown leaf. However, come nightfall, the Leechleaf flies silently in search of prey. When it finds a likely target - a large animal - it descends and lightly lands on its back, clinging on with its tiny claws and biting into the flesh and sucking blood. Its saliva contains an anaesthetic, so the victim usually feels only a slight irritation, like a mosquito bite. Sentries on duty have been discovered to have several Leechleaves on them and swore they felt nothing. Often the first sign of an attack is a feeling of tiredness due to blood loss. When feeding, they appear as just a small brown lump - not unlike a hand-sized leaf stuck to its victim. Leechleaves are hated as much for the diseases they carry as the damage they do themselves.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
