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Cockatrice

Like their larger cousin basilisks, Thaia-thaan'ag's cockatrices can spurt gouts of venomous blood from beneath their eyes. However, they trade size and ferocity for limited flight and predatory cunning.

A cocatrice is about two feet of jittering, hissing malice. Their heads are scaly, bare of feathers, and oddly contoured to help guide the poison spray. Bright blue and orange plumes ring their neck and waddle. Large slashing claws rip into paralyzed prey - the mouth of tiny, tearing teeth is used mainly for feeding, not killing. Feathers are large and sparse meaning it cannot truly fly long distances, only glide and make aided leaps.

When handled by a Thaia-thaan'ag cultist they are used similar to falcons on the hunt. When cockatrices escape to the wild, they hunt the forest in well-coordinated packs if possible, harrying and surrounding prey. A lone cockatrice lives as an ambush predator. There are disconcerting reports of some wild cockatrices having successfully mated with domestic chickens, but these are unsubstantiated.