D'ni
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About the time the ting takes on a brownish color, it emerges from the water for the first time and slowly and clumsily crawls onto the rocky shore. Most of the beautiful animals are eaten by birds, the ting having no natural defenses except for their coloration, which now matches the color of the stones. Some of the ting, however, safely find their way to small pocks and holes in the rocks. There, they curl into balls, and almost immediately begin to entomb themselves beneath a rock-like crust which they create. After two months, the ting shell becomes rubbery and soft, finally ripping open to expose hundreds of little creatures called solastings. They are, at first, small and lizard-like, scrambling madly in all directions. In their adult stage they are quick moving and live high in the trees. It seems I am only able to examine them carefully after they have been cooked by the Shirnao and are placed before me as a meal.

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