Living World Of Terra

Commonly Known As: Cockatrice

Species: Basilisk

Magic: Present.

The Cockatrice is a very powerful(Magic wise), small and dangerous creature. It's body consists of a chicken torso that is entirely covered in dark-green scales, with leather wings, long and flexible tail and an elongated feathered neck upon which sits the ugly chicken or rooster head with bright yellow eyes that turn red, signifying that its magic is being used.
It is purely carnivorous, if the observed diet is anything to go by. When you meet these creatures face to face - You die. Not immediately, but you die unless you get cured from being a statue and food. The cockatrices petrification gaze, which turns any victim (including other cockatrices) into stone (many varieties of stone, I have yet to find a connection between the differences) is easily avoidable with two things that I know of at the moment. Either you or the cockatrice must be blind or have no line of sight OR you must have the Carmellia Aphrodite flower. It causes the Cockatrice to cancel its gaze due to the effects of the plant. There is another option... if you are of the lucky few to meet a shaman who can get you a mask of protection against the cockatrice.

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These little birdies happen to reside among rocky grounds or interconnected tree branches, preferring to stay in sunny areas to warm their scales. Their reproduction (if you can call it that) is mixed together with their dinner almost directly. What I assume happens is that a mature male cockatrice finds a female specimen and they breed, growing eggs inside the female, who then waddles off to find its next prey.
After finding its prey, the cockatrice sets of a sort of magical signal through resonating magical waves of a certain frequency via the spines upon its back. This signal alerts any nearby cockatrices of the preparation of the petrification gaze, so no other cockatrice gets in the way by accident or gets turned into the feast.
The cockatrice covers its prey in a stone shell, by turning all skin and hair into stone by establishing eye contact and sending a directed magical pulse. It would seem creatures with scales are immune to this effect, but that throws out the theory as to why the cockatrice sends the signal to ward off others of its species away. Perhaps just to scare them away. Or to call in for help.
After petrifying their target, the cockatrice cracks at the stone shell of it’s prey with its beak and buries itself inside the still living body. I had not observed the process up close, but judging by the aftermath, the cockatrice makes a sort of nest from whatever remains after consuming the organs for its eggs that it will lay after an hour, and sustenance for hatchlings. A single female member of the species can lay up to five eggs, although: a bigger number is not being denied, depending on the size of its prey and the feathered basilisk itself.

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A hatchling cockatrice is a harmless creature, besides the biting and the tail whipping. After freeing itself of its shell, it feeds upon the rest of the insides of the nest and escapes through a whole of its own design that is usually facing directly to the ground. A hatchling cockatrice is also blind at birth, however its beak is already fully developed for self-protection and grows quickly, the more food there is in supply. While a hatchling is yet to develop it's sight, it feeds upon small rodents and bugs, using the tail as another means to constrict its prey.
A mature specimen has feathers and seven fully grown spikes (one per two months of its life) on its back, the maximum size of a matured cockatrice is about pony knee height. The longest record of a living cockatrice is five winter seasons.

Note from the author: “Vile little chickens. Although: delicious.”