          Monster Creating 
               Qcxi

Respected reader, greetings over time
and space. In my `Monster Almanak' I
already gave an indexation of monsters
in the leaf and some regions around it.

In this work I'll focus more closely on
some monsters in the leaf that I myself
created, and the problems involved with
these creations.

First the well-known Griffin, that has
been made already by sorcerers of old.
Half eagle, half lion shaped, this was
rather complex compared to the things
I had done before back then (10 years
before I came to rule the leaf). So all
old scrolls on the subject I had read,
and all other sources I had traced, and
I started to collect the required herbs
and basic materials. 

In this case the required eagle and the
lion were not really the problem. The
first could be found locally, whilst the
last could be obtained from a contact in
a kingdom far away. The suggested spells
gave a solid and complete impression. 

Amazingly enough two herbs that were
mentioned in more than one source, were
untraceable. The first was not even ever
heard of, the latter a variant of a more
common herb. Zebrabanala and Murinian
honeysuckle were the names. Since then I
and others have gotten to appreciate the
work of Qxlvii a lot more, and efforts
to keep flora in the leaf variated have
increased. The herbs finally have been
found on an island called Murinia, that
is far away and never been described in
our literature. 

Preparing all ingredients and applying all 
spells, much later than expected after the
final action, the lion started to change
and grow and develop eagle-like features.
A day later it was finished, and I had to
bound it magically to some place to keep
it from attacking locals. 

Another interesting case is the dragon 
that I made not too long ago. This dragon
really is a success. It has everything a
dragon should have according to all the
stories. Above all it is very large. Even
so large that Qcx and old Qcix complain
that it will become too dangerous and big.
As it is true that it still grows, I think
they over-react in this, with all respect.
Besides it has a weak spot (I'll keep a
secret for a while still) for emergencies.

I made it according to some ancient texts
that were obtained by the librarian. They
were in an unknown sort of alphabet. But
after a year of hard work they became 
readable for me. Only the numbers used did
take some time. The main lesson was to 
collect more information about languages
than even before, as this formed the key 
to all the essential knowledge in this 
case. 

