The Awegull

The most formidable flying predator yet to live, the awegull is feared by almost all other creatures - with perhaps one occasional exception.

The awegull, Tyrannopteryx princeps (ruling tyrant-wing), is the most powerful of the three giant aukvulture species of the early hothouse. Sharing the same body shape as its relatives as a quadrupedal flyer, it has the least divergent plumage, being entirely white except for the dark wingtips and face, which has a black mask outlined faintly in blue, and a bright yellow cheek patch. Standing nine feet high on all fours and flying on a 30 foot wingspan, it is heavier (though shorter) than the more common great-crested drakevulture and similar in overall mass to the even taller stormshadow, but stockier and more robust. In particular its beak is massive relative to any other species, serrated and suited to both crush bone and shear meat. Though it lacks a crest, the entire bill is brightly colored with red and yellow bands.

Awegulls are powerful inland predators of terrestrial animals of all kinds, and have a potentially global range. Their preferred habitat is dry, open landscapes however, and they are reluctant to cross open water, so that they are mostly concentrated along the upland plain and arctic plateau, with sporadic sightings in other regions but limited nesting outside this realm. In this way their competition with the drakevulture is limited, for that animal prefers low-lying wetland habitats and breeds in soglands and coastal swamps. Both predators mainly prey on the local variants of crested thorngrazers, but awegulls are more specialized to this prey than the more generalist drakevultures. Indeed while sawjaws are the most numerous predators of lowland thorngrazers, awegulls are the primary threat of these smaller upland ones. In contrast to the drakevulture, it rarely feeds on the wing, instead killing prey on the ground. This means that in theory, young of herd animals like battering helmetheads would be safer against them, able to be hidden behind horn-endowed adults in a protective ring. In practice, the awegull is much stronger than its relatives, with its huge beak and a thickly muscled neck that is much less vulnerable to injury. It also hunts in pairs. While the solitary drakevulture can only kill young thorngrazers and carry them off, the awegull can kill adults - and those protective circles won't stop them if they are determined enough. A pair of awegulls will circle the herd, looking for the weakest links until they choose a target. One then distracts the herd from one side with a loud bluff attack, causing them all to focus away from the second, which then grabs its target behind the head, drags it out of formation, and bashes it against the ground, breaking its neck. Once the wall has been breached in this way and the herd has seen one of their own brutalized before their eyes, it is likely to try and run. But now terror will have clouded their minds, and they will not have coordination. Some will run one way, others another. The babies, not knowing where to go, may all be killed as they are left behind in the chaos. In the mayhem, the youngest calves may not even understand the danger. Instinct telling them only to follow their parents  they may run right up to their enemy, which easily kills them in a single spine-snapping bite.

For this reason, it is often a better bet for the thorngrazers to simply run in the first place when they detect the awegulls on the horizon, rather than try and face this enemy head-on. If they choose this as their first plan, they can remain together and try to keep most of their calves between them. As the herd makes its escape, the youngest calves will still fall behind, but the adults will not be taken, and so can live to have more offspring another day. As one of the hunters keeps the adults running, the other drops to the ground and kills the few stragglers left behind, and only later the other partner circling back to join in feeding once the rest of the herd has been driven away.

It may seem that the awegull, a flying hunter much stronger than its prey, is so effective a killer that its prey cannot possible hope to survive against it. Yet herds of thorngrazers still thrive in great numbers on the uplands. Battering helmetheads - the most common prey species of the awegull - in fact manage to maintain high numbers to the fact that they also do the opposite of what many animals do by not synchronizing their births, for if they all had calves at once, one pair of awegulls could kill every last one as all of them fall behind the herd equally when pursued. Instead, calves are born throughout the year, so that while there are always newborns which will be the first to be taken if the predator appears, older ones will also be present to survive as the predator takes only the youngest which can be instantly cut off from their herd.  Battering helmetheads also live in smaller and more widely-spaced herds than their sogland relatives which more often face less powerful and less social drakevultures that can be more easily fought off, at least some of the time. This means that instead of being able to separate dozens of young from their parents at once, the awegull will usually have only a smaller number of potential victims to pick from, and more individuals will escape its surplus killing. The awegull will only kill more than it immediately needs if the opportunity is already there and will not require addition expenditure of energy, meaning if it catches just one or two calves and fills its stomach, and the rest have run away, it will not go for a second attack that day. Calves take just a week to reach similar running speeds to their parents, meaning the window in which they can be easily separated from their herd is brief, and overall more will survive than not.

But the helmethead retains the instinct to form a protective formation to protect their young for a reason, even if it is not usually the most effective. Because awegulls are most effective at killing while working together, the fact that pairs must split up while incubating and raising their own young also means that during the time where they need to be hunting the most, they have to work much harder to do it. When faced with just one enemy, the herd has the upper hand. While two hunters can infiltrate the circle of horns, its not as hard to keep watch on just one predator and avoid exposing their necks to a deadly bite. Likewise, a single awegull can't so easily scare the herd into a panic, and it cannot keep the herd running once it catches one calf, for without a second partner to keep the adults fleeing they will turn and try to defend their young, meaning it will have a much harder time catching enough to make the hunt worth it. While their enemies are raising young and can only hunt singly, the helmetheads are more likely to stand their ground effectively, and the awegull is more likely to seek different prey species altogether. While they favor fresh meat, while raising young the awegull becomes far less picky, and may even get much of the food their chicks need by scavenging carrion that they would at other times all but ignore. It is at this time that the awegull is at its most vulnerable - not to predators of its own, but to competition from its relatives. Drakevultures are solitary hunters at all times and can be driven off a kill, but stormshadows are social, and they know that when their stronger cousin is alone, they can bully it out of a meal if they work together.

Seeking food for his mate as she broods a clutch of pupating chicks on a nest miles away on the uplands, a male awegull has managed to kill a sealump near the beach. His preferred habitat is drier grassland country to the north, but hunting is more difficult alone, and he has strayed outside typical hunting grounds seeking something easier.  Unfortunately, the coast is the domain of his only real rival, the stormshadow. Scouring the coasts for anything small to catch or easy to eat that the tide washed up in between hurricane chasing, these immense seraphs travel not singly, as he now must, but in groups. This gives these gangly giants a confidence boost. Singly, the awegull could cow one - even kill it, if it came to it, with its far more strongly-built jaws. But a trio, each as heavy as itself and several feet taller, is a far more difficult battle.

 He watches as they approach from down the shore, and drop onto their toes, running in an ungainly ballet before coming to stand before him on all fours. He gapes his beak, revealing huge serrations that can cut through flesh and bone like butter, but they are not discouraged. They crowd him, seeking to each take a bite from his kill. One snaps left, another right, the third in between! It's too many to block, too many to single just one out when they are all so aggravating. He chases one, pulling a feather from its tail and causing it to croak in disapproval - yet while he does so the others have filled their beaks with gobbets of meat. Now when he tries to return, they bite at him; the one he pursued lands a bite on the bare skin of his flank, making him retaliate in rage. He tries to land a bite on the neck of his rival - to kill one would cause the others to flee. But the stormshadow is lighter and more agile, dodging his blows, landing its own bites in between. Its companions join it, jabbing their bills into him, pulling his legs so he slips. A peck in the eye is enough to finally make the awegull turn tail and walk the other way as the most belligerent of its bullies follows it for some distance on its hind legs, wings spread out to appear as large as possible and revealing the normally hidden skin membrane, running from hip to wrist, that helps form the archangel wing surface below the flight feathers that go on to form the rest of the wing.

With a family to provide for, the awegull takes flight on the sea breeze and returns inland to find something else. A great oceanic storm is brewing again, and soon most of the stormshadows for tens of miles around will soon begin to gather to follow it - he stands his best chance to keep his meal if he can kill something else then, while they are all distracted.