Wysk
| Wysk | |
|---|---|
| English gloss | meerkat / herding animal (translation, not identification) |
| Role | Wild |
| Where found | Every herd and agricultural ring; households everywhere |
| Size | Small |
| Kept / wild | Kept; native, domesticated after the Fall |
| Used for | Herding Baechri; the alarm that sends herders back behind the wall |
| Lexicon | Wysk |
Small, upright, and almost never silent, the Wysk has bony ridges along the forearms and back and stands on its hind legs to see over tall grass, often. Troops of eight or ten guide a flock by cutting off the turns they do not want it to take, without ever touching an animal. One of the troop is always watching while the rest work; the behavior is not trained in and cannot be trained out, and the watcher changes on a signal no one has identified.
Its value goes past herding. A herder often learns of a Draech from the Wysk rather than from the attack. The alarm call is distinctive and the whole troop takes it up at once; every herder in the north knows it and uses it as the cue to get back behind the wall. Household Wysk are kept everywhere — inquisitive, chatty, standing on anything that will hold them, and greeting the household's return with chatter audible from the street.