Shadowcat

The Shadowcat is a silent predator of the Taurian plains whose elongated body and serpentine spine allow it to move through tall Goldstep Grass without disturbing a single blade. Its wide, pressure-sensitive paws distribute its weight so evenly that it leaves almost no impression in soft soil, and none at all on packed earth.

The Shadowcat hunts primarily at twilight, when the long shadows of the steppe grass stretch westward and the golden light plays tricks on even experienced eyes. Most members of the tribe have never seen one clearly. Most will only ever glimpse a fluid movement at the edge of their vision before the grass closes over it again.

Giliad's Field Note

"I have seen it twice. Once at dusk, when something in the grass moved against the wind direction. Once reflected in the river, where it was drinking — perfectly still, and gone before I raised my stylus. It moves the way water moves. It finds the shape of the space it moves through and fills it briefly and is gone. — G."