Skimmer

Adin knew that he was the one who must fill the medallions in the belt. Skimmer is in need of more information! Skimmer is lacking more detail in the History, from the different books, The Golden Door, The Silver Door and The Third Door.

Skimmer
General information
Habitat Caves underneath and inside the Wall of Weld
Diet Meat, Jell
Status Extinct
Attributes Winged, pale skinned, large needle teeth, sensitive eyes.
Chronological information
First appearance The Golden Door
Last appearance The Third Door

The skimmer, known as the slay outside of Weld, was a leathery-winged bat-like carnivore that preyed on the humans and animals that lived in Weld.

History

The skimmers were genetic mutations that evolved from a clink colony that had settled inside the Wall of Weld. In the presence of jell, the skimmers adapted to the harsh environments in the dark cavities of the Wall, developing wings and bodies better suited for flight, at the cost of becoming sensitive to light.

Eventually the Skimmers began to leave the Wall at night to hunt within the city of Weld and the villages around the Fell Zone.

The Silver Door

In an alternative future, the Shadow Lord discovered that jell had the ability to help plants and animals adapt to different conditions quickly. The people of Dorne were enslaved, forced to collect jell in great amounts. In the Harbour he used the jell to breed skimmers that could hunt in sunlight, intending to use the monsters as a weapon in a plot to conquer the land of Deltora, off to Dorne's west.

Habitat

Skimmers were native to the interior of the Wall of Weld.

Anatomy

Skimmers are four-legged, winged animals that look like enormous bats covered in pale, velvety fuzz. The snout is very similar in shape to a rat's and the ears are large like those of most species of bats, while the eyes are pale white, similar to chips of pale china. The mouth is also different from that of most bats in that it is filled with large needle-sharp teeth, perfect for biting through flesh. Long, broad venomous spurs jut from the legs, just above their claws while the feet sport eagle-like talons which are sharp as razors. Skimmers could grow as big as a half-grown Weld goat.

Behaviour

Skimmers were voracious predators, leaving their nests in swarms each night, descending upon any man or beast they caught in the open, paralysing the hapless victim with the venomous spurs on their hind feet, and tearing it apart in a feeding frenzy, similarly to sharks. Skimmers would even slam their bodies into windows and doors if they believed prey was on the other side. Their eyesight, however, was extremely poor, with even the tiniest amount of light causing them immense pain. It is presumed that, like bats, they used echolocation to detect prey, although it is also possible that they hunted by smell. If the latter is true, it would explain their feeding behaviour-sharks only go into their "feeding frenzy" once they smell blood in the water, so it would make sense that skimmers did the same when they got the scent of blood.

Diet

Skimmers were hypercarnivorous beasts that fed exclusively on flesh.

Trivia

• The fact that skimmers were sensitive to light may be a nod to the old saying "As blind as a bat". In real life, bats have perfectly good vision, although they do use their echolocation instead of sight to see where they're going at night. However, this sensitivity to light may also be a reference to the fact that most cave-dwelling animals either have very small, weak eyes or don't have any eyes at all.