C06 — Haven’s creature, level 2

mount

C06 (provisional name), Haven's creature, level 2: a rideable ground mount from the owner's concept sheets. A long pink-and-blue salamander, about 1 m at the seat, with gills and a forked tongue, and a 'sham fire' tail: five flat streamers that read as a blaze from the side and as hair-lines from above. Pass 2 (game lab/creature06 9ea8c4338): proportions after the owner's read (bigger head, compact body, forelegs reaching as on sheet 2), feet with an ankle, a toe pad and thick claws, a real jump arc, stronger hits and flinches, the fire keeps its colour from behind, and the ridden mount's moves: tail lash, dash, drifts, boost and ram, plus the water clips (swim, dive, surface, float). ANIMS1, W1838 (game lab/creature06 eec3b6e4d): the full ride set (every state the ground-mount code plays: ride idle, brake, separating, saddle brace, remount catch, three cast segments, standing and running, the launch heave and the riderless coast), ten taunts and gestures, and its moods and deaths: sun bask, a hurt stance, yawn, scratch, shake off, stretch, sneeze, snap at a fly, dig, eye lick, two new deaths (roll, gutter) and a corpse; 80 clips in all. KNOWN FAULTS: at this scale the claws read as a clump rather than separate hooks; the head, jaw and gill details and the red shoulder lobe are not done yet; the jump reads modest from the side; the eye lick's tongue barely reads head-on, the stretch's arch and the hurt stance's lifted paw are subtle. Every combat number is a placeholder; the water clips are not in the game's controller yet.

how it lives how it fights up and down pass 2: the ridden mount pass 2: water anims1 (W1838) orbits the rider from above ablations
Standing: the long salamander body low on bent legs, the sham-fire fan breathing over the hips; the idles use the forked tongue
From the side: the fan stands tall and ragged, the flame read of sheet 1
The walk, four loops: lizard-like, the spine swings and the feet lift on arcs
The walk from the side
The run, six loops: quite a bit faster than the wizard on foot
The run from the side: the fan streams back
An idle: the forked tongue tastes the air
An idle: it looks back over its shoulder (where the rider sits)
An idle: it noses down toward water (the gills are real: the mount will go underwater)
It snaps alert
It settles down
For scale, beside Temper (creature 04)
The attack, a bite: the head drives forward and the fan flicks up behind it
The bite from the side
The threat: the jaw gapes and the fire flares wide
The hiss
Hit from the front
Hit from the right
Hit from behind
Hit from the left
Hit from above
A flinch from the front
A flinch from the right
A flinch from behind
A flinch from the left
A flinch from above
It dies: rolls onto its side, the fire settles last
A jump
Landing
Knocked to the floor
Hit while down
Getting up
A tumble through the air
Falling
Its second attack: the sham-fire fan sweeps right to left
The dash, six loops: the ridden sprint
The drift: the body yaws into the turn, the fan trails out
The drift the other way
The boost: a bound forward
The ram: head down, shoulder first
It turns to look while its rider casts
The dash with the rider on
The drift with the rider on
The boost with the rider on
The ram with the rider on
Swimming (the gills are real): three loops
It dives under
It surfaces, nose first
Floating at rest

The full ride set: every state the ground-mount code plays, with Tarin on (16 clips)

Standing under the rider: it shifts its weight, glances back at the saddle, the fan breathes
The brake: forelegs plant and skid, the body bunches up behind them, the fire swings forward
Splitting away to the left at speed: it leans out of the line
Splitting away to the right
The rider lands hard in the saddle: the mount takes the weight and sinks into its legs
The same brace in stride, over the run's legs
Catching a rider who jumps back on: it dips and swings under them
The catch in stride
The rider casts, segment one: the mount braces wide and still
Segment two: the fire flares up behind the rider's spell
Segment three: it crouches low out of the line of fire
The brace in stride
The flare in stride
The crouch in stride
A wizard launched off its back: the mount heaves under the push and runs on without them
Riderless, it coasts on and slows, looking for its rider

Ten taunts and gestures on the sim's gesture donors

The laugh: the jaw drops into a wide grin, the tongue flicks, the fan shakes
The bow: forequarters down, hips and fire up, tail sweeping
Talking: the jaw chatters and the gills work
Sorrow: the head sinks, the fire droops low
A double take: a glance, away, then the head snaps back
Disgust: it recoils, the tongue out, the head shaking
A shrug: the shoulders roll up and drop, the head tilts
Dizzy: the head wobbles on circles, the legs wander
Showing off: the sham fire fans out to full spread and shimmers
The tongue taunt: the forked tongue lolls and waggles

The idle flourish, the hurt stance, eight idle-pool clips, two new deaths and the corpse

An idle flourish: it flops onto its belly and spreads the fire to the sun
Hurt: it holds one foreleg off the ground and dabs it down
A yawn: the jaw stretches wide, the tongue curls
A scratch: a hind leg rakes behind the gills, the head turned back
Shaking off: the body rolls through, the fire whips
A stretch: the back arches and the hind legs reach out
A sneeze: the head winds up and snaps down
Tracking a fly, then a snap
Digging: the forelegs rake the dirt
Licking its own eye, as geckos do (the tongue reads best from the side)
A death: it staggers and rolls onto its flank, legs kicking, then still
A death: the sham fire gutters and goes limp before it sinks
The corpse, after the collapse: embers dying in the fan
One camera turn round the stance: the fire's side read and its read from behind
One camera turn round the run
The rider in the seat (Tarin's stand-in), clamped on with his legs
The seat from the side
The run with the rider
The jump with the rider
From above: the sham fire's other read, hair-lines over the hindquarters
The run with the fire's blades unrolled flat, beside the shipped run (side)
The run with the fire held still
Taste the air with the tongue switched off (the knob)