The Cockatrice.
The Cockatrice is a draconid that is the combination of a toad, rooster and snake. A member of the Basilisk family, this carnivorous creature hunts by gazing into the eyes of its prey, petrifying it immediately with its venomous glare.
Overview[]
Cockatrices are born of eggs laid by roosters consorting with other roosters. The egg must be incubated for forty-four days by a toad, which is devoured by the little beast as soon as it hatches. A cockatrice hates everything that lives so fiercely that its glance turns the living to stone. Cockatrices thrive in dark caves, abandoned ruins, cobwebbed dungeons and old basements. Though small compared to griffins and manticores, they are more than capable of killing anyone who stumbles across them in a dark corridor.
Description[]
The cockatrice has the reputed ability to kill people by either looking at them—"the death-darting eye of Cockatrice"—touching them, or sometimes breathing on them. It was repeated in the late-medieval bestiaries that the weasel is the only animal that is immune to the glance of a cockatrice. It was also thought that a cockatrice would die instantly upon hearing a rooster crow, and according to legend, having a cockatrice look at itself in a mirror is one of the few sure-fire ways to kill it.
It is unknown exactly how the beast is born due to how observation of the creature is extremely difficult. An adult cockatrice is vigilant and large, often standing at 8 feet with 23 foot wingspan, and they are often in small groups at their den and will defend it with immense aggression. It is thought that a cock egg would hatch out as a cockatrice, and this could be prevented by tossing the egg over the family house, landing on the other side of the house, without allowing the egg to hit the house. Its central tail feathers are also valuable as they are more durable and sharpen better than regular goose feathers for quills.