Abbagoochie

The Abbagoochie is a monster found in Almost Heaven and Costa Rica.

Description
Abbagoochies resemble a cross between the feathers and eyes of an owl, the body of a fox, and the legs of a deer. They are small creatures, only measuring about 3 feet in length, and they weigh less than 40 lbs.

Behavior
This creature hunts all matter of small fauna for food, and will also attack larger creatures, such as other monsters. It does not seem to consider its ability to win a fight before beginning one; Abbagoochies have been seen attempting to kill dragons, for example.

Once called a "dry land piranha," the Abbagoochie will eat anything and everything. It has a seemingly endless hunger and, if given the opportunity to, will eat quantities of food several times its body weight. Dissections of the creature are inconclusive as to where this food exactly goes; many researchers believe it simply disappears upon entering the stomach. The fact that the Abbagoochie has no excretory tract and can live for weeks without any food provides further support for this theory.

The sudden disappearance of food may be related to the Abbagoochie's most interesting trait: the ability to seemingly consume itself. When an Abbagoochie finds itself threatened with no escape, it begins to spin and twist itself with an incredible amount of agility. After about five seconds of uninterrupted spinning, the creature will disappear. Eyewitnesses report the monster rapidly shrinking in the blink of an eye as it spins, then suddenly blinking out of existence. This escape tactic has made study of the creature very difficult, as it will not let itself be captured. Most scientific knowledge comes from the study of corpses.

Lore
Though it may be originally from Costa Rica, the Abbagoochie is an Almost Heaven monster through and through. Most live in Monongahela Forest, and has become so synonymous with the location that there's been attempts to initialize "Abbagoochie Watching trails" (though the creature's nature prevents it from staying in any one place for an extended period, and prowling the forest looking for them is dangerous.) Cute drawings of it clutter AlmHeaven diners and refrigerator doors.

Many farmers hang Abbagoochie taxidermy from walls, or tell tales of Abagoochie raids on their crops, despite the fact that the creature hunts solo. Many are superstitious about the creature, claiming that the place it disappears to is Hell itself. But no one really takes those tall tales seriously.

Teens often hunt Abbagoochies for fun. This has been made strictly illegal, yet has already taken the lives of two young men and one ten-year old girl in the past five years. The common perception of the creature is of a harmless, but slightly off-putting conglomeration of animals that warps away at the first sign of conflict. What many fail to realize is that the monster is fast, voracious, and deadly. Still, to an armed, prepared explorer, the Abbagoochie poses little threat.