Olphin Toads
| Classification | Winged toad |
|---|---|
| Habitat | The swamp town of Treenode |
| Size | Small enough to sit on a head or in cupped hands |
| Notable traits | Flight, fairy wings, long sticky tongue, bonds with a single Olphin for life |
| Notable individuals | Mauz |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Olphin toads are the small flying toads of Eslura, listed in the bestiary appendix as FLYING TOADS. The appendix describes them as loyal companions, often fairy-winged, that frequent the swamp town of Treenode and have historically latched onto the Olphin people, and says nobody knows why the toads chose the Olphins unless it is a likeness between the two.[1] The novels bear the appendix out on the bond and add the rule behind it: a toad bonds with one Olphin, once.[2]
Appearance
A toad is plump and round, warted, and carried aloft by a pair of wings far too small for the body under them. Mauz is described as a "cross-eyed, fairy-winged amphibian" whose tiny wings struggle to hold up his round little body.[3] Their skin is green and turns blue-tinted in cold weather, and they have tiny hands.[4][2]
The tongue is long, sticky and prone to hanging loose out of the mouth of its own accord, which is why Barnaby Britto is forever pushing Mauz's back in.[3][4]
Bea's first sight of one was a winged toad of sorts floating around a boy's head, and she thought Barnaby had taken more of his features from his pet than from anything human.[5]
Behaviour
Toads putter and bob through the air rather than fly cleanly, and their wings twitch when they are nervous.[3][6] They are strong enough fliers to look after themselves: Mauz kept clear of the ground when Egras crash-landed on a beach, having wings of his own.[7] Barnaby still tucked him inside a shirt on the climb up Alakyer rather than risk a gust carrying him away, and privately expects that Mauz's stomach will one day glue him to the ground.[8][4]
They croak in answer to being spoken to, ride on heads and shoulders, tuck themselves into shirts against bad weather, and lick faces.[3][4][7] Their hunting is not impressive. Barnaby has told Mauz more than once that he will never catch anything with his tongue hanging out like a dead worm.[3]
They are also small enough to be dressed. Vendalis knitted the party gear against the cold of Alakyer and included a scarf and hat sized for Mauz.[9]
Bond with the Olphins
Every Olphin once had a toad. Mavis, one of the survivors hidden in the walls of Morgaedion, told Barnaby that they all did, and that "Toads can only bond with one Olphin one time".[2]
The bond broke when Obellius Kalaar raided Treenode and put the Olphins under his control. Mavis says the Olphins turned into monsters, their toads did not recognise them, and the toads left and have not come back since. She does not blame them.[2]
Barnaby grew up doubting the whole story. He had heard long ago that toads used to bond to Olphins, but after meeting Tab, who has no toad of her own, he had put it down to another of Pemadee's bedtime tales.[2] Mavis reads Mauz's continued presence as proof of an unusually strong connection between the two.[2]
Outside Treenode a toad marks its Olphin out as plainly as a fin does. Bea, taking stock of Eslura, sums the pair up as fish people with flying pet toads.[10]
Mauz
Mauz is Barnaby Britto's toad and the only Olphin toad in the novels still bonded to an Olphin. He came into Barnaby's life at Tide Tale Alley Books as if by magic, and has travelled with him since.[3][2]
Behind the scenes
The bestiary appendix at the back of both novels heads the entry FLYING TOADS and annotates the illustration "blep!" alongside a warning about the creature's derpiness. Book 2 reprints Book 1's page unchanged.[1] The wiki files the article at Olphin Toads rather than at the appendix's heading.
M.C. Beeler's author biography at the back of both novels and of A Sacred Tale Collection says she spends her evenings spinning tales with talking animals and flying fairy-winged toads.[11]