Welcome to the Unnatural Creature Preserve

About our facilities

Moss and Moonshine is a Magical Nature Preserve providing shelter to a variety of faerie, mythical, and unnatural beings. Our preserve has all types of biomes specifically designed for each species in our immediate care. The species we offer for adoption cycle frequently, as some species are a better fit for out facility than others.

This Creature Guide, while not a comprehensive one of every single creature we’ve worked with since opening the preserve 10 years ago, provides information and snapshots of some of our most popular and frequently adoptable species.

adoptable species

Our main goal with the preserve is to create refuge for wayward magical creatures, as well as help boost their populations through breeding programs. That is only possible with help from Magical Creature Keepers who are willing to take creatures into their homes (for a small rehoming fee!) and look after them for the rest of their unnatural lives. While we do come across the occasional species that is unsuitable for domestic life, most of our creatures settle right into life in a human family. Some of the species we most frequently adopt out are:

• Cockatrices

• Fairy Dragons (particularly in Grub form)

• Jackalopes (currently a retired breeding program)

• Gryphons

• Imps (primarily of the mouse variety)

• Gourd Ghouls

our specialization

The Moss and Moonshine Preserve specializes in Cockatrices, and we have worked with and bred a wide spread of Cockatrice types over the years. Our first Cockatrice eggs were of the largely untamable European variety. When these proved to dangerous to adopt out, we experimented with the smaller North American breed, and the miniature Bantams, until finally settling on a hybrid of North American and Bantam which we now breed frequently and offer for sale.

One of our long term goals is to start breeding Quail Cockatrice regularly, although finding eggs has been more than a little difficult. With any luck we will be able to offer Quail Cockatrice chicks and adults as soon as December 2023!

What is a Whisper Creature?

In 2017, a strange fungus was found growing at the edges of the Creature Preserve. Within a week, it had spread to the Ghoul Gourd nursery beds and quickly infected a packet of seeds. Those seeds grew strange creatures that seemed to have no self-awareness or autonomy, and were instead piloted by the fruiting bodies of the Whisper Fungus.

Every year since the initial outbreak, a handful of magical creatures are consumed by the Whisper Fungus when it awakens from its dormant state on September 1st. The Whisper Fungus slowly eats magical creatures from the inside out, until only a shell of their body remain, with the insides being replaced by fungal growth. Any creature of magical, mythical, or paranormal origin can become the prey of the Whisper Fungus.

how to recognize a whisper infected creature:

• Unhealthy skin color, usually a gray, blue, green, or purple hue

• Milky, blind eyes. As the fungus takes over the creature, they lose their senses, starting with sight

• A fondness for warm sensations, like fire or sunlight. Touch is the only sense that remains after the Fungus fully takes control causing Whisper creatures to seek out comforting sensation.

• Fruiting bodies protruding from the infected creature. Whisper mushrooms come in all colors and types, but a creature with pale skin and mushrooms sprouting from it is almost surely infected.