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I never intended to give Clyde a pet, but it showed up in Loyalty and I kind of had it hang around after that.  He doesn’t play with it or spend time with it like the other characters who have animals.  I can’t even be sure he intended to turn this animal into a pseudo-vampire or whatever it is.  It’s definitely not like the others.  Of course, I bet most people here don’t know what an Eusu is.

So, what is an Eusu?  Debuting in Legends of Windemere: The Compass Key, these are enormous alligators.  It’s big enough to give Timoran Wrath, a barbarian warrior, a difficult fight.  There have been smaller ones though, so you can assume that a gigantic one is fairly rare.  They act like regular alligators with how they attack, but they are more likely to give chase on land.  So, you need to do more than jump away from the shore.  Just bolt and don’t look back.  Of course, there’s the physical difference, which is really one thing that you can’t miss.  An Eusu’s mouth opens into four jaws to make this shape:

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Imagine that clamping down on you because you can’t really dodge to the side as easily as a regular ‘upper and lower’ thing.  The thinner jaws are still incredibly powerful and have been known to crush plate armor.  Eusus are why all adventures get nervous about swamp journeys.

This is what Clyde adopted in Loyalty after winning one of his fights.  It was hanging around the area since it could get free bodies to munch on.  He saw it feasting and suddenly it was on Nytefall in Lost.  I have it in the background whenever characters are around the moat.  Think someone had an argument with it at one point too.  It’s certainly fed and being taken care of, but Clyde doesn’t take it into battle.  Not really sure how that would work either.  He’d have to carry the large reptile off the island, across the ocean, and dump it at the battlefield.  It feels too embarrassing for all involved, so the Eusu is part of the fortress security system.  Pretty sure the Dawn Fang children of the island enjoy throwing snacks to it also.

One question I haven’t answered in my own mind is: Did Clyde turn the Eusu into a Dawn Fang?  I can see how it would happen since it’s eaten so much vampire flesh, but you never see any powers from it.  Not sure he would do it anyway.  Hard enough having Dawn Fang kids running around, so an Eusu with vampire powers would be very difficult to control. It could be why it stays on the island though.  If anything, I think Clyde has given it enough blood to make it stronger and live longer, but I doubt it’s a real Dawn Fang.  He wouldn’t be that reckless.

I keep wondering if I should have something big happen with the Eusu, but it feels more like a quirk than a character.  It doesn’t have a personality or anything more than being in the background.  It will be in Savagery that it gets any real attention.  Nothing to make it rise to the same level as Lost’s bunny or Bob’s horses.  I wonder if this is a lost opportunity, but it was a spontaneous character.  Unlike Raksha and Melanie from Legends of Windemere, the Eusu doesn’t really stand out.  Clyde has no reason to bring attention to it during the scenes because he would only be interacting with it when he isn’t involved in the story.  This is the risk one takes with pets because you can’t always have them be in the spotlight.  Sometimes, they’re nothing more than movement in the background that shows a character has a connection to something other than the people around them.  Maybe that’s good enough.