Bariwolves

Bariwolves are enormous black four-legged predators resembling jackals and can be nearly the size of horses. They have long snouts, pointed ears, black eyes, fur over the front of the body, scaly hindquarters, pointed quills along the scales, claws, and fangs.

Bariwolf packs communicate with repeated clicking sounds. The clicks can continue for hours before a pack's roars, growls, snarls, or attacks make the danger fully visible.

Treow treats bariwolves as monsters to be killed on sight rather than trapped and relocated. That local practice classifies them as too feral or dangerous for the more cautious handling given to nonaggressive creatures.

Bariwolves hunt as coordinated packs, using clicks to call additional animals and direct pursuit. They move with stealth, attack in unison, track vulnerable prey, wait outside shelter, and are fast and strong enough to kill people in the streets.

The Guardian states that bariwolves usually travel in packs of three or four, making larger packs abnormal.

Lyssa-infected bariwolves are more savage and vicious than ordinary predators, killing indiscriminately from bloodlust rather than hunger. The infection spreads through the bite of an infected monster, not through green blood.

Luella's theory identifies a bariwolf bite as the missing element that allowed the elixir in Ransom's body to become Lyssa. After the one-eyed bariwolf bit him, the interaction among man, monster, and elixir created the infection, and the infected bariwolf continued spreading it through further bites.

A Starling transformation can produce a bariwolf form. Brother Nold confirms that one Starling ancestor transformed into a bariwolf and could not return to human form.

Occasional bariwolf packs venture close to Treow, and teachers are less likely to be eaten by a bariwolf if they remain behind fortress or city walls. Their presence is one reason Turan villages need their own defenses against monsters and why services such as education are difficult to maintain there.

Bariwolves are encountered in Ozarth and the skeleton forest near the Mavin escort's route. Distant bariwolf clicks are also heard near a Genesis shelter, but the number of animals there cannot be determined.

The one-eyed bariwolf is the infected animal linked to Ransom's old wound; Ransom took one of its eyes when it bit him. The same beast was found in Ashmore and escaped, leaving it alive and dangerous.

The one-eyed bariwolf remains a specific target for the Turan hunters after the Ellder attacks. Zavier, Halston, and the rangers are expected to continue hunting the surviving pack, with the one-eyed beast singled out as needing to be killed.

Xandra is a Starling who shifts into a bariwolf during the ritus and attacks Caspia. Caspia escapes by jumping from a cliff into the river, but Xandra's condition remains unknown: she may have shifted back, died during the ritus, or become trapped in bariwolf form.

A bariwolf pack surrounds or attacks the temporary camp during the night, keeping the guards at their posts until a report confirms that all thirty-six are still alive.

Bariwolves enter Ashmore after their clicking echoes through the town and warning bells send residents indoors. The pack hunts people through the streets, grows to a visible group of nine after one animal clicks toward the sky, and is identified afterward as sick with Lyssa because of its putrid green blood.

A large pack breaches Ellder through the open gates and attacks civilians, soldiers, and children in the courtyard. The assault kills thirty-one people and is described as the largest bariwolf pack ever seen in Turah, with estimates ranging from twenty to more than thirty animals; many are killed, but several escape and remain at large.

Five Lyssa-infected bariwolves hunt Odessa, Evangeline, Faze, Freya, and Brother Skore in Ozarth, herding them between two animals and three more ahead. Skore kills all five by drawing blood through their eyes, nostrils, and mouths until their bodies become dry husks.

Bariwolves surround Caspia and Xandra in unfamiliar Calandran forest, using their clicks and pack pursuit against strangers who expect beasts to be more approachable. Andreas identifies the attackers as bariwolves after Caspia recounts the separation.

At least twenty-one bariwolves attack Odessa's party and the Mavin escort in the skeleton forest. The Mavins kill the first nine almost instantly, but the larger group overwhelms the defense, kills Mathias, wounds Dair, tears into Freya, and is confirmed by Thora to have Lyssa.