Balu

Personality

Balu lounges at the edge of murky pools wearing a grin that's already gotten away with something. He moves through the world like a creature who knows every shortcut, every snack, every gullible neighbor. The dangling tongue isn't laziness — it's signature. A swagger in lizard form.

Core traits

Where they live

• cattail stands along a muddy bank
• a leaning wooden dock with rotted pilings
• lily pads big enough to rest a chin on
• frog-song at dusk and cow lows from beyond the fence
• soft cow-trodden mud that records every dainty footprint

What they eat

• plump muskrats at the waterline
• young beavers caught drinking
• field voles fallen from the bank
• the occasional waterlogged shrew