Happy April Fools’ Day! Today we present a crosspost from our sister publication on another world, The Pyqan’s Handbook.

The saptapper is a small waterfowl whose long neck ends in a large mouth. Its small, glistening eyes bulge up like beads around the neck.

Saptappers are purple, in bands shading darker, bluer, grayer from mouth to tail. Bright yellow speckles decorate the neck in a pattern unique to each individual.

Saptappers feed on the root sap of trees that grow along the riverbank with their roots partially exposed in the water. The saptappers swim in among the roots, puncture a root with serrated lips, and rapidly slurp its sap. The sated saptapper then releases the root and drifts about placidly.

The saptapper trappers trap saptappers in September to tap their sap to make syrup.

A trapped saptapper claps its flappers to warn the others.

The serenity of September Saturdays is shattered by the clatter of the clapping flappers of trapped saptappers.

You will find saptappers napping, in the aftermath of trapping, amid roots where water is lapping.