I was looking through old stories, and found a concept that I never really fleshed out. I remembered how some of the critters were supposed to look, so I decided to sketch one. Took less than an hour.

These guys are a little smaller than domestic cats, and weigh about five pounds when fully grown, or seven if they're well fed. They're born in litters of five or six, and are naked, deaf, and blind at birth. They open their eyes, gain hearing, and develop their baby coat within one to two weeks of birth, and grow to full size over nine to ten weeks, during which time they slowly wean while their father introduces them to solid food. They are omnivorous, eating primarily birds, rodents, insects, and fruits found in their semitropical forest habitat. Naturally, nighten are nocturnal.

The juvenile coat is lighter and softer than the adult coat, which comes in just before sexual maturity, around seven months, and is characterised by darker banding in the tail, and patterning of the face, ears, and paws. Specific fur patterns are determined by parentage. Females are aggressive and seek out males when in their semiannual heat. During mating season, males produce a musky odour that the female uses to track them. After mating, males and females will remain companions through the eight-week gestation period and until the litter is fully grown, whereupon the female decides whether to remain with her current mate or pursue a new one. Nighten are solitary but not territorial, and have been known to travel in groups of two individuals, who behave like a mated pair but will mate with others. Groups of three individuals are rare but not unknown.

The feeler hairs within the coat are bioluminescent and are used variously, as a warning signal to competitors and friends alike, during play, to attract mates, and also while mating. Rarely, a nighten may be born with all hairs in the coat bioluminescent; these individuals are universally blind and often affected by other medical conditions, and rarely last long in the wild. Juvenile nighten may be preyed upon by carnivorous birds or larger forest mammals, but predation of adult nighten is rather uncommon.

Nighten typically live up to five years in the wild and 12–15 years in captivity. They are willing pets and will stay with whatever owner gives them the most food and attention. Nighten are very vocal; their most common call is a high trill that imitates the chirp of their primary avian prey. They can be very affectionate, and especially like having their ears and paws touched. Spaying and neutering are difficult due to nighten anatomy, and pose a significant health risk to the individual, so females should simply be kept separate from males during mating season.

Uh. Yeah. Got a little carried away there.