What's puberty like for he'll hounds, basilisks, unicorns, and harpies? What growing up stuff do they go through that marks them as adults?
• Hellhounds get to spit their first fire! It’s usually a whole event that takes place bc a few days before you’re able to you feel something hot in your throat and it takes awhile to get used to it. The heat steadily gets worse and, yeah, it is painful, but your body adjusts and your fam would usually set up a party and the hellhound teen in question gets to spit their first fire (unless they did some practice rounds before which a lot do bc they don’t want to deal with that kind of performance anxiety), lighting the night’s bonfire and hitting off the celebration.
It’s a pretty big coming of age thing.
Other things hellhounds might deal with is their sense of smell becoming more refined as they grow up and increased bodily awareness--being aware of your own body within the space and knowing when another body enters that space, your ‘sixth sense’ so to speak. Teenage hellhounds can be pretty jumpy because of this.
• Basilisks become able to use their fangs for venom instead of just biting. The venom sacs don’t start producing until during/after puberty but, unlike the hellhounds, its not really celebrated. If you’ve got good family they should teach you how to properly stretch and exercise your jaw muscles to spit venom without hurting yourself.
Basilisks also get their first petrification which, again, isn’t celebrated :’D basilisks in modern day usually start wearing a film long before they might develop that ability in order to prevent accidental petrifications and to teach kids how to get in the habit of applying the film everyday.
I think some families might actually have a really tongue-in-cheek kind of celebration about it actually? Part of being a basilisk is learning how to brew your own anti-petrification and anti-venom--for just in case, and to keep you safe. So, I can totally see some families celebrating by having you brew anti-petrification potions and they’ll hold a party and you get to petrify one of your grandparents/an amiable adult figure who thinks it’d be fun, and then test your anti-petrification potion to see if it works.
Sometimes it doesn’t bc let’s face it, a professional potion’s master you are not, but usually they’ll have a back up potion brewed by someone who knows what they’re doing in case yours doesn’t work. Either way, the adult figure gets ‘thawed’ and there’s celebration at your first petrification (and successful potion if it worked). It’s not as common a tradition as the hellhound’s first fire, but can be seen in certain pockets of basilisk families.
• Unicorns get to do their first purification but it’s a lot more studious than the above two. They can’t just up and do it one day because they can very likely harm themselves or others. So they have to study, learn how to feel the magic around them and how to use their ability with different materials, organic bodies, and work up from small tests to large scale projects.
So, some unicorns are just bad at it bc they didn’t have the guidance growing up to learn how to do it, while others make a legit living out of being a purifier. There might be super small individual family celebrations depending on the family hobbies--like if your mom’s a baker she’d have you purify her sourdough starter of bad bacteria and the celebration would be a small party over a yummy loaf of bread. Likewise for other families and their hobbies/jobs where it might be pertinent. (Like if your guardian is a smith of some sort you could purify the metal they’re working with and they can make you something from it)
Unicorns facing puberty also have to deal with a quickly growing tail and some growing pains as their horn grows to adult length. Lot’s of headaches and days just laying there in pain with an ice pack/hot cloth on your forehead.
• Harpies have it worst because it’s their first molt ;A;
They get itchy wings and a room covered in dead feathers. AFAB harpies at least, while their AMAB siblings laugh at them ;P I’d think that there’d be a thing of collecting some of your baby feathers for scrapbooks or keepsakes.
They do get their first real gliding lessons too! Before puberty, young harpies can’t really do much with their wings. They focus more on dexterity, using their phalanges to grip things, learn how to function in a world not designed for them.
The most they can do is flap their wings to help cool down, but until puberty, are ‘flightless’ (even though harpies can’t technically fly). After their first molt their adult feathers come in so there’s a huge aesthetic change and they get to start learning how to glide from slowly increasing heights.
There’s probably a party over your adult feathers coming in, a pseudo-birthday party so everyone you’re related to/friends can see what the new you looks like since pre-mature feathers are usually not as flashy or colorful.
After that, your parental figures/guardians will start to teach you gliding techniques, I imagine some families make it more of a thing than others, going out camping or something where there’s cliffs and you can practice gliding with the safety of landing in a pool of water if you bomb it. I’m sure other families would have different traditions.