Life Cycle
Life and Death
As beings made of stardust, lepitsunes have the potential to live for hundreds of years, but most will eventually die of corruption or despair, or may simply choose to pass on. When this happens, they simply dissolve into stardust, and will either be returned to their home star by special helpers or blow away in the wind to be lost forever.
There are also occasions when one becomes so attached to a single person, they would give up the rest of their life if it means their human can live a few decades longer. While the magic store that lepitsunes have is usually enough to cure small illnesses and injuries or boost recovery for more serious ones, it is not enough to heal someone with a terminal or fatal wound. However, a lepitsune's life is. In extremely devoted cases, they can choose to spend all their life energy into a person's full recovery from such an ailment, before dissipating into stardust themselves.
There are also occasions when one becomes so attached to a single person, they would give up the rest of their life if it means their human can live a few decades longer. While the magic store that lepitsunes have is usually enough to cure small illnesses and injuries or boost recovery for more serious ones, it is not enough to heal someone with a terminal or fatal wound. However, a lepitsune's life is. In extremely devoted cases, they can choose to spend all their life energy into a person's full recovery from such an ailment, before dissipating into stardust themselves.
Reproduction
Lepitsunes are genderless, asexual creatures and rely on the meadows of flowers that populate their home star in order for new lepitsunes to be born. It is the stardust that makes up their bodies that pollinate them, and flowers that have been sufficiently pollinated will close up, in time reopening to reveal a lepitsune pup within the bud with a flower growing atop their backs.
Young lepitsunes usually stay on the star until they come of age, when the flower on their back begins to wilt and eventually sheds petals one by one to leave a single pair. These form the lepitsune's wings, and once they gain them it signifies they are ready to leave for Earth (in rare cases, more than two petals remain and this leads to multi-winged lepitsunes).
The year they earn their wings, the young lepitsunes travel to earth on a bridge of stars built for their annual festival. Those less confident are aided and brought to Earth in a glass container of some sort, and left at the doorstep of anyone in need as a starting point. They do have the option of remaining on the star, but this is typically looked down upon, and the lepitsunes will remain forever young and never grow nor gain the earthly experiences all their peers will have.
Young lepitsunes usually stay on the star until they come of age, when the flower on their back begins to wilt and eventually sheds petals one by one to leave a single pair. These form the lepitsune's wings, and once they gain them it signifies they are ready to leave for Earth (in rare cases, more than two petals remain and this leads to multi-winged lepitsunes).
The year they earn their wings, the young lepitsunes travel to earth on a bridge of stars built for their annual festival. Those less confident are aided and brought to Earth in a glass container of some sort, and left at the doorstep of anyone in need as a starting point. They do have the option of remaining on the star, but this is typically looked down upon, and the lepitsunes will remain forever young and never grow nor gain the earthly experiences all their peers will have.