Ticks

Overview

Ticks wait in the grass for something warm to brush past, climb on, and drink. Every herder, hunter, and escort carries a few home, and in every pasture country the evening ends with a search of the body and the dogs. Most ticks do no more than itch. A few leave a fever behind them.

Appearance

An unfed tick is a flat, oval, eight-legged speck the size of a lentil or smaller, dark red-brown with a hard shield behind its head and a small head-piece with a barbed mouth. Fed, it swells past recognition into a smooth, tight, bluish-grey bead the size of a pea or a bean, its legs tiny at the front. It holds on with its head buried in the skin and does not let go when pulled. It makes no sound and has no smell, and its bite is not felt.

Habitat and Range

Ticks live in long grass, heath, bracken, and scrub wherever beasts graze or pass: the hill pastures and terraces of the Headwater Marches, the thin grass of the shelves of the High Scars, the heaths and wood edges of the cradle-web, and the deer-trails of the forests. They are fewest in ploughed land, bare desert, cities, and the deep, and they sleep through winter.

Behaviour and Temperament

A tick climbs a grass stem and waits with its front legs held out, sometimes for months, until a breath, warmth, or a footfall comes near. Then it catches hold, climbs to soft skin, the armpit, the groin, behind the ears, or the hairline, and bites. It feeds for days, slowly swelling, then drops off to digest and moult.

Abilities

The tick numbs its bite and cements its mouth into the skin, which is why pulling one leaves its head behind and the wound festers. Some ticks pass a fever: a week after the bite a red ring spreads around it, or a headache, aches, and fever come, and in a few people the joints, the face, or the heart suffer for months after. Herders call it tick fever and know which slopes give it.

Life Cycle

A tick feeds three times in its life, once as a tiny six-legged larva, once as a young, and once grown, each time on a larger beast: a mouse, then a hare or a bird, then a sheep, a deer, a dog, or a person. A fed female drops and lays thousands of eggs in the litter, and dies. The whole round takes two or three years.

Uses and Dangers

They give nothing. Heavy ticks weaken lambs and calves, a tick near a dog's spine can lame it for days, and tick fever lays herders up in summer. Herders and escorts search themselves each evening, burn ticks off with a hot twig or a lit coal held near, or ease them out with a thread and a twist, and rub the bites with spirit or vinegar. Grease on the legs and smoke over the fire are thought to keep them off.

Lore and Belief

Orc escorts say a tick that drops off by itself means good water ahead, since the tick has drunk enough; it means nothing. Headwater shepherds hold that ticks rise with the sun and wait for the dew to dry before taking a flock up. Many believe a tick backs out if spoken to kindly, or if oiled, which only makes it cling.

Where It Appears

• Overview: Animals