Surgeonuk

Deep among the doctor pickle ward, the Surgeonuk is there to attend to the doctors themselves. Ever attentive to its patient, the Surgeonuk pulls together its shell-ears and flattens them to doctor pickle like a statoscope, it tests with slight knocks and quickly diagnoses the quantity and thickness of the fluids. Determining that it should proceed, it will step back into a safe distance and stretch out its scalpel-ended trunk, its hardened claw providing cover & PPE for its narrow oral proboscis. Making a slight incision and passing the end of its oral claw inside, removing whatever amount it has expertly determined to be an excess of doctor pickle juice. Once done, it will release a hardening mucus as its pulls out its proboscis, letting the patient recover.

Appearing to any passerby like an immature doctor pickle planted on a blobby tripped, the Surgeonuk has split off from its ancestor to specialize in its new source of food. Twice its ancestor's height, most of its growth is in the respiratory water tank, allowing it to venture deeper and further inland. Rather than depending on water sources, they can submerge themselves in, any source of running water will do, using their trunk to pump water into one of their two tap holes on either side. To carry the additional weight of the water, its legs stand erect beneath its body, and part of the claws have been internalized to provide limited internal support, while rings of thick muscles do the rest. Surgeonuks mate on the land mouth to mouth, and the female will use her long oral proboscis to release her fertilized eggs into the water. The only time the Surgeonuk must ventures into the water as an adult is during the winter brumation period when they will seek ponds or rivers to hide under the insulating layer of ice and slow down their metabolism.