Glus

The Glus, also referred to as the Death Spinner or The Beast, is the namesake of the Maze of the Beast and was the guardian of the Amethyst.

History
The origins of the Glus are still unknown, although there are theories. It is one of many different species of sea monsters that went to hunt on land (including the Kobb) and thus escaped the tectonic shift that joined the Land of Dragons to Pirra. A Toran folk song known as Little Enna is said to describe its origin. The song tells of the young girl Enna who finds a smooth stone that hatches a "sweet sea worm". When Enna shows the worm to her mother, she is terrified and commands her daughter to take the worm back to the sea. Enna is saddened and runs off, declaring that if the worm belongs to the sea then she does as well. While she is running a wave of water causes her to fall into a cavity in the earth. No one knows what happened to Enna, but many believe the sea worm eventually grew up to become the dreaded beast, the Glus, from the last lines of the song: "Since that sad day long years have flown, But still beneath the seething foam, Where Enna sleeps, The sea-worm creeps, and spins its webs of bone-white stone." It may be that the Glus is trying to protect Enna.

Secrets of Deltora
Doran mentions the Glus in his book Secrets of Deltora.

The Deltora Book of Monsters
Some time before the destruction of the Belt of Deltora, a group of pirates formed a base near the Maze of the Beast. They used the Glus as a way to dispose of captives and disobedient slaves. One such victim was the captain of a ship from Where Waters Meet. The pirates also lowered Ranesh into the maze by a rope so that he would know his fate if he disobeyed them, but pulled him out before the Glus devoured the helpless captain.

Later, when Ranesh escaped and met Josef, he told him of his experience with the Glus, which prompted Josef to add it to his book the Deltora Book of Monsters. He also speculated its origins, believing the answer lay with the Toran folk song "Little Enna".

The Maze of the Beast
Lief saw a vision of the Glus when he touched the Opal. Later, he, Barda, and Jasmine were captured by pirates and tossed into the Maze of the Beast with the pirate Milne. The Glus arrived almost instantly, causing Milne to panic and attract its attention away from the companions. They later stumbled upon it as it was feasting on the dead pirate, so Barda and Jasmine led it away while Lief searched for the Amethyst. Once he found it, he discovered a crack in the walls that lead to the outside. Barda and Jasmine returned, with the Glus following, but the three of them were able to enlarge the hole and escape. The Glus did not follow them, instead choosing to fix the hole and protect its home.

The Isle of Illusion
The Glus was mentioned as one of the monsters that Lief, Barda and Jasmine could not fight when they were escaping from the Arach.

Anatomy
The Glus is a giant, slug-like monster with a bloated blue-white body, glowing stripes, a blood red mouth filled with teeth, and dozens of eyes. It has a stumpy tail that is tipped with a spike. Though the Glus has lots of eyes, it hunts by feeling vibrations through fine hairs on its underbelly, and despite its size, it can move surprisingly quick when it needs to.

The Glus captures its prey by spinning a milky, glue-like thread that hardens like cement when it dries. The walls of its home also leak this substance, since the Maze of the Beast is reinforced with the thread and the remains of its victims. If its prey stays still long enough, the substance hardens and leaves it easy prey for the Glus to consume at its leisure.

Diet
The Glus is carnivorous eating anything that it can catch within its lair.

Behaviour
The Glus spends most of its time roaming the Maze of The Beast, waiting for its next meal. Although its hearing and sight are weak, it is attracted by movement within the maze just as a spider is attracted to movement within its web. It tends to spit its glue at any movement, ranging from a pebble falling to a potential prey item. As soon as something has been confirmed to be food, the Glus will envelop the object in a tight cocoon of its glue, then devour its helpless prey. Although the Glus is not a particularly fast creature (though it will move with astounding speed in great need), all it has to do is follow its prey and wait. When enraged, the Glus can exhibit bursts of speed. To the Glus, its lair is more important than food, demonstrated when it sealed a hole that threatened to release water into its maze.

Even though the Glus is a natural creature, it caused the Emerald to dull.

Anime
In the anime, the Glus' design is changed somewhat. Its teeth are positioned in a ring around its mouth, which is much smaller, and its number of eyes have been reduced to two stalk-eyes. Its tail also has a ring of spikes surrounding the spiked tip. It also did not spin threads to trap its victims, but rather spat globs of its glue-like substance to trap its prey.

The Glus was also given new abilities it did not have in the book, such as rapid-healing abilities and an elastic body that can squeeze into tight crevices.

The Glus' interactions with the companions are changed somewhat. Lief does not receive a vision of the Glus like he did in the books, so he had no prior knowledge of the creature before seeing it. Lief also tried to battle the Glus in the maze using Jasmine's spare dagger, but the Glus was able to heal over the injury and continue to pursue them. When the companions retrieved the Amethyst and broke open a hole to escape, the Glus stayed behind to repair the damages like in the book. However, the damages caused the maze to cave-in and seemingly kill the Glus.

Interestingly, the characters refer to the Glus simply as Glus, as if that is its name rather than its species.

Deltora Quest 1

 * The Maze of the Beast

Supplementary books

 * Tales of Deltora (mentioned)
 * Secrets of Deltora (mentioned)
 * The Deltora Book of Monsters

Activity books

 * How to Draw Deltora Monsters

Trivia

 * The Glus' name is an anagram of the word slug.
 * The Glus is one of the few monsters that was never killed, defeated, or bested in any way. The protagonists merely escaped from it. The only other one that was never defeated was the Hive (which was bested, as the Lapis Lazuli was stolen from it). All other antagonists were defeated or bested in some way. However, it is seemingly killed in the anime.
 * It and the Hive are also the only major antagonistic creatures still at large in the Deltora timeline.
 * The glue-like substance that the Glus shoots out of its mouth bears resemblance to the silk a spider spins when catching prey, trapping it in the substance.
 * A possible reason the Glus was so intent on sealing the Maze after the companions escaped is because the water that flooded in from the blowhole shaft was salt water. Salt dehydrates slugs, causing them to dissolve.