The Magical Herd

You lean back to look up at the few clouds passing by high above the desert. As you put more weight onto your arms, you feel something beneath your hand. Something with a shape you knew very well now. Indeed, it was a purple drigus egg.

As you pull it out of the sand it starts to shake violently in your arms. At least you didn't have to wait very long for it to hatch! The shell just seems to disintegrate as you held it, and you found yourself cuddling a hatchling named Azir.

Her soft little nose nuzzled your cheek as she tried to lick your face. She snuggled up close, and as you scratched behind her ear, her fell asleep. It wasn't long before you too were sleeping soundly.

And that was why you didn't notice the shifting sands.

You awoke to find something extremely heavy in your lap. Your legs had gone numb from the pressure on them. You shift to try and ease the weight and something large and white leaps straight up into the air. You couldn't have moved if you had wanted to, you couldn't feel your legs.

A young wild-eyed drigus stood panting before you, ready to leap again at a moment's noticed. Obviously she had been sleeping soundly and your movements had startled her. Equally obvious was that this was Azir, but she was now a teenager. At about the same time you came to this conclusion, she recognized you. With a soft purring sound she rubbed against you and buried her face in your arms.

This time when you fell asleep, you were sure to have only her head resting upon you. Otherwise a full-sized drigus would leave you flat as a pancake in the morning.

The next morning you found yourself in shadow, not because of the clouds blocking the sun, but because Azir was standing guard over you. Rolling over you reach up to scratch her shoulder and she purrs back at you, lowering her head so you could scratch her ears. You had to be careful of the spines, though small, they were quite sharp.

After a bit she lays down beside you to keep you company while you wait for Firecracker and the others.