A Few Days Rest

Nix stared up at the Dragon Fir he had planted almost a day earlier. The first night it had shot up, but the growth accelerated even more during the daylight hours. "Could be the future guest house, or maybe just a party tree. Must be about eighty feet in height and I can barely get my arms around the trunk." He noted that the leaves were at the very top and the bark was nearly rough enough to climb up.

A soft muzzle pushed against the back of his neck, he turned to find red eyes staring at him. "Bet you wish you'd eaten that tree when it was small."

The mare nosed him again, then accepted an apple from his hand. Her hooves which would have been called cloven before, now couldn't be called anything but claws. The scales on her legs extended all the way to her abdomen, her color had turned black as coal.

Nix walked towards the ranch house, the mare fell in step beside him. "You sure you still eat apples?"