Mighty beasts

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Tiah's POV

Much to my surprise, a large chunk of the boulder was hollow. Bioluminescent moss climbed on the walls and ceiling. Faintly glowing, there were none of the glowing flowers so there wasn't much light. To the left, in the distance, you could faintly see living quarters carved into the rock with circle openings for doors. A brighter glow came from the little rooms so you could see the vines that grew over the doorways and the sheer translucent curtain that hung on the inside of the door.

"Don't look so happy we aren't stopping yet"

Scott chuckled as everyone sighed at his comment.

"I'll introduce myself and then we can get them saddled"

I turned around at the sound of a familiar voice it was the girl from the district her dark umber hair was now pulled back into a ponytail with a braid following the center of her head back into the ponytail, the braid had beads and metal hoops woven into the hair and feathers were stuck into the base of the ponytail.

She wore a beige jacket with a black shirt underneath red feathers accented her hair and staff which she held in her left hand. Her pants were still black ripped jeans but there were now intricate flowers and leaves sewn into the right leg with reds and oranges. Her boots also had red accents with fiery red laces to match the feathers that sat in her hair.

"Hi I'm Ava I'm the runner that started these shenanigans"

She walked over to the right side of the cave which looked like a set of stables gesturing for us to follow her. The stables looked empty from afar in the dim light, however when we approached it became obvious that the stables did have something in them, very big somethings at that.

Soon we were close enough that we could see into the stables and see what was in them; it was a shock.

Instead of a horse or camel or anything else you would expect to ride it was a deer. Obviously not an average deer, these deer were the size of moose and looked like they could crush us if they wanted to. They weren't very interesting in the color department, a simple taupe color with a fade to black on the muzzle and extremities, two of them had a sun-dappled effect on their back with spots of black and cream fur. But what was truly impressive were the horns.

All of the deer had at least two sets of horns, a few had three but none had more. The first set of horns curled back toward the tail ridged and charcoal in color the second set arched up and back slightly protruding out at the base then curving back toward the head near the top also charcoal in color and ridged. If the deer had a third set it was similar to the second set curving away at the base than coming back at the top and rigid, however, they were not charcoal in color and rather had a red hue giving them a russet color instead.

"Here are your rides, from left to right we have Nico, Laurence, Aaron, Jessabelle, Twilight, Dantae, and Merlin"

Each deer glanced at Ava as she called its name then went back to munching on whatever was in the stall.

"This group of Nerix was born and raised with us and none has ever shown intention to harm, or aggression towards humans"

"Nerix?"

"Nerix, it's what we've named them, it sounded like deer-x which is what we used to call them, it's like deer times two."

3rd POV

Ava rattled on explaining each Nerix and its personality, matching the Nerix to the person. There were mini-lessons about riding, dismounting, mounting, speed, and letting the Nerix drive rather than controlling them.

The training session lasted about an hour with plenty of falling.

By the end of the training session Scott had caught everyone at least once, Ava was laying flat on the ground after tripping over a rock trying to catch Mae who slipped off the Nerix and Amelia was holding Mae upside down around the waist with her legs over her shoulder after catching her when Ava slipped. How she ended up in that position no one could tell you.

"Ok uh do we have a training harness at this point where gonna be night riding"

Scott walked over and lifted Mae off Amelia and carefully set her on the ground questioning the whereabouts of the training harnesses.

"I'm not sure; we stopped using those a while ago since we can all ride standing on our heads facing the wrong way"

Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose racking her brain to remember if there still was a training harness.

"Hahaha, oh gosh your faces Haha"

Ava burst out laughing, kicking the air from her place on the floor; startling the group.

Amelia and Scott glanced over at the rest of the group only to see them all bug-eyed pale and some with mouths hanging open jaws unhinged like they no longer had the muscle to keep their shock contained.

"What did I say?"

Amelia cocked an eyebrow confused as to what she had said to shock them that much.

"You guys can ride these standing on your heads backward ?"

Tiah shouted eyes nearly bulging out of her skull as she seemingly put her whole soul into the question"

"I mean I probably could but no I was exaggerating"

Amelia sighed and went back to pinching the bridge of her nose letting the shock slowly fade away as well as the laughter from Ava.

" Ava come on we should put the supplies on the Nerix"

Scott yanked Ava off the ground pulling a few stray leaves out of her hair. The two started hooking the backpacks and a few other bags; probably full of rations; onto the five hooks on the back of every saddle.

As they worked Amelia checked the bags and made sure they were secure and made sure they had the needed supplies.

With absolutely no warning she suddenly stopped and ran into one of the Nerix stalls disappearing from view. Scott and Ava paid her no mind and finished clipping the supplies to the Nerix saddles, then helped Mae back onto her assigned Nerix, Laurence, for what seemed like the millionth time.

"I got one"

Amelia busted out of the stall she had previously disappeared into with the harness in her hand, it was less of a harness more of a belt with stretchy rope that hooked onto spots of the Nerix saddle to keep you on. If you managed to fall off with all of the extra support you would just be awkwardly dangling by your hips.

Scott hoisted Amelia up onto Laurence with Mae and she secured the training harness before jumping down.

"Let's get a move on we'll be right on schedule if we leave now"

Ava hopped onto Jessabelle who was right next to Laurence. Jessabelle was credited with the most saves as she caught mae three or four times by placing her head at Laurence's side so if mae fell she would land with her shoulders and arms in between her second pair of horns and she could safely remove her from Laurence's back and place her on the floor. Which was quite amusing the first time it happened.

Scott Walked over to Nico who was still in his and Merlin's shared stall, and Amelia had to run all the way across the cave to Dantae who was attempting to stick his head into one of the little cubby holes that had been carved into the rock. He was only successful in tangling his horns in the fabric and vines that were hanging over the door.

"Hey dummy get your horns outta there I have no treats in there "

Amelia mounted the Nerix quickly untangled his horns and directed him out of the cave taking the rear with Ava and Scott leading.

˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳

3rd POV

Despite the seemingly slow pace of the Nerix, the group moved at double speed.

Traveling across two large rivers around a lake and across a large patch of scratched tousled and all-around disheveled dirt which was explained to be a rejected nesting sight for something called a Flurrit, although it looked more like a giant toddler threw a fit. The sun soon started to set revealing the brilliant bioluminescent moss and flowers that sprouted from the forest floor and along the trunks of trees.

The Nerix horns glowed a cream color that matched the coloring some of the Nerix had.

Fireflies of all colors flittered through the air and little lizards scuttled across the ground as the group walked on.

Sometime later the group stopped and set up camp.

Much like the first Night camp was on the forest floor in tents. The tents were under bushes this time but the insane amount of pillows and blankets that came out of nowhere persisted. Dinner was quick and consisted of saved meat and dried fruits, still delicious but not as thoroughly enjoyed due to it being served cold with no fire being lit that night.

The next morning it was a get-up-and-go type of day tents were collapsed in record time and the group was told there would be no pre-set camps for the next two days since this part of the forest wasn't frequented by anyone and only served to connect the two traveled portions. So they walked on, breaking occasionally if the Nerix seemed tired. Not resting for long but resting just long enough.