Night to Night
The Desert Near Maezul Village, Democratic Union of Aviye
Xu
By the night after their conversation with the Chief, Xu had a few ideas about how to drive off the EISM separatists.
First, however, she needed to do some reconnaissance, and more importantly retrieve a sample of the EISM's mystery gas weapon if she could.
Thus she found herself riding dragonback with Sergeant Maka "Qal" Fesmir, the First Ascendant Battalion's NCOIC of demolitions, and one of the original Nightravens.
Qal had some experience in dragon riding, and domesticated desert dragons were much smoother on the ground than their longer-legged cousins. This owed to the fact they crawled using a combination of their claws and stomach, leaving large, snake-like wakes behind them.
Thus, for Xu, the ride was not as unpleasant as she anticipated while they headed northwest to the place the Chief had indicated was some sort of staging ground.