"They're coming!"

  Shiina popped up and twisted around to get a good look into the desert at the call. They'd been waiting for the lamia caravan to show up. She tried to see the details but all she could make out was a blurry dust cloud at this distance.

  She sidled closer to Delilah. "Can you see them?"

  The half elf shielded her eyes from the sun and leaned forwards. "I can't make it out. There's so much sand being kicked up."

  There really was a lot of dust. A lot of dust getting closer really fast. "Ugh. Maybe I need binocular vision."

  "Nah, you're seeing fine." Hafsa said as she walked up. "Thought you knew about lamia caravans."

  Shiina tried to peer harder. "What, are they special?"

  "You'll see soon," Hafsa replied. "In fact right about now."

  With a final dust burst three massive creatures rose into the sky. They were over sixty feet wide, but not very tall. As the dust cleared Shiina saw they looked like giant, dark colored manta rays. Shell or bone covered the front of their winglike fins, and atop the creature's bodies sat platforms for goods and riders.

  In short they were totally awesome. "We're gonna ride those!?" Shiina asked.

  "Yep. They're giant sand rays," Hafsa replied. "Only the lamia know how to keep them or something."

  "It's more no one else lives close enough to their habitat to learn," Zanya added. "Sand Rays live in areas with brackish water. Without the dungeon to supply fresh water most people can't survive out there."

  The giant sand rays were moving slower now, the hard tips of their wing fins somehow pushing them through the sand towards the camp. Shiina figured they were moving faster than the camels had even at this sedate pace.

  As the trio came to a stop she saw her first lamia as well. There were two to a manta. All of them had rusty red scales above and white underbellies. Interestingly four of them had the sandy hair that the local catfolk seemed to favor, along with short cat ears. The other two had black hair, and were shorter. All seemed to prefer simple wraps for clothing.

  As the tribesmen and the lamia leader met up and started the entry rituals Shiina moved closer to the giant sand mantas. The massive creature noticed her approach, but didn't seem to pay ehr much mind. Still Shiina kept a respectable distance as she inspected the creature.

  She'd heard ocean rays had tooth scales that were covered by slime. These rays had the toothy skin, but no protective mucus, meaning they'd be fairly rough. Looking closer at the guards at the front they did seem more like armor or teeth than true bone. Shiina peered closely trying to figure out how it all worked.

  "Do you want to pet her?"

  Shiina shifted her attention and faced the lamia that had asked her. It was one of the shorter two. "Sure! She won't mind?"

  The lamia laughed. "You're more likely to hurt yourself than her. Let me show you how to properly tend Shalesha here." The lamia gave the wingfront a pat before carefully stroking down the fin. "Always move head to tail and shoulder to tip. You can give it a scratch or two if she lowers into the petting. Oh and she's been traveling so you're gonna get sandy."

  "Well you can't escape that in a desert." Shiina followed the lamia woman's instructions. The protective front plates really were harder than bone or teeth, but their rough texture wasn't because it was a crude design, but because the 'plate' was actually dozens of smaller protective bits that meshed together. That explained how it could still bend so well!

  She then felt along the skin, marveling at how soft the bits between the tooth scales were, compared to the sharp smoothness of the scales themselves. Shiina thought that might have been a liability, but somehow the sand manta was fine. Maybe that was because of the magic thrumming through the creature. She could tell it wasn't a purely natural being. Somewhere in its bloodline were monsters like her.

  A patch of hard sand popped off as Shiina petted the manta, and 'Shalesha' gave a surprisingly soft rumble as it pushed its wing into her hand. Taking the hint Shiina scratched at the spot, cleaning out the rest of the clump and massaging the skin beneath. The manta rumbled again before moving away.

  "Looks like she's happy." The lamia slipped over and offered a head bow. "I'm Sonoi."

  "Shiina" She returned the gesture.

  Slithering back out from under the sweeping manta wings the lamia got out a brush and started tending to the beast. "So you're a mimic right? It's been a while since one formed in our dungeon."

  "Yep!" Shiina followed along at a polite distance. "Are you dungeon born as well?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Nah, I'm a sandborn. Third genesis, halfling blood." Sonoi looked over to her, eyebrows raised. "I suppose if you're out here right now you and your friends are looking to travel with us? Got any guys with you?"

  Shiina shook her head, causing the lamia to slump a little. "Travel yes, guys no."

  "Drat," the lamia sighed. Fortunately Sonoi recovered quickly. "Right, well I better help finish unpacking so we can hash out the details."

  Shiina turned back to the manta while the lamia headed over to where they were loading and unloading bundles. She ran her hand over the skin, carefully trying to match it on her off hand. It was surprisingly hard to do.

  "You gonna try switching to fist fighting?" Hafsa asked as she came over.

  "I mean it'd be cool!" Shiina considered it a moment before shrugging. "Probably stick to the dagger though. I just wanted to learn about it."

  Hafsa nodded. "That's fair." She ran a hand carefully along the manta. "I learned a lot from these guys too. You know, the way they travel is by repelling the sand magically."

  "Ooh! That's awesome!" Shiina tried to get a feel for the flow of magic in the area, but she could only really detect the direction. "So you've ridden one before?"

  "Nah." Her ears twitched back. "Head bitch never let me travel, but she had to meet delegations, so I got to see a lot of interesting people." The catgirl grinned. "Now I finally get to go to their place."

  Shiina nodded. "And we get to ride the mantas too!" Traveling was turning out to be great!

  Shiina held a hand outside the protective wind barrier feeling the air slap into her palm as the giant sand manta sped across the sands. Small rocks and shrubs passed by almost faster than she could track them. Traveling by manta was amazing!

  Unfortunately some of her friends weren't as happy. Delilah was gripping onto her safety rope with white hands, while Ife's tail was bristling despite her calm facade. The half elf looked over at Zanya. "Isn't this way too fast?"

  Zanya shook her head. "I have no idea."

  "Don't worry about it," Sonoi said, her tail securely coiled around a post. "Gal's taking a steady pace, not a sprint. You'd be fine even without the tethers. The air shield is mostly to keep dust and bugs out of our eyes." She paused. "Uh don't take the tethers off though. Surprises can happen."

  Shiina looked back at the lamia. "How fast can she go when she's trying to?"

  Sonoi perked up. "I heard she managed to travel fifty miles in an hour one time. Was a real emergency, but she made it there and back without much complaint. She's a real good girl."

  "Fifty miles in an hour?" Ife muttered. "Gods preserve us."

  "Yeah, the air shield gets weaker then, so you need to stay low," Sonoi said, curling a little around her post. "We're only three quarters to that speed, so no need to worry."

  Delilah and Ife didn't look happy for some reason, but at least Zanya and Hafsa were fine with it. Well Hafsa had her eyes closed, but her tail and ears were calm. Shiina meanwhile loved the rush. It was better than the excitement she got using her tendrils to launch herself.

  After a few more minutes the sand started to change. From a dull yellow to a muddy white that bubbled and churned. The air tasted different too. Salty, like the ocean she'd crossed. "What's this?" she asked.

  "Silt sea," Zanya said. "Sand and salt mixed together so that it's the same as water."

  Hafsa's eyes snapped open at that. "That ain't right. There's something else there. I feel the sand, and the salt, but there's something else." She must have been training her elemental sense.

  Sonoi gave a fanged grin. "Good catch. It's because of the air beneath. Some long buried dungeon or magical artifact blows air into this chunk of desert. Makes this whole area act like water. We think it's a dungeon, because the beasties sand mantas eat live in it."

  "Wait, so how does anyone get out here?" Shiina asked. It seemed like that would be an even bigger problem than distance. A city no one could get to wasn't much of a city at all.

  "They fly or hitch a ride with us," The lamia said, folding her arms smugly. "We aren't just running caravans all over the place because we're looking for dates. The lamia are the reason this city exists."

  Shiina turned her eyes forwards, towards the rock pillar they'd been heading towards from the start. At first she'd thought it'd been chosen for shade like a lot of places in the desert. But with the silt around them it was more likely the place was an island in the sea of sand.

  Soon enough she started seeing details. It wasn't simply a group of huts and a dungeon. There was a whole city of adobe brick. The buildings had been smoothed out, so that the lamiae could travel up and down in addition around the ground, and windows had been carved out all over. Shiina could already tell it would be a pleasant mix of shadows and sunbeams.

  Still there was one feature missing. "Where's the dungeon?" She figured it'd be little more prominent.

  Sonoi chuckled as they started to slow down. "Don't worry. You'll get to see it. Gotta get the full tour after all."

  Shiina beamed at the lamia and turned back to the city. This would be something to remember.

  Lamia are the most prolific single gender monster race. This comes from their ability to reproduce without men, via parthenogenesis. So even if a lamia never hooks up with someone they can have kids. Still, Sonoi says most prefer the traditional method of reproducing. Seems too complicated for me, but whatever.

  While children who don't have father's look identical to their mother, those with two parents tend to gain some features. Since halflings and catfolk dominate this area, most lamia here are short and / or have cat ears. It's so common that even the dungeon has responded by giving those formed inside it those traits.

  While lamia's snake halves tend to match real snakes, they tend towards monstrous varieties instead of natural ones. Sonoi's family match up with the rusty sidewinder. Giant constrictor snakes with a fast acting weakening venom. Other big lamia families mimic death's head rattlers, and violet mambas. Still they can duplicate normal snakes. There's a family of courier lamia who apparently have the tails of black racers.

  Oh, and I asked Zanya about how Ophidians and lamia are connected. Apparently they aren't at all. In fact ophidians aren't actually that close to snakes. The snake was the favored totem of the ruling caste, so when other races called them Ophidians, they happily accepted. But when it comes to body types, snakes are lizards with no legs and all tail, and ophidians have no tail, only legs. Kinda makes sense when she explains it that way.