Waves kissed pebbled shorelines. Crickets sang smoothly. The hooves and pawsteps of animals rose and fell, their legs undulating, flickering silhouettes from firelight against sand. Soft breezes hummed through leaves of the trees on the shoreline. The stables were hot with the circulating breaths of many sleeping animals. A human-like guard walked by every now and again.
The sound of approaching thumps got louder and louder. A large diredrake, thick, black and muscular, galloped through the sand. Sand waves flew from the mighty beats of the lizard's claws. Atop it rode a tall, slender, deer-like indigenous, with the hooves, ears, antlers and facial features of such. His wavy dreads flew violently with each bound made by his mount. His dark fur shimmered gold in the firelight as they approached a group of guards gathered around a fire outside of the stables. It was a small camp.
The steed screeched to a halt, throwing sand all over two of the guards. They themselves also looked alien. They were skinny and bony, with thick and wide faces like that of a cat. They each had a thin but defined layer of muscle. Their eyes glowed with fierceness and threat against the intruder. The two that got sprayed with sand hissed and grasped their weapons. The hooves of the intruder struck the ground. He fearlessly stepped forward, and, with a tone of mass urgency, spat the words, "they are coming."
The cat creature's faces dropped hostility, and took on concern. Three of them ran into the stables, and, a moment later, came back out atop massive hounds with six legs, and two massive feathered dorsal crests. They let out roars, and bounded off into the night, in the direction opposite of the way the deer-like creature rode. One of the other two ran into the small fortress. He climbed a ladder to a small platform, the highest point on the building, which arbored a large beacon. He struck a stone, and lit the fire. It burst into flames. The flame was very large and very intense; it would have been seem for hundreds of miles.
A long way away, on a mountaintop, another beacon burst into sight. As it was lit, a large winged creature took flight the opposite way. He was off to carry the word further. It was a long system. He would fly for miles.
The last guard exchanged a few silent words with the deer-like creature, and at that, he turned and mounted his drake, and turned to gallop again into the night.
