Desert folk are nomadic, though during the mating and birthing season most clans come together to settle in riverside towns. These times are always full of creativity and partying, as well as a time of relaxation for most. The desert folk celebrate their collective religion, worshipping the twin suns. They share stories and writing, feast, make clothing, dance, and engage in artistic and hedonistic activities for the duration of mating season. After the season ends, most clans leave the towns to resume their livestock’s feeding rotation, but some clans stay behind in the riverside towns to tend to the buildings and grow crops in the fertile soil.
After the season, work begins once again. The desert folk travel in a rotation unique to each family clan, feeding their livestock on various desert plants. The cow-like animals produce crop milk, hair, hide, and meat. To protect their herds, mature members of a clan carry a rifle. These guns are basic and equivalent to our own blackpowder rifles of the past. They are powerful but relatively inaccurate and slow to reload, so they are used as a last resort or to scare off skittish predators.
These livestock are the most widely produced due to their hardiness and the variety of materials they produce. Both cows and bulls produce a milky substance using a digestive organ similar to that of Earth’s birds. Bulls produce less of this liquid, but it is more nutrient dense and bacteria dense to help the bull’s cows or calves gain strength or work through a sickness. Bull crop milk is known for having healing properties and the small amounts of it and importance for the herd’s health makes it expensive.
Crop milk is obtained by massaging the crop of a cow or bull until it regurgitates it. It takes practice to feel the crop and figure out if the texture is ready to be consumed. This substance is cottage cheese consistency, and is separated into the curds and liquids. Curds are used to make cheese, while the liquid is used for drinking and cooking.
These animals are protgynous hermaphrodites, meaning that the most dominant cow in the herd’s body will start changing and producing testosterone until she becomes a bull that can take over when the old bull is sick, weak, dead, or otherwise absent. Bulls will protect their cows with ferocity, and mate with each one during mating season.
When a cow gives birth, it is to 5-6 live grub-like pupae that cling to her back and consume crop milk. During this time, many larvae will die until 1-2 are left. When the grubs are ready to pupate, the mother consumes them and stores them in her crop until they are finished pupating, and during this time the cow does not eat. After the babies are finished pupating, the mother regurgitates them, and they can finish growing to their adult forms. She will continue feeding them crop milk until they can eat solid matter on their own.
