Another Ajshar of the Jedhazi ethnicity. As I mentioned in the previous work, the Jedhazi ( https://www.deviantart.com/0laffson.....rior-814184824 ) are nomads who live in the desert and travel quickly from one place to the other by using wind-propelled desert boats or by riding the Raakish, the great flightless birds that live in the Golden Sea.

The young Jedhazi warrior in the sketch was given a Raakish egg, and is now bonding with the hatchling. This is something that every new warrior must do, so that the bird will imprint to them and trust them blindly. Once the Raakish is fully grown, it will reach up to 4 meters of height and will not allow anyone else to ride them, unless the owner is also there.
The Raakish are extremely revered in Jedhazi culture. The are considered as part of the family, and since these birds have an extremely long life span, the warrior and his mount will probably spend their whole lives together, unless one of the two dies.

If the Raakish dies, the warrior is expected to wear black mourning clothes for a year before raising another hatchling. If the Ajshar warrior dies first, the grieving bird (who at this point is pretty much impossible to control) will be killed in a painless way with poison and then buried together with the rider.

The Raakish are well adapted to the life in the desert. They are omnivorous, and they can eat both meat and plants, mainly cacti. They can resist without water for a very long time, by drinking extremely large quantities of water at once.
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Sorry for yet another wall of text! XD

I'm really liking this guy, so I think I will add him to the cast of my characters. You can probably expect more sketches or illustrations about the mighty cat & birb duo! :D Neither of them has a name yet, so I'll have to come up with something.