Midgard - Sleipnir

Sleipnir
Named after Odin's eight legged horse.

While Gulfaxies roamed the desert West of the sea, the East is instead home to the Sleipnirs. Unlike their relatives, Sleipnirs do not need to seek shelter whenever bad weather comes up or when the suns set. They travel day and night across the desert looking for tubers and take brief siestas whenever they feel like it. Having six sturdy legs allows them to carry their 3 meter tall (not counting antannae) stocky bodies for hours and even face the harshest of sandstorms. Still, they will tend to walk closer to each other for extra protection but only because some predators can use the sandstorms as cover.
Sleipnirs have floral shaped four part beaks that they use to peel apart the tubers they eat. Those are first dug out of the soil thanks to their shovel like front feet that also spread out to keep the animal from sinking in the sand. Since these plants are widely scattered across the dry terrain, Sleipnirs needed to evolve a more efficient way to smell them out. The tall antanne on their heads is a growth protruding from the space between its nostrils. It is covered with olfactory sensory neurons and can pick out the rather bitter smelling plant from several kilometers away. The tubers also grow in small clusters like potatoes on Earth so they provide enough nutrients for a few animals.
Sleipnirs are one of the few animals on Midgard that have been domesticated by the sentient Midgardians. While most Midgardians do live in farms along the coast of the sea, there are a few nomadic tribes that live in the desert accompagnied by these docile herbivores that are considerably taller in comparision. The relationship between the two unrelated life forms is symbiotic: the Sleipnir provides transport and shelter from the suns for the Midgardian while they protect the animals from predators thanks to their weapons. Technically speaking, the Midgardians can't ride the Sleipnir due one another's body shapes. Actually, Midgardians can walk long distances just fine on their own. The Sleipnirs transport the nomad's valuable cargo of desert fruits, spices and especially gold. They make the trips to set up markets in the coastline farms where they trade the desert resources for seafood, vegetables and weapons. Since gold is abundant on Midgard, most farming tools and weapons are made out of gold.

The Sleipnir was inspired from the gait of horses, the lifestyle of a bactrian camel, the pose of giraffe as well as the squid and hexapedal features of other Midgard aliens.

FUN FACTS
Contrary to the Gulfaxi, the Sleipnir hump truly contains fat.
Sleipnir beaks function similar to our mouths. The front portion tears pieces off of their food while the rear parts grind it down.