Duststalker
Inland Thazvaar desert predator
The Duststalker is a lean ambush predator of the Infinitude Deserts of Inland Thazvaar, 8 to 12 meters long and 800 kg to 1.2 tonnes in the wild. It lies camouflaged as a large rock where desert gives way to mountain and takes wanderers and herds with explosive speed, using fangs and claws. There is no safe way past one; the only course is to walk by and hope it does not notice. Its underbelly fur is popular among the Thazvaari because it is thin enough to wear during the day and thick enough to keep warm at night.
A tiny city variant, less than 0.2 meters long, lives in major population centers across the planet, having adapted to urban environments over generations of human spread. It keeps the predatory instincts of its desert ancestor in a frame small enough to live in walls, drainage systems and the gaps between structures, where it hunts vermin and small fauna in the spaces people build and leave unmaintained.
