Gruppie

A gruppie is a flightless animal native to the Planet Shummoor. Its identifying characteristics are its two bony legs, its wingless body, its long, flexible neck, and its horn-bearing head.

Appearance
An average gruppie has four basic anatomical details that define it: its legs, its featherless body, its neck, and its horn. Its anatomy is, for the most part, similar to that of an ostrich or emu.

Legs
A gruppie's legs are long and bony. Its feet are three-toed, two of which face forward and one of which faces backward for support purposes. The front two toes are equipped with prominent spikes extending from their tips; this aids in traction as the gruppie runs. Their legs consist of a forward-facing joint that connects its long ankle bone to its leg. The leg then joins the body at a rear-facing joint covered by muscle; the rest of the leg, from the joint downward, has no muscle covering it; instead, a thinner, smoother skin stretches from the muscled joint to the toes.

Body
The body of a gruppie is covered by contoured skin and thick muscle. It has no wings, making its surface fairly uniform; the only feature on the body's surface that projects outward is the tail, short, tapered and sitting at the very back of the body.

Neck
The neck is the most versatile tool a gruppie has; it can bend in many different directions and angles, owing to its internal vertebrae and muscle structure. It also allows the gruppie to drink from cactus barrels, its only apparent water source, which sits on the ground, far below its head.

Head
The head of a gruppie has several noticeable features. A black horn sitting on the nasal bridge of the head is capable of extending, allowing the horn to pierce the husk of cactus barrels and obtain water for the animal. The eyes, sitting on opposite sides of the front of the head, appear similar to those of a goat, with a horizontal pupil within an oblong iris. A wide-mouth without teeth sits below the eyes and horn, stretching all the way back behind and above the final detail of the head, which are small, bulbous appendages several inches long that extend laterally from the head and come to a point. While it is unknown what purpose they serve, they may be a part of the animal's auditory system.

Discovery
Gruppies were first discovered by Group B-5 when they landed on Shummoor and began looking for food and water; the half of the group searching for water happened upon them by chance and determined that, while the taste of their meat was evidently foul, they were amicable creatures, to the point that the gruppies allowed the children to ride on their backs and hauled cactus barrels back to their ship while pulling hoversleds.

Later, when the crew was poisoned by the pole-trees' blooming and Kanata ventured out to find the antidote, a gruppie they had inadvertently saved by unknowingly feeding it the antidote returned to him, allowed the weakened Kanata to climb on its back, and carried him back to the Planet Astra.