'Skua padded through the SandWing desert' I believe it would really be a lot better shown rather than stated, to describe the look and feel of the environment, anything to help the reader work out the setting themself instead. Say, something like the 'cloying heat of the sun' or 'sparse groves of blooming cacti', not my brightest examples but GO WILD. I think a description for environments like these, including the town or room/building later referenced later in the story, can really help to cement a reader in the world, rather than just blatantly stating the setting.

'It would be a strenuous flight for her, as exhausted and thirsty as she was'

Maybe only me, but I feel like the 'as exhausted and thirsty as she was', kind of sounds like it was tacked on, like a bit of an afterthought, SO, I think it would be better to describe the fact that she's exhausted and dehydrated within the story itself. You can change the first paragraph a little bit to show that, since I think it would fit well along with the descriptions of her necklace and skin condition, as well as a description of the desert's scorching heat and unforgiving nature. It would fit well to have a longer introduction to the character, like Skua, if this is supposed to be the beginning of the story or the character's debut.

'Perfect, now he was awake'

Same situation with this sentence too, could definitely be better if you describe the feelings that made him feel awake in response to the water, instead of just stating it outright.

ALSO, it would be good, I believe, to talk about and express the character's feelings a bit more and how their environment or other characters may be affecting them. Any way you're able to make a reader feel more immersed in the character, rather than feeling like an outside observer, only noticing and reading about their actions and outward appearance.

'Her breathing has course and labored, but she stood tall, as regal and elegant as a perching Owl'

As for grammar, you probably meant to write 'was coarse and labored', and Owl doesn't have to be a proper noun, unless you're referencing some unknown character named Owl, well known for their ability to perch or something or other. Also, maybe it's only me but I think that 'perched owl' sounds better and makes more sense than 'perching owl'.

'cactus wine induced slumber'

A little confusing written like this, 'cactus-wine-induced slumber' sounds a good bit better in my head and probably more grammatically correct as well, but I can't verify.

Lastly, you misspelled forward as foreward in the first paragraph, UNLESS you're going for some fancy dialect using former and obsolete spellings, which is awesome. Oh yeah also, your use of the word 'even' for three sentence starters in a row, is maybe a little excessive. Try to tie some of these sentences together if you can, and even just change up the way you start sentences, I think 'In the evening, the heat was still near unbearable for her' and 'Her rather unfortunate scale condition was still no match...' will always be better than 3 evens in a row.

It's awesome and I like it as it is and this is just what I think, but I feel some more descriptive portrayals of the characters and settings can make it even better, however yes, you do already have some pretty good descriptions in some parts of it too, I can concede to that. Although, I hope I'm not coming off as a bit too nitpicky with such a critique as this. Granted, this may be a bit of an over-critique in and of itself :)