They lurked in the forests, being but fleeting shadows. They had adapted to living in these forests, and seemed only to occupy the forestal regions around and in Adela Kingdom. Some of the locals had even tamed and bred some of the creatures for pack animals, a cheaper replacement for horses, as they only had to catch a few from the forest. The creatures themselves were friendly enough, but had been known to be unpredictable when threatened.
They were rather unique in appearance, seemingly to take aspects of several different species and adapt them. They held the general structure of horses, as far as basic skeletal structure went - except for a few differences. They also tended to be smaller and more lightly built than horses - but not any less powerful. At first glance, they might appear downright ugly, but upon furthur survey, they held a sort of mysterious allure that tempted people towards them. Their heads, while built like more compact horse's heads, bore a harder-than-bone plating that went along the front of their face, an edge jutted out from the middle of this plating, slightly sharper than the edges of the plating itself, curving upward in a long, circlular edge before returning back into the plating. Where one would expect ears, were horns, cared from the same plating and extending behind into points. The creatures hardly used them to attack, but they were indeed something to watch out for. There legs were not that of horses, but shared the same basic skeleton, until the feet were reached and revealed to be similar to a large cat, or, more specifically, dog or wolf's paw, sporting nails which most believe to give the beast traction. Their tale is, quite simply, that of a lions, with a great tassle of hair at the end.
They were also very slim creatures.
They were mainly solitary, or travelling in small groups, and seemed to sink into the shadows, and flash out again if required, all the more sparking their allure to strangers, and uplifting their popularity as mounts or working beasts of burden. In the farms, some inhabitants have even managed to selectively breed more muscular creatures from the original wild bunch which still inhabited the kingdom in successful populations.
((woohoo, consider them INTRODUCED! Now go have fun, replace all them horsies... these things'll do!!))
