ANATOMY: Dawnfire is built like a cheetah and a horse's lovechild. She has the long legs and leanness of a cheetah, but a horse's more rigid back, arched neck, and powerful chest and shoulders. Her shoulders and hips are wider like a horse's though her ribcage is thinner and not as barrel-shaped. Dawnfire's tail is catlike in its length and flexibility, though it is thicker at the base. It is not prehensile.
Dawnfire is a little taller than an average Arabian horse, about 7 feet tall at the head, about 5'5" at the withers.
FEATURES: Dawnfire has a blunt, squarish snout and a strong jaw and cheeks with a small mouth/smile. (A close head shape might be the Maiasaurs from Dinosaur. (one) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p3NI3-WbsH8/Uq0aGbIiO1I/AAAAAAAAAb0/RzVQjmj3_ck/s1600/29152_105303696184510_104758479572365_48255_4736038_n.jpg) (two) (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6e/e3/81/6ee3812ac82b8d467fd67218241bdc47.jpg). And Rain (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0d/6c/dc/0d6cdcd7bf0f81342e2d93ff03440d89.gif) from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.) Her forehead to her nose is one broad straight slope. The rest of her body is elegant, tapering and graceful, and also mostly thin apart from her strong neck and chest. Her nostrils are large and circular.
Dawnfire has a ridge of long crest feathers running from the top of her head to the nape of her neck. They have the tapered, pointed shape of primary feathers, stick up even when relaxed, and are arranged edge-to-edge like fence posts, not lying flat against each other like a stack of papers.
She also has a shiny yellow ball hovering at her tail-tip (called a neri). It acts as a channel and focus for her magic and keeps her from radiating too much energy. Her glassy tail-blades hover like magnets around the neri, always retaining their overall flame-like shape. She has three blades, two large, one small, and best described via picture (I will make a tutorial on an easy way to draw them).
Dawnfire has typical Yakusian feet-flames that are shaped like actual flames because she's a Fire Yakusain, though they move slower and faster in tune with her excitement levels. They cloak all four feet (which are cheetah-shaped). They are not true fire but an excess of magic so they don't burn (unless willed to) and the weaker she is, the less "fire" there will be. She also has four nose-scales that are thin, flat, glassy and transparent with a slightly pinkish hue that span the width of her snout. Colors representing her emotions will move through them, and they function like solar panels to draw extra energy in, though they remain cool to the touch.
Dentition: She is an omnivore and has molars, canines, and incisors, but her mouth is very tiger-like, though her canines are relatively small.
Non-constants: Dawnfire's wings are made of pure magic (they blossom when she comes of age) and therefore "retractable". More accurately, she can dispel them at will--think of the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. Her claws are also retractable, but she keeps them out for grips while running, which keeps them blunted.
TEXTURE: Dawnfire has short, velvety fur and soft flesh. Very horselike. Her nose-scales, tail-blades, and neri are all cool, smooth, and glassy.
TEMPERATURE: Dawnfire is slightly warmer than normal to the touch. She radiates more body heat in proportion to her anger or magic usage.
COLORATION: Dawnfire is a pale yellow that darkens and blends from her underside to her back (ventral to dorsal), turning from yellow to peach to hot pink at her feathers to purple to dark purple and finally a small bit of black at her longest feather-tips. Her tail and legs only shade to peach at the darkest. She has a pale underbelly that goes halfway up her neck. (Once upon a time, I really wanted a Faerie Pteri (http://images.neopets.com/pets/pteri_faerie_baby.gif) on Neopets.)
Her wings, when showing, follow the same gradient--darkest at the longest feather-tips. Under the wings is paler yellow and the tops of the wings are more pink/peach.
Dawn's nose-scales are a slightly pinkish hue apart from the colors of emotions that move through them.
Her tail-blades radiate color from near the yellow-orange neri (floating ball) to the blade-tips moving from bright yellow to hot pink to violet, and at the very tips, black.
Dawnfire's eyes are Caribbean blue.
COMPOSITION: She is flesh (physical matter) built heavily from magic (energy)--specifically
ether. She is so saturated with magic that the flow of it in her is like a spiritual respiratory and immune system.
---Pros: She can withstand a great deal of damage and adjust readily to different flows of energy (electric, temperature, barometric) or flesh-based needs (oxygen, nutrition).
---Cons: Her flesh can deteriorate and fail, so she can be weakened or killed by a voider (Chantage) or hijacking magic (Naja's human shapeshifting necklace).
ACCESSORIES: None.
GAIT: Warhorse's arrogant stride. Dawnfire moves from her chest and neck. This gives her a confident stride and a bullish charge. She walks like a cheetah and runs in a horselike gallop. She keeps her chin up and head high, lending arrogance and authority to her movement, and when angry, her arched/hunched neck drives her posture.
SCENT: Dawnfire smells like oranges. (Magic smells like citrus from Yakusians. A lot of my characters smell a little citrusy if they have Yakusian blood.)