In case anyone else is mining this thread for ideas, I have found a good way of describing how a Scatha looks, and I thought I'd post it. I have an early scene with a mysterious character who looks like a Scatha, yet subtly different. (His true nature will not be revealed until late in the book.) We have a bystander who comments on those subtle differences. Examples:
Quote:
Then it struck him: That is a strange-looking dax. His scales were pure
black, glossy like some kind of precious stone. Rian had never seen a black
Scatha before. Blue, red, occasionally green, but never black. How could I
not notice this straight away?
...
The mysterious pair became yet more mysterious by the moment. The
dark one’s tail was strangely snaky, whipping back and forth like that of a
cat. Certainly nothing like the mostly rigid tail of any normal Scatha. His
snout was slender in the middle but widened slightly at the end, unlike
the blunted triangle forms of ordinary Scathaese snouts. The ridges above
his eyes were unnaturally elongated, tapering backwards almost like horns.
And that glow in his eyes. Baleful, and yet fascinating. Rian half-imagined
the black-scaled one to be some mighty Dragon or daemon out of legend.
...
From his hiding place, not comprehending a word, Rian saw the tall dax
straighten and flex the finger of his left hand. The boy squinted, then gaped.
Those were not Scathaese fingers! Each of them sported a long claw! And
when he looked closer, the black one’s smile revealed not Scathaese teeth
(which were no sharper than Humans’) but fangs, like those of a snake!
|