You folks all know how much I 'love' horses, especially killer horses with carnivore mouths and seem determined to tag me in the relevant posts at every opportunity, but one we haven't touched on so far is the Hurrok from @tamorapierce 's Tortall.
The hurrok, or horse-hawk, is a flying, carnivorous hexapod that superficially resembles a pegasus, but with bat wings, clawed feet, a carnivore head. Other than that, completely normal horse.
Great.
So let's start with the Pegasus from this post, with required modifications to turn that creature plan into a Hurrok. A lot of that post is still relevant, but with some modifications.
Bat wings do not function like bird wings do. Firstly, they are extended digits with a membrane between them, and that membrane extends down to the hnd legs in many species. For the Hurrok to truly have a 'bat wing' that membrane would likely need to extend all the way across the body to at least the thighs, and those hind legs would also need to be capable of better lateral movement than the horse.
If this beasts truly flies on 'bat wings', then there is nowhere you can stand where it cannot strike you.
It is also described with having talons on its feet instead of hooves, which on the one hand is so much worse, but on the other is actually pretty cool. If this creature if by necessity more flexible than the standard horse or pegasus, and it has grabby talons on the end of each limb, it could grab and drag things from any direction, tearing things apart in the air with as much aerobatics as falcons can display. It could reasonably eat in flight.
Another advantage of bat wings over bird is that the Hurrok doesn't require any specialized beak to groom them, though if it has a carnivorous diet then getting little blood drops and skerricks of flesh off those wings might be difficult. Bats often have relatively long tongues, and a cat-like texture is ideal for removing bits of prey from your body and maintaining a sleek shape.
So yeah, these carnivorous flying horses should have long cat tongues.
Aside from any other reason, they need to be able to clean those talons and their face. A hairless face might make feeding vulture-style more hygienic, but does nothing to encourage a cute or cuddly appearance.
A carnivorous diet has some distinct advantages in reducing the size and weight of the digestive system required to process it, a bonus for flight there. A 'carnivore's head' suggests that these animals are capable of opening their jaw to a much wider extent, like the dog mouths photoshopped onto horses that you're all so fond of tagging me in, and with more forward facing eyes. The light weight guts would also be aided by preferentially consuming calorie dense foods – like fatty tissue and marrow.
This only adds more weight towards a vulture feeding style, tearing a hole in the carcass and poking their head through to get to soft, fatty innards and ignoring the skin and muscle wall until later in the meal.
So the Hurroks in my mind need that added flexibility, wing membranes extending down the body, a hairless head and a long, cat-like tongue.
But my mind did not need that mental image at all.
This species was voted for by my wonderful Patreon supporters
I was testing the new drawing stuff my mom bought me, and this is the result - an unicorn and a hurrok, enjoy. The anatomy is a little screwed up, but oh well, like I said, this was a test for my new so-called 'artist's leads', or whatever. Blargh, i can't use charcoals x_X Gotta practice a bit.
