Canis - Description

Canis usually takes the form of a large fusion of arctodus (an ancient form of enormous short-muzzled bear) and a midnight-black timber wolf. He stands, on all fours, at around 6 feet at the shoulder, his head a mixture of bear and wolf with thick, powerful jaws, bright green eyes beneath heavy brows, and sharpened ears. His body is bear-like, except tighter around the belly to show his lupine side, and terminating in a thickly furred tail. His legs are thicker than a wolf's would be, but leaner than a bear's, and his paws are lupine, but much larger and bearing long ursine claws. His fur is pitch black, except for a splotch of blood red around the center of his chest about a foot in diameter, trailing down to a point around his groin as if it's a permanent bloodstain from an injury, although it's obviously coloration and not hemoglobic in nature.

Though he rarely takes it, Canis is capable of taking a more humanoid and anthropomorphic form, which stands about 12 feet in height when standing upright, though he'll often crouch even in this form, as if he's just more comfortable on all fours. His arms in this form are long and somewhat ape-like, allowing him to comfortably run on all fours even in this form, and also retain their claws, though they are only about half the length they are in his feral form. His legs are digitigrade, the claws foreshortened on his feet as well to aid in upright walking. His head retains it's shape from it's feral form, though the vertebrae connect it to his neck in a manner allowing it to sit atop his head properly to stand completely erect without problems if he wants to. His neck is somewhat short, and his shoulders are wide and bulky, giving him a somewhat thuggish appearance.

Canis is incapable of speech in either form, though he communicates through telepathy if he chooses to, though he's picky about who he sends to. His telepathy is single-target unless specified, and he can broadcast his thoughts in as large an area as he can make his howls heard, though if sent to an individual he is familiar with, the range is nearly limitless.