Yuda, an adolescent 'aquatic Hegyala.' You can see in these guys some of the distant relation between the Ynnwaw and Hegyalas. Yuda is on land because one of Rhom's violent storms literally threw him out of the ocean and smack into a cliff, which he clung onto for dear life using his hooked claws. He rode out the storm that way, but when the water was safe to drop into, it.... wasn't, because predators. So he took a huge chance and climbed UP instead. Imagine how surprised he was when there were people living up there!

Imagine how surprised THEY were when this ungainly floppy not!Hegyala crawled into town.

Some fun facts about the species:

- His throat is lined with teeth to help move long, struggling prey down his gullet. Charming!

- The arm fins have two muscle groups that allow the fins to be relaxed/stiffened and curved/bent to allow for greater control in underwater conditions.

- Adults have the distinctive deep ribcage/stiff arched neck/big hips that make Hegyalas so distinctive.

- As an adult, Yuda's back fins will grow long, trailing 'peaks'--the middle fin will develop two such peaks, a callback to the long cartiliginous 'frills' on the backs of Ynnwaw.

- In adulthood, his throat dewlap will also become a long ventral fin. On females, there will be two additional, smaller fins branching off from the neck that stop after the ribcage.

- This species has their nostrils up at the top of the skull because they still breathe oxygen, and so live in caves with underwater entrances.

Art by  Itsubun
Species, character, and planet by me