Shival

Physical
The shival is a member of the equine family, standing between five and five and a half feet at the shoulder. The coat is jet black, the mane and tail silver, and the eyes cobalt blue. Shivals have sharp, jagged teeth for rending flesh and powerful jaws for cracking bone. Their hooves are nearly as hard as steel to keep the razor-sharp leading edge from being ground down.

Diet
Shivals are carnivorous, preferring carrion over fresh meat. For this reason, they have been known to kill when not hungry so the meat has had time to age before they feed.

Behavior
Shivals are dangrous, ruthless predators, capable of running down most prey animals, including humans. Shivals have been known to kill dragons up to fifteen feet in length, using their jagged teeth to cripple their prey before dispatching it with blows from their sharp hooves, either by severing the spine or by disembowlment.

Shivals are solitary creatures, wandering ranges of hundreds of square miles. These ranges often overlap, however, confrontations occur seldom. Shivals avoid each other whenever possible, with the exception of mating.

A female shival will seek out a mate. When she finds a male of breeding age, she will test his suitability by running from him. If he can catch her, then she will mate with him.

Shivals have been known to rarely mate with unicorns, producing the sterile shivalicorn hybrid.

Reproduction
Females reach sexual maturity at three years, males at two years. Gestation lasts ten months. Within minutes of being born, a foal is able to stand and nurse. With half an hour, it is able to run alongside its mother. Foals are nursed for only four months. They grow quickly during this period. At seven or eight months of age, a shival foal has learned to scavenge and hunt, and its mother has little patience for it. By nine months, the foal is on its own.

Habitat
Shivals thrive in temperate forests, hills, and grasslands where prey is abundant.