Hybrid biology is weird.

When a child is born to parents of mixed species, there is approximately a 50% chance that they will be the same species as the mother, regardless of what those two species happen to be. Similarly, there is about a 40% chance of them taking after the father. The remaining 10% end up like Balina, some form of hybrid between the two.

In times before modern science, it was assumed that this was as far back as things went. Current understanding and genetic sequencing has shown this view to be somewhat less than comprehensive; no matter how one might appear, everyone still receives half their genes from each parent, and even those who seem to take exclusively after one still have the blood of their other in their veins. The 50/40/10 rule does apply, but only when both parents are 100% a single species. Which, it turns out, is far less universal than previously assumed.

The specifics and mechanisms of this mingling are still poorly understood. Up until around the early 1800s, a wide variety of cultural and religious taboos made mixed-species partnerships unfavorable at most social levels. Society has generally acknowledged and recognized these to be nonsense, and each generation has been a little more open to exploration than the ones that came before. Hybrids of all shapes and sizes are considerably more common than they used to be, and it's suspected that they will become increasingly so for at least the next few hundred years.

A fun little what-if I got from fruitsloops; dragons and moofs are closer than really seems plausible, sometimes. Swap out fur for scales and you're already most of the way there.

I don't really know if this is going to lead to any actual design changes, though those have been famous last words before. A little (or a lot) of dragon blood in her family history might be a useful way to explain some of her other silliness, like how she keeps turning out to be almost supernaturally malleable.

Art: fruitsloops (original)