So fancyscales

The elf owl was hard to translate into SandWing colours face-wise but the wings were an absolute blast. They have pretty unique patterning on there and turning it into a simplified WOF design was so fun.

And look! She's tiny!!

PineWings are also about the same size as an average human, and for her to properly come across as an elf owl Gylfie has to be super short. If I make Digger smaller than a regular SandWing like Sunny, then it just becomes a thing in this AU that SandWing hybrids are small XD

Gylfie (from Ga'Hoole)

Species: elf owl, Micranthene whitneyi

Miniscule strigiform, enormous words! It doesn't matter if you're ten times her size, Gylfie will stand up for herself without hesitation! Great grays are massive and yet Gylfie has no qualms squaring up to Twilight as soon as she meets him XD. She even uses words he doesn't recognize XD

Her attitude goes beyond just standing up for smaller owls, though. She flies by Soren's side in his quest to reach the Guardians of Ga'Hoole no matter how hard the journey is. Like him, she was snatched by St. Aggies, although her snatching wasn't an accident like Soren's was. She had jumped from her cactus hollow nest and, considering her personality, it makes sense she would want to try flying before she was ready. She actually owns up to it, however, unlike another character, which negatively influences Soren's opinion of them.

She and Soren also have a super deep and beautiful friendship. They've been together since the beginning and quite literally wouldn't have survived without each other. Gylfie, being a desert owl, knew about moon-blinking while Soren caught on to the way St Aggies tried to steal the meaning of their names. They did so much more together and it shows later in the series, where they do a sort of moving meditation to think over plans or times when they almost lose each other. I was sobbing when I thought they were in danger because Lasky wrote their friendship so beautifully.

Gylfie (the WOF version)

Tribes: SandWing/PineWing

Small dragon, big words! As a desert owl I started her design with a SandWing and completed it with the PineWing. It kind of works out because elf owls nest in cactuses and PineWings have quills like cactus spines XD

I didn't want to go too red for her main scale colour, but I think I handled the patterning relatively well. The face was tough since it relies more on colour than structure but I feel like I got her personality better. Dark scales around a SandWing's eyes just looks so cool too. When mixing sand/pine colours I tended to go more grey with the green and it ended up being well-suited for the more grey parts of the elf owl patterning.