On Dragons

Dragons are best understood as colossal, mountain-adapted avian reptiles, averaging nearly one hundred feet from snout to tail. Their dorsal scales, coated with a clear down, are a dark, rock-grey that blends seamlessly with cliff and scree, while their underbellies shade toward grey-blue. With elongated necks, they have the ability to look in any direction with their forward-facing eyes, similar to those of a hawk’s. The forelimbs have become true wings, like an enormous bird’s, leaving them poorly suited for ground-level locomotion. Their wings, while mostly bare and leathery like those of a bat, have the vestiges of feathers that match their bodies. Crucially, they cannot achieve flight from a standing start; they must launch themselves from elevated perches, hence why they are found almost exclusively among the greater mountain ranges. They hunt in loose packs, gliding above the slopes before stooping in sudden, brutal dives to seize prey with their hind limbs. A specialized gland in the throat produces a naft-like fluid that ignites on contact with air and clings to whatever it strikes, making even a glancing exhalation devastating. They are most vulnerable when trapped on the ground and denied the air. Yet even then, it takes a disciplined, well-armed company to bring one down with any hope of surviving the attempt.