Dragon Information

Physical Properties

Caer Catena's dragons, as their evolution requires, are built to fight - they are naturally lean and aerodynamic, with wings that are hawk-like in shape for speed and agility. A broad ribcage provides room for a large heart and pair of lungs, and the chest is thick with muscles to power flight. The spinal column, which runs down the back of the neck, is protected by a row of spines, which are sturdy and made of an antler-like material. Their eyes have slitted, cat-like pupils that can expand or contract rapidly to adjust to different levels of light.

Dragons range in size from twenty to forty feet at their full adult length, from tip of nose to tip of tail. Few dragons grow larger than this, though genetic mutations may yield physical alterations that include unusually small size. A dragon's wingspan is usually one-and-a-half to twice his or her body length, and height at the shoulder is about one-third his or her body length.

A dragon's hide is covered by thick scales, rather like those found on a rattlesnake - durable, overlapping plates of a keratin-like protein, which have a keel running down their center to deflect light. Depending on the size of the dragon, each scale may be between the diameter of a coin and the width of one's palm, and it is common for scale size on each individual dragon to vary greatly. Scales are often pulled out while fighting, or they may loosen and fall out of their own accord, and usually grow back within the next two or three days. Some dragons' scales fall regularly throughout the year, while others undergo a period of molting about once a season in which large quantities of scales come loose and drop over the course of three to five days.

All mature dragons are able to breathe fire through the excretion of flammable gas. This gas is produced and stored in a gland called a flame sack, which is located in their upper chest. A tube that is lined with phosphorus leads from the flame sack to the mouth; when a dragon wishes to breathe fire, he or she forces gas out of the gland, where it mixes with the phosphorus in the tube. This mixture ignites on contact with the air and produces an intensely hot, yellow-white flame. Small glands in the dragon's cheeks produce a chemical that acts as a flame retardant and coats the mouth prior to breathing fire. The best of fighters are able to exhale a plume of fire about equal to their body length.

In close-quarter fighting, a dragon may also use his or her teeth and claws as weapons. Dragon teeth are sturdy, and like those of a crocodile, pointed slightly backwards to ensure a powerful grip, and their claws are designed for gripping and hunting large animals. In addition, the dragon's tail can be used effectively like a bludgeon to knock smaller creatures off-balance.

Colors

Dragons at Caer Catena come in eleven different colors. Colors do not dictate size, strength, intelligence, or gender, nor do they create a ranking system or any sort of hierarchy. However, some colors are more common than others (the exact reason isn't clear, though several evolutionary theories have been presented). Green and blue each make up about twenty percent of the dragon population. Purple makes up about fifteen percent, as does brown. Cream and red are each ten percent. This set, sometimes referred to as the chromatic colors, makes up in total about ninety percent of the dragons hatched at Caer Catena. It is not infrequent for chromatic dragons to have a great deal of color variation - for example, darker or lighter points, blotches of different hues, the occasional white scale, et cetera.

Much less common are the metallic colors, which are bronze, gold, and silver. These together compose another nine percent of the population, between them being roughly equal at about three percent each. Evolutionarily, their rarity is logical - their marbled and metallic scales are much easier to see, even in dim light, making hunting and avoiding other hostile dragons more difficult.

The two rarest colors, black and white, make up the remaining one percent. It is thought that their unusual coloring - solid black and almost albino-white - are due to rare, recessive genes. Unlike the other colors, there is seldom any variation in a black dragon's scale color, and none at all in a white's.

Rarest of all - almost negligible when calculating population demographics - are the mutation colors. Mutant color genes can create dazzling combinations, nearly anything from mixing two or more existing colors, to adding swirls or blotches of a completely new color, to unusual markings. Sometimes a physical alteration can manifest itself, but this is extremely rare. However, dragons with a mutant color gene often pass it on to some of their offspring, and it is common to see one or more mutation colors hatch from a clutch with an odd-colored parent.

Mating and Development

Female dragons may rise to mate as often as every two months, but usually never clutch more often than once a year. A mating flight can be a spectacular ordeal, especially if there are a large number of males participating. The contest may become one of size and strength, as the most physically fit male outflies the others and captures the female; it may be determined by the female's choice after watching the males show off.

If the mating is successful, the female will lay her clutch after a month or five weeks. During this time, she is not permitted to fly, and often for the last two weeks, her weight renders her unable to lift off. Once the eggs have developed, she will enter the Caer Dunes and select a place to lay her eggs.

Depending on the size and age of the female, the clutch may range from five to twenty eggs. The female usually will partially bury her brood to keep them warm and protected while the eggshells harden. Over the next nine or ten weeks, the embryos develop inside the shells, kept warm by the heat of the sand and sometimes by the mother's fire breath.

At hatching, most dragons are no larger than five feet from nose to tail. Their wings are small, stubby, and generally useless for the first five or six months of their lives. Most hatchlings' claws and scales are not developed and may take a week or ten days to harden properly. Their neck spines will be little more than nubs for as long as two months. Their teeth are usually near-fully developed, however, and they need feeding very soon after hatching. Before humans arrived, the Caer's resident dragons would be given the honor of hunting for the clutch mother and for her children.

For the first seven months of their life, as their bodies develop and grow, hatchlings need to eat several times a day. During these first months, they will grow to more than half of their adult size, and their wings will have begun to take on more mature proportions. They will begin testing their wings at around eight or nine months, but most will not be able to fly successfully until they are a full year old, and none are allowed to carry their rider until they are a year and a half, at which point they will have gained their adult proportions and will be close to their adult size. By this point, they will need to feed only every three or four days, and most will be able to hunt successfully on their own.

A dragon reaches physical maturity at around three years, though most will have reached their adult size by two-and-a-half. Males are sexually mature and often enter their first mating flight by this time, while females are not fertile and will not rise for another seven months. By three years old, they are released from Fledgling Training and are free to fight for the Caer of their birth or transfer to another Caer of their choice.

T-power

Almost all dragons possess mental abilities that resemble psychic powers. There are three specific abilities that most dragons have to some degree: telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation.

Telepathy is communication from one mind to another. Dragons use telepathy to speak to one another, and a dragon can speak to his or her bonded human and sense his or her thoughts via this ability. However, a human cannot speak mentally to anyone other than his or her bond, and other dragons cannot speak telepathically to him or her. All dragons possess this ability.

Telekinesis is the production of motion in objects without physical contact. Dragons can use this skill to move an inanimate object without touching it - for example, they can move rocks or logs that are blocking a path, create wind in the air or waves in water, or suspend an injured dragon or human in the air to prevent him or her from falling. Some dragons are more proficient at this skill than others. Almost all dragons can move small objects such as books or pebbles. However, moving objects much larger than a cat or dog becomes increasingly difficult and requires more talent or training. Multiple dragons may be required to move large boulders or lift one of their own kind, and the difficulty of any telekinesis increases as the target gets further and further away. Telekinesis is also used by dragons to speak "out loud" to nearby humans. By making the air molecules vibrate, they can mimic human vocal sounds, enabling them to speak to humans other than their bond.

Teleportation is a mode of instantaneous transportation of matter from one location to another. This is the most difficult part of T-power and requires careful training. Using it, a dragon can instantly go to any place that he or she knows the location of. This is an extremely valuable skill, enabling whole fleets of dragons to jump instantly to wherever they are needed. Dragons who are extremely proficient can transport themselves, their rider, and considerable luggage to locations that are thousands of miles away - some can even jump to other habitable planets. Dragons with this amount of talent are very rare, however, and some dragons are unable to teleport at all. It is very easy to accidentally teleport to a position inside another object - for example, fledglings who teleport too close to the ground sometimes get stray body parts trapped in the earth. While this is easy to escape by teleporting again into the air, it is highly dangerous and often results in injury. Teleportation itself takes a heavy toll in terms of fatigue.

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