Lightning Dragons

LIGHTING DRAGONS

SCIENTIFIC NAME- Dracos Fulgures

DIET-CARNIVORES

HABITAT-Tall mountains, Oceans

APPEARANCE

About the same size as an ice dragon, a bit bigger, and they have a wyvern build with a bit of a twist. While they do have large wings they use to walk on, they also have clawed arms. They may be pretty short, but they can still be used to hold objects unlike most other wyverns, who only have their talons and mouth. They have large and pointed heads, some have even cut themselves on the side of the dragon’s face. They also have long and pointed tails that they not only wrap around the rock they perch on but can be used as a whip.

They have two 7 foot long, windy and curved horns on the back of their head. The tips of the horns bend in toward each other. They use these massive horns to not only attract, but also absorb lightning strikes. The horns themselves are made to hold electricity, and if one has been struck, you can see sparks of lightning zap between the horns until settling. When they start getting more and more charged, you can even see the horns begin to glow.

Some of this power is also given to the teeth. The horn’s actually grow into the skull, making a pathway for electricity to be shot down to the fangs if needed. The rest of the dragon’s body is adapted to not be very conductive to avoid injury. They have surprising small and thin, but very sharp teeth. They focus more on delivering a shock than crushing bones or ripping flesh.

Females have shorter horns, but longer and sharper tails. The colors also tend to be more dull compared to the males. They have very striking patterns, with grays, blues, whites, and blacks. The horns themselves are always black.  As for their eyes, most of the time they will be a dull gray. But if stressed, angered, or hunting, they’ll flash a dark blue.

BEHAVIOR

Ironically, though they are known for being one of the smarter and scarier dragons, they are pretty lazy. Only hunting at night, and when they have to. Some even wait to hunt until there’s a thunderstorm. They spend over half of their entire lives perched on a rock, they’re long tails wrapping around the perch, asleep. The way they sleep also kind of unnerves people. They sleep sitting up tall, the wings folded at the sides and the arms clung to the chest. Their heads hanging low, eyes closed. People compare them to demonic statues.

When they hunt, they have the greatest eyesight of any dragon. Using this eyesight, they are able to see things hiding in the water in Bolyoria, or from the tops of large mountains in Draelvary. Rather than swoop down and kill the animal, they create a ball of electricity in between the two curving horns, and from the charging ball a beam of lighting will strike and fry the prey, or several if in the ocean.

These dragons are committed to using as little energy as possible, they’ll ignore pretty much everything. Unless it proves to be an actual threat, they will not attack. Just continue sleeping.

The mating process is long, one of the reasons they have gone extinct in Draelvary. If two males go after the same female, they’ll spar. First the males will size each other up, head bobbing and swinging their heads to intimidate each other. Then, they jump into the air, bow their heads at each once ready, then send beams of lighting at each other. The dragon who has the stronger beam will push the other’s back, causing a small explosion as it hits the other’s horns. The losing male will bow his head again before flying off.

The male will then show off to the female, flaring its wings and thrashing its tail. If she approves, they mate. Once they have found a nesting spot and the eggs are laid, the eggs will have to be shot with the male’s lightning in order to hatch. The stronger the beam, the stronger the hatchlings will be. Once this is done, the males leave to females to raise them alone.

The only time a lighting dragon will attack seemingly unprovoked is if it is a female with hatchlings. They get very protective at this time. The hatchlings start out with no horns or teeth, these will grow in the span of 5-6 years. If struck with small or no horns, they will die, so females make sure to hide them under their wings during storms to keep them safe until they are ready. After growing up, they are sent to live solitary lives.

COMPETITION

They were killed off entirely in Draelvary, due to lack of prey and being used in the dragon wars. They used to live around the same area as ice dragons, but the ice dragons were able to scare them off, and because of the more active hunting style they could get to the food before they could.

In Bolyoria however, while still rare, can be found in healthy numbers at the very least. They have little competition, and do most of their hunting as the apex predator during the large storms, otherwise they are probably hiding asleep on one of the many pointed rocks. They are one of the only dragons that have the power to fly in these winds. Still competing for food with water and water powered crystal dragons, but it’s not much of a problem because they might opt to just eat them instead.

KNOWN LIGHTNING DRAGONS

-Thraz (deceased)

-Senzo