Water Dragons

WATER DRAGONS

SCIENTIFIC NAME- *Celerthalasso Bloyoriensis*

DIET-Piscivore

HABITAT-Oceans, Large lakes.

APPEARANCE

Water dragons have a build similar to seals, however they have a total of six fins going down their sides, the largest being at the front of the body and the smallest being at the end. They have several smaller fins on the head that they use to communicate with each other.

The tail has large, powerful fins like a dolphin's. They have narrow heads with rows of sharp teeth. They can grow to be about 7-6 feet long, and reach speeds of up to 45 mph in the water.

Each dragon has a unique pattern, with wavy stripes and small dots randomly scattered. They can be a large range of blue colors, green, and even a bit white. They have dark, black eyes. The peblets start out gray, even black at times, and as they grow more and more of the true pattern begins to show. There is no noticeable difference between the males and females.

BEHAVIOR

They live in small pods, usually made up of families. Once the young in the group are old enough, about 2 years old, they are sent out on their own to find a mate and start their own pod. Rival pods will often fight for territory, but these are nothing more than skirmishes that only lead to minor injuries.

They have a complex language made up of fin movements and high pitched calls, and are one the most intelligent dragons. The Aqua Flute, made by some of the first dragonbloods, managed to help tame and command them. Very few of these remain.

They hunt large prey by swarming them. Using their speed, they’ll often swim circles around the prey, confusing them and creating a small whirlpool before out of nowhere lunging at them with rows of teeth. They have so many teeth because of how they function; after biting the teeth are made to fall out, getting lodged into the animal. That helps them keep track of it, with a scent, in case it somehow escapes them. These teeth almost instantly regrow. Once impaled, these teeth contain a small amount of paralyzing venom that slows the creature down. And once slowed and confused, they’ll eat it alive. They’ll hunt things like sharks, large fish, dolphins, and if desperate, will even venture down deeper to find and kill things like giant squid.

The mating process is a little odd. Once two partners are ready, the female will leap onto one of the flatter rocks to give live birth to peblets. They can have up to 6 in one batch. Once laid, the female immediately hops back down into the water to avoid drying out. They’ll guard this rock until they are ready to become fully aquatic, defending them with their lives, and bring them small bits of food as often as they can.

There are many predators that will fly down to make an easy meal out of them, most notably lighting dragons and water powered crystal dragons. Luckily, the little balls not only have good camo, but can also harden the scales if threatened. And because of their bad eyesight, they often false trigger. They become so hard, most things have trouble chewing them, giving the adults time to scare off the attack by spraying water.

To humans, it’s nothing but an annoyance to humans, to other dragons, the spit on the water is made to irritate the scales. Most of the time this is enough to ward the attacking dragon off, but if not, the adults will not hesitate to attack but jump up on the rock. This often ends in the parents dying, however. They are hopeless on land. They'll completely dry out if left out of water in just an hour.

The great storms in Bolyoria has caused the deaths of adults and peblets alike, due to the wind blowing them off the land and the adults getting thrown around by waves, often resulting in getting fatality smashed into a rock. If they have young, the parents will jump onto the rock to shield the peblets from harm. Thankfully because of the rain they don't need to worry about drying out. (edited)

As the peblets grow, the parents will slowly introduce them to water, and teach them how to swim. This process begins at about a month old, when the fins are starting to develop. One day, they'll never return back to that rock.

COMPETITION

These dragons face quite a bit of competition. Both lighting and water powered crystal dragons eat mostly the same prey. This led to many fights over freshly killed prey, and territory.

Unfortunately, the water dragons are often the ones that lose these fights. Water crystal dragons can easily overpower them with size and strength. Lightning dragons only appear during storms, but will often prey upon ones on land caring for the young.

Outside of Boloyoria, they are practically extinct. Only about 50 are still alive and because of people actively killing them and using the peblets scale ability to make armor, those last 50 are fixed to live in lakes or at worst rivers. They are struggling here, barely getting enough food and they are not at all adapted to those waters.

In Draelvary, the small lake contains most of the population. Taken care of by Maddie, she makes sure each is fed and breeding well. She hopes to one day release them back into the oceans, once safe.

KNOWN WATER DRAGONS

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