Night Terror

* Night Terror
* Alpha Night Terror

### Fire Type:

Several discreet fire streams from each dragon coalesce into one giant fireball when in flock formation

### Features:

Double nasal horns
Horn under chin
Short fattish tail with four or more short, thin spikes on it

### Abilities:

Creates massive flocks to appear as a larger dragon to scare off predators
Combining small streams of fire into a massive fireball

### Colors:

Black and dark green (the normal variety)
White and light grey (Alpha of the pack)

### Diet:

Insects
Small Mammals
Fruit

## Statistics

### Obedience:

Very High

The **Night Terror** is a small Stoker Class dragon that lives in forests.

## Official Description

While these nocturnal, bat-like dragons may not seem menacing on their own, Night Terrors are a formidable force to be reckoned with when united.

Night Terrors are incredible fast and strong fliers and their ability to take the form of a larger dragon makes them a great threat to potential predators. As a result, they are quite useful as sentries.

Similar to other dragons who travel in packs, the Night Terrors respond to an Alpha, a slightly larger white dragon who is leader of all the others. Without the Alpha, the strength of the Night Terrors is lost and they become easy prey.

## Physical Appearance

### Egg

Night Terror eggs are small and dark in color. They have a wavy, thick, dark green fin surrounding the egg and it resembles the shape of the Night Terror's tail. They have patterns similar to its fin on its shell. These fins make the egg harder to swallow, and therefore deters predators.

### Hatchling to Adult

Night Terrors are small dragons that are slightly larger than Smothering Smokebreaths and Terrible Terrors. Each individual Night Terror is black in color, except for the Alpha. When they group together, especially at night, they appear to be all black in color and they form the shape of any large dragon. They have small teeth and a rounded tongue. They have two small horn-like ledges on top of their nose. They also appear to have a short tail with four, short, thin spikes attached at the ends.

    The Alpha is white and slightly larger than the others. It appears as an eye of the large dragon shape in the swarm of themselves or other dragons.

When born, the Night Terror is a dark shade of green. This is to help the baby Night Terror camouflage among bushes, trees, and other greenery to protect them from predators no matter what time of day. As Night Terrors age, their scales darken and become black, allowing them to blend in with the night.

### Titan Wing

Titan Wing Night Terrors are larger and their main body remains black while the horns and the end of their tail become blue. The ledges on top of their snout is longer and more wrinkly. Blue horn-like structures grow out of their neck and head and their claws grow sharper. Also, their whole tail is longer and appears to be sharper.

## Abilities

### Flocking

Night Terrors are able to fly closer together in order to form the shapes of larger, more terrifying dragons for protection. This behavior resembles that of European starling or certain schools of fish, who fly or swim together in order to appear larger so as to scare off predators. Each swarm has an Alpha who controls its fellow dragons and instruct them to form certain formations and often takes the spot of the dragon's eyes.

Their formations don't only show remarkable space awareness, but also incredible coordination as larger forms are able to do certain actions like flapping their wings, move body parts etc., reflecting the Night Terrors' ability to move collectively.

### Speed and Agility

Night Terrors are incredibly fast and strong fliers, especially when they are together in a swarm. This makes sense as moving in swarms, especially that of the shape of a dragon, which as a streamlined body, reduces air resistance and allows these dragons that form the body instead of the head, to travel faster.

### Strength and Combat

Despite their small size, individual Night Terrors are quite strong for their size, being able to carry humans weighing around 90 lbs with their claws.

### Dragon Controlling

The Alpha Night Terror can lead smaller Night Terrors, organizing them into a formidable flock that appears to be a larger dragon when posed with the threat of oncoming predators. Without the Alpha, these Terrors are susceptible to other dragons like Changewings as they cannot function as a team.

### Firepower

A single Night Terror breathes an admittedly small blast of fire. However, when a swarm of these dragons fires, the little shots can turn into a massive fireball.

### Intelligence

They are able to form the shape of other dragons, making themselves look bigger. They are even intelligent enough to divert migratory flocks of Fireworms by forming themselves into the shape of a Fireworm Queen, hoping they will be followed by the smaller Fireworms.

## Weaknesses

Night Terrors are incredibly weak on their own, as they have very small fire blasts, not much strength and are very skittish and jumpy without their leader, so by capturing the Alpha Night Terror you could probably take down the whole flock.

The Night Terror's disguise as a larger dragon would easily fail during the day, as a predator could see the white of the Alpha and the outlines of all of the other Night Terrors in the daylight. This is why Night Terrors are nocturnal.

The Night Terror also has a natural blind spot behind its body, due to how forwardly-positioned the dragons eyes are.

## Personality and Behavior

Night Terrors live in huge multi-gendered packs that work together to solve problems. The majority are not immediate family members, but still somewhat related distinctly. They have a strict hierarchy with how they answer the leader. When the pack leader is killed or lost in some way, the males eventually start fighting for the lead position. Not only do they fight physically by headbutting each other, but they also fight with hormones.

The males produces a new wave of hormones, one of these being a repressor that prevents other males from developing these hormones to full capacity. The first to release the repressor hormone for the others is most likely to come out on top. Hormonal changes cause the melanin in its scales to alter and it increases in size, eventually becoming the White Alpha Night Terror of the flock.

Although Night Terrors do breed within their groups during breeding season, the Alpha gets top breeding rights and is usually able to mate with any female he chooses. However, they do not mate for life. Night Terrors breed annually and only lay one egg at a time.

## Training

Night Terrors are highly trainable dragons both individually or in a group. They can easily be trained to fetch, form different shapes as a group, and even guard an island by utilizing their natural protective instincts.

To tame one, simply feed it and it will trust you. Be careful, though, as these dragons are intelligent enough to know if you have bad intentions.

## Trivia

* The Night Terror is originally from the How to Train Your Dragon universe.
* The Night Terror's hormone system is inspired by the biology of real life Naked Mole Rats, who have the exact same repressor hormone!

## Gallery

©KandymationA swarm of Night Terrors leading a flock of Fireworms shaped as a Fireworm Queen©Voltaic-Soda©chocomony
## Image Sources

1. White Night Terror by Kandymation on Tumblr
2. Night Terror by Voltaic-Soda on DeviantArt
3. Night Terror by chocomony on Tumblr