Busby Dragon

*"**Busby dragons** are known for their constructive directive, but a particular colony was suffering from destructive motive. They were building a new home to house their whole community, but every adult wanted to create their own section single-wingedly. This spread chaos and confusion until the entire project was in disarray. One baby **busby dragon** witnessed the breakdown and waddled into the middle of the mess. It started humming a tune and dancing. Every adult dragon stopped and stared at the energetic hatchling. One, two, then a few, started dancing; before long they were all in sync. The baby **busby dragon** orchestrated them to work together in perfect harmony, all the while dancing. In no time at all, their new home was finished and fantastic. "*
    —Nogard's description of the **busby dragon** in The Book of Dragons

The **Busby Dragon** is an epic dragon of the Chrysalis element.

## Appearance

**Busby dragons** are sleek, dark gray dragons with a back stripe running down from their forehead all the way to their back. They have a pair of horn-like stingers on their head, a single pair of white arms with short claws, and emerald green, insectoid wings. Their natural sleekness is rarely seen, as their entire torso and the very tip of their tail is covered by thick, yellow-and-black striped fur.

## Abilities

### Weapons

The horn-like stingers on their head not only are very sharp, but inject a venom. This venom isn't deadly, but creates a sharp, lingering pain at the sting site, and causes the sting to swell.

### Defenses

**Busby dragons** have fur thick enough that predators have to take some time cutting through the fur before then can reach the actual dragon.

### Other Abilities

**Busby dragons** are known for their teamwork skills, and are often very well synchronized with other dragon, especially fellow Chrysalis dragons. It's believed that there may be a magical source behind this, as **busby dragons** have been observed to flinch when a **busby dragon** from their colony is injured. More research is definitely required.

### Weaknesses

Thanks to it's brightly colored wings and fur, as well as the fact it's wings loudly buzz, **busby dragons** aren't very stealthy. **Busby dragons** are also easy to blackmail; all you need to do to get a **busby dragon** to share it's secrets is to threaten a member of it's colony.

## Habitat

### Preferred Home

In large, geometrical structures they build out of wood, amber, and dried honey, called hives.

### Sheltering/Nesting

**Busby dragons** live in hexagonal holes in the walls of their hives, called cells. These cells are customized to the **busby dragon's** needs; **busby dragons** raising children, however, tend to build nests out of leaves, flowers, and sticks inside of their cells.

## Diet

**Busby dragons** are nectarivores, and either drink nectar from flowers or suck juices from fruits or Dragon Treats. Their favorite flower by far, however, is the Otherminded Busby. While the Otherminded Busby most of time takes over the brains of dragons who inhale it's pollen, the **bubsy dragon** is immune to the pollen, allowing it to drink the sweet nectar.

## Lifestyle

### Behavior and Personality

**Busby dragons** are hard workers, and lazy **busby dragons** are about as rare as flying earth dragons. **Busby dragons** often take turns guarding their hives, building cells for other **busby dragons** to live in, and gathering nectar. When observed not doing chores for the hive, **busby dragons** are known for being as social as a plant dragon, although loner **busby dragons** aren't unheard of.

### Social Order

**Busby dragons** live in large colonies. They're lead by a single female **busby dragon**, who is called the queen. Once a colony is established, the colony rarely moves unless their hive is destroyed. Wild **busby dragons** are highly unwelcoming to outsiders, although they are more welcoming to fellow Chrysalis dragons.

### Relationship to Wizards

**Busby dragons** don't exactly have the best reputation in the Vale. Many people fear **bubsy dragons** as a bringer of bad luck, do to the unnatural, uncanny look of their hives, the fact that they can sting with what appear to be their horns, and how they eat the Otherminded Busby without harm. **Busby dragons** have become more popular in recent years however, as they help prevent growth of the Otherminded Busby.

The DDLA has ranked **busby dragons** at 2, since they are usually harmless, but will sting and sometimes ram into people when provoked.

## When in a park

### Breeding

**Busby dragons** can be bred with a lacewing dragon and a marbletail dragon.

### Habitats

**Busby dragons** can only be kept in Chrysalis Habitats.

### How to care for

If you start finding large wooden clusters in your Chrysalis Habitat ever since you placed a **busby dragon** in it, don't worry; building hives is instinctual for **busby dragons**. It's ill-advised to keep a **bubsy dragon** in a habitat all by itself, as **bubsy dragons** are social by nature and can fall into a depression without social interaction.

### Dragon Compatibility

Parkborn **bubsy dragons** work well with most other Chrysalis dragons, but are the most social with the lacewing, marbletail, and fellow**bubsy dragons**.

### Favorite Treat

**Bubsy dragons** are known for drinking the juice out of the Dragon Treats offered to them instead of actually eating the treat. As such, they prefer Cacti-Snacks, Dragon Snaps, Dragon Fruits, and Jelly Plants, as their juice tastes the best.

## Life Cycle

### Mating

Oddly for most species of dragons, it's the female who first attracts the male, instead of the other way around. During springtime, female **bubsy dragons** will try to wow male **bubsy dragons** with the sharpness of their stingers, the thickness of their fur, and how good they are at protecting the hive. They may also offer flowers and nectar to male **bubsy dragons** to further attract them.

### Birth

Once a **bubsy dragon** has successfully found a mate, the male **bubsy dragon** will move into the female's cell. The female and the male **bubsy dragon** will begin working together to make a nest. The gestational period lasts about three months, and **bubsy dragons** tend to lay four or five eggs. Once the eggs have been laid, all the **bubsy dragons** in the colony will work together to care for the eggs.

### Infancy

Baby **bubsy dragons** only occasionally leave the cell they were born in. While they're mostly cared for by their parents, the entire colony works to gather nectar and flowers for the young **bubsy dragon**.

### Adolescence

Once they reach adolescence, **bubsy dragons** move out of their parents' cell and build their own cell. They also begin building up the hive, although they don't begin gathering nectar or guarding the hive. The other bubsy dragons collect lots of nectar for the juvenile **bubsy dragon**, so it can collect enough energy to grow into an adult.

### Adulthood

**Bubsy dragons** gain a huge surge of Petaloudamancy once they reach adulthood, allowing them to finally grow from their larva forms into their adult forms. It's at this stage they begin guarding the hive and gathering nectar.

### Lifespan

**Bubsy dragons** can live up 10 years at best by themselves, but under the protection of their colony or a wizard/witch, they can live to 40.

## History

### Discovery

**Bubsy dragons** were first discovered many years ago. Do to the bizarre, creepy look of their hives, their painful stings, and how they ate the Otherminded Busby, the early humans feared them, and even today people still fear them.

### Origin of Name

**Bubsy dragons** were named for their tendency to eat the Otherminded Busby.