Royal Kite
Royal Kites are solitary, nocturnal dragons that patrol the skies over the Sanori grasslands. Their massive wingspan allows them to take full advantage of the windy plains. They appear weightless as they glide through the skies for hours searching for prey.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Royal Kites are long and slender. They have long necks, tails, and legs. Their wing slits extend from behind their shoulder to nearly the tip of their tail. The resulting wingspan is greater than or equal to their total length. Their bodies are covered with short, stiff fur. They have a soft undercoat to keep them warm in the cold wind.
Their four limbs end in three toes tipped with sharp talons. They are quadrupedal and digitigrade. Their tails are double the length of the front half of their body and taper to be whip-thin.
Their faces are elongated and slender with large front-facing eyes. The fur thickens and plumes out on their eyebrow ridge, shielding the eyes from light above. When upset, they puff out the fur on their neck for added protection and to make themselves appear bigger. They have long, pointed ears. Their mouths have a combination of tooth types for piercing, slicing, and crushing.
Draconic Flight
As dragons, Royal Kites can generate floatglass wings from their backs. They keep their wings generated for most of their waking hours, dismissing them only when they land to rest.
Their special wings don't seem to experience fatigue in the same way flesh wings do, which allows the dragons to soar the skies seemingly indefinitely.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Royal Kites are strict carnivores. They prey upon small mammals and reptiles, such as foxes, rabbits, rats, and snakes. They will sometimes go after juvenile deer or horses, but their frames are too delicate to take down anything that weighs more than them. When especially desperate, they may attack wolves.
Royal Kites eat many small meals throughout the day. They may make as many as twenty kills in a single night.
They primarily hunt by gliding high in the sky while scouring the grasses for food. When they spot something of interest, they dive lower and fire a Glowbolt to scare their prey from its hiding space. If they have a good angle, they can snatch their target from the ground while still flying. Otherwise, they land and use their long legs to close the gap.
On the ground, Kites will use their sharp sense of smell and hearing to detect crawling or burrowing prey, such as snakes or rats. They may use Glowbolts to herd prey into more accessible locations. Once the prey is caught, they ascend back to the sky to eat their meal midair.
Sometimes Kites will follow packs of wolves and descend upon the scraps once the pack has moved on. They may eat fresh corpses but can't stomach the advanced stages of decay.
Additional Information
Average Intelligence
Royal Kites are known for their intuition. They are very cautious creatures and never let their guard down. Though they are curious, they are unlikely to take risks, and will quickly abandon a situation if there is a hint of danger.
They have great memories and are familiar with all of their territory, even if it may seem like formless swaths of grass to an outsider. They can remember and identify individual animals and people, though they don't seem to carry strong emotional ties to either of them.
Though not typically aggressive, Kites can be deadly if provoked. Their sharp teeth and talons coupled with their whip-like tail can deal serious damage.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Royal Kites have excellent eyesight. They have full-color vision and night vision. On a bright moonlit night, they can spot a rabbit from a hundred yards.
Their sense of smell is also exquisite. When on the ground, they can sniff out burrowing mammals with ease and detect the scent of blood on the wind from miles away. Their olfactory skills can even compete with wolves.
Since they can move their ears independently and twist them almost a full 180 degrees, they can easily pinpoint the direction of sounds. They are better at hearing higher frequencies than lower ones.
I love them <3 I like that they can rotate their ears indpendently.