Drake

A draconian creature often seen between the size of a large dog or small horse. Once utilized by people for work or warfare, their numbers are now dwindling.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Drakes are quadrupedal draconians, with musculature that suggests they may have once had a third set of limbs like the wings of their bipedal cousins, the wyverns, and they still have odd spines that sprout from their shoulders where wings may once have grown. They have long flexible tails which are tipped with barbed spikes. They swing their tail around for defense as well as posturing during mating of territory disputes with others of their packs.

their heads are somewhat flat on the top and spade-like, covered with a thick scale which acts as a skull plate. This plate protects them as they butt heads with each other in their battles for dominance and during courtship.

Genetics and Reproduction

Like other reptilians Drakes are egg laying, and often lay between one and three eggs per clutch. They have been known to leave the clutch to hatch alone after doing their bast to ensure they will be safe, usually if the pack has decided to move on or is forced to. Most often though the pack or at least the mother will dig out a hatching den for her young and hatch them out. Drake eggs need the warmth to be hatched, and so eggs left without their mother only have a slim chance of actually hatching into baby Drakes if they are not incubating in the height of the warmer months.

Growth Rate & Stages

Drakes are very small when they hatch compared to their full size, standing around the same height as a large cat. They are soft scaled, with even softer underbelly which are most often plump and round until they have aged past their first few months. After this their chest becomes more barreled like that of many working dogs and their fat is mostly replaced by firm muscle. Their scaled begin to harden almost as soon as they are hatched, and they stop being helpless reptiles after a span of a few weeks to a month.

As they grow their scales shed and regrow, each set harder than the last. Their head plate, also known as the 'crown scale' or 'crest scale' is one of the last to fully form. Initially their heads are protected simply by a thickened leathery hide. The young bash heads as eagerly as the adults, but it is never in earnest until they have grown into their crest.

Ecology and Habitats

Drakes tend to stay in their own territories, each pack marking their own locales and fighting for it to the death. The best location means access to the best hunting grounds, watering holes and safest shelters. Some weaker packs are forced to dwell closer to lands inhabited by the sentient races as they cannot compete with the stronger packs who control the better lands.

The land they claim as their homes are often the areas which are flat open plains or the lower ranges of mountains. Drakes are often found roaming at the foot of mountains, choosing to sleep in the safety of the crag and hunt in the wide space of the plains where they can track prey for days to a week at a time.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Drakes are carnivorous, although they have been known to eat berries and dig up vegetables from farms if they have had the need to for lack of better more suitable food. The grow the heavy scales that cover their bodies with a diet of crushed bones along with meat. When they are to small to break the bones themselves their parent may break it for them or they may need to hunt smaller prey with easier to consume bones. The calcium from the bones toughens their scales and hide.

Biological Cycle

Disliking the cold, drakes will often stray further down the mountains the more into the colder months it gets. They will behind to seek out caves to spend the nights in or to take over or dig their own dens where they will be warmer through the night. Although they do not like the cold and they hunt much less during these months they do not hibernate as such. They instead sleep for most of the day, and small parties from a pack will hunt food for the rest. The members of a pack who hunt will have time to rest after their successful hunt while another group takes their place out looking for food. In these colder times it is more likely to see drakes scavenging or even encroaching on civilization to steal waste from bins or hunt farm animals.

Conservation Status

Drakes are not under any special protections. In history they were well respected working animals, fierce and loyal, but dogs and horses were easier trained and safer to keep around than a stable or draconians and therefore they were slaughtered or turned out into the wild. Unable to survive many of these domesticated Drakes perished, and while their numbers are falling the now totally wild Drakes are not cared for by the people and are often hunted for their scales and fangs or even their eyes which are used in medicines.