Rock Drake

Weight: 1,700-2,500 lbs

Length: 25-35 ft

Tail: 8-15 ft

Social Unit: Group

Status: Common

Native to: Aurea

Habitat: Deserts, Mountains, and other rocky areas

Known Variants: n/a

Compared to the 5 species of dragons in the South Galaxy, the rock drake is so bizarre that it is sometimes not even considered a true dragon. It has no breath attack and is incapable of true flight. It does not even have true wings, instead having forelegs with enough feathers on them to sustain a glide of about a half a mile. Speaking of which, the rock drake is the only dragon to sport feathers, having feathers on both its forelegs, a large crest on the top if its head, and a sort of mane running down its spine to its tail, which resembles that of a feathered dinosaur.

While it lacks a breath attack, it possesses the strongest bite force of all the dragon species and a venom similar to that of the Arturian dragon. Much like wyverns, which are their closest relatives, rock drakes do not actively prey on sentients, only eating them as carrion or when they get too close to a nest. To compensate for their lack of true flight, rock drakes have special claws that allow them to climb nearly vertical surfaces easily. As such, they typically build their nests atop mountains or on cliff faces, where their eggs are out of the reach of most predators.

Like Wyverns, male rock drakes will battle each other every autumn for mating rights, with the winners being able to mate with all the females they like. Around two weeks after mating, the females will build nests out of rocks and lay 1-3 eggs in each nest. Female rock drakes are extremely protective of their nests, so anything or anyone foolish enough to steal an egg can expect to be hunted down for miles.

Like all other dragons, Rock Drake offspring imprint on the first living thing they see after hatching. Usually, this is their mother but if a sentient were to steal an egg and manage to escape the mother, the offspring would imprint on it. Despite being related to wyverns, rock drake mothers do not provide milk for their young, instead providing them with meat from the day they hatch. This makes rock drake hatchlings substantially easier to care for than their wyvern cousins, and as a result, the Aureans have managed to steal enough eggs over the years to produce a domesticated variant of the species.

These domesticated rock drakes are mainly used by mountain tribes to navigate difficult terrain, and the Aurean military employs them for the same purpose. rock drakes are voracious predators, often munching on pegasi, megatherium, hippogriffs, camels, and sometimes even the extremely dangerous elasmotherium. They are also the only dragon species to possess the ability to rapidly change their skin pigments, allowing them to camouflage into their surroundings like chameleons to sneak up on their prey.