Continued
Dragon XenoBiology
(Graphic Representation File as yet unavailable)
Note: All time periods refer to the Sabaatian Calander{SC}{See Sabaatah}
Officially classified as prehistoric reptiles, Sabaatian dragons, Danus Draconus Sabaatus, hatch from an egg which is laid in a nest. The young leave the parents once mature and seek their own hunting areas. They do not like cold weather and will often be found sleeping in warm, sunny places. And as long as there is an ample food supply available they continue to grow their entire lives. However, they are warm-blooded and possess many mammalian traits. Their eggs must be brooded to hatch and the young nurtured. They are fed by the parents in their early stages, and must be taught to hunt for themselves before the first spring after their hatching. The young will also play amoung themselves, first in their nest confines, and later while learning their early hunting skills.They are monogomous and mate for life. Dragons also stake a personal/pair hunting territory by leaving a musky scent marker.
Sabaatian dragons are a native, predatory carnivore well equipped to hunt large prey. They are deceptively fast, possess keen eyesight, and an extremely exceptional sense of smell. The dragons have a long, narrow head ending in a short, bony, serrated beak. Sabaatian dragons possess powerful jaws full of sharp, strong teeth capable of removing a mans' finger cleanly the moment they hatch. They have three forward-facing claws on each of their four feet, and an almost prehensile thumb claw for gripping prey on their front feet as well. They have long, mobile necks and long, powerful tails equipped with a scimitar-shaped, protruding bone-claw at the tip. This tail weapon can be used to thrust, stab, or slash much as a humans' sword. They can stand erect to see, scent, fight, or move when they choose to and can use their wicked tail in either position with accurate and deadly effect. They always stand erect and move when marking their territory.
Their overall colour ranges in the purples and are striped with wide lines of a darker shade of their base colour. This colour fades into an orange on their belly and their beak in a shade of bright orange. From the top of their head to the tip of their tail, Sabaatian dragons have a series of short, serrated spines which usually lie loose along their back, but which stand erect and sharp when threatened or aggressive. This spine is the same dark colour as their stripes. Their body colours fade gradually with age. Their eyes are dark yellow with slit, black pupils.
Hatching from the egg at approximately 24" from nose to tail, hatchlings have voracious appetites. If food is not readily available at their hatching, they will fall upon each other as food. A hatchling consumes an average of one pound of fresh meat per feeding in their first four days, and greedily feed every two hours. After this period, the hatchlings will comsume ever-increasing portions of meat, but at ever-reducing intervals until they begin to hunt for themselves according to individual need. After each feeding for the first month, the hatchlings will sleep until the next feeding. Hatchlings grow at rates which progressively slow by quarters over their first year, to reach an average length of fourteen to twenty feet by age one year. After their first year, Sabaatian dragons continue to grow at an average rate of two to three feet per year. This rate will vary in direct proportion to the available food supply.
Yearlings leave their parents territory during the spring equinox and seek a mate. Mating rites are complex and a female must be won in combat. Occasionally, this combat is fatal for the loser. the winner and the female willl then mate regularly, and vociforously, until she becomes impregnated. Once this is accomplished, a newly-mated pair will then seek their own hunting territtory, lay claim to it, and dig a nest. Domesticly laid males will return with their mate to either adopt a human, or take up residence with the human who hatched them. Domestic and unmated females remain in the wild regardless.
Dragons normally mate for life in their first spring, and will lay clutches of four to nine eggs every two years. Three clutches are all a mated pair will lay in their lifetime. If one of the pair dies prior to producing three lays, the surviving dragon will seek a new mate. Once a pair has laid three times together, a surviving dragon will not mate again.
Draconian Behavior
There are now three distinct types of dragons on Sabaatah although these are strictly behavior-defined sub-types of Danus Draconus.
The first sub-type are those dragons which remain wild and undisturbed across the face of Sabaatah. They are native predators and will attack a human in defense of their nest, or kill them for food as any other of the native predators will. Vast sections of the three Sabaatian continents are defined by law as wilderness preserves and it is illegal to disturb any dragons found there.
The second sub-type are the human-paired domestic dragons. The dragons of Sabaatah are not bonded with a human as a pet, nor servant. but as a willing companion. Some dragons adopt humans of their own free will, usually those offspring beasts of human-paired mated dragons. Mostly, the first dragons were adopted as the original Dragon, by being rescued in the wild. And while strict guidelines exist and strict laws are enforced concerning what constitutes a "rescue" numerous animals have found their way into human partnerships.
Originally, this was the only way to acquire a Sabaatian dragon. Later, as the colony of Sabaatah grew and expanded, other measues were put in place which distributed human-bonded pair eggs amoung the Regimental Sabaatians and led to the Regimental dragon sub-type. These matters are found in the novel " The Sabaatah Mounted Marines ".
Over the early years of the colony, it was found that dragons were fickle about whom they bonded with if given more than one choice, usualy adopting the youngest human available to them in any group they hatched into. On several occassions, multiple male bonds have occurred, but this is very, very rare. In point of fact, it has only happened twice it the 103 years of the human/dragon relationship. Study determined that a dragon will bond to a specific human if isolated and/or fed exclusively with/by that human during the first four to five days after its' hatching.
Sabaatain dragons bond to their human companions for the life of the dragon, which is still somewhat uncertain as no bonded dragon has yet died naturally. A bonded dragon losing its' human partner will seek another if there is direct blood-kin unadopted. If none are available, the dragon will usually return to the wild. If another human caused the loss of tha dragons' companion, the bonded dragon will draw blood from the offending human and that human is expected to replace the one killed. The only exception to this is if the human is killed on the battlefield.
Sabaatian dragons are loyal to a fault to their adopted/bonded human and its' blood-kin. They are fierce and staunch defenders of their human and have been know to attack wild dragons and other native predators many times their own size in their humans' defense. Therefore, since it was logical that miltary-bonded dragons would also follow their humans onto the battlefield, those dragons attached to the humans which formed the original planetary defense force, (the First Sabaatah Mounted Marine Regiment), were trained to fight as ancient warhorses were, to better allow them to survive in human conflict.
This practice has continued to the present day in all 6 of the Mounted Marine Regiments, and very early on, led to the emergance of the third dragon sub-type, the Regimental dragons. This sub-type consists of any Sbaatian dragon hatched and raised in the Mounted Marine Regiments. Regimental dragons conform to most of the behavior of domestic dragons, but do not stake a personal hunting territory.
Nor do Regimental males always return from their mating springs with a female.
A human-paired dragon (and its' mate if mated) will only leave its' chosen companion if abused, intentionally injured, or not properly fed. And if a dragon leaves, it returns to the wild and will not seek human companionship again. However, it will not attack a human in the wild as unbonded dragons will.
However, study and early events on Sabaatah have shown that dragons have a fine sense of what constitues their own abuse. A dragon wounded in human-conflict combat, or injured defending its' human against predators, deems this acceptable and will not leave. However, the human is expected to attend to their dragons wounds.
Dragons stake a territory, usualy their humans' personal habitation area, and will defend it against all other predators including other bonded dragons. Only one exception has ever been noted to this behavior and that was a pair from Dragon and Eddies' first mating. And the younger beasts brought a fresh kill as offering to their parents. When it becomes necessary for a bonded human to enter another dragons' territory, the humans' beast will remain at the boundry and await their humans' return. This also holds true of those structures which are too small for a dragon to enter or move about in comfortably.
Within the human habitation areas, most places have become neutral ground, as it were, and the dragons will gather together peacefully when their human companions attend to human-related business. Over the years a draconian hierarchy has developed. To this point, Dragon is acknowledged more or less their king and Eddie their queen, amoung the bonded beasts of Sabaatah. Every bonded animal defers to their apparent authority. Further, dragons raised in the Regiments of Sabaatah are apparently aware of their humans' place in the chain-of-command and order or defer accordingly.
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