Skywing Dragon

Skywing Dragons were released about one month before the Guardian dragons, at the time the site gained its own .net domain. Skywings are a common breed and currently have no breed specific action. The egg description of this dragon is shared by three other dragons (The Horse Dragon, Frilled Dragon and Ochredrake), but Skywings, Horses and Ochredrakes eggs each drop in their own area, whilst Frills are discontinued. When bred with a Water Dragon or a Deep Sea Dragon, they can lay a Two-Finned Bluna egg. It is for this reason that Skywing Dragons were once at such a high demand. They are considered relatives to Sunsong Amphipteres.

Egg
"This egg has strange markings on it."

Hatchling
"Aww... It's a cute baby dragon. Unlike the other hatchlings, this one hatched with wings."

Mature Hatchling
"Aww... It's a cute baby dragon. Unlike the other hatchlings, this one hatched with wings. And look! Its back legs have become a second set of wings! It must be close to maturing."

Adult
"Skywing dragons spend most of their lives flying in the air. They hunt from the air, diving at prey from above, and land only to rest. They are one of the fastest fliers, capable of extremely high speeds. The webbing at the end of the tail acts as a rudder, allowing them to easily change direction during flight."

Sprite Artist(s)

 * Dovealove (Adult)
 * Shiro Shitoro (Adult)
 * Shikaru (Hatchling)

Additional Information
The creator of the Skywing, Dovealove, has a large, still unofficial text detailing many aspects of skywing lifestyle and anatomy. An incomplete copy is provided here, with her permission, but with some parts omitted due to possible revision.

Family: Oriental

Size: 30 cm long at hatching, between 3-5m at adulthood. Continues growing throughout life, at a decreasing rate. Largest, eldest individual (wild) considered to be over a mile in length. Adults range between 20 and 30 kg.

Diet: Primarily eats frogs, fish, dragonflies, spiders, flies, mosquitoes, swallows, sparrows and other small birds. A quarter of the diet involves succulent water plants and their roots/tubers.

Voice: Low pitched croons and trills, with a range of resonant clicks and purrs.

Habitat: Lakes and rivers near mountains and cliffs. Mainly a temperate species, they dislike humidity and thick forests, preferring more open deciduous forests near the base of mountains. They prefer habitats where they can swim and hunt underwater, and with coarse gravel or pebbles as substrate. Skywings will methodically prune foliage too close to the lake, encourage the growth of thick tree root systems around the shore and carry pebbles to lay over the uncovered soil, in order to help keep the water clear. However, they also tend to encourage areas of aquatic foliage such as reeds and lilies, often using such areas as underwater middens.

Nesting: Courtship for Skywings is a prolonged and exhaustive procedure. At dawn the dragons, both male and female, spiral, dip and swirl in fantastic aerobatics to prove themselves against each other and to their mates. This dance carries on over the course of a day, the remaining females slowly losing altitude until they are resting on the surface of the lake at midnight, weighted down by the eggs developing in their bellies. At first light on the second day the females swim upstream to the nearest waterfall or highly aerated brook, followed by the males. Here, they pair off and groom each other, until dusk. Mating follows, and by morning all eggs are laid and hardened by the oxygen rich, running water, and are naturally much lighter than many other eggs. The parents will take their clutch to a safe incubating pond, or, in the case of runts, travel to the Cave to dispose of the unwanted eggs.

Wild Behaviour: Wild Skywings learn early to be fearful of other dragon kinds. Wild Skywings are often wary, nervous, and flighty, perpetually aware of any danger. They are fragile creatures, and although they eat little and contain little meat, their belly scales accumulate precious metals in order to protect them while slithering.

Their natural colouring and shine, while effective camouflage in the day, make them obvious and vulnerable targets at night. Hungry dragons of other kinds will not hesitate to attack and consume Skywings at night, and non-dragon predators specifically target these beautiful, delicate creatures. Because of this, Skywings prefer to roost in light-barked trees or on pale rock faces at night, which gives them the best range of vision and more opportunities to escape. Despite the fact that hatchlings are born in the water and then take to the skies, the adults cannot retreat to the water for the night because sleeping Skywings revert to their lighter form, making them float on the surface of the water, often belly-up.

Skywings in the day are cheerful, social creatures with friendly beasts, being very curious. Young Skywings can roam for years once they gain flight, but always return to their forefather’s spawning areas in the mating season. They have a particular fondness for spirals and circular shapes, and individuals with markings as such are considered more attractive. They also tend to arrange small rocks in spiralling paths and a patient few will even plant trees in such formations. They consider fairy rings to be omens of good luck, and white lilies to be warnings of approaching evil.

Tame Behaviour and Keeping: Tame Skywings are never as shy and reclusive as their tribal ancestors; being taught from a young age that their fellow dragons are not to be feared. They become bold and while smaller than wild Skywings they tend to be thicker set, thicker hided and bulkier as a result of rough housing with larger species.

Tame Skywings are highly sociable and friendly, enjoying company above all else. However, young (and some old) dragons will feel the wanderlust common to their kind, and these dragons love nothing more than to act as messengers or scouts for their masters. They grow fidgety and irritable when kept confined and most quickly develop claustrophobia once they gain flight.

While they don’t learn the culture and lore of wild Skywing clans, tame Skywings do inherit their love of spirals and curves. However, tame Skywings tend to apply their love of circles to human jewellery, particularly solid, unlinked silver rings and bracelets. In the wild, Skywings root out silvery metals from ores and deposits and feed them to their young to produce the shiny, protective belly scales.

Tame Skywings need to be fed small amounts of steel, silver, zinc, platinum, aluminium or iron every day while they grow. A full grown, healthy Skywing should have at least 10% of its apparent weight taken up by these metal-coated scales.

The keeper must provide this until the dragonet begins to seek out these sources on its own, which should be indicated by the temporary appearance of small blemishes of colour around the thin-skinned eye area as the baby experiments with different ores. Overnight the fledgling will regurgitate round ‘pearls’ of rejected ores, which the attentive owner can collect and use to repay the debt accumulated by initial feeding of the hatchling. All Skywings, wild or tame, adamantly refuse to share their harvest spots, but affectionate, intelligent adults can often be asked to gather incompatible ores such as gold and copper to earn their keep.

Skywings unable to exercise often develop problems with their flight sacs, become overweight and at times fall ill due to fungal infections. Skywings denied water when they need it appear to become emaciated and after a prolonged period of time their bodies begin to dissolve from the inside out, due to hydrogen leaks into the body caused by thinning mucus membranes. Sick beasts tend to pale and have their skin become slightly translucent, while their bright purple eyes will glaze over with a milky film if the creature is in great pain. Gastric problems cause the belly scales to become sharkskin of erect, thin, hard scales. Respiratory problems cause the flight bladders to swell, making the Skywing appear bloated.

These are rare problems, however, and all in all Skywings are among the easiest dragons to keep. Their nature makes them extremely friendly and they tend to prefer to hunt for themselves. Even so, they eat very sparingly, with strict routine—a breakfast of sugar and carbohydrate-rich lily roots in the morning, and topping this up over the course of the day with large numbers of insects and small fish, as well as the occasional swallow if they can catch it.

Magically, Skywings have little interest in the arcane, but they do have passive effects on their environment. They tend to reduce the humidity of an area, and lakes inhabited by clans of Skywings tend to have rich, fertile soil bottoms, more plant life, more aquatic animals and crystal clear water. When actively using magic, Skywings find it difficult to control due to unfavourable reactions with the iron in their scales, but they are unusually adept at judging the quantities of metals in the ground. Their bodies act as immense, twisting compasses, and a Skywing always knows exactly where it is.