Young Writers Society

The first things you would notice about a Dragon are its eyes. They are shimmering and large, bright with color. They always match the exact shade of the Dragon’s scales, though the eyes are slightly luminous. The scales are metallic but cannot produce their own light. The Dragon’s eyes are expressive and seem to hold one’s attention. Instead of eyelashes, the outermost of its many eyelids sport a lumpy ridge that is hard like bone. In females, this ridge is more pronounced and more feminine. The eyes are a fearsome sight when the Dragon is angry, and they seem to pierce your soul and leave you bare. You can sense a dark storm cloud of anger behind the eyes and they menace you. Contrarily, when the Dragon is happy, their eyes light up with joy. A Dragon holds the deepest affection for their Rider, just as the Rider does their Dragon. When the Dragon looks at their Rider, you can see the boundless affection and understanding the pair has for one another. The only way out of such a bond is death.

The Dragon has a long this muzzle that is slender and refined. It rounds out at the end to a beak-like thing that is murderously sharp. There are no teeth except those in the back for chewing. All the same, the edges of the beak where the teeth would have been are sharp as razors. The exception is the front of the bottom lip, where there is a little opening with blunt sides. Through this the forked tongue can slide in and out unimpeded. Like a snake, they can taste the air with the glands on their tongue. On top of the rounded end of the muzzle is a set of small nostrils. They cannot smell, and are only vents for the smoke that often issues from the Dragon’s throat. This process speeds up when they are angry or afraid, in preparation for flaming. One can tell a Dragon is agitated when their nostrils are smoking a lot.

The Dragon’s head widens out at the back, so that it is wedge-shaped. Its eyes are well sheltered from the wind of flying by brows that sport a slight bony ridge on them. The shadows created by the brows seem to bring out the luminous properties of the eyes. The Dragon’s face is always an echo of their Rider’s, and they share the same general properties, if the bones are different. The face is hard-set and made of bone that is many times harder than humans’. There is a thin layer of flesh on top and then leathery skin, which is impervious to the weather. It is this layer of skin that contorts to form expressions that are very human-like. Dragons use the same facial gestures as humans do.

Behind and on the crown of the head is a strange frill. The plates are made of bone. They start narrow when they sprout from head. Then they widen out and are blunt and rounded at the end. This frill extends down on the sides of the Dragon’s face, ending at the jawline. The ones closest to the Dragon’s jaw are about the length of a man’s arm, while the one in the very center is the length of his leg when the Dragon is fully grown. There are eleven plates on the crown of the Dragon’s head, five on each side and one in the very center. The one in the center is wider and the longest of the eleven.

When the Dragon is flying speedily or when it is threatened, it presses this frill back against its skull. This creates a streamlined effect; the Dragon’s head is like an arrowhead and cuts through the air. The frill also serves as a protective covering for the single unprotected place on the Dragon’s body. Behind the frill is a place where the leathery skin has no significant protection underneath. The skull is weaker and thinner here, the equivalent of a human’s temple. A good spear thrust right there could easily sever the spinal cord. The skin is very sensitive and Dragons love for their riders to scratch them in this place, but they will hardly let anyone else touch it. They are very protective of that single unprotected place.

The Dragon’s neck is long and sinuous, and the spine is flexible so that they can bend and turn their neck. It gradually thickens toward the base until it widens into the ribcage. Instead of the short, small ribs being farther down like in a human, the short and flexible ribs are closer to the base of the Dragon’s neck. The collarbone shields the short ribs and also serves to support the Dragon’s neck.

One can’t see the collarbone, however, because of the curious pattern of musculature on the front. The pectorals are arranged strangely. They are longer, wider, and more pronounced. They are corded and thick. The Dragon might as well be wearing a chest plate, the muscles are so strong and hard. They also extend under the Dragon’s belly until the where the ribs end. The ribs widen towards the back and are more barrel-like, where the three huge lungs are. The heart is nested in the center of the three and is well-protected.

After the ribs, the Dragon’s body narrows down and almost sucks in a little towards the chest. Like one would see in a lean running dog. The hips and haunches are much bulkier than the area between ribs and hindquarters. That leaner area is where females carry their eggs when they are pregnant. Females’ hindquarters are less bulky than males’ to give them speed and streamlining in the air. Male’s lower abdomens are less lean than females because they are more about muscle and power than speed in the air. They are also less nimble than females.

But both genders of Dragons have formidable muscles in the shoulders and haunches. They need these muscles for takeoff and landing, to absorb the shock and to spring off of the ground. The muscles in the shoulders also serve a double purpose. The front legs are less imperative to takeoff than the hind legs, so the shoulder muscles do more for the wings. The wings are huge, wider in wingspan than the Dragon is long. They are almost the same in composition as a bat’s. The membrane is a lighter shade of the Dragon’s scales’ color. It is webbed with tiny blood vessels. The wing membrane is stretched between the long, thin bones of the Dragon’s wing arm. Between these fingers and at the elbow joint is a band of tendons that fills the space. These tendons stop the wing from over-extending and assist the Dragon in spreading and moving the bones in the wing. The only finger that is not engaged in framing the wing sail is the thumb. Just as a human has webbing between the palm and the thumb, the Dragon has a little flap of membrane in that place. A thicker blood vessel runs straight through this little flap and, despite its seeming insignificance, the Dragon needs that small flap. It is very sensitive to the movement of the air, and it helps the Dragon gauge wind speed, direction and humidity.

The Dragon also needs its tail for flight, because the tail helps it to keep balance when changing direction. It is also heavily muscled. A single sweep of a mature Dragon’s tail could floor five men with ease. The tip also has a barb on it, shaped like an arrowhead. It is black. A ridge runs all along the top of it, the sharp tips curving like ocean waves. The ridge is also black. This ridge continues along the Dragon’s back and spine until it gets to the hollow between wing muscles and shoulders. It tapers off there, leaving that place for the Rider and a saddle to sit. The ridge re-surfaces and continues up the Dragon’s neck after it reaches the base of the neck. It ends just before the Dragon’s frill.

The front paws resemble human hands, but the fingers are closer together. They are longer and the bones stand out more. Also, the thumb is shorter and closer to the knuckles. It is not as important for fighting as the other fingers. The forepaws are used for handling things and are more versatile. They are not nearly as nimble and crafty as a human’s, though. They are more used for fighting. At the ends are long, curved, formidable talons of jet black. The overall impression of the forepaw is lots of bone and claw, spread out wide for balance. There is also webbing between the Dragon’s “fingers” that allow them to be fast swimmers as well. Dragons love a good bath and though they can’t use their wings underwater, they can hold their breath for hours. They only need two of the three lungs when they are above ground in normal conditions. When they hold their breath, they store extra air in the third lung. Also, when they go into high altitudes where the air is thin, they are able to breath better because the third lung kicks in and helps to filter extra air.

The hind legs are heavily muscled and round at the top, forming a thick haunch. The legs are structured much the same as a horse’s, bending backward until they come back forward at an inverted knee (look up a picture of a horse, you’ll know what I’m talking about). But unlike a horse’s, the leg below the knee joint is longer and not as thin. It, also, is thicker boned and muscled. And, also unlike a horse, the hind feet are similar in composition to a human’s. However, the resemblance does not present itself immediately. Like the forepaws, the toes are much longer and clawed at the ends. The webbing is present there as well. However, the toes are longer and spread out wider to help with balance. The ball of the foot is more like a second ankle. The area between the ball of the foot and the ankle is thin and elongated. The Dragon often walks only on the toes. The impression is, again, mostly bone and claw. They only rock back on their heels when they are crouching. Only then does the hind foot seem like a human’s in structure.

The Dragons possess a curious property to their scales. They are shaped like ovals. They remain thin and flat until the end, where is doesn’t taper off, but grows wider and thicker and rounder. They have the consistency of metal and shine like it, as well. If they were metal, they would be the hardest metal in the world. But underneath the scales, the skin is more like leather. To stop the skin itself from becoming irritated and scratched, the scales are coated with a cartilage-like substance. Thus, the scales make a slithering sound instead of a clanking sound as they are rubbed together when the Dragon moves. The scales are always one shade or other of either silver (for females) or gold (for males). Dragons are, if anything, vain. They possess a certain beauty that is feral and savage as well as graceful and serpentine. And they know it. They cannot stand for their scales to be dirty, so they preen after every meal.

The shade of silver or gold differs from Dragon to Dragon, sometimes so much that a female may look from almost white to almost black, or a male may look from yellow to almost brown. Dragons can all, of course, breath fire. The fire is pure energy from the Dragon’s mind, so it, also, is the Dragon’s color. Dragons possess almost unlimited magical energy that is unique to Dragonkind. Riders, with proper training, can harness that energy to work magic, now that they have access to it through the Dragons. The Dragons themselves are not very much in control of their own magic. They use it when they breathe fire, of course. But only during the full moon and during the solstices are they able to use magic of their own will. No matter how great the need, they cannot access it without their Rider’s help at any other time. And only if the Rider is trained to use the magic and if they are in contact with their Dragon.

Without the Dragon, the Rider cannot use magic unless they already had some original talent. Very seldom are Riders’ minds out of sync with their Dragons, for distance has no effect on the connection. Their minds are nearly one and the same. Similarly, it is extremely difficult to sever one mind from the other, even if one of the pair consciously tries to. Thoughts can be shielded from one another but complete disconnection is nearly impossible.

Dragons are a strange breed, for they sometimes seem human-like. The two races are closely bound, for the elves were once humans. If a Dragon egg hatches for a human, the human undergoes a change the instant they touch the hatchling. They literally switch races, from human to elf. An elf is like a super-charged human. The only obvious difference is that their ears become larger, and pointed, and an elf that is a DragonRider gets a mark on their chest in the shape of a Dragon. All DragonRiders have this mark. The mark looks like a tattoo, but is actually a pigmented part of the skin. It is made of many interweaving lines that form an intricate pattern that takes shape as a Dragon. The eyes of the Dragon's head are situated just above the hollow at the base of the Rider's throat. The wings are spread across the human's shoulders, with the tail trailing down their abdomen to just above the belly button. The mark is the most obvious change; the other changes are less easy to see, but more important. Elves are stronger, faster, and have better reflexes than humans. They have more endurance and better physique; it's actually extremely difficult for an elf to gain weight, no matter how much they eat; their bodies just shed it. They can also go further than any human on less food an water. When they change, their senses become super-charged; their peripheral vision is sharpened, their eyes can see well in the dark, their sense of smell becomes extremely delicate, their hearing becomes super-sensitive, their skin can sense tiny eddies and changes in the air currents around them, and their sense of taste becomes so fine they can taste scents in the air as well as smell them. The final, special change is immortality. DragonRiders and elves will live forever, if they can protect themselves. They are not invulnerable, though, and they can be killed by many of the same things humans can. It takes larger doses of poison to kill an elf that way, however, as well as the fact that elves can withstand much more extreme temperatures than humans. All of these changes are brought about by the magic of the Dragon race, to which all elves are eternally bound. If the Dragons were to die out completely, so would any elves that still lived. But as long as there is one Dragon in the world, all elves and even former DragonRiders will retain their powers.

All DragonRiders are elves, but not all elves are DragonRiders. If two DragonRiders have an elf-child and the child never bonds with a Dragon, the child will still have all the enhanced powers their parents have. The life cycle of an elf or a DragonRider is complicated. In the case of a human who becomes a DragonRider, their bodies will stop aging as soon as they bond. In the case of elf-born who never bond with a Dragon, their bodies will stop growing as soon as they reach the prime of their life. But if a human is already older or aging when they bond with a Dragon, their bodies will not revert to being young and healthy; they will simply freeze as they are. The special abilities of an elf may help give them some vitality back, but not all. Once the elf or DragonRider has stopped growing, they will remain in that state as long as they live; which can be as long as they can protect themselves. many DragonRiders, during the height of their age, did not choose to live forever. Many of the oldest Dragon-Rider pairs chose to undergo the ritualistic suicide that was allowed within the DragonRider society, after a certain point. After all, even with eternal youth on their side, a person's mind can only take so much. Elves and DragonRiders have a heightened state of mind; it is hard to drive an elf insane, even if they live for millenium. But many of the greatest elders chose to "Go to Sleep" because they were just very tired. And that was accepted in their society, after an elf got to be a certain age. And as long as both the Dragon and the Rider were agreed on the decision to Go to Sleep, it was accepted for them to do it, too.

I hope this has been helpful for anyone who wanted to know how I imagined DragonRiders; as you can see from this lengthy essay, I've thought this through quite a bit! Anyone who's read a work of mine that involves the DragonRiders may find this informative. It provides a lot of background information that I may not have been able to convey in such detail during a work. I thank you for taking the time to read it, and apologize for how very looooong and boring it is!