Sea dragon

The sea dragon is a large marine virid creature inhabiting the pelagic zone in deeper waters off the oceanic shelf. They are predatory, living on a diet of fish and carrion. In the Civilised World they are most common in the temperate waters around Munatan, southern Anásthiasplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigAnásthias

Anásthias [a-NAS-thee-ass / ænæsθiːæs], or [an-ass-THEE-as] is an equatorial island continent, heart of the Civilised World. The north straddles the equator and is hot and humid, while most of the equatorial centre is an upland plateau with fertile river valleys, and stretches of arid plains and desert in the shadow of the mountains. The south is temperate but more wild, separated from the civilisations of the north by the almost impassable Harthera. Their eggs are prized as a food source by traditional peoples in Veedormim and the Manth-lien. They are rarely sighted in modern times, having been driven from their traditional range by the more aggressive whales. Consequently various myths have arisen around sea dragons.

They have a lachrymiform or tear-drop body shape with a slender neck and head, and a more bulbous abdomen with wing-like forelimbs. From this body plan they are assumed to be related to other lachrymivirs such as the drort and wyverns, though whether sea dragons are an ancestor species, or evolved on land but returned to the sea, is unknown.

Sea dragons lay leathery eggs in relatively shallow waters, the only time they come close to land. Hatchlings are a vibrant sea-greenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen

The Green Kingdom of flora and fauna includes humans, mammals, birds, whales, greenfish, and most green plants and crops cultivated by humankind. with red coloured wings, a warning colour since the young are toxic to many smaller viridplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigVirid

Referring to the Virid Kingdom of flora and fauna, toxic to human life. predators. Young sea dragons are amphibious, living particularly on virid sandflies, larvae and other life found on the marginal shoreline. They carry themselves on their back legs, using their front “wings” to stabilise themselves whilst running on the sand.

After four to eight weeks, neonate sea dragons enter the sea permanently, using their wings to swim and resting on coral outcrops, using their feet and legs to launch themselves at prey. As they grow larger the wings become more developed and the legs increasingly vestigial, as they are forced into deeper waters to catch larger prey.