My body scales are a rich golden hue, the color
of summer wheat, with an iridescent rainbow sheen. My throat and underbelly
plates are a russet color. The outerside of my wing membranes is russet in color
at the
top, fading to gold as it travels along the length of my wings. Giving them an
almost fiery or flaming appearance. The underside of my wing membranes is a
creamy ivory color. I have patches of russet coloration to the scales on my
forelimbs, thighs, and shins. I have two different types of scales on my body.
My underbelly scales are overlapping plates that cover from one side of my
underbelly to the other. These scales are equally as hard as my body scales. My
body scales are much smaller, and far more numerous, they overlap and are
diamond-shaped, about the size of a knight's shield. I have six limbs, two forelegs, two hind legs,
and two wings. I have three fingers and an opposable thumb on each of my paws.
There are two large curving ivory horns on my head, with three smaller horns
in-between them. There is a low boned ridge running down my spine, from the base
of my head to mid-way down my tail. This ridge is ivory, the same as my horns.
My talons are jet black in color and measure about fifteen inches in length. My
neck is long and sinuous. My tail ends in a flexible spearhead shaped tip. My eyes are amber colored
with black slitted pupils, they are large and almond shaped, and glow brightly in the dark. My brow is expressive and accentuates my eyes. My pointed ears are long and curved. They resemble elven ears in shape, and are mobile and track sounds. There are two leathery frills on each side of my head, one that extends from my cheekbones to just above my ears, and one that extends from my cheekbones to just below my ears. My muzzle is long and slender, and my teeth are pearly white and very sharp. I have a rich baritone voice (not unlike the human actor James Earl Jones).
I have two additional sets of inner eyelids. The first pair of eyelids are transparent and I use them when there is a lot of sand or grit blowing in the air. I also use this set of lids for when I am swimming. They act like goggles. The second pair of eyelids are fairly opaque, I use them when the sun is very bright or when there is a sudden brilliant flash of light. They protect me from going blind in intense light. This second pair of lids close instinctively by reflex action, I do not have to concentrate on them. My vision is extremely keen at long distances. However, I do have some difficulty with seeing things close up. I am also able to "shift" my eyesight into the infrared spectrum, so I can see heat images, also known as infravision. I can also "shift" my vision so that I am able to see into the Astral Plane. This enables me to see astral spirits, and the auras of all living things and magical auras of magical items, spells, and creatures of magical nature.
My body length, from the tip of my snout to the end of my tail is two hundred and thirty eight feet. I stand fifty-three feet tall at the shoulder. My head and neck is fifty feet long. My body is eighty-eight feet long, while my tail is one hundred feet in length. My golden scaled body is sleek and well muscled, and weighs in at one hundred tons or two hundred thousand pounds. My full wing span is two hundred and forty feet long. I have taken to "shifting" my size down to sixty-five feet in length. I found my enormous size was very intimidating to some of the other dragons and made dealing with humans and humanoids difficult. So often now my size reflects my head and neck being sixteen feet long, my body being twenty-two feet long,
my tail being twenty-seven feet long, and my height at thirteen feet tall at the shoulder, with a seventy-foot wing span. In my reduced size I weigh only thirty-three tons or sixty six thousand pounds. When I engage in combat, however, I do "shift" back to my normal size and stature.
I primarily use three forms of movement. I walk, fly, and swim. My land speed is not very considerable, due to my body structure and mass. My walking speed is about eight m.p.h. My running speed is about fifteen m.p.h., although I can do short sprints at about thirty m.p.h. When it comes to flying, however, I am truly in my element. I can cruise at about thirty m.p.h., which I can maintain for approximately forty-eight hours without stopping to rest. However, when I push myself I can attain air speeds of about sixty-five m.p.h., and maintain that speed for about eight hours. Living in large expanses of open plains, I have developed swift flying abilities to cover ground quickly. Even when I am "shifted" into my smaller size, I use my innate magical abilities to maintain a small turning radius. This allows me a great advantage when hunting ground creatures. I also love to swim. I can reach speeds of about 13 knots per hour, and if I push myself I can attain a speed of about 26 knots per hour underwater. I use my tail, sweeping it from side to side, to propel me through the water. This is an extremely powerful form of propulsion. My breath weapon is a cone shaped stream of intensely hot oily flame. The area of the stream is ninety feet long, five feet wide at my mouth, and thirty feet wide at the end. The flames are capable of reaching three thousand five hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit, quite capable of incinerating most targets if I so wish. I am able to use this breath weapon as often as I wish, with a three-minute interval in between uses. I am able to use my breath weapon in a number of different ways, as a steady stream of flame, or a short burst or "belch" of flame in a concessive fireball. I am also able to create smaller fireballs, or twin thin streams of flame, from my nostrils.
I am an omnivore. I can and do eat almost anything. I do, however, prefer large game, buffalo, moose, elk, cattle, bear, etc. There is nothing more enjoyable than feasting on a fresh kill, while the blood is still hot and the meat still warm. Over the years I've come to realize that I am not very big on eating plants, leaves, or grains. I enjoy eating almost any kind of seafood. However, when I "shape-shift" into human form, I cannot stand the taste of any type of seafood what so ever. I am not sure if this is some characteristic of the "shift" or something inherent to the human form. At my normal size of two hundred and thirty-eight feet long, I require roughly twenty thousand pounds of food a day. At my smaller sixty-five feet long size, I only require six thousand, six hundred pounds of food a day. I also drink large quantities of water from alkaline salt pools, as many of us dragons need substantial quantities of metal in our diets for the growth of scales, horns, and talons. I have found that the metal salts from the alkaline pools are a very nearly pure source that meets my requirements quite adequately.
I always wear a collar around my neck that magically matches my scale pattern and coloration. The collar normally goes completely unnoticed. The front of the collar has three runes that I carefully carved into it. The rune on the right bestows upon me a protection spell
"reverse missiles." The rune in the middle bestows upon me
"Improved Invisability" whenever I speak a certain word of
activation. The rune on the left bestows upon me "protection from normal and magical
weapons."
On the inner side of the back of the collar there are two more runes carved into it.
The rune on the right adapts the scale pattern and color to that of the wearer. The rune on the left, when I speak a certain word turns the collar's material hard as metal and locks the collar. When I speak the word again the collar unlocks and turns it soft and pliable again. I wear a gold bracer on the wrist of my
right foreleg. If I become disabled or unconscious while airborne, the bracer will cause a
"Feather Fall" spell to take effect. I then float gently down to the ground, safe and unharmed by the fall. I also wear a ring. It is a
plain gold band ring that I wear upon the middle finger of my right front paw.
Both of these items have proven
extremely useful and helpful in the past. I devised the collar and wear the
bracer and ring after witnessing the zeal in which humans and other humanoids hunt dragons.
These items have been a source of great surprise and dismay, albeit short lived, to many a dragonslayer looking to add my death to their reputations, and me to the trophies on their walls.
