Feanor-the-Dragon on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/feanor-the-dragon/art/Trot-439881300Feanor-the-Dragon

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Trot

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NOTE: I apologise for any random links or coding in my descriptions lately...
DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY DO BUT I SURE AS ALL HECK DON'T TRUST THEM!!!!
Chrome has downloaded some extension that I can't get rid of, but I'm loath to use internet explorer. I think I'm going to try firefox.

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Look!  Quick!  It's an emu with a bird-lizard-chicken-thing stuck to the front! :XD:
That's what I thought while scanning it in this morning (hadn't had my coffee yet)
Remember that 'Ice Drake' pic that's floating around my gallery somewhere?  Yeah... Ice drake's been redesigned just a little from the trotting iguana that it was way back then.

I gave it bigger feet to spread the weight out on snow, and a shorter, stockier tail (which I hope would actually work) to conserve heat.  Smaller head, bigger, more powerful hips for leaping.  This is my attempt at designing a creature for it's range of environments.  Imma' gonna' stop right here now and make note of the wonderfully talented SashaWren and her beautiful illustrations and character ref-sheets, particularly her Shinlai characters, with their in-depth and well-thought-out designs and explanations behind the designs.  Thanks for the inspiration and excellent example, Wren! :D

Anymawho... The ice drake is, as the saddle (which took me a few tries to get right, as you might could tell by the vague, ghostly phantasms of straps that once went around the drake's chest) shows.  The saddle gave me some trouble, because I drew it, and then decided that the ice drakes would have long, thick feathers on it's chest/neck that A) would not provide insulation as effectively, and B) would agitate the drake, should they be held down by, say, the strap of a saddle harness.
It has very, very long, broad feathers on it's hindquarters that make it seem disproportionate (I actually did do that on purpose from the start though, so yay! :dummy:). The reason for those feathers is... ready to laugh at me? ...air-brakes.  Yep.  Air brakes.  It has a huge, rather clumsily proportioned rump, so it uses those feathers (which only contribute somewhat to the disproportionate appearance) to make abrupt stops as well as minute course corrections. It's somewhat similar in idea to using manual shift around turns in Mariokart (may or may not have influenced the idea...).

Wide eyes narrowed into the wind give it a very wide field of peripheral-vision without sacrificing depth perception as well as a disdainful or aloof expression.  It is a reasonably intellegent, social creature, and will develope either affection or distaste for its rider depending on how it is treated.  They cannot easily be meeked, but their obedience is garanteed if one should win their affection, which isn't a hard thing.  There aren't many apples that just grow in the snowy regions where they live, you see, and they do of course love apples.  They also, in accordance with an old Himalayan tradition about dragons that I stumbled upon recently, love cabbages.  Excellent hearing, a decent sense of smell, and sharp eyesight (with four optic nerves, allowing it to see the infrared spectrum of radiation) mean the drake quite often senses danger well before the rider does, but unlike horses or other traditional mounts, ice drakes will not usually panic.  Instead, they will change their stance and give a deep, warning growl (sometimes accompanied by a soft keening sound if they are afraid... a signal which should always, always be heeded).
As an omnivore, they have molars in the back, and, more usefully for biting, very, very sharp fangs and canine-like incisors.  Sharp claws on their feet are barbed for climbing trees or (predictably) ice and icy stone, but, of course, also give the drake a wickedly brutal method of attack/defense. In the wild or unattended, groups of ice drakes have been observed to form a protective circle around the injured, very young, or otherwise weaker members of the group when a threat is near.  They have also been observed to do the same for their riders, or for people in general (it seems that they do so for those they deem to be ignorant of or unable to defend themselves against the threat).
The herding behavior (though a group of them is called a pack) is accompanied by an almost human sense of selflessness or "chivalry" as it has often been referred to, only amplified many times (for those who have not won their enmity).  They have been known to dig each other out of the snow following avalanches, as well as dig out trapped people and carry them to safety in a manner not unlike dolphins with sailors.  Many cases have been documented in which travellers caught in an avalanche have been rescued by wild packs or individual drakes and brought back to their den/shelter, where they were treated like pups.  Incidentally ad often humorously, those cases often involve the travellers having difficulty leaving, as the drakes, in a paternal effort to protect them, repeatedly find them and carry them (with remarkable gentleness) back as they would a stubborn pup intent on wandering off.  In other cases, single drakes have been known to follow the travellers loyally and protectively in a manner not dissimilar to a hen over her brood, treating them as pups until death (since, generally speaking most humans, humanoids, and even gryphons will not ever reach the size of a matured ice drake).  To be wholly fair, however, embarassing motherly treatment of adult offspring has been observed to happen in the wild, with often comical and satirically teen-and-overbearing-mother like results... most often shown in pver-obsessive grooming while the young adult is in the company of peers of the opposite gender.

It is suspected but not yet known if ice drakes have some level of sentience.  Their behavior shows many signs of sentience, but the subject has not been pursued to the point of drawing a conclusion, mainly because there is no one of note who openly declares them not to possess some level of sentience.  It is generally accepted that they do possess sentience to a certain degree, but bcause it is so universally undisputed, potential questions of morality have been avoided by not making any official statement on the matter.
It has been noted by many that drakes that are adults when they meet their riders seem to form an almost pitious devotion to their riders, and look on them like endearingly ignorant but confident children even when they do not treat them as their own offspring (which they sometimes do)... provided, of course, they are not abused or mistreated, as in such cases they will almost always retaliate, although the nature and severity of their retaliation is dependant on their previous affections, distaste, or lack of either one with the individual(s) doing the mistreating.  When they are mistreated by an individual who has won their affections, they appear to treat him or her as a temper-tantruming child, usually doing no more than lightly (and gently) batting the person with a forefoot, and then holding them (again, very gently and very calmly) down in a gesture that, while not technically one, has been described as an embrace, and making a soft, soothing sort of cooing sound in their throats.  The same behavior has been observed toward distraught offspring in the wild (and domesticated, though their behavior hardly changes, so they are rarely called domestic), and is the cooing sound are described as melodic and almost musical... consequently many refer to it as a lullaby.  They will also do this should their rider become distraught, though in such cases they will curl themselves around the rider in what could much more aptly be described as an embrace.  Rumors of drakes 'crying' with and for their riders are also fairly widespread among those who come into regular contact with the creatures.
Drakes that are still juveniles or adolescents when they meet their riders will often bond in a manner closer to what one would expect from siblings, with even 'teasing' and small 'pranks' not being uncommon.  Usually they will act as though their rider is anlike endearingly ignorant and overconfident younger brother (or sister... but brotherhood describes the relationship more closely regaurdless of the genders of drake or rider).  Eye-rolling is not unheard-of.
In either case, it takes a very short time for the bond to form, and once it has formed, it is nighly impossible to break.
In some very rare cases, however, riders who at one point had a drake's devotion have repeatedly offended the drake to the point that it finally broke and retaliated in a defensive manner (aka, with enmity), usually only suppressing the individual in question, but with anger and without the former embrace or 'lulalaby'.  Popular lore holds that the ice drake "weeps" during and after such incidents... with tears, keening, sniffing... the whole sha-bang.  Almost invariably, the drake will later attempt to 'reconcile' itself and the individual, attempting to tend any wounds inflicted as well as bringing 'gifts' of varying sorts, depending on the individual drake and person.



...Anymawho... Wow... That got reeeeeeeeeaally long. :smirk:

Well...  I really didn't have the time to type all of that this morning, but I took it anyhow since I didn't get the chance to post those other two pictures over the weekend.  So have a fairly simple drawing and a potentially overdetailed and incoherant species profile thingydoo.

HB and 2B 0.7mm mechanical pencils on Canson "Fanboy" Illustration paper.


Art, creature, concept, text, etc. (C) Cody Hilson.
Please do not use or reproduce without permission.
Please note that while I did mention Shinlai as part of the inspiration, this creature is not a Shinlai.
Shinlai are (to my knowledge) a closed race, and belong to :devAlanaRoseheart:.
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© 2014 - 2024 Feanor-the-Dragon
Comments2
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SashaWren's avatar
Aw thanks so much for the kind words! You have no idea how much it means to me <3
This race looks really interesting! I love all the depth you've added to them. :'D