Physical Description

Short Description
The Duskbreather, Darkbreather, Nightbreather, or simply Darkbreath Dragon is a communal species, just a little smaller than the Terrible Terror. These speedy, nocturnal hunters are almost never seen, for they blend in with their night sky just as well as, if not better than, the Night Fury.

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Physical Features

• Triangular sub-wings, similar to the Night Fury's
• Horns on back of head, similar to the Zippleback, curving slightly inward and downward
• Dorsal ridge/fin
• Three prominent talons on each foot, well suited to both grasping and piercing

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Colors

• Black
• Very Dark Smoke Gray
• Midnight Blue
• Midnight Purple

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Physical Description

• EGG
  The Nightbreather's egg is quite unremarkable as dragon eggs go. The smooth, dark-purple shell (a few shades lighter than their mist) features very faint dappling toward the top and a fade to a darker shade toward the bottom, but has otherwise no distinctive shape or marking.
• HATCHLING TO ADULT
  The Duskbreather is a quadrupedal species, vaguely similar to the Night Terror and Smothering Smokebreath, in behavior if not too much in appearance. It is covered with small scales. Its rather pointed snout is tipped with a small, also-pointed bump which could almost be called a horn, beneath which are the nostrils. Its mouth, much like the Monstrous Nightmare's, is full of canine teeth. Somewhat unusual for dragonkind, its tongue is not forked. The eyes, typically a deep blue/indigo/violet, are set well back on the head and protrude slightly to the side, giving the Darkbreath Dragon an excellent field of view. Just behind them, the horns grow from the back of the head. These horns grow throughout the dragon's life and are never shed, though the material becomes brittle with age and may thus snap off toward the ends. The wings, like the Swift's, are long and relatively narrow, highly efficient, allowing for great speed. They join the body above and just behind the front legs. Behind these sit the subwings, about a third of a wing's-length wide at the front, narrowing to no width at all about halfway down the tail. Just between the wings and subwings (and below them), the hind legs attach to the body.

Abilities & Weaknesses

Abilities

• Speed
  The Nightbreather is almost capable of matching the Night Fury in speed, although not over long distances. This, together with its stealth, helps to make it a formidable predator.
• Stealth
  As mentioned, the dark coloration of the Duskbreather renders it virtually invisible in the night sky. Its size even helps with this; unlike the Night Fury with its massive wings, this small dragon cannot silhouette itself by blocking out a large part of the stars on a clear night.
• Blinding mist
  The Darkbreath Dragon's most unique feature and its namesake is its breath weapon. Although relatively short-ranged, this thick, dark midnight-purple mist causes temporary blindness, and becomes extremely disorienting even before it takes full effect when it is fired at a target from thirty different directions at once from thirty different members of a hunting pack.

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Weaknesses

• Size
  Though it aids in stealth, the Darkbreather's small size is more a weakness than not. It is too small to physically defend itself against attacks from larger species and creatures, either with its teeth or its talons.
• Pack mentality
  While a single Nightbreather could theoretically survive on its own (they are more-than-capable hunters), these dragons are meant to live in packs, helping and relying on one another for just about everything. When separated from its pack, it becomes first jittery, then panicked as time passes, eventually becoming almost completely disabled. Small groups that have been separated from their flock for a while may attempt to form flocks with other species, but this seldom works out well for them.
• Light
  Being the nocturnal hunters they are, Duskbreathers' eyes are extremely sensitive to light. Even a single torch can be painful, if not outright blinding.

Behavior & Training

Personality
Darkbreath Dragons are skittish, and distrustful of anything new. They are quite timid when not hunting, and generally stay pretty close to their home, rarely flying as far as the next island. (The exception to this is when the flock gets too big. They seem to have an instinct for this, and the flock will split, one half flying off to find a new home on another island, the other staying.) The flock does not have a single alpha; rather, they all coexist as equals. They have deep sense of "family" and will all band together to help and defend wounded or sick flockmates.

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Training
These dragons are so seldom seen that no one knows whether or not they can be trained. Their flocking would make training one basically impossible, but there is a chance that several could be trained at the same time if some way could be found to make them see the would-be trainer as a flock member. However, given their innate distrust, this doesn't seem very practical at this time.

Additional Information