Create a Hybrid Species Contest

((I'm doing this. Give me a moment to write up something, hopefully I'll be done by the 9th, but if not, que sera. [Que cera?] Finals rush, and what.))

Hybrid Species: Dracha (Drah-kha)
Plural Term: Dracha
Group Term: School

Species Info: DNA bases- Multiple.
* Whers! Of course. Whers served as the base for size, strength, and loyalty. (And, strangely, intelligence.)
* Fire Lizards- Flit DNA was mixed in to ease the aggression issues of the whers, and to allow for a more diurnal creature.
* Tunnel Snakes...? No, seriously, no one has a clue how THAT got in there. (Actually just here to explain the hexapedal nature- IMHO I have always imagined Tunnelsnakes as six-limbed serpentlike creatures, not like snakes.)
* Fish- Variety (Beta Fish- yes, really, Marlin, Swordfish, Tuna, Koi, Goldfish, Catfish, multiple large, fresh-and-saltwater species, usually sport species or open-ocean types, especially game fish known for their speed, scaling, or strength- hence the amount o game fish used in the DNA pool. Tropical fish were generally left out.)
* Snakes- Variety (Sea Snake, Boa Constrictors of multiple breeds, tree snakes, water-faring/water-loving species capable of swimming)
* Salamander - Various breeds for climbing ability and swimming skill and aquatic-life adaptation.
* Lizard - Variety (Iguana, number of aquatic lizards)
* Amphibian - HUGE VARIETY (Frog, Salamander, anything to perfectly tweak the aquatic abilities and amphibian life cycle)
* Dolphin - Multiple breeds, for intelligence.
* Octopus - Also for intelligence. (Okay, so the science team working on this project was probably a bunch of very bored marine biologists.)

Basically, an Amphibious Snake-Fish-wher hybrid?

Impression/Bonding: Like Whers, they blood-bond by way of Impression. They spend enough time in their 'baby' stage (*see life cycle) that they may in fact get to know the pool of potential humans to bond with an pcik a favorite on their own. (For example, puppies- a human interacting with a litter of puppies may find a particular pup taking a shine to them. Much like dragons, a Dracha may have a preference in personality type- one may like a loud human, one my like a more mild-mannered one, however, they will just as easily and willingly bond strangers, like whers.) Also like whers, they seal the bond with blood, eyes whirling with rainbows.

Multiples can in fact bond to a human, much like flits, though the bond tends to stray more along the lines of a wher in terms of strength. Unlike whers, they are not as aggressive or as possessive, so if their chosen human has another bond they will not care. (Meaning established dragonriders, wherhandlers, etc, may Impress one without worry. On the other hand, the dragon or wher may have something to say about that! They are in fact more sentient and self-aware than flitters!)
A human losing one as a partner won't feel as much in the way of loss as losing a wher bond, but it's a much sharper impact than losing a flit. They MAY survive un-bonded, and are in fact roughly as intelligent as whers and may be trained and worked with without bonding, but bonding makes it easier, and, obviously, makes the partnerships work better.

Like whers, mistreatment will in fact cause them to break a bond, and if their human dies, the may well go feral and survive on their own.

Intelligence- UH. Parallel to whers, or at the very least, Pernese Shipfish. (On the lowest spectrum, Earth dolphins.) They can in fact speak, and while they tend to only have a wher-like intelligence when speaking, (short, clipped sentences with occasionally garbled syntax and grammar) they have the capacity to grasp concepts on a level most whers could not imagine. They have an inherent sense of time and space (thanks to their flit DNA) and a deep grasp of concepts and plans that makes them very, very clever. They don't tend to imagine on their own, but if a bondmate puts an idea in their heads, they are very capable of executing it. They are goal oriented and capable of keeping multiple steps in their memories. (For example, they were originally created to help aquatic scientists, and as such, complex ideas such as 'GO here, put this here, press the red button, and come back' are simple, where as a flitter would likely get distracted even before the first step.)
In short- wher-like intelligence with improved memory and speech pattern.

They CANNOT go between however, and though the telepathy genes enhanced by Mentasynth were the prominent ones, the teleportation skills were, apparently, not properly spliced. (Or, more likely, given their tailoring to aquatic circumstances, let dormant. A creature teleporting in deep water would be in more danger of incorrectly gauging water pressure, current, etc, as a dragon is capable of doing in air. Then again, whers have hardly been known for their skills in betweening.)

Appearance:
Body- Quadrupedal, covered not in hide, but in slick, defined scales over the whole body. (Well- hexapedal, more accurately!) The Dracha have six legs. Relatively evenly spaced in comparison to most quadrupeds, however, like dragonkin, they have a second set of limbs above and slightly behind the forelegs. On dragons and whers this manifests as wings, however, in Dracha, the DNA was altered so that on them, it manifests as a fully functional second set of limbs spaced behind the first forelimbs. Then there's the expanse of chest and abdomen, and a set of hindlegs.

They're relatively lizard-shaped, in the form and function of their legs, which tick out slightly and bend at the elbows before leading into thick-palmed paws, with four toes on each foot. The forelimbs have a dew-claw like thumb on them allowing for minor-level manipulation of objects- however, they lack the ability for much fine manipulation as the 'fingers' are webbed like a frog's. Each finger is tipped with a circular pad under the claws, again, similar to a frogs, though they retain the circular footpad of a wher. They have shorter limbs than one would see on a dragon, but longer than a wher's, and the fore-and-hindlegs are of more equal lengths.

They look more sleek and tapered than a wher, with a long, slender build more reminiscent of a serpent (or, as Earth residents are familiar with, a 'chinese' dragon.) Thus, short limbs, long middle, long, twining tail, and the sort of spinal and ribcage build allowing them to coil tightly around themselves like a boa constrictor. Their scales, while prominent and very defined to the touch, they lie so perfectly interlocked and overlapped with eachother that they never cause trouble for movement and in fact, the Dracha are quite sleek to the touch. (Like a snake's skin.)

Their faces are draconic, vaguely equine in shape, though with a pulled-back jawline of a serpent , and they have short, triangular teeth with flatter molars, like all dragonkin. The head has dragonkin headknobs stretching back from the skull, longer than a wher's and with odd little branches on the ends giving them a triple-pronged look. (No one knows how this happened.) Along the back of the neck, instead of a dragon's neckridges, there are fish fins along the neck, heading down the spine and to the tail. They also posses similar fins on each foreleg, along the back of the 'arm to assist in swimming. When on land or at rest, the fin folds back some, reminiscent of the wher's wings. They also have delicate fins along the lower part of the neck, the hips, shoulders, and over the eyes, in place of eye ridges (for an idea, see Leafy Sea Dragons), as well as in big sweeps along the end of the tail like a rudder.

While on land, they crawl more like alligators or lizards, in water they are extremely fast and graceful, incredibly limber and swift. On land, even, they possess a great deal of flexibility, and they are great climbers and often twist and drape themselves over tree branches like snakes. Obviously, they cannot fly.

They have sharp claws, and while they don't tend to be big or very strong, they possess a hefty amount of muscle and, like snakes, tend to strangle their prey instead of hunting it. They have vocal cords, and wile they mostly hiss and chirp much like dolphins, they also have the ability to make high pitched dragon-like chirping noises, though clicks and hissing is more common.

Their eyes are large anr round, with three membranes over it to allow for underwater vision. Like a wher, the eyes whirl in colors, though these eyes are completely smooth and round, not faceted. The colors tend to mix and mingle much more muddily than a wher or dragon, and it's often harder to gauge their emotions. On their muzzles, they also have a set of catfish-like whiskers, with a set of extremely long main feelers and several smaller sets along the upper lip. Their vision is not the greatest (they see in a combination of wher-vision, semi-heat based, and normal vision, though they tend to see much brighter colors and are more movement based.) They have a very altered sense of depth perception to account for water's bending of light, so on land, they tend to 'see' with their whiskers and sense sounds and vibrations.

Coloration- variable. They may possess any number of markings and colorations, and it is not at all uncommon for a variety of off markings to crop up. The scale patterning is rather close to the original dragon colors, though the coloration on the fins may be in almost any color, and may easily cross odd, jarring patterns. (Tropical fish DNA sneaking in oddly.)

Size: They have ranks exactly as whers do. Metallic ranks are the breeding males and females, and tend to be the largest, and they follow general colors of whers. Their 'size' is measured in length from nosetip to tail, as their height is often irrelevant as they are often far longer than they are tall, roughly four times. NOTE- height is from foot to top of head. Height from foot to withers is probably half that, and halved once more due to posture- ie, 8 feet head to toe, 4 feet to shoulders, 2 feet due to the crouched stance.

Weight is pretty hefty,with even the small colors being surprisingly weighty- their bodies are compact muscle, like a snake. They are larger than Earth serpent counterparts around, with the largest sizes being thicker around than humans and very dangerous if in a compression coil, while the smallest sizes, even if thinner, are strong enough to break a human's arm if they are threatened.

Gold- Females, possess a metallic shimmering sheen to their scales, though they may range in color from burnished brown-gold to any shades of yellow, orange, and even reds and whites. Common marking colors are reds, oranges and even rare koi-patterned black. They are often nearly twenty-five feet long, with a height of seven to eight feet at the top of the head. They tend to be the most intelligent, and have the biggest nests.

Bronze- Males, also metallic. Coloration tends to vary from red, orange, brown, and all shades of copper and bronze. Markings can appear in black, white, and silver, as well as bright blues and greens as if they were rusting metal. Twenty feet long. They tend to be the strongest and bossiest, and also tend to be guardians. Very territorial.

Brown- Males, with shiny but ultimately simply matte scaling. They tend to be brown of any shade, as well as black, white, and reds. All warm colors may appear on a brown's scales. Markings tend to appear in purples and monochromatic colors, as well as yellows and tans. Eighteen feet long. They tend to be gatherers and often hoard food. They are also often good at finding food.

Blue - Males, matte scaling, though often with the flashiest and largest fins. All shades of blues, purples, indigo, as well as gray. Markings may be in any neon colors, usually blue, green, bright neon reds and yellows, and whites or blacks. They are anywhere from twelve to sixteen feet long, with larger males often being more active and stubborn. Blues are incredibly fond of water, and often very flighty and absentminded. They're also very aggressive and fight with each other constantly.

Green - Females, and Fertile. Their scales are any range of greens to even near-yellows and browns, and they may have markings in yellows, blues, and similarly neon colors, OR they will have very muddy, camoflagelike markings. Length is from ten to fourteen feet. They tend to have very soft-edged fins. Greens are sweet and gentle, and often collect and hoard food, and are very good at finding trinkets to build nests with. As mothers, they have small nests with only one to two surviving young.

Whites- Males or females, an oddity. Can in fact be fertile. Scales will always be shades of white (tinged to very pale shades of any color, mainly pink or pale yellow), grey, or black, with an opalescent sheen over all the scales and fins. Markings will only be in opalescent shades across the scales, reflecting light. They are tiny in comparison, often no longer than four to six feet. They don't tend to breed, but if they do, they will rarely have surviving young.

Hierarchy: Metallic colors 'rule', with chromatic colors falling under them, though it is not uncommon for a green to make her own nest with an entourage of blues and browns. They do each have duties, but usuall all duties are split in schools unless there's a nesting female- then, all females will defend the nest while brown and bronze males gather food and blues defend. Whites will usually act as scouts or sub-tenders to the nests.
(Further typical duties listed under colors ranks.)

Mating Cycle:
Complicated? Unlike dragonkin they do not have a one-time mating cycle, instead entering a heat cycle and mating with multiple partners out of a selected few for the strongest genes. A gold may choose a favored bronze as her mate, while greens tend to be less particular. Females tend to simply go into a mating cycle and the males pick up on it- the males will then fight eachother for the right to mate with her, and she will eventually mate with the winner- it is not uncommon for the males to be injured, and often, a female may just pick the strongest and most battlescarred male.

Of course, if the female does not like a males attitude, she may well also simply chase him off and pick a different suitor. Still, it's a fight amongst the males to show off, and while they rarely kill one another, they do tend to be cut up, clawed, chewed on, and tired after the fighting. (Luckily, the fins and scales are regenerative, and damage heals quickly- damage to the fins and scales is usually simply superficial.)

The female will then grow pregnant with a clutch of gooey, soft-shelled eggs like an amphibian, keeping them inside only a few days before depositing them in a bunch in a nest she will have created before she went into the heat (the nest is always in the water, and usually made of rocks, dirt, sticks, even shed scales as well as a particular hardened saliva she uses to mash it all together.). The eggs are clumped together, transparent, and look more like fish or frog eggs than dragon eggs. The eggs will remain transparent, though the babies within will not show their coloring until after they hatch.

A gold's clutch will have somewhere around forty eggs, with between twelve and sixteen viable young of any color, while a green clutch will have around forty eggs but with only five or six viable young, and usually only green, blue, or brown offspring- if bred with a bronze, they may also throw a bronze or gold here and there rarely. (Similar to a wher's clutch ratio) Whites, if female, if bred, will only have four or five eggs, and it is incredibly rare that one will come to full term, and they will usually only ever spawn other whites. Thus, they're rarely bred.
(See life Cycle for post-hatching information.)

Life Cycle:
When hatched, they resemble nothing more than rather hideous-looking tadpoles with six little fin-nubs. At this stage they are fully aquatic, and stay within the nest. Usually, out of all the eggs, only a third will hatch, with the rest being duds or stillborn. (Like a wher, not all eggs are fertile from the beginning. This is usually easily seen as the 'live' eggs will wriggle and twitch, while the dud eggs possess only amniotic fluid and goo, and will generally not show quite as clear a shape as the live eggs.) The young, at this stage called wrigglers, will grow rapidly over the next two weeks, swiftly developing lungs as well as gills, and developing legs from the fin-nubs they are born with. (Like frogs.) They are pale white-grey, with a first layer of infant scaling that is shed (and will periodically be shed every few months for the rest of their lives like a snake) as they develop. All babies are the same size.

After two weeks, the wrigglers will be able to emerge from the water- at this point they will be ravenous, having survived so far on the remnants of the dead eggs and will have not left the nest. (Shaped much like a beehive and unable to be seen into- a mother Dracha may tell her bonded how many young she has, however, she will not even let the bonded see them.) During this stage they will have grown in their scales and body fins, and developed their colorings.

At this stage they tend to be called just crawlers or hatchlings. As soon as they leave the water the first time they will usually be fed by the kills their mother hunts down for them. At this stage she will announce her children live, and call any who may wish to bond them to her nest. She may select which human gets a baby by simply grabbing them and placing them in front of a human, or she may allow them to choose. (From here, it runs very similarly to a wher hatching.)

They start off all the same size, and even at bonding they are the same size, though in their first year they will grow to near full size very rapidly. Smaller sizes will be fully grown at roughly a year, while metallics and larger browns will take closer to two years to reach full size.
Females will be sexually mature at a year to a year and a half, even if the golds have not reached full growth, though the first spawn of eggs is usually light and only one or two young survive.

Biology: Aquatic, Diurnal, copper-based blood (Ichor), Hexapedal, Carnivorous (truly Omnivorous, though require meat in diet)
Diet- Fish, sea plants, even capable of subsisting on Earth small creatures such as shrimp or shellfish if they supplement diet with plants, fruits, veggies, etc. (In a wild setting, of course- since they're a lab-created breed, so far, they have carefully-managed, nutrient rich diets.)
They're diurnal, and tend to be less active in the day, though like many animals they can easily adapt to a different schedule over time. They have a layer of scales that they shed once every four months or so, similar to a bird's molting, though if pulled out prematurely the scales grow back quickly- the fins are also very easy to repair if torn or cut.

They retained (somehow!) the green, copper-based blood/ichor of the Pernese creatures they were based around, as well as the six-limbed body structure rather unique to that world. Apparently, even when spliced in with multiple varieties of double-helix DNA, the triple-helixes of the Pernese creatures was the stronger base, and despite multiple attempts to alter it, in these creatures, at least, there seemed to be no way to create a viable organism (that didn't die instantly or have horrible, painful mutations rendering it incapable of survival without constant medical care- ugh, don't even ask about the first couple of experiments) without it having very definite Pernese characteristics. (Or who knows. Maybe it was lingering effects of the Mentasynth used by the original Settlers that made the original dragons and whers so resistant to mutation until now?)

Other Info: Basically created as an answer to the lack of truly water-faring creatures on Pern. (The scientists in question did not truly believe stories of the Shipfish.) Dracha (named entirely on a whim by a relation of one of the science team who happened to be a small girl with no ability to pronounce 'Dragon' correctly) are simply a step in the Aquatic direction in relation to Whers.

((Is it too obvious I REALLY like making things This is actually a sort of extension on a Pern sub-species I've had fiddled up for a while. If it's too close to dragonkin, and you were in fact looking for something more like a pet and less like dragonkin, but you DO like them, I can change plenty.
They're sort of a water-wher idea I was working on.
On that note, if you WOULD prefer to make them a wher-variant or something, that's fine too. I was going off the idea of leaving them as flit-like in rank, not common, but compatible with existing wher and dragon bonds. If, for some reason, you all like them and would rather have them separate, please do so. ON that note, however, I don;t even know how double-bonding goes here. Do we double-bond whers? Hmm. Unrelated, I suppose.

And if the appearance description seems strange, it's because I have a particular look in mind, and I plan to add a drawing soon enough to clarify. For now, if you want a VERY simple and not entirely accurate descriptions, see a six-limbed chinese dragon crossed with a beta fish. I'll add a size comparison image soon. Maybe. Imagine, if you will... uh. Something out of a bad sci-fi movie, I guess.

OKAY DONE.))

Since so few people entered a creature, I used a randomizer to choose the winner. Just so that everyone is aware, there are three prizes. First place and first prize is the chance to tame/bond a breeding pair of their creature. Second place, and second prize, is to tame/bond one of their creature. Third place and third prize gets their creature introduced to Rocky.

Now, for the results!

First Place: redwerecat's Dracha
Second Place: yaoiwafflez's Wher-wolf
Third Place: FaizahPandora's Pegasi

Let's all give Red some congrats!

Oh. Well... HUH.
Looky there.

If I may ask, then, is there any particular way we are supposed to introduce these creatures? Like, plot or however, or what?
(I personally just want Sasha to be involved. XD)