Saturday 25 August 2012

Urban Dragons

Dragons in Urban Settings

Dragons are usually thought of as existing in the dark past or in fantasy worlds totally separate from our everyday lives. Have we ever thought about what life would be like if Dragons walked among us? Right here, right now.


Oh, It's You Again

Imagine if, for some reason, a baby dragon had imprinted on you after hatching. So cute when it's young, but when it gets older it may get to be a bother. A full-grown Dragon is not really something you can take into the country and drop off.





High Noon for Dragons

Not all Dragons will be easily domesticated. They are, after all, wild  creatures whose intelligence ranges from the level of Chimpanzees to that of Dolphins; some species even approach Human intelligence levels.
Still, there will be territorial problems among them, and the last place you would want to find yourself is between two Dragons vying for a piece of turf.




The Lurker

Those who try to raise Dragons as pets will find any number of merchants ready to sell them unhatched eggs and there will be that proportion who takes shortcuts in breeding their Dragons, going for the purer species, the fashionable traits and ignoring the genetics of the animal. They will be operating secret breeding facilities away from the public eye.
This will still pose its own set of dangers. Sometimes Mother Dragon may object when her eggs are stolen and stored away before their time, and woe to those who rouse her anger.




Background Noise

Not all Urban animals live lives of quiet domesticity. The alleyways are ripe with feral cats, stray dogs and even some of the more exotic species that some people like to keep as pets. If Dragons lived among us as just another one of the many species on Earth then the alleyways of our cities would have a new apex species. The human predators who deal in the backstreets will have to keep a sharp ear out for any sudden changes in the background noise when they are on their cellphones.