Dragons of Old

Dragons and behemoths from my Keeari story.

Topher - male "short-snout, horned" behemoth
Galiar - female "winged" dragon
Foople (human named) - female "rabbit-eared, maned" behemoth, also called running behemoth

There are two species of magical-ish creatures in my book, and though they are not the same, there are similarities in ability and intelligence. Both live for hundreds of years, both can grow impossibly large. Both have varying characteristics from winged, overly hairy, large clawed, two legged, four legged, short snout, long eared, horned, etc. They also both have a strange ability to see both the past and the future, and reaching a certain age are able to use these abilities to their personal advantage. They both reach a time in their adulthood known as their "Ages", approximately twenty years after hatching. This is when they can tap into their magic-y abilities officially, though they have the connection from the beginning of their lives. Once in their ages a dragon or behemoth have the ability to reproduce, track down a mate through a connection all behemoths and dragons share, foretell events and even recall the past through any moderately conscious being. They are even able to communicate with humanoid beings no matter that dragons and behemoths cannot speak. They have other magical abilities that I'll save for later, but basically they're magical and great.

The biggest differences:
Dragons are (usually) brilliantly colored; they find great vanity in their beauty. Think of a dragon as a parrot that knows how pretty it is. Say "pretty bird" a few too many times and the dragon will repeat it happily. They are NOT stupid, however; just fond of flattery. The best way to survive an encounter with a dragon is to play on their vanity. They are more commonly seen with wings than without, their four legged kin died out long ago. They are more likely to have scaled leathery skin with a strange downy feathered coat. Some parts of them appear armadillo-ish, with hairs/feathers peeking out between hard plates of leathery armor that most mistake for scales. They are born in a rainbow of colors, usually mottled greens and blues, though orange and red are not unheard of. Like giant predatory parrots, dragons can be seen (rarely) in breaks in the jungle trees where the sun can peek through to the floor allowing the growth of glorious flowering carpets. They are found primarily in the northern part of Ovella where it is hot and humid, preferring the jungles of Jahashoa over the icy mountains of the south.

Behemoths on the other hand prefer the cold, for their thick fur keeps them warm. There are north dwelling behemoths just as there are south dwelling dragons, but both are generally found in one climate or the other. Behemoths are the deadlier of their kin. They are wickedly intelligent, long bodied and strong limbed, climbing, stealthing, and running rather than flying, for the winged behemoths were slain long ago for their gargantuan bat-like appearance. It was perhaps for the betterment of Ovella that the winged demons were slain, for they were terrors at all times. But despite the danger of coming across one, behemoths have been fabled to be intelligent enough to choose to treat a humanoid as a valuable living tool rather than food or sport. They are more likely than their dragon relatives to begin a conversation before slaying a humanoid to see what kind of person they're dealing with. They are cautious and wise. Legends have claimed that these beasts have even been known to resist slaying the noblest humanoid and become the fiercest of friends, while dragons have only ever been captured and forced into servitude to a humanoid (though even they have found that humans are not all bad, and grew affectionate toward them once they received enough praise for their beauty). Behemoths, unlike the dragons, are mostly found in more neutral and natural colors; browns, speckled whites and blacks, and some even appear to change coats with the seasons, going from a grey gold in the summer to a pure white by winter. These are more likely to have extremely large ears than their dragon brothers, while the dragons tend to have more elaborate horns. Some behemoths do not even grow horns at all.

Basically there is a lot of variance in the ways dragons and behemoths can appear, and they do not interbreed. Either way, both species are extremely rare to come upon, most people believing that the creatures are no more than myth. We know better, of course.