A Word About Dragons.

Dragons are strange creatures, and were common to the mirror worlds

In their natural resting state, they are dense, small creatures reminiscent of sea-horses, but with legs and translucent wings in place of dorsal fins. In this state, they generate prodigious amounts of heat as their metabolism emulates the world they originated in...

They have exo-skeletons of micro-platelets that form scales and is made from bio-titanium foam. Internal organs are carbon reinforced and are protected from temperature variations by a heat sink that envelops them when the body expands and diverts heat into the exo-skeleton.

They have a subsidiary nervous system that is a super-dense manganese-plasma super-conducting filament that stretches and adapts to the larger body shape.

The brain is large and is the only part of a dragon that stays the same size; i.e. it is slightly larger than a human brain. The brain is carried in the upper thorax and is protected by a double rib cage.

Dragon eyes are diamond platelets in a silicon fluid. When normal they look like human eyes, dense and circular. But when expanded, they look like a giant compound eye of tiny silver segments; they have an iris that the dragon can change to view ( suit ) variable temporal and dimensional anomalies.

Dragon teeth and claws are variations on the scales; they are cobalt micro-plates that are deep blue and hollow.

Their four wings are like those of a dragon-fly, translucent membranes of latticed metallised bio-hydrogen and are iridescent.

In normal size, dragons moderate temperature by living in cold ( snow ) climates; but when they visit the temperate areas, they need to expand to shed heat. One form of sudden heat dissipation is to discharge the volume of super-heated air from the mouth. Dragons are intelligent...very. They understand magik, but cannot practice it. They are difficult to ensorcel or affect by magikal means because of their phase-shifting.

Phase-shifting.

Dragons are originally from a world that mirrors Garreth's world and has a gateway into Danny's. Temporal variables between the two worlds mean that dragons move in and out of temporal phases to adjust the kinetic and temporal build-up. In extreme cases, dragons can implode with too much accumulated heat, leaving a micro-mini grey hole behind, or they can shuffle through time lines as temporal energy dissipates.

Sex

Dragons have three sexes ( male, female and androgynous. Androgynes are dragons that have not made up their minds which sex they want to be.) They have a wicked sense of humour and take a lot of getting to know. They prefer cats to humans ( as a rule ) but will bond extremely well on their terms if they think the human worthy.

Dragons are telepathic....sort of.

When normal sized ( about the size of a human being ) they look like a sea-horse, complete with long fine snout and tail. Their weight is shed into the dimensional boundary layer between worlds ( universes ), hence the heat build-up as a kinetic trade-off for appearing light and being able to fly.

Dragons can transfer that weight to their body at any time...they just couldn't fly if they did.

When fully grown and fully expanded, a female dragon can grow to fifteen metres in length; a male will grow to over twenty metres in length.

Society.

The dragons of the third Earth adapted to conditions in Garreth's world and a process of evolution began. They dominated the polar regions to protect their need to moderate their temperatures. Also they needed intelligence to negotiate food supplies; dragons feed on mineral deposits that contain rare and heavy metals. Their compact bodies and powerful claws help them mine what they need, but luxuries they are unable to manufacture. So they buy them. Commerce is readily understood by modern dragons, and dragon faeces is mostly processed rare minerals and metals... so dragons trade for luxuries by defecating at designated trading outposts.

Since they first met man, dragons have sought to improve themselves. They were always an intelligent race, having to process the mathematics of inter-dimensional travel and boundary layer weight distribution, but natural cunning and understanding was not enough. Dragons needed to adapt and upgrade if they were to survive.

Habitat.

All the polar regions, but particularly the northern one. Higher Thule, The Indian White Nations and Upper Kiev are their domains. People rarely bother them there.

Chu'thu'ukk.

Androgyne dragon that never chose a sex. Very old. Can remember first-hand stories of the bringing of the first dragons from the third world.

Wary of man, likes wizards. And cats.

Knows of Geoffrey's world from dragon legends, including the one that says dragons can travel between worlds. There is a forbidden dragon-lore that says that in the original dragon-world, the people there adapted dragons for their own purposes...that dragons were made!

Chu'thu'ukk is the acknowledged highest mind among the dragons, therefore it is the leader, it knows and has met Salamander Ord before.

'thu' denotes androgyne. 'akk' denotes male 'gha' denotes female.

Lha'thu'cha is a young androgyne of twenty years. It has both characteristics ( male and female ) still wears the egg-colour of his clutch ( dark blue highlights of cobalt with a dusting on diamond on a pale green skin.)

It is assigned to help Salamander and Garreth. It takes to Afferton and Mr Toast. It is confused by the Geoffrey/Garreth concept, but uses the transfer knowledge to understand the Book of Null spell and recall how dragons actually can travel the intra- and intra-dimensional highway...and take a passenger.

Luther, as it becomes known, loves humour...jokes...japes...puns and pranks. It also loves country music.