Ambassador

Appearance
At first glance, you would think that this dragon was some sort of Gryphon, or Hippogriff. It's physique is not like you would find in most dragons, who tend to be more serpentine. These dragons range from about 2m to 4m metres in height from feet to base of the neck, so are classed as a small to medium sized dragon. They are not long, around 5-8 metres long from head to tail.

It's head is like a bird's, with a beak. Despite a lack of teeth, there are molars at the back, designed for crushing tougher meats and small bones. Muscles around the corners of the mouth serve to easily break away or soften harder sections of meat from the carcass, whereas the beak is designed for ripping and tearing the food source. They have a large cranium, and their skull betrays that at one time, they did in fact have horns, though nowadays they don't exist. Instead, they have twin 'crests' that consist of 3 elongated scales. Although their mobility is limited, is it more than enough to express the creature's emotions.

They have a sleek, aerodynamic body that is compact. Because of the compact body, their legs look too long for their body. Despite being adapted to flight, Ambassador dragons are just as adept on ground, though they prefer to travel through the open air. Their huge wings, when not in use, are folded at their sides, like a bird. Their 'rudders' situated on their rump act in a similar way to a bird's tail. When not in use, the rudder often hangs below the tail, half-closed. All the bones in their body are hollow, which makes these creatures a lot lighter than they look. These dragons have not yet been weighed. The dragon's tail is semi-rigid; the tail does not touch the ground, unless the dragon is laying down. It is still flexible and is sometimes used in expressing emotions, like how a cat wags it's tail when angry or annoyed. It's tail piece is static; there are no muscles to fan or fold it. It's main use is to avoid too much drag and weight whilst in the air.

Compared to most dragons, the Ambassador's have minimal fighting capabilities. They have short, stubby curved claws on their toes, and the fire they produce is more of a display than an actual weapon. The maximum range recorded for these dragon's flame is 7 metres, though this is rare. It is more around the average of 3 metres range. They could set you on fire, but it can easily be put out if you stop, drop and roll, unlike other dragons in which severe burning or disintegration is common.

Sexes are somewhat similar in appearance. Males tend to be taller and longer than females, and claws on their toes are a little bit longer and sharper, though not noticeable at first glance. During mating season, males will moult and gain patterned scales in certain areas, primarily on the twin crests, tail piece and primary scales on the wings. The patterns are a solid colour of the tint, showing off either spots about a quarter distance from the scale's tip, spot proportional in size to the scale. Occasionally scales elsewhere may be 'tipped' with the dragon's colour, like the wingtips of a Kittiwake or akin to the Whitetip Reed Shark. Males also have a higher chance of having 'warm' tinting, but is still slim. Male's crests and tail pieces tend to be longer than those of females.

Scales
The Ambassador's scales are something quite remarkable. They are mostly a thin oval shape, but pointed at the end. The edges are very sharp and can easily slice through flesh with applied pressure. The scales are very durable and difficult to destroy, but this is suprisingly the Ambassador's biggest weakness. If the slightest damage is struck against one of these scales, say a chip or a scratch, the scale will almost immediately dislodge itself, so that a new one may grow. New scales take more or less 2 weeks to grow back into a usable state, though an extra week may be needed for the scale to be strong enough to resist wear. The durability allows the dragon to maybe bump into hard objects unscathed, but isn't good against brutal and aggressive attacks, such as swords, acid or anything of that matter. The scales are important to the Ambassador because their wings, rudders and tail piece are lined with elongated scales, which work in the same way as feathers. The loss of too many of these scales will stop the dragon from flying. The Ambassador's scales are loosely attached to the skin, for easy ejection, insulation and for impressive displays. Like mentioned before, the scales can act in the same way as feathers. Ambassadors are able to 'puff' up their scales when threatened, making them look bigger and become a huge mass of deadly spikes. They can even give a 'ripple' effect to their body as a threat display. Sometimes when they are irritated or annoyed, their scales may raise slightly. When the scales lay flat, the surface of the dragon's body appears smooth and glassy. The control of these scales carries on with the wing and rudders, which can fold or expand at will, even if the limb is straight open. This allows the Ambassador to adapt to long-distance travel by stretching the initial length of the wingspan, so the dragon can exert less energy during migrations. This extra level of control allows the Ambassador dragons to coordinate themselves incredibly well in the air – which will be described in the following category.

The colour of the Ambassador's scales and skin are strictly a deep, jet black. However, each dragon has a coloured 'tint' in which the light reflected off the scales is a sort of colour, in the same way as light hits the black of magpie feathers. The colours are nearly always cold colours; blues, greens, and purples are common, though warm colours such as orange or red can be found on rare occasions. The eye colour tends to match more or less the tint, though sometimes the tone is either darker or brighter.