Whers

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Whers
Physiology:

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Whers, or watch-whers, are an intelligent, draconic species created by Wind Blossom, originally by mistake when she attempted to continue her mother's work in in creating the dragons. But, later, they found a usefulness, fighting Thread at night. For the longest time, they were seen as useless creatures. They have also become guardians on Pern and have been used to finding gas pockets due to their strong sense of smell in mines in order to protect miners. In this day and age, they are primarily guards and considered a smaller fighting force.

Nocturnal because of their lamp-like reflective eyes. Thick hides protect them from the harmful elements. Each of their feet has two gnarled digits on it. Like their fire-lizard and dragon cousins, whers have jewel-like eyes. Their smoothed out eyes swirl with colors that reflect their emotions.

Whers come in the same colors as the dragons. All females are capable of clutching amongst Whers. Whers generally have wings that are far too small for flying in any conditions, however, they are capable of short, low glides. They generally run rather quickly and are rather strong, being particularly well muscled, especially the larger colors.

They generally would combat Thread by swallowing it as they ran and glided over the ground for short distances.[/blockquote]

Psychology:

All whers tend to be more territorial than dragons and lack the intelligence of their larger bretheren. Whers are mentally more primal. They are capable of limited speech, but their vocabulary is very limited to just a few words and Whers tends towards using images, sounds and emotions rather than words, only using them when they feel something intensely.

Like dragons, they are capable of Impressing to a single Hanlder. However, this is somewhat more similar to their firelizard cousins in that they generally go for someone with food, but, in addition, they generally make a blood bond, which strengthens the Impression. This generally happens where, upon first Impression, the Impressee cuts their hand or or finger and allows their wher to taste their blood. Other times, the wher may force it by biting the Candidate. But once blood is tasted, generally the bond is considered officially made.

Whers will do anything to protect their bonded and can always sense when they are in danger. A Handler can only handle one wher at a time. If their wher dies, they can try at another wher. A wher does not have to be Impressed t be cared for by a Handler, but it is a much more difficult and rocky relationship with almost no communication other than commands that a testy wher may or may not follow.

Mating and Reproduction:

Whers mate by running rather than flying like dragons and firelizards due to the fact that their wings are not capable of lifting them. A run will last until either the strongest male catches up and overtakes the female or she makes the decision and she and her mate drive away the other competitors. In some cases, males will fight, even to the case of severe injury or, at times, death.

All dragons can come in as many colors as dragons. All clutches, will contain dud eggs. Generally, more than one. Clutch sizes are considerably smaller than that of dragons with a max of 10 eggs and a minimum of 1. A clutch will normally be laid three months after the run and the eggs typically hatch around a month or a little more after being laid on the sands.

Sizes:

From 4 feet to 9 feet by 2 feet to 6 feet depending on over all length.

Info from or based on info found here: Pern Wiki