MY DRAGON LAIR

Dragons begin life inside of eggs. Where the eggs are laid depends on the kind of dragon. For example, the egg of a black dragon must be kept in strong acid. The egg of a white dragon must be buried in the snow. The color of the eggs match the color of the dragon who laid them. A mother dragon will lay a clutch of two to five eggs in a nest in her lair.

A young dragon is called a wyrmling. The wyrmling hatches from the egg, fully formed. At first they appear tiny and helpless. Their bodies are wet from the liquid inside the egg. After an hour, the wyrmlings dry off and they are able to fly. Wyrmlings inherit a vast amount of knowledge from their parents. Flying, hunting, reasoning-- it is all the instinctive and hereditary.

A newly hatched wyrmling is small-- no larger than a cat. Its instincts are to hunt for food and find a lair where it can live. For the next five years, the wyrmling will grow and learn. A dragon becomes a fully mature adult after about a hundred years. At the end of this entry, there will be a chart to show the age range of various stages of a dragon's life.

Dragons can live for more than a thousand years. Even an old dragon is still very active, and sometimes even more dangerous. Only when it reaches the great wyrm stage of its life do its body and mine finally stop developing. The dragon at this age is at the peak of its physical, mental, and magical abilities.

Age ................................................................ Dragon

0-5 years ....................................................... Wyrmling

6-15 years ..................................................... Very Young

26-50 years ................................................... Juvenile

51-100 years ................................................ Young Adult

101-200 years ............................................... Adult

201-400 years ............................................... Mature Adult

401-600 years ............................................... Old

601-800 years ............................................... Very Old

801-1, 000 years ........................................... Ancient

1, 001-1, 200 years ...................................... Wyrm

1, 200 + years ............................................... Great Wyrm