dragonslayer au

candycane headshot was the original one, wasnt feeling it but kept going and it ended up alright. gets the idea across. fancyass layered/netted(?) necklace & forehead jewelry for his dragonscale carnelians that store his important hoard

2 year old au i rediscovered, now retroactively inspired a bit by Frieren. i really dont wanna type out all the dragon shit again so im just gonna copy paste my notes (extra notes: 'twoleg' means humanoid. walks on two legs. that way humans stay humans (cant be tallmen like dungeon meshi bc elves are taller) and shit like kobolds dont get called 'demi' humans ||| 'dragons' below refers to TRUE dragons. twolegs made it messy lumping together true dragons, false dragons, and anything vaguely dragon-looking under "dragon" (drake, wyvern, wyrm, etc). true dragons are sapient and more diverse in colors, false dragons are non-magical (aside from the magic that powers breathing fire) animals that are usually more monochrome in palette (different sub/species fit under 'red dragon' 'green dragon' etc) ||| dragonslayers fight all the dragons, mostly the non-sapient ones but some true dragons are issue enough they get the sharp end of the sword too, but theyre the most dangerous to deal with)

all dragons can shapeshift

not all dragons want to though. some only shrink size, others(most) shift species (like sabito) draconic traits cant be shifted away entirely. scales/eyes/horns/teeth(/diet)/wings/tail/claws <- at least SOMETHING from that remains and gives them away. also their internals dont like CHANGE change. carnervore. appetite scales though, smaller form = less energy required, bigger form = more energy, staying in smaller form for a while and shifting to bigger form means either they need to eat a bunch beforehand or eat really soon when big. bigger to smaller means smaller can go a while without eating bc the energy stores are that of Big

dragons have a range of magic ability

like humans. it depends on the individual, some have a high base level of mana or an inclination for magic, some just Dont, it depends. also passed down, some lineages are more magic-inclined than others

dragon scales are slightly impervious to magic

they passively absorb a dragon's mana that would otherwise just dissipate into the surroundings, this makes them naturally negate foreign mana. (twolegs) highly value dragon scales for their magic properties and physical sturdiness, akin to some gems

dragonscale gems

gems formed by transforming shed scales into gems. what kind of gem is dependent on the individual (like one dragon will produce dragonscale emeralds and another would make dragonscale sapphires. differing dragons can make the same gem type but a single dragon cannot make multiple gem types) more/bigger scales = bigger gem; gems can be used for a range of magic spells. a frequent one is for storage (like a storage sealing scroll in naruto), though only dragons can mess with another dragon's magic. (twolegs) will collect dragonscale gems not knowing that theyre dragonscale and hold an/other item/s, or know but cant access the items within the gem w/o a dragon's help

dragons are extremely territorial

they get extremely attached to places, things, people, anything. possessive. they get extremely aggressive if someone/thing tries to take what they've deemed Theirs away from them. this instinct leads to hoarding behavior: find place to keep their things safe, guard it, kill anything that intrudes. they're sapient and can be reasoned with, but it only goes so far.

some dragon hoards are social

as in. they hoard children. nursery dragons<3 or the classic kidnapping people. its a frequent thing where dragons will count a town as part of their territory but only for what the town can give them, social hoarder types count the people AS their hoard, and care for them thusly

The Great Hoard Gathering

is a social event (once a year, way up in (twoleg)-inaccessible mountains, in summer) that spawned over time, a place to show off part of a dragon's hoard to impress other dragons and signal strength or cunning. a lousy hoard showing signals weakness, that dragon's hoard & territory is up for grabs by stronger dragons. too strong a hoard showing means fierce competition, other dragons on the lookout for grabs at their hoards- preemptive attacks, domination, retaliation, etc.

Greater Dragons

most dragons are caught in the crab bucket of social hierarchy of the great hoard gathering, these dragons are not. they are too powerful to be challenged even by the crab on the very top, and are perfectly content with their own hoard. if another greater dragon has something they want, they trade for it or figure out some peaceful solution together. there are no hyper-aggressive greater dragons like you'd find in the great hoard gathering because the greater dragons will work together to kill them. dragonslayers and similar dragon aggressors arent just completely wiped out the moment they pop up because greater dragons dont care, they dont cause the kinds of issues that would make twolegs mad enough to kill them and they do all the hard work of killing hyper-aggressive dragons before they get to a point to threaten them, they're good pest control. greater dragons still go to the hoard gathering to look for dragons with the potential to join their ranks or Future Issues

dragons dont have genders

usually. egg-layers are usually bigger but thats the extent of sexual dimorphism, socially they don't give a fuck about that. dragons sometimes pick up a gender for their (twoleg) form, but its relatively uncommon for that to actually extend into their base dragon form. usually only happens in dragons that were raised around/by (humans) or spend a majority of time around them

dragons live for AGES

they get old as fuck. theyre kinda like lobsters, they just keep growing for as long as they can get enough food(energy) to keep it up, which can be tens of thousands of years. they get really big really fast then slow waaayyyy the fuck down. first few years have full-body molts akin to reptiles because of the rapid growth, but peters out to individual scales shedding and growing back, like hair. cycles through periods of heavy and light shedding 0 - max egg size is like a foot long. ~20cm tall. small chicken sized. cant do Shit 1 - ~60cm, knee height, small dog. cant fend for self at all. fat little thing. no thoughts head empty 2 - ~100cm, hip height, large dog. can probably do some damage but its not gonna survive anything that wants to kill it. just now figuring out that they are Alive/An Individual/sentience 3 - ~140cm, boob height, deer. figuring out complex things like trajectories and Large Heights Bad from experience, but can be taught stuff. taught to hunt at this stage, can probably survive a fight with most things they'd come across in their parent's territory. shit parents ditch them after they can get food on their own 5 - ~180cm (5"11) people height :) magic-inclined dragons start showing unintentional mana use now . 7 - ~200cm (6"7) elk-moose sized. lankytime. learn to fly. start to shapeshift. parents leave em to their own devices by this point, lots of em stake it out on their own . . . 11 - ~280cm (9"2) start to fight eachother over territory & hoards, its not that serious (as in 'i will kill you over this') though. can comfortably carry one 6"0 person while flying, two if smaller . 13 - ~320cm (10"6) puberty :( fancycolors start growing in now though . . . 17 - ~360cm (11"10) solidly in the throes of territorial fights. adults start to take them seriously as threats . 19 - ~380cm (12"6) sexual maturity . . . 23 - ~400cm (13"1) growth stutters out here

end notes. ages bit in prime numbers just bc its easy sorta random numbers to use

anyway sabito's dragon, giyuu's (& tsutako) an elf, makomo's some forest/nature spirit thing that looks like a twoleg, sakonji & murata are humans. makomo & sabito were adopted by sakonji (a retired dragonslayer, lives away from the village), giyuu's parents left when he was 10 and he basically joined in when not w his sister, murata's normalguy, those 4 best friends (born same year). sabito fucked off at 7 and got attacked by another dragonet, sakonji patched him up and kept him, sabito's heavily influenced by the twoleg upbringing, twoleg form is mostly based off humans but he has long elf ears like giyuu. when sabito's 14 his parents (and some of his siblings) leave for their main territory, and some dickhead dragon comes in and destroys their home village. tsutako & giyuu each think the other died, tsutako goes to become a mage, while sabito flies giyuu & murata to the nearest dragonslayer outpost to join. murata & giyuu are accepted, sabito's not bc its a conflict of interest, hes allowed to help with training though, sparring as full dragon. sabito's also busy building up a show hoard though so he doesnt get bullied. 17 he plants a peach orchard outside a different village (i should really name them to keep track) and starts carving out an actual permanent house in the mountain.