Wyvern

"Wyverns, they called them, vicious creatures. None of the graceful menace of full fledged dragons, these creatures were quite savage and inelegant..." It was a black scaled dragon like creature, about the size of a horse. Large leathery wings spread out from it's forelimbs, legs bearing razor sharp talons beneath, but it was not those claws that had damaged the wing, they were too small to do such damage. It was the creature's tail. At it's end, was long spike-like stinger, flailing about with frightening dexterity, and no doubt accuracy.

Detailed Description
Wyverns are horse sized beasts of a Dragon-like species but in truth they are of no relation to the magical and noble creatures. They are, however, subservient to them, only because they are seen as dominant, otherwise the Wyvern is a vicious and malicious mythical monster that will go out of it's way to attack all others, especially Humans and the like. Even when their appetite is satisfied, the Wyvern will still savagely murder any other creatures around to satisfy it's lust for blood and desire to inflict pain.

Their wing span approximately measures twenty meters, and their bodies are covered with a combination of leather black to charcoal coloured flesh and scales. Their wings possess spiked claws with which they are able to inflict a serious wound, but they commonly attack with their powerful legs possessed of razor sharp talons, or more often their whip like tail ending in a giant scorpion-like stinger.

The spike of their tail is so hard that it can puncture steel up to half an inch thick, and once it strikes a victim pumps a deadly poison into the wound. They are able to sting six times in an hour, and once the poison enters a victim's body it causes paralysis and possibly death depending upon their constitution.

Due to their savage nature the Wyvern is generally a solitary beast, but it is not uncommon for them to band together when an opportunity arises that can benefit from the strength of numbers. They can also be trained to be more tolerant of one another.

The female Wyvern is larger, stronger, and more vicious than the male of their species.

Habits
The Wyvern is primarily a night hunter, but they are as just as comfortable during day light hours. In the darkness their success greatly increases, and thus the creature tends to maintain nocturnal hours. In fact, though, they sleep very little, requiring only a few hours which are usually obtained via small naps, thus the Wyvern is a very active predator.

Life Span and Reproduction
Wyverns live for approximately 85 to 120 years. They mate only once every twenty years which is mainly due to the fact that the creatures are so malevolent and vicious that they are just as liable to kill one another as procreate.

Wyvern's prefer to live in cliff-side caverns and that is where the female Wyvern will on her own, lay her eggs and raise her young.

A female Wyvern can produce up to five eggs, three months after conception, but quite commonly only one to two of the offspring will survive. The Wyverlings mature at a fast rate, and within a year's time are half the size of their parent and reach full maturity after another two. Even at a young age, the stinger of Wyvern is toxic, though not nearly as potent as it one day will become.

Bite and Claw
They have a beak like mouth that can deliver a slashing bite, plus the talons of their feet which are much like that of an eagle's can easily disembowel a man.

Night Vision
The Wyvern aside from having excellent vision can see very well at night. Even under a moonless sky, they are able to see movement in the darkness at a great distance.

Tough Hide
A Wyvern's hide is strong enough to turn knife blades, and possibly even small caliber fire arms.

Stinging Tail
The Wyvern's armoured tail is extremely durable and powerful. Most people struck, need not worry about the poison since if they suffer a direct hit will be completely impaled. The creature is so accurate with it's strikes that even in flight can skewer a small bird.

Historical Facts
The usual spelling wyvern (older wivern too) is not attested before the 17th century as 'winged two-footed dragon'.

A wyvern or wivern is a legendary winged reptilian creature with a dragon's head, wings and often two legs or sometimes none, and a barbed tail. The wyvern is often found in heraldry.[1] There exists a purely sea-dwelling variant, termed the Sea-Wyvern which has a fish tail in place of a barbed dragon's tail.

Some cryptozoologists have interpreted wyverns as surviving pterosaurs, which were extinct around 65 million years ago.[18] There are alleged sightings in remote areas of pterosaur-like creatures such as the Kongamato in Africa

Sightings & Encounters
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