I Eat Metals (ID: flhU)

Grouping: Reptilian, Elemental

Fulminifers are hostile, aggressive dragons that normally live at high altitudes such as mountain peaks, but nest closer to sea level in the summer. Though of similar intelligence to their Lightcatcher cousins, these creatures are ornery and extremely difficult to train, even out of the egg. They are covered in metallic scales which they maintain and replenish by eating metals, anything from scraps to a researcher's misplaced tools to even adult Knuttes, though wild individuals are more likely to dig out ores from their rocky territories. Fulminifers are also apex predators which hunt by unleashing either fire or lightning at their prey, or even simply dive-bombing the target and grabbing it in their foreclaws. Because of their scales, these dragons act as living lightning rods, attracting electric strikes from the storms common in their breeding season, and seeming to receive energy from those strikes. Fulminifers are extremely fast and agile fliers due to their large wings and whip-like tails, and have been seen flitting in and out of thunderheads during intense storms.

Because of their ill-tempered natures, it is generally not advised to keep too many adult Fulminifers unless they've been properly trained. They can be reward-motivated to at least stop unwanted behaviors, but must be regularly reminded of these lessons or they will eventually return to their natural hostility. In the wild, their aggression and volatile tempers are what keep other apex predators from engaging with them—even other Fulminifers, as the species has been noted to be cannibalistic under the right circumstances. A breeding pair will immediately separate after copulation, and the mother will abandon the nest as it begins to hatch; it's not unheard of for the nestlings to attack each other until all but one or two are dead or too injured to survive.

Artwork: Keileon