A-to-Z Challenge: “D” is for Drakanae

For the A-to-Z Challenge 2016, I am blogging info on my current work-in-progress, a YA fantasy/adventure mini-series tentatively titled “The Other World”.

---

Yesterday I explained that there are several different races besides humans in ‘The Other World’, and I shared two of them. Today I’m going to share another, and this one is arguably the nastiest of the options.

The Drakanae are a savage people, but their tendency toward anger and violence is not entirely a creation of their own will. They separated themselves from the other races long before the events of ‘The Other World’ because of a grievous mistreatment of their people.

You see, Drakanae are one of the oldest creatures on the planet, evolved from the reptiles who were some of the first creatures to walk the land. They are the least alike to any of the other races, appearing almost monstrous, dragon-like. They appear rather lean, but their bodies are solid muscle, covered in a layer of diamond-hard scales the color of old blood. They do not have wings, but their tails are half again as long as their bodies and lined in razor-share spines. Throw in a long snout full of razor-sharp teeth and hands and feet tipped with massive claws, and you can begin to imagine them as the stuff of nightmares.

But in the early days the Drakanae worked as well together as any of the other races. They would use their immense body heat to help keep weaker creatures warm in poor weather. Their affinity for the darkest atmospheres aided in many hunts and mining expeditions. And their scales – which they shed and regrow once ever three-year cycle – made excellent armor and weapons.

It was their scales that eventually turned the tide, for as civilization grew, the other races wanted more and more. Soon enough the demand for their scales became much greater than their capacity to shed them, and eventually, to the Drakanae’s dismay, some of their kind began to go missing, never to be heard from again.

And so, fearing how bad the worst might get, the Drakanae slunk off into the night, dug beneath the land in places no one might think to look, and secreted themselves away from the world that had betrayed them.

But our protagonist will hunt them down, for she will need their help as well…

---

I hope you’re enjoying the A-to-Z Challenge and my little snippets of ‘The Other World’! If you’re interested in what else I’ve written, please be sure to check out ‘Nowhere to Hide‘, available on Amazon in both hard copy and e-book versions!

---