Kopara

Kopara is a shy, reserved dragon, but she does have a curious streak. She can be a bit temperamental and skittish, but once you earn her trust she is a loyal companion. She is very submissive, and despite being many times the size of a human and far more dangerous, can be easily bossed around by them. She keeps her wings folded in most of the time to hide the eye-catching, instantly recognisable paua pattern on the underside. She’s quite shy and hates peoples fawning over how pretty her wings are.

Her wings are broad and powerful, and are more akin to stingray fins than bat wings (aka they are slightly fleshy as opposed to being stretched skin). They work just as well underwater as in the air. Kopara’s unusually long neck and tail make for an elegant flight/swimming motion but are more of a hindrance than anything else at other times. The paua plates along her spine are slightly soft and can bend and flex so they don’t catch on anything. Her horns, however, do not bend.

She lives up in the bush in the hill country in an abandoned farmhouse with her elderly companion. The woman is unable and unwilling to make the return journey to the closest town, but tends a thriving vegetable garden to keep her occupied. The farmhouse is adorned with a huge, decorated dragon skull, and looks over a stream and waterfall, which Kopara sometimes fishes in. She also regularly ventures out to hunt, usually targeting deer and pigs to feed both her and her companion. The farmhouse has no electricity - it was built, lived in and abandoned before the concept of electricity even arrived in the area. Kopara steals plywood and roofing iron from various other farms, never too much at a time, to keep the farmhouse in good shape for her keeper. Only a select few are even aware of the farmhouse's existence, and Kopara does her best to keep it that way to protect the old woman. They eat their meat and veggies raw as much as possible, and only light fires at dusk. Smoke travels, as does light.

How Kopara and her keeper met, as well as how they ended up living so remotely, remains a mystery. Kopara won't tell, and refuses to let anyone close enough to the farmhouse to ask her companion. Best guess is that the woman was once a breeder or rider, but something happened to make her flee her old life with nothing but Kopara's mother (the painted skull) and an egg.