The Art Of War (High Res)
Added 2016-09-03 11:39:17 +0000 UTC
Captain Gwendolyn Andrews reads Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" to her Bullheaded Wyvern, Artemis. Named for their distinctive rounded heads, and not (as commonly assumed) for their temperaments, Bullheaded Wyverns are in fact flexible, free-thinkers, fond of philosophy and voracious learners. As with other dragon species, Bullheads start absorbing ambient language while still in the egg, and by the time they are hatched, are ready for Mark Twain-level literature. Young dragons tend to be especially demanding of their captains, who spend much of their down time reading entire libraries-worth of books to their dragons.
As intelligent as they are, neither do their bulbous skulls house particularly larger brains; their distinctive shapes instead house a labyrinthine series of sinuses that act as resonance chambers, amplifying their roars to a pitch and volume that overloads and shuts down the nervous systems of their targets. This supremely powerful weapon nevertheless has a relatively short range, necessitating their role as "flying tanks," offering low-altitude infantry support on the battlefield.
Flying so low exposed the Bullheads to heavy ground fire; though the heavily armored and swift-flying species was largely impervious to small-arms fire, their captains were not. Thus, they tended to guard their captains especially jealously. None more so than Artemis with Captain Andrews; she insisted that the charming, expressive, lively and beautiful young aviator sleep with her every night, and not just for the bedtime stories.
