Dragons, dagons, flagons, wagons, conflagrations.

I like dragons, at least as a concept. Big, flying, magical lizards that burn down the peasants and their cottages. However, I'm not a huge fan of most Western depictions of dragons. An aerial alpha predator ought to look the part of an agile and powerful flyer. Instead, we slap a pair of wings on a dinosaur and call it good. Intimidating, sure, bit it feels neither natural nor sensible.

More to the point, I feel that there's a conspicuous gap between what we think a dragon is versus how we end up depicting them. We think of them as the biggest and baddest monsters of them all, and yet they appear poorly equipped to defend that title.

So here's a 'dragon' of sorts that might fit better into the traditional mythos--less lumbering tank, and more flying arrow--with some personal liberties taken. Wings and fins and flaps integrated into the legs and tail and neck, body slimmed down and hawk-like. Feathers and tough hide mostly supplant heavy scales. A tapered, beak-like snout.

A monster doesn't need rows of razor-sharp teeth, and an impenetrable hide, or fire breath that can melt steel to be at the top. It just needs to be really good at what it's meant to do. In the dragon's case, it ought to be ruling the sky, and anything more is just overdoing it.