Shimmer-scale Dragons are a very beautiful breed with small—but highly reflective—scales that shimmer and shine as the dragon moves through water. They don’t have fins or webbed feet, but their long, eel-like bodies allow them to swim quite fast. They were once rumored to carry large pearls in their claws—causing many to seek them out in search of this fabulous treasure. In reality, the “pearl” is of greater value to the dragon, for the fabled treasure is actually an egg carried by a migrating female.

Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.

Hylia comes from a long (well short actually) line of seafaring, pirate Shimmerscale dragonesses. She wants nothing more than to travel the seventeen seas, rob from fat merchant vessels and spend all that wealth on rum. And the coins not needed for rum would be generously given to those wenches in need, so she would get a reputation as a dashing, daring, and heroic beauty all at once. But to do so in style she would need a ship capable of carrying a full-grown dragon crew. And the only such vessel she knows of is still captained by her mum and manned by her crew. Unlike her grannie her mum didn't have the good manners to die an early death.

If she hadn't learned good family values from her dad, she might be tempted to simply keelhaul her mother and take over the ship, but the way things are it seems she will have to wait a couple of centuries for her chance and until then continue to play with her armada of toy boats. Sigh.