Misfit Pygmies are brightly-colored dragons who love to make life miserable for other creatures. When several Misfits group together, it is certain that there is mischief afoot. They do everything they can to tease, causing general mayhem for all. Misfit Dragons will steal food from beneath other dragons’ noses both for fun, and to fill their bellies. While they are known for their tricks and pranks, they have a rarely-displayed sweet side and will search out little treasures to present to their chosen mate.

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.

Pygmy dragons are the smallest category of dragons, being on the same scale as domesticated animals. They are often found around concentrated populations of dragons, relying on their larger brethren to ward away potential predators and leave scraps. As such, the majority of a pygmy’s diet is scavenged. Due to their tiny size, pygmies do not breed with larger varieties of dragons.

Menolly's Auntie One insists that she is not a male Misfit, but actually a female "fire lizard", with the ability to breathe fire and teleport from place to place.

When she first hatched she formed a close bond with a young singer and story teller named Menolly, whose shoulder she would often perch upon as she performed.

Menolly is long gone now, but Auntie One still flits about the world, spreading the stories that Menolly made up about another world where dragons and fire lizards lived in harmony with humans, a world where technology existed in place of magic, and where danger fell from the skies in shining silver strings.

She did once settle down again, for a while, with a writer named Anne, who wrote down many of Menolly's tales so that they could spread further across Valkemare than Auntie's small wings could ever take her.