Canopy Dragons love to soar above the tropical jungles and other densely forested areas. Their billowing, layered wings create generous lift that allows them to ascend effortlessly over the warm jungle. While their unique wings do not make them the fastest flyers, they are champion gliders. To further this end, dexterity, maneuverability, and grace are all judged by the females when selecting their mates from the males that can accurately complete the exhausting and elaborate courtship dance between the close growing branches of the upper canopy.

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.

Once Slynkie's wings grew in, he was pitied among his family; instead of the large, billowing wings that should have been there, Slynkie had stubby, stiff, awkward flaps. Even though his "flaps" lack the grace of his kind, Slynkie developed a habit of smearing colorful fruit juice to stand out and from a distance appears like an ordinary canopy dragon, but this didn't help his flying. While being taunted and rejected by his peers might have brought his spirits down, it made him strive to keep up with the others in their gliding and maneuvering competitions, so he started springing from the branches while flailing his stubby wings; even though he became quite good at this, able to even keep up with the others, he was constantly laughed at and called names for his "slinky" glide. While his wings still grow some, Slynkie constantly uses his strange flying technique and perfects it, even with the taunts that follow; while not being a great glider, he became a strong flier.