Coastal Waverunners spend most of their time skimming the waves along the coast, snatching up their prey from the shallow waters. They have developed markings along the leading edges of their body that help disguise them as breaking waves. When they are not hunting, they enjoy playing among sand-dunes and shallow tide-pools. These dragons live in small but noisy rookeries. Some stories say Waverunners can fly for days on end without landing.

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.

Itsaso is a dragon that spends as much time as possible out on the water. Most of the time, instead of hunting like her kind usually does, Itsaso just sails over the water calling loudly, ruining the chances for a successful hunt. Brendan only noticed this when he heard another Waverunner's call, but Itsaso's is slightly different. In fact, it was almost a different call. Due to her similarity to the Australian Surfer stereotype, Brendan has dubbed her slightly different call "Dragon Australian". It's still up for debate whether this is a different strain of dragon, or a hidden gene, or a mutation that only Itsaso has.