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.

When Ichi-wa was just a small hatchling, her mother sometimes left to go hunting on the waves. During this time she was all alone in the cave on the cliffs because her mother only had one egg that season. Their cave was much higher than the other dragons in their rookery and the couple adults left behind to watch the hatchlings hardly ever went up to check on her. One day while her mother was out hunting, a mountain lion crawled down into the cave and snatched Ichi-wa up. The adult dragons heard Ichi-wa's squeals for help and they were able to save her life, but the mountain lion ripped off her wing before they got there. She now must live with this handicap and stay in the cave on the cliffs.

Her name means one wing.