Dragons will reach fertility around the beginning of adulthood. At this time they'll begin their search for two different types of mate, the bodymate and the mindmate.

The bodymate is a dragon, always of the opposite gender. Two dragons become bodymates if they think they will produce hatchlings that will better their species' gene pool. The purpose of the bodymate is solely to prolong their bloodline. Some hedonistic breeds (or individuals) will also seek a bodymate for pleasure as well as procreation. If two dragons stop being bodymates, they will almost always remain in touch, for the bettering of their offspring if nothing more.

The mindmate can be of any race, gender, age, and so on. Some dragons search for mindmates before reaching fertility or after it, while most find theirs during. A mindmate is hard to describe in human terms. It is a lot like one's closest, most intimate friend, but with traces of resembling a lover. Only rarely will mindmates reproduce together, since the emotional strain of both the physical and mental strains in a relationship can meddle in the dragon's daily affairs. (Just look at humans, you can clearly see the troubles it brings.)

BREEDING

When two bodymates decide to produce offspring, they will first let the other know. Copulation is brief and takes place, more often than not, in the evening or dawn. The season of both dragons affects the time of year they're likely to breed.

HATCHLINGS

The mother dragon carries eggs in her for a good year before laying them. They hatch in a number of months, depending on the mother's region. Plains eggs hatch more quickly, generally in three months, while forest eggs hatch in around six months. The number of eggs, as well, depends on the region. Plains dragons lay only two or three, while forests lay clutches of five to eight. Both are about the same shape, with plains eggs being larger in size, and colour. The eggs are generally beige or cream mottled with colour from the parents.

The eggs will take several hours to fully hatch, and the hatchlings themselves are extremely noisy. As soon as they emerge from the shells, they need food, which the mother (or surrogate mother) provides through regurgitation. (Like a mother bird.) Only the first meal is regurgitated, after that the hatchlings are capable of digesting meat shredded into little scraps. The mother dragon is fiercely protective of her brood, especially when they're still in egg form. Some mothers won't let anyone near, except maybe her mate(s). Hatchlings are too curious for their own good and mainly ignore the bad things in the world. In that sense they're a lot like human babies.

CHARACTERISTICS

Hatchlings take equally from mother and father. Colour, region, season AND element are all determined by the parent.

One colour is taken from each parent. Suppose the mother is a crimson and the father is a green. That is Red + Black and Blue + Yellow, right? Right. That means that the hatchlings could be purple (Red + Blue), orange (Red + Yellow), navy (black + blue), or olive (black + yellow). In some rarish cases, a hatchling will take more after one parent, and could be crimson or green. Note: if one of the parents is metallic (meaning their 'second colour' is just metal) then at least half the clutch will be metallic as well. If both are, the whole clutch will be.

Region can be tricky, because fractions are the seed of the underdark. (:cough:) Anyway, if our crimson is half and half, and the green is fullblooded forest, the hatchlings will all be 3/4 forest and 1/4 plains. It's basic enough, just annoying at times.

Since dragons don't have a set breeding season, any two season dragons can mate. Basically it's determined the same way as colour; picking one from the mother and one from the father. Like if the crimson is bitter (summer + winter) and the green is spring (spring + spring).. the hatchlings could be warm (summer + spring) or acsend (winter + spring). There is no taking after one parent here, because the entire clutch is the same season, unlike colour.

Element is also determined by the whole 'one from one, the other from the other' deal. However, since elements have a dominant and a recessive, the dominant element is taken from both. If the crimson is coal (Earth + Fire) and the green is river (Water + Earth), all the hatchlings will be either river (Water + Earth) or forest (Earth + Water).