A Guide to Firelizards

[Dragonflight Pern]

Firelizards

Firelizards are valuable pets - they are friendly, good natured, and can be trained for a variety of simple tasks.
They come in the same colours as Dragons but there are no whites.

Firelizards are capable of chewing firestone and have faceted
eyes like their larger cousins that whirl with the colour of their
emotion.

They are also capable of going Between and have a
weak form of telepathy that allows them to communicate
among themselves and anyone else willing to 'listen'. They
communicate with emotion and imagery rather then words.

Once they hatch, a firelizard reaches its adult size by about
two months of age. The females begin to rise shortly thereafter.

 

[Dragonflight Pern]

Colours

There are eight colours of firelizard. The Golds are the largest while the greens are the smallest.

Gold: They are about the length of a man's arm when they reach adulthood and are the most intelligent of the firelizards. All golds are female.

Bronze: They are second largest and are all males. They are second more intelligent colour.

Silver: The largest Atypical colour, they are slightly smaller then the bronzes and are males.

Brown: All males, of medium intelligence among the firelizards.

Crimson: The mid-sized females. They are rare and are as intelligent as the browns. They are about the same size as browns as well.

Black: The smallest Atypical colour, the same size as blues. All blacks are male.

Blue: Second smallest colour. All blues are male. Slightly more intelligent then greens.

Greens: Smallest colour, all greens are female. Least intelligent of the firelizards.

 

[Dragonflight Pern]

Impression

Firelizards do not Impress the same way dragons do. In fact they don't need to Impress at all. However, to Impress a firelizard, the prospective owner must be the first to feed the flit. In the case of newly hatched Firelizards, the one a flit Impresses to is normally the closest one with food to offer.

Once Impressed, the flit is able to communicate via emotion and imagery. They do not speak as humans or dragons do. Additionally, a single person can Impress multiple firelizards - it's not a singular (ie: one time) event.

They do not go Between if their owner dies. Some become wild while other search out new owners - a firelizard perishing before their owner (of natural causes) is unheard of.  

[Dragonflight Pern]

Mating and Reproduction

Greens, Crimsons, and Golds are all capable of laying clutches. However, Crimsons rarely clutch - they are not particularly fertile. Bronzes most usually sire gold clutches though browns can also do so, browns most often sire crimson clutches - when they do manage to clutch - and blues most often sire green clutches. Blacks and Silvers, like their larger draconic counterparts, do not give chase to females and are infertile.

Greens tend to forget the location of their clutch and often end up abandoning it, though it is theorized that they may do this because in the wild they are usually subservient to a gold in their territory would would not take kindly to them laying. Golds and Crimsons, however, do guard their clutches and quite fiercely. Crimson clutches in the wild, however, are unheard of as Crimson flits take special care to ensure they hatch and reach adulthood - the same care is needed for all the Atypical dragons to ensure they do not perish while maturing.

Greens produce greens, blues, and sometimes browns.

Crimsons produce green, blues, blacks, browns, crimsons and silvers.

Golds produce all colours.