Green Dragon Drifting On The Light Of The Stars Beer Bottle Label
Kelkai, or solar sailors, are huge, peaceful wyvern-like creatures that can be found drifting serenely between the stars. They seldom eat, getting most of their energy from the light of the stars they circle. They can photosynthesise, because they have chloroplasts that are reminiscent of brown algae, with a double membrane that suggests they were originally free-living eukaryotes. Contrary to popular belief, most of the photosynthesis takes place in the wings, not the frills on their backs. Their chloroplasts have loads of the accessory pigment Fucoxanthin, which gives them their brown colour. Because they live in the vacuum of space, they are exposed to very high light intensities, which would damage unprotected chlorophyll irreversibly. The green is just for display, it plays no role in photosynthesis. Because they get most of their energy that way, they don’t eat much, getting the protein they need from small (comparatively) asteroid-dwelling crustaceans. As a result, they only have molars for crushing their prey’s shells, having no need for canines or incisors. They are ill-equipped for combat of any sort, having no natural weapons and fragile bodies; they rely on their size rather than anything else for defence. They can’t enter any atmosphere, because they would be crushed by the pressure but it allows them to survive in the vacuum of space without decompressing. They are sexually dimorphic, with only the males having the large back crests. Females have smaller, tendril-like appendages instead. They rely mostly on scent to find food, and are one of the few animals that can smell nitrogen. Their three eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet, but they have poor reception to the red end of the spectrum. They are very long-lived, living for centuries. They reproduce only once or twice in their lifetimes, migrating to binary systems to spawn. These wyverns get their common name from the way that they travel through space, because there is no air they move by exposing their wings to the stars light and using the force created by light hitting them to fly. It’s a slow way of moving, but it requires hardly any energy so it’s very efficient. The forewings are normally mostly exposed, the shorter hindwings are used for steering. They obviously can’t land, so they sleep in space, curling up their wings once they’ve reached a stable orbit. The ‘hands’ on their hind legs are not strong or sensitive enough to be used for holding prey, they are only really used for holding onto asteroids while they search for food.
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