Dragons are monstrous beasts with great, sweeping wings that bear them and their rider effortlessly through the sky. Huge and terrifying, they can rend their foes with powerful talons and swallow a Man whole in their fanged jaws.[1a] There is but one Dragon in the Imperial Zoo, a ferocious beast raised from an egg said to have been taken from the deepest cave in the Black Mountains. None but Emperor Karl Franz have ever dared to ride it, for only he has the strength of will to dominate its cold, aloof mind.[2a]