Comic for February 22, 2018: Young Dragoness

[tony1695]

If an older sketch where baby dragons are shown to be the size of adult cats is accurate, just how much do they eat to grow? Entire herds of cattle?

One pound is about 3,500 calories. So a one-ton dragon would need to consume about 7 million Calories to attain that size, over and above what they'd need to eat to just survive.

That's not actually *that* crazy; an adult human eats about 1 million Calories per year.

But that's on top of maintenance.

Dragons would eat more than humans because they have greater body mass, but it depends on their energy requirements. According to Sea World, a polar bear need about 2 kg of fat per day to survive (or about 4.4 pounds - roughly 15,000 Calories, or 4-6 times as much as humans eat). They weigh about half a ton. An adult male African elephant might eat as much as 70,000 calories per day, and weighs as much as 7 tons. Note that the larger a warm-blooded animal is, the less food it needs relative to its body mass due to not needing to generate body heat. Thus, a 1 ton dragon might be expected to eat somewhere in the range of 20-30,000 calories a day. I'd probably lean towards 30,000, as they have big brains and magic and fire and fly and such, so they probably are on the higher end of things. That's about 12x as much as sedentary adult human males are supposed to eat (or 8x as much as the average American :V).

But still, while that's a considerable amount of food, it isn't actually all that insane. That's about 3 families worth of food, which is not inconsiderable, but isn't a ridiculous amount, either.

That said, a whole herd of cattle isn't really that far off. A cow has about 660,000 calories in it; a human eats about a cow and a half per year worth of calories, so a one-ton dragon would eat about 15 cows worth of calories per year, assuming they ate nothing but cow.

Luckily for Reni, there's an ocean nearby. So eating large fish/large amounts of fish is also an option, could even be for free if she caught food herself. I mean consider a tuna fish. Tunas are huge! Of course she's human(???) royalty so she probably doesn't need to worry about paying for her meals. But also, we saw her eating breakfast at Trace's manor and food didn't seem to be a huge concern

We're also assuming that dragons process food as efficiently as humans. Maybe they can extract nutrients and vitamins with zero loss.

[AndreRhineDavis]

hmmmm. So do dragons mature at the same rate as humans then? As in, they go from babies to children to adolescents to adults in about 20 years or so? I had always assumed that since dragons live for ages, they would also mature slower. Like, I would have imagined that a 20 year old dragon would be at the developmental stage of somewhere between a human 2 year old and a human 10 year old, maybe. But Reni seems to be at the developmental stage of a 20 year old human. So I'm guessing that dragons mature (mentally and emotionally at least, if not also sexually) at the same rate as humans until adulthood, then remain "adults" for the rest of their *thousands* of years?! Wow... that means that childhood is a really really short fraction of their lives. Alternatively, could Reni's development be more similar in timescale to that of humans due to the human blood in her?

Also, it's interesting that *Flora* is the one who is so surprised at Reni's age, considering that for a Keidran like Flora, 20 years old would have the connotation of old age. Like, if I met a species that lived for thousands upon thousands of years, and I met one and asked how old they were, and they said "80 years old", my instinctive reaction wouldn't immediately be "wow that's so young", because as a human, "80 years old" still carries the connotation of old age. But I guess in Flora's case, the fact that she lives among humans as well as Keidran has possibly meant that her mind is used to thinking about age in terms of human lifespans as well as Keidran lifespans.

Holy crap, Reni is only 20?! That's like... as old as I am. I guess that answers why she's so awkward /kinda insecure. I know how that feels. Reni is now #relatable I kinda love her even more haha! Also explains why she was super surprised when asked if she had power over Nora.

Although I think Flora might have been right here. For a young dragon like Reni the fastest way to lose your standing among "regular" people is probably to admit to people you're younger than they are. Now I'm just thinking about everything Reni has done with this new context. Makes the whole snooping on Trace's memories even more hilarious.

Yeah definitely. Most humans probably instinctively show her all this respect and treat her as someone in authority simply because she's a dragon, (regardless of her also being the "dragon princess"). They just automatically perceive dragons as being wise and powerful. But if humans in their 40s and above really thought about the fact that this dragon they serve under and take orders from is only 20 years old... they might stop really thinking of her as this wise ancient powerful being. Then again, she's a *princess*, and I mean, in real life we have young princes commanding armies of adult men, and they are still respected and treated as authority due to their royal status more than their age.

[amenon]

If an older sketch where baby dragons are shown to be the size of adult cats is accurate, just how much do they eat to grow? Entire herds of cattle?

That said, a whole herd of cattle isn't really that far off. A cow has about 660,000 calories in it; a human eats about a cow and a half per year worth of calories, so a one-ton dragon would eat about 15 cows worth of calories per year, assuming they ate nothing but cow.

Luckily for Reni, there's an ocean nearby. So eating large fish/large amounts of fish is also an option, could even be for free if she caught food herself. I mean consider a tuna fish. Tunas are huge! Of course she's human(???) royalty so she probably doesn't need to worry about paying for her meals. But also, we saw her eating breakfast at Trace's manor and food didn't seem to be a huge concern

We're also assuming that dragons process food as efficiently as humans. Maybe they can extract nutrients and vitamins with zero loss.

And also assuming that dragon metabolism has anything to do with calories.

We do know that they eat, and we know that basitins and keidran seem like a viable snack.

But we also know that Nora apparently didn't eat on the ship, despite the availability of food in general, and then went on to terrorize birds.

So perhaps they only get sustenance from living things? What they eat might be more metaphysical than physical, just like the dragons themselves.

(And perhaps they don't really need to eat at all, at least as long as they have magic available to them. Nora didn't express any dietary concerns about going into her hibernation.)

[Technic[Bot]]

So yeah I am older than Reni too.Do not know how to feel about that.

In any case I like Reni. She is not the traditional dragon that I am used to see in ever story
In this half of the world we have been stuck with the same dragon archetype since the middle ages. Think of Saint George who slew and evil dragon who spent his days eating people because he could. We have been retelling this story since then one way or another, think Malduin from Skyrim, and that is why I find so interesting and fresh any western-style dragon who is NOT some allegorical representation of evil, being slaying by a saint/choosen-one.
In this case dragons are shapeshifters and sometimes pranksters, not necesarily evil. They have nuanced personalities and backstories, they have insecurities and fears and interest in other characters. They do not eat princesses, at least not in the traditional sense, and are definetely more than mere McGuffins/devices for the plot.

As an interesting tangentially related note Saint George was the pratron of both historically real Knights Templar, and the Teutonic Knights*.

On the note of her caloric intake. Was going to say what everyone else already of her being a large creature needing relatively lots of food but not more than some real animals. Just let me add, if she is a shapeshifter could she reduce her caloric consumption by shrinking? For example consider for a moment that Nibbly is a juveline shape-shifted dragon. Would she still need to eat half a cow daily?

*AOE reference!

[ZeroJinKui]

karen is adorable, as always.

i find it funny that reni was trying to act all big earlier when she showed up, but now reveals she's little more than a child with absolutely no experience in life or magic.

man, i miss nora.

keith looks like he is gonna drop zen if that drool lands on him. >_>

[aitaituo]

On the note of her caloric intake. Was going to say what everyone else añlready of her being a large creature needing relatively lots of food but not more than some real animals. Just let me add, if she is a shapeshifter could she reduce her caloric consumption by eating. For example consider for a moment that Nibbly is a juveline shape-shifted dragon. Would she still need to eat half a cow daily?

Who knows what the real size of a dragon is? Pocket space is a thing, so they could be shapeshifting by putting large parts of their body in there or their actual size could be cat size. Maybe their mass doesn't even have to be constant.

[Phaing]

Oh no, the groups just got back together, we can't let them be spit up already!

I hope the Princess has a sprained wing or something...

[Candycat]

Oh no, the groups just got back together, we can't let them be spit up already!

I hope the Princess has a sprained wing or something...

I think mass teleport is what they're going for

[Technic[Bot]]

On the note of her caloric intake. Was going to say what everyone else añlready of her being a large creature needing relatively lots of food but not more than some real animals. Just let me add, if she is a shapeshifter could she reduce her caloric consumption by eating. For example consider for a moment that Nibbly is a juveline shape-shifted dragon. Would she still need to eat half a cow daily?

Who knows what the real size of a dragon is? Pocket space is a thing, so they could be shapeshifting by putting large parts of their body in there or their actual size could be cat size. Maybe their mass doesn't even have to be constant.

That is exactly my point. If it were simply a large lizard a couple tens of cows a year is a reasonable estimate. But since she change shape, and probably mass, makes everything way more complex...

Oh no, the groups just got back together, we can't let them be spit up already!

I hope the Princess has a sprained wing or something...

I think mass teleport is what they're going for

This reunion has been in the making for what Over five years? I doubt Tom is seriously planning on splitting them again. Specially considering they are all going to the same place.