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Description
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Bonus

At last, we`re getting to the actual flying dragons. Their wings are different from bats or pterosaurs in that the membrane is supported not by fingers, but by a specialized bone rod growing from the wrist - so the actual hand remains free, allowing these dragons to have their cake and eat it too (within reason).

The drakes (1, 2) are basically the default dragons, and would include the equivalents of Lady Trent`s "true dragons", including the flightless forms like the savannah snake (3) and swamp wyrm (4). Speaking of which, I said before that the amphibian-like lifecycle has to go, but there is still a possibility for drakes to have some degree of metamorphosis - the babies are just born in a more lindworm-like state, with undeveloped wing bones and fur.
I`ve also thought about an equivalent for the sparklings, and that would be the pixies (5), which are a somewhat anurognathid-like group of very tiny drakes. They appeared on some distant tropical archipelago, but spread to islands all over the world (including the Scirland/Britain analogue) in the fur of giant, migratory, island-nesting drakes. Their breath weapon produces only a flash of blinding light, though is some cases it may be a lingering glowing mist (thus, will-o`-wisps). There may also be flightless forms (gnomes).
Vampires (6) are also drakes (remember what "Dracula" means?), with unusual batlike faces - so, probably echolocating. Instead of merely sucking blood (non-viable for creatures of this size), they have a venom that liquefies flesh, like spiders (but no breath weapon, at least).

Description
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Bonus

At last, we`re getting to the actual flying dragons. Their wings are different from bats or pterosaurs in that the membrane is supported not by fingers, but by a specialized bone rod growing from the wrist - so the actual hand remains free, allowing these dragons to have their cake and eat it too (within reason).

The drakes (1, 2) are basically the default dragons, and would include the equivalents of Lady Trent`s "true dragons", including the flightless forms like the savannah snake (3) and swamp wyrm (4). Speaking of which, I said before that the amphibian-like lifecycle has to go, but there is still a possibility for drakes to have some degree of metamorphosis - the babies are just born in a more lindworm-like state, with undeveloped wing bones and fur.
I`ve also thought about an equivalent for the sparklings, and that would be the pixies (5), which are a somewhat anurognathid-like group of very tiny drakes. They appeared on some distant tropical archipelago, but spread to islands all over the world (including the Scirland/Britain analogue) in the fur of giant, migratory, island-nesting drakes. Their breath weapon produces only a flash of blinding light, though is some cases it may be a lingering glowing mist (thus, will-o`-wisps). There may also be flightless forms (gnomes).
Vampires (6) are also drakes (remember what "Dracula" means?), with unusual batlike faces - so, probably echolocating. Instead of merely sucking blood (non-viable for creatures of this size), they have a venom that liquefies flesh, like spiders (but no breath weapon, at least).