Guide - Crested Cave Gliders

Millions of years ago, before the rise of birds, pterosaurs ruled the skies.  Fossil records indicate that pterosaurs had a hairy covering, making it very possible that they were warm-blooded, but their skeletons show reptilian characteristics.  Their flight mechanism - a wing membrane stretched over a single elongated finger bone, with the other fingers still present and functional - has no modern duplicate.  An obvious connection in the mind is made to dragons, but there is little to no evidence that pterosaur fossil finds ever were responsible for dragon legends; many pterosaurs were fairly small and fragile-looking creatures, hardly awe-inspiring.  Gliders, based on a hypothesized "protopterosaur" model seen in a book on paleontology,  are an original Skyhaven creation.  Resemblance to other winged lizard creations is coincidental.

Origins
Gliders are related to wyverns and dragons, but only very distantly.  They are closer to Tiriallean lizards in appearance and ancestry.  The flight membranes developed over time to enable gliders to exploit new food sources, but gliders do not have true wings and are incapable of powered flight; that is, flight with powerful flapping action creating lift.  They are only about one to two feet long, on average, though some are as small as a few inches and a few rare glider species approach four feet from nose to tailtip.  Crested cave gliders average a foot and a half in length.

Habitat
Gliders live in a wide variety of environments.  Cave gliders, as the name implies, favor caves, canyons, cliffs, and rocky chasms.  They are found in most areas of Tirialle except for the northernmost parts of the North Realm, which is too cold for them.  In cold winters, their reptilian metabolism slows down, and they enter light hibernation during snowy months.  Proximity to civilization isn't a problem; many gliders have adapted well to city life, and the sight of gliders darting between buildings after sunset is common.

Feeding
Cave gliders are mainly insectivores, but they also will eat small animals such as lizards and mice.  They are partial to bats, in particular.  Cave gliders hunt by sight, taking prey on foot or in mid-air.  As mentioned previously, gliders cannot fly by muscle or magic, but they can glide very well.  They can also adjust their flight membranes to steer and effectively ride winds and air currents for surprising distances, even using thermals for brief bursts of lift.  They have few teeth, and tend to swallow larger prey whole; like snakes, they can disarticulate their jaws to swallow larger creatures.  After eating, they tend to be sluggish, too heavy to glide.

Life Cycle
After the spring mating season, females lay six to eight small, dusky brown or gray eggs in a pile of loose stones, which holds more than one female's eggs.  The pile is guarded by a rotating watch of females for about eight weeks, at which time the young hatch.  The whole colony feeds and cares for the young diligently, regardless of parentage.  Adults help them climb from the rocks to join their colony-mates, protect them during daytime, and carry the young during hunting hours until their flight membranes develop, at about two to three months of age.  Within five years the young crested cave gliders develop their adult crests and are mature.  Gliders, like many reptiles, are long-lived, and pet cave gliders have been known to live for over a century.  Wild cave gliders more than 80 years old are known.
Cave gliders often form large colonies, similar to bats, and will usually stake claim to a particular cave or region of a cave, defending it from intruders and other glider colonies.  Within the colony is a complex and shifting heirarchy, starting with a leader (almost always a male) and generally following age and size down to the unranked immature gliders.  Whereas bats commonly line the ceiling of a cave, gliders prefer clinging to the walls or elevated ledges.  During the day, they hide in caves or crevices away from sunlight and daytime predators.  At dusk, they emerge, frequently staking out the exit to their cave in order to hunt bats.  When crowded together in colonies, they communicate vocally, with soft chatters and musical chirps.  For communicating over longer distances, they rely in bioluminescence, flashing specialized scalespots in complex sequences.  In the crested cave glider, the bioluminescence is restricted to the crest scales and, to a lesser degree, the flight membranes.  These scales can produce a wide range of light colors in a nearly endless variety of patterns, but the light produced can be difficult for other creatures to see, a deliberate adaptation to avoid alerting predators or prey to their location.  Sometimes they communicate using spectrums of light that are visible to all.  During courtship, the male crested cave gliders display their glowing crests prominently, flashing and rippling the light to woo - and possibly hypnotize - females.  The "scale staredown," or sight of two rival male cave gliders locked in each other's hypnotic trance (often while a third steals watching females), is common.  Some species of glider can hypnotize other animals or even sentient beings if they stare too long.  The more females a male gathers, the higher his colony ranking; likewise, the higher-ranked and stronger the male, the higher the female's colony ranking.  

Temperament
Gliders are not sentient, but are fairly intelligent animals and can learn many tricks, though their short attention span can make training difficult.  They are playful creatures and crave interaction with others.  Gliders removed from their colony, be they young orphans or lone adult survivors of predation or disaster, invariably seek out other creatures to form a "colony" with, no matter what kind, which can be troublesome if the glider latches onto a predator species as its new family.  This habit predisposes them to domestication by sentient beings, and their pleasing voices, clean habits, energetic antics, and bright colors make them appealing pets.  Even the gruffest of dragons has been known to keep cave gliders in their lairs... just for pest control, naturally, if you ask them.  As pets, they require a litter area - as in the wild, they usually choose a place away from their sleeping spot to eliminate waste and regurgitate undigested bone pellets - as well as a dark place to rest during the days, fresh food in the form of meat or insects or live prey, opportunities for play and excercise, and social interaction.  If kept in improper conditions or neglected, they become bad-tempered and destructive, chewing on their own tails and flight membranes in frustration and usually starving themselves to death.

Magical Traits
Gliders have no special magical powers, though their ability to run on vertical surfaces and even upside-down is assisted by a weak magical reaction related to their scales, strongest on their feet and tail, creating a sort of magnetic attraction to whatever surface the glider is walking on.  In tests, only strongly-spelled and oil-slicked glass defied a glider's efforts to walk across it. Glider scales are an ingredient in many wall-climbing spells and formulas, and many high-quality boots and shoes have powdered glider scales embedded in the soles to help with traction.  Gliders shed their scales often, so obtaining glider scales is fairly easy. 
Glider bioluminescence has peculiar properties, affecting viewers a subconscious level and making them mores susceptible to hypnotism and subliminal suggestion.  This effect is most pronounced in males during the mating season.  Unfortunately, the compound responsible for it is difficult to replicate and nearly impossible to extract without harming the glider.

Other Notes
As for a glider's non-magical uses, their colony-oriented mentality and willingness to please the colony leader (or their owner) make them very trainable.  With patience, they can learn complex tasks, such as carrying messages or searching for specific beings or items.  Their speed and agility make them ideal for such tasks, though keeping a glider focused on said tasks can be difficult.  Though most mages prefer more dignified familiars with greater innate powers, every so often one selects a glider as their magically-enhanced animal companion.  Such mages either have so little power that they don't even want to try obtaining a stronger familiar or so much power that they don't care what their fellows think of them.